Su Xing and the others’ eyes widened, and they asked in unison, “Your wife?!”
Keno nodded, “That’s right, my wife would never hurt me. So you can rest assured.”
Su Xing keenly found a loophole in the story, “Didn’t you say earlier that you survived here thanks to your wife and daughter? Your wife is trapped here; how could she help you?”
Keno replied, “She is my wife and the queen among the Snow Maidens. Plus, my daughter isn’t confined, so the Snow Maidens naturally won’t harm me.”
Evincel questioned, “Why didn’t you say that before?”
Keno pushed up his glasses. He still felt some apprehension towards this skilled young man and carefully replied, “I didn’t trust you much before. After all, no outsiders have ever come here, and such a big secret is hidden. I was afraid you might cause problems.”
This explanation certainly seemed plausible.
Evincel nodded and asked no more questions.
Su Xing thought for a moment, “Then what about your daughter? Where is she now?”
Keno’s glasses glinted.
He slightly lowered his head, “I don’t know. I’m not always with my daughter. She might have gone out to find food for me.”
Su Xing nodded thoughtfully, resting her chin on her hand, and asked with a smile, “How about you tell us how to get rid of these Snow Maidens? You should know, if I don’t get an answer, I’ll keep asking.”
Seeing that she refused to give up, Keno finally spoke, “Back then, fearing something might go wrong, Raile suggested installing a heating device in the main control room. If you press the button, the temperature of the entire base will rise, and then the Snow Maidens will naturally… disappear.”
Kaka couldn’t help but say, “Then your wife and daughter will also disappear, won’t they?”
Keno replied firmly, “Yes, that’s why I will absolutely not tell you the location of the control switch!”
Kaka understood and comforted him, “Don’t worry, your wife and daughter are already like this; we won’t harm them. It’s a pity my Little Blue can’t be used now, otherwise I would have just shattered this glass cover. It’s quite easy.”
“What?”
Keno stood up abruptly in shock, “You can break the glass cover?!”
Kaka innocently replied, “Yeah, my Little Blue’s spines are super hard! That glass cover shatters with just a light jab.”
He finished, shaking his head proudly, “I knew my phantasm wasn’t simple. Turns out I’m a hidden genius. It’s just a pity when we encountered the Snow Maidens earlier…”
At this, he lowered his head, looking a bit downcast.
Su Xing felt as if she was looking at a Samoyed with its tail and ears drooping.
Quinn suddenly raised his hand, meekly glancing around, “I… maybe I, I can help.”
As he spoke, a green light flashed, and a green plant with an ugly, large red flower on its head suddenly appeared on the ground.
The center of the red flower was a gaping maw, looking extraordinarily terrifying.
The three looked up at the pale, delicate Quinn, then at the outrageously aggressive-looking ugly plant, their movements perfectly synchronized, as if pre-programmed.
Quinn shyly pursed his lips and smiled, a stark contrast to the gaping grin on the large red flower.
Su Xing swallowed hard and asked with difficulty, “Is this… your phantasm?”
Quinn nodded happily, stroking the red flower’s petals: “Cute, isn’t it?”
Evincel smacked his eyes shut, not even bothering to mock.
Su Xing gave a fake smile and praised against her will, “It’s truly adorable. Look at these petals, so delicate and lustrous!”
Kaka looked at Su Xing, then at Quinn, hesitant to speak, but finally, he wisely remained silent.
It was a rare moment of discretion for him, which counted as a big improvement.
Keno, however, was very interested in Quinn’s phantasm and eagerly asked, “What are your phantasm’s abilities?”
When talking about his phantasm, Quinn, for once, had a touch of pride befitting a boy his age, “It’s… it’s healing! Put an injured creature into the rose’s mouth, and it can heal them!”
“Wait?”
Kaka looked confused, “You call that a rose?”
Quinn shook his head, “Rose isn’t ‘Rose’, but ‘Rose’ said it wants to grow my favorite flower. My favorite is a rose, so it’s called ‘Rose’.”
Finished, Quinn happily told Kaka, “Okay, put your Little Blue in there. It should be good in less than an hour.”
Su Xing, however, suddenly stopped Kaka, “Wait, before that…”
She looked at Evincel, who had kept his hand behind his back, and said with a meaningful smile, “I think we should first treat someone who’s stubborn but kind-hearted, and who got hurt but didn’t say anything.”
Kaka looked at Evincel in surprise, “Eh? Evincel, are you hurt?”
“Don’t call people by such intimate names without permission!”
Evincel was clearly flustered, reddening with anger, “And it’s not that I wouldn’t say, it’s just that there were no treatment options, so saying anything would have been useless.”
Su Xing nodded good-naturedly, with a dismissive look that said, whatever you say is right, “Alright, alright. So, Evincel, now that there are treatment options, shouldn’t you hurry and get treated?”
Evincel glared at her, knowing Su Xing wouldn’t change, and was too lazy to retort.
He brought out the hand he had kept behind his back.
It was purplish-blue, clearly frostbitten.
Quinn was visibly stunned when he saw the hand, while Kaka cried out and rushed forward with concern, “Oh my goodness! Evincel, when did you get hurt? Why didn’t you say anything?”
Quinn was smarter.
After seeing the wound, he quickly figured it out and murmured, “It must have been when he was killing the Snow Maidens, right? I should have thought of it sooner. Snow Maidens have extremely low body temperatures; even phantasms turn into ice when they touch them, let alone people.”
That was indeed the case.
Su Xing hadn’t realized it at the time, but when she saw Little Blue turn into an ice block, she quickly connected it to Evincel.
Then, observing his subsequent behavior, she immediately understood what had happened.
Evincel gently pushed away the chattering Kaka beside him and walked towards Rose.
As if sensing his arrival, Rose’s mouth opened wider, revealing a faint hint of drool inside.
Evincel: …
He frowned, unable to help but take a step back.
Being a bit of a clean freak, a hint of reluctance emerged, “Maybe I…”
However, before he could finish speaking, he was jointly “persecuted” by Su Xing, Quinn, and Kaka, who forcefully shoved his hand into the maw of the big red flower.
After it was done, Kaka very curiously asked, “How does it feel? Being held in Rose’s mouth?”
Evincel’s face was ashen, “Why don’t you try it yourself?”
Kaka innocently replied, “I’m not hurt. My phantasm, however, can try.”
Because Kaka was just a silly, single-celled organism, everyone present knew he genuinely thought that, rather than intentionally provoking.
This left Evincel with no avenue to mock him back, so he could only grit his teeth and swallow his frustration.
“Pfft!” Su Xing was amused. Indeed, the naturally innocent were the greatest enemies of tsundere types. Seeing Evincel glare at her, she quickly reined in her smile and asked righteously, “How do you feel now? Is Quinn’s phantasm’s healing ability strong?”
Evincel collected himself and felt his hand.
The hand, which had been numb, now felt a slight tingling.
Meeting Quinn’s hopeful yet uncertain gaze, he couldn’t help but nod, “It’s working. It should be fine in about ten minutes.”
For frostbite, this healing time was already very fast.
The group relaxed and patiently sat there, waiting for Rose to heal.
Soon, Evincel had fully recovered. Facing Quinn, who had healed him, he uncharacteristically softened his stern features and whispered thanks, “Thank you.”
“Eh… eh?”
Quinn was clearly stunned, but Evincel had already leaned back against the doorframe and closed his eyes.
He hesitated for a moment, then pursed his lips, “No… no need to thank me, Evincel.”
Evincel’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t open his eyes to retort.
As they put Little Blue into Rose, Su Xing, not giving up, moved closer to Keno again, “Since we already have a better solution, you don’t need to worry about me destroying these Snow Maidens. So, tell me where the heating switch is!”
Keno looked at her strangely, “Since you already have the best solution, why do you still need to know that answer?”
Su Xing replied self-righteously, “Curiosity! Isn’t it normal for someone my age to have such strong curiosity?”
She then openly threatened him, “You should know that people our age, besides having boundless curiosity, also have boundless energy. You can refuse to tell me, but similarly, I won’t break that glass cover. Anyway, the Snow Maidens won’t come in, so we’ll just see who can outlast whom!”
Keno felt a headache coming on and rubbed his temples irritably, “You don’t seem like someone your age.”
Su Xing took this as a compliment and shamelessly said, “Well, children from poor families learn early!”
Finished, she called over Kaka, who was nervously watching Rose, then winked at Keno, “Perhaps you know of Kaka’s annoying ability?”
Keno carefully pushed up his glasses, “I have some understanding.”
Keno looked at Kaka, and finally made up his mind: “Alright, I’ll tell you.”
Su Xing patted Kaka’s confused head, gesturing for him to go back and watch his phantasm.
Then she shook her head with a smile, “No hurry, let’s play a game first.”
Keno was momentarily stunned, “What game?”
“Quick questions, quick answers. Please answer my questions as fast as you can.”
Then, she sped up her speech, “Favorite color?”
“Blue!”
“Favorite fruit?”
“Avocado!”
“What time do you go to bed?”
“Ten o’clock!”
“Where is the heating switch?”
“Behind the mirror frame in Lab 221!”
At this point, Su Xing nodded with satisfaction and sat back down.
Keno now fully understood her intentions and frowned, “Was that necessary?”
“Of course, it effectively prevents you from deceiving me.”
“But you don’t even need that answer?”
“Does that have anything to do with me not wanting to be lied to by you?”
The two exchanged questions and answers, ending with Keno’s complete defeat.
Evincel’s lips subtly curved upwards, clearly very pleased to let others experience Su Xing’s eloquence.