Chapter 68: Crying Over Ugliness
Xie Qiang placed the dead Zerg in a small box and couldn’t help but let out a long, melancholy sigh.
“What am I supposed to do now? Without any small animals to practice on, how can I perform surgery on Cen Yu?”
Sitting across from her, Mo Yin finished wiping the tip of the sword he had used to skewer the small Zerg earlier. He looked up at her briefly.
The girl sat there with her chin resting on her hand, looking miserable. She poked at the dismembered limbs of the Zerg with her small fingers, showing no intention of going to dinner.
Hmm…
No practice = skipping meals = irritability = getting beaten up.
An equation quickly formed in Mo Yin’s mind. Suddenly, he raised his arm and placed it firmly on the table.
The movement was loud enough to startle Xie Qiang. She looked over in confusion, only to see Mo Yin, with lightning speed, swing his long sword and slice a deep gash into his own arm.
Xie Qiang’s mouth fell open. When she finally reacted, she scrambled over to him in a panicked run. “Mo Yin! What are you doing?!”
Mo Yin raised his blood-drenched arm toward her. “Practice.”
Those two simple words left Xie Qiang momentarily speechless. She held his injured arm with trembling hands, staring in a daze for a long moment before whispering, “Why… why are you willing to let me practice on you?”
As she asked this, an answer she secretly hoped for began to form in her heart.
Was it because he wanted to help her? A sort of involuntary, unbidden desire to ease her worries that came truly from the bottom of his heart…
Mo Yin blinked his wolf-like eyes slowly, staring at her without saying a word.
The light in Xie Qiang’s eyes began to dim. Just as she thought she wouldn’t get a response, she heard Mo Yin speak. He explained in a slow, deliberate tone, “I like it.”
Like it?
Xie Qiang looked at Mo Yin, dumbfounded. “You’re willing to be my practice subject because you like Cen Yu?”
Mo Yin frowned slightly. “No.”
Then what could it be? Xie Qiang was dying of curiosity and pleaded, “Mo Yin, can you please use more than two words at a time?”
Mo Yin’s lips twitched. “I like the sensation of pain.”
Xie Qiang thought she had misheard. “Pain? You like pain?”
Mo Yin pursed his lips and shifted his gaze away, nodding slowly. “Mm.”
It should be… like.
This time, Xie Qiang was truly stunned. She looked down at the bleeding arm of the youth in black, and her mind involuntarily flashed back to the original novel. In the story, the villainess had abused and tortured Mo Yin so cruelly, yet Mo Yin had never once thought of killing her.
Just like how he had never sought revenge after she released him from the water dungeon; instead, he even made her delicious dried fish snacks…
Wait, were the fish snacks a reward for the pain she had inflicted?
What kind of… twisted setting was this?!
If she hadn’t hit him once during this entire period, had he been bored to death?!
Mo Yin kept his head down, watching the expressions flicker across Xie Qiang’s face like a kaleidoscope. He couldn’t tear his eyes away for even a second.
The face-changing kitten is quite fun.
Xie Qiang shook the messy thoughts out of her head. “Forget it, we’ll talk about this later. Let me sew up the wound first.”
She disinfected the surgical needle and began to carefully suture the severed ligament inside.
Her icy blue cat-like eyes focused intensely on the wound. As her concentration deepened, she felt as if a magnifying lens had been placed over her eyes. The muscle layers and even the fine, thread-like nerves within the wound began to appear as clear, simplified diagrams before her.
Was this… a Guide’s ability?
She blinked, but the lines didn’t disappear. Overjoyed, Xie Qiang immediately began to suture the broken nerves with even greater precision.
Although her hands were a bit rusty with the surgical technique, perhaps because the villainess had practiced with a whip, her wrists were incredibly flexible. Aside from a slight tremor in her fingers, everything was fine.
As long as she practiced more, she could complete Cen Yu’s surgery before the anesthesia wore off.
Once she finished suturing Mo Yin’s arm, Xie Qiang wiped the sweat from her forehead and finally breathed a sigh of relief. “All done.”
Mo Yin stared at the neat, orderly stitches on his skin. “Pretty.”
“Really?” Xie Qiang beamed, feeling quite proud of herself. “My teacher also said my stitching was exceptionally beautiful.”
The teacher has good taste.
Mo Yin nodded in agreement. He lowered his eyes and touched the stitches, planning to show them to Hong Que later that night.
Having successfully taken the “kitten” to the canteen for dinner, Mo Yin watched her until she fell asleep. Only then did he turn on his optical computer and open his message log with Hong Que.
It was filled with a long string of messages from Hong Que.
[Hong Que: Brother! Why is your arm injured? Did someone slash you? Wait, that’s not right. You’ve been by Xie Qiang’s side. Did that woman slash you? That doesn’t make sense either. The Zhu Lang sword is connected to your consciousness; she couldn’t pull it out without your permission!]
[Hong Que: Don’t tell me you’re slashing your own arm? No way. Even if you like pain, you’ve never been a masochist. What is going on? Eh? Is Xie Qiang holding your arm! What are you two doing! Wait, I feel something wiggling… is that a needle? What on earth are you and Xie Qiang doing? Answer me! Don’t you dare leave me on ‘read’!]
Mo Yin tapped on his optical computer.
[Mo Yin: .]
[Mo Yin: Come here. Fast.]
[Hong Que: Oh? Your tail’s on fire and you finally remember you have a brother? I’m in a meeting! Can’t leave. Say what you have to say!]
[Hong Que: It’s not Xie Qiang asking me to catch more small Zerg, is it? Tell her it’s impossible! I’m not some lapdog bird! Why doesn’t she ask Sen Ji to catch them? Haha, maybe she knows Sen Ji can’t do it and realizes only I can? Hmph, at least she has some sense! But even so, I’m not going! Tell her to stop dreaming!]
[Mo Yin: Come.]
[Hong Que: Tsk, she’s still being persistent? Why didn’t she think about the consequences when she slept with Sen Ji? It’s too late for regrets now. Tell her, I hate fickle, experienced Guides the most! Even if His Majesty orders us to be married in the future, I won’t touch a single hair on her head! I’d rather be a widower!]
[Mo Yin: .]
[Hong Que: Stop with the dots! Go do it now!]
[Mo Yin: She didn’t call for you.]
…
…
…
[Hong Que: Did you eat dinner, brother? Do you want me to bring you something after the meeting?]
Mo Yin: Ah, he’s changing the subject.
[Mo Yin: Yes.]
Mo Yin waited all night, but his midnight snack never arrived.
Hong Que, who had been in a denunciation meeting all night, arrived late with breakfast. He saw Mo Yin squatting on the ground, staring blankly at his arm. When he heard the footsteps, Mo Yin looked up with a pair of reddened, moist wolf eyes.
Hong Que: !!!
Did the kid cry from hunger?
Hong Que hurriedly handed over the breakfast, but Mo Yin pushed it away. The youth in black pursed his lips tightly, his right hand clutching his left arm as bean-sized tears began to fall with a patter-patter.
“What happened to you!” Hong Que scratched his head in a panic, feeling like his “Brother-Reading System” was about to crash. “Talk to me! If it’s not hunger, did Xie Qiang listen to me and dump you on the spot?”
Mo Yin slumped his head and revealed his left arm. The originally neat and tidy stitches had been partially absorbed, leaving behind a bunch of uneven, jagged thread ends. It looked hideous.
“So ugly,” the youth in black muttered in a muffled voice.
Hong Que: … Oh, so the kid cried because it was ugly.
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