“Ah… Is that so?” Aili stammered.
When she saw the little bird, her only thought was to bring it back to keep Yun Ruoxi company.
She hadn’t even considered the little bird’s parents.
Now, only after Yun Ruoxi’s reminder did she suddenly realize.
Hadn’t she, by taking the bird away just to make her sister happy, done the same thing as the war camp, who kidnapped children to train them as warriors?
She pinched the hem of her clothes, looked up with a red face, “I’m sorry, Sister, I’ll take it back right away.”
“How are you going to take it back now? You can’t go to the surface anymore, are you going to throw this little bird down from the sky?”
Yun Ruoxi smiled helplessly and reached out to gently stroke the little bird’s fuzzy head. “Let it stay with me for now. When you return to the surface, you can take it back then.”
“Okay.” Aili’s eyes lit up. This was truly the best of both worlds.
「Xiao Xi’s been through so much, yet she’s still so kind, sigh」
「There are birds on alien planets?」
「If you ask me, how are there even people among the aliens」
「Aliens, right」
“Sis, you get some rest. I’ll go train for a while. I’ll have Brother Ayun come keep you company.”
Although Aili wished she could stick to Yun Ruoxi twenty-four hours a day, she knew she was far too weak.
To keep up with her sister and at least not be a burden, every moment she left Yun Ruoxi’s side was spent in intense training.
“Go on, actually, I’m almost fully recovered. You don’t need to spend so much time looking after me.”
Yun Ruoxi flicked her blue bangs behind her ear with her pinky and smiled as she asked, “You should hurry and ask Brother A Zhen when I can leave the dorm. I’ve been stuck in this room for so long, I haven’t trained at all.”
“Mhm, Brother A Zhen said it’ll be soon. In a few days, Sis, you’ll have a checkup with the Doctor, then it’ll be about time.”
Aili ran to the door, then turned back with a smile and said:
“Until then, company is absolutely necessary!”
“Honestly.” Yun Ruoxi laughed dotingly.
After Aili left, she carefully set the little bird to the side, then picked up her tablet-like personal terminal and continued her theoretical studies.
But the little bird seemed uneasy in this strange environment, “chirp chirp,” it called non-stop, hopping around on the bed.
The camera didn’t follow Aili’s exit, instead it remained fixed on Yun Ruoxi’s face.
Her pupils reflected the glow of the terminal’s screen, and her fingers turned the pages absentmindedly.
She… had spaced out again.
Countless twisted images swam through the sea of her subconscious, making the little bird’s chirping sound inexplicably noisy and chaotic.
The girl frowned slightly, and the light slowly returned to her eyes as she continued reading.
But just then.
The little bird suddenly jumped onto her terminal, pecking at the screen with its sharp beak.
“This is… what Brother A Zhen gave me.”
Yun Ruoxi murmured, her brow twitching suddenly as an invisible surge of psychic power burst forth.
The little bird, standing atop the terminal, stiffly floated up, coming to a stop before the girl’s eyes.
“Apologize.” She spoke coldly.
The bird’s head was pressed firmly, as if by an invisible thumb, and was forced deep into its belly.
“Apologize.” She repeated.
With another crisp snap, the bird’s limbs were crushed into its body, turning it into a plump, round ball of fluff.
At this moment, the girl’s expression in the camera was terrifyingly calm.
She tilted her head slightly.
The window behind her cracked open a tiny slit.
That ball of fluff shot out at incredible speed, freezing in mid-air outside the dorm.
“Pop!” The girl’s lips curled up slightly, as if mischievously making a sound effect for her beloved toy.
And as the sound rang out—
The compressed ball that was once the bird exploded with a boom, sending bits of bloody, feathery flesh flying in all directions.
A streak of fresh blood happened to pass through the slit in the window, splattering across the girl’s cheek.
She summoned a tissue, wiped away the blood from her face, tossed it casually into the trash bin, then lowered her head and went back to reading her book.
Whoosh!
Under the force of her psychic power, the window slid shut, the sticky gore clinging to its surface sliding down under gravity, leaving behind winding, hideous trails of blood.
The base’s automatic cleaning system detected the mess and activated, and with a high-pressure wash, the window was spotless within moments.
And the instant the window was clean, a slender figure pushed open the door and walked in.
“Good afternoon.” Yun Che smiled gently, his gaze falling on the droplets of water covering the window.
“Did it rain?”
“Good afternoon, Brother Ayun.”
Yun Ruoxi looked up, as if nothing at all had happened, her smile sweet. “Just now something seemed to hit the window, and the base’s automatic cleaning system activated.”
But for the viewers watching the feed—having just seen Yun Ruoxi stroke the little bird and then, smiling, ruthlessly kill it—there was no way to pretend nothing had happened.
At that moment, everyone was furiously spamming question marks.
「 ??? 」
「What happened to Prison Xi? Why did you suddenly turn yandere?」
「She killed the pet her dear little sister gave her without any expression, then smiled as she blew it up—this is scarier than a yandere!」
「That scene just reminded me of a Korean drama called ‘Beyond Evil,’ where the main character, born with a killer’s gene, kills a bird just as expressionlessly after being hospitalized」
「So Prison Xi’s gone dark?」
「Brainwashed?」
「Definitely brainwashed, or she’s been mentally stamped. This is totally not something Xiao Xi would do!」
「So when Xiao Xi spaces out, is that when she’s being brainwashed?」
「Damn those war camp bastards, I want them dead!」
「Prison Yun, check the trash can!」
「The story’s going wild in ways I can’t imagine, but I’ve got a bad feeling about Xiao Xi’s fate」
「Prison Xi’s in trouble, send knives to the production team」
「Count me in」
Although the comments kept telling Yun Che to check the trash can, Yun Che himself didn’t think much of it at all.
Because in a floating rhombus-shaped base high in the sky, it wasn’t unusual for birds or animals to crash into the windows.
“Is that so?”
He replied with a smile.
Pulling a chair in front of him, he sat down and took out his own personal terminal to read.
These terminals were just distributed by the war camp so the trainees could freely access advanced knowledge and study.
The two of them buried their heads in their books, and the room fell quiet.
After a while, Yun Ruoxi suddenly looked up in confusion, turning to glance at the bed beside her.
Her eyes roamed around the room as if searching for something, her expression slowly becoming anxious.
Finally, her gaze fixed on the trash bin in the corner, and she swallowed hard.
Yun Che, disturbed by Yun Ruoxi’s movement, looked up and asked curiously:
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.” Yun Ruoxi forced a smile.
Yun Che let out an “Oh,” then looked down to continue reading.
But just then.
He suddenly seemed to recall something and looked up again, asking:
“By the way, Xiao Xi, do you like the little bird Xiao Ai gave you?”