Tea and Satellite

The chill from the cold wall of the entryway seeped through Su Wanqing's thin silk loungewear, but it was nothing compared to the soul-freezing terror that gripped her heart. She leaned against the wall, her body trembling uncontrollably. Half of the fallen facial mask dangled comically on her face, revealing a pale, bloodless half of her cheek. Her ink-black eyes, once filled with shrewdness and detachment, were now hollow and unfocused, as if all their spirit had been drained. All that remained was the bewildered ruin of a shattered perception, fixed intently on Ling Ye's tattered cloth bag, which looked as though it might fall apart at any moment.

Inside... was a monster capable of destroying the world! The thought coiled around her heart like a cold, venomous snake.

Ling Ye finally turned around slowly, as if just remembering the terrified homeowner behind him. He glanced at Su Wanqing's paper-white face, then down at his own soaked, dripping burlap robe and equally sodden cloth bag. Finally, his gaze swept over the torrential rain outside, which still hung in the sky like a reversed celestial river, roaring incessantly.

A silent sigh echoed in his heart. His first day of retirement as a salted fish, and finding a dry place to lounge was proving harder than finding a quiet reef in the chaotic sea.

"Hey," Ling Ye's voice was laced with a sleepy laziness, not loud, but sharp as a needle, easily piercing the deathly silence of the entryway and forcibly yanking Su Wanqing's scattered, terrified gaze back to his unremarkable face. "Are you still letting people in?" He paused, his gaze naturally sweeping over the incredibly soft and thick pure white wool carpet in the luxurious foyer behind Su Wanqing, adding in a tone of "I'm not asking for much," "Or, a towel would be fine too? My clothes are wet, it's a bit... sticky."

"Sticky..."

Su Wanqing's lips moved with difficulty, producing a dry syllable. Her mind was a chaotic mess of fear, absurdity, an instinctive craving for that strange tea aroma, and the man's unbelievable "request"... Emotions swirled together like an overturned paint bucket. She instinctively wanted to refuse, to scream at him to get lost, as far away from her and this house as possible! But deep within her body, every cell craved the powerful, nourishing aroma from moments ago. That craving even overshadowed the fear in her soul.

Her gaze, involuntarily, with a tremor of near-pleading that she couldn't understand, fell upon the open seam of Ling Ye's cloth bag—that unassuming, cracked, dark purple clay teapot.

Ling Ye followed her gaze and looked down, as if just remembering he had something in his bag. He casually extended two fingers into the gap in the cloth bag, his movements as light as if he were pulling out a crumpled tissue.

"Oh, thirsty?" he muttered, as if to himself, or perhaps responding to Su Wanqing's silent plea. His fingers hooked the rough edge of the pot lid and applied a slight force.

"Pop."

A faint sound, almost drowned out by the rain, and the lid of the teapot was lifted a crack.

This time, there was no overwhelming, world-filling burst of exotic fragrance like before. But a more restrained, richer, and gentler tea aroma, as if it had condensed the essence of countless eons, flowed out from the gap like a trickling stream.

This fragrance was no longer overbearing, but deeper. It carried a gentle inclusiveness, a vitality that nourished all things, a clarity that cleansed the dust of the soul. It spread silently, instantly dispelling the suffocating pressure and fear left in the entryway by the two terrifying items, like spring wind melting snow.

Su Wanqing felt a warm current surge from her nasal cavity, instantly spreading to every limb and bone. Her body, stiff and cold from extreme fear and dampness, felt as though it were bathing in a spring of life, every pore sighing in comfort. The fatigue vanished, and her chaotic thoughts, washed clean by the pure spring water, became unprecedentedly clear and stable. The craving from the deepest part of her being was completely satisfied by this gentle tea aroma, even bringing a sense of blissful euphoria.

The scream that was about to escape her throat was forcefully blocked by the warm current, transforming into a long, satisfied, trembling gasp. Her body relaxed involuntarily. Though still leaning against the wall, her tensed muscles softened, and the fear in her eyes was replaced by immense comfort and a hint of bewilderment.

"..." She looked at Ling Ye, her mouth opening, but no sound came out. The man before her, and his tattered bag, became even more contradictory and mysterious in her mind. On one hand, a terrifying weapon capable of destroying the world; on the other, a divine elixir that could heal the soul, produced with such casualness... This stark contrast completely robbed her of her judgment.

Ling Ye paid no attention to her inner turmoil. He continued to pinch the small lid of the purple clay teapot with two fingers, shaking it casually as if testing the temperature of the tea. Then, he looked up, his gaze falling again on Su Wanqing's pale face, his brow twitching almost imperceptibly.

"Cold has entered your body, your spirit is unstable." His voice was still calm, as if stating an objective fact. His gaze lingered on her face for a moment, as if he could see through her skin to something deeper. "Tsk, this generation of mortals has a rather weak foundation." His tone held a hint of undisguised disdain.

Before Su Wanqing could even process his words, she saw Ling Ye's hand, holding the cloth bag, casually wave towards her, as if dusting off something.

There was no light, no sound, no sign of any energy fluctuation.

But the moment he waved his hand, an extremely faint, yet indescribably pure warm current, mixed with the gentle tea aroma, was precisely propelled by an invisible hand. It instantly crossed the few steps between them, silently entering Su Wanqing's brow!

"Ngh!"

Su Wanqing felt an indescribable warm power surge into her mind, like the winter sun instantly dispelling all gloom and cold. Her temples, which had been aching from the shock, instantly soothed. The residual feeling of soul-tearing fear receded like a tide, leaving only a warm comfort and a sense of... unprecedented "completeness." She could even clearly "feel" an invisible "qi" within her body becoming docile and smooth under the guidance of this warm current.

She subconsciously raised her hand to cover her forehead, feeling the strange warmth, her eyes filled with disbelief and shock. What... what kind of technique was this?!

Ling Ye, however, acted as if he had merely flicked away an annoying fly. Having done so, his gaze returned to the half-open door and the pouring rain outside, as if seriously considering whether to wait for the rain to stop inside or simply squat under an eave for less trouble.

Just then, high above the city, beyond the heavy rain clouds.

A high-resolution military satellite belonging to a top-secret department, codenamed "Sky Eye-7," quietly adjusted its orbit and focus. Its powerful synthetic aperture radar and infrared/spectral composite sensor array ignored the obstruction of clouds and rain, like a cold eye of God, precisely locking onto the brightly lit villa on the mountainside of Yunqi Mountain below—Su Wanqing's home.

The satellite's powerful scanning beam pierced the rain curtain, silently enveloping the villa area. The villa's structure, heat distribution, and even the unusually blooming Ancient Orchid in the courtyard, which emitted a life heat radiation far beyond the norm, were all captured, magnified, and analyzed in the form of data streams.

However, when the scanning beam reached the entryway area of the villa—

"Zzzzz--!!!"

A sharp, piercing alarm instantly sounded in the satellite's ground control center! The data stream representing the entryway on all monitoring screens instantly turned into a chaotic mess of violently flickering random snow!

"Report! High-intensity unknown energy field interference detected in the target area! Optical imaging failed! Infrared imaging failed! Radar echo distortion rate 99.8%! Energy readings... readings..." The technician monitoring the screen watched the wildly fluctuating energy curve graph, which instantly surged to the instrument's design limit before directly overloading and melting down. His voice was distorted by extreme shock, "Unable to read! Exceeds detection limit! Repeat! Exceeds detection limit! Interference source... suspected to be one of the two humanoid targets in the entryway! But cannot pinpoint precisely!"

The control center fell into a dead silence, broken only by the shrill alarm of the instruments and the heavy breathing of everyone present. On the satellite image, the small area representing the villa's entryway had become a bottomless, pitch-black void that swallowed all detection signals.

The satellite commander's face turned ashen. He grabbed the encrypted communicator, his voice hoarse, " 'Dragon Abyss' Command! This is 'Sky Eye'! Target energy field intensity abnormal! Preliminary judgment... judged to be 'Planetary-level'! Repeat! Planetary-level energy readings! Interference source unknown! Requesting next instructions!"

There was a few seconds of silence from the other end of the communicator, then a colder, more solemn voice replied, "Continue monitoring! Maintain highest alert! 'Dragon Tooth' has been dispatched! Until contact assessment is complete, no one is to approach within three kilometers of the target area! Absolutely prohibit any form of active probing stimulation! This is an absolute order!"

"Understood!" The satellite commander's voice was dry, cold sweat beading on his forehead. He stared intently at the patch of pitch-black void on the screen, representing the unknown and the terrifying, his heart pounding.

Planetary-level... This wasn't an Anomaly anymore... This was a walking, humanoid natural disaster!

And in the entryway of the Yunqi Mountain villa.

Ling Ye slightly raised his head as if sensing something, his gaze seeming to penetrate the thick roof and layers of rain clouds, glancing at the "little toy" in its cold orbit. He pouted, with a hint of annoyance at being disturbed.

"Tsk, noisy."