PSW - Chapter 65
Chapter 65
Oh, wonderful. Just wonderful. This was absolutely perfect.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Yu Yinan glanced at the car following them in the rearview mirror and thought it was just perfect.
It seemed that as long as Zheng Yi wanted to, she could get along with anyone. She could be intimate with others even if they had just met.
"Are you not going to do anything about the eight people you let go?" Yu Yinan had assumed they would only be with the siblings for a short time, and that Zheng Yi might go and take care of the eight ability users she had let escape earlier.
"Hangnu is quite large. Who knows where they ran off to." Zheng Yi parked the car in front of a hotel, then pulled out the key and got out. "Jiejie, I'm not a killing machine that has lost its reason to senseless slaughter."
"…That's not what I meant." Yu Yinan got out of the car as well.
Xia Sheng quickly parked his car, pulled Xia Cheng out, and followed Zheng Yi and Yu Yinan into the hotel. This time, they actually found key cards at the front desk. But with the power and water completely out, the electronic cards were obviously useless. In the end, Zheng Yi thoughtfully resorted to opening the doors by physical means, then used her ability to give the rooms a quick cleaning.
"Oh my god, a water ability… it's so convenient and versatile!" Xia Cheng's eyes were filled with envy as she watched Zheng Yi work.
Both were double rooms, each with two single beds. After Zheng Yi cleaned a room for them as well, they all retired to rest. Xia Cheng had wanted to come over to Zheng Yi's room to sit and chat more, but she was forcefully dragged back by Xia Sheng.
"Brother? What are you doing!"
"What are you doing! Don't keep them from their rest!"
Watching the two siblings interact was actually somewhat amusing. Unfortunately, Yu Yinan's heart couldn't quiet down, so she was unable to watch them objectively.
From Hangnu to Huikong… if they traveled at full speed, they could probably arrive tomorrow, right? But Zheng Yi had only just arrived in Hangnu; she probably wouldn't leave until she had explored it thoroughly. As Yu Yinan was thinking, she saw Zheng Yi take out a set of clean clothes and walk toward the bathroom. "Zheng Yi, don't you want hot water?"
Was she going to wash with her ability again? The temperature was rising now, so using the water from her ability probably wouldn't be too cold. Why was she saying so much? Zheng Yi always knew what she was doing.
"I don't need it, but Jiejie can use it later." Zheng Yi smiled and walked into the bathroom. As a water ability user, her entire bathing process, including undressing and dressing, wouldn't take more than five minutes.
By the time Zheng Yi emerged, refreshed and in clean clothes, the bucket in the bathroom was already filled with freshly condensed clean water. "Go ahead."
"Okay." Yu Yinan took her clean clothes and went into the bathroom. She washed her face with the cold water and suddenly found herself missing the extreme cold of winter. If only… if only it were the dead of winter. Then she could naturally warm Zheng Yi's hands, and at night, she could hold her in her arms as they slept.
…She seemed to be growing more and more dissatisfied. Yu Yinan heated the water, took off her T-shirt, and soaked a towel in the hot water.
If someone else were with Zheng Yi, they surely wouldn't be as insatiable as she was, right? In this apocalypse, to meet someone who gives you food and drink, protects you from danger, and even drives you around to breathe the free, fresh air—all of this was incredibly rare.
She should be content.
To be able to live so comfortably in the apocalypse, she should have been content long ago.
How could she not be moved? Why was that seemingly light affection so heavy that it sealed her lips? Zheng Yi taught her to be clear-headed, to love herself, to see herself clearly. Yu Yinan thought with some confusion: But how could she be considered clear-headed? People… can never truly see themselves clearly.
Should she not be so humble? She couldn't find her reason for living in Zheng Yi…
A fire ability. Warm water streamed down from above. Yu Yinan raised her hands and buried her face in the hot, damp towel. She had to become stronger.
In strength, in spirit. She had to become stronger… not for someone else, but for herself.
She couldn't be too dependent on Zheng Yi.
With a splash, the hot towel was soaked with water again. In the narrow, steam-filled space, Yu Yinan looked up at the mirror above the sink. She saw herself in the reflection—long, wet hair draped over her shoulders, her body soaked.
Her wet fingers touched the cool, fogged-up mirror, and Yu Yinan slowly wiped it clean to reveal her own image.
The person in the mirror looked wretched and fragile. For a moment, it reminded Yu Yinan of herself just after graduation, when she had first entered the workforce—lost, confused, and helpless.
A person's life is very long, so long that the young Yu Yinan couldn't imagine what she would look like in her old age. A person's life is also very short, so short that Yu Yinan couldn't picture herself after thirty, so short that she couldn't imagine she might fall in love with someone in the future, or that she would simply get married, have children, be busy with family, and live a mundane life because it was "time." In many fragmented moments, Yu Yinan felt that her journey through life should have ended at eighteen, twenty-four, or thirty.
Many times, Yu Yinan felt that she should have already gotten off this train of life. But because of certain people, because of certain details, she hadn't been able to get off at her stop. Perhaps it was the help of her head teacher, or the five hundred yuan she had secretly tucked into an envelope in her luggage. Perhaps it was the heart-shaped maple leaf that fluttered down in autumn, the steam that filled the room when a steamer lid was lifted, the last available shared bike, the bus that arrived just as she reached the stop, or the last subway train she caught by sprinting with all her might on her way home late at night after a part-time job.
Yu Yinan's heart was hard; she could survive on sheer willpower alone. It seemed she could live on just fine no matter how she was neglected, ignored, or bullied. It was as if she didn't care about anything.
Yu Yinan's heart was also very soft; just a cup of hot water or a piece of candy was enough for her to remember for a very, very long time.
Warm, slightly scalding water cascaded from her head to her toes. Yu Yinan placed the towel on her head, closed her eyes, and let her mind go blank for a moment before taking it off and hastily wiping her face.
She wrung out the towel, dried her body, and used her ability briefly to dry her hair. She changed into a clean shirt, buttoning it up one by one… until she was fully dressed, and then she walked out.
Zheng Yi was lying on the bed, her fingers flicking as she controlled a large mass of water in the air, constantly shifting it between solid, liquid, and gaseous states. When she saw Yu Yinan come out, she looked over. Even though her attention was divided, the water mass in the air continued to transform under her control.
This was Zheng Yi's mental strength, her control over her ability.
Yu Yinan walked to the side of the bed and stopped in front of Zheng Yi. She crouched down, tilting her head up slightly to look at Zheng Yi on the bed. After a moment of hesitation, Yu Yinan asked, "Zheng Yi, your ultra-high-pressure water jet… how do you do that?"
"Mental control. Pressurize the water to over sixty thousand PSI." Zheng Yi raised her hand, and the mass of water in the air quickly changed state according to her words, finally forming a thin, high-pressure water jet. "On top of that, if you continue to increase the pressure while maintaining control, you can also change the shape of the high-pressure water jet into any weapon you want without affecting its lethality."
As she spoke, she actually molded the high-pressure water jet into the shape of a "water blade."
"…" Yu Yinan stared at Zheng Yi. She made it sound so simple, and her demonstration was so effortless. Yet Yu Yinan couldn't glean anything from it that she could use.
"You're a fire ability user. You can't use this." Zheng Yi glanced at her and waved her hand, dissipating the water element.
"You could try flame cutting," Zheng Yi suggested. "And also, high temperatures. You can continuously push the limits of the flame temperature you can create… then you'll be able to burn most things you encounter."
"Building on that, if you turn your ultra-high-temperature flames into plasma, then congratulations, you'll have a blade that can cut through anything."
So, she could only keep trying, keep pushing her limits? Yu Yinan thought about her current mental strength and flame intensity and felt a sense of relief. She had known all along that Zheng Yi was no ordinary person. How could she possibly compare?
She would just have to be diligent and start training her ability.
"Relax, keep it simple. Just enjoy the burning and the explosions," Zheng Yi said to Yu Yinan with a light laugh. It was rare, indeed, for Yu Yinan to ask her about ability-related matters.
Had she been provoked?
So her reaction to jealousy was a desire to become stronger.
A double room, two beds. Yu Yinan couldn't even sleep in the same bed as Zheng Yi anymore. She lay down on her bed with a hint of regret, staring at the ceiling. She suddenly recalled how easily Zheng Yi had controlled her ability, switching its state at will. As if guided by some unseen force, she also conjured a ball of fire, holding it up in her palm, controlling its shape, and then continuously raising its temperature.
Just then, a massive wall of ice appeared directly between the two beds, radiating a bone-chilling cold and completely separating them.
Yu Yinan couldn't help but look toward Zheng Yi's side, but she couldn't see anything. Her concentration broken, the flame in her hand went out. On the other side of the ice wall, Zheng Yi rolled over and fell peacefully asleep.
'My dear Zero One, you were right. I'm far too good to her.' To tolerate Yu Yinan practicing raising her flame temperature in the middle of summer.
[…] Zero One looked at the ice wall, fell silent for a moment, but ultimately chimed in, [Of course. You are a genuine Saint, after all!]
[Throughout this entire apocalypse, there is no existence more saintly than you!]
"We shouldn't be troubling our benefactor for protection at all. I can drive through the night to get out of here. Besides, even if our benefactors protect us on the way to Huikong, we'll still run into danger after we part ways." Facing his younger sister, Xia Sheng was no longer so socially awkward and flustered. He sat on the edge of the bed and spoke to Xia Cheng earnestly. He even lowered his voice, afraid the hotel's soundproofing was poor and the others might hear and think they were arguing.
"You don't get it. Jiejie Zheng Yi is too kind-hearted. If we just left like that, she would worry about us," Xia Cheng replied just as earnestly. "Besides, I really hit it off with Jiejie Zheng Yi. She knew every single episode I mentioned! And her commentary on each one was spot-on, it spoke right to my heart! You just didn't get to talk about magical girls with her. If you had, I'm sure you wouldn't want to leave her so soon either."
"You're being inconsiderate. You'll bother them."
"But they're not a couple." Xia Cheng paused, then gave Xia Sheng a meaningful look. "Brother, how do you know I'm bothering them and not helping things along?"
"…If Zheng Yi doesn't feel that way, you'll make Yu Yinan feel very uncomfortable and embarrassed. They were good friends to begin with, and maybe they're content with that kind of relationship. What if you rashly do something and cause them to not even be friends anymore?" Xia Sheng grew more serious as he looked at his sister. "Real life isn't an anime! And this is the apocalypse. Just surviving is tiring and difficult enough! For them, this might be far from a time to be thinking about romance."
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