Chapter 826: Knowing Each Other
"So, explain to me again—how exactly is this supposed to help us?" Lily raised an eyebrow at Cai, who seemed far too enthusiastic about his latest idea.
Cai grinned, leaning back casually. "Trust me, it’s going to help. We need to build up our teamwork, and what better way than playing a few rounds of online games?"
She gave him a skeptical look. "We’re going to improve our teamwork... by gaming?"
"Uh-huh!" he nodded. "We’ll play all sorts of games, get some practice working as a team in different settings. You know things like these are what make couples fight the most? Chores and hobbies? So, we will work on these first. Become a team in gaming and hobbies and then, tomorrow, I’ll take you to town—you might want to start preparing the bigger house. Now that the weather’s clearing, we should be ready for Dora and the others. They could show up any day now, probably without warning. Their version of an ’announcement’ will be the helicopter touching down in the backyard."
Lily blinked, feeling the familiar tug of excitement mixed with apprehension. It had been so long. So much had changed. She felt the emotion bubbling up but quickly pushed it down. Cai had told her to trust him, to follow his lead, and she would. But still, she couldn’t help asking, "So... how long will you actually be staying here before you have to go back?" She’d been hired for a year so...
Cai paused, glancing sideways at her, considering his words. "I’m not in any rush to leave," he said finally. "I’ve arranged for the best doctors to head up the hospital. And things are working perfectly well on that end. It is the research part that would need me. Right now, we’re going through the first batch of applications for the initial trial and research surgeries—it’s a longer process than I’d expected because we have very few volunteers."
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I thought funding and infrastructure would be the hardest parts, but finding patients willing to participate? Turns out that’s an even bigger challenge. What they fail to realize is if they sign up for a trial surgery they might actually have some chance of living but if they don’t, then death is imminent. Sooner or later. But they would rather die later than try anything and die sooner. But it’s like they already consider themselves dead."
Lily gave him a sympathetic smile as his frustration softened into a resigned sigh. Before he could dwell on it, she nudged him with a slight grin, waving the gaming console in her hand. "Come on then, Dr. Teamwork. Let’s see what you’ve got."
They jumped into the game, teaming up for a mission, with Cai taking the lead. But Lily, inexperienced as she was, took her role with unexpected intensity and decided that it was best to deal with aggression. Cai laughed as he struggled to keep up with her reckless approach, as she fired all over, while both of them called out strategies and dodging attacks as they moved into the enemy’s territory to grab the prize.
Just as they neared the final piece with only a few enemies left, Lily accidentally hit his character, her shot taking him down.