We drove down the mountain in Shabiya's Mercedes, with Chen Lu in the passenger seat. Since the Mercedes didn't have a gearshift between the seats (it was under the steering wheel) and the middle was empty, Chen Lu simply rested her left leg over mine. Throughout the drive, we couldn't help but get entangled. When we reached the fork in the road where I had tricked the fake "Lin Xi" yesterday, I turned the Mercedes in again, avoiding the sight of the main road. I pulled up the handbrake and turned off the engine.
"Hurry, I'm burning up!" Chen Lu urged.
Burning up, as in on fire.
A person doesn't fall into the same pit twice, unless, of course, that person is me.
Chen Lu had been invested in twice and was drained, lying lazily in the back seat, not wanting to move, smacking her lips as if savoring something.
"What do you want to eat?" I asked.
"Huh? Again!"
"I meant, do you want to eat buns, or something else?" I gave her a sidelong glance.
"I just love fried dough sticks and soy milk. It would be even better with two tea eggs! Hee hee!" Chen Lu said with a mischievous grin.
"...Improper," I shook my head and drove away from the fork, back to the main road, heading towards the small town. To be safe, I used my Qi Sensing technique. It was probably the weekend, and not many people in the town had woken up yet. Everywhere I looked, I saw streaks of red human Qi scattered throughout the houses in the town. Some even had two red Qi overlapping, stirring restlessly, and I wondered what they were up to.
Perhaps today was a good day for… activities.
Huh? I inadvertently noticed that my Qi Sensing vision seemed to have expanded significantly. Previously, the furthest I could observe was about three to four hundred meters. Now, I could cover the entire small town, and even a bit beyond. However, due to the distance, I couldn't estimate accurately and had to open my phone's map to measure the scale.
Indeed, it had increased a lot. At the furthest point, it could reach one kilometer!
I don't know how far Yaoyao's Qi Sensing range is, but it should still be far beyond mine.
The town was still quiet, but the breakfast shop was open. Hot white steam billowed from the exhaust fan. I went in and bought a large pile of breakfast, along with two cases of Waga-Waga mineral water, and returned with Chen Lu.
We arrived at that same fork in the road again. I braked, pretending to stop. Chen Lu seemed a little scared and pouted, "Again! Aren't you afraid of ruining me? Today's session will take days to recover from!"
"Just kidding! Take good care of yourself!" I said with a smile.
We returned to the abandoned village. Perhaps we had been out for too long, as everyone had woken up. Zheng Bingbing's father and Li Bing had gone hunting for the spirits again, while the others were waiting for breakfast at the Cold Concealment Temple.
Nine o'clock in the morning for breakfast. In the northeast, at such a high longitude, it was indeed considered late.
After breakfast, I took a bottle of mineral water upstairs to see Yaoyao. Her complexion had mostly returned to normal, and much of the toilet paper on her body had been removed, with only localized areas around her wounds still wrapped. She was still asleep. Mengmeng was exhausted last night and was sleeping in the cave above.
I gently called Yaoyao's name twice, but she didn't wake up, so I didn't call her again. I twisted open the water bottle, capped it, and placed it aside. Then, I climbed to the upper level cave.
Although they were neighbors, I had never entered Mengmeng's cave dwelling before. Her cave door was closed, and it was pitch black inside. I turned on my phone's flashlight and curiously explored. Her cave wasn't large, about a quarter of the area of Yaoyao's cave below. Mengmeng was curled up in a corner of the cave, occupying nearly half the space. She was currently in her bear form. The new clothes I bought her last night were neatly folded to the side; she didn't seem to have worn them yet.
I walked over cautiously. The big bear lazily opened one eye, glanced at me, and then closed it again.
"So big!" I exclaimed. As she lay curled up, her back was already at my chest. If she stood up and stretched fully, she'd be about four meters tall. If the NBA allowed her to play, she'd definitely be an MVP.
"Roar..." Mengmeng let out a dull roar, which caused dust to fall from the cave ceiling. Fearing the cave might collapse, I pretended to finish my tour, left another bottle of water, and went downstairs.
Yaoyao was still asleep. I sat with her for a while, wanting to smoke. As I hesitated whether to go down to smoke, my phone rang in my pocket.
I took it out and answered. It was Shen Xingyue.
"What's wrong?" I asked. Her calling directly instead of texting indicated an urgent matter.