BXBX NOVEL Chapter 108: Upset
“Are you ready? If so, we shall proceed with the operation.”
Chang’s face was fully exposed under the shadowless lamp, his wounds and dried blood unconcealed from Qing Shui.
“I am.”
Chang nodded.
An anesthetic mask hovered over Chang’s face, then the light overhead started to grow fainter, and eventually the darkness became absolute.
The operation was a success. One month later, the bandage was removed from Chang’s face, and it was exactly the same as before thanks to Qing Shui’s technique.
“Chang, Qing Shui is good at this, isn’t he?”
For some reason, Jing had stopped calling Qing Shui as Mr. Li and started using his first name.
Yet Chang was reluctant to correct her.
“I always knew he was good at this, but I do find it difficult to make expressions.”
The person in the mirror attempted to make a smile, but failed.
“Well, you insisted on using the metal bones, I’m pretty sure it would have been better to implant the synthetic ones,” Jing said, jumping on his back.
Standing in front of the mirror, Chang turned his face from left to right, checking his ‘new’ appearance.
“Thinking of the synthetic bones... They remind me of the gene-altered soldiers, and that upsets me.” Chang heaved a sigh. “I don’t want to become one of them. What about you, do you feel better, has the headache passed?”
“It’s better now.”
“Do you want to get rid of the scar as well? The red color and the shape... it looks like a centipede. You’ll look much prettier without the scar.”
His finger caressed along the bulging scar, which started from her cheek and went down to the neck.
“No, I don’t want to. The scar commemorates how we met. It reminds me of the light that you turned into.”
“Light?”
“Exactly, you were that light that cut through the seamless darkness. This is how I think of you since the first time we met.”
Jing put up a straight face.
“What a fitting comparison!” While Chang and Jing were talking, a familiar figure entered the room. “Humans perceive the surroundings as darkness when they’re desperate. And the light of hope often leaves the most profound effect in one’s memory.”
“Mr. Li, what brings you here?”
Seeing Qing Shui coming, Chang attempted to welcome him with a warm smile, but after pursing his lips for a few time, he still felt inadequate in making the expression. Thus, he returned to his still face, but his words were said with ardor. “I haven’t seen you for almost a month during my recovery, how are you? You must be busy.”
“Not too bad, but I do have documents stacked up on my desk,” Qing Shui answered with a nod. “I heard that you are removing the bandage today, and felt obligated to see you. After all, you two are my only family now.”
“Thank you.”
Perhaps because they hadn’t talked for a while, Chang felt like there was a distance between him and the person who he had went through death with.
“Leave those polite words behind, please. No matter what I will turn into, you two are the purest spots in my heart.”
Qing Shui’s hand squeezed Chang’s shoulder, and he stepped forward to mess with Jing’s hair, but the latter avoided it.
“Jing, we are not as close as we used to be.” His hand stopped in the air awkwardly, Qing Shui was only able to force a laugh through his thin lips. “You’re a grown-up now.”
“What have you come for?”
Jing stepped back, her eyes showing distrust.
“I thought I told you why I’m here. First, it’s to visit the brand new Chang, and the second reason...” Qing Shui’s face returned to a calm state, his eyes remaining on Jing. “I have a question for you.”
“What question?” Jing asked in reply.
“A question about your perception.” Qing Shui stepped forward and hunkered down. “A month ago, on the day we went to the Yellow River, did you sense anything strange in your perception range?”
“Anything strange?” Jing was confused.
“Yes, something strange.” Qing Shui tilted his head backward, looking at the ceiling and recalling. “When I was on the peak, I felt quite disturbed to be honest. But I can’t be sure what caused it.”
“Disturbed?” Chang, too, was puzzled. “It shouldn’t be, I thought you were well-prepared.”
Perhaps people other than Chang wouldn’t understand how capable Qing Shui was now, but he knew that fact very well. “How could you possibly be disturbed? By any chance, were you just nervous?”
“I don’t think so, my emotions were under control.” Qing Shui was as calm as still water. “As you said, I was well prepared. I was certain about my plan, and that shouldn’t have arised any uneasiness. From what I understand, my disturbance came from when I collect the information from the surroundings. To explain it better, a good example is a person in a place which harbours malicious intentions. The person probabaly doesn’t know what is going on but he can sense it, and that’s the source of the disturbance.
“The feeling didn’t come from nowhere; it was rather my instincts. The information collected from the environment may not have turned into something that I was aware of, but it could have come from a glance, or an expression. All together they produced that werid experience.
“Myself, I’m much more sensitive in terms of collecting these hardly visible emotions, and I tend to analyse them more often than non-EMs. Therefore, my agitation must came from somewhere,” Qing Shui explained, frowning. “However, even thought I’ve sorted out my memories numerous times, I still failed to find that source.
“My conclusion is: the source of disturbance is unknown,” Qing Shui said, looking at Jing’s eyes. “Or, that it is something uncontrollable. I’ve been thinking, could it be an invisible organism that watched me as a bystander?”
“Invisible?”
Jing rolled her eyes while recalling bits and pieces from that day.
Both Chang and Qing Shui stopped talking, to leave a moment of silence for Jing.
“There is something unusual.” Jing was drawn back from reminiscence after four minutes. “On that day, a hole or a zone that was shielded from my perception appeared for a second.”
“What zone?” Qing Shui was intrigued.
“Let me explain. In my perception, if there is absolutely no life in a range, it is pure darkness, but I’m still monitoring everything.” Jing struggled to explain how she usually perceived danger. “It is just like how we walk at night. Although it is dark, the darkness is something that exists for real, and so we can move through it.
“But on that day, I found that there was a hole in my perception range, that I had completely lost grasp of it.”