Chapter 133: Little Rabbit x Archon

When Wen Chu woke up again, the first thing he heard was conversation not far away.

“Isn’t this just a ten-year-old kid? He’s still sick. What a hassle. Why did the Doctor insist on kidnapping him? Does he have some special trait?”

“Nothing special. Just an experimental rabbit. I think he said he wanted to use him as a bargaining chip. Doesn’t the Archon value him highly?”

Negotiation? The Archon?

Are they trying to use him to threaten Xiu?

The voices were coming from outside the door. If he weren’t a little rabbit, he might not have been able to hear them clearly.

Wen Chu kept his eyes squeezed shut, his heart rising in his throat. He held his breath, trying to gather more information.

However, the two didn’t continue that line of conversation, switching instead to laughing and joking about other topics.

“And to think we tricked that group of ability users into believing this was some ‘special variant’ that needed capturing for research.”

“Hilarious. How else could we have mobilized them to do the work…”

The voices faded away along with their footsteps.

Only when the sound had completely vanished did Wen Chu slowly open his eyes a crack to survey his surroundings.

This was also a sickroom.

But unlike the makeshift sickroom in the Archon’s residence, this was clearly a private room in a large hospital—fully equipped, clean, and tidy.

He, however, was tied firmly to the hospital bed. Within his field of vision alone, there were three surveillance cameras.

Wen Chu hurriedly closed his eyes, terrified that the cameras would catch him waking up.

His mind was a mess.

He didn’t care if he was some special ability user or not. Wen Chu was very self-aware; he knew he had survived this long purely on his appetite and good luck.

What he cared about was the “negotiation” those two mentioned.

What did they want to negotiate with Xiu?

Releasing the captives already taken to the Upper District? Concessions to the Lower District’s local gangs? Or… restarting the experiment plan?

And if the negotiation failed? Would they hurt Xiu?

Although the news said that ability users didn’t have strong powers, there were so many people in the Lower District. The men who broke in and took him away had immense strength. What if someone hurt Xiu?

Xiu was the Archon of the Lower District. He wasn’t worth Xiu getting requested.

He didn’t know what kind of IV drip they had him on, but Wen Chu felt his forehead starting to burn again.

Based on past experience, the fever was returning. In thirty minutes at most, he would fall into a coma again.

Wen Chu bit his lower lip and made up his mind.

He couldn’t be a burden to Xiu.

Immediately, he opened his eyes under the surveillance cameras, feigning panic as he tried to rip the needle from his hand.

Sure enough, a shrill alarm instantly rang out.

Disordered footsteps approached from outside. The door was thrown open the next second, and a team of temporary ability users filed in.

“Behav—Where is he?!”

The guard pushed open the door and froze, staring at the empty hospital bed.

By this time, Wen Chu had already transformed into a little rabbit. Like an agile ball of fluff, he took advantage of the chaos to roll swiftly out through the gap in the door.

Surrounded by a forest of legs, Wen Chu dodged left and right, carefully weaving through them.

In the crowd, the cameras couldn’t track him.

Quick-witted and fast, Wen Chu spotted a person wearing a hoodie before he exited the crowd and jumped directly into the hood.

The person felt a slight tug from behind. When they turned around, they saw no one. Assuming someone had just bumped into them, they turned back around without much thought.

From the monitors, a furious voice shouted: “Idiots! He turned into a rabbit and ran! Chase him!”

The ability users finally reacted, hurriedly turning to give chase.

The hoodie Wen Chu had chosen began to bob up and down. Wen Chu clutched the fabric tightly to keep from being thrown out.

Finding a rabbit in a massive hospital was easier said than done.

The cameras hadn’t captured any footage of a rabbit in the corridors, so the group had to scatter, searching every blind spot.

Hearing the footsteps around him gradually decrease until only one set remained, Wen Chu carefully poked his head out of the hood.

This person had been assigned to the hospital corridor and was currently crouching down to rummage through a trash can.

Judging by the window at the end of the hall, he was at least on the third floor or higher.

Wen Chu pulled his head back, troubled.

He was safe for the moment, but how was he going to escape before he passed out?

Third floor. Taking the stairs was too easy to be spotted, and the elevator was even harder.

Jumping would just result in a splattered rabbit pancake.

Wen Chu gnawed on his paw in distress.

Immediately, he was startled by the temperature of his own paw.

After that burst of activity, his body temperature seemed even higher.

It wasn’t just his head; his whole body was radiating heat, like a furry little fireball.

The person in the hoodie seemed to sense the abnormal heat on their back, scratching their back in confusion a few times. But since they never imagined a rabbit could be hiding in their hood, they ignored it.

Seeing that the hoodie-wearer was about to finish searching the corridor and return to regroup, Wen Chu gritted his teeth and made a decision.

If they regrouped, he really would have no way to run. If he passed out in the hood, it was no different from a death sentence.

Rather than be caught and used as a bargaining chip, he’d better gamble on running away.

If he escaped, great. If not, at least he had the freedom to choose his own death.

With that thought, Wen Chu leaped lightly from the hood, rolled a few times on the ground, and dizzily charged toward the stairwell.

That was exactly when the sound of artillery fire rang out.

BOOM—

Louder than any explosion Wen Chu had ever heard, the entire hospital shook.

Wen Chu was rattled to his core, but he persisted in rolling toward the stairwell.

Just as he entered the stairwell, the entire hospital suddenly brightened.

It was bright in every sense of the word.

The roof of the hospital had been ripped right off, revealing the blinding sunlight and azure sky outside.

People screamed and scattered in all directions.

The voice on the intercom screamed in madness: “Everyone stop! We have the hostage! Don’t you want to evolve your abilities?!”

As if in response, another shell landed next to the hospital, blasting a deep crater in the ground.

The already teetering roof was now completely gone.

Thunderous rumbles continued all around. Through the stairwell window, Wen Chu saw several armored vehicles surrounding the hospital.

Helicopters hovered in the sky, cold machine-gun barrels aimed at the building. A detached voice broadcasted from above.

“Three minutes. Hand over the hostage, or the next shell lands inside the hospital.”

The hospital no longer had a roof. In the distance, Wen Chu saw a figure on a low-flying helicopter.

Cold, indifferent, matching the image of the Archon he had seen countless times on the news.

It was Xiu.

In stark contrast to the panicked ability users who could only conjure weak flames, Xiu was an imposing force. Curled up in a corner, watching the ability users flood into the stairwell to run down, Wen Chu carefully moved against the current.

Xiu was up there. He had to get to Xiu.

Wen Chu was dizzy from the fever, and the crowd was dense; it took him ages just to climb half a floor.

By now, the main group had fled. Only a few scattered individuals remained, while the rest crowded noisily downstairs. Wen Chu was the only one slowly climbing up the stairwell.

The voice from the intercom echoed over the hospital as well.

“So what if you blow up the hospital? Wen Chu is in my hands! I’m not in the hospital, so destroying it will only bury Wen Chu along with it!”

The person on the intercom laughed maniacally, the sharp sound making Wen Chu’s head throb even harder.

Xiu was silent for a moment, then spoke again, clearly taking a step back: “Conditions for his release?”

The voice on the intercom turned gnashingly vicious: “I want you to come down personally to pick up Wen Chu, and release Dr. Jiang, who was taken to the Upper District.”

Xiu replied calmly, “I am currently the Archon of the Lower District. I have no authority over Upper District matters. I can only satisfy your first request.”

The voice hesitated, then finally snapped, “Then come down!”

Wen Chu listened with burning anxiety, speeding up his climb.

He couldn’t turn into human form, or else he’d be caught by the stragglers coming down. Those ability users, desperate and cornered, would definitely grab him to threaten Xiu.

He had to climb up fast and tell Xiu that he had escaped, that he wasn’t kidnapped.

Please don’t believe the person on the intercom. Who knows if there’s an ambush in the hospital?

Wen Chu was so anxious he wanted to cry, but he held back the tears, channeling all his energy into climbing.

The hospital had five floors. One step was about as tall as he was. Wen Chu hopped and rolled, curling up to look like trash whenever he encountered someone.

The strenuous exercise brought the taste of blood to his throat. His body, already feverish, felt like it was falling apart.

Wen Chu stared fixedly upwards, hearing nothing else, his mind consumed by a single thought: Go to Xiu’s side.

Driven by this obsession, he actually managed to climb five floors in five minutes.

By now, the helicopter had landed. Xiu slowly stepped out, watching the helicopter pull away again.

He scanned the remaining ability users who hadn’t managed to flee and said coldly, “I’m down here. Where is Wen Chu?”

The voice on the intercom cackled, “Tie your own hands first. I’ll send someone to bind you and take you to the Upper District to exchange for Dr. Jiang. Then I’ll consider returning Wen Chu to you.”

Seeing Xiu actually start looking for rope, Wen Chu—who had just climbed five floors and collapsed in a puddle of exhaustion—didn’t even have time to rest. He estimated the distance between himself and Xiu, then sprinted toward him.

“You can’t!”

Xiu, preparing to grab the rope, paused and looked toward the source of the voice.

He saw a white shadow lunging rapidly at him, crashing straight into his arms.

Upon hitting his chest, the small white ball suddenly expanded, transforming into a white-haired child.

The child clutched his arm tightly, face flushed red, looking as if he had just been fished out of water. He swayed unsteadily and said, “I… I ran out… Don’t listen to him…”

Smelling the cold fragrance on Xiu again, Wen Chu’s tense nerves relaxed, and he nearly lost his footing and collapsed.

Fortunately, Xiu caught him in time.

Xiu scooped him up directly, threw aside the rope, and drew the gun at his waist, aiming it at the crowd.

“Everyone back off.”

Facing the dark muzzle of the gun, the ability users present went quiet as mice, clearing a space.

Receiving Xiu’s signal, the helicopter began to descend rapidly for extraction.

The person on the monitoring system seemed completely stunned that Wen Chu had suddenly appeared. After freezing for several seconds, the cold laughter returned.

“Want to leave? Too late! Since you won’t cooperate, you can just die!!”

As the voice fell, a man with a knife charged forward with incredible speed.

Wen Chu recognized him; this was the man who had broken into the sickroom to kidnap him.

Bang, bang, bang—

Xiu didn’t hesitate. He fired three shots in succession, each one hitting a vital point.

But the man acted as if he felt nothing. His movements merely paused for a split second before he continued the attack.

Straight for Wen Chu.

Xiu hadn’t expected someone to keep moving after taking three bullets. Unable to dodge in time, he could only turn his body at the last moment to shield Wen Chu from the attack.

Schlick—

To protect Wen Chu, Xiu didn’t dodge at all. The blade sank directly into his arm, flesh peeling back as the smell of blood rapidly filled the air.

His gun fell to the ground.

The ability users in the room, previously quiet, now looked restless and eager.

Seeing the success, the attacker laughed arrogantly: “Archon, times have changed. You wouldn’t have guessed, but as the ability users who have followed Dr. Jiang the longest, we are completely different from those trash outside!”

Wen Chu’s face had gone pale the moment Xiu was injured.

Hearing the man’s words, he couldn’t help but tremble.

He was afraid Xiu would die, and he was angry.

This man’s voice was the same one he heard when he first woke up. If all the evolved ability users knew the plan, then there was at least one other difficult opponent among the ability users present.

Now Xiu was injured, and he was burdening one of Xiu’s arms.

The helicopter hovered low, unable to find an opportunity to lower the rope ladder.

“Foster father…” Wen Chu couldn’t help but hug Xiu’s neck tighter, whispering, “Put me down.”

Xiu remained expressionless despite the injury, though he glanced at Wen Chu with surprise upon hearing this.

Wen Chu pursed his lips. “I can turn into a rabbit and draw their attention. You take the chance to go with the helicopter…”

“Wen Chu,” Xiu suddenly interrupted, “do you think of yourself as a rabbit or a human right now?”

“Huh?” Wen Chu hadn’t expected Xiu to ask such a question at a time like this and didn’t know how to answer.

Xiu hugged him tighter, showing no intention of letting go.

“We also don’t have a custom of using a child as bait. As for a little rabbit—”

“Little rabbits should obediently listen to adults.”

Just as he finished speaking, the ability user attacked again.

Holding him, Xiu dodged and retreated step by step.

Blood dripped onto the floor, drying into a reddish-brown. Wen Chu’s lips trembled, and he felt his heart twisting in pain.

Dizziness, a roaring heart. His mind was filled with Xiu’s injury one moment, then a revolving lantern of everything since meeting Xiu the next. It became difficult even to breathe.

Xiu’s steps were getting slower.

Seeing that Xiu, holding Wen Chu, had nowhere left to run, the knife-wielder grinned savagely: “Die!!”

He stabbed forward without hesitation.

But unexpectedly, Xiu, whose movements had been sluggish, suddenly dodged with an illogical speed, revealing the broken wall behind him.

The hospital had been laid bare by the bombing, and the top floor was open to the wind on all sides.

Quietly, Xiu had lured the man to the edge of the broken wall.

The knife-wielder couldn’t stop in time. Carried by inertia, half his body rushed out of the building.

He slammed on the brakes, trying to shift his center of gravity back, but Xiu didn’t give him the chance.

Holding Wen Chu, Xiu stood behind the man, raised his long leg, and kicked. He watched with cold eyes as the man fell, exploding into a splatter of blood on the ground below, not forgetting to raise his injured arm to cover Wen Chu’s eyes.

“All brawn, no brains—children shouldn’t watch.”

Xiu frowned as he spoke.

Wen Chu’s forehead was too hot.

He didn’t intend to delay any longer. After dealing with the man, he nodded to the helicopter, preparing to take Wen Chu and leave.

But in the darkness, Wen Chu heard a fainter sound.

Someone was moving.

He gripped Xiu’s clothes tightly, struggling to break free of the hand covering his eyes. “Behind you!”

The moment he broke free of Xiu’s hand, Wen Chu saw the most terrifying scene of his life.

Someone had silently picked up the pistol Xiu dropped and was pointing it straight at Xiu’s heart.

“Look out!”

Without time to think, Wen Chu bit Xiu’s shoulder. Using the moment Xiu flinched from the pain, he jumped down, trying to block the bullet.

But he forgot that he was currently only a little over a meter tall.

Wen Chu watched helplessly as the bullet sank into Xiu’s chest, a darker stain slowly spreading on his black coat.

“Xiu…?”

Wen Chu’s voice trembled.

Xiu’s body swayed. Realizing he had been shot, he swallowed the bloody foam rising in his throat and immediately moved to shield Wen Chu again.

Bang—Bang—

Two more gunshots rang out. Seeing success at last, the voice on the intercom laughed wildly again.

Xiu was like a solid fortress, blocking everything for him. Wen Chu couldn’t even see where Xiu was hit, only judging the severity of the injuries by the minute tremors of Xiu’s body.

The helicopter’s rope ladder had been lowered.

Xiu placed him on the ladder, reached out, and tore a strip of cloth to bind Wen Chu’s wrist to it.

“It’s okay… You go back with them first. Trust Secretary Li and the Adjutant…”

Seeing that Xiu still hadn’t fallen, the voice on the monitor shrieked: “Keep firing! Kill him!!!”

Bang—

Another gunshot.

Wen Chu’s head buzzed.

Everything before him seemed to turn into a black-and-white silent film.

The bullet tracing its path through the air, the monitor flashing red light, the cold man half-kneeling on the ground, desperately protecting him.

Xiu’s hands were so cold.

The person who promised to raise him for a lifetime was now telling him how to live with others.

The bullet sank into Xiu’s body again. Xiu finally couldn’t hold on and coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood.

“Foster father…” Wen Chu reached out with trembling hands to touch Xiu’s cheek.

It was all his fault.

It was all because he was a useless little rabbit. If only he were stronger.

Sickly, becoming Xiu’s weakness, struggling even to climb stairs.

He wanted to block bullets, but he wasn’t even tall enough.

“Xiu… I don’t want to leave.” Tears streamed down Wen Chu’s face.

He cried until he was gasping for breath, hating himself for only knowing how to cry, yet unable to stop the tears. He could only watch helplessly as Xiu tied his other wrist to the rope ladder.

Watching helplessly as Xiu grew colder bit by bit. He was so scared.

No one noticed that at the fingertips of the hand Wen Chu used to stroke Xiu’s cheek, a faint white light began to glow.

Only when the light grew bright enough to be impossible to ignore did a panicked voice come from the monitor: “What is that?!”

Wen Chu and Xiu were enveloped in a ball of light so bright it was blinding. And the wounds on Xiu’s body began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The motion of tying him to the ladder stopped. Xiu looked at him in astonishment.

Wen Chu looked at Xiu, then at his own fingertips.

His head didn’t hurt. His heart didn’t hurt.

Instead, a power he had never felt before filled his body.

Wen Chu suddenly realized something. His tears stopped halfway, making him look dazed and silly.

After a few seconds, he suddenly reached out and untied his hands from the ladder.

He put Xiu down and walked toward the person nervously holding the gun due to the sudden change.

“You… Don’t come any closer!”

In a panic, the man fired several shots at Wen Chu.

But the moment the bullets entered Wen Chu’s body, they were expelled by the white light. The wounds healed before they could even fully appear.

Wen Chu looked down at himself.

It didn’t hurt much.

Anyway, not as much as being sick.

So, he gave a very light smile.

He seemed to have become a little bit useful.

Seeing the smile on his face, the man was so terrified his legs went weak, and he fell to the ground.

“M-Monster!! Don’t come over!!”

He scrambled backward in panic.

Wen Chu bent down and picked up the pistol from the ground.

His hands were too small; if he held the trigger, he couldn’t hold the grip.

Wen Chu struggled with it for a moment, finally choosing to hold the gun with one hand and pull the trigger with the other.

The white-haired child stepped closer, a look of innocent harmlessness on his beautiful face.

“You shot my foster father four times.”

He raised the pistol with his slender arms, muttering to himself thoughtfully, “Your voice is very light, so it shouldn’t be a physical enhancement.”

“—So, can you withstand four shots?”