11.
The morning sun filtered through gaps in the trees and fell on the thick fog in the forest, where it formed a few streaks of rainbow… A few drops of morning dew slid down the leaves and sank into the already-soaked earth… Last night’s rain seemed to have set off a cloud of smoke across the forest, leaving everything hazy and indistinct. Even the sunlight was like a shy girl, peeking through only half-covered eyes… lending the woods a hint of mysterious darkness.
“I know none of us got much rest last night… but we still have to keep moving.” Su Lin looked at the exhausted faces around him, unable to keep from worrying… The heavy rain last night had kept everyone from getting a good night’s sleep. You could say they’d spent the whole night anxious and on edge.
“We don’t know how big this forest is… We’ll have to keep pushing if we want to get out!” Su Lin’s eyes seemed to burn with fire. No matter what happened, he forced himself to stay upbeat and face the future with all the energy he could muster. He didn’t know how long this kind of “pep talk” could keep working, but every morning, Su Lin was always the one full of energy… And because he was there, everyone kept a flame burning in their hearts—the hope of finding their way out of this forest…
“Ahem… Su Lin, could we maybe stop a little earlier to rest today…” A cough came from nearby… The weak voice was heartbreaking to hear…
“Liu Huiying, are you okay?” Everyone looked at her with concern… Liu Huiying had been on watch outside when the heavy rain started last night. Though she was a delicate girl, she hadn’t gone back into the tent to shelter from the rain…
Su Lin had told her to get back to the tent as soon as he woke up. But by then, Liu Huiying was already soaked from head to toe…
“I’ve… got a bit of a cold. I’m fine…” Her usually fair little face was completely drained of color, but she still put on a smile for everyone and pretended she was all right.
“Don’t push yourself… If anything’s wrong, call me right away!” The team couldn’t stop just because one person was sick, any more than a company could stop operating just because its leader was gone… Su Lin understood that. So he still led the team away from the forest clearing where they’d spent the night…
“Ying’er… are you really okay?” In the two weeks they’d been together, Yueye had gotten used to calling her that… Liu Huiying had been the one to ask her to use the nickname. As the girl in the group who was currently closest to her, Yueye grew concerned when she saw how pale Liu Huiying looked.
“I’m… fine! Don’t worry!” Liu Huiying gave her heavy-feeling head a little shake to show she was okay.
“I’ll carry you… Why are you trying to play the hero right now?” Yueye made a face. They’d been deskmates for three years. Other people might not know Liu Huiying’s stubborn little ways, but Yueye did… She was just like Yueye used to be: the kind of idiot who quietly did things for others, never asked for anything in return, and didn’t even want anyone to know.
“You…?” Liu Huiying eyed Yueye’s height, which was nearly a head shorter than her own, and looked unconvinced.
“Me! I’m your tall, strong, unbelievably powerful deskmate!” As she spoke, Yueye reached behind herself, grabbed Liu Huiying around the waist, and hoisted her up. Then she slipped both hands beneath Liu Huiying’s slender, fair thighs, while Liu Huiying’s weak arms came to rest around Yueye’s neck… In the blink of an eye, Liu Huiying was sprawled across Yueye’s frail back…
“You idiot! You think that’s how you’re supposed to carry someone!?” Liu Huiying felt a sharp pain in her waist. For a moment, she couldn’t even figure out how Yueye had gotten her onto her back. She tried to wriggle free, only to find she didn’t have the strength…
“Don’t worry! I’ve still got the strength,” Yueye said softly to the little face resting on her shoulder.
“What strength…? You’re a loli! And who carries a girl like that? You don’t grab her by the waist and haul her up…! It hurts! No wonder you don’t have a girlfriend!” Liu Huiying complained… Her voice was as weak as her body, and she had no way of getting down from Yueye’s back…
“I don’t need a girlfriend right now! And if I ever do, you can fill in for one for the time being… Your little head’s burning up, so just sit still and behave!” Yueye carried Liu Huiying without even getting winded, quickly catching up with the rest of the group… Completely ignoring the looks everyone else was giving her…
“You… just wait…” Liu Huiying had no idea what to say… Her vision was dimming, and all she could feel was a softness against her chest. A wave of drowsiness came over her, impossible to resist.
“Yueye, if you can’t manage it, don’t push yourself…!” Su Lin had run back from the front of the group at some point. He looked at Yueye, at the very back, with open suspicion. He simply couldn’t figure out how she’d managed to carry Liu Huiying.
“You’re a guy, and you talk so much! ‘I can’t manage it’—is that something a guy would say?” Yueye rolled her eyes at Su Lin… Ever since the loli who’d turned into a sword entered her body, she’d noticed that the way she acted was becoming more and more different from how she’d been when she was a boy. A lot of the time, she seemed more like a girl.
So she often tried to act more manly… She didn’t know if it was because she hadn’t adjusted to her changed identity or for some other reason.
Deep down, she always felt a trace of resentment about becoming a girl… She didn’t know what to do. She could feel herself subconsciously growing distant from the group now that she knew she wasn’t human. But on some level, she still wanted to be part of it, because this was where she’d spent three years feeling the warmth of human connection…
Ever since the sword loli entered her sea of consciousness, she’d fallen silent… No matter how Yueye tried to call out to her, nothing worked. So Yueye had given up on asking the sword loli directly…
“All right, all right! My manly Yueye!” Su Lin shrugged, looking helpless…
“The system can exchange points for fever medicine, right? Hurry up and get some!” Seeing the teasing look on Su Lin’s face, Yueye gritted her teeth and snapped at him in frustration. She knew he’d come over to bring medicine, but his words had still infuriated her…
“All right, all right, Miss Yueye!” Su Lin said, handing her a bottle of pale-blue potion… Three words were clearly written on it: Antidote.
“What’s this…? And what did you just call me?” Yueye vaguely remembered this stuff, but its blue color still made her curious.
“An antidote. It’s a system-exclusive potion that cures a hundred kinds of low-level viral or toxin infections. It’ll take about a day to work,” Su Lin explained. He was serious about this, at least… and didn’t tease Yueye again.
“How many exchange points?” Yueye knew the system didn’t have anything like fever medicine. The lowest-level potion was this antidote, so she didn’t bother arguing with Su Lin about what he’d called her.
“Twenty.” As Su Lin spoke, he helped Yueye get the medicine down Liu Huiying.
“…Thanks!” Yueye felt grateful… She knew what twenty exchange points meant to the team. A week ago, everyone had handed their exchange points over to Su Lin to manage centrally… except for Yueye’s thousand points.
Twenty points… That meant twenty bullets, or nearly a week’s worth of food for twelve people… Yueye didn’t say any of that aloud. She knew the team had already taken a big hit, and there was no need to spell it out to Su Lin.
“I don’t want to lose another teammate… even if there’s a risk,” Su Lin said, glancing at Liu Huiying on Yueye’s back…
“If you can’t keep going, let someone else carry her. Don’t push yourself!” Su Lin didn’t say anything more to Yueye. He waved a hand and returned to the front of the group.
