When they spent the night in the Ruined City, the buildings only provided shelter from the wind and rain. They still had to sleep on bedding laid on the floor.
Mu Yi held the thin blanket Zhong Xuezhi had given him and refused to budge. "I'm sleeping next to you."
Zhong Xuezhi looked down at him, baffled. "There's this whole big room. Why do you insist on squeezing in beside me?"
Mu Yi flexed his fingers in a hint. "My hands are itching."
Zhong Xuezhi immediately caught on and hastily lowered his voice. "You... didn't you already get to touch it today?"
"Only for a tiny little while." Mu Yi wasn't that easy to satisfy.
Zhong Xuezhi glanced around at their four teammates lying nearby and tried to reason with him. "We agreed before: no touching when anyone else is present."
Mu Yi didn't see much of a problem. "Once they're all asleep, they won't count as being present."
"Ha..." Zhong Xuezhi couldn't hold back a laugh. "Then you've miscalculated."
Mu Yi frowned. "What do you mean?"
Zhong Xuezhi pointed toward where An Beize was lying. "Our Beibei's mutant form is a white dolphin. The two halves of his brain take turns resting, understand?"
"No matter how long you wait, he'll never be completely asleep."
After hearing that, Mu Yi immediately condensed a ball of electric flame in his palm and said ominously, "Then let's get rid of him."
His expression was serious and his tone vicious, making the slightly smug smile vanish from Zhong Xuezhi's face.
"Well... let's talk this over some more. No need to jump straight to killing people..."
Mu Yi put away the electric flame and returned to his earlier amiability. "How do you want to talk it over?"
"Come on, let's talk outside." Zhong Xuezhi draped an arm over his shoulders and steered him out of the room.
Before long, they had moved side by side to a sheltered spot a few meters from the sleeping room.
Zhong Xuezhi listened to their surroundings. Only after confirming it was safe did he speak. "You can touch it here. Once you've had enough, we'll go back inside."
Mu Yi smiled. "Then you'll have to move the bedding outside. I'll need to touch it all night before I've had enough."
"Little brother, can you be reasonable?" Zhong Xuezhi was beginning to get a headache. "You're playing dirty."
Mu Yi didn't agree. Folding his arms, he said, "The five-day limit isn't up yet, and there's no third person here. How am I playing dirty?"
Zhong Xuezhi said, "But we're two grown men sneaking off to cling to each other in the middle of the night. Don't you think that's strange?"
Mu Yi frowned. "What's strange about it? I'm only sleeping beside you. It's not like I'm going to grope you."
He didn't worry about boundaries when he should, but now he was getting hung up on them.
Why didn't he stop to think that he was still wearing his underwear?
Zhong Xuezhi couldn't think about that. He simply couldn't wrap his head around any of this. He didn't even know how the conversation had veered toward groping.
"No, what I mean is, aren't you pretty conservative? Those teammates of mine are all blabbermouths. If they see us, they'll spout all kinds of nonsense. You don't mind?"
Mu Yi found that utterly baffling. "What would I mind? As long as you don't mind, it's fine."
After a moment's thought, he checked again. "Do you mind?"
Zhong Xuezhi found the question very strange, but still answered stiffly, "No."
They had been teammates for years. What nonsense hadn't he heard from them? It was all just joking around.
"Then that settles it." Mu Yi clapped his hands together and continued, "If you don't want to sleep outside, we'll sleep inside."
"Once we pull the blanket over us, who'll know what we're doing underneath?"
The implication was that An Beize's half-awake brain wouldn't notice.
Zhong Xuezhi said nothing. Buddy, the way you put that... sounds a little too suggestive.
Talking to Mu Yi always gave him the strange impression that they were somehow on different wavelengths.
The moment he went quiet, Mu Yi grew impatient and urged him, "Tsk, say something."
"Fine, fine..." Zhong Xuezhi rubbed his forehead and gave in. "We'll do it your way."
Mu Yi immediately flashed his teeth in a grin, visibly brightening. He reached out with his uninjured left hand and just managed to drape his arm over Zhong Xuezhi's shoulders. "Come on, then. Back inside."
Just as Zhong Xuezhi had led him out, he now led Zhong Xuezhi back, the two of them swaying along.
Zhong Xuezhi obligingly bent down a little. Despite his resignation, he couldn't help smiling too.
Was he really that happy?
Three minutes later, they returned to the room and busied themselves pushing their two single floor beds together.
They made very little noise, but that was no match for the foursome's boundless curiosity. All four raised their heads to look over.
Seeing what they were up to, Wenren Jin narrowed his eyes, immediately sensing something interesting. He asked cheerfully, "Captain, do we need to put in noise-blocking earplugs?"
Qiu Cai gave a suggestive chuckle too and chimed in, "Or we could go squeeze in with Team 403 next door."
An Beize was rather particular about his sleeping environment. "Forget Team 403, but the roof over their room looks nice."
Du Jing said, "I vote for the roof too."
Du Jing was the quickest to act in their team. As he spoke, he had already sat up, rolled up his thin blanket, and tucked it under his arm, looking ready to clear out at any moment.
Zhong Xuezhi took a moment to look up and shoot them a glare. "Quit mouthing off and go to sleep."
Mu Yi, however, was all smiles. If he hadn't been considering what little remained of Zhong Xuezhi's reputation, he really would have liked to join in their banter.
Zhong Xuezhi bent over the bedding. Once he had adjusted both sides to the same height, he patted Mu Yi's half. "All right, lie down."
Mu Yi kicked off his shoes, stepped onto the bedding, and promptly lay down, waiting for Zhong Xuezhi to hand him his tail.
Before lying down, Zhong Xuezhi raised a hand and retrieved the shard crystal from inside the energy lamp without touching it.
Only after the room fell completely dark did he rustle his way under the thin blanket.
Mu Yi waited for a while with his eyes wide open before something soft and fluffy brushed his left arm.
He immediately turned his hand over to grasp it and stroked it several times in succession.
Then he rolled onto his side and used both hands to coil the long tail into a bundle, cradling it loosely in his arms.
Zhong Xuezhi reminded him quietly, "Careful of your wound."
Mu Yi answered just as quietly, "It's fine."
With the snow leopard tail in his arms, even his wound barely hurt anymore.
Amused, Zhong Xuezhi flicked the tip of his tail, lightly tapping Mu Yi's open palm at irregular intervals.
Mu Yi seemed to love it when the tail moved. Every time it tapped his palm, he closed his fingers around it, then let go again and waited for the tip to withdraw.
When it tapped him again, he grabbed it again.
As Zhong Xuezhi teased him, he couldn't help wondering what was so entertaining about his tail that Mu Yi never seemed to tire of it.
He wasn't a kid anymore. Did he still need toys?
As he pondered this, he suddenly heard the rustling around them grow increasingly blatant. His temple tightened, and he said in a low voice, "None of you are sleepy, huh?"
"Why don't you all go outside and stand watch, then?"
"..."
The rustling instantly stopped, and four pairs of perked-up ears shrank back as though startled.
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