Xu Wen and Li Xiang were already at each other’s throats, looking as energetic as ever.
Seeing this, Lin Zhi had no choice but to go and break them up.
The Healer from the other team saw this and remarked, "See? I healed your teammate, and he’s full of life. My healing ability is definitely not the problem. As for your girlfriend, she’ll be fine in a moment."
With that, she turned and walked away. Her team needed to continue hunting mutant beasts and couldn’t afford to waste any more time here.
Xie Heng wanted to say something, but seeing the other team was in a hurry to leave, he decided against it.
’She should be waking up any moment now,’ he thought.
As he thought this, Xie Heng looked down at Jiang You and was met with a pair of crystal-clear pink eyes. The dazed, hazy look in them had vanished.
He held her, his arms tightening slightly.
She was awake.
Xie Heng looked down at her, not saying a word, nor did he put her down.
Jiang You, for her part, was a little stunned.
She snapped back to her senses, yanked her hand away, and quickly struggled out of Xie Heng’s arms. Her head was still a bit dizzy, and after thinking for a moment, she couldn’t recall a thing.
All she remembered was Xie Heng carrying her as he broke through the swarm of needle cicadas. After that... after that...
Why couldn’t she remember anything that happened next? ’It’s like a piece of my memory is just... gone.’
Jiang You glanced around, then looked up at Xie Heng, who stood beside her. With a haughty expression, she asked, "Did we... escape the needle cicada swarm?"
"Mm," Xie Heng replied succinctly.
Jiang You felt even more puzzled. ’How did we escape the needle cicadas? Why is it that I have no memory of it?’
’Could I have been stung by a needle cicada?’
She knew that being stung by a needle cicada caused hallucinations, and after recovering, the victim would lose all memory of the time they were hallucinating.
Jiang You’s eyelid twitched. Her intuition screamed that she had, in fact, been stung by a needle cicada. ’If I was hallucinating... I didn’t do anything embarrassing, did I?’
She then remembered her mission and raised her terminal to check the time. It hadn’t been a day or two; it was still the same day, not even evening yet. There was still time.
She had been stung by a needle cicada, but the hallucination hadn’t lasted long.
"You were stung by a needle cicada," Xie Heng finally spoke up, confirming Jiang You’s suspicion. "I just had a Healer from another team heal you."
"I see." ’Just as I thought,’ Jiang You mused, then asked tentatively, "While I was hallucinating... I didn’t do anything, did I?"
Xie Heng stared at her with his pitch-black eyes but didn’t say a word for a long moment.
’While she was hallucinating, she hadn’t just hugged him and touched him; she’d flirted with him relentlessly...’
He stared at her, his dark eyes swirling with some unreadable emotion.
Being stared at like that made Jiang You’s heart pound with anxiety. ’I didn’t actually do something, did I?’
But even though she was anxious, her expression remained cold and proud, projecting an air of confidence that suggested she could do no wrong, no matter the circumstances.
However, Xie Heng’s silent staring began to annoy Jiang You. Just as she was about to open her mouth and demand to know what on earth had happened while she was hallucinating...
Her lips parted, but before a sound could escape, Xie Heng seemed to sense her displeasure and spoke first. "You didn’t do anything."
Jiang You froze, the corner of her mouth twitching. ’I didn’t do anything? Then why was he staring at me like that just now?’
’So he’s only saying that now? Was his silence just now some kind of test of my psychological endurance?’
Before Jiang You could have an outburst, Xie Heng looked at her for a moment longer and said, "Let’s go."
With that, he turned and started walking in the other direction. He called out to Xu Wen and the others, who were still horsing around. His tone was a flat, emotionless line: "Time to go. We’ve already wasted a lot of time. We can’t delay any longer. We’re finding the Feng Chan now."
There were red palm prints on both Xu Wen’s and Li Xiang’s faces. They had been pinching and slapping each other. Upon hearing Xie Heng’s words, they each gave the other one last hard pinch before finally letting go.
"Yes, Captain." Xu Wen hurried to catch up to Xie Heng, not wanting to be anywhere near Li Xiang. There was no way he was going to believe what Li Xiang had just said.
Li Xiang had claimed that while hallucinating, Xu Wen had hugged and kissed him, nearly compromising his virtue.
’What a joke!’ he thought. ’My devotion to my girlfriend is as plain as the sun in the sky! How could I possibly do something like that to another person, even while hallucinating? It’s pure slander, that’s what it is!’
Of course his devotion was plain as day—he missed his girlfriend so much he was going crazy, to the point that he saw her face in everyone else.
"Damn it, Xu Wen, you’re disgusting!" Li Xiang was furious. "You not only grossed me out, you hit me! Now I’m going to expose you!"
"My conscience is clear. I’m not afraid of you exposing anything," Xu Wen retorted, still refusing to believe he would do such things, even while hallucinating.
’Li Xiang must just be messing with me,’ he thought.
That is, until Li Xiang posted the video in their group chat—the one Jiang You wasn’t in.
After watching it, Xu Wen let out a cry of disbelief. "Holy shit!"
Then, he himself couldn’t help but feel his stomach turn, on the verge of vomiting.
’Oh god, this kind of incriminating history can’t ever get out! My girlfriend can absolutely never find out about this!’
’How could I ever show my face again?!’
Afterwards, Xu Wen begged and pleaded with Li Xiang not to send the video to his girlfriend, offering to pay any compensation!
Walking alongside them and watching their little drama unfold, Jiang You grew curious about the video Xu Wen had just watched that caused such a complete one-eighty in his attitude.
She wasn’t sure if she had misheard, but Jiang You thought she had faintly heard her own voice coming from the video Xu Wen was watching.
"What video?" Jiang You asked, tugging on the arm of Xie Heng, who was walking ahead of her.
Xie Heng’s stride faltered for an imperceptible moment before he continued walking. "It’s nothing."
Jiang You hadn’t heard it clearly, but Xie Heng, who had been right beside Xu Wen, had heard everything perfectly. Underneath Xu Wen’s loud and lewd noises, the girl’s voice was faint—it must have been recorded from a distance. Even so, it captured Xie Heng’s attention. He had subconsciously locked onto her voice, and he heard it.
He heard the girl’s single, sweet call: ’Hey, pretty boy...’
So sweet.
Xie Heng hadn’t expected that Li Xiang, while filming Xu Wen, would have accidentally recorded Jiang You’s voice too.
He didn’t dare let Jiang You know. If she found out she had hugged and kissed him while hallucinating, she would probably have a meltdown, just like Xu Wen.
After all.
She didn’t like him.
’Hugging and kissing someone you don’t even like... you’d be disgusted with yourself, wouldn’t you?’
Jiang You was suspicious. She felt there was something off about that video, so she grabbed onto Xie Heng. "No way. I want to see the video Li Xiang posted. Where did he post it? I want to see it!"
"There’s nothing to see," Xie Heng refused instinctively.
Little did he know, the more he refused, the more curious Jiang You became about what was on that video.
"What is on that video? Let me see it, now!" Jiang You slipped into her demanding persona with practiced ease, her slender fingers gripping Xie Heng’s arm tightly. She had the look of someone who wouldn’t let go until she got what she wanted.