The Interrogation and the Odd Friendship

On the television screen, the actors wailed amidst the pouring rain. Outside the screen, the hospital room remained exceptionally quiet, save for the occasional, loud crunch of an apple. It was the only sound proving that living beings occupied the space.

Zhuo sat on the sofa, aggressively eating Chen Jiao’s fruit basket, while Chen Jiao and Yuan Anqing exchanged silent glances, neither uttering a word.

Zhuo disliked the eerie atmosphere. He spoke softly, “Why did you treat me like that?”

“Huh?” Yuan Anqing turned his head to look at Zhuo.

Just then, the male lead on the television roared with intense, melodramatic emotion, “Why did you treat me like this?!”

Zhuo pointed at the television defensively. “I watched this show when I was a kid.”

He didn’t just watch it, did he? It feels like he’s memorized the lines.

Chen Jiao glanced at Zhuo. “So, this is the special bodyguard?”

“Yes,” Yuan Anqing nodded.

“He doesn’t act very old,” Chen Jiao commented dryly.

“He simply doesn’t have many real-world worries,” Yuan Anqing replied. He sat in a chair by Chen Jiao’s hospital bed, a good distance from the sofa. Ever since entering the room, Zhuo had been reluctant to approach him, acting sulky.

Chen Jiao nodded, then looked closely at Yuan Anqing. “Just tell me straight. What exactly are you here for?”

After exchanging brief greetings, Yuan Anqing had simply sat by her bed. If Chen Jiao didn’t initiate conversation, Yuan Anqing wouldn’t speak, maintaining a profound, unbothered silence.

Meanwhile, Zhuo, quite at ease, had found himself a comfortable spot, squatting on the sofa and munching on fruit. He had already devoured a basket and a half of Chen Jiao’s get-well gifts, showing no politeness whatsoever, as if he were in his own home.

“I came to ask for your help, but I didn’t know how to begin,” Yuan Anqing confessed. The reason he hadn’t spoken directly was his absolute certainty of being rejected. So, he had simply resorted to a silent staring contest with Chen Jiao.

Chen Jiao narrowed her eyes slightly. “What if I don’t agree?” She couldn’t shake the feeling that Yuan Anqing was no benevolent, selfless Savior.

“Nothing will happen. That is your freedom,” Yuan Anqing said, adjusting his glasses. “I will just bring Zhuo to visit you every single day.”

Zhuo finished his apple and picked up a fruit knife, ready to slice open a cantaloupe.

Chen Jiao: “…”

“Zhuo,” Yuan Anqing called out again.

“What?” Zhuo asked, placing a sheet of kitchen paper under the melon.

“How does the plot of this TV show develop later?” Yuan Anqing inquired.

“Oh? The male lead dies of illness in episode fifty, but then he magically comes back to life in episode seventy-two, and after that…”

“Stop,” Chen Jiao interrupted Zhuo, her mouth twitching in annoyance. She glared at Yuan Anqing. “Is it really necessary to be so ruthless?”

“Didn’t you yourself teach students from nineteen years old?” Yuan Anqing retorted.

“It’s not the same. I’m not sociable and I have no friends,” Yuan Anqing reasoned. “Moreover, that child thinks they’ve fallen in love with me due to my psychic dominance, and I don’t think that’s good for anyone involved.”

Yuan Anqing met Chen Jiao’s gaze sincerely. “You are a high school teacher; you have much more experience crushing teenage dreams than I do.”

“He’s a high school student?” Chen Jiao asked.

“No, he’s a nineteen-year-old assassin who has never attended school,” Yuan Anqing shook his head.

Chen Jiao: “…”

Yuan Anqing added, “You and I are different. At least you had friends and so many students in your past. You should still care about educating the youth.”

“Not really.”

“Then I misunderstood.” Yuan Anqing sighed deeply, then fell silent again, merely exchanging unblinking gazes with Chen Jiao while Zhuo crunched loudly on the cantaloupe.

“You’re not going to stop staring, are you?” Chen Jiao asked him.

“You should do whatever you wish. Don’t mind me,” Yuan Anqing said, still intently watching Chen Jiao.

Chen Jiao took a deep breath. “How do you want me to help you?”

If Yuan Anqing had come alone, Chen Jiao might have competed to see whose perseverance was stronger. But Zhuo, serving as a constant, noisy background presence, was simply too distracting.

Zhuo wasn’t particularly loud on purpose, but his sheer size made him impossible to ignore. Moreover, he genuinely seemed comfortable there, watching TV, eating her fruit, and occasionally wagging the thick tip of his scaled tail against the sofa cushions.

With Zhuo as a threat, Chen Jiao felt that enduring Yuan Anqing’s daily visits would be a massive waste of her remaining life. “Also, why do I feel like you’re a little more lively than your last visit?”

“Am I?” Yuan Anqing seemed surprised; he hadn’t noticed that himself.

“Just a tiny bit,” Chen Jiao said with a hint of disdain. “But even when you’re ‘livelier’, you’re still not exactly cheerful.” He’s just become harder to deal with.

“I don’t need sunlight,” Yuan Anqing mused, feeling that having Zhuo’s chaotic energy around was already enough sunshine for one lifetime.

Chen Jiao shook her head helplessly. “I don’t need to exert myself physically for this interrogation, do I?”

“That depends entirely on whether your abilities are related to physical strength.”

In the facility’s monitoring room, Bai Tian brought Zhuo a large bag of snacks. At this moment, Zhuo was practically glued to Yuan Anqing’s side.

“Why were you sitting so far away from me in the hospital room earlier?” Yuan Anqing asked, puzzled by the sudden clinginess.

“The aura you had when you were with that previous Savior made me very uncomfortable. It wasn’t a simple one-plus-one-equals-two feeling. The whole area felt like…” Zhuo shuddered.

“Like a depressive black hole?” Bai Tian suggested. “You actually managed to convince her to help?”

“She seemed more like she had been coerced into coming,” Bai Tian noted, watching the monitors.

This kind of “coercion” worked precisely because Yuan Anqing wasn’t the one who had forced Chen Jiao into the Savior role. He was merely covering her shifts. He and Chen Jiao had no fundamental conflicts; in fact, they lacked any common ground.

No, that wasn’t right. They had no common topics because they barely spoke to each other at all.

On the monitor, Chen Jiao and the Breeding Body sat face-to-face in the interrogation room. Chen Jiao casually held a thermos cup, while the assassin opposite her had a vacant, paralyzed expression.

This was Chen Jiao’s ability—also a mental one. However, unlike Yuan Anqing, who specialized in creating illusions and absolute manipulation, Chen Jiao was more adept at “locking up” a person’s mind. This meant rendering the opponent’s consciousness unable to control their body. The opponent could see, could perceive, but was utterly incapable of making any physical response.

Moreover, Chen Jiao could prolong the opponent’s perception of time, making seconds feel like hours of agony.

“You can do this too,” Zhuo said, pointing a large finger at Chen Jiao on the monitor.

“I can?” Yuan Anqing was a little surprised.

“Yes,” Bai Tian nodded from the side. “However, besides her unique mental abilities, Miss Chen’s physical prowess is also formidable. That’s why she doesn’t need a Watcher.”

Yuan Anqing was somewhat taken aback. “I thought her strength came entirely from her mental abilities.”

“She jumped from a building headfirst,” Bai Tian said, pointing out the window toward the courtyard. “Right there on the concrete. The crater she made with her skull is still there.”

“A crater?” Yuan Anqing raised his eyebrows.

“Yes. Her head was perfectly fine. The concrete was destroyed.”

Yuan Anqing took a deep breath. “So, she’s formidable in both mental and physical abilities?”

Bai Tian shook his head. “To give you a comparison: if we consider the maximum potential of abilities as ten, then Miss Chen has six points in mental ability and four in physical. You, on the other hand, have ten points in pure mental ability.”

“Miss Chen’s mental abilities aren’t as bizarre and varied as yours, but her physical strength keeps up, so she’s not easily killed,” Bai Tian said, a frown creasing his brow. “We never expected to encounter a Savior whose abilities were entirely mental. You can even mentally overpower Zhuo, but if your physical body is destroyed by a stray bullet, then it’s truly over.”

Yuan Anqing’s psychic abilities were terrifying, but his body was merely that of an ordinary person… or perhaps a fit ordinary person.

“However, that problem shouldn’t be an issue now,” Bai Tian said, looking at Zhuo, who was clinging to Yuan Anqing. Zhuo was considerably taller, yet he insisted on pressing his chin possessively against the top of Yuan Anqing’s head.

As they chatted, the Breeding Body in the confinement room was released from the mental lock. He gasped for air, staring at Chen Jiao in pure terror. “What exactly are you?!”

“Don’t worry about what I am. From now on, you just answer my questions,” Chen Jiao said, frowning as she unscrewed her thermos. “Otherwise, you’ll suffer even more later.”

The Breeding Body was dazed for a moment, then shook his head, clearing his mind slightly. He looked at Chen Jiao. “May I ask if you are married or have a partner?”

“Cough! Cough, cough! Pfft!” Chen Jiao spat her tea back into the thermos. “Huh?!”

The Breeding Body’s hands were fixed to the specialized tabletop, preventing him from making a dramatic gesture of clutching his heart. “I suddenly feel quite smitten with you.”

“You?” Even Chen Jiao, who had taught hundreds of hormonal teenagers, had never encountered such a bizarre character.

When she entered, this person was acting belligerent. After such a short, agonizing psychic attack, he was suddenly smitten with her?

Yuan Anqing, observing Chen Jiao’s bewildered state from the monitor, understood perfectly. “Chen Jiao is about to get angry.”

“Angry? Are you Saviors so easily angered?” Zhuo didn’t understand. He felt that Yuan Anqing had never shown any true anger in their initial interactions, only passive, corporate resistance. So Chen Jiao should be even less prone to it. “She didn’t even have any will to live and went seeking death, you know.”

“It’s different. This Breeding Body’s behavior has challenged her bottom line,” Yuan Anqing explained. “The profession of a high school teacher has some unique trigger points.” They carried the burden of the children’s future, and such a casual, biologically-driven confession was practically an insult to Chen Jiao’s past life’s work.

Yuan Anqing didn’t elaborate further, as Zhuo would soon find out.

On the monitor, Chen Jiao let out a cold, sharp laugh. She slowly screwed the lid back onto her thermos. “What exactly are you using to justify being smitten?”

“My intense love for you,” the Breeding Body immediately said, his eyes shining.

“And what are you using to back up this love?” Chen Jiao leaned forward, staring dead into the assassin’s eyes. “Are your parents giving you enough pocket money? Or do you think your impending future in federal prison is very bright?”

The Breeding Body froze.

“Where do you work? What’s your monthly income? Do you have any plans for the future? Do you have a 401k?” Chen Jiao questioned him rapidly, her teacher persona fully unleashed. “Do you even know how to pay electricity and water bills? What kind of person do you think I am? You don’t even know my name! Where does your ‘love’ come from?!”

The Breeding Body stammered, “Uh… I can learn.”

“Ha. Learn?” Chen Jiao found it even more amusing. “Then what makes you think that someone like you is currently worthy of being loved? Do you think your ‘sincerity’ can overcome economic reality?”

Breeding Body: “True love always conquers all!”

Chen Jiao nodded, casually crossing her legs. “Come, then. Try to use true love to conquer the alloy handcuffs on your wrists.”

The Breeding Body glanced down at his bound hands.

Chen Jiao gestured toward him. “Please. I’ll wait.”

“This is different!” the Breeding Body changed the topic desperately. “Love is something invisible and intangible! It is a noble feeling!”

“Oh? Then what’s the use of something invisible and intangible?” Chen Jiao interrupted him ruthlessly.

She pointed at him, then at herself. “Imagine us together, little one. Is your highest education high school or middle school?”

The Breeding Body pursed his lips. “In fact, I’ve never been to school.”

“Oh! That’s even better! With your total lack of education and your troublemaking abilities, you won’t find any long-term work. I’ll have to work overtime just to support you and your magnificent, intangible love.” Chen Jiao sneered. “No wonder you think it’s romantic, because the one being played for an idiot isn’t you.”

“Do you truly think you’re attractive to me?” Chen Jiao asked, genuinely puzzled. “Where does this confidence come from? That flashy face of yours?”

“But your face is just your parents’ genetic achievement, which means the only good thing about you doesn’t even belong to you.” Chen Jiao opened her thermos again, moistening her lips. Clearly, the lecture wouldn’t stop there.

Outside the monitor, Zhuo watched in awe for a long time. The more he watched, the closer he leaned toward Yuan Anqing, finally stating directly, “It’s a very good thing the Savior changed.”

Being mentally tormented by Chen Jiao was too terrifying; Zhuo couldn’t even imagine enduring a parent-teacher conference with her.

“I think it’s fine. What she’s saying makes perfect logical sense,” Yuan Anqing said. He had no fear of teachers.

“I don’t want to hear things that make sense,” Zhuo grumbled.

“But you are actually a reasonable person,” Yuan Anqing countered. He believed Zhuo could understand so-called reason; otherwise, the monster wouldn’t share household chores with him. He wasn’t praising Zhuo; he was merely stating a fact.

He didn’t think Zhuo needed to fear Chen Jiao. After all, Zhuo and the Breeding Body were fundamentally different and operated on entirely different rules of engagement.

“I just asked Chen Jiao to help me interrogate that Breeding Body,” Yuan Anqing said. “This is a very effective interrogation.”

“I know,” Zhuo averted his gaze proudly. “By the way, I’ve also helped Bai Tian and the others with tasks they couldn’t handle, so I’m not freeloading off your salary, you know.”

“Zhuo,” Yuan Anqing called him.

“Hmm?”

“You are very good. Very excellent,” Yuan Anqing adjusted his glasses. “I’m the one supervising you at the company; I know that very well.”

Zhuo’s red eyes widened slightly, then he quickly released Yuan Anqing and sat up rigidly straight beside him.

“Are you embarrassed?” Yuan Anqing watched Zhuo, noticing that the tips of his pointed ears were flushed—and not Zhuo’s usual dark red, but a bright pink. Yuan Anqing reached out and pinched the tip of Zhuo’s ear, finding it burning hot. “Are you really shy?”

“I don’t know, maybe a little?” Zhuo didn’t understand the physiological reaction.

Bai Tian, drinking water nearby: “…”

Ah, I shouldn’t be here. I always feel like a third wheel.

“Your face is getting redder and redder,” Yuan Anqing said, opening his phone camera to show Zhuo his reflection.

Zhuo took the phone, staring at himself. “It really is! Am I shy?!”

Yuan Anqing obviously couldn’t give him an answer to that question.

“You’re really important to me, friend,” Zhuo exclaimed, a wide smile breaking out. He had never had such a novel experience before.

Yuan Anqing found Zhuo’s sighing and muttering of the word “friend” interesting, so he responded smoothly, “I’m honored, friend.”

This was the first time Yuan Anqing had positively responded with the word “friend” since their argument on the bus.

Zhuo was delighted, and when Zhuo was delighted, he hugged people.

He wrapped his massive arms around Yuan Anqing once more, burying the man against his chest.

Logically, Bai Tian should have been a little nervous at this point, as Zhuo also used “hugging” as a comforting but actually predatory action when devouring other entities. Without careful attention, one could easily be digested and swallowed in Zhuo’s embrace.

But Bai Tian couldn’t bring himself to be nervous.

Although Zhuo completely enveloped Yuan Anqing the moment he hugged him, Bai Tian didn’t feel like it was hunting. This sense of déjà vu was more like a fluffy, large mother hen aggressively hiding her chick under her feathers—though it wasn’t quite that exaggerated.

“I wish I could get bigger and completely cover you!” Zhuo declared, extremely excited at this moment.

Bai Tian: “…”

No! I thought wrong! It IS that exaggerated!
Completely cover him for what?! Is he trying to HATCH Yuan Anqing?!
How incredibly strange!