Lu Mingfei lowered his head and looked at his hands.
In Tokyo-3, however useless he might have been, he still sat inside an eighty-meter-tall EVA weighing tens of thousands of tons. Its physical body was the vessel through which he deployed his A.T. Field.
Without an EVA, all he had was his own sixty-five-kilogram body. When he had lost control of his emotions and deployed an A.T. Field at Lake Ashi, his flesh had quickly reached its limit.
If he really went up against the King of Earth and Mountains now, could he withstand a stomp from that mighty Dragon King that shifted mountains fifteen kilometers?
Definitely not, so...
"Eat."
As he sat lost in thought, a rich, sweet buttery aroma drifted into Lu Mingfei's nose.
He turned to see Zero pull a brown paper bag from her backpack, tip out several golden cookies, and arrange them on a clean tissue.
"I made these," Zero said, looking at him. "They're at their best right now."
Lu Mingfei looked at the bag of cookies, then at Zero.
"You made them?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Last night."
Zero watched him without any expression, but that air of I'm waiting only put more pressure on Lu Mingfei.
"Thanks," Lu Mingfei said. "They look pretty good, but I did eat lunch, and I'm not really hungry..."
"For lunch today, you only had stir-fried diced chicken, blanched broccoli, and a bowl of tomato and egg-drop soup," Zero said expressionlessly. "The total was no more than five hundred kilocalories. Given a hybrid's basal metabolic rate, that intake is nowhere near enough."
"Um..." Lu Mingfei wanted to ask how she knew what he had eaten for lunch. Why did that sound so much like something a creepy stalker would say?
Zero continued, "According to chapter four of Hybrid Physiology, a prolonged calorie deficit causes Word Spirit instability, slower reaction times, and reduced immune function."
She picked up a cookie and held it out in front of Lu Mingfei.
"Eat."
Lu Mingfei began to sweat.
Zero's face was expressionless, but that lack of expression was more intimidating than any expression could have been. It was like your mother spending all afternoon in the kitchen making a pot of soup, then staring silently at you while you played games instead of eating. That silence itself was the most powerful Word Spirit.
"I really don't-"
The cookie went straight into his mouth.
"Mmph!"
Lu Mingfei's eyes went perfectly round, like a fish pinned to a chopping board. He had meant to say he could do it himself, but Zero's hand had already caught his chin and pushed it upward. He had no choice but to chew the cookie and force it down.
The savory fragrance of pork floss burst across his tongue with the butter, perfectly crisp and just the right balance of sweet and salty. To be fair, it really was good.
No, this wasn't the time for a taste test!
"Cough... cough, cough..."
He choked, his face flushing bright red.
Zero reacted instantly, producing a carton of milk from somewhere with the straw already inserted and thrusting it right up to his mouth. Lu Mingfei forgot all about appearances, snatched it from her, and took several desperate gulps before finally washing the cookie down.
"Pfft-" Someone nearby seemed to have failed to stifle a laugh.
Lu Mingfei looked up. Everyone looked perfectly serious.
Zero was watching him.
Lu Mingfei wasn't sure whether he had imagined it.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Lu Mingfei asked once he had recovered, taking a breath.
"Your nutritional intake has been inadequate these past few days." Zero looked at him, apparently giving the question serious thought. "You need to replenish your energy."
"I mean..." Lu Mingfei hesitated. "Why do you care how much I eat?"
"As an S-Rank hybrid, eating so little is unreasonable," she said. "You're still growing. Inadequate intake will cause..."
"Word Spirit instability, slower reaction times, and reduced immune function." Lu Mingfei repeated everything Zero had just said in one breath. "That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking why you're taking care of me like this. We've only met a few times. We barely even know each other."
Zero said nothing. She simply picked up another cookie and held it to his mouth.
Eat or die?
Lu Mingfei's scalp instantly prickled. A glance out of the corner of his eye revealed that the students at several nearby tables had long since stopped concentrating. They were all holding their books upright and sneaking looks in his direction.
"I... I'm full, really." Lu Mingfei waved his hands repeatedly and tried to stand. "Thanks for the cookies, Zero, but I need to get back to my dorm..."
Before he could finish, Zero reached over and caught his sleeve.
"Finish them."
Under the gaze of Zero's ice-blue eyes, Lu Mingfei surrendered.
Miserable and anxious, as though swallowing some bitter medicine, he ate the entire bag of cookies one after another and drank the milk amid the hushed whispers all around him.
By the time only one cookie remained in the bag, Lu Mingfei's stomach was churning. He took a deep breath, picked up the last cookie, chewed it a few times, and swallowed. Then he lifted the milk carton and drained it in one go.
The empty carton landed on the table with a thunk.
"All finished," Lu Mingfei reported, his mission complete.
Zero nodded, then took a packet of wet wipes from her backpack.
"Wipe your hands." She pulled one out and handed it to Lu Mingfei.
Lu Mingfei took the wipe and cleaned his hands. It was cool against his skin and had a faint citrus scent.
"Thanks for the cookies and milk." He wiped his hands and stood up. "I'll head back now. I've got something to do-"
Just as Lu Mingfei tried to escape, his sleeve was yanked back. Zero frowned slightly and rose onto her tiptoes, clamping his chin firmly in her hand and turning his face toward her.
The wet wipe slapped onto his face with a swish. Her movements were brusque and decisive, hard enough to tug at his skin. One swipe to the left, one to the right, wiping the milk stains and cookie crumbs from the corners of his mouth, with unmistakable disdain in her eyes. Once she was done, she casually slapped the crumpled wipe against his chest and let go.
A wave of sharp inhalations swept through the library, like dozens of snakes flicking their tongues at once, sucking the warmth out of the surrounding air.
"Isn't... isn't that the S-Rank?"
"Isn't... isn't that Zero?"
"She's feeding him cookies?"
"Not just feeding him-she's wiping his mouth too!"
Lu Mingfei's face went from white to red, red to purple, and purple to black. He could already imagine what would appear on the Nightwatch Forum, with a headline something like [Shocking! S-Rank publicly hand-fed by Russian loli].
He grabbed his backpack and bolted. The moment the door closed behind him, he heard an irrepressible wave of whispers rise inside, like water that had finally boiled after simmering in a pot for far too long.
He hurried along the path back to his dorm, staring straight ahead, not daring to look to either side.
The men and women he passed all pointed at him, their complicated gazes mingling jealousy with awe.
Lu Mingfei's heart was now racing absurdly fast. He had thought he had spent so long drowning in that red sea that the innocent seventeen-year-old boy he had once been had drowned for good.
Yet when Zero wiped the corners of his mouth just now, that boy had risen from the sea, brushed the water off himself, and taken control of his heartbeat.