Chapter 296 - 283: A Chance
Lying on the bed, Liu Hao secretly cracked open an eye. He glanced at Gu Xi, but her face was unreadable. Then, he looked over at his captain.
’Captain, why aren’t you saying anything?’ he thought.
’At a time like this, you have to step up.’
’Even if you can’t, you have to.’
Just as Liu Hao was fretting inwardly, practically willing the words to come out of his captain’s mouth, Ye Junhan lifted his gaze and glanced over coolly.
Startled, Liu Hao quickly squeezed his eyes shut and played dead. ’Crap, the captain’s glare is terrifying! I was just... just worried for him. What if Miss Gu misunderstands?’
Liu Hao’s heart, which longed for the easy life, was breaking under the strain.
Nearby, Zhang Wen hadn’t yet realized that several of his comrades were already awake and was still fretting.
"Captain, say something!" Zhang Wen’s eyelid started twitching uncontrollably as he tried to send Ye Junhan a meaningful look.
’...Captain, it’s time for you to make your move.’
’A man can’t fail at a time like this.’
Ye Junhan ignored him. He looked expressionlessly at the teammates lying beside him and said coolly, "Liu Hao, Zhao Qingxiao. If you’re awake, get up."
Liu Hao’s body stiffened. He sat up sheepishly, not daring to look his captain in the eye, and nudged Zhao Qingxiao next to him.
Zhao Qingxiao: "..."
Zhao Qingxiao had no desire to be awake right now, but it was his bad luck to be sleeping next to this blockhead.
’What a useless teammate.’
Nearby, Lin Yuan, Yuan You, and the others who hadn’t been called out quietly controlled their breathing, pretending they were still asleep.
Unexpectedly, Ye Junhan placed a hand on the earthen bed, and an arc of electricity flashed silently across it.
The next second.
"AGH—"
All the team members who had been feigning sleep instantly leaped off the earthen bed. They shot Ye Junhan mournful looks. The captain was a bit too ruthless. That shock... their butts really hurt.
’Really, it’s not like we did anything wrong. We just wanted to... secretly watch a bit of the... you know.’
’It wasn’t a big deal. Was it really necessary to be so harsh?’
Zhao Qingxiao, who had already gotten off the bed and avoided this disaster, silently glanced at his blockhead teammates. ’The captain’s drama isn’t so easy to watch.’
’Serves them right.’
After waking up, faced with Ye Junhan’s increasingly icy expression, the team members sheepishly greeted Gu Xi before shoving each other out the door.
Zhang Wen wanted to stay behind.
He thought, ’Our captain is always so quiet and reserved; he doesn’t know what to say. Girls really don’t go for that kind of personality. If I stay, at least I can help out... and prevent Miss Gu from getting the wrong idea, right?’
In the end, he was forcibly dragged out by his teammates, who pushed and kicked him along the way.
Zhang Wen: ’These brutes! Just because they can’t stay and watch the show, they won’t let me stay either!’
’What kind of people are they?’
Damn it! Zhang Wen spun around, rubbing his butt. ’Who the hell was that who just kicked me from behind?’
’Show yourself!’
Soon, only Gu Xi and Ye Junhan were left in the stone house.
After a long moment, Gu Xi spoke. "Did you get through?"
"No." Ye Junhan lowered his gaze, his fingertips resting on the light screen. He tapped it twice, seemingly nonchalantly. "Activating the backup communications satellite requires at least three commands."
’What does that mean?’
Gu Xi looked up at him.
Ye Junhan explained, "After I enter the password to open the authorization, the control center receives a request. The terminal then automatically sends a message to the Military Department and the base command. Only after both sides approve can the backup communications satellite connect to our signal source..."
"The control center’s data transmission is automatic? No manual control needed?" Gu Xi immediately grasped the key point.
"Correct." Ye Junhan looked up at her. "There are people at both the Military Department and the base monitoring this signal 24/7."
Gu Xi calmly stated, "Twelve minutes and thirty-one seconds have passed since you sent the request." According to emergency procedures, that was far too long of a delay.
They both knew what this meant.
"Something’s happened at the base," Gu Xi said with certainty.
Ye Junhan suddenly asked her, "Those infected people..."
He was asking about the group from the underground commercial street.
Wei Heng had already mentioned this matter earlier. By bringing it up now, Ye Junhan was actually trying to ask about the man who had tried to impersonate Gu Xi’s uncle.
Because the matter involved Gu Xi’s privacy, Wei Heng had only mentioned it briefly and moved on without going into detail.
But Ye Junhan had keenly sensed that this might be the key to the whole situation.
Gu Xi didn’t avoid the topic. Lowering her gaze, she poked the tender leaf at the tip of her little bud. "I suppose I... have some connection to the Gu Family."
"Then you..." Ye Junhan looked up at her.
Gu Xi met his calm, profound gaze. "When the opportunity arises, I’ll pay the Gu Family a visit."
"When the opportunity arises"... Those four words, in the rich and profound tapestry of the Chinese language, were obviously very flexible.
Ye Junhan frowned slightly.
"The vehicles from the base’s Guard Team and the research institute have reached A City Base," Gu Xi said suddenly.
Ye Junhan didn’t doubt her words, but he was startled by the source of her information.
Gu Xi didn’t hide it from him. "On my way to find you... all, I ran into Zhou Jing. I helped her with some trouble, killed a few people, and then asked her to do something for me. Afterward, in the same place, I met Li Xiao."
"He told me a few things," Gu Xi said.
They were both intelligent people; some things didn’t need to be spelled out.
Ye Junhan glanced at her, then got up from the earthen bed.
He straightened his combat uniform, thought for a moment, and said, "Mr. Li has been very tolerant of that cousin of his these past few years."
Li Xiao has been running around causing trouble all these years, but for some reason, Li Ming has never paid him any mind.
’I can’t believe he took the initiative to approach Gu Xi this time.’
’I wonder how Li Ming will handle it when he finds out.’
"Mm," Gu Xi’s gaze fell on the man’s well-defined, long, and powerful hands. She skipped over the details about Zhou Jing, only repeating what Li Xiao had told her.
Ye Junhan’s movements paused for a fraction of a second, then he nonchalantly continued straightening his uniform. "He said the Gu Family sent him to find you?"
But Li Xiao was someone who would even scheme against his own cousin. How could a great family like the Gu Family, which had stood strong for centuries, so easily trust a person like that?
Ye Junhan subconsciously felt that the Gu Family must have some other motive for doing this.
"What do you think?" he asked, looking up at Gu Xi.
Gu Xi didn’t answer the question. Instead, she turned and walked toward the stone house’s entrance. "Let’s go. Time to eat first." After having their abilities devoured, Liu Hao and the others were severely drained and needed to replenish their energy immediately.
Outside, Wei Heng had already prepared a large pot of food.
The moment Gu Xi stepped out, Qi Xiang popped out from who-knows-what nook or cranny, her eyes sweeping between her and Ye Junhan.
"Finished talking?" She walked over and held out a small bag of jerky made from some unknown meat to Gu Xi.
"Where’d you get this?" Gu Xi was a little surprised.
"From the Guard Team’s vehicle." Qi Xiang glanced over in their direction. The seven members of the base’s Guard Team were still lying neatly on the ground.
Gu Xi casually took a piece and chewed on it a couple of times. It didn’t taste strange and contained no X Energy. It must have been produced before the Second Great Mutation.
’I didn’t expect the Guard Team to have something this good.’
Gu Xi stared at the jerky in her hand, lost in thought.