Chapter 14 – Ying Xize is missing

Su Fengzhou actually didn’t like this feeling at all.

Clearly, he was the one standing high above, looking down from a position of superiority, yet under Ying Xize’s gaze, he seemed like a humble subordinate being judged.

This was a treatment he had never received since he rose to fame in the Defense Force stationed in the underground cave.

Su Fengzhou felt that he had to regain some ground.

The explanation that was about to slip from his lips abruptly stalled. In the next instant, he stubbornly changed tack, using the exact same move Ying Xize had once used against him. “That’s not right, Researcher Ying. Sure, I have my own reasons for wanting these photos, but I don’t recall being your prisoner. As for matters concerning the Seventh Squad, isn’t it true that I don’t actually owe you an explanation?”

After speaking, Su Fengzhou simply waited for Ying Xize to ask another question so he could continue following that thread and keep talking.

After all, if this matter were really to be looked into, he was merely acting in accordance with the regulation.

Based on the instructions given a few days ago, each task squad under the Investigation Department would be assigned a scientific researcher to accompany them during their upcoming missions.

After all, the Seventh Squad was a reputable and well-known team. Recruiting someone naturally required prior evaluation. Even though Su Fengzhou knew he was somewhat abusing his authority for personal reasons, using this opportunity to gather some information on Ying Xize for better understanding was, in itself, perfectly reasonable.

At most, the only issue might be that the direction of this data collection was just a tiny bit…off.

Yet what Su Fengzhou hadn’t expected was that, after he deliberately baited him with that line, Ying Xize didn’t refute him at all. “Mhm, there’s indeed no need to explain to me.”

That cold, beautiful face seemed to say, ‘I’m not interested in you.’

His tone remained flat. “I simply ask that Captain Su be more discreet in the future. If you’re going to secretly hide someone, it’s better that the person involved doesn’t witness it.”

A subtle pause.

Shen Wenyuan had already sensed the captain’s chilly aura. Hugging his head, he was tiptoeing through the hallway, trying to sneak away, when he was caught off guard by Ying Xize’s response and froze in place.

Damn, how else could he have instantly hooked their boss’s heart like that!

That presence, that bearing, he’s bursting with the aura of a rightful consort who rules supreme and bows to no one¹[T/N: Often used to describe someone with unmatched authority or presence.]!

With Ying Xize’s magnanimous gesture, Shen Wenyan felt a faint glimmer of hope within this tight situation. But when he looked over at Su Fengzhou, he saw that their captain’s expression had grown even gloomier than before.

Shen Wenyan: “……”

That person didn’t even make a fuss. Are you a masochist or something²[T/N: “抖M” is a slang abbreviation from Japanese “ドM,” meaning someone who is a masochist or enjoys being mistreated. In Chinese usage, it often jokingly refers to someone who seems to enjoy suffering or invites punishment.]?

Ying Xize casually picked up the few photos at his feet and placed them on the table. He didn’t bother with anything else and slowly stood up, walking out.

This matter should have ended there, but just as they brushed past each other, Su Fengzhou suddenly reached out and grabbed his arm, forcing out a sentence through clenched teeth. “…Who said this was for my private collection? I was just carrying out official duties!”

Ying Xize lifted his gaze and glanced across the other’s face, going along readily. “Mhm, I understand. No need to explain.”

Su Fengzhou: “……” F*ck, you don’t understand at all!

The two were standing very close.

Su Fengzhou had wanted to say something else, but there was a faint, invisible allure in the air that made him instinctively sniff at the tip of his nose.

At that moment, Ying Xize’s cold fingertips gently tapped the back of Su Fengzhou’s hand, then he withdrew his arm from the restraint. He nodded politely and said, “Thank you for helping move the equipment. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be heading back now.”

After speaking, he noticed that Su Fengzhou still maintained a half-leaning position in front of him, lifting his eyes with a faint, ambiguous smile. “Mhm? Captain Su.”

That slightly lifted tail end of the sentence felt like an invisible hook, yanking Su Fengzhou’s wandering thoughts right back.

The next second, he instinctively took a step back.

His reaction was so obedient that he even found it utterly baffling.

Even after Ying Xize left, and the soft sound of the door closing in the next room could be heard, the whole room stayed wrapped in an unsettling silence.

Shen Wenyan carelessly paused to watch the drama unfold for a moment, and only then did he finally realize something was wrong.

But trying to run now was clearly far too late.

Before he could even lift his foot, Su Fengzhou had already grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the room.

With a loud bang, Shen Wenyan looked on in despair as the door slammed shut.

The photos scattered across the floor were quite a sight.

However, at this point, he clearly had no desire to admire the man’s peerless good looks in the photos.

Su Fengzhou had already lit a mint cigarette used for calming emotions. “Wenyan, ah…”

The gentler and more cordial his tone sounded, the colder one’s back grew.

Shen Wenyan reluctantly closed his eyes. “Ai—!”

Su Fengzhou took a deep drag, and the curling smoke he exhaled slowly spread through the room.

He lazily tapped the ash from his cigarette. “That friend of yours who digs up information, he’s got quite the knack, ah? I forgot to ask you earlier, what did he used to do?”

Shen Wenyan lowered his head silently. “If I remember correctly… I think it was… a p-private detective?”

“Oh…” Su Fengzhou responded with a tone full of hidden meaning, then took another drag before continuing, “And now?”

“…A paparazzo.”

When he gave that answer, Shen Wenyan felt he was probably close to death and wasn’t sure if it was still too late to find pen and paper to write his will.

Sure enough, right after that, he heard Su Fengzhou let out a sinister chuckle. “No wonder. Even something as simple as gathering some documents, you had to do it in such a… distinctive style.”

Shen Wenyan: “.”

–

Teams from all over assembled quickly.

In just a few days, aside from the two task squads that were originally overseas, nearly everyone had already arrived.

To perform the upcoming tasks more efficiently, the Cave Outpost Division promptly released an implementation plan for squad integration.

Each squad consisted of more than five combat personnel, along with one logistics member and one research staff, usually forming a group of seven to ten people to facilitate task allocation and execution during official operations.

Ying Xize stood among the crowd of scientific researchers, his tall figure making him an exceptionally striking presence.

Every time Su Fengzhou unintentionally looked that way, he would always see Ying Xize in sight.

And with his excellent eyesight, he could clearly see the appealing outlines of that man’s facial features.

Su Fengzhou couldn’t help but think of certain creatures in nature.

They projected an utterly captivating appearance, but once they acted, it was often a fatal strike.

Beautiful things were usually poisonous.

Su Fengzhou let out a soft tsk.

Even though they lived right next door, ever since that day, it was as if he and Ying Xize had never crossed paths again.

A piece of paper dropped in front of him. It was the registration form handed over by Rong Yun.

Probably unable to stand watching Su Fengzhou zoning out alone, the deputy captain finally couldn’t help reminding him, “Boss, about the specific extra scientific researcher for the team. Please finalize the list as soon as possible.”

Unlike the other temporary squads, since its formation, the Seventh Squad’s personnel arrangements had already been fully completed. What they were missing was only a single research position.

That was also the reason Su Fengzhou had previously considered Ying Xize.

He reached out and took it. His calloused fingertips pinched the edge of the paper.

After a long while, Su Fengzhou finally seemed to have made up his mind.

However, when he looked up again, he unexpectedly saw Ying Xize taking someone else’s personnel registration form and signing it without hesitation.

From every angle, they were one step too late.

“……” Su Fengzhou paused for a moment, then cleared his throat under Rong Yun’s puzzled gaze and walked over to the wavy-haired beauty on the other side of the research team.

She was also a familiar face they had seen before in the Ning City research team.

The reason Yu Qingyi came was mainly to find her boyfriend, He Ji, who was in the Defense Force.

But instead of recognizing her commitment to live and die with him, he had harshly scolded her just the night before. Now, still fuming with anger, she was caught off guard and a little confused when she suddenly received an invitation to join the Seventh Squad.

However, considering He Ji’s annoying attitude the previous day, Yu Qingyi still made up her mind rather quickly after giving it some thought. “…Fine, I guess.”

Su Fengzhou: “.”

Why does it feel like being invited by their Seventh Squad is something people are extremely reluctant about?

When Ying Xize finished signing his name and saw Su Fengzhou handing the invitation to his colleague, he was slightly surprised.

Considering how things had unfolded in the dorm that day, with such a detailed background check on him, even though he didn’t fully understand the purpose, it still appeared, from any perspective, that it was all in preparation for this team assignment.

But this way was fine too.

After all, from Ying Xize’s personal point of view, the Seventh Squad really wasn’t a suitable team to collaborate with.

It conveniently saved him the trouble of having to come up with an excuse to refuse.

After filling out the registration form, Ying Xize was assigned to the team with the code F33365.

In fact, many teams had invited him, but ultimately, he chose this one not because the members were exceptionally skilled, but specifically because every member’s strength was thoroughly average.

The more average the team was, the more likely its captain lacked independent judgment.

That was clearly more in line with his needs.

The phone vibrated faintly. When it was unlocked, it showed a message from Xiang Jiayan: [Be careful.]

Although Xiang Jiayan was a Sentinel, he wasn’t a combat specialist. As an ordinary assistant who couldn’t carry out research tasks on his own, he didn’t have a specific role during the cave operation, so he didn’t stay by Ying Xize’s side during such moments.

Once all the teams were formed, the system records were promptly updated.

Following the principle that ‘action is the best way to build teamwork,’ all the newly formed squads received their first training exercise that same afternoon—

Each team was responsible for one exploration point, conducting independent investigations around the outer area of the cave.

There were many caves like Chen Mountain scattered across the world.

The entrances to these mysterious spaces seemed to have appeared overnight, and no one knew where they had come from.

As the name suggests, these caves appear on the surface to be nothing more than deep, ordinary mountain caves.

However, once inside, one entered a completely different world, unlike the surface of Earth, and hidden within this new world were those bloodthirsty and brutal alien creatures.

Over the past few years, exploration of the underground cave never stopped, but the world beyond it seemed limitless. None of the personnel stationed there had ever successfully mapped its deepest point.

The only information they had was that as they went deeper, the aliens became more densely packed and more ferocious.

Under the 24-hour watch of the Defense Force’s lookout posts, the area closest to the cave entrance had been thoroughly cleared out. It can be said that there was almost no risk, and this was also the main location for this training exercise.

The main task for all squads was to thoroughly search their assigned areas for any potentially missed cell samples.

Even so, this was still the closest many people on the scene had ever been to the actual cave.

When they set out, many squads were shrouded in an extremely tense atmosphere.

They started leaving one after another at 1:30 in the afternoon, and by the time the first squad finished searching and returned, it was already nearing 6:00 p.m.

The sky outside slowly darkened, and by just past nine in the evening, more than half of the teams had already left.

This training exercise was mainly organized to help the new teams build a connection, so it obviously held little importance for veteran squads like the Seventh Squad, and naturally, they didn’t need to participate.

Su Fengzhou sat relaxed in the middle of the open clearing, enjoying the shade. The icy wind stabbed straight into his collar, but he still appeared completely unfazed, as if he hadn’t noticed it at all.

Having barely clung to his miserable life, Shen Wenyan was already baffled the moment he saw the roster for his assigned team.

At that moment, after checking the time several times, he finally risked everything to ask, “Boss, only two squads haven’t come out yet. You… really don’t plan to go pick up Researcher Ying?”

Su Fengzhou didn’t even bother to lift his eyelids. “He’s not one of my squad members. Why would I go pick him up?”

Shen Wenyan found himself momentarily speechless.

Just as he was about to speak, he saw another squad emerging from the entrance of the cave in the distance.

The staff member in charge of headcount gave them a quick glance and asked in surprise, “Why are you short one person?”

The captain looked even more confused. “Ah? Researcher Ying made a discovery ahead and told us to go first. Wait, he hasn’t come out yet?”

The staff member couldn’t believe it. “…Even if this area is relatively safe, you still shouldn’t let a researcher move around alone, right?”

“He hasn’t come out yet?” The captain’s tone was filled with surprise. “That can’t be right. We parted ways over three hours ago, and he mentioned he’d return alone. The location was very near the entrance. After completing our check of the area, we saw no sign of him on the way back. If he hasn’t yet returned to the outpost, then where else could he be gone?”

“Maybe he found a new clue and accidentally got lost? But there’s no need to worry too much. The area around the cave entrance has always been very safe. He was probably just delayed by something.” The staff member offered some reassurance, then reached for their walkie-talkie. “Hold on, I’ll contact the lookout post and see if we can apply for a Defense Force squad to go in and help with the search.”

Before the staff member even finished speaking, Xiang Jiayan, who had been waiting by the entrance all this time, spoke up with an unpleasant expression. “I’ll go in and look.”

The staff member looked troubled. “…Who are you? Without a pass, you’re not allowed to enter.”

Seeing that Xiang Jiayan was about to start arguing with the staff, Shen Wenyan tried to process the information and asked, “Captain Su… does this mean they lost Engineer Ying?”

With a loud bang, the chair toppled to the floor as someone stood up abruptly.

The next second, Su Fengzhou, who had been sitting calmly a moment earlier, was already approaching with long, powerful strides.

The oppressive aura surrounding him stunned the people at the entrance, leaving them in a daze.

Su Fengzhou, with the same ease and precision as in every move, neatly rolled up his sleeves. His palm rested on Xiang Jiayan’s shoulder and, with a subtle force, pushed him back.

“You’re a non-combat Sentinel. What use would you be in there? Stay here and wait. I’ll go look for him.”

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  [T/N: Often used to describe someone with unmatched authority or presence.]
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  [T/N: “抖M” is a slang abbreviation from Japanese “ドM,” meaning someone who is a masochist or enjoys being mistreated. In Chinese usage, it often jokingly refers to someone who seems to enjoy suffering or invites punishment.]