Chapter 60 : Chapter 60
Chapter 60
“I never brought that up.” Shao Huayu’s tone suddenly turned cold.
He raised a hand, switched off the room’s incandescent light, pulled the blanket over himself, and lay down with his back to Ji Qing. Since the lodging provided by the Xicheng government was not particularly good, the bed let out a faint creak.
Had he made that too obvious, too quickly?
In the dim room, Ji Qing’s eyes shifted thoughtfully. Just as the utterly exhausted Ji Qing was about to fall asleep as well, Shao Huayu could not help asking, “So, did you hide your strength or not?”
Ji Qing froze at that.
So that was the real point.
He had made the association too quickly and jumped straight to, “Shao Huayu suspects I deliberately held back in battle,” which had then escalated into, “Shao Huayu suspects my loyalties.”
But what Shao Huayu was actually asking about was the performance during the ability test.
That was not an easy question to answer, so Ji Qing put on a showy smile and said, “Guess.”
“I’m not guessing.”
Shao Huayu turned over and looked at Ji Qing with visible irritation.
With the darkness covering him, his gaze grew more open and unrestrained. But soon, Shao Huayu looked up at the ceiling and let out a quiet sigh. Things were moving a little too fast...
Sleepily, Shao Huayu thought that perhaps it would be fine tomorrow.
His high school life really had been full of ups and downs. Even before entering the academy, Shao Huayu had already been mentally prepared for that. Just as his elder sister had said, he had indeed met interesting people at Third Ability Academy.
Very soon, the sound of steady breathing came from the bed.
Ji Qing glanced toward the bed on the right in some surprise. He had thought Shao Huayu would continue asking, but unexpectedly, he did not.
Thoughtfully, Ji Qing concluded that the theory about humanoid Aberrants could probably be ruled out.
At present, the Federation had no precedent for humanoid Aberrants, so Shao Huayu had not suspected his identity. Still, that did not rule out the possibility that humanoid Aberrants simply had never been discovered...
Ji Qing pulled the blanket over himself and turned over with bone-deep weariness.
The ceiling in his vision grew blurrier and blurrier.
Tomorrow would be another difficult battle, Ji Qing thought. After all, he still had to deal with the investigator from Central City.
Perhaps because he was exhausted in both body and mind, Ji Qing spent a fitful night.
By the time he woke the next day, it was already near noon.
Shao Huayu was sitting at the desk reading. The warm autumn sunlight fell over him, bathing even his long fingers in a hazy glow.
Ji Qing pushed himself upright with some difficulty.
He casually looked around, only to meet Shao Huayu’s complicated gaze. Shao Huayu looked away and said helplessly, “You really were tired too.”
Ji Qing’s brows twitched. “That’s your conclusion after trying to wake me up how many times?”
“Three.”
Ji Qing covered his face. “Then I guess I really was that tired.”
Even though his spiritual energy had not been overdrawn, everything he had gone through yesterday had left him exhausted in both mind and body. Ji Qing got up, took the shirt hanging over the back of the chair, and slowly began fastening the buttons.
The two of them tacitly avoided bringing up last night’s conversation.
Ji Qing went straight into the washroom and splashed cold water over his face. The moment the cold water hit his skin, he instantly felt as though he had finally become clear-headed again.
When Ji Qing returned to the room, Shao Huayu said, “The investigator will arrive tonight. The questioning probably won’t start until tomorrow. Have you thought about how you want to spend today?”
“No.” Ji Qing yawned lazily.
He sat back down on the bed, opened his terminal to look through the news about the island, and answered casually, “I’ll probably wander around the city a bit. It’s my first time here, after all.”
When they had first come, they had only hurriedly boarded the ship at Xicheng Harbor. Now, on the way back, they had been delayed in Xicheng because of what happened on the island.
Since there was nothing else to do, Ji Qing struck up a conversation. “You seem unexpectedly familiar with the investigation process.”
“I’ve been through it before,” Shao Huayu replied. “Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t come to this, but this time... the impact was too great. They have no choice but to investigate.”
“Mm.” Ji Qing responded softly.
At that moment, all of his attention was focused on browsing the island news. The contents of the reports were shocking, but public opinion was indeed moving in the direction that Ji Qing and the sovereign had hoped for.
Looks like there won’t be any problems, Ji Qing thought.
All that remained now was dealing with the Federation’s investigator, and after that, he could return to his calm, ordinary academy life. Ji Qing missed the school a great deal now. Even if the school was not his shelter from the storm, it had still been his first place of refuge in the wasteland.
It counted as half a home, at least.
Ji Qing closed the Federation news site and switched back to the school competition website. The moment he opened it, he saw the Team Competition rankings. The current standings were more or less what he had expected.
Shao Huayu’s team was firmly in first place, and the gap between them and Lu Qingyin’s team in second was still huge. Even after the post-match point recalculation, they probably would not drop by much.
Song Xiaoran’s team had climbed to third, while Ji Qing’s own team was in fourth.
For some reason, that felt a little regrettable.
Ji Qing glanced at the very narrow point gap between the two teams and felt a trace of disappointment. But Song Xiaoran’s performance after the tsunami had been exceptionally impressive. Even after the point recalculation, it was unlikely their team would surpass his.
“Congratulations on taking first place,” Ji Qing said with a smile as he cleanly shut his terminal and turned toward Shao Huayu.
After hearing that, Shao Huayu’s emotions turned complicated.
He picked up the book in his hand, then set it down again. Finally, with a helpless rub at his brow, he asked, “Are you really not worried at all?”
“What is there to worry about?” Ji Qing blinked.
Shao Huayu fell silent. “...”
So he was the only one worrying about the investigator’s arrival? He had been on edge the whole time over Ji Qing’s loyalties. Out of basic courtesy, Shao Huayu had never intended to investigate the family backgrounds of his classmates before.
Then Ji Qing appeared out of nowhere.
It was the first time Shao Huayu had ever encountered someone his own age whose potential as an ability user surpassed his. And beyond that... Shao Huayu tapped lightly on the desk in an absentminded rhythm.
He could tell that Ji Qing carried many secrets.
If this had been at the start of the school year, he would have reported him without hesitation. But now they were already at the end of the semester...
Shao Huayu frowned. “What town were you born in?”
“So now you’re investigating my background?” Ji Qing teased with an amused smile. “Looks like what I said really did give you quite a bit of trouble.”
“I’m not joking with you.”
“Neither am I.” Ji Qing shrugged helplessly, then became serious. “But I don’t know either. I’ve never seen my parents, and I don’t have any memories of my childhood.”
Shao Huayu fell silent. “...”
“Then forget it,” he said suddenly, changing the subject. “The investigator won’t ask about that. It has nothing to do with the island anyway. When the time comes, just describe what you saw there objectively.”
After saying that, Shao Huayu paused. “Are you going to eat?”
“Yeah.” Ji Qing picked up his academy jacket and got ready to go out. “And while I’m at it, I’ll walk around a bit and check on my teammates. I also want to ask around about what the others experienced.”
“I’ll go with you,” Shao Huayu said.
“What? You’re controlling even that now?” Ji Qing’s hand stopped midway through opening the door. Turning back, he frowned. “Classmate Shao, don’t you think you’re acting a lot like you’re monitoring someone right now?”
“Did someone betray you because of something like that?” Ji Qing asked.
Shao Huayu fixed him with a dark, unreadable look, then said, “You can assume so.”
“Your past sounds pretty dramatic too,” Ji Qing said with a light laugh.
He did not choose to push the matter any further. Instead, he deliberately left the door slightly ajar. The gesture felt like an unspoken understanding between them.
The Xicheng government was covering food, lodging, and transportation.
Even though neither the lodging nor the meals were especially good, Ji Qing did not care.
The infection test results for Class S had already come out last night. As S-rank ability users, they were among those least likely to be infected, so the Xicheng government naturally had not specifically restricted their movements.
Because of the appearance of the intelligent Lord, the students were all deeply unsettled.
Ji Qing did not run into many people along the way, but he did notice that the recognizability created by himself and Shao Huayu standing together was rather high. Or perhaps it was just Shao Huayu’s recognizability that was high?
Ji Qing gave Shao Huayu an appraising glance.
Shao Huayu raised a brow at him.
All right, the other man clearly did not care at all... Ji Qing withdrew his gaze with slight regret. The first person he went to visit was You Xingluo. He was rather curious about what You Xingluo thought after everything that had happened.
You Xingluo and Liu Mu were sharing a room.
When You Xingluo opened the door, his eyes immediately moved back and forth between Ji Qing and Shao Huayu. In a meaningful tone, he said, “Well now... it seems the relationship between the two of you has improved quite a bit.”
“Not really?” Ji Qing said.
“Barely, I suppose,” Shao Huayu said.
The two voices sounded one right after the other. Ji Qing fell silent for a moment, then corrected himself. “All right, I guess it does count now.”
At that, You Xingluo curved his lips into a fox-like smile. “So, have you two been hiding some little secret from me?”
“I’m not telling you.”
Ji Qing rejected You Xingluo’s invitation to that topic the moment it came out. He looked around the empty room and asked curiously, “Is Liu Mu not here?”
“The school dragged him away to help,” You Xingluo replied.
Shao Huayu nodded when he heard that. “Liu Mu’s ability really is useful.”
“That’s a bit of a pity, then.” Ji Qing leaned out the window to admire the sea view outside and said with his eyes closed, “I was planning to drag him into reconstructing our route on the island.”
“To prepare for the Federation investigation?” You Xingluo asked.
“Not exactly.” Ji Qing was honest. “I mainly came over because I wanted to hear about your experiences. What happened on the island is the sort of thing that might only happen once in a century. A little curiosity is only natural, right?”
“That’s true...” You Xingluo sighed with his chin propped on one hand. “The Federation will probably tell us to keep quiet about it, but sharing things among ourselves should be fine.”
So the three of them briefly talked about what had happened on the island.
At first, Ji Qing had not expected Shao Huayu to take part in the conversation. After that, he was surprised by the route Shao Huayu’s team had taken. Ji Qing said in amazement, “That’s honestly pretty unexpected.”
Shao Huayu’s team had fought from the beach all the way to the beach on the far side, plunged nonstop into the island’s inner ring, and finally linked up with You Xingluo’s group to face the octopus Aberrant.
To put it simply, they had been fighting the entire time.
“No wonder you were all so exhausted afterward.” Ji Qing’s expression immediately became hard to describe. If that kind of pace did not make them tired, they would practically have to be superhuman.
“Ahem, ahem.” Shao Huayu coughed awkwardly a few times. “We did rest in the middle. Just not very much.”
You Xingluo suddenly turned his eyes thoughtfully and murmured, “What I’m curious about now is how Song Xiaoran’s group found the octopus... I really feel like something remarkable must have happened to that team.”
“You didn’t ask at the time?” Ji Qing asked.
“I didn’t.” You Xingluo shook his head. “The battle was too complicated then. There was no room for small talk. But that girl named Gu Lingxue was quite good.”
Shao Huayu nodded in agreement. “Her performance really was good. She still doesn’t have much practical combat experience, but if she keeps advancing along her current path, she’ll definitely accomplish something in the future.”
“Yes,” You Xingluo agreed.
“Oh?” Ji Qing’s eyes curved into crescents.
With relief, he thought that there was no longer any need to worry about Gu Lingxue’s promotion. If she could earn recognition from those two, then her promotion was as good as secured.