Chapter 66: The Peculiar Bottle

Chapter 66: Chapter 66: The Peculiar Bottle

Jiang Yuxing shot up. "Will the shelter even hold them off? You can’t handle this alone. I’m on my way!"

Shi Zhile’s eyes lit up. "Great! Hurry over. And bring the solar-powered light from your yard."

The shelter’s Level had returned to Level Four as soon as the two windows were repaired. Now, the courtyard was covered in mermaid slime and blood, and cleaning it all up by herself would be a huge pain.

Wang Peng and Chuyi silently exchanged a look, then spoke at the same time. "We’ll go too."

The video feed from Jiang Yuxing’s end went dark, but his voice came through the panel. A single word, dripping with blatant disgust: "Scram!"

He hung up first, and a moment later, he appeared in her courtyard.

Before the others could speak, he ended Shi Zhile’s video call.

"There’s nothing to say to them. Are you hurt?"

Shi Zhile took a step back and casually wiped the blood from her face.

"Just a scratch. I’ve already used some Healing Spring Water. The monsters outside can’t get in, so we can ignore them for now.

Jiang Yuxing, since you’re here, you might as well set up the light and help me clean."

Jiang Yuxing sighed and resignedly took out the solar-powered light.

It was a solar panel light with a built-in stand. No assembly was required; you just had to place it somewhere high, secure the base, and flip a switch for illumination.

There was nowhere high up in the courtyard to mount it, so Shi Zhile found a few rocks, stacked them to a person’s height, and placed the light on top.

The bright light illuminated more than half the courtyard, allowing Jiang Yuxing to clearly see the layout and the bloodstains.

A trail of transparent, snot-like slime stretched from the window into the courtyard, culminating in a disgusting mess in the center.

Slime and blood were mixed together, the metallic tang of blood mingling with a foul stench, and the trail continued eastward.

The east wall itself was surprisingly clean, but there were bloodstains on the ground, and the signs of a struggle were obvious.

’She must have intercepted the monster in the center of the courtyard and fought it there. Perhaps she was injured mid-battle and retreated into her space.’

’Unable to find its target, the monster must have resumed its attack on the shelter.’

’Then, after Shi Zhile emerged from her space, she re-engaged it near the east wall and finally killed it.’

He gave Shi Zhile a quick once-over, and after confirming she had no visible wounds, he handed her two glass bottles.

The sound of sloshing liquid could be heard as the bottles moved slightly.

"This is Corpse Dissolving Water. I’ll clean the main courtyard area, you take the east wall. Be careful not to get any on your skin."

Shi Zhile thanked him and walked over to the eastern stone wall.

The Corpse Dissolving Water sizzled as it hit the slime, but Shi Zhile’s attention wasn’t on the water itself. It was on the bottle.

’This glass bottle is identical to a Wish Drifting Bottle, right down to the cork stopper.’

’She’d salvaged other drifting bottles before. To keep water out, the ones containing notes usually had their corks pushed almost flush with the opening. But the system-issued Wish Drifting Bottles always had a good portion of the cork sticking out.’

’So, is this just a coincidence, or did Jiang Yuxing’s bottle also come from the system?’

’Shi Zhile was inclined to believe the latter.’

’There’s no such thing as that many coincidences. If there are, it’s got to be an elaborate scam specifically targeting a single person.’

Once the east side was clean, Shi Zhile returned to the center of the courtyard to continue. As the slime dissolved, the bloody, foul odor finally began to dissipate.

Jiang Yuxing wiped blood from an iron pillar. "The monsters outside are a persistent threat if we don’t get rid of them. Let’s observe them tonight. If they return to the sea during the day, we’ll leave them alone. If they don’t, we’ll have to find a way to kill them all."

Shi Zhile yawned. "Why don’t we just ignore them tonight? I’ll sleep in my space, and we can deal with it in the morning."

"Aren’t you afraid they’ll break in and wreck your shelter?"

Shi Zhile replied, "They can’t get in. And if they actually manage to wreck the place, I’ll just take your island."

Jiang Yuxing chuckled. "Now that you mention it, I’m kind of hoping they’ll show some initiative and hurry up and take over your shelter."

Shi Zhile shot him a sidelong glance, then sent him a piece of beef as a thank-you. "It’s pretty much clean now. I’m going to go take a shower. You..."

Jiang Yuxing immediately cut her off. "I’m not showering with you!"

’Shower together!?’

Shi Zhile’s pupils contracted for an instant. ’So in his mind, I’m the kind of person who likes to invite people to shower with her.’

Shi Zhile wouldn’t deny her own innately lustful nature, but she would never expose that side of herself to someone she wasn’t familiar with.

’And with one simple sentence, he had casually revealed that he knew her very well.’

’It was an incredibly unpleasant feeling, especially given that she knew nothing about him, while he seemed to know her inside and out.’

She suppressed her irritation, folded her arms, and sized him up.

"You were perfectly generous about letting me look before, so how come you’re chickening out when it comes to the real deal? It’s not like you’re the one who’d be at a disadvantage if we showered together. What are you so afraid of?"

Jiang Yuxing’s ears turned red again. He was standing in a shadowed area; if it had been any brighter, Shi Zhile would have noticed his entire neck was flushed crimson.

He cleared his throat. "You’re a girl..."

"So you’re afraid I’ll take advantage of you?"

Jiang Yuxing fell silent.

He was genuinely afraid she would take advantage of him—and the kind of taking advantage where she’d just get her kicks and then cast him aside.

Shi Zhile took a step forward. "Are you really afraid I’ll take advantage of you? A boy needs to protect himself when he’s out and about, you know. If you keep tempting people, you never know when you’ll get your just deserts and end up being used up and tossed aside."

She watched him closely and, as she finished speaking, she clearly saw a fleeting shadow of pain and anger flash in Jiang Yuxing’s eyes.

’The shadow of pain was understandable; after all, he was a man being teased by a girl who looked as weak as a kitten.’

’The anger, however, was more complex.’

’Shi Zhile interpreted it as the resentment of someone who had been abandoned before, and whose old wounds had just been torn open anew.’

Jiang Yuxing was very useful at the moment—he had plenty of herbs and supplies. Afraid he might fall into a funk, she quickly tried to soothe him.

"You’re so good-looking, of course you wouldn’t be abandoned..."

Jiang Yuxing’s expression darkened. She quickly tried to explain, "I mean, if you keep tempting me, my baser instincts might take over, so I was telling you to protect yourself."

Jiang Yuxing took a deep breath. "You would have been better off not explaining. I shouldn’t have come."

He opened his panel and activated a Teleportation Gate. Just before he left, he hesitated, opening his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, he held back.

The moment Jiang Yuxing left, Shi Zhile gleefully switched off the solar-powered light.

’Getting him angry is a good thing,’ she thought. ’He leaves supplies behind. Didn’t even take his solar light back. So generous.’

The stench of blood clinging to her was overpowering, and her soft armor was stained red. Shi Zhile immediately boiled another pot of water to bathe.

After her bath, she found a towel, dipped it in the hot water, and wiped down her soft armor several times. Afterward, she used the remaining bathwater to wash the dirty clothes she’d taken off.

It was too cold outside, and with the courtyard covered in snow, there was no sunlight.

Shi Zhile thought for a moment, then used some iron rods to rig up a drying rack over the furnace, hanging her clean clothes on it.

The monsters were still outside; a Level One Sea Lion was still relentlessly slapping against the glass. Fed up, Shi Zhile simply built a stone wall on the inner side of the glass, completely blocking the view.