Chapter 69: Ten Days

“Shuai, Xiaoxi, Shuai!”

“It’s such a relief. When Xiaoxi says it, I really believe her. After all, she’s the one who took down that Cybernetic madman single-handedly.”

“The male lead is still so useless though.”

Yun Ruoxi was right.

They couldn’t possibly expect those three half-scared trainees to sneak out in the middle of the night to deal with beasts!

And Lin Zhen himself, well, he wanted to help but was powerless.

“You… must be careful!”

In the end, this was all he could say.

He watched as that petite figure responded softly, then disappeared at the end of the tunnel.

Creak.

From above came the faint sound of a wooden plank being moved—she had gone out.

Suddenly, the beast’s roar echoed.

A moment later, the beast’s roar came again, even fiercer.

The soil above their heads trembled, dust drifting down, as if some giant creature was rampaging overhead.

Lin Zhen strained to listen, his heart filled with worry, afraid that Yun Ruoxi might run into danger outside.

Though Yun Ruoxi’s survival skills far surpassed his, this was still the most dangerous night.

Countless terrifying predators would be out on the prowl.

No matter how strong Yun Ruoxi was, if she was beset by a pack of predators, there was no way it would end well.

Minute by minute, time crawled by, but Yun Ruoxi still hadn’t returned.

Just as his anxiety peaked—

A sudden, stabbing pain pierced his mind, as though red-hot tongs were twisting his nerves.

Lin Zhen’s face contorted in agony. He curled up, clutching his head, rolling on the ground as cold sweat poured from his forehead. His consciousness grew blurry, yet he couldn’t quite lose consciousness.

The three nearby noticed his odd behavior.

After a moment of hesitation, the short male trainee moved closer, gave Lin Zhen a gentle nudge, and asked, “Are you okay?”

Lin Zhen didn’t answer, just stared at him in confusion, his awareness flickering between waking and fainting.

The boy reached out to touch Lin Zhen’s forehead, but the burning heat made him pull his hand back instantly in shock.

“What’s wrong?” another asked.

“He’s burning up! His forehead’s scalding!”

At that moment—

A petite figure leaped down at the end of the tunnel.

She must have heard the conversation. Her face went pale as she hurried over.

Lin Zhen wanted to reassure her, to tell her not to worry, but he couldn’t form a single word.

His whole body felt light and distant; though he was in the underground den, he couldn’t hear any of Yun Ruoxi’s conversation with the others.

It was as if a thick barrier separated them. He could only watch Yun Ruoxi pace anxiously.

Sometimes she pressed a wet cloth to his forehead, sometimes she had to go out to fight off the approaching beasts.

The night seemed endlessly long.

Yun Ruoxi’s strength was slowly worn away by her constant trips outside.

Every time she came back, her wounds had multiplied.

Her breathing grew heavier, her face streaked with sweat and mud, looking utterly exhausted.

Meanwhile, Lin Zhen himself drifted deeper into delirium, losing all sense of time.

He had no idea how long it had been.

He only vaguely remembered the girl hurrying away and coming back, over and over.

Sometimes, she seemed to be gone even longer.

But she always returned to the underground den, bringing back piles of supplies, stuffing the place to overflowing.

Then she would look at him with those striking crimson eyes.

The other three trainees also went out a few times.

But after their last trip, they never came back.

After that, Lin Zhen never saw Yun Ruoxi leave for long stretches again.

The viewers, following Yun Ruoxi’s perspective, knew exactly how much time had passed.

But Lin Zhen couldn’t see their comments.

“Lao Lin has been burning up for almost ten days—will he die from this?”

“When Lao Lin finally dies of fever, let’s make Xiaoxi the main character! Who’s with me?”

“Can I be the male lead? Let me test Xiaoxi hard (dog head & rose emoji)”

“Let the guy above finish first, then it’s my turn to test her (licks)”

“Xiaoxi is really responsible—fending off beasts, searching the whole jungle for food drops and herbs…”

“It hurts to watch. She’s just a little girl, after all…”

Indeed.

***

After that night, ten days passed. Lin Zhen’s fever never broke, and he lingered in a half-dream, half-awake state.

Yun Ruoxi had to stay in the den, carrying the burden of caring for him all on her own.

The anime used a series of quick-cut scenes, brief but vivid, to show her ten days as both mom and dad, the ultimate caretaker, and just how reliable she really was.

By day, she went out to gather food and herbs.

At night, she stayed by Lin Zhen’s side, going sleepless night after night to watch over him, occasionally dashing out to chase away beasts.

Within just two days, her exhaustion was obvious to the naked eye.

Fortunately, on the third day, driven by hunger, the three trainees finally pulled themselves together. To repay Yun Ruoxi for saving their lives, they took the initiative to help with the caregiving.

Only then did Yun Ruoxi have a bit of time to rest, and could even risk venturing farther afield to search for herbs.

But the respite didn’t last.

Lin Zhen’s fever persisted, and the deadline for the annual assessment drew ever closer.

Under mounting pressure, the three trainees finally chose to move on.

Before leaving, they urged Yun Ruoxi to come with them, saying seven days of care was more than enough.

But Yun Ruoxi refused to leave, no matter what.

Still, to thank them for their earlier help, she divided up twelve sinner’s ears, giving them just enough to complete their hunting quota.

The three were moved to tears by the gift, and showered with a flood of viewer comments and popularity.

On the tenth day of Lin Zhen’s fever,

With just four days left until the end, quite a few quick-moving trainees had already started arriving at the Rhombus Base.

But Yun Ruoxi still stayed in the underground den.

She soaked a strip of cloth torn from a trainee uniform and placed it on Lin Zhen’s forehead.

Then, carefully, she fed him a bowl of thick, dark herbal medicine.

Afterwards, she sat beside him, duck-sitting, gazing absent-mindedly at the sky through the observation hole above.

Suddenly, a fit of violent coughing broke the silence.

Yun Ruoxi snapped back to herself and turned.

She saw Lin Zhen, no longer half-conscious and muttering for water, but suddenly sitting up, gasping for breath, his face pale with shock:

“How—how long was I out?”

“Ten days!” Yun Ruoxi blurted, staring at Lin Zhen in disbelief.

Once she was sure he was really awake, all her forced calm fell away.

Her eyes quickly filled with tears, which spilled down her cheeks like a broken string of pearls.

But as she cried, she suddenly realized something, and hurriedly scrubbed her tears away.

“Xiaoxi, you…”

Lin Zhen had been sick for ten days, but somehow, his body now felt better than before he’d fallen ill.

He couldn’t explain it, but he remembered everything Yun Ruoxi had done for him during those ten days.

Seeing her like this, he felt a pang of heartache and reached out, wanting to pat her head like before.

But Yun Ruoxi shrank back, dodging him.

Just as Lin Zhen thought he’d crossed a line and made her mad, he heard her, voice choked with tears, pleading softly, “I won’t cry, and I won’t let you hug me or pat my head, as long as you, 432, don’t pass out again, okay?”

That desperate plea, like a blade, sliced right through Lin Zhen’s defenses.

It wasn’t that he’d done anything wrong!

It was that silly, innocent Yun Ruoxi, taking all the blame for his collapse onto herself!

Even blaming that hug, those touches!

But those things had nothing to do with it—besides, the head-patting was always his idea!

This silly, naive girl…

…She was just too heartbreaking.

Back on the Junk Planet, Lin Zhen had seen people squander fortunes just to win a beauty’s smile.

He’d never understood such wasteful behavior—but now, suddenly, he got it.

If he could make Yun Ruoxi smile right now, he wouldn’t just spend a fortune—he’d spend ten fortunes if he could…

…Well, that would still be a bit wasteful, and not very practical.

“It’s not your fault!”

Lin Zhen reached out, gently took Yun Ruoxi’s slender arm, and pulled her back in front of him.

He took the red-eyed girl into his arms.

Yun Ruoxi froze.

Feeling the soft warmth in his embrace, Lin Zhen smiled, “See? I’m not passing out anymore, am I?”

“It was that Cybernetic’s fault—how could you take the blame for someone else’s mistake?”

Yun Ruoxi paused, then realized what he meant. Blushing furiously, she pushed Lin Zhen away and quickly retreated to a corner.

She pursed her lips and said nothing, but her beautiful eyes carefully studied Lin Zhen.

Lin Zhen spread his arms wide, letting her examine him.

About an hour passed. When Yun Ruoxi saw that Lin Zhen was in good shape, with no sign of fainting, she slowly inched back to his side and gently poked his chest with her fingertip, softly asking,

“Are you really better now?”

“Of course,” Lin Zhen flexed his arms, “Not only am I better, I actually feel stronger than before. It’s strange, really.”

Hearing this, a faint light flashed in Yun Ruoxi’s eyes, and she suddenly threw herself into his arms, sobbing quietly again.

Lin Zhen flustered, comforted her for a long while before she finally calmed down.

When they separated again, Lin Zhen’s shirtfront was soaked, and Yun Ruoxi’s eyes were still red at the corners, as if brushed with a light touch of rouge.

They glanced at each other and both smiled bashfully, lowering their heads.

“Sweet, sweet, sweet! Kill me now, I’m dying of sugar overload!”

“It’s so sweet I’m about to faint!”

“They’re already hugging and head-patting by episode four. At this rate, what’s going to happen by episode twelve? I can’t even imagine.”

“What are you expecting up there? They’re only twelve! Even by episode twelve, they’ll only be fourteen at most!”

“I bet if Xiaoxi had a ‘liking meter’ over her head, it’d have exploded by now!”

After that, they talked about everything that had happened in those ten days.

The subtle awkwardness between them slowly faded away, and they were finally able to calmly discuss the situation.

“There are still six days left. We’re at least two hundred kilometers from the Rhombus Base. That means at least fifty kilometers a day—it’s tough, but not impossible.”

Lin Zhen analyzed carefully.

If it was flat ground, with their stamina, fifty kilometers a day was nothing. Even the full two hundred would be possible.

But this was jungle—rugged and complex terrain.

Not only did it slow them down, but it sapped their strength.

Fifty kilometers a day was already pushing it. If they ran into a short day, they’d have even less time.

Adding it all up, Lin Zhen realized the situation was even more urgent than he’d thought. His brows knitted together.

“Actually…we don’t have to rush so much.” Yun Ruoxi suddenly spoke up.

Lin Zhen blinked, “Hm? Why not?”

“Because we’ve been counting the days by Pandora-35’s rotation, but when the instructor said thirty days, he meant Imperial standard twenty-four-hour days.”

“Right.” Lin Zhen realized, “We’ve been so used to counting by the local day-night cycle, we forgot the real time is based on twenty-four-hour days.”

“But…doesn’t that make the time even shorter? Xiaoxi, did you calculate exactly how much time we have?”

Yun Ruoxi nodded shyly. Lin Zhen couldn’t help but praise her, “You’re just too reliable…”

Meanwhile, the comments filled the screen with “reliable”.

In “Stellar”, this word had become Yun Ruoxi’s exclusive tag.

At least for the first season, that was true.

“If we’re going by twenty-four-hour days, how long do we actually have?” Lin Zhen asked.

Without hesitation, Yun Ruoxi replied, “Nine days.”

“Nine days…even if we subtract six hours for the nights, that’s still a hundred and sixty-two hours. Much more manageable.”

Lin Zhen did the math and smiled, glancing up through the observation hole.

It was still bright out.

He decided there was no time to waste—they’d set off immediately.

Yun Ruoxi agreed without hesitation. That absolute trust was written all over her face, making Lin Zhen feel both amused and incredibly warm inside.

They started packing their gear and supplies.

In these ten days, Yun Ruoxi had turned into a bulldozer, taking down nearly every creature and person nearby who dared fight her for rations.

She’d been feeding five people all by herself.

In the past three days, they’d been using up supplies with little coming in, but they still had fifteen food packs left.

If they rationed carefully, it would last until the next food drop.

As for her giving away the sinner’s ears, Lin Zhen had no complaints. In fact, he admired her generosity.

As for equipment…

Aside from what they got from the sinners and their own gear,

Lin Zhen stared in shock at the shredded remains of the Cybernetic’s body, which Yun Ruoxi had hung from a tree and almost completely dismantled.

“You did all this?” he asked.

Yun Ruoxi nodded her little head, “Yeah, I figured the cybernetic parts could be used to repair or upgrade weapons, so I took the time to strip him down completely.”

As she spoke, she dragged a big box from the bushes, crammed full of assorted parts—some still stained with the Cybernetic’s blue coolant.

After pulling out the box, Yun Ruoxi seemed to realize something, clutching at her shirt hem awkwardly as she said,

“He was a bad guy. I had to protect everyone, so there was no other way…”

“No, I don’t blame you at all!” Lin Zhen said firmly, “If it were me, I’d have done the same. Honestly, we’re on the same page about this.”

Hearing that, Yun Ruoxi finally relaxed.

If Lin Zhen had grown distant because of it, all her suffering these past ten days would have been for nothing.

They say if you can bear hardship, you can bear even more—but she didn’t want that.

Every bit of suffering she endured was for the chance to grow stronger and gain more popularity.

After this whole string of performances, she’d gained a massive following.

In fact, the momentum from the first three episodes had created a kind of qualitative leap.

Now, in just a few minutes, she’d gained more popularity than she had in all of episode three!