Testing Each Other

"After the plane crashed, I didn't know how I survived either. So I kept fleeing toward your home. I knew I had an ability too, but I had no idea how to use it. But when I woke up that day, I found... found..."

"Mm!" Lin Xian shot her a fierce glare. Kiki trembled all over in fright and said tearfully, "After I heard that you saved Sister Chen, you said you wanted to sleep with her, and then you mentioned some Infinite Train Project. It sounded especially awful, so I thought you were... one of those scumbags who deliberately tricked women during the apocalypse, so..."

Lin Xian looked at her impassively.

"So you were afraid that, instead of finding someone to save you, you'd stumbled into a den of wolves. That's why you pretended to be unconscious and waited for a chance to ambush me?"

Kiki nodded, then quickly shook her head again. With the cold blade before her, her gaze darted away as she stammered, "I-I-I didn't want to ambush you. I had no choice. But think about it—I'd just gone through a disaster, and when I woke up, I saw you up to no good. Of course I was scared..."

In the apocalypse, one could never let down one's guard. Lin Xian was like that, and so was Kiki. After waking up, she had originally wanted to talk things through with Lin Xian, but she happened to catch him trying something funny with her.

So she had taken Lin Xian for a complete and utter pervert. In her panic, she simply kept pretending to be unconscious, waiting for an opportunity to make other plans...

But who would have thought that after Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan got off the train, before she had even finished half a piece of bread, Lin Xian, with his Mechanical Heart ability, caught her red-handed.

"Then that works out perfectly."

Lin Xian suddenly said, "Since you don't know how to use your ability either, doesn't that make keeping you even more useless?!"

The logic was complete.

As he spoke, he slowly placed the short knife against Kiki's neck. Her face changed drastically, and she shut her eyes as she said, "D-Don't, don't be impulsive. We can talk this out properly."

Kiki slowly opened one eye. Seeing Lin Xian's vicious expression, she immediately squeezed it shut again and hurriedly said, "Don't kill me. Keep me around—if we run into danger, my ability could give you an extra safeguard. Besides, my life is already in your hands, isn't it?"

Lin Xian's eyes narrowed. Seeing that the girl had told the truth, he relaxed inwardly. With life and death on the line, if she truly knew how to use that powerful ability, how could she have let him threaten her like this all along?

Having figured that out, Lin Xian let out a breath.

"You have a point."

Screech~

The wheels turned, and the Infinite slowly started moving again.

When Kiki saw Lin Xian lower his knife, the heart she had been holding in her throat finally settled. She looked at him. "So... can we make peace?"

Make peace?

Why did it sound like kids playing house? Lin Xian laughed inwardly. This girl was truly hard to figure out.

Lin Xian looked at her meaningfully.

"I'll have to consider it."

"Okay, okay, okay!" Kiki's expression changed, then she suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. "If you keep me, I really can help you!"

"However..."

Before Kiki could rejoice, Lin Xian suddenly grabbed her again. Wearing a strange smile, he dragged her toward Carriage 1.

Caught off guard, Kiki's face went pale as she cried out, "Hey... what are you doing?"

"Guess!" Lin Xian's expression was loaded with meaning.

Kiki panicked. "Hey, hey, hey, I said we made peace! I really was wrong. I didn't want to hurt you. You can't bully me..."

"I don't see it that way."

"Wait, I'm really underage..."

"Doesn't matter."

"No, no! Actually, I'm a guy! Look, I don't even have a chest. I'm not interesting to you, and besides, you already have that sister, so don't bully me."

"I'm not picky."

"Oh, right, I have an ability—did you forget? What if I accidentally let it out and hurt you?"

"If that happens, you should thank me for helping awaken your ability."

Inside Carriage 1, Lin Xian added two more ropes around Kiki's hands and feet, tied her up tightly, and tossed her onto the sofa. Then he declared loudly, "You reminded me just in time. Since your ability erupts whenever you're in danger, I can just use you as a shield at critical moments. And since you have a history of slipping free and ambushing me, I have no choice but to tie on a few extra layers to be safe, so you can't try anything."

"You're despicable! You bastard!" Kiki struggled.

Lin Xian held up a roll of stinky socks. "If you keep yapping like this, don't blame me for stuffing these in your mouth."

Kiki was furious, her face cycling between red and pale. Though she had temporarily relaxed after realizing Lin Xian did not truly intend to "bully" her, this hateful bastard had tied her up just so he could use her as a human shield??

It was too despicable, too awful!

But she was at his mercy now and no match for Lin Xian. Seeing him raise those stinky socks, she could only fall silent. Then she glared at him with eyes blazing with anger, secretly plotting how she would teach him a proper lesson someday.

"If you keep glaring at me, you'll sleep with the zombies tonight," Lin Xian said coldly when he saw her unconvinced expression.

At the mention of zombies, Kiki reflexively shrank her neck. Intimidated by his tyranny, she fell silent. Only after a long while did she finally murmur in a voice as faint as a mosquito's, "Why are you being so mean? Then what if I need to use the bathroom..."

Lin Xian suddenly smiled. "You should be asking yourself that. You still haven't told me—how did you manage to hold out for three days without eating or using the toilet?"

"You weren't here the night before last. I waited until that sister fell asleep, then got up to eat and use the toilet."

"What about last night?"

Kiki shot him an annoyed look, her gaze darting away. "You were too tired last night. I waited until both of you were asleep before getting up..."

Lin Xian frowned. "If I hadn't noticed, were you planning to keep sleeping like that forever?"

"Not exactly." Kiki squirmed. "I was going to confess to you today, but I got hungry again, and you all happened to be gone..."

Lin Xian: ...

18:45. The sun set, and night shrouded the sky.

The "Infinite" slowly came to a stop atop a railway bridge spanning a mountain ravine. After leaving Yushan Station, aside from one brief stop along the way, Lin Xian had driven the train at full speed for nearly two hours. Heat billowed through the entire train, but the increasingly fierce wind and snow soon brought the temperature back down.

The temperature had dropped to minus three degrees Celsius. Wind and snow arrived without warning, and mist began to form on the carriage windows.

Chen Sixuan pulled down the Light Shields in every carriage and shut the Cockpit door. Beyond the train lay a dark mountain valley, and looking up, they could see only the faint outlines of mountain ranges.

Inside Carriage 1, Chen Sixuan stared strangely at the tightly bound Kiki.

"She'd been pretending to sleep the whole time?"

"That's right." Lin Xian glanced at Chen Sixuan. "We were both careless. Last night, someone got to watch a live show."

"I didn't!"

Kiki retorted, her little face flushed red. "I-I-I kept my eyes closed the whole time. I didn't see anything."

Chen Sixuan's face instantly turned crimson at that. If it had only been her and Lin Xian, no matter how embarrassing it was, she would have merely considered it two people huddling together for warmth in the apocalypse. But now there was a third person—and that person had seen them. Even with her shattered values, she felt intensely embarrassed.

Thinking of this, she gritted her teeth and glared at Kiki with faint anger. "Why were you pretending to sleep? If we hadn't taken care of you these past two days, you'd have died long ago."

"I was just..."

Kiki gave Lin Xian a strange look. "I just misunderstood this bad guy."

After thinking it over, I made a slight adjustment to this little section of the plot. I hope everyone will point out any issues.