In the blink of an eye, two or three days had passed.
Chu You’s condition had improved a lot, and she could now get out of bed and walk around as usual.
These past two days, aside from Lin Mo, who simply couldn’t be driven away, and Gu Qiancheng, who often came by to escape his duties, Xia Ji would also show up at the hospital room on time every day after school.
“…So, next Monday is the school’s anniversary?”
Chu You leaned against the headboard and asked casually.
Xia Ji, who was focused on peeling an apple, nodded.
“Mm, the centennial celebration. The homeroom teacher said a lot of outstanding alumni would be coming back, and it seems there will even be important figures coming from Hufu and Beifu.”
As she finished, Chu You’s eyelashes quivered slightly, and she subconsciously looked over at Lin Mo.
Almost at the same time, Lin Mo looked up and met her gaze.
Their eyes met in the air, silently conveying the same realization—the direction of their previous investigation might have been a bit too limited.
All this time, they had assumed that the 【Professor】 conducting the aberration experiments had to be a currently employed faculty member of the university.
But Xia Ji’s unintentional words awakened them to a new possibility: someone who graduated from Binhai University, had long been active locally, possessed sufficient social status, and was extremely familiar with the campus environment and its people could also fit the Professor’s profile—perhaps even more conveniently so for operating in the shadows.
The range seemed to have expanded, but the upcoming grand anniversary celebration offered the perfect chance to screen the suspects.
Almost as soon as this thought clarified in his mind, Lin Mo stood up.
“Just remembered I have some work to deal with,” his tone was as usual, betraying no emotion, “I’ll step out for a bit.”
Chu You nodded in understanding, her lips curving into a gentle arc.
“Alright, go take care of it. Don’t tire yourself out~”.
Hearing this, Lin Mo paused in his step, then nodded slightly and pushed open the door to leave.
The moment he stepped out of the hospital room, the corners of his lips subconsciously lifted in a faint smile.
As expected, there was never any need for many words between him and Senior.
With her personality, just acknowledging him would already count as being nice; how could she suddenly care about whether he was tired or not?
This was clearly a tacit understanding—through the most ordinary of reminders, they had confirmed that their thoughts were in sync.
Thinking about this, he deftly pulled out his phone and scrolled to a familiar number, dialing out.
The call was quickly connected.
“Hello?”
Gu Qiancheng’s voice came through the receiver, half-dead and full of impatience.
“You finally remember that I’m not the Binhai branch’s cheap labor on your payroll?”
The curve of Lin Mo’s lips deepened, though his tone remained calm as if stating a simple fact.
“Strictly speaking, our ranks are the same—however… in terms of duty and authority, you are several grades above me.”
“Oh, so what?”
Gu Qiancheng’s tone was still lazy.
Lin Mo paused, then said in a matter-of-fact manner, “According to regulations, when a senior special task agent arrives in a jurisdiction, they may assume top command under special circumstances.”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
After more than ten seconds, Gu Qiancheng’s voice squeezed out through gritted teeth: “…That’s for wartime only, damn it!”
“Mm…”
Lin Mo nimbly turned the tables, using Gu Qiancheng’s usual shameless tactics.
“With how fiercely the food delivery platforms are fighting lately, isn’t the marketplace just like a battlefield? How could this not count as special circumstances?”
Within the Minister’s office at the Binhai branch of the Swordbearers.
Gu Qiancheng, holding a cup of cola, froze with an expression full of disbelief—this shamelessly slippery style of argument sounded all too familiar?!
He looked down at the cola in his hand, which he had bought just half an hour ago using a god-tier coupon on a delivery app, costing only a single cent.
Lin Mo’s words, for a moment, left him speechless.
“Can’t you go to Zhao Dongyuan for work matters?”
Gu Qiancheng, after a moment of silence, sighed and tried to resist.
“I don’t know my way around, wouldn’t it be better for me to just quietly be the department mascot?”
“Director Zhao has his duties, and you have your uses.”
Lin Mo’s tone remained unchanged as he gave an example.
“A toothbrush can’t be used to clean a toilet, and a plunger can’t unblock a sink. It’s just a matter of different divisions of labor.”
“That makes sense and all…”
Gu Qiancheng ground his back teeth, “But why do I feel like you’re calling me a toilet plunger in a roundabout way?”
“Why do you insist on labeling yourself as the plunger?”
Lin Mo calmly countered.
“Any normal person would see themselves as the toothbrush.”
Gu Qiancheng was rendered speechless in an instant.
He irritably scratched his head, slumped back into his chair, and gave in.
“Fine, fine, enough nonsense. Just get to the point!”
In the hospital corridor, Lin Mo leaned against the wall and lowered his voice, beginning to methodically explain his thoughts to Gu Qiancheng on the other end of the line.
At the same time, inside the hospital room.
Xia Ji handed the freshly peeled apple to Chu You, her face a little sheepish.
“…Sister You, thinking back now, I was really so silly before.”
Chu You accepted the apple and thanked her first before taking a bite, asking with her mouth full, “Why do you suddenly say that?”
“I used to let my imagination run wild, thinking you and Mr. Lin Mo were secret agents on some covert mission,” Xia Ji ducked her head in embarrassment, but then her tone turned earnest, “It wasn’t until the incident at the amusement park that I realized—Mr. Lin Mo is actually the Minister of our Binhai Swordbearers branch!”
There was genuine awe in her voice.
Chu You raised her eyebrows, a hint of nonchalance in her tone.
“Just a minor branch minister. Is that really worth your admiration?”
“Of course it is!”
Xia Ji propped her chin on her hands, her eyes curving into crescents.
“Just being a Swordbearer is already amazing, but to become a Minister—a leader that high up—that’s got to be even, even, even more incredible!”
She paused, her voice lightening.
“But knowing that Mr. Lin Mo is the Minister actually puts me at ease. With him here, I’m sure you’ll be perfectly safe, Sister You.”
As she spoke, she frowned slightly and her voice lowered, tinged with a trace of barely concealed fear.
“…Those days when you were unconscious, every time I came to see you, I was so scared… scared that you might never wake up again.”
Hearing this, a gentle warmth washed over Chu You’s heart.
She understood that this silly girl was truly worried about her.
She put the half-eaten apple back on the tray at her bedside, wiped the juice from her hand on her hospital gown sleeve, then reached out and gently stroked Xia Ji’s hair, her tone unusually gentle.
“Don’t worry.”
“…My constitution is special—I recover faster than most people when I’m injured.”
This time, Xia Ji didn’t shy away as she usually did.
Instead, her brows stayed furrowed and she muttered softly, “But… even if you recover fast, getting hurt still hurts, doesn’t it…”
Chu You was caught off guard for a moment.
Then, she let out a helpless laugh—this silly girl was so pure-hearted it made one ache.
She’d probably help someone count their money with a smile even if she were sold off.
She was about to say more, but Xia Ji glanced at the clock on the wall, suddenly stood up, and strode over to the window.
As she briskly closed the curtains, her tone left no room for argument.
“The nurse said you need to rest more to fully recover… You’ve been up and about for almost two hours already, Sister You, it’s time for you to lie down and take a break.”
As the curtains were drawn, the light in the hospital room softened, cutting off the clamor of the outside world for a while.
…
…
Binhai, outskirts.
A faint sound of footsteps approached from the distance.
Soon after, from the shadows of a ruined old staircase, a figure slowly emerged.
The two met among the ruins.
“Snap.”
As a flame flared, the man waiting in the ruins took a deep drag of his cigarette.
“Hss—hoo—!”
The newcomer raised his gaze slightly, most of his face hidden behind a dark blue plaid scarf, leaving only a pair of gloomy, indifferent eyes silently observing the smoking man.
“Since the date’s already set, why did you call me here to meet?”
The smoking man flicked his ashes nonchalantly, squinting slightly.
“If you think I’m some subordinate sent here to take your orders, you’re mistaken.”
“…This is just a transaction—a cooperation. It’s better if we keep some distance between us.”
The newcomer neither agreed nor disagreed.
He simply reached into his trench coat and tossed a document folder to the smoking man.
He had barely tossed the folder before pulling his coat tightly closed again, his voice hoarse.
“Something went wrong in the city. The job didn’t get done, and now there’s no time. I need your help.”
“Oh?”
The smoking man raised an eyebrow, glancing at the folder in his hand, his tone flat.
“Tell me what it is—if it’s too much trouble, I won’t bother.”
“There’s someone I need you to catch for me…”
The newcomer retreated further into the shadows and began to explain.
“The day we planned, that’s when. She can be injured, she can be missing an arm or a leg… but she has to be alive.”
As he spoke, the smoking man had already opened the folder and pulled out the contents—
A printed sheet with basic information, and a candid photo.
“Chu… You…”
The smoking man pinched the photo, eyes narrowed, and murmured the name written on the dossier.
“I’ll do this for you, but it’s not because of you or your boss,” he set down the photo, his expression turning venomous in an instant, “Every last one of those with the surname Chu deserves to die!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the coarse, blackish-gray texture of his skin flickered faintly along his cheeks.
…
This man was none other than Jinghu!