novelsite Chapter 13 Ling Yue
Chapter 13 Ling Yue
Jiang Che was certain he had never seen her before.
On the registration list of the White Stone base, the remaining two hundred people in the convoy were mixed together with the original three hundred or so people in the base, and he only recognized a very small number of them.
He was about to walk around her to move another pile of wreckage, but the moment he turned around, the woman suddenly stood up.
She turned around.
Jiang Che's body reacted before his brain. He wanted to stop, but the gravel under his feet was too slippery. His peak D-level explosive power became a burden on the smooth gravel road.
When his right foot stepped out, there was no friction between the sole of his shoe and the gravel, and his center of gravity shifted instantly, causing him to lunge towards the woman.
He reached out to try and support himself on the ground, but his hands didn't touch the ground.
He accidentally grabbed her.
He admitted that it was not intentional, it was truly an accident.
I could feel his body temperature through that black tactical uniform.
The time is a fraction of a second.
But in Jiang Che's mind, those few seconds felt like an eternity.
He could feel the tactical vest.
He sensed that her body switched from a "relaxed" state to a "fighting" state in an instant.
Then his hand was flung away by a violent force.
She didn't push it.
It's her special ability: lightning.
A sharp pain shot through Jiang Che's palm, as if countless tiny needles were piercing it simultaneously, the numbness traveling down his arm to his shoulder.
He was so shocked by the electric shock that he took three steps back, his right arm hanging at his side, his fingers twitching involuntarily.
He looked up and saw her face.
It was a very cold face.
Her features were delicate, but her lines were too hard—high brow bones, sharp cheekbones, and a distinct jawline, like a stone that had been polished by wind and sand for a long time, which had worn away all its softness.
Her lips were thin, bloodless, and pressed into a straight line.
The eyes are a very light grayish-blue; when looking at people, it's not "looking," it's "scanning."
She looked at Jiang Che.
Their gaze moved from his twitching right hand to his face, and then from his face to his chest—presumably to assess his superpower level.
The whole process took no more than two seconds, and her expression didn't change at all.
Then she spoke.
Which branch are you from?
Her voice, like her personality, was cold.
"The convoy just arrived yesterday," Jiang Che said, trying to keep his voice steady.
His right hand was still numb, but the woman's aura made him realize one thing: her superpower level was at least C-level, or even higher.
"Zhao Lie's men?"
"I guess so."
She stared at him for two seconds, then looked away and squatted down again to deal with the remains in front of her.
The whole process was smooth and seamless. There was no screaming after being groped, no angry questioning, and not even a single "What are you doing?"
She simply brushed his hand away, glanced at him, and then ignored him.
But Jiang Che noticed that the knuckles of her fingers holding the knife had turned white.
Jiang Che stood there looking at her, unsure of what to say.
Apologize?
He didn't do it on purpose, but an apology is necessary.
The problem is, if you touch a strange woman and then say "sorry," it sounds like you're just brushing it off after taking advantage of her.
No apology?
Then they wouldn't even be human.
He took a deep breath, walked over, and squatted down a meter away from her.
"What just happened—"
"Shut up." She didn't even look up.
"I didn't mean to. The floor was too slippery—"
"I said shut up." Her voice was devoid of any emotion, but Jiang Che saw a blue arc of electricity flash across the ring on her right pinky finger—or rather, a metal band.
That was a warning.
Jiang Che shut his mouth.
He stood up, turned around, and prepared to leave.
Just as he took his third step, a greasy voice drifted over from the other end of the square.
"Hey, isn't this Ling Yue? Still working in the middle of the night, Bai Shi's superhumans are really hardworking."
Jiang Che stopped in his tracks. He turned around and saw two men walking towards him from the direction of the square entrance. The one in front was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with greasy long hair, wearing a military green jacket that clearly didn't belong to him, the collar wide open, revealing a patch of pale skin on his chest.
The one behind him is shorter, bald, and has tattoos on his face.
It wasn't Liu Hu and Wang Man.
They are two new faces.
But their temperament is the same—the kind of opportunist most common in the apocalypse, bullying the weak and fearing the strong, targeting lone women and vulnerable elderly people.
Ling Yue ignored them.
She continued working on the wreckage without pausing her movements.
The long-haired man walked up to her, looking down at her crouching figure with a smug smile on his lips. Behind him, the bald man crossed his arms, his gaze lingering on Ling Yue's waistline without any attempt to hide it.
"I heard you're a C-level ability user? The lightning type?" the long-haired man continued, his voice like he was teasing a child. "Impressive. Those C-levels in our team are all so arrogant. You're much better looking than them."
silence.
"What's your name again? Ling Yue? It sounds nice. You live up to your name. Cold and aloof, like the moon."
Ling Yue finally stopped what she was doing. She didn't stand up, but simply tilted her head slightly, looking at the long-haired man with one eye. The light in that eye was colder than her supernatural ability.
"You have three seconds left," she said.
"What?" The long-haired man didn't react.
"three."
"Hey, I just want to get to know you—"
"two."
The bald man tugged at the long-haired man's sleeve and whispered something.
But the long-haired man shook off his hand, his smile faltering, though he still forced himself to keep it up.
"Are you making a big deal out of it? It's just a couple of words—"
"one."
Ling Yue stood up.
She stood up not quickly, but there was something chilling about her – not a threat, but a warning.
Like the purple lightning that appears on the distant horizon before a storm, it doesn't strike you directly, but rather tells you: I'm about to hit you.
The long-haired man instinctively took a step back. But the bald man was behind him, leaving him nowhere to retreat.
Jiang Che hesitated for a fraction of a second as he watched this scene.
He could have simply walked away.
Ling Yue clearly didn't need his help—a C-level ability user was simply not in the same league as two ordinary people.
His intervention would be superfluous.
Moreover, he had just touched her, and now he was getting close to her again; it looked like he was trying to curry favor.
But he saw Ling Yue's hand.
Her right hand, which was holding the knife, was trembling slightly.
She was suppressing an urge to chopp the two people in front of her into charred remains.
Why?
A C-level ability user has no reason to tolerate such provocation.
Unless she has a reason not to act. Jiang Che suddenly understood.
This isn't the wilderness; it's the White Stone Outpost. Outposts have their rules—Anomalies cannot attack ordinary people at will.
Ling Yue is Bai Shi's person, so she has to abide by the rules.
If she physically harms either of them, regardless of who is right or wrong, she will be punished, or even expelled.