A series of knocks sounded at the door.
"Come in."
Su Huan replied calmly, making no move to get out of the bathtub.
He never locked the door. When someone was around, there was no need; when no one was around, there was even less reason to.
Yu Jing and the others often had to come into his room to fetch things for him.
Yu Yue pushed open the door and stepped inside. Her gaze swept around the room before settling on the bathroom in the corner.
Hearing the water running inside, she felt a little awkward. "I saw that you seemed to be injured..."
Su Huan set down his journal and glanced at his left shoulder. A large, charred patch had appeared there, clinging to his skin like a hard shell.
Some of the venom Gao Zhe had flung at him had seeped in through his collar.
To stop the poison from spreading, he had used high heat to carbonize the affected flesh.
He was long accustomed to injuries like this.
Once he evolved, or after a few days had passed, the carbonized flesh would fall away.
"Creak."
Su Huan pulled open the door and saw Yu Yue standing in the middle of the room with a tray in her hands. It held iodine, bandages, and other medical supplies.
"I thought I'd help treat your wound." Seeing Su Huan naked, Yu Yue instinctively imagined the cold process of treating an injury, and her expression tensed.
Only then did Su Huan remember that she was still a nurse.
He considered it for a moment. "Come over."
He casually rested his injured arm outside the bathtub.
Yu Yue walked over and got everything ready. Before she could begin, Su Huan said, "You're missing something. Go pour me some of the liquor from the dining car, and bring some ice too."
Yu Yue hurried to do as he asked. Before long, she returned with a glass of ice and some whiskey.
Looking troubled, she said, "This liquor can't disinfect the wound."
Su Huan curled his lip. "It's for me to drink."
"Oh."
Yu Yue fell silent and crouched by the bathroom door to treat his wound.
Su Huan drank nearly half the glass, crunching the ice loudly between his teeth.
Alcohol could be stored for a long time in the apocalypse and used as clean water, but it was expensive. In his past life, his supplies had always been tight, and he'd never had the chance to indulge himself like this.
Now, the Armed Train's most pressing needs were taken care of, so he could finally relax for once.
After a while, Su Huan turned to look at the woman picking away at his shoulder. She'd worked at it with tweezers for ages, but had only managed to remove a tiny piece of charred flesh.
Frowning, he flicked his finger.
A large chunk of the blackened flesh fell away, and blood welled up.
"Treat it quickly. We're heading into the city tomorrow, and you'll have to get up early to cook."
Su Huan spoke calmly, as though that gaping hole in his shoulder weren't made of his own flesh.
The woman moved much more briskly. "What do you want for breakfast tomorrow?"
Su Huan swirled his glass. "Wontons."
The wound was soon treated. Yu Yue started packing away the supplies, sneaking glances at Su Huan from time to time, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't bring herself to.
"If you have something to say, say it quickly. I'm going to bed."
Su Huan spoke impatiently.
"I... I really didn't hear where he was..."
Yu Yue looked like a child who'd done something wrong, a hint of apprehension on her face.
She'd been delighted to become an Evolutionist, thinking she might finally be of some use. But she hadn't expected to make such a serious mistake on her very first mission.
The enemy had been so close, and she hadn't even sounded an alert.
Thinking of Su Huan's cold, ruthless ways, she'd been on edge all the way back, afraid that her mistake would get both her and her daughter kicked off the train.
After hesitating for a long time, she'd decided she should admit her mistake first, in case the petty train conductor wrote her name in his notebook.
She'd heard that his little black notebook was full of people he couldn't stand.
Su Huan looked surprised.
"Am I really that scary?"
Then, a menacing voice slipped from his lips. "Did you really not hear him... or were you hoping I'd die out there?"
Yu Yue's almond-shaped eyes flew wide, and all the color drained from her moist, glossy lips.
"I... I..."
Her helpless, easy-to-bully appearance only appealed to Su Huan more.
He twirled a finger through the hair at her temple, his voice low and suggestive. "You wouldn't want your mistake to leave you and your daughter stranded in the wilderness together, would you?"
Water sloshed as Su Huan rose to his feet.
The woman hurriedly tried to stand and explain herself, but she'd been crouching too long. Her legs had gone numb, and she stumbled, falling to her knees on the floor. Her full thighs pressed together, their curves lush and rounded.
His fingertip brushed the woman's sensitive, delicate ear. Su Huan gave a mocking laugh. "Good attitude."
"..."
Maybe Gao Zhe was right. He really was a bastard.
Su Huan woke early the next morning, in a foul mood.
He'd meant to give himself a little reward the night before, but that woman's awkward daughter had seemed like she'd been picked up off the street.
Sitting in the cold gloom, Su Huan ground his teeth irritably. After a while, he walked over to the window.
Just like the night before, it had started raining around midnight. The air was thick with moisture and lingering heat, and the air conditioner, running at full blast, sounded like it was straining to its limits.
He slid open the steel plate, picked up the thermometer on the table, and held it outside the window, watching the red line climb.
His already foul mood grew even more irritable.
"December 21. Rain. 35°C."
"Four days until the heatwave begins."
He left his compartment and headed straight for Carriage No. 2. The five-meter-tall Integrated Water Purifier stood quietly inside, a reassuring sight.
He walked around the purifier once. The metal nameplate affixed to it listed its specifications.
It could filter river and lake water with turbidity levels of up to 3,000 mg/L. That was enough to handle rivers laden with mud and sand after a torrential downpour, or untreated lake water.
Its outlet was connected to a water tank inside the carriage.
There were two such tanks in each carriage, and each could hold two tons of water. They had baffles inside to keep the liquid from sloshing around, just like the fuel tanks nearby.
He went up to the second level, where an opening had been made. A considerable amount of rainwater had collected in the storage tank through the rain collector.
This made Su Huan feel much better about rainy weather.
Once they added a pH adjustment device at the outlet, collecting clean water in the Acid Rain Zone would no longer be a problem.
He pressed his palm against the purifier. The huge machine started up, filtering all the collected rainwater and pumping it into the water tank they'd already built.
Even so, it only filled half the tank.
By the time Su Huan came back down, dawn was just breaking. Yu Yue was already busy in the dining car.
She had the air of someone humbly pleading, "Look how hard I'm working. Please don't make things difficult for me."
Su Huan gave a silent, cold laugh and sat nearby, watching her.
Yu Yue was nervous. She tidied one thing, wiped down another, and kept busy every second she could.
The hem of her mustard-yellow shirt lifted slightly as she moved, revealing a waist smooth as jade.
The supple muscles strengthened through evolution tensed into a breathtaking curve when she bent over, like a willow branch bowed by a spring breeze. The moment she straightened, they flowed back into full, graceful curves.
At last, the wontons were ready.
Yu Yue carefully brought them over. "Brother Su, would you like some chili oil?"
Seeing her meek, downcast expression made Su Huan even more annoyed. He scooped a big spoonful of chili oil into the bowl and stirred it in, then picked up a wonton and held it to her mouth.
Yu Yue hesitated, then puckered her lips and blew at it for ages. She blew until the wonton skin wrinkled, revealing the glistening meat beneath, and then took a bite.
The wonton rolled in the spoon, its skin and filling intact.
Su Huan narrowed his eyes at her.
"Can't you just swallow it?"
"It's too big..."
Yu Yue looked a little aggrieved. A thin sheen of sweat glistened on her crystalline skin, gathering in the hollow of her collarbone.
Her mouth was small, and her throat was narrow too. It took three bites before she managed to finish a single wonton.
"Bite me again next time, and I'll knock your teeth out," Su Huan said ominously.
Before you continue