The Third Rebirth (REBIRTH)
After the people from Ephemera left, the three of them re-entered the Pharmaceutical Research Institute.
Just as A Jiu had said, only a pile of equipment remained inside, and the shelves in the data room were completely empty.
In the end, they found a stack of documents in a safe in one of the offices. Since none of them were professionals and couldn’t make sense of the chaotic data, they decided to take the documents back to the vehicle and bring them all the way to District Five.
From the time they returned from the Pharmaceutical Research Institute until the next evening, Ye Xiao’s mood was off. Even while drinking sweet milk, he would zone out. Even Jiang Cancan, whose nerves were as thick as tree trunks, quietly went to Ling Chen to ask if he had bullied their little friend.
Seeing Ye Xiao staring blankly at the small wooden rabbit hanging on his scabbard, Ling Chen gave Jiang Cancan a meaningful look. Jiang Cancan, catching the signal, saluted with two fingers pressed to his temple, then pulled Jiang Mu and Jian Lan out of the vehicle like rabbits, even closing the door behind them.
Once everyone was gone, Ling Chen pulled Ye Xiao onto his lap, sitting face to face with him, and asked, “Is our Little Fuzzball feeling down?”
Ye Xiao hesitated for two seconds before tentatively raising his arms to wrap them around Ling Chen’s neck, his voice muffled, “Yeah, I’m not happy.”
He rested his head on Ling Chen’s shoulder, feeling the warmth radiating from the other man, and slowly relaxed.
Ling Chen, who usually had a short temper and preferred solving things with brute force while exuding an aura of sharp ferocity, softened his voice whenever he was with Ye Xiao. He kissed Ye Xiao’s hair and asked, “Why is our Little Fuzzball unhappy? Is it because of the encounter with Ephemera earlier?”
“Yeah,” Ye Xiao tightened his arms around Ling Chen’s neck and his voice unconsciously tinged with grievance, “…I don’t know how to explain it.”
He had no idea how to describe his feelings, just like he couldn’t express himself when facing Ling Chen. After thinking for a long time, he finally managed to say, “A Jiu is someone I knew in Silver Blade. They’re all going to die.”
Ling Chen understood what Ye Xiao was saying. His eyelids twitched a few times, and his usually rock-solid composure wavered. “Wasn’t their experiment successful? What about you?”
“Because of rejection, the transplanted genes were rejected.” Seeing Ling Chen’s concern, Ye Xiao shook his head, “It won’t happen to me. I underwent three experiments in Silver Blade, and none of them succeeded.”
He recalled carefully, “At the time, I was under anesthesia, but I vaguely heard someone say that my body rejected the entry of other genes, making fusion impossible. They tried three times and then gave up because I still won every fight and was still useful.”
“Our Ye Xiao is that amazing?” Ling Chen coaxed, then reached out to open the communicator and added a small red flower next to Ye Xiao’s name in the team channel. “This is your reward.”
The two of them sat close together, and Ye Xiao, who rarely spoke much, talked about A Jiu, the monotonous training in Silver Blade, and whatever came to mind. But in the Silver Blade training base, he rarely interacted with others and had no friends. In the end, he could only recall the faces of three or four people.
Ling Chen had never been skilled at comforting others.
In the past, he would just drag someone out and beat them up to solve the problem. But facing the Little Fuzzball leaning against him and clumsily trying to act spoiled, Ling Chen didn’t even think about dragging him out for a beating. He was even afraid of holding him too tightly and hurting him.
In the end, he decided to peel a candy and feed it to Ye Xiao, but not without teasing him first, "Do you want the Captain to feed you like before?"
Ye Xiao softly hummed in agreement.
Ling Chen, with the orange-flavored candy between his teeth, pressed his lips against Ye Xiao's cool ones, with the candy moving back and forth between their mouths.
After a while, Ling Chen used his thumb to wipe away the moisture that had spilled from the corner of Ye Xiao's mouth while smiling gently, "Tonight's midnight snack is orange-flavored."
The next morning, Ye Xiao woke up in the car to find himself hugging Ling Chen's black combat uniform jacket with its owner already gone. He shook out the jacket before he draped it over himself, and prepared to get out of the car, but he froze when he opened the door.
It had snowed outside with the branches piled with thick layers of snow and a vast expanse of white.
Ling Chen walked over before he effortlessly lifted Ye Xiao out of the car, then zipped up his jacket and helped him put on the camouflage half-finger gloves. "Awake? It snowed last night, are you cold?"
"Not cold." The collar of the jacket was turned up, covering his jaw, leaving only half of his nose and eyes visible. Ling Chen looked at Ye Xiao like this and suddenly felt a strange sense of familiarity.
Ye Xiao lowered his head to look at the white snow on the ground with his eyes sparkling as he carefully stepped on it a couple of times. Ling Chen ruffled his hair, speaking lightly, "Never seen snow before?"
"Never." Ye Xiao stepped on the snow a few more times, clearly delighted.
Seeing that Ye Xiao was so captivated by the snow that he couldn't even walk properly, Ling Chen took his hand, "Come on, the Captain will show you something."
Walking around the front of the car to the other side of the Sabertooth Tiger, there stood a snowman half a person tall that was meticulously crafted.
Ye Xiao blinked as he took a couple of steps forward, and gently touched the snow-made Long Blade, his voice stammering, "Is this... me?"
Ling Chen, with his hands in his pockets, leaned lazily against the car window. Watching Ye Xiao circle the snowman with a look of wonder, a smile tugged at his lips, "Yes, it's you." He raised an eyebrow, "Holding the Long Blade in the left hand, with a bandage on the right wrist, who else could be this cool but our Ye Xiao?"
Ye Xiao's face flushed with excitement.
It was his first time seeing a snowman, and one made to look like him at that. He was so thrilled that Ling Chen ended up bringing his breakfast over, and he ate it next to the snowman.
Jiang Cancan spooned the fried rice with cured ham into his mouth nd watching the old man show off his affection from afar, "If someone had told Can Ye before that one day, our Chen Ge would get up at four or five in the morning just to build a snowman for his beloved, I would have smashed his head!"
He changed to a tone of admiration, "Love, it makes people rise early! Our Chen Ge is truly not the same Chen Ge anymore! Speaking of which, when I got up in the middle of the night to pee, I ran into Chen Ge and thought it was a ghost!"
Jian Lan raised an eyebrow, "Oh ho, Can Can, I've noticed you've been getting up a lot at night lately, is your kidney not doing so well?"
Jiang Cancan waved his fist, "Bro, for a man, saying his kidney is bad is the biggest insult, second only to being short and soft!"
Jian Lan smiled, "Why wave your fist, you can't even beat me in arm wrestling."
Jiang Cancan quickly retracted his hand—damn, that was the biggest insult!
After breakfast, they prepared to set off.
This time, Jiang Cancan and Jian Lan were unusually in sync as they stared wide-eyed as Ling Chen placed the snowman on top of the vehicle. Ye Xiao followed behind while holding his long blade and his smile brighter than the snow.
The rugged armored vehicle paired with a short, stubby snowman created a rather peculiar scene.
Jiang Cancan nudged Jian Lan with his elbow, "You should take notes for future reference when you start dating."
Jian Lan agreed, "This move is really something!"
Although they had been single for so many years, one should still have dreams!
After securing the snowman, Ling Chen patted Ye Xiao's head, "Whatever other little friends have, our Ye Xiao will have too."
Ye Xiao nodded with a smile, "Yes!"
However, Ling Chen never worked for free and took the opportunity to ask for a favor, "How about a kiss for your captain?"
With his ears red, Ye Xiao directly pecked Ling Chen on the lips.
Ling Chen chuckled softly, before suddenly remembering that when he first taught Ye Xiao what a kiss was, he had only kissed his lips. So, in Ye Xiao's mind, "a kiss" meant kissing the lips.
Hmm, very cute.
This time, Ling Chen was driving, and Ye Xiao sat in the passenger seat while leaning against the window to watch the snowy scenery.
Jiang Cancan held the Desert Scorpion and cleaning the barrel while asking Ling Chen, "Chen Ge, have you noticed that the further we go, the heavier the snow seems to get? D Zone is really strange; it's still summer outside, but here it's already snowing heavily."
Jiang Mu fiddled with the instruments and reported the data, "The temperature outside has dropped to minus five degrees Celsius, and it's still daytime. It should be even colder at night."
Ling Chen kept his eyes on the road with his fingers lightly tapping the steering wheel as he asked Jiang Mu, "How far have we traveled?"
"One-third of the way. We should reach the border of Zone Five in about five to six days."
"Mm," Ling Chen looked at the heavy snow outside with his tone tinged with concern, "If the snow accumulates too much, the vehicle won't be able to move."
Their worries were justified.
Because after three hours, the snow was so heavy that it almost blocked their vision.
Not daring to drive further, Ling Chen followed the route Jiang Mu pointed out and drove the vehicle to the base of a cliff, using the naturally protruding rock to shield them from the heavy snow and strong wind.
They lit a fire between the cliff and the armored vehicle. Jiang Cancan performed a set of martial arts moves to warm up while muttering, "I remember one time when I was on a mission with Chen Ge, we also encountered such heavy snow. We were stuck in the snow for two whole days, and that bastard on the other side was really stubborn, refusing to show himself!"
Ye Xiao asked curiously, "What happened then?"
"Later, Chen Ge deliberately went out as bait to lure him out, and I shot him dead. When I got up, I was completely frozen, like an ice stick that could be sold with just a wrapper." Jiang Cancan sighed while holding a drink to replenish his energy, "That time, I really thought I wouldn't make it back. I even prepared my will and hoping the organization would give all the compensation to Xiao Mu so he could buy a new set of equipment."
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Cancan was smacked on the head by his younger brother. Before he could even feel wronged, Jiang Mu said coldly, "Shut up."
Jiang Cancan: "Oh, okay." He listened to his brother.
Jian Lan chimed in, "Every mission is dangerous. Our Second Division is like a brick that is always sent to the most dangerous places. The fact that I'm still alive feels like a miracle."
Jiang Cancan: "Speaking of which, aren't you the only child in your family? Five generations of single heirs, why are you so determined to join the Second Division?"
Jian Lan raised her chin, "Because it's cool!"
Ye Xiao, standing nearby, nodded repeatedly in agreement.
The snow was getting heavier, and the wind blowing from all directions felt like knives on their faces.
Ling Chen held Ye Xiao in his arms and shielding him from the wind. He then pulled out a nail clipper from somewhere and meticulously trimmed Ye Xiao's nails, striving to shape each nail into a perfect arc.
Seeing this, Jian Lan couldn't help but comment, "Actually, among us, Chen Ge probably has the worst case of OCD. He used to fold everything he saw into neat little blocks, with perfectly aligned corners. It's seriously toxic!"
Ling Chen glanced at her, "Would you like to experience being folded into a neat little block yourself?"
Jian Lan exaggeratedly recoiled while waving her hands, "I decline that offer! I thought you had become a bit gentler, Chen Ge, but you're still as ruthless as ever!"
Ye Xiao earnestly chimed in, "The Captain is very gentle."
Ling Chen lazily smiled and kissed the tip of Ye Xiao's ear, "Good boy." His tone and expression were indeed gentle.
Jian Lan and Jiang Cancan exchanged a look and simultaneously mimed vomiting and collapsing to the ground.
Ling Chen spoke to Ye Xiao, "See, this is why I once thought I wasn't the Grand Commander of the Second Division, but rather the leader of a comedy troupe."
At that moment, Jiang Cancan and Jian Lan, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly sat up with their smiles gone. Jian Lan pointed to the ground, "I heard a strange sound."
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