That only made her a little annoyed, and without warning she lifted her hand, grabbed Bai Li by the collar of her shirt, and forcefully pulled her head down until it was resting on her lap. Bai Li was caught off guard completely. Before she could even react, she found herself brought down again and placed on something soft and comfortable. For a second she almost wanted to speak, but Yan Cijin, as if she had already guessed what Bai Li was going to say, put one hand over Bai Li’s eyes and said gently, without giving her any room to argue, "Be good. We can take turns sleeping and keeping watch. You sleep first and then I will sleep, okay?" Her voice stayed soft the whole time, and her hand moved slowly over Bai Li’s eyes in a way that felt soothing instead of controlling.

Bai Li felt that cool hand over her eyes and, without really meaning to, began to relax. It was honestly surprising to her, again and again. Since the moment she met this woman, Yan Cijin had been acting in a way that was nothing like what Bai Li expected from a stranger. In fact, in a situation like this, Bai Li would never trust another human being, not even for a second. Normally she would only trust herself, and even then, just barely. But with Yan Cijin, the feeling was different. For reasons she could not explain clearly, she seemed able to settle her mind and let herself lean on her without feeling uncomfortable. That trust was strange to her, almost foreign, but it did not feel wrong. After thinking about it for a while, she finally let herself sleep a little, deciding that she would rest first, recover some strength, and then wake up later so Yan Cijin could sleep and keep watch for the rest of the night.

That was exactly what happened. After sleeping for a few hours, Bai Li woke up and found that Yan Cijin was still awake, still keeping watch, and even rubbing Bai Li’s head gently from time to time so that she could sleep more comfortably. The small gesture was so careful that it almost felt unreal. Seeing Bai Li wake up, Yan Cijin immediately asked, "How is it? Did you sleep well? Do you want to sleep some more?" Bai Li nodded and answered, "No, I have rested enough, you sleep now and get some rest. I will keep watch for the rest of the night." Yan Cijin did not argue this time. She simply agreed and then leaned against Bai Li’s shoulder to sleep. Bai Li was honestly shocked by the sudden action, but when she saw how tired Yan Cijin looked, she did not say anything. She just let her sleep there. What Bai Li did not notice was the very subtle smile sitting at the corner of Yan Cijin’s lips, small and quiet, like she was pleased with something she would never say out loud.

Bai Li used the moonlight to look over everything in the medical office. The light coming through the window only reached a short distance, so she could not really make out the other four people in the room. She looked down at Yan Cijin and saw that her breathing was steady, which told her that Yan Cijin had fallen asleep from exhaustion. Time moved on slowly after that, and before long the sky started to brighten outside. Bai Li yawned once, took out her phone, and glanced at the screen. It was already 5 a.m. She got up very carefully, placing Yan Cijin aside first and then putting her jacket under Yan Cijin’s head so it could work as a pillow. After that she stretched out her limbs a little and checked her condition. Other than her hands still feeling sore, the rest of her body had recovered pretty well. Her hands were still injured, and that was the only real problem. A lot of time had already passed, but the serum still had not shown any effect yet, and that bothered Bai Li a little. Still, after thinking it over, she decided there was no point in staring at it forever. There was nothing she could do but let things play out naturally.

The sound of Bai Li moving around woke up the person sitting across from her. Zhang Fan reacted fast and carefully pulled the wooden stool close to his chest, like it could somehow protect him, and he watched Bai Li with deep caution. His movement also woke up the other three companions. All of them stared at Bai Li wide eyed, like she was about to jump at them any second. Bai Li let out a cold snort, because she found their behavior completely strange and kind of ridiculous. She did a few simple stretches to loosen up her body, then took out some water, rinsed her mouth, and pulled some small bread rolls and pickled vegetables from her backpack. The smell of the pickled vegetables drifted through the room and woke Yan Cijin up. She had spent too much energy the day before, and even though Bai Li had given her some food, she had not eaten anything during the whole night, so now hunger hit her hard. She rubbed her eyes, sat up slowly, and saw that the four people across from her were awake too. Yan Cijin felt annoyed at herself for sleeping so deeply, but at the same time she knew that if Bai Li had not been there, she would not have slept that deeply at all.

Once they had eaten enough and drunk enough water, the room finally felt a little less tense, but only on the surface. Bai Li spoke in a very plain voice, as if this was just another normal thing she had to deal with. "Once we’ve eaten and drunk our fill, we’ll start thinking about how to leave. Let’s eat something first." She said it casually, then glanced at Yan Cijin like she was checking whether she had understood. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

.

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED.