Chapter 18

Chapter 18

By the time Lan Yexing reached the school infirmary, the sun had already dipped below the horizon.

Lan Yexing had messaged Qiao You on the way but had yet to receive a reply.

His brow furrowed deeper as he pushed open the glass doors and strode into the hospital.

He ran into Yang Qing in the ground-floor lobby.

Yang Qing grabbed the hurrying Lan Yexing. "Hey? Kid, what are you doing here? A check-up? Why didn't you call me first?"

Lan Yexing panted slightly, his gaze fixed on him. "Have you seen Qiao You? The blond student who brought me here last time!"

Yang Qing: "Yeah, I did. He went to my colleague for a re-examination of his hand—"

Lan Yexing's eyes lit up. "Where is he?!"

Yang Qing looked puzzled. "He left after his re-examination, but—"

Lan Yexing: "But what?!"

Yang Qing: "But my colleague said he accidentally left his phone here. You two are on good terms, right? Can you take it to him?"

Lan Yexing was taken aback. "Are you sure he's already left?"

Yang Qing: "Positive. I just heard the girls at the front desk on the first floor discussing how handsome the blond student who left through the back door was. Though I hate to admit it, that was probably him."

The anxiety on Lan Yexing's face instantly gave way to confusion: Qiao You left? So he's fine?

The campus was vast, with many paths, and Qiao You had exited through the back door, so it was understandable they hadn't crossed paths.

And the lack of a reply to his message could also be explained by Qiao You accidentally leaving his phone behind.

But was Qiao You really the type to carelessly misplace his phone?

Lan Yexing pondered for a moment, then asked, "Have you seen an Alpha with long hair and round, rimless glasses? His name should be Qi Zhong, and he's a lecturer at the College of Engineering."

Yang Qing: "Yeah, I have."

Lan Yexing's pupils constricted.

Yang Qing scratched his messy hair and grumbled, "Another one of 'those people,' so he left quite an impression. That Alpha was really rude, walking into the hospital with a huge, exaggerated bouquet of red roses. He went to Zhou Yanqiu's ward, seemingly asking for some blueprints. The nurses who passed by said they seemed to have argued a bit."

"But he later came out of the ward by himself with the large bouquet of roses. Fortunately, nothing happened. He also left through the back door later."

Lan Yexing's frown deepened, but he could only nod. "That's good." It sounded like there were no inconsistencies...

After a pause, he said, "Then please help me get Qiao You's phone. I'll return it to him later."

Yang Qing said, "Alright," and instructed Lan Yexing to wait in the ground-floor lounge area while he went to find his colleague.

Lan Yexing nodded.

After Yang Qing left, Lan Yexing sat on the lounge chair, looking down at the watch on his right wrist. Qiao You should have been fine, but he still felt uneasy.

He quietly asked the system for confirmation. "Xiao Song, was Qi Zhong's capture successful?"

System: "Sorry, Host, for some reason, it cannot be determined."

Lan Yexing frowned slightly: This was the first time such an answer had appeared.

What did this mean? Neither success nor failure could be determined?

Lan Yexing pursed his lips, then decisively rose and walked towards the back door Yang Qing had mentioned.

...

The glass door at the back was identical to the front, though more secluded, with almost no one coming or going.

No abnormalities were visible.

Lan Yexing lowered his gaze: Was he really overthinking it?

Besides trying to capture Qiao You, Qi Zhong also came to the hospital to ask Zhou Yanqiu for design drawings. He found Zhou Yanqiu first, which delayed him, and Qiao You had already left during this time, avoiding Qi Zhong's trap?

The information was very limited, making it difficult to conceive of other possibilities.

Lan Yexing sighed softly, about to leave, when his gaze unintentionally swept over something. He suddenly stopped, his pupils contracting:

On the floor near the glass door, a few inconspicuous red rose petals were scattered.

Lan Yexing thoughtfully followed the petals, looking towards the floor in the direction of the lobby. Sure enough, there were one or two petals every few steps, extending all the way to near the elevator in the lobby, where the petals disappeared—Qi Zhong must have taken the elevator with the bouquet and passed through the lobby to get to the back door.

This was quite normal. When a bouquet was too large and not so fresh, as the person holding it walked, petals would naturally fall along the way.

Lan Yexing suddenly thought of something, turning his head expressionlessly to look at the steps outside the glass door: The steps were covered with leaves that had fallen from the plants on both sides of the door, but there wasn't a single petal—not even on the last step or the open space below the steps, was there a single red petal.

Lan Yexing's hand, hanging by his side, slowly clenched: Qi Zhong had not left the hospital at all.

He looked at the glass door in front of him, took a deep breath, and slowly pulled the door open a crack. Then his pupils constricted: Through the crack was a space so dark it was unrecognizable. This door indeed did not lead outside the hospital.

Was Qiao You inside...?

A chill slowly emerged on Lan Yexing's face: Qi Zhong was truly a scumbag... Even if his target was Qiao You, he still used this door located in a public space, completely disregarding that innocent people passing through here might be implicated...

Lan Yexing thought for a moment, first sending a message to Yang Qing, briefly explaining the situation and asking him to call the police. Then he decisively moved the warning sign, which was placed near the restroom under maintenance, to the door to block passersby. Finally, he pulled open the door without hesitation and walked inside.

...

The dark and twisted black space was actually only a thin layer. After Lan Yexing stepped through, his feet found no ground. He suddenly opened his eyes wide and immediately held his breath—

This was... the sea.

Was that bastard Qi Zhong planning to imprison people in the sea?

Lan Yexing swam, his face cold, looking down into the deep blue:

Although the sun had already set outside, the space here was daytime, with light shining into the seawater, illuminating the swaying schools of fish and seaweed... One could see the sandy bottom of the sea.

This meant that it was at least not the deep sea.

Lan Yexing recalled the question he had pondered again: What exactly was the essence of space-type spiritual power?

He tried to move his body, scanning his gaze downwards as much as possible: Countless red rose petals and messy green flower branches swayed pitifully in the seawater, helplessly dragged by the currents.

A chill couldn't help but emerge in Lan Yexing's eyes: So, that scumbag Qi Zhong was really here...

Then Qiao You...?

Finding someone in the sea was not easy. In his original world, he had practiced freediving for fun, but he could only hold his breath for a maximum of four minutes in shallow water, and without equipment, his diving depth was very limited.

He was about to swim down a bit when a clear "thump, thump" sound suddenly came from not far away, as if someone was hitting something hard.

The surrounding seawater was affected by the movement, rippling outwards in circles.

Lan Yexing's pupils constricted, and he quickly dived down in the direction of the sound and ripples.

Before long, with his eyes stinging from the seawater, he saw someone on the fine sandy bottom of the sea:

There were two large iron cages. Zhou Yanqiu was in one of them, his face pale, one hand covering his mouth and nose, but he couldn't stop exhaling messy bubbles. He seemed to have heard Lan Yexing opening the door, and his other hand was desperately hitting the cage bars with a stone, trying to call for help.

The other iron cage was empty, with scattered diving equipment and an oxygen tank nearby.

There was no sign of Qiao You here, only dense seaweed forests swaying chaotically not far from the two iron cages, intermittently emitting some illusory, scattered red—like someone's blood.

Lan Yexing didn't have time to think much. He quickly dived to Zhou Yanqiu's side, forcefully opened the iron cage, pulled the person out, and carried him on his shoulder.

He deftly grabbed the oxygen tank nearby, tested it to make sure it was still usable, then placed the mouthpiece into Zhou Yanqiu's mouth, who was almost suffocating. Then, he used almost all his strength to swim with the person towards the door not far away.

...

After an unknown amount of time, Lan Yexing looked up with a pale face and finally saw the door floating in the void not far away. He grabbed the doorway, which was hidden in a circle of dark void, with one hand, and with the other hand, he forcefully pulled Zhou Yanqiu up.

Zhou Yanqiu, who had enough oxygen, seemed to regain some consciousness. He immediately reached for the door frame, forcefully pushed the door open a crack, and with both hands, grabbed the hospital floor outside, propping himself up.

Having surfaced from the sea, he gasped for air, his voice extremely hoarse: "I, I'll pull you up—"

Then his pupils contracted, and he suddenly turned to look down: The young man, who had run out of oxygen, was falling towards the deep blue seabed. His black hair and slender limbs swayed together, and the strings of bubbles he exhaled were being chased by small fish.

Zhou Yanqiu, whose life had been saved by the young man again, opened his eyes wide and shouted with all his might towards the door: "Hey—someone! Quick! Help! Save him!"

Faint, hurried footsteps could be heard from the hospital lobby outside the door...

...

His body slowly descended. Fortunately, this was a very shallow area, and even at the bottom, the water temperature was not low.

In his blurry consciousness, Lan Yexing seemed to hear the system's anxious voice: "Host, Host, Host—"

He laboriously lifted his eyelids a little, and his pupils reflected the boundless blue: It looked so much like the sea in his world...

Even the abandoned shark cage he had just seen was exactly the same size as those in his original world. In his world, people who liked excitement would tie these cages to submarines to dive and watch sharks—though this diving method had long been banned in many countries...

Did this world also have such a dangerous diving method?

...

And...

He had saved Zhou Yanqiu, who was here for some unknown reason, but where was Qiao You...?

Where was he? Was he okay...?

His last breath of oxygen was about to run out. He seemed to faintly hear the sound of the illusory door not far away being completely opened. The police Yang Qing had called seemed to have arrived...

But, it was too late...

Where was Qiao You...?

Qiao You...

With his blurry mind completely occupied by this final regret, Lan Yexing was about to slowly close his eyes when a brilliant golden light suddenly appeared, forcefully prying open his last bit of vision and unceremoniously invading his consciousness.

A strong arm possessively wrapped around his waist, pulling him tightly into an embrace. Another large hand forcefully plunged into the soft hair at the back of his head, propping up his head—

The handsome young man was still wearing an ordinary student uniform. In the blue water, he expressionlessly gazed at the young man in his arms, whose eyelids were only slightly open. His green eyes surged with intense shadows, like an undersea storm.

For some reason, he could still speak in the seawater, his voice transmitted through the water, inexplicably hoarse: "Junior, you really dare to go anywhere."

"I told you, you're not suited for this kind of game."

"Even for me, you shouldn't have..."

The latter part of his voice, for some reason, turned into an illusory sigh of helplessness.

Lan Yexing vaguely met those green eyes: What the heck...

This guy was fine...

He worried for nothing...

But, how could he possibly see Qiao You at a time like this...?

Qiao You looked at him quietly, his thin lips slightly parted. Oxygen extracted from the seawater slowly condensed in his mouth.

His face remained expressionless, but a faint, illusory tenderness emerged in his green eyes. He commanded the young man in his arms without question: "Junior, open your mouth." His voice was clear, forceful, and hoarse.

Lan Yexing's brain slowly processed the other party's words, like a child, weakly pushing his hand against the young man's broad chest.

He obediently parted his soft lips slightly, revealing the tip of his pink tongue. His fragile, pale neck tilted back slightly with this movement—seawater was about to rush in, and he would completely suffocate—

Qiao You's arm around Lan Yexing's waist instantly pulled him tighter, and the large hand cupping the back of the young man's head steadily supported him.

Then, he leaned down slightly and forcefully kissed the young man's soft lips.

The seawater swayed.

Nose touching nose, Qiao You's green eyes burned with the beautiful face of the young man, who in that instant showed surprise and daze.

His golden hair and the young man's black hair mixed together, swaying, almost indistinguishable.

Lan Yexing's hand, pressed against the young man's broad and strong chest, suddenly tightened, gripping the young man's clothes forcefully—