Guide Her to Nowhere (NPH) - Chapter 23: Something Fishy
Chapter 23: Something Fishy
The transaction between Qu Tang and Yi Jin was her comforting him, and him getting her a pass.
Her original plan was to leave District 4 and start anew under a different identity after getting the pass today. But Shi Xi had to barge in halfway, forcing her to trouble Yi Jin to take her to the Dawn Wall.
The Dawn Wall was the collective term for the isolation and protection walls between the districts. There were two Dawn Walls – an inner wall that separated the safe area and the isolation area, and an outer wall that separated the isolation area and the contaminated area.
Qu Tang needed to pass the security check at the inner wall to enter the isolation area, then take a vehicle through District 4 into the District 5 isolation area.
Qu Tang’s destination was District 7. She could take a train in District 4 that could traverse the contaminated area, but those trains were all equipped with sentinel guards, so she could only take the detour through the isolation area.
Yi Jin parked the car outside the Dawn Wall comprehensive transportation station.
“Will you come back?” Yi Jin looked at Qu Tang unbuckling her seatbelt.
“No, I won’t come back.” Qu Tang opened the door and jumped out of the car. Before closing the door, she waved and smiled at Yi Jin, “Thank you, goodbye.”
Yi Jin watched Qu Tang leave without looking back, feeling a sense of loss.
He had thought about trying to persuade her to stay, but he couldn’t come up with a reason, and she looked so happy. When she jumped out of the car, she was like a caged bird flying out of its cage.
He hoped she would be safe on her journey.
Yi Jin didn’t return to the safe area. He drove through the inner wall gate into the isolation area. After leaving the platform, he saw two young men waving to him from the side of the road.
They were two teenagers, wearing the same oversized T-shirts and shorts, and the same cat-ear hats. They looked identical, the only difference being their mismatched eyes – one had a blue left eye and a gold right eye, the other had a gold left eye and a blue right eye.
They were a set of twin sentinels, their spirit beasts obviously being cats.
The car approached but didn’t stop, the voices came in through the open window first.
“Big bro, you’re late.” It was the older brother, Le Zhi, with the blue left eye and gold right eye.
“+1” was the younger brother, Le Li, with the gold left eye and blue right eye.
As soon as the words fell, the two boys grabbed the car door one after the other and jumped in through the open window.
“I was so hungry I almost starved.” Le Zhi sat in the passenger seat, sitting cross-legged on the chair, his nose twitching, “There’s a stranger’s scent, who is it, a woman too.”
“You didn’t secretly find yourself a girlfriend, did you?”
Yi Jin impatiently pushed Le Zhi’s head back when he leaned in to sniff Yi Jin’s scent. “Are you itching for a fight?”
Le Zhi chuckled ambiguously, “There’s something fishy going on.”
Le Li: “+1”
Yi Jin couldn’t be bothered to respond to them.
“Big bro, I feel like you’re doing better this time than before. Could it be that the White Tower finally arranged a high-level guide for you?”
Le Zhi wasn’t wrong, Yi Jin was indeed doing better this time than before, but it wasn’t because of the sentinel’s comfort from the White Tower, it was because of Qu Tang.
That brief “comfort” in the stairwell that day was far more effective than what the guide had given him. If he didn’t have to worry about leaving a record of breaking his promise at the White Tower, Yi Jin wouldn’t even go through that suffering again.
Thinking of Qu Tang, thinking of that “comfort” in the stairwell, Yi Jin felt his lips and tongue go numb, as if it wasn’t him.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t think so, the White Tower is so stingy, treating us wild sentinels like enemies, how could they be kind-hearted enough to do that.”
Le Li: “+1”
It wasn’t good to bring up Qu Tang’s matter, so Yi Jin randomly found an excuse, “I just got lucky, the compatibility with the guide this time reached thirty percent.”
“That’s really lucky, I hope I’ll have that kind of luck next time.” Le Zhi envied him for a moment, but then the topic suddenly changed, “Big bro, with the deputy captain not here, let’s go eat hotpot, or barbecue!”
Le Li: “+1+1”
Yi Jin smiled helplessly, “Eat as much as you want, I’ll treat you today.”
“Yay~” Le Zhi cheered, twisting around to high-five his brother Le Li in the back seat.