[Hello guys, I have completely corrected the previous Chapters and made huge changes. Please read again from Chapter 67 to get a better idea of the Chapters.] 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

She had already made up her mind about the people in this room. People were often more dangerous than zombies, because zombies only wanted to kill you in one obvious way, but humans came with motives, lies, greed, and selfishness. Bai Li had never trusted the others in this office to begin with, and this was only making that feeling stronger. Yan Cijin could be considered the only exception, though Bai Li did not think of it in such soft terms. She only knew that Yan Cijin had helped her, had stayed with her, and had not been a burden. That was enough for now. "I said back off," Bai Li repeated, her voice even colder than before. "Don’t make me say it twice."

Her words landed heavily in the room. Zhang Fan almost felt like kneeling down without meaning to. Bai Li was a woman, and not just any woman. She was tall, slender, and carried herself in a way that made people look twice. She was beautiful, but in a sharp and handsome way rather than a soft one. Her arms, though lean, showed clear muscles underneath, and there was an obvious power in her body that made it hard to believe she was injured at all. At that moment Zhang Fan knew very clearly that he was no match for her. Not in strength, not in courage, and not in any kind of real fight. But because Yan Cijin was still there, and because his own pride was still acting up in a stupid way, he refused to step back too quickly. Yan Cijin saw that Bai Li’s hand holding the knife was bleeding again, and the blood was slowly running down the blade. That made her frown deeply. She was angry, but not just at Zhang Fan. She was angry at the whole situation, at the fact that Bai Li kept getting hurt while trying to protect her, and at the fact that she herself could not reveal too much or act too openly. Even with all that, she still had the presence of mind to step in before the room got worse. She looked straight at Zhang Fan with her usual expressionless eyes and said, "Why are you holding a knife again? Your hand is still bleeding." Then she turned her gaze to him, cold and flat. "Don’t come any closer. You can talk there." In her mind, the words were much less polite than the ones she actually said. The real thought was something closer to get the hell away from us, fool.

Zhang Fan still tried to save face. He pointed at himself with a hurt expression, almost like he had been personally wronged. "Fine, fine. I guess I was just being presumptuous," he said. Then he immediately shifted his tone and looked at Yan Cijin with a fake worried expression. "Dr. Yan, I was just worried you’d be taken hostage by bad guys." It was the kind of excuse that sounded better in his own head than it did out loud. Yan Cijin’s expression did not soften at all. She had already decided she would not let him get any closer, and she had no reason to entertain his nonsense. Bai Li had saved her life. Bai Li had not kidnapped her. Bai Li had not forced her to stay. She knew exactly who had helped her today. So she answered in a calm but completely cold voice, "Bai Li is my friend. She saved my life and didn’t kidnap me. For everyone’s safety, please step back." Those words hit Zhang Fan harder than Bai Li’s blade had hit Ren Mingju earlier. His face turned stiff, and his pride took a direct blow. He had hoped, maybe foolishly, that Yan Cijin would at least treat him a little differently, but that hope disappeared instantly. He backed away in visible embarrassment while muttering under his breath, "Fine. I was just being nosy. If I interfere again, I’d be an idiot." He said it as if he had chosen to back off on his own, but in truth it was because he could feel Bai Li’s pressure on him and because Yan Cijin’s rejection had made it painfully clear that he was not wanted there.

Seeing him retreat, Yan Cijin immediately looked back at Bai Li. Bai Li was still holding the knife in her right hand, and the wound there was still bleeding lightly. Yan Cijin did not waste time. She reached out and grabbed Bai Li’s wrist with one hand, then took the blade from her other hand with the other. "Don’t hold the blade yet," she said, her brows drawn tightly together now. Her eyes were almost reproachful, not because she was angry at Bai Li in a cruel way, but because she could clearly see how much blood Bai Li had already lost. "Look how much blood you’ve lost." Bai Li didn’t argue. She simply sat down again, obedient in a way that was almost surprising given how cold she usually was with others. Her hand really did hurt quite a bit when she held the blade, and now that her body had a little space to breathe, the pain made itself more obvious. She still had not sensed any return of the serum’s full effect. She only knew what the system had said earlier, that it could take anywhere from two hours to twenty four hours. That range was too wide to make her feel comfortable. She only hoped it would come back soon. Right now, her body still felt heavily taxed, and the delayed strength made everything feel a little more uncertain than she liked.

Yan Cijin took another wet wipe and carefully wiped the blood from Bai Li’s arm and wrist. Then she looked down at the leather fingerless gloves and began trying to remove them. Bai Li had probably not fully realized just how badly the inside of the gloves had been rubbed by the rope. When Yan Cijin began to pull them off, Bai Li suddenly gasped. The flesh inside the glove had stuck to the inner surface where the rope had chafed it, and removing the glove now felt exactly like peeling skin away from the hand. Bai Li’s brows tightened slightly at the pain, though she still held back from making a bigger sound. Seeing that, Yan Cijin paused at once and asked softly, "Does it hurt?" Her voice was quieter than before now, and there was a kind of careful concern in it that was impossible to fake. Bai Li looked up at her, and for some reason that alone made the answer feel easier. She nodded slightly and spoke more gently than she had with anyone else in the room. "A little. There should be scissors in the first aid kit. Let’s use them." Yan Cijin nodded immediately, understanding right away that even with scissors, removing the glove would still be painful because some of the flesh had already stuck to the glove’s inner wall. The injury was from Bai Li protecting her, and that thought only made Yan Cijin’s heart soften more. She went to the first aid kit, picked up the scissors, and briefly disinfected them. Then she took Bai Li’s left hand carefully and started cutting the glove from the side little by little, peeling it away from the injured skin rather than pulling it straight off. Bai Li’s forehead quickly became covered with a fine layer of sweat from the pain, but she stubbornly endured it without letting out a single extra sound. When the glove finally came off, Yan Cijin’s brows were still knitted tightly, and the guilt in her eyes was impossible to miss. A large patch of skin on Bai Li’s palm had been torn away, and blood was still seeping from the wound. Bai Li saw her face and tried to comfort her lightly. "It’s just a minor injury, it’s not like I’m dying." But Yan Cijin was not comforted at all. She was almost angry now, though the anger came from worry rather than anything else. "Pah, pah, pah, what nonsense are you talking about?" she snapped softly. "Your hands are this badly injured. If the wounds get infected and give you a fever, that could be fatal. And you’re calling this minor?" Her reaction was so direct that Bai Li almost wanted to smile. In fact, she did smile a little, because she could feel the real care in Yan Cijin’s eyes and in the way she handled her hand. It made her heart warm in a way that felt unfamiliar but not unpleasant. Maybe this life would really be a little more meaningful than her previous one. That thought passed quietly through her mind and stayed there for a second longer than she expected.

Yan Cijin, still clearly upset, pretended to ignore her and focused on the wound instead. Bai Li smiled like a fool for a moment, and that only made Yan Cijin feel more annoyed with herself for worrying so much. But at the same time, she could not blame herself for it either. Seeing Bai Li injured like this because of her own choice to hide her powers and keep herself restrained only made the guilt in her chest heavier. She had chosen to stay hidden, and that meant Bai Li had been the one suffering. That realization made her mood even more complicated, though she did not show all of it. Instead, she coldly took out iodine and began cleaning Bai Li’s wounds. Even while angry, she was still careful. Her touch was precise, controlled, and gentle enough that she did not hurt Bai Li any more than necessary. Bai Li saw that Yan Cijin looked a little like she might actually cry, or at least that the concern in her eyes had become too obvious to hide, and that made Bai Li immediately shut her mouth. She obediently extended her left hand again for Yan Cijin to clean. Yan Cijin disinfected the wound with iodine first, then found some yellow gauze that had anti inflammatory properties and placed it carefully over the torn skin. After that, she started wrapping the bandage around Bai Li’s left hand with practiced movements. Her expression was still cold, but the way she was handling Bai Li’s hand was almost tender. When she was done with the left hand, she looked up, lips pressed together slightly, and said only two words, "Right hand."

Bai Li was obedient this time, almost unusually so, because she could tell Yan Cijin was genuinely worried again. That alone made her stop being stubborn for the moment. She quickly extended her hand without saying anything else, her fingers slightly curled at first from the pain, then opening again as she held still. Yan Cijin glanced at her, then lowered her head and continued carefully cutting open the leather glove from the side with the scissors. Her movements were slow and precise, because she did not want to hurt Bai Li any more than necessary. The glove had already become stiff with dried blood and sweat, and the more she cut, the more obvious the damage underneath became. The wound on Bai Li’s right hand was worse than the one on her left, because her right hand had carried most of the weight during the rope descent. Every time she tightened her grip or shifted her body, that hand had taken the force first. Now, as the glove was peeled away a little at a time, the torn skin underneath looked even uglier than before. The rope had rubbed the flesh raw, and there were deep red marks along the palm where the pressure had been strongest. Yan Cijin’s brows slowly tightened as she looked at it. Even though her face stayed calm, there was no hiding the fact that she was worried. Bai Li had suffered this injury while carrying her down, and that thought would not leave her alone. If Bai Li had not been so careful, if she had not insisted on bringing her down safely, her hands would not have become this bad. Yan Cijin knew that clearly, and because she knew it, her hands became even gentler as she cleaned the wound. She quickly disinfected the area with iodine, then applied the yellow hemostatic gauze, and finally bandaged Bai Li’s right hand with measured movements. Only after that did she breathe out a small sigh of relief.

Then Yan Cijin began searching through the first aid kit again. Her fingers moved through the supplies quickly, quietly, until she found the anti inflammatory medicine. She took out four capsules and then reached for the bottle of drinking water in her bag, unscrewing the cap before turning back to Bai Li. She opened her palm, laid the four capsules there, and brought them close to Bai Li’s lips. "The wound is quite serious, you should take the anti inflammatory medicine first," she said. Her voice was still cold on the surface, but there was clear concern hiding underneath it. Bai Li heard that tone immediately and did not dare ignore it. She was afraid of making Yan Cijin upset again, so she answered right away, "Okay." Since her hands were not convenient at all, she leaned slightly forward and used Yan Cijin’s hand to help herself.

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To be continued.