Chương 77: Chapter 76 — Dual Cultivation

The air around Shen Yue which had been crystallising into ice slowly began to melt in rhythm with her now relaxing breath. The hyperventilation had stopped, but Lin Che put a hand to her forehead and felt that same freezing pain one gets when holding ice for an extended period of time — only it was instant. There wasn't much else that he could do about her condition, as he was thoroughly ill-prepared.

Without any herbs around him in this prison of theirs, he was unable to concoct anything to help her, and he didn't even know any other recipes aside from the one breath-opening blend, so he was far more likely to poison her instead. All he knew was that the pills she took had extreme heat energy because they warmed her up and because he melted internally in the one loop where he stole her medication.

In a desperate attempt to layer her with more and more things to trap in the heat, Lin Che reached for his shirt and pulled it off to add to the pile. After another twenty or so seconds, she stopped shivering, and, eventually, her eyes opened once again. Shen Yue opened her eyes, still in a daze. For the first time in a long while, she felt adequately normal, so she pushed herself upright on her bed through the assorted pile of cloth she was buried in and turned her head towards the door.

She hadn't realised she had been sleeping, but all the days in this prison had sort of blurred into one, so she didn't question it. That was, at least, until she turned her head to the side and saw one shirtless Lin Che looking down at her whilst sweating, breathing heavily, and sheepishly looking at her. She looked down at herself. Thankfully she was still clothed, which suggested that the man had not been attempting to assault her, and, before she could think any further, he blurted out a slurry of words.

"Yue-er, thank goodness you're awake. You weren't responding when I called you and I knocked on your door and nothing," he said, kneeling down beside her bed.

"So I just walked in and found you collapsed on the floor and as cold as ice. I'm just glad I managed to get your medication brought over in time." Shen Yue was, by all means, not an unreasonable person. She understood that, when a man is nearly in tears crying into your bedsheets, it's rather likely that he was speaking the truth, regardless of the questionable state of clothedness he was in.

"Thank you," she managed to cough out. The pill was still stuck in her throat, with only half of it dissolving in the tea. That half was enough to bring her back mostly to normal, and the remaining half served as proof that he was indeed not lying. Somehow, Lin Che had managed to get her medication for her.

"How did you do it?" she whispered to him. What arrived next could have led to another misunderstanding.

"Follow me into the bathroom."

"If the person watching over us is not a cultivator, why don't we just leave?" asked Shen Yue, following the debrief, subconsciously speaking in terms of 'we' and 'us'. Lin Che fiddled with the two pills he kept in his pocket as he answered her.

"If we think logically, it makes sense for someone whose job it is to watch cameras to not be a cultivator. They probably keep them all for combat purposes, since any competent person can be in charge of surveillance."

"And the array we're in likely alerts them if we are inside its surroundings," she said back. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Do you know how they tend to work? Do they just sense Qi?" Shen Yue thought for a moment.

"The crudest ones just look at Qi volume and can be set up to send an alert. The ones we use typically look at soul or Qi signatures." Lin Che leaned against the shower.

"From what I gather, they're low on budget." He folded his arms and looked out of the bathroom window.

"It's more likely that they have a crude Qi-sensing array, and—" he reached into his pockets and brought out the two pills.

"—with your pills, we could release enough Qi to pretend we're still here."

"But they have cameras."

"I don't think Ying Rui is watching us at night — I've tried to call her name out at two in the morning and she didn't end up responding. This will buy us enough time to escape before they notice we're gone in the morning." They made eye contact and Shen Yue nodded once.

"For now, Shen Yue, let's pretend we're in a happy marriage again to bring her guard down."

Lin Che and Shen Yue left the bathroom together, arms interlocked. He was still shirtless and sweaty, which helped sell the image they were going for, whilst Shen Yue balled the excess cloth in her shirts and pants to wrinkle them further. Lin Che staggered out of the bathroom, whilst she beamed a smile at the camera. He was surprised that Shen Yue had agreed to this act, given just how distrustful and even fearful of him she had been just two hours prior, but it seemed she was very quick to trust others.

Was this because she was always alone? Lin Che recalled that he had never met or even heard her talk about a friend of hers in all of his loops with her. He didn't dwell on this train of thought for much, however, as he truly hoped that she was warming up to him due to his kindness and not because of some other, much sadder reason. She was still slightly skittish around him, but it now felt like they were acquaintances who respected each other's strengths.

Until he could give her a proper explanation for why he killed Wong — especially since he wasn't too sure how he did it — it was the best outcome he could have hoped for. They made their way downstairs as Lin Che prepared some snacks and put on a documentary about marine life on the television. The intro music blasted unreasonably loudly through the living room, as he had forgotten to adjust the sound levels and reconnect to the correct speakers after the stunt he pulled on Ying Rui.

When it neared midnight, the two yawned and went to Shen Yue's room together to go to sleep. Lin Che covered the camera in the corner of the room with a sheet of paper, and the electric noise from the speakers became audible — but Ying Rui kept silent. The noise turned off later. She understood they wanted privacy, and had granted it. Perfect.

"If we crush half the pills now, the array will likely signal that we're attempting to escape," said Shen Yue, two hours later, unsure of how exactly to go through with this plan.

"Don't worry," replied Lin Che.

"On the slip of paper I put to the camera, I told her to mute her audio until the paper is back, and I'm certain she trusts me enough to do that."

"But why would she listen to you?" she asked, puzzled.

"Also, that has nothing to do with the increase in Qi."

"I already wrote that we'd be 'dual cultivating'" he said, gesturing with fingers. Shen Yue jabbed an elbow into his stomach, but laughed slightly and said it was a good idea. She then gave him a glare to assert that it would never, ever happen between them, and he waved his hands in the air as if to plead innocence.

"Are we escaping all the way back to the Shen Clan?" he asked her.

"It'll be safer there, since I doubt they'd be strong enough to capture us once we're back under their protection," she said, shrugging.

"Have you forgotten that I killed one of your elders? I mean, you seriously expect me to run back to them?"

"I'm sure you had your reasons, Mr. Looper," she winked, awkwardly.

"You saved my life and have been nice to me, so, the more that I think about it, the more likely it is that you had your reasons."

"And you're not going to ask any further questions?"

"I will once we're outside."

"If you want a proper answer rather than a quick one," he began.

"We're going to have to stay in Dalian for a while longer."

"Stay in Dalian, right where these people are headquartered? Are you insane?" she argued back.

"I know how it sounds, but, please, trust me just a bit more," pleaded Lin Che. A brief moment of silence befell the both of them.

"Fine." They shook hands before each stomping down on the floor to crush the pile of pills in front of the bed. The room felt as hot as lava almost instantly and the two jumped out of the bedroom window and started sprinting away from the compound and into the streets of Dalian.