Chapter 29: I Am the Captain

It had only been twenty minutes since everyone left Building 6. Relocating several hundred residents was no small task. If she hadn’t guessed wrong, Xiao Liao should be leading the team downstairs to settle the residents right now.

Xia Mi walked to the window and looked down. Sure enough, she saw police cars, fire trucks, and a cordon surrounding Building 6. There were no onlookers nearby.

She noticed a group of people in Protective Suits gathered in front of the building, huddled together as if they were watching something.

Xia Mi turned back to scan the mess that was Room 701. There was no way she could clean this place up by herself in such a short time.

In that case, it was better to go downstairs, find Xiao Liao, and have him bring the team up. Working together would be much faster.

Having made up her mind, Xia Mi opened the window and jumped straight out.

She didn’t overthink it; climbing the stairs was just too much trouble, and this was faster. At the same time, she felt her body was very light, as if she should be able to make the jump.

Xia Mi leaped from the seventh floor to the ground like a cat, landing without making much of a sound.

She silently approached the back of the crowd and peered through a gap. She saw a handsome young man lying on the ground, his eyes tightly shut and his brow furrowed in an expression of great pain.

This was likely a frontline member of the Disposal Bureau, which meant he was her future colleague, subordinate, and junior.

“What happened?” Xia Mi asked, poking the person next to her.

The person beside her replied with a sob in their voice, “He told us that if he didn’t walk out of that armored vehicle within ten minutes, we were to activate the self-destruct device inside.

“But ten minutes passed, and before we could even press the button, he walked out covered in blood.”

“He doesn’t have any blood on him now, though?” Xia Mi noted.

The unconscious handsome guy had smooth skin, free of acne or blemishes. His face was clean, looking like a fresh college student. He was exactly Xia Mi’s type, her boyfriend was this type as well.

The person continued, “Just a moment ago, wounds kept appearing on his body and then healing. His body was breaking and mending, mending and breaking. The wounds have stopped appearing now, but he won’t wake up.”

“Is there no doctor?” Xia Mi asked.

The person added, “The captain sent the doctor away under the pretext of a physical exam. He said what he was doing was against the rules and couldn’t be discovered before it was successful, so he sent away everyone who could control him.”

“Captain? By captain, do you mean Xiao Liao? Xiao Liao hasn’t replied to my messages in a long time. What is he doing?” Xia Mi used the name “Xiao Liao” quite naturally.

“Xiao Liao? Which leader are you?” The team member turned to look at Xia Mi. When he realized a stranger had been chatting behind him for so long, he let out a terrified shriek. “Ah!!!”

“What are you screaming for? My ears hurt,” Xia Mi said, rubbing her ear.

The team member had been standing right next to her, and his shout right into her ear had left her cochlea stinging from the sudden shock.

“Who are you!” the member shouted. “Wait, I’ve seen you. You’re Xia Mi!”

He pulled out his phone, which displayed Xia Mi’s ID photo. The real Xia Mi looked exactly like the photo, with thick eyebrows and bright, spirited eyes. With her high ponytail, she looked cool and capable.

With his shout, all the members who had been crying around the handsome man turned to look at Xia Mi.

Xia Mi introduced herself graciously. “Hello everyone, I’m Xia Mi. I’ll likely be your future colleague.”

“Xia Mi?!” Everyone shouted the famous name in unison. They followed up with, “How did you get out? Where is the ‘Zhuo’? What about the Nest?”

Xia Mi pointed to the building behind her. “The ‘Zhuo’ is dead, and the Nest has been dispelled. See for yourselves.”

She scanned everyone but didn’t see the Liao Tianhua she expected. She asked, “Where’s Xiao Liao? And who is this handsome guy lying here? What’s wrong with him?”

Hearing her call him Xiao Liao, everyone’s gaze shifted from Building 6 back to Xia Mi.

The team members wouldn’t dare call Liao Tianhua “Xiao Liao.” Captain Liao was usually very serious, speaking in formal platitudes. No one dared to joke with him.

But the person before them was the legendary Xia Mi, the one who had saved all the residents of Building 6 with nothing but a gun and an axe. Thinking of her calling the captain “Xiao Liao” actually seemed quite normal.

The member who had first spoken to Xia Mi pointed at the man on the ground. “He is Captain Liao.”

“What!?” Xia Mi instantly lunged to Liao Tianhua’s side, nervously grabbing his hand. “Xiao Liao, Xiao Liao! You can’t die! If you die, what happens to my Bianzhi?”

Everyone: “…”

Realizing her words were a bit too blunt under everyone’s gaze, Xia Mi quickly asked, “How can I help Xiao Liao?”

The members replied, “We aren’t sure. We don’t have the clearance to know the details regarding Rong transformation. Only Captain Liao knows what conditions are needed for it.”

Xia Mi was a “Rong” herself, so she could only speculate on the necessary conditions based on her own experience.

First, one needed a healthy body. The body was the capital of revolution¹, that was a must. Xiao Liao’s body was sturdy, and as a frontline operative, his physical condition was certainly excellent.

Second, one needed strong mental power. Whether it was a fierce will to survive or an obsessive desire, both were forms of mental power. Given Xiao Liao’s ideological commitment, he surely didn’t lack mental power.

“So what’s missing?” Xia Mi fell into deep thought.

She placed her hand on Liao Tianhua’s pulse, wanting to check his heartbeat.

The moment her hand touched him, Xia Mi saw some floating white Silkworm silk on Liao Tianhua’s hand. They drifted weakly, looking as though they would snap at a single tug. They were completely different from the tough silk Xia Mi released, which was strong enough to plunder energy from living creatures.

Xia Mi recalled what the team member had mentioned about Liao Tianhua’s wounds healing and breaking repeatedly. A spark of realization hit her. “Could it be that Xiao Liao needs energy?”

The constant cycle of wounding, bleeding, and self-healing must be incredibly energy-consuming. No one could withstand that kind of strain indefinitely.

There was no unstable, easily absorbed Zhuo energy outside the Nest, and Liao Tianhua didn’t look like someone who could plunder energy from stable Zhuo items.

Xia Mi thought for a moment, then released her Silkworm from her palm to entwine with Liao Tianhua’s half-dead Silkworm.

The moment the soft white silk touched Xia Mi’s Silkworm, it immediately began to absorb energy like a whirlwind.

An impulse to kill the looter instantly rose in Xia Mi’s heart, it was the instinct of a predator.

“This is the Bianzhi, I can’t kill him. He’s Bianzhi, can’t kill him,” Xia Mi could only mutter the words repeatedly.

Finally, her deep-seated desire for the Bianzhi suppressed the urge to kill Liao Tianhua, allowing his Silkworm to feast on her energy.

Xia Mi had consecutively absorbed energy from No. 4 Zhuo, No. 7 Zhuo, and the Purification Grenade, so she was currently brimming with power.

By her own estimation, she had about 700 Zhuo units in her body. She originally had 250, No. 4 and No. 7 Zhuo had provided about 150 combined, and the remaining 300 came from the Purification Grenade.

The energy within the Purification Grenade was far more than 300, Xia Mi estimated it was closer to 500 units. One hundred had been used to neutralize her abnormal status, another hundred had repaired her damaged body, and the remaining 300 had been absorbed.

Liao Tianhua’s Silkworm went straight for the energy from the Purification Grenade first. It seemed he needed that specific energy the most.

After absorbing about 100 Zhuo units, Liao Tianhua’s eyes twitched.

His Silkworm wanted to continue devouring energy, but Xia Mi had no intention of being his permanent power source. She was afraid that if she lost too much energy, she wouldn’t be able to suppress her killing intent.

Liao Tianhua’s eyelashes fluttered, and he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Xia Mi.

Xia Mi actually looked quite pathetic right now.

She had fought a fierce battle for a day and a night. Her high ponytail was a tangled mess, stray hairs were sticking out everywhere, and the ponytail wasn’t nearly as high as it had been at the start. Not only that, she had been inside Lin Xiaoli’s hair, the stomach of the auntie from 704, and had come into close contact with No. 7 Zhuo when it crawled out of the sewer. Just now, she had only focused on wiping Lü Hongmei’s face and ignored her own, her face was still smeared with blood and filth.

Seeing Xia Mi’s disheveled state, Liao Tianhua thought he was dead. Believing they had met in the afterlife, he couldn’t help but give a bitter smile. “In the end, I’ve come to join you.”

“Join me my foot!” Xia Mi snapped.

From the moment she had started receiving messages from Liao Tianhua, he hadn’t followed through on a single thing he’d promised.

Xia Mi began counting on her fingers to settle the score. “Xiao Liao, I’m not trying to nag, but you really aren’t a man of your word.

“At the very beginning, you said you’d lead a team in to help me. I worked so hard to climb to the Rooftop, only for you to tell me you couldn’t get in.

“Later, you said the Second Team went to the pharmaceutical factory for intel and told me to wait three hours, saying you’d have info for me soon. I waited three hours, and you told me the Second Team had fallen.

“You said you’d be with me the whole time, but then you stopped talking to me entirely.

“Finally, you said you were going to undergo Rong transformation to become a powerful Rong and save me. And the result? I’ve wiped out the Zhuo and unsealed the nest, while you’re still lying on the ground unable to get up. I’m the one who saved you.

“Xiao Liao, oh Xiao Liao, with a performance like that, how am I supposed to trust you? My Bianzhi and Second-Class Merit aren’t going to be canceled too, are they?”

Xia Mi spoke with great concern.

Liao Tianhua: “…”

He sat up and quickly checked his temperature, breathing, and heartbeat. “I’m still alive?” he asked in surprise.

Xia Mi was clever, she guessed his thoughts from that single sentence. “Don’t tell me you thought we were both dead and you were seeing my ghost?

“Xiao Liao, that kind of thinking isn’t very scientific or materialistic. There are no souls in this world. A steadfast revolutionary warrior doesn’t believe in such superstitions. Even if they did exist, they all vanished after the founding of the country², understand?”

Liao Tianhua was so embarrassed he wanted to find a hole to crawl into.

What on earth had he done!

He said he was going to save Xia Mi, but instead, he collapsed and had to be saved by her!

Fortunately, it wasn’t just Xia Mi and Liao Tianhua there, a group of team members was also present. Otherwise, Liao Tianhua might have fainted again from the sheer awkwardness of waking up.

Seeing Liao Tianhua sit up, some of the team members tearfully helped him to his feet, while others surrounded Xia Mi, expressing their admiration and gratitude.

“Xia Mi, you saved so many people. How did you do it?”

“Xia Mi, I was staring at the building entrance the whole time and didn’t see you come out. Where did you come from?”

“Xia Mi, when did you sneak into our midst? Why didn’t I hear a sound?”

“Wow! I watched the surveillance playback and saw you actually jumped down from the seventh floor! Sister Xia, you’re my real sister! My idol!”

Facing the enthusiastic team members, Xia Mi lightly raised her hand.

The team members fell silent immediately.

Xia Mi said, “Now is not the time for idle chatter. Once everything is resolved and everyone has rested, there will be plenty of time for gossip.

“The mission isn’t over just because the Zhuo are destroyed. During this incident, five civilians left us forever. I know this wasn’t anyone’s fault, but in the days to come, we must do everything possible to prevent such things from happening.

“I have found the remains of four civilians. Everyone, follow me upstairs to recover them. We must treat their bodies with respect and promise them that we will save more people in the future.

“At the same time, there is one resident from 416 whose body hasn’t been found. We need to conduct a grid search of Building 6 to try and find any part of him.

“Additionally, in this battle, Comrade Lü Hongmei from 701 assisted me in defeating two Zhuo. I failed to save her life, but at the very least, I want to personally fulfill her final wish by preparing her for burial and cleaning her room.

“Everyone, move out with me. After the operation, everyone will write an after-action report summarizing the mistakes made during this mission, so we can avoid repeating them in the future.”

For some reason, even though they had just met, Xia Mi’s words carried immense authority. After hearing her, the crowd shouted “Yes!” in unison and quickly formed an orderly line to head toward Building 6.

Liao Tianhua: “…”

Xia Mi turned to Liao Tianhua and said, “Xiao Liao, although you didn’t really do anything, you are still recovering from a serious illness. You don’t need to go upstairs for the follow-up work. Just rest here. Do you want me to leave a team member to look after you?”

Liao Tianhua squeezed the words out from between his teeth. “Xia Mi, I am the captain here.”

Xia Mi fell silent.

She had almost forgotten!

Liao Tianhua continued, “You aren’t even part of the official Bianzhi yet. Even if I give you a Special Recruitment Slot, you still have to undergo a physical exam and psychological evaluation before joining the team. Then there is the three month period of ideological and physical training. You can only join the team once you’ve passed all of that.”

Xia Mi felt as if she had been struck by lightning. Her heart twisted with grief as she said painfully, “I have to wait that long?”

“What did you expect, Xia Mi?” Liao Tianhua placed a heavy emphasis on her name.

Xia Mi clutched her chest, her spirit utterly crushed.

Feeling refreshed, Liao Tianhua walked to the front of the group and addressed everyone. “Just… never mind. Xia Mi already said it. Follow her instructions.”

Translator’s Notes