PSW - Chapter 33
Chapter 33
Zero One had, of course, noticed Yu Yinan’s arrival and departure.
It had expected to receive a character-collapse warning, and since Zheng Yi was already fast asleep in blatant indifference, it thought the warning would immediately be followed by a deduction of Saint Points. But it waited anxiously for a very, very long time.
From the look on Yu Yinan’s face, she had clearly sensed something was wrong and guessed that Zheng Yi had sent the note. Yet even so, her opinion of Zheng Yi hadn’t changed. Zheng Yi had deceived her, gone behind her back, and acted on her own without consent. And despite all that, did Yu Yinan still think Zheng Yi was a Saint?
Did the judgment system need maintenance? It had to be malfunctioning, right? Right?
There was no way Yu Yinan could forgive Zheng Yi for something like this, let alone see her sleeping like nothing had happened and not get angry, was there?
If that were truly the case, what a soft-hearted, yet steadfast and stubborn person Yu Yinan must be. Did she really trust Zheng Yi that much?
Zero One’s mind was in a whirl, even if a system didn’t technically have a “mind.”
It desperately wanted to detach from Zheng Yi’s perspective to see what Yu Yinan was doing in the living room… Zero One looked at the still-sleeping Zheng Yi but had no choice but to suppress its curiosity. It wanted to blast a horn and shout Zheng Yi awake, but it wasn’t sure how she would react to being disturbed.
Zheng Yi was the host, and it was the system. And yet…
‘What’s the situation?’
Zheng Yi’s voice was calm, and her sudden question made Zero One think it was hearing things.
[What? Oh!] Zero One snapped to attention. [No character collapse, and no Saint Points were deducted. Yu Yinan… she came back, but she saw you were asleep and didn’t wake you. She just went to sit in the living room.]
[…It’s very quiet. I don’t know what she’s doing. But I think… she probably knows you did it. She seemed to be feeling a lot of complex emotions back then.] Zero One actually had a lot it wanted to say; it was baffled by Yu Yinan’s reaction. As a system, it might not be able to see through Zheng Yi, but it should have had no trouble reading Yu Yinan. And yet, it had absolutely no idea what she was thinking.
“Is that so?” Zheng Yi slowly opened her eyes. She rubbed her temples in annoyance, sat up in bed, and glanced at the down jacket beside her. The sky outside was completely dark. Had she slept for a few hours?
Then, her face devoid of expression, she ignored the jacket. Without even putting on shoes, she stepped onto the icy floor with her bare feet and quickly pushed the door open.
Yu Yinan was sitting by the window, leaning back in a wooden chair. The faint moonlight filtering into the dark living room made her look all the more solitary. She looked up at Zheng Yi.
For once, Zheng Yi didn’t call out “Jiejie.” She just stared at Yu Yinan, her head tilted slightly up, her breathing growing a little ragged as she exhaled puffs of white mist.
In the cold air, the tip of her nose quickly turned red, but it wasn’t the only thing that reddened. Her eyes shimmered as she gazed at Yu Yinan, and a watery mist slowly gathered in them until a single tear rolled down from the corner of her eye. At that moment, she looked down, avoiding Yu Yinan’s gaze, and clumsily wiped the tear away with the back of her hand.
“…What are you crying for?” In the end, it was Yu Yinan who spoke first. She couldn’t bear it any longer. She quickly walked over and took Zheng Yi’s hand, a steady stream of warmth flowing into it. “Put on your clothes and shoes. You’re not a clueless child anymore. Why are you being so reckless?”
But Zheng Yi just shook her head. She bit her lip, trying to hold back her tears, but her sorrowful, on-the-verge-of-crying expression was all the more heart-wrenching.
“…” Yu Yinan lowered her gaze and sighed silently. She had already burned the note, so what was the point of this standoff? What kind of answer did she want from Zheng Yi? An apology? No, that wasn’t it. She just… she just… She raised a hand and gently wiped the tear from the corner of Zheng Yi’s eye. Just… could these tears be fake, too? “There, there. It’s okay.”
She coaxed softly, pulling Zheng Yi into an embrace and patting her on the back. “Why are you crying? Did something happen while I was gone? Did someone bully you?”
Zheng Yi still didn’t speak. She buried her face in Yu Yinan’s embrace, completely surprised that Yu Yinan would say such a thing, that this would be her reaction. A new flicker of interest sparked within her, but her voice grew even more aggrieved, even trembling with a sob as she uttered a single word: “Cold.”
Yu Yinan held her tight. The feel and warmth of the person in her arms were so real. She was lost in a daze for a moment, but then Zheng Yi’s arms wrapped around her neck, returning the embrace. In that instant, as that warm breath drew near, Yu Yinan felt an unconscious heat spread through her entire body. Her heart pounded violently in her chest, as if it would break free from its cage of flesh and blood and fly right before someone’s eyes.
She felt parched.
“Jiejie…”
“Mm.” Yu Yinan composed herself. She lifted Zheng Yi into her arms, carried her to the bedroom, and gently placed her on the bed. Then she picked up the down jacket and draped it over her. “Don’t be so reckless next time.”
“It’s not good to catch a cold.” Though Yu Yinan wasn’t sure if ability users could even get sick. “Don’t walk around barefoot.”
After saying this, she let Zheng Yi get dressed on her own and returned to the living room. She looked at the case of mineral water Zheng Yi had left in the corner, picked up a bottle, twisted the cap off, and took a large gulp.
The cold water could not quench the thirst in her heart, nor could it extinguish her boiling blood.
Yu Yinan was at a loss, unsure why she was feeling this way. Was something wrong with her ability? Was she about to advance? Or was she losing control?
“It’s late. Are you hungry, Jiejie?”
Yu Yinan turned around. Zheng Yi, now fully dressed, was leaning against the doorframe, looking at her. In the darkness, it was impossible to tell when she had gotten there or how long she had been watching.
“I’m hungry,” Yu Yinan said, licking her lips before taking another drink of water.
Zheng Yi had Zero One take out a white candle they had stockpiled earlier. She inverted a bowl, pressed the candle onto it, and handed it to Yu Yinan. Without her needing to say a word, Yu Yinan lit the candle, and its flame illuminated the room.
“What would you like to eat, Jiejie?”
“Anything is fine. Something simple will do.” Yu Yinan looked at Zheng Yi and suddenly asked, “Do you think I’m useless, that I’m holding you back?” Ever since she had met Zheng Yi, although they had always been together and had gathered a lot of food and supplies, most of the time—like with the beef hot pot and the canned luncheon meat—it had come from Zheng Yi’s own stash.
“Why would you think that, Jiejie? I’ve never thought that way.” Those supplies were meant to be used, and if using them earned her some Saint Points, then it was worth it. Zheng Yi walked closer to her, hooked a finger around Yu Yinan’s, and then slowly closed her hand over it, squeezing it tight. “Jiejie, I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me.” Yu Yinan chuckled softly. “Shall we get something to eat?”
“How about instant noodles? We can add eggs and ham sausage.” Zheng Yi quickly walked over to her hiking bag, unzipped it, and started rummaging inside. She pulled out a pack of ham sausage and some instant noodles, then produced several eggs out of thin air. “What flavor do you want, Jiejie?”
“Anything is fine.”
“Okay, let’s have the spicy chili flavor then.” Zheng Yi quickly found two packs of the spicy chili noodles. She expertly took out an alcohol fuel block, set up the small stove, and once Yu Yinan lit the fuel, she poured water into the pot and placed it on the stove to heat.
Simple ingredients, simple preparation. As Zheng Yi bustled about, Yu Yinan sat to the side and watched, silently raising the temperature in the room to make it more comfortable for her.
When two steaming bowls of instant noodles, each with a poached egg, were placed on the table, Zheng Yi and Yu Yinan started eating at the exact same time with perfect tacit understanding.
They acted just as they always had, all the way through finishing their meal and cleaning the dishes.
It was as if nothing had happened today.
Perhaps, nothing was supposed to have happened in the first place.
The next few days were exceptionally calm. A staff member delivered their ID cards the following day, but it wasn’t Chu Yi.
Yu Yinan and Zheng Yi temporarily settled in at the shelter. Every day, Zheng Yi would go to the water station to earn thirty contribution points, which also served as practice for her ability. Yu Yinan, meanwhile, spent her time at the mission center, checking the daily bounty updates. The atlas she had contained a map of Pujie, so she bought paper and a pen, hand-drew an enlarged version, and then cross-referenced it with the bounties, marking all the nearby areas that had already been cleared.
Some ability user squads noticed what Yu Yinan was doing and approached her, hoping to buy a hand-drawn map with contribution points.
The price wasn’t high—three contribution points per map. But Yu Yinan sold them anyway. Her drawings weren’t meticulously detailed; she didn’t mark every little area, just the general zones listed on the mission bounties, so she could produce them quite efficiently. Even so, they were still helpful for squads going out on missions.
And so, they rested in the shelter for three days. During that time, Yu Yinan ran into Yu Yaozu, but her younger brother had clearly taken her warning to heart and didn’t dare bother her again.
Zheng Yi’s contribution points on her ID card accumulated to 95. Yu Yinan sold quite a few maps, but she had also bought Zheng Yi congee and steamed buns from the cafeteria, so she had only managed to save up 15 points.
Just as they were discussing taking on an external mission, Zheng Yi’s eyes fell upon a tall, formidable, modified armored vehicle.
It had a high chassis and a powerful engine, a custom steel-plate exterior, reinforced glass, and special tires. The interior was spacious, and it had a large trunk. It also had a sunroof, made of bulletproof material, and a roof rack had been installed around it. While it wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing, a person could easily climb through the sunroof onto the roof and stand securely.
“If we had the right parts, we could even mount a Gatling gun on this thing. Then you wouldn’t have to be afraid of a zombie horde,” the old mechanic in charge of vehicle modifications at the shelter said, patting his chest proudly.
“How many contribution points? Or is there anything I can trade for it?” Zheng Yi wanted to trade in her old car for this one. She stroked the body of the modified vehicle; it was almost impossible to tell what brand of car it had once been. In the hands of this old mechanic, it had been completely reborn.
“Three thousand contribution points.” The old mechanic decisively held up three fingers. “That’s the final price, no bargaining. Whether contribution points hold their value is one thing, but my baby here is a guaranteed profit on the road.”
“…” Yu Yinan thought the man was making an outrageous demand. But when she turned her head, she saw Zheng Yi stroking the car door wistfully before turning those dark eyes to look at her.
…No, she had a grand total of fifteen contribution points.
“I have a car, too. It runs. Can you take that as a partial trade?” Zheng Yi asked with utmost sincerity. “I really love this vehicle, but we don’t have that many contribution points. Is there anything you need? Food, water, or clothes?”
‘Can Saint Points be exchanged for contribution points?’
[How could that possibly work!]
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