“Heh heh heh.”
Half an hour later, the lights in the room had gone out. Lin Cheng and Litchi sat on the bed, his head rubbing against her shoulder. “I knew my little Litchi still cares about me.”
“Just go to sleep. Once you’re out cold, I’ll grab a pair of small scissors and snip it right off.”
Lin Cheng shot her a gloomy look. He leaned in close to her soft, pale face. In the darkness, her cheek gleamed faintly like warm jade. Yet facing the girl’s face at that moment, he felt an inexplicable hesitation.
Litchi slowly turned her head toward him.
In the darkness, their cheeks drew so close that her breath tickled his face. But Litchi didn’t lean in even a little. Lin Cheng stretched his neck slightly, reached out to brush the hair from her forehead, and planted a quick kiss there.
“Go to sleep,” he whispered softly.
Litchi slowly slid under the covers. Lin Cheng followed suit. The room fell utterly quiet, so still he could almost hear the faint thump of heartbeats. After some unknown stretch of time, he heard Litchi ask softly, “What is Xu Wanyue to you?”
“A gentle big sister, I guess. She went undercover for her little sister. She’s actually pretty nice—not someone I dislike.”
“I don’t dislike her,” Litchi said quietly. “Once I learned it was for her sister, I stopped hating her.”
“That’s good. She’s actually kind of cute.”
“You’ve fallen for her?”
“I’m not sure… Maybe I just like how she doesn’t like me. If she did, I might lose all that enthusiasm. But right now, yeah, I really like it.”
“Oh.” Litchi let out a soft “oh” and shifted closer, nestling into his arms. He held her gently. Her body was so soft. Even her pale little feet from earlier felt boneless and tender. They’d stomped on him painfully at first, but after he peeled off her socks, those smooth soles glided effortlessly. Once she vented her tiny grudge, she grew much gentler—though not before blushing and muttering curses at him several times as her toes got all messy.
Darkness enveloped them again, silence stretching out once more. Then Litchi suddenly spoke. “I still… don’t want to give it to you.”
“These things are never about forcing it, okay?”
“But just thinking about you and Lu Xiaoxiao doing it still makes me mad.”
“Then why weren’t you mad about Jiang Lingxue before?”
“You told me about Jiang Lingxue ahead of time. But not Lu Xiaoxiao. I’m not blaming you or anything—it was just a little anger on my part. I’m over it now.”
Litchi’s voice grew even more languid. “It was such a good stress reliever. Next time I’m mad, I’ll step on you again, yeah?”
Lin Cheng was speechless.
Litchi buried her cheek against his chest, her voice fading to a whisper. “When you get back, come with me to see my sister, okay?”
“Sure,” Lin Cheng murmured, nodding gently.
“Sleeping now.” Litchi closed her eyes.
Lin Cheng held her close and shut his eyes.
The next morning dawned.
Lin Cheng was still dead to the world, but Litchi had slipped from his arms. She sat before the mirror, brushing her hair, when his phone buzzed to life. She picked it up and answered coolly, “Hello? Who’s this?”
At the same time, her ability picked up on the person outside the door. Litchi went over and opened it. Lu Xiaoxiao stood there.
Litchi was still in her white nightgown, her hair a bit tousled. Lu Xiaoxiao froze for a second, glancing up at the door number. She hadn’t gotten it wrong—this was definitely Lin Cheng’s place. Litchi yawned and gave her a lazy look. “Come on in. The lazy pig’s still sleeping.”
Lu Xiaoxiao stepped inside, eyeing Litchi’s slender back. She hesitated. “You’re…?”
“Litchi,” Litchi replied flatly. Lu Xiaoxiao followed her into the room. Lin Cheng was sprawled out, clutching the blanket and snoring away. Litchi, utterly unperturbed, sat back down at the mirror to keep brushing her hair. Lu Xiaoxiao’s gaze caught on the white socks discarded in the trash bin.
She glanced at Litchi’s profile, but Litchi’s expression was so calm, as if Lu Xiaoxiao’s arrival came as no surprise and sparked zero curiosity.
Once her hair was done, Litchi pulled out some lipstick from her storage ring and carefully applied it while facing the mirror. Lu Xiaoxiao stood there awkwardly, unsure whether to wake Lin Cheng first or say something.
Litchi finished her lipstick and sauntered to the bed. She leaned over, poking Lin Cheng’s cheek. He slowly opened his eyes. “Lu Xiaoxiao’s here for you.”
Lin Cheng bolted upright, staring at Lu Xiaoxiao—who really shouldn’t be here, should be under a car or something—standing off to the side. He scratched his head.
“I’m heading next door to change.”
Litchi stood and went into the adjacent study. She changed back into her own clothes, returned to Lin Cheng’s room fully dressed, and said, “Let’s go. Tell me when you’re done and back.”
“Got it,” Lin Cheng nodded.
Litchi turned lightly and left without another glance at Lu Xiaoxiao. Only after the door clicked shut did Lu Xiaoxiao look at Lin Cheng and slowly ask, “You two are…?”
“Super close friends.”
Lu Xiaoxiao eyed the discarded white socks in the trash. She tilted her head. “Friends?”
“Yeah, good friends.” Lin Cheng nodded, the picture of innocence.
Lu Xiaoxiao felt like pursuing the topic would only give her a bigger headache. “Litchi’s the one running the Fruit Shop, right?”
“Yeah, she handles most things there.”
“So what exactly do you do at the Fruit Shop?”
“Oh, I give the girls massages, beat their legs, cook, and entertain them.”
“Have you eaten breakfast?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright, I’ll grab a pancake downstairs and we can head out. Little Qi, let’s go.”
The little dog lounging in the living room came running over happily, tail wagging. Lu Xiaoxiao blinked. “This is a mission, not a vacation. We probably shouldn’t bring the dog… Wait, where’d you even get a dog?”
“Little Qi isn’t an ordinary dog.” Lin Cheng tossed her the instruction manual Lemon had given him the night before. Then he got up, slipped on his shoes, and they set off.
Their destination was a mountain village in neighboring C City.
Lu Xiaoxiao drove an off-road vehicle today. Lin Cheng rode shotgun, hugging her tablet as he pored over the mission details. The intel came from the Priest and the Alliance’s sources.
The Priest was dead, but the Alliance had someone who could peer into the memories of ability users via the energy crystal cores they left behind after death. From the Priest’s memories, they’d extracted some data. Two years ago, the Priest had joined an organization called 【Nether River】. It hadn’t been very high-profile back then, so few knew its name. But lately, Alliance records showed Nether River popping up in connection with various rogue ability user groups involved in organ trafficking and black-market drugs. The group had unimaginable wealth, all funneled into some kind of research.
Recently, all clues pointed to a lab. By the time the Alliance arrived, a massive fire had reduced everything to ash. Amid the embers lay countless half-human, half-monstrous corpses. The surviving scraps of data revealed they were experimenting on humans snatched in secret.
The Priest’s memories included glimpses of that mountain village: gloomy skies, bizarrely twisted trees, and the blank, pallid faces of Clear River Village’s residents.
The drive from A City took about six hours. Lin Cheng couldn’t drive, so he sat obediently in the passenger seat. After finishing the files, he idly flipped through Little Qi’s manual. Little Qi could even grow big or shrink small. Right now, it was the size of a teacup dog, curled contentedly in his lap.
Lemon must have studied Little Qi for ages. Judging by the manual’s thickness, this was her proudest achievement in alchemy technology yet. Lin Cheng finished reading and looked down at the seemingly docile little dog in his arms, at a loss for words.
The six-hour drive felt a tad long. When boredom struck, Lin Cheng would sneak peeks at Lu Xiaoxiao’s profile. She wore a hoodie and long pants, her fair face bare of makeup—dressed plainly today. Skipping the Alliance uniform was to avoid drawing eyes. Her mission was just to scout the link between that mountain village in the Priest’s memories and Nether River, then call in C City’s Alliance branch once confirmed.
But Lu Lingling had specifically asked him to tag along with Lu Xiaoxiao. Was she roping him in as free labor, or trying to marry off her daughter to hook him? Lin Cheng mulled these weird thoughts as the sky outside turned overcast. Rain started falling at some point. He dozed off with his eyes closed. When he woke, Lu Xiaoxiao’s car had stopped.
“We’re here.” Lin Cheng opened his eyes.
Her vehicle was parked under a tree. No building around rose higher than three stories, and a downpour raged outside. Lu Xiaoxiao met his gaze, and they both got out.
They’d stopped at the town’s market. Few people milled about, all in simple clothes. The target mountain was still two or three kilometers away. Lu Xiaoxiao pulled out an umbrella, and they stepped into the rain. Using her phone’s GPS, they headed toward the village called Clear River Village.
No roads wide enough for sedans led into Clear River Village, though Lin Cheng spotted the occasional motorcycle zipping by. The ground had turned muddy from the deluge. Lu Xiaoxiao wore hiking boots. Lin Cheng held the umbrella and scanned their surroundings.
Rolling green mountains stretched everywhere, their trees thrashing in the gale. The wind was so fierce the umbrella barely helped. What rotten timing for this storm. After ten or so minutes slogging through it, old houses came into view—ancient structures overrun with green vines.
Lu Xiaoxiao and Lin Cheng dashed first to the eaves of an apparently empty house to take shelter. She checked the time: five p.m. Hunger was setting in. Just as she opened her mouth to say something to Lin Cheng, the house door creaked open. Out stepped a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, bowl of rice in hand, speaking in a thick rural accent. “Raining cats and dogs like this—you folks from around here?”
Lin Cheng turned back. A ripple of energy flashed in his eyes, but in that instant, his pupils suddenly contracted.
