The ultimate blue sea

Chapter 17 - Undercurrents

He smiled like a suspicious stranger bearing gifts. Su Qing quailed inwardly and subconsciously wanted to touch his neck, but he held out with all his might.

After speaking, Chen Lin turned silently and went into the kitchen—Su Qing had never thought that there would be human food in the house of the rarefied Lord Chen. Then he saw Chen Lin take bags of bread and milk out of the fridge. He put them on the table and said, "I haven't been back in a long time. There's nothing but beer in the fridge. You can make do with eating this."

Su Qing tore open the bag of bread and carefully pinched a supposed "slice" with his nails. The thing had been there for who knew how long. It was hard as a rock and raining crumbs. So Su Qing automatically turned over the bag of milk and checked the manufacturing date. As expected, it was expired. Looking carefully, it was a Sanlu product, too1.

Chen Lin meanwhile took off his coat and walked half-immobilized into the bedroom with his shoulder dripping blood. He got out a first-aid kit, sat on the couch, and began to take care of his wound.

After a day of being tossed around, Su Qing was so hungry his front was sticking to his back. He thought that his teeth were still in good condition, so he sat there and began to crunch on this prodigious bread jerky. After nibbling half a slice, his cheeks felt sour, and he stopped, surreptitiously glancing at Chen Lin while he took a break.

Chen Lin looked like a four-eyed pretty boy, but his figure was actually quite impressive. He had taken his shirt off and wiped away the blood, revealing beautiful, firm muscles. Su Qing for the first time saw a genuine article "blue seal." It was under Chen Lin's collarbone, also half-moon shaped, about the same form as a grey seal, but it wasn't bright blue at all; it looked a little dim.

Chen Lin took off his broken glasses and tossed them aside. His eyes were faintly bloodshot, making the lines of his face look hard and unfeeling. He was very uncommunicative. He took something like a pair of tweezers from the very high-tech-looking little first-aid kit and aimed at his wound. He pressed twice on the "tweezers." The thing emitted a quiet sound, and a clamp automatically popped up from the end of it, poking right in.

Su Qing bared his teeth. I hope it hurts like hell, you son of a bitch, he thought.

As though he had felt something, Chen Lin looked up at him. Su Qing quickly averted his gaze like a guilty thief and gnawed on the bread jerky like a rodent grinding its front teeth. Luckily Chen Lin had no mental energy to spare to pay attention to him. Faint cold sweat rose on his face. He let go of the "tweezers." As if it had its own consciousness, the thing stayed in his wound, automatically searching for the bullet inside.

After a moment, there was a quiet sound, and the "tweezers" fell from Chen Lin's shoulder, taking a bloody bullet with them.

Su Qing heard Chen Lin let out a long breath.

Chen Lin leaned back against the couch and closed his eyes for a while. He didn't bandage his wound. Su Qing inadvertently glanced at the wound and was so surprised that the bread jerky fell out of his mouth—the wound was closing up at a speed visible to the naked eye, the cells splitting faster than cancer cells. In less than five minutes, it had healed.

Chen Lin's blue seal became even dimmer. His wound was better, but his face looked worse. It may have been because of the lighting, but it actually seemed ashen pale.

With the bread jerky in his mouth, Su Qing opened his eyes wide and looked at him. He couldn't resist asking, "You...can heal yourself? Without stitches or bandages?"

Chen Lin raised his eyes—it was as if his eyelids were unusually heavy. He glanced at Su Qing and nodded.

Su Qing considered, then couldn't resist asking another question: "So...you can heal any damage by yourself?"