Zane was also not asleep, walking together with Xiangli Yao…
"Damn it, Xiangli Yao, if you're not sleeping then at least let me sleep!"
Looking at the innocent smile on Xiangli Yao's face, Zane jumped up, pointed at the handsome guy with chestnut-colored hair in front of him, and started cursing loudly, "You damn guy, instead of going to find your truth, why did you come to wake me up! Do you even know I haven't slept for two days already!"
From that night in Qichi Village when he left Jinzhou City to draw cards, then secretly returned to Jinzhou City, up until now, it really had already been two days and one night.
"I heard you've been getting quite close to that mysterious Rover lately?"
"Huh?" Zane raised an eyebrow in confusion. "By 'getting close,' do you mean her hitting my head with a swift blade all day?"
Xiangli Yao was already used to Zane's genius-like train of thought, so for this kind of topic, as long as he didn't immediately grab a blade and go kill someone, that already counted as a pretty good relationship.
"That Rover is very likely the mysterious resonator who appeared in Jinzhou twenty years ago, broke through the residual image blockade, and helped my mother transport vaccine sugar pills."
"Your mother? Ms. Xiangli Yan? But how do you even know all this?"
Facing Zane's question, Xiangli Yao took out a report from when Rover was examined at the Huaxu Research Institute. On it was clearly recorded her resonance spectrum test chart.
"This Rover's spectrum is almost exactly the same as that resonator back then. So I suspect they are actually the same person."
Hearing Xiangli Yao's explanation, Zane felt a bit dazed for a moment.
'Could it be you also slept for ten thousand years and then woke up, wanted to leave Solaris but got sealed by a suddenly appearing mysterious white-haired person, were forced to separate from your brother, and then woke up again to search for him?'
"You didn't wake me up in the middle of the night just to tell me this, right?"
Zane crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, slightly raising an eyebrow at Xiangli Yao. Based on what he knew about him, nothing could pull this genius out of his lab.
Unless you told him you found "the truth."
So the professor next door, Ratio, would probably get along very well with him.
"The Threnodian might be about to revive."
Zane's eyes widened, and he instantly wasn't sleepy anymore.
"What did you say? the Threnodian reviving? Are you serious?"
Although abnormalities had been appearing very frequently in the silent zones within Jinzhou lately, there had never been any evidence directly pointing to the Threnodian's revival.
After the Battle beneath the Cresent back then, the Threnodian fell into slumber, and no one knew when it would wake up.
But Xiangli Yao gently shook his head. "At present, the institute has no direct evidence to confirm the Threnodian is about to revive."
"But according to the institute's frequency monitor, the abnormal frequencies in the direction of Norfall Barrens are unusually active."
"So basically, better to believe it exists than not…"
Zane rubbed his smooth chin and started pacing back and forth.
"Does Sister Jihnsi know about this?"
"Lady Magistrate should have already received the institute's message. By now, she has probably already notified the frontline soldiers to stay on high alert."
Zane nodded. "Right, besides that, we also need to strengthen patrols within the city. There's a good chance some shady people will take advantage of this moment to cause trouble."
"And we need to issue evacuation warnings to the civilians, gradually move those outside the city into the city."
"At the same time, we'll have to trouble your institute to speed up the production of a batch of weapons and equip all patrol guards as soon as possible."
"Medicine and food are also essential. Arrangements for the wounded, calming the civilians, all of it has to…"
Listening to Zane ramble on endlessly, completely unlike his earlier sleepy state, Xiangli Yao couldn't help but find it a bit amusing.
He really didn't know where Zane got this personality of being clueless about small things but clear-headed about big ones.
After all, whether it was Lady Magistrate or Lady Changli, both were cautious and dedicated people.
"Oh, right, there's also this."
Xiangli Yao tapped his hand and suddenly remembered something. Then, under Zane's puzzled gaze, he took out a bracelet from his pocket and handed it over.
"This is a spatial storage device I just invented. Don't be fooled by its size, it can store up to 10 cubic meters of supplies."
"I saw you running around all day collecting herbs and materials and stuff. I don't know what you're using them for, so I stuffed quite a lot inside for you."
Zane held the bracelet Xiangli Yao gave him and looked at the huge pile of materials stored inside. If all of this were converted into Star Sound, that would be over 80 pulls.
"Zane has drifted half his life, only regretting never meeting a wise master. If you don't abandon me, I'm willing to take you as my sworn father."
There was no helping it. He gave too much.
The mechanical arm hummed as it pushed away the excited Zane who rushed forward. On Xiangli Yao's face, handsome enough to charm the pretty girls of seven villages but still a bit lacking compared to the esteemed readers, a rare trace of seriousness appeared.
"These aren't the important part. The key is that I put a lot of medicine inside."
"Why put medicine?"
Seeing that Zane still hadn't realized his situation, Xiangli Yao sincerely felt the urge to cut open this guy's head and see what was actually inside.
"In case you run your mouth and get beaten up."
Zane immediately felt unhappy. As a good public servant who gets shot at, smashes residual images with sticks, punches exiles, and kicks the Fractsidus, anyone who dared mess with him would have to taste Jinzhou's classic three-piece set.
An elbow strike to open your airway, a punch to correct your soul, and an electric baton to restart your heartbeat.
As a special patrol officer under Jihnsi, Zane could truly achieve warmth in law enforcement, strength in his baton, precision in his kicks, and attitude in every strike.
Looking at the flailing Zane, Xiangli Yao couldn't keep the serious expression on his face anymore and let out a small smile.
"I'm worried that when you get on the battlefield, you'll still mess around like before and not care about your own body at all. Then you'll end up wrecking yourself again. I don't want to attend your funeral."
"Relax, relax. It's always me who wrecks others. Who could possibly wreck me!"
Zane thumped his chest loudly, like reviewing before an exam, looks like it's all memorized, but in reality, everything's forgotten.
Seeing Zane's extremely arrogant expression, Xiangli Yao silently took out a recorder.
"I'm sending this to Lady Magistrate right now."
"?"
Zane's smile froze on his face. It wasn't that he was afraid, it's just… uh, he wasn't afraid… he…
As if noticing Zane's confusion, Xiangli Yao smiled and took out the Pangu terminal from behind him, pressing the play button.
[Soldiers and citizens of Jinzhou, hello. This is Rover. I am now issuing a bounty. Starting today, anyone who finds a wild Zane heading to the Norfall Barrens, or anyone who behaves rudely or harasses women, may report it to the Magistrate's Office.]
[After verification, rewards will be given based on the severity of Zane's misconduct.]
"..."
'Wait…'
'Bro…'
'Huh?'
'You can play it like this?'
Hearing Rover use Jihnsi's frequency channel on the Pangu terminal to issue a bounty on him, how could Zane not realize he was already being targeted by the two of them.
At this, Xiangli Yao thoughtfully stepped forward and patted his shoulder.
"Don't worry, Lady Jihnsi only sent this recording to a few people close to you. You don't have to worry about dying from embarrassment."
"You think I'm worried about something as childish as embarrassment? No, no, no. I'm worried that if I mess up again, I'll get a triple beating from Rover, Sister Jihnsi, and Master Changli!"
Zane let out a long sigh toward the sky, lamenting the unpredictability of life… but soon realized something and looked at Xiangli Yao with a touched expression.
"But since you knew about this and still prepared medicine for me, does that mean you knew you couldn't stop me and secretly got these ready for me… I'm really moved."
But Xiangli Yao once again used his mechanical arm to hold down the Zane who lunged at him.
"No. I just wanted to catch you red-handed."
Hearing Xiangli Yao's words, Zane froze in place. He never expected that this thick-browed, big-eyed guy would also betray the revolution.
Thinking that he had actually been baited and caught by Xiangli Yao one day, he immediately struggled wildly, broke free from the mechanical arm, and without looking back, ran straight toward the north.
Meanwhile, Xiangli Yao, who had just been entangled with Zane, now stood with his hands behind his back, watching Zane's figure gradually disappear into the distance.
"Have a safe journey, my friend."