“Xiao Bai, here.” Jiang Yuelan was peeling an apple and held a sliced piece out to Su Bai’s mouth.
“Mm.” Su Bai had already been awake for some time. During this period Jiang Yuelan had been taking continuous care of her.
“By the way, these fruits were bought for you by Xiao Xi’s mother. She’s thanking you for saving her daughter.”
“How is Xiao Xi?” Su Bai asked.
“Don’t worry. Xiao Xi and her mother were discharged long ago.” Jiang Yuelan continued her work without stopping.
She added, “You protected Xiao Xi very well…”
Su Bai watched this scene, and a bitter feeling rose in her heart.
The image of the “Jiang Yuelan” from her dream once again surfaced in Su Bai’s mind.
That disgust and rejection were completely different from the real Jiang Yuelan, yet they felt unnervingly real.
Perhaps that would be the outcome if Jiang Yuelan ever learned her true identity.
Was she once again deceiving someone and wasting another person’s feelings?
Rather than continue like this, it would be better to just…
“Jiang Yuelan, I…”
Su Bai desperately wanted to take this chance to confess everything at once, be done with it, and then completely escape all of this.
“What’s wrong?” Jiang Yuelan tilted her head and looked at her with some confusion.
“I actually…”
Such a simple sentence seemed to be forcibly stuck in her throat and refused to come out.
But what would happen after she confessed?
The icy touch of the bracelet on her wrist constantly reminded Su Bai.
If Jiang Yuelan was a witch, then Su Bai was certain she would fly into a rage and tear everything apart.
But if Jiang Yuelan was not a witch, then wouldn’t that mean she was dragging a completely unrelated stranger into her own troubles?
“Xiao Bai, what’s the matter? You can tell me anything.” Jiang Yuelan watched Su Bai hesitate on the verge of speaking, and that heart-wrenching feeling appeared in her chest once more.
These past few days Jiang Yuelan had been constantly worried about Su Bai.
That day, it was fortunate that her familiar had found Su Bai at the last moment and rescued her.
What surprised even Jiang Yuelan was that Su Bai had, by her own strength alone, taken down three Demonic Beasts.
The way she flipped up and down while fighting the Demonic Beasts had been clearly witnessed by Jiang Yuelan through her familiar’s eyes.
In the end, whether magical girl or witch, once the support of magic was gone, they were nothing more than ordinary girls.
Su Bai herself might not even realize the level of combat awareness she had displayed in that performance.
If it were placed in a film or television drama, it would be solid special-forces-level intensity.
If Jiang Yuelan herself were placed in the same situation as Su Bai—
Forget fighting back. She would probably have been trembling in fear and then torn to pieces by the Demonic Beasts.
Jiang Yuelan looked at Su Bai and felt that this person was truly remarkable.
Su Bai forced herself to stay alert and spoke in a state close to her usual self:
“It’s nothing. I just wanted to say, Sister Lan, thank you for taking care of me.”
Su Bai still did not fully speak the words. After all, she was still under the Association’s jurisdiction, and Jiang Yuelan’s background remained unclear.
She did not dare gamble. She could not abandon the bigger picture because of personal emotions.
“Xiao Bai, what’s there to be polite about? We barely managed to keep our lives. We should be happy. Don’t look so gloomy… Hurry and eat the fruit.”
Jiang Yuelan immediately held out another piece of apple and stuffed it straight into Su Bai’s mouth.
Mmmph. Su Bai’s cheeks were puffed out.
A little sweet?
“By the way, how is Yu Xiaoyan? Is she okay?” Su Bai chewed the fruit in her mouth and spoke with unclear pronunciation.
“Her… she’s fine, but she might have been frightened. I haven’t heard any activity from her these past few days.”
Jiang Yuelan continued feeding Su Bai, watching the little one chew like a hamster, and secretly smiled.
Xiao Bai is really cute.
“Stop feeding me. I really… can’t eat any more QAQ.”
Su Bai hurriedly pushed Jiang Yuelan away, narrowed her eyes, and puffed out her cheeks (>Д<).
Jiang Yuelan was also amused by that expression. “By the way, has no one ever told you that you’re really cute before, Su Bai?”
“Cute… where? Don’t talk nonsense.” Hearing Jiang Yuelan’s words, Su Bai subconsciously refuted.
She used to be a grown man. “Cute” was not a good word for describing her at all.
It was basically the same as calling her stupid.
“Alright, I won’t tease you anymore. I’m going out to buy you some food, or else you’ll get hungry later.
Rest on the bed for a bit first. Your phone is by the head of the bed. If you’re bored you can take a look.”
Jiang Yuelan ruffled Su Bai’s hair, then walked out of the ward, leaving Su Bai staring blankly at the unfinished fruit in her hand.
“Sigh, what is all this even about.”
Su Bai picked up the phone by the head of the bed and glanced at it.
As expected, the news headlines were all things like “Sudden Catastrophic Rift in C City, Multiple People Trapped.”
She clicked in and flipped through. It was nothing more than the usual: the Association’s support was timely, the public was rescued, the disaster was under control, and so on.
No different from the news of the past.
Then she flipped through the comment sections of a few smaller websites.
They were uniformly cursing, saying there had been a lack of emergency measures when the disaster occurred, and that support afterward had been too slow, and so on.
Su Bai’s gaze dimmed considerably. This time the rift had appeared directly in a busy urban district—something rare even in history.
Thinking back to that moment, countless people had been crushed to death by the collapsing buildings before they could even react, let alone face the Demonic Beasts.
She rubbed her chin and continued thinking.
The scale of that rift was at most D-rank, yet the beast that had trapped her was estimated to be a C-rank demonic beast.
This was unreasonable. A demonic beast of that level should never have appeared under such a small-scale rift.
Something was very wrong.
And there was also that crow. Although she could not be one hundred percent certain, from the feeling alone it was most likely a witch’s creation.
A witch had gotten involved as well. Was the situation not chaotic enough already?
Su Bai rubbed her continuously throbbing temples.
Ding-ling-ling.
It was her WeChat notification tone. Someone had sent Su Bai a message.
A nickname “Sister Luo” sent a message:
『It’s been three days without a status report. Report the situation immediately.』
This was from Green Vine. Previously she had been required to report Jiang Yuelan’s movements and other information every day.
『Everything is normal. I was unconscious these past two days and couldn’t send you messages. Sorry.』
Su Bai thought for a moment, then still sent the reason back.
『I don’t care. Failure to report within the required time means you should be punished. This time you’ll get three minutes as a warning.』
What punishment? The Association had never told her there would be any kind of punishment.
Before Su Bai could even figure out what those three minutes meant—
The magic inside the bracelet activated on its own, beyond her control. A magic array that had long been inscribed on her wrist was activated.
There was also a layer of shielding magic on it with excellent concealment effect. At a glance it was clearly Green Vine’s work. No one could claim second place when it came to her shielding magic.
If Su Bai had not been able to sense the energy fluctuations inside the bracelet, she would not even have noticed when it activated.
The moment the array started, a heart-piercing pain exploded throughout her entire body.
The body that had just been sitting up immediately curled up and collapsed onto the bed from the intense pain.