under the tower

They brought three tents in total, Yan Yi and Ji Xi slept in one, Mao Hei and Chi Miao shared one, and Yan San slept in one by himself.

The nights in the mountains are always not very peaceful. Abnormal people and all kinds of wild beasts are likely to appear. Yan Yi sprayed an odor repellant around the tent. The research institute invented it, which can hide the smell of human beings stationed here and avoid sleeping. Afterwards, they are attacked by deformed people and other dangerous animals.

After setting everything up, they each went back to their tents. Yan took off his military overcoat and covered Ji Xi, lying in a corner with a flashlight on himself, half a person away from Ji Xi in the small tent.

"Are you going to sleep?" Ji Xi asked.

"Yeah." Yan Yi replied, "Go to bed early, I have to hurry tomorrow."

Ji Xi said "oh", the ground was very cold, he wrapped his military coat tightly, turned over, and tried to fall asleep.

After a while, Yan Yi suddenly uttered a voice, breaking the frozen silence in the darkness: "When I met you that day, you were dressed very formally and wore a rose on your chest, is it because you are getting married? "

"Yes." Ji Xi said, "It would have been my wedding that day, if there were no accidents."

Yan Yi was silent for a while: "Then do you like her?"

"Who?"

"That girl who grew up with you, your... fiancee."

Ji Xi blinked suspiciously.

"I like it." He said naturally, "Our two families have always had a good relationship. Why don't I like her?"

Yan stopped for a moment: "Then do you love her?"

Ji Xi was silent for a moment, puzzled: "Love? What is love?"

Yan paused, and struggled to find words to explain: "Love is... Only when people love each other, will they want to spend the rest of their lives with him."

"Is that so?" Ji Xi said softly.

A sentence that seemed to be both a question and a statement floated in the cold night.

In the evening of the next day, they arrived at the mountain indicated by the mission, but for safety reasons, they still chose to settle down at the foot of the mountain for the night.

With the bright moon in the sky, everyone else had already gone back to their tents, only Ji Xi and Yan Yi were still sitting outside, the night in the autumn mountains was already chilled to the bone, and the two of them gathered around a crackling fire.

This day was really torture for him, Ji Xi was sore all over, his face was reddish from the sun, he didn't say anything in front of others, but now he was clamoring for Yan Yi to pinch his legs.

Yan Yi let him half lean in his arms, and pressed the sore places for him one by one with moderate strength.

From Ji Xi's perspective, half of Yan's face can be seen. The man's side face looks extraordinarily handsome under the moonlight. His brow bone and nasal bone are particularly well-grown, which is a very standard superior arc. The whole person is like a man. A silhouette left over from a portrait.

It stands to reason that those who are engaged in the profession of mercenary will always have a kind of murderous look on their bodies when they crawl around among the dead, and their faces will probably appear too fierce, but this is nowhere to be found in Yan Yi.

He has a discordant and harmonious temperament, Ji Xi thinks, it should come from the fact that he still maintains a strange kindness, enthusiasm and innocence under such circumstances.

Yes, he did use the word "strange" in his mind, and Ji Xi thought it couldn't be more appropriate, and he didn't even think it was normal.

"Is it better?" Yan Yi asked.

"Ah."

"Tomorrow..." Yan Yi paused, but still said, "Do you still want to go up the mountain with us?"

"Why not?" Ji Xi turned his head, he sensitively caught Yan Yi's implication, "Do you not want me to go with you?"

Yan Yi hesitated briefly, then admitted.

"I know you're going to be impatient with me when I say that." Yan said, "I didn't let you come before, but you still have to follow."

"I don't know what will happen after going up the mountain tomorrow. I really don't have the energy to take care of you by then, and I don't want you to take risks."

"I can tell, but you still think I'm a burden." Ji Xi looked at him and asked in a statement tone, "Since you made up your mind at the beginning that you don't want me to participate, why did you agree to bring me out?"

"I know, it's really boring to stay at home by myself for so long." Yan Yi lowered his voice, and when he spoke in a deep voice, his tone was particularly gentle and pleasant, "And you told me before, you Your family locked you up and didn't let you go out... I personally think it's wrong. Now that I understand this, within the scope of my ability, I will try not to treat you in this way that I think is very wrong .”

Ji Xi opened her eyes slightly, her azure blue pupils merged with the starry night sky.

For a moment, he actually wanted to compromise.

"Okay." Ji Xi slowly spit out a word.

"If you find it inconvenient, I don't have to go."

"Be obedient." Yan Yi heaved a sigh of relief, smiled slightly, "Wait for me to come back."

That night, Ji Xi couldn't sleep no matter what.

Tomorrow's task has nothing to do with him. In theory, he really doesn't need to worry at all.

In fact, this feeling of powerlessness is the most exhausting.

As soon as he said that, he regretted it. He thought, maybe he could show Yan Yi his unstable ability at that time, convince him that he would not become a burden, or stalk him and tell him that he regretted it, but what? None of them are pretty.

He instinctively felt Yan's disgust and rejection of artifacts. If he were to see his abilities again, he would feel terrible, right?

Ji Xi couldn't remember when he fell asleep, when he opened his eyes, it was already bright outside, Yan Yi and the others had already left, and they didn't wake him up when they left.

Ji Xi put away his things. In the tent, Yan Yi's backpack was not taken away. There were still four bottles of 500ml mineral water, two packs of dry food, one bottle used about a third of the repellant, and a small knife. .

Ji Xi walked out with the barrier agent, and he found that there was a not so obvious red mark outside their tent. The ground that had been sprayed with the barrier agent would show a little red, indicating that the effectiveness of the barrier agent was still in play. I think Yan Yi sprinkled it for him again before he left.

With the cool breeze blowing, Ji Xi sat at the entrance of the tent, basking in the sun, waiting for the time to pass slowly.

However, Ji Xi did not expect that the sky was still clear during the day, but in the afternoon, the sky was covered by thick dark clouds, most of the light was blocked, and the whole mountain was gray, and the wind was also strong, whistling. There is a sense of gloom that is about to rain.

When the wind came up, it became cold outside. Ji Xi lowered the curtain of the tent, leaving only a gap.

The cold wind came in, and there was a sense of malice. Ji Xi frowned subconsciously. In less than a while, the sky outside became darker, and the impenetrable dark clouds had already shown a black color as thick as ink. Grey, as if about to pour down.

Perhaps out of biological instinct, he felt a strong sense of foreboding.

In fact, he had this feeling since last night, but it reached its peak at this moment.

Is it going to rain heavily?

The heartbeat beat heavily on the chest like a drumbeat. Ji Xi raised his hand and stroked his chest. He felt that the frequency was getting faster and faster, and his breathing speed unconsciously accelerated. It seemed like It's because the air pressure suddenly drops, so you have to breathe harder to get the same amount of oxygen.

Uncontrollable anxiety spread throughout the body, Ji Xi was very uncomfortable, maybe it was because of the weather, maybe it was something else.

At this moment, he vaguely saw something white floating through the gap between the tents.

Ji Xi felt a little strange in his heart, walked over and opened the curtain, the icy wind and water droplets slapped his face, and then he found in a daze that there were white snowflakes mixed in the slanting rain.

It actually snowed.

It's just autumn, right?

Ji Xi was a little shocked. He grew up in Shencheng, and the weather in Beicheng could be described as outrageous to him.

In the evening, the rain did not decrease, but the snow fell more and more heavily. Heavy snow fell densely from the half-dark sky, and the entire mountain forest began to be gradually dyed white.

Ji Xi sat cross-legged at the door of the tent, looking straight at the direction Yan Yi and the others went up the mountain.

He reconfirmed that the wait didn't feel too good.

He thought for the umpteenth time that the sky was getting dark, so they should come back.

The rustling trees around him made him ignore the deformed man who staggered towards him with a low howl in the darkness.

Ji Xi didn't notice the deformed man until he was close to the red circle drawn by the repellant on the ground. That guy looked no different from an ordinary deformed man, his skin was rotten to gray, half of which was covered with fleshy skin and With a big mouth full of rotting blood, stiff limbs, most of the eyeballs were covered in turbid dead white, and the eyes were staring at the front without focus.

But it was walking towards where Ji Xi was sitting, and from Ji Xi's perspective, it seemed that the deformed man was staring straight at him.

He knew that was impossible, so he replenished the repellant again in the afternoon. The five senses of the deformed person are very poor, but the senses of smell and hearing are the most keen. It is said to be like a wall that is automatically skipped because it does not sense the prey.

It should be so.

However, the moment Ji Xi froze, he saw that the deformed man seemed to be showing a ferocious and strange smile at him.

Afterwards, the monster stepped over the red line on the ground, opened its bloody mouth, and rushed towards him with a clear goal.

How can it be? !