Getting Water

Aside from when she was too young to remember, Chen Xiyao could swear this was the first time in her life she'd ever [censored] in the open. Even worse, she had no idea how long she'd have to keep living like this.

Water trickled through the woods. Chen Xiyao wasn't blessed with "super hearing," but in that moment, in these woods so quiet they made her uneasy, she could almost clearly hear Feng Xue breathing not far away.

After quickly taking care of business, Chen Xiyao glanced at the leaves nearby, but in the end, she couldn't bring herself to use them. She could only take a packet of tissues from her pocket and carefully pull out one sheet. She even started wondering whether she should tear it in half.

For the first time in her life, Chen Xiyao found herself thinking she should use toilet paper sparingly. But whenever she imagined having to use leaves or even sticks once she ran out, she shuddered.

"Are you done?" Feng Xue's voice came from beyond the trees. Chen Xiyao quickly straightened her clothes, then gave a soft, barely audible hum of affirmation.

But the wilderness of the Infinite City was so quiet that even this faint response carried clearly. Feng Xue waited a moment, then spoke softly when Chen Xiyao came into view.

"Did you notice the thing about the sounds?"

"Yeah." Chen Xiyao nodded. "In the novels I've read, they always say that if the woods are too quiet, it means someone's lying in ambush..."

"That's usually true, but not in the Infinite City." Feng Xue shook his head. He took out his phone and checked the route to the river before explaining, "In the Infinite City, only two kinds of things make noise: humans and their tools, and Omens. You can think of Omens as monsters or something like that. The wilderness belongs to those monsters. In other words, if you hear anything strange from now on, whatever it is, stay alert. Hide if you can. If there's nowhere to hide, run straight for the wall."

"I'll remember." Chen Xiyao nodded firmly, immediately banishing her earlier embarrassment from her mind.

Survival came first. No shame in that!

The two of them walked for about three minutes. Then Feng Xue's ears twitched. The extraordinary perception granted by his [Keen] element let him immediately notice a subtle change in the air. When she saw him stop, Chen Xiyao halted too, held her breath, and quietly waited for his next move.

At that very moment, her gaze followed the direction of Feng Xue's glance, and a stream appeared at the edge of her vision.

Only then did Chen Xiyao understand why Feng Xue had said that only humans and monsters could make noise in this world. Water was flowing in the stream before her, yet it was as silent as a painting.

The silent standoff lasted for about a minute. Unable to hold her breath any longer, Chen Xiyao carefully parted her lips and let out a breath.

She moved incredibly slowly, as though afraid that the slightest sound would bring death upon them.

I wonder if he'll suddenly kiss me to share his breath, like in the novels? For some reason, an absurd yet classic scene popped into Chen Xiyao's mind. But Feng Xue clearly had no such intention. He merely turned slightly and pointed ahead. Chen Xiyao followed the direction of his finger, and with his guidance, she finally made out a shape that hadn't been very clear before.

It looked like the worst parts of a turtle, a frog, and a snake had been mashed together. It lay motionless by the river, most of its head drawn into its armored shell. At a glance, its moss-covered back looked like a reef.

The moment Chen Xiyao noticed it, she thought of a crocodile lying in wait in the water for prey to come close. But this thing was clearly more savage and terrifying than any crocodile.

"What is that?" Chen Xiyao whispered as she stared at the monster, whose mere appearance was enough to give a timid person nightmares for days. Feng Xue only shook his head. In truth, without the element-reading ability of his golden finger, he might have thought the sensation granted by [Keen] was just an illusion.

But in his vision, the mosaic that kept swelling and shrinking above the monster's head stood out sharply. Even from dozens of meters away, he'd spotted it at a glance.

Several indistinct elements flickered in and out of view within the mosaic. Even with Feng Xue's eyesight, they were hard to make out in the dead of night.

Having learned his lesson, Feng Xue didn't close the golden finger panel. The constant stream of garbled code popping into view was distracting, but it was still better than getting attacked by an Omen lurking nearby.

He shook his head at Chen Xiyao, pointed at the ground, then pointed at her. Chen Xiyao more or less understood what he meant and nodded quietly. She obediently leaned against a large tree, looking as though she wouldn't wander off.

Seeing her like that, Feng Xue let out a breath of relief. Glad he hadn't ended up with an idiot, he pressed down on his hood and cautiously crept downstream.

Chen Xiyao watched Feng Xue's back from behind the tree, but soon realized she'd lost sight of him!

She had been following the white robe with her eyes the whole time, yet in the blink of an eye, he had vanished without a trace.

Did he leave me behind? Did he give up on me? The thought suddenly sprang into Chen Xiyao's mind, but she immediately shoved it away. She gripped the tree trunk with both hands and forced down her panic. Only seventeen, and having spent her short life within the confines of school and home, she finally understood how laughable her earlier idea of running away from home had been!

"What are you spacing out for? We should go!" A voice suddenly rang out beside Chen Xiyao as she stood there, remorseful. The unexpected sound nearly made her cry out. Luckily, as a "seasoned pro" who'd never once been caught reading novels during evening study hall, she'd trained herself to stay calm even when the homeroom teacher appeared right beside her. She managed to suppress the urge to scream.

"You're done?" Chen Xiyao looked at Feng Xue, who had appeared beside her at some point, and patted her chest hard. Even with two layers of padding, her chest thudded under the blows, as if that were the only way to ease her fear.

"Yeah. It should be enough to last you a while. After all, there are no bacteria or viruses in the Infinite City, so water won't go bad even if you leave it sitting around."

Feng Xue said it casually, but Chen Xiyao keenly caught the scent of blood on him.

The smell was fading at an astonishing rate, but that only seemed to make it clearer just how much blood Feng Xue had gotten on himself while he was gone.

Could it be... Chen Xiyao whipped her head toward the stream. The spot where the monster had been lying was now completely empty.