Chapter 91 - Anemia
Qi Jingchen sat on the mud beside the crater, still laughing, but Nie Yi felt that it was hard to accept. It wasn’t because all his body hair had been burnt off, but because he knew that Qi Jingchen was sure to have paid a price to restore his health.
He couldn’t be any more clear as to how powerful the explosions were. At the time, his body clearly exploded until his flesh was mangled, yet it was now as good as new…
Looking at the traces his body had left at the bottom of the crater, Nie Yi’s complexion turned ugly— How much blood had Qi Jingchen given him?
He recalled the scenes from his past life when he was forced by Qi Jingchen to eat meat… this person was always like this. Sometimes, he truly treated people a little too well.
Nie Yi couldn’t use his ability and thus couldn’t wash the mud off. He picked up the fireball he had created with his fire ability back then, wiped it with his scraps of clothing, then placed it in Qi Jingchen’s embrace. He said, “Jingchen, give me a shirt ba.”
“Why?” Qi Jingchen said. His clothes had been soaked by the ice water, but with the ‘help’ of the surrounding blazes and the small fireball, they were now dried. At this moment, though the air was frigid, he wasn’t cold. Now that there was a nice and warm fireball in his embrace, he was quite warm and toasty.
Even so, he didn’t want to give Nie Yi clothing. “Why?”
Nie Yi honestly did not mind letting Qi Jingchen watch his body more. It should be known that though he now had no body hair, his physique was still very aesthetically pleasing, and his ‘asset’ was also very impressive. But seeing that Qi Jingchen’s expression wasn’t normal, he no longer had the inclination to show off his body. “I’m cold.”
As Nie Yi spoke, he gestured at the small fireball he had placed in Qi Jingchen’s embrace— He had already given Qi Jingchen the only thing that allowed him to not feel cold.
Speaking of, Qi Jingchen previously did not give him clothes but remembered to leave this fireball by his side. This could also be considered being thoughtful.
Qi Jingchen snorted, then took off his coat and gave it to Nie Yi.
His coat was a long wool overcoat. When he wore it, it would cover up to ten centimetres above his knee, but on Nie Yi…
Because Nie Yi wasn’t wearing inner clothes or sweaters, he could still squeeze into this small-sized wool overcoat. However, with his height, after wearing this, it could only barely cover his butt, exposing a faintly discernible scene of springtime…
Nie Yi had already crawled out of the crater, and stood beside the sitting Qi Jingchen. To others, the scene of springtime underneath his coat was only faintly discernible, but from Qi Jingchen’s current point of view, everything was in plain sight!
Qi Jingchen didn’t know whether it was from anger or shyness, but the blush on his pale face became even darker; he then undid his pants.
“Don’t. I’ll just tie the jacket around my waist; I probably can’t wear your pants.” Nie Yi hurried to stop him, then sat beside Qi Jingchen and helped warm Qi Jingchen with the fireball.
He suddenly regretted ordering Ping Shengchao and the others to leave— He should’ve told them to leave a pair of pants first!
He had previously been too careless as well, unexpectedly not noticing Qi Jingchen’s abnormal condition…
“I have heat-retaining pants underneath; the elasticity is good,” Qi Jingchen said. He had lived in the countryside since childhood. There was no heater or air conditioner there and the temperature outdoors and indoors would be identical, so he was used to wearing long inner pants. Now, since the weather was already so cold, he had subconsciously added a warm, second pair of pants for himself.
Finally, Qi Jingchen took off his heat-retaining pants and gave them to Nie Yi while he put his outer pants back on, then continued sitting on the floor.
He knew very well that his current condition was awful.
Spiritual strength was unpredictable and fundamentally was only used to control abilities. But when Nie Yi had overused his ability, he had somehow used his spiritual strength to create an opening in the ice layer encasing him; even his finger had begun bleeding by his will.
It seemed that the usages of spiritual strength were far more than he had imagined. Unfortunately, because of that event, his spiritual strength was depleted and had yet to replenish itself.
This was fine, but though he had only given Nie Yi some blood, his whole body felt an involuntary, deep sense of exhaustion. Now, he hated that he couldn’t sleep immediately; he could barely keep his eyes open.
Moments before, he could still forcibly act spirited, but now he wasn’t quite able to hold on.
Seeing that Nie Yi was wearing the pants, Qi Jingchen said, “Carry me back!”
Immediately after, Nie Yi picked Qi Jingchen up. Once Qi Jingchen was picked up and resting on his body, he closed his eyes and his breathing evened out in an instant.
Had Qi Jingchen fallen asleep?
Regardless of whether it was Qi Jingchen smiling, Qi Jingchen flustered, Qi Jingchen slowly taking off his pants in front of him, or Qi Jingchen letting him carry him right now, all of Qi Jingchen was very attractive. But when Nie Yi saw his exhaustion, he only felt distress. At the same time, his hatred for those who had ambushed him grew.
Qi Jingchen clearly was unable to bear it anymore!
He didn’t know if it was simply his perception, but Nie Yi felt the person in his embrace was a little lighter… The warming fireball he had created was placed in Qi Jingchen’s lap, and Nie Yi swiftly headed down the mountain.
He had sustained heavy injuries, but now he was completely recovered. Aside from some extremely delicate areas of skin, his other aspects had even improved to some extent.
But his ability…
Nie Yi used his spiritual strength to look at the ability nucleus in his mind again. He saw that it was still a single gray ability nucleus, and he was still completely unable to mobilise its energy.
He also did not know what happened with this ability… Nie Yi’s brows were tightly knit, but they relaxed before long.
A problem arose in Qi Jingchen’s health, and he and Qi Jingchen had been ambushed this time… He had many matters to manage, and didn’t currently have time to investigate his ability nucleus.
Thinking of this, Nie Yi’s speed increased, and finally, he caught up to Ping Shengchao and company.
“Boss!”
“Nie shao!”
When Ping Shengchao and the others saw Nie Yi, they all greeted him, veneration in their eyes.
They were tormented into exhaustion merely by facing a large fire, yet Nie Yi was still fine after facing such severe explosions; he was even able to prevent Qi Jingchen from suffering a single injury. What kind of sorcery was this?
The stronger Nie Yi was, the safer they would be… these people looked at Nie Yi with excitement, even ignoring Nie Yi’s bald head and his skintight pants— The black warmth-retaining pants that were rather loose on Qi Jingchen became skintight when Nie Yi put them on…
“Let’s hurry up and return.” Nie Yi nodded lightly at these people.
They had originally slowed down due to their fatigue, but immediately quickened their footsteps upon hearing Nie Yi’s words. “Yes!”
In the Chenguang Team camp, nobody slept that night.
Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen were on the exploding mountain and most likely had perished. This made many people panic, especially the survivors rescued in the past few days.
They had only just seen some hope, but suddenly hearing such grievous news, they all began crying.
Xu Yehui looked at the terrified people around him, his expression extremely grave.
“Dad, Nie Yi will be fine, right? He’s so amazing; he’ll definitely be fine, right?” Xu Qiuyu tugged at her father’s sleeves, wanting to get a definite answer.
However, Xu Yehui had always been very pragmatic. “How could he be fine? Level three zombies are powerful, yet doesn’t a hole appear with each shot that hits them? At most, it’s just they may survive even if their head is shot. No matter how strong Nie Yi was, he still won’t be able to survive those explosions. Perhaps he won’t even leave a corpse.”
“That can’t be, Nie Yi won’t die!” Xu Qiuyu couldn’t help but say, then cursed indignantly, “It’s all because of that damned Qi Jingchen. If it weren’t for him, how could Nie Yi have wanted to go to the mountaintop so late at night? Why can’t he just die sooner?”
“Don’t think about Nie Yi anymore,” Xu Yehui said. “We should think about what to do now. Nie Yi is very strong, and can be considered the pillar of the Chenguang Team. If he were to die, this team might also collapse. We must make preparations early.”
Xu Yehui’s ideas gained Qiu Tong’s agreement, and the two began preparing.
Aside from using some of it to exchange for information, they did not take a single bite of the 25kg of husked rice Qi Jingchen had given them. Now, they divided the rice into bagged portions and hid some in various locations on their bodies, then packed the rest into packages.
If the Chenguang Team didn’t fall into chaos, they would continue following the Chenguang battle squadron. If it did, they could run off at the first signs of trouble with their supplies.
There were few who were ‘far-sighted’ like Xu Yehui. Currently, most people were very worried. Of course, some of them weren’t worried at all. One such person was Qi An.
Yesterday, when the fire appeared in the mountains, Qi An had initially followed along as well. Later, he even covered himself with a drenched blanket and teleported, wishing to go up the mountain to find Qi Jingchen and Nie Yi. In the end, he teleported several times yet still was caught in the fire. Although his body was fine, his legs were already burnt.
After noticing this, Qi An thought of something else.
He currently wasn’t able to teleport while taking along an adult man. At most, he could only bring along a child like Xiaomao!
When he thought of this, Qi An simply returned to the camp.
“Qi An, do you think Nie shao and Qi shao will be fine?” Because her belly was too large, Mu Yi could not wear women’s jackets and now covered herself with a large-sized army cloak; her face was currently filled with worry.
“They’re definitely fine.” Qi An said. “The boss is so great, so how could anything happen?”
Mu Yi looked at Qi An and pursed her lips. She knew that Qi An blindly worshipped Qi Jingchen and felt that Qi Jingchen could do anything, but she was not as optimistic.
Qi Jingchen had not even awakened yet. In such a great fire, would they really be fine?
Outside, a few members of the Chenguang Team were also discussing. “Will Nie shao be fine?”
“Nie shao will definitely be fine. Don’t overthink it!” Someone at the side instantly piped up.
“That’s right! Nie shao is so amazing; nothing could ever happen!” It wasn’t just Qi An who would blindly believe in other people.
“Nie shao was definitely plotted against. Regardless of how Nie shao is, we must avenge him!” someone else said loudly.
For a time, these people’s morale was greatly boosted.
Right at this time, Nie Yi returned.
“Everyone, pack up your supplies right away. Prepare to set off!” Nie Yi said, then immediately took Qi Jingchen into the RV.
“I just knew the boss would definitely be fine!” Qi An hugged Xiaomao and followed Nie Yi into the RV.
When they all entered the RV, the people outside finally realised that Nie Yi had returned and couldn’t help but cheer— Nie Yi was fine!
However, Nie Yi’s current appearance was a little strange – he was bald, wearing skin-tight pants, naked above the waist, and had a woollen overcoat…
Of course, since it’s Nie shao; even if he was wearing beggar’s clothing, he would still be very handsome!
Most of the Chenguang Team members had only taken necessities off the truck, so naturally, they were very quick packing up and preparing to set off. That’s not mentioning the fact that Ping Shengchao had already brought people back and started to make arrangements.
“I’ve suffered some injuries, so the situation here will be handed to you to plan for the time being. We’ll leave this place first.” Nie Yi said to Ping Shengchao. “Oh, right, have doctors come here to check up on Jingchen.”
It had already been some time since he had returned, but he hadn’t even changed his clothes yet because he was truly too concerned about Qi Jingchen’s condition.
After Qi Jingchen had fallen asleep in his arms, he never woke up!
Nie Yi inspected Qi Jingchen several times with his spiritual strength, but couldn’t find anything wrong. He could only call the doctors in the squad over to assist with an examination.
They were unable to take a blood test or perform ultrasonography, and Qi Jingchen had no visible external injuries. Mother Ping and the other western doctor could not figure out his condition. After the Chinese doctor took Qi Jingchen’s pulse, he said, “His health is very frail, and he has some symptoms of anemia. He needs to be nursed well.”
Hearing ‘anemia’, a trace of hatred flashed through Nie Yi’s eyes. He took a couple of deep breaths to steady his breathing. “I understand.”
“How did Boss become anemic? Is he hurt?” The more anxious one in the RV, Qi An, was squeezed into a corner, but he still kept a constant eye on Qi Jingchen’s state.
“It’s my fault…” Nie Yi did not respond to Qi An. After sending the doctors out of the car, he then said, “Have Xiaomao take out blood-enriching medication.” During the journey, they had gathered a lot of medicine, and Xiaomao had a portion of each of those medications.
Nie Yi held Qi Jingchen, his gaze resting on Qi Jingchen and unwilling to move away for even a second. It was after he couldn’t wait any longer for Qi An to bring the medicine over that he turned his head back, then realised that Xiaomao was taking all kinds of medication out. After Qi An confirmed that they weren’t blood-enriching, they would return it to her space. It repeated like this for several loops…
They looked for a very long time, and finally found a health product gift box.
The gift box had quotes on it like ‘great benefits for women’, but the medicine truly was blood-enriching. Nie Yi took out a bottle of liquid medication and unscrewed the lid before supporting Qi Jingchen’s head, then slowly poured some into Qi Jingchen’s mouth.
Qi Jingchen, who had been lying down, suddenly opened his mouth and turned his head to the side before throwing up with a nauseous sound.
He vomited all the blood-enriching medicine Nie Yi had fed him, then opened his eyes. “Nie Yi, are you making me nauseous on purpose?” He leaned against the pillow, his face morbidly pale, and appeared even more pitiful after he furrowed his brows.
Nie Yi had been too anxious just now and forgot that Qi Jingchen couldn’t eat just anything. Of course, this was also because Qi Jingchen’s current state had been improving and he was not so picky when eating anymore.
“Jingchen, I’m sorry. I was too impatient… You have anemia,” Nie Yi said.
“Get me some jujubes.” When Qi Jingchen saw Nie Yi’s worried expression, he spoke with slow blinks.
Xiaomao also had jujubes, and she recalled this. Very soon, she took out a packet of dried jujubes and let Qi An bring them to Qi Jingchen. But when Qi Jingchen pulled at the package, he unexpectedly couldn’t open it.
Seeing this, Nie Yi’s heart sank. He opened the package for Qi Jingchen, then took out a jujube and brought it to Qi Jingchen’s lips.
Qi Jingchen chewed very slowly, and took a long time before he stopped chewing. Seeing this, Nie Yi immediately reached his hand out.
Qi Jingchen looked at the hand by his mouth and spat the jujube pit out before saying, “That bomb’s location is very ingenious and it couldn’t be sensed by spiritual strength. It isn’t something that should exist at present.”
“This plant ability user was probably taken away by someone already.”
“Back in J City, the researchers General Sun found managed to escape most likely because someone had been helping too.”
After Qi Jingchen said these words, he relaxed and slowly shut his eyes, not even bothering with the second jujube Nie Yi passed over.
Nie Yi’s heart felt pain as though it were twined by thorny brambles. The hatred in his eyes also became increasingly deep.
He and Qi Jingchen were both very cautious people; Qi Jingchen’s spiritual strength was also very powerful, and they were used to observing their surroundings at all times.
Although their ‘observations’ were mainly targeted around zombies and various living things and couldn’t clearly sense things such as bombs, as long as they ‘saw’ those common bombs, they would definitely discover them.
However, this time they didn’t notice at all until the door was opened; only then did they realise something was wrong!
Such a bomb was specifically prepared for them and the creators were hoping that they would walk right into the trap and explode until they didn’t even leave behind bones!
That inn’s surroundings had luscious vegetation and the cover of the lawn. Perhaps it was also to cover up traces of the explosives being set up, and this was definitely the style of that plant ability user… Nie Yi currently did not know who planted the bombs, but that plant ability user was already engraved in his memories.
“Nie Yi, what in the world is wrong with Boss?” Qi An couldn’t help but ask.
“You also shouldn’t spend all day circling around Jingchen. If you’re so free, you might as well train your space ability!” Nie Yi looked at Qi An. “Aside from Yu Xuguang, I fear that there are others who were also reborn.”
If someone else hadn’t been reborn, how could such a trap have been created? What Qi Jingchen said was right; those who disappeared in the research institute of J City secure base were probably also taken away.
Though Yu Xuguang was reborn, Nie Yi didn’t care much because he was truly too simple-minded. He could be seen through in one glance, and wouldn’t hinder them greatly; that hidden reborn person, however, was different!
That person… perhaps also knew that they were also reborn, and had guessed Qi Jingchen’s identity…
This time they had been caught in an ambush. Although they were injured, it wasn’t only a loss. At least they were now aware, and could be more alert going forward!
In the future… he must chop that person up into thousands of pieces!