WMSR – QT Chapter 116

WMSR – QT Chapter 116

By

siofra

Author's Note:I overestimated my speed—with all the shopping spree distractions, I couldn't write much. Let me drop this half-chapter I had saved up first. I'm exhausted and heading off to sleep. Yes, I've taken to sleeping in the afternoons lately = =

Chapter 116

Chapter 58: The Senior of the Apocalypse

Despite the turbulent anxiety churning inside him, Lin Jiawen maintained an utterly serene, unreadable expression upon returning home. He deposited the newly harvested rations into the food storage room; however, the space that had once overflowed in abundance now stood dismally sparse. Moreover, Lin Jiawen knew all too well that aside from the single canvas bag he had just hauled back, the remaining provisions tucked inside the room were rapidly approaching the brink of inedibility. The destructive potency of time was formidable; despite his routine efforts over the years to actively extract excess humidity from the chamber and preserve the inventory with utmost care, the passage of half a decade was simply too vast—food destined to spoil would inevitably rot.

Stepping out of the food room, Lin Jiawen scanned the apartment and failed to locate Bai Yichen. Remaining completely unperturbed, he navigated the familiar, interconnected corridor toward the newly annexed apartment unit. Sure enough, tucked away inside one of the plush, carpeted rooms amidst a chaotic stack of scattered books, he discovered a sleeping figure curled up soundly on the floor.

A genuine, deeply affectionate smile bloomed across Lin Jiawen's face at the sight of the slumbering youth. Watching the boy sprawled out so defenselessly directly upon the carpet, he offered a helpless, fond shake of his head. He never bothered to worry about catching a chill.

Though the flooring was layered with thick, plush carpeting, late autumn had already descended upon the outside world. While Lin Jiawen had meticulously outfitted the entire residence with comprehensive living amenities, the total absence of electrical grids meant central heating was a non-starter.

Retrieving a lightweight blanket from a nearby shelf, Lin Jiawen padded forward with feather-light steps. Kneeling halfway to the floor, he draped the blanket with extreme gentleness over the sleeping Bai Yichen.

Seemingly registering the subtle disturbance, Bai Yichen twitched his brow, yet after a brief, instinctive struggle, he succumbed once more to heavy, undisturbed slumber.

Equipped with the hyper-acute sensory perception of a supernatural ability wielder, Lin Jiawen captured every micro-expression across Bai Yichen's face, sparking a fresh wave of warmth in his chest. He knew that the boy's ability to sleep so soundly with someone lingering in his immediate vicinity served as the ultimate, unreserved manifestation of trust.

Within this brutal apocalypse, commanding such profound trust was an astronomical luxury—all the more so because the person placing such absolute faith in him was the sole individual he loved down to his very bones.

Remaining frozen in his posture with his hands braced on either side of the sleeping youth, Lin Jiawen sustained a posture that resembled a protective embrace. After lingering in the quiet stillness for a protracted stretch, he finally straightened up with palpable reluctance, temporarily withdrawing from the room.

Bai Yichen drifted back to waking consciousness shortly afterward. Discovering the blanket draped over his shoulders, he immediately deduced that Lin Jiawen had returned. Rising to his feet, he swept through the apartment before locating Lin Jiawen out on the balcony, actively utilizing his water-system ability to irrigate the indoor flora.

It remained a remarkably wondrous spectacle: crystal-clear water droplets materialized out of thin air, pattering softly against the lush green foliage like a miniature, indoor artificial rainstorm.

Yet no matter how miraculous the display, Bai Yichen had witnessed it daily across five long years, rendering the phenomenon entirely mundane. Choosing not to interrupt Lin Jiawen's focused display of power, Bai Yichen poured himself a glass of water and settled quietly into an armchair to wait.

For reasons unknown—whether driven by the expansive leisure of his daily routine which invited idle mental wandering, or simply because sufficient years had dissolved into the past, dulling the razor-edge of old memories into a state of quiet, emotional equilibrium—as Bai Yichen watched Lin Jiawen's silhouette framed against the balcony glass, a bizarre mental superimposition occurred. In that fleeting instant, the Lin Jiawen meticulously hydrating his potted botany seemed to blur and merge seamlessly with a very specific, familiar figure from the deep recesses of his memory: a young man who had once stood earnestly beside him holding a watering can...

Catching himself drifting down such a nostalgic mental rabbit hole, Bai Yichen snapped out of the reverie and shook his head vigorously. Why on earth am I conjuring memories of him? Furthermore, Lin Jiawen and that person share virtually zero overlapping traits, save for...

The thought abruptly fractured and ground to a complete halt.

"What are you pondering over?" Though Lin Jiawen remained fully occupied with directing his aquatic streams, his hyper-vigilant attention never once detached from the indoor space. Noticing the youth lost in deep contemplation—and concluding that his watering cycle had reached completion—he wrapped up the task and strolled back inside with a curious inquiry.

"Nothing much. I was just wondering what we ought to prepare for dinner tonight," Bai Yichen replied naturally, blinking his eyes open as he masked his derailed train of thought.

Over the past two years, progressive food spoilage had drastically narrowed their culinary options. Lacking menu diversity rendered elite flavoring impossible, converting daily meal planning into a massive logistical headache. Logically speaking, Bai Yichen's casual response contained zero logical flaws; yet upon catching the words, Lin Jiawen's brow twitched with an almost imperceptible micro-movement: he was lying.

The hyper-acute perception of an ability wielder, compounded by half a decade of unceasing, intimate coexistence that allowed Lin Jiawen to decode the youth's behavioral nuances down to his cellular bone marrow, instantly flagged the deception. Yet Lin Jiawen elected against calling him out. Instead, he smoothly rolled with the deflection, continuing the dialogue naturally. After all, across five full years isolated entirely within each other's orbits, what hidden secrets could possibly remain?

Yet despite Lin Jiawen's absolute confidence, that exact evening, as Bai Yichen retired to his private bedroom to sleep, he suffered an exceptionally rare bout of insomnia. A sudden, jarring realization had taken root: while Lin Jiawen's surface personality and fundamental demeanor appeared entirely detached from a certain individual buried in his past, certain micro-behaviors, unconscious habits, and visceral instincts exhibited an eerie, uncanny alignment.

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