The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 83: Suspicion

“Detonation, serial number 22. Element-type.” White Rabbit put down the bowl of porridge. “Touch someone’s body, and the body part explodes. Perhaps there are other ways the Talent can be used, but that’s what we know so far.”

“I thought it was a Damage-type Talent.” Wu Dahai’s voice grew weak again after putting up the front for a while. “Why did he come after the Damage Rune Circuit when he has an Element-type Talent?”

“He may not be after it for himself. There must be someone behind him. Outside of the three major organizations, there are quite a lot of fringe groups in Li City.” White Rabbit turned to Gao Yang, befuddled. “Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know what to say,” Gao Yang lied.

“Well, why don’t you look after Wu Dahai for a while? I have things to take care of.” White Rabbit rose to her feet. Gao Yang gave her a nod before sitting down by Wu Dahai’s bed.

“Take care of me?” Wu Dahai grumbled. “I’m not dying or anything.”

Gao Yang asked on purpose, “How did you not know Detonation, Wu Dahai?”

“There are too many Talents. How am I supposed to remember everything? I only picked a few I found interesting to read about...” Wu Dahai’s head drooped, his eyes falling closed and his breathing growing slow and heavy. “I’ve got to memorize everything from now on... Fuck was I caught off guard...”

Soon, Wu Dahai fell asleep.

Gao Yang quietly stood up and tucked him in before leaving the room.

...

Snake Room, -6F. Three o’clock in the morning.

Qing Ling walked out of the women’s bathroom with a white towel around her body, holding a wooden bucket with towel, shower gel, shampoo, and a bottle of special ointment inside. Her face, shoulders, arms, and legs were all covered in bruises.

She had been under War Tiger’s hellish training every day. The difficulty of the training correlated positively to the speed of her progress. She thought she would be able to level up God of Blades immediately when she got the Damage Rune Circuit yesterday, but it didn’t go her way.

Like an odd form of temper tantrum, she insisted on War Tiger training with her for another ten hours or so, essentially playing a human punching bag with no emotions. As the one beating her up, War Tiger was actually feeling uncomfortable, and when Qing Ling still refused to stop, he forced her to rest. Only then did she go take a bath and retire to her room.

Qing Ling stopped walking when she found the bench in the breakroom occupied by someone. It was Gao Yang.

Gao Yang smiled at her and greeted, “You haven’t been at school these past couple of days. You didn’t move into the dorm, did you?”

“What is it?” Qing Ling didn’t care about anything other than leveling up, and she had no time for small talks.

“You heard about the Rune Circuit almost getting taken, didn’t you?”

“I heard.” Qing Ling sat down on the bench next to Gao Yang and took out the bottled ointment from the wooden bucket. She opened the lid and poured some on her palm, rubbing it out and applying it to the bruises on her arms. Then she moved to her lower body. When she moved her long delicate fingers from her knees to the thighs covered by the towel, Gao Yang averted his eyes.

“And you didn’t care?” asked Gao Yang.

“As long as you aren’t dead,” Qing Ling said coldly. In other words, she didn’t care if Wu Dahai, Heavenly Dog, or White Rabbit died.

Gao Yang smiled wryly. On one hand, he was a little touched; on the other hand, he found her a little heartless.

“Turn to me,” said Qing Ling.

When Gao Yang turned around, she handed him the bottle of ointment and turned her back to him, loosening the towel to reveal her pale back. Bruises of purple, blue, and red littered all over her body, evidence of the beating she had gotten these past few days. It hurt to look at her—War Tiger sure was something. Even with a beautiful girl like Qing Ling, he didn’t pull his punches.

But that’s for Qing Ling’s own good, thought Gao Yang. It’s better to have a difficult training than to die in a real battle.

“Put it on for me,” said Qing Ling.

If she were anyone else, Gao Yang would’ve found the request suggestive, even questioning if the girl was seducing him. With Qing Ling, however, he took it as what it was: a reasonable request for a helping hand.

Gao Yang composed himself and applied ointment to the bruises on her back with great care, rubbing it in afterward.

“You need something?” asked Qing Ling.

“Yeah, there’s something,” Gao Yang admitted. “I didn’t know who else to talk to.”

“Go on.”

“It’s clear from this ambush that there is a spy in the organization, and they sold us out.”

With her back to Gao Yang, Qing Ling put her arms around her knees and thought quietly.

“I had no clue about who the spy was, but two hours ago, when I visited Wu Dahai, a possibility suddenly came to me. And I can’t get it out of my head as it takes roots and sprouts leaves.”

“You found the spy?” Qing Ling asked directly.

“I only suspect him.”

“Who?”

Gao Yang struggled to open his mouth.

Qing Ling put the towel back on after the ointment had been applied. She stood up from the bench and looked down at Gao Yang with icy eyes. “If you aren’t talking, I’m going.”

“You would get dragged into this if I told you.”

Qing Ling was as level-headed as ever. “And if the spy isn’t taken out, everyone would be in danger.”

“The one I suspect is...” Gao Yang looked up to meet her eyes. “Officer Huang.”

After a moment of silence, Qing Ling turned around and started walking. “My room.”

...

Two minutes later, Gao Yang found himself in Qing Ling’s single room.

It was clean. The rectangular room had everything one would need, including a bed, a closet, a washing machine, a dryer, AC, a small fridge, and a microwave. There was a white laundry basket in a corner of the room, inside was a pile of clothes she had changed out of.

Qing Ling opened the closet built into the wall and took out a set of pink bear pajamas. Immediately, she took off the towel and put the pajamas on, not bothered by Gao Yang’s presence at all.

Gao Yang awkwardly turned away and insulted Wu Dahai’s typical otaku taste in his head. What were those colorful clothes? They didn’t fit Qing Ling at all.

After getting changed, Qing Ling opened the small fridge and took out a seafood sandwich and a carton of milk. She put the sandwich into the microwave for heating. Then she opened the carton of milk and downed it in one go with her head tipped upward, her throat moving as she gulped.

She threw away the now empty carton and sat down on her bed, gesturing at the only chair in the room for Gao Yang to take a seat.

Gao Yang sat down. When he noticed the milk at the corner of her mouth, he pointed at his own mouth, “Here.”

Qing Ling frowned. “There’s nothing wrong with your mouth.”

“It’s your mouth. There’s milk here.”

“Oh.” Qing Ling licked it clean rather than wiping it off.

Seeing her licking milk off the corner of her mouth with such a serious expression—dressed in cute pajamas, no less—was so at odds with her usual image that Gao Yang couldn’t help but laugh.

“What are you laughing at?” Qing Ling asked.

“Nothing.” Gao Yang cleared his throat. “Let’s get to business.”

“Why did you suspect Officer Huang?”

“He lied to us.”