Chapter 164: Awakening, Regaining the Rank of Major General.

She picked up a green core and tried it, but only felt her mind grow even more muddled, as if thick with glue, so heavy she wanted to bang her head against the wall. The restless blood in her veins made her want to scratch herself raw.

She buried her face in the pillow, muttering something indistinct. Gu Xu leaned closer, straining to catch her words, but only heard the last few: “Sleep. I want to sleep.”

And then she was out, not even two seconds later. Gu Xu stared at her in a daze for a moment, then carefully turned her onto her side so her face wouldn’t be completely buried in the pillow, worrying she might suffocate.

His long fingers brushed aside her damp hair, wiping away a trace of blood at the corner of her mouth. As his fingertips grazed her cheek, a chill seeped from his skin all the way to his heart.

He just sat there, watching her.

Listening to her faint, uneven, exhausted breaths.

His eyes grew darker and deeper.

The room was engulfed in long silence. The evening glow crept quietly in through the half-open floor-to-ceiling window, casting a soft shimmer in his pitch-black eyes, flickering for a moment before settling into stillness.

He glanced at Milk and said, “Watch over her.” Then he stood up, closed the window, drew the curtains, turned on a sliver of the bedside lamp, and, his tall figure outlined in the dim light, quietly left the bedroom.

Downstairs, the others had been anxiously waiting for a long time. As soon as he came down, Gu Pei asked, “How is she?”

“She’s asleep now. Seems normal enough.” Gu Xu walked to the dining table and took away the plate Bian Changxi had made fly earlier, telling everyone to continue eating. He himself went out to the yard, gazing at the watermelon vines still climbing the white courtyard wall, lost in thought for a long time.

Even in sleep, Bian Changxi’s head throbbed with pain, her rest uneasy. She woke in the middle of the night to find her body calm, but her head was dizzy, aching, heavy, and her limbs felt weak.

She lay on the pillow, staring blankly at the ceiling, her eyes cold and slightly dazed. She turned to look at the quietly glowing bedside lamp, and then noticed a thermal flask nearby. She slowly sat up, opened it, and found inside a perfectly warm bowl of salted egg and pork congee.

At the bottom was a note: “Wanted to make rice cakes, but they’re hard to digest. If you’re hungry, have some congee first.”

The strong, bold handwriting was Gu Xu’s.

But she didn’t have much appetite. She leaned back onto the pillow, her hand naturally resting on Milk, who had come over to nuzzle her. Stroking its soft, silky fur, her mind gradually settled.

Sigh. Did I fail? Probably not, or I wouldn’t have gotten those results. But something must have gone wrong.

She looked at her slender fingers, gently curling them into a fist. That state of mindless confusion, the emptiness and chaos afterward, must be a mental issue. That restless power was probably psychic energy too. She vaguely remembered making a plate fly—plates aren’t plants, so that was definitely telekinesis, a psychic ability.

Had she gotten ahead of herself? Or overestimated her current strength? With her present mental power, she wasn’t ready to try controlling objects yet.

Her head throbbed again.

She patted Milk. “Go lock the door.”

Obediently, Milk jumped off the bed, its soft, plump body like a ball of cashmere. It landed without a sound, padded over to the door, and with a light leap, flicked the lock shut.

Judging by how practiced it was, this clearly wasn’t its first time.

Bian Changxi smiled. Every time she looked at Milk, she felt a strange sense of amusement. The fatter it got, the funnier it seemed. As it came back to her, wagging its tail and shaking its head for praise but sensibly not jumping on her, she laughed and said, “Gu Xu was right. You really do need to lose weight.”

Such a clever and agile spirit beast couldn’t be ruined in her hands. It hadn’t always been this clingy or willing to do these trivial chores—she’d taught it all sorts of random things.

Since she couldn’t bear to be strict, and didn’t know how to train it anyway, she decided to hand Milk’s upbringing over to Gu Xu from tomorrow.

Milk seemed a little displeased, but didn’t protest. Fine, its mistress was down and unwell, so it would go along with her for now.

The next moment, the scene shifted. Fresh air filled her lungs, sunlight grew bright and dazzling, and when she looked up, she realized she’d entered the space.

Bian Changxi felt unsteady, took a few steps, leaned on the chicken coop, and fetched a lounge chair from the warehouse to sit down.

She faced the babbling stream, its surface sparkling in the sunlight like it was studded with diamonds. Now and then, a fish or shrimp would leap from the water, arc gracefully, and dive back in, lively and free. Across the green grass, two cows—one large, one small—grazed lazily, and not far off, a yellow bull ambled slowly.

It was funny—she’d been wanting to get a bull for ages, and by a twist of fate, ended up with a yellow bull instead. It was strong and sturdy. If she couldn’t get any other cows, she’d just have to pair this bull with her cow and see what kind of offspring they’d have.

Further off, there were four sheep—two rams and two ewes, caught along the way, paired up. One ewe was pregnant, her belly huge; soon, another new life would be born.

With both cattle and sheep, she was quite satisfied. She’d even figured out how to process fresh milk—now, whenever she had time to come in, she’d get the freshest milk, just needing a bit of processing before drinking. It tasted a little gamier than packaged milk, but was much fresher. The can she’d given Lin Rongrong had come from here.

In the black soil of the space, the plants were thriving, green and red intermingled, though all a bit short—after all, unlike the crops outside, she didn’t use her powers to speed them up in here, just let them grow naturally. Still, they looked much stronger and healthier than the outside ones, thanks to the space’s magic.

She actually wanted to try controlling these plants, but thought better of it. If she messed up her body again, she’d have nowhere to cry.

Finally, beside her, the chicken coop was full of chickens and ducks. A new brood of chicks had just hatched, tiny and yellow, wobbling as they walked—adorable. The next generation of ducklings was still incubating. Soon, she could let the chickens roam the pasture; the pasture was bigger now, and a few dozen more chickens wouldn’t bother the cows and sheep. If not, she could fence off an area for them. The ducks would go in the creek to swim. She still hadn’t finished digging the branch stream for bathing, though.

So much to do.

She sat quietly for a long time, gradually feeling better. In the space, a minute inside was only about fifty seconds outside, so she could stay longer, bask in the sun, enjoy the breeze—much more comfortable than outside. She almost wished she could stay here forever.

Of course, that wasn’t realistic. She drank a little fresh milk to settle her stomach, but couldn’t finish more than a sip or two, so she gave the rest to Milk. After all, milk wouldn’t make Milk any fatter, right? Sleepiness crept up again, her forehead throbbing, so she resigned herself, left the space, unlocked the door, and collapsed back onto the bed, falling asleep once more.

Day and night seemed to blur. When she woke again, besides Milk, she saw Lin Rongrong and Chen Yisha’s faces.

“Ah, you’re finally awake!” Lin Rongrong said excitedly, then hurried out—probably to tell the others.

Milk barked happily, nuzzling her affectionately.

“You two?” Bian Changxi looked around—she was indeed in her own room on the third floor.

Chen Yisha was still sitting by the bed, carefully studying her face. “Captain Gu asked us to come. The five of them all have something very important to do today, and were worried you’d have no one to look after you, so they called us in. Zhang Bubai is downstairs too. The villa is guarded layer upon layer—you probably didn’t even know.” She asked, “How are you feeling now? Still tired? Any headache?”

Bian Changxi felt pretty clear-headed, so the problem must have been resolved. She sat up and looked around. “What day is it?”

“Apocalypse Calendar, March 27th,” Chen Yisha blurted out, then corrected herself, “Listen to me, I keep using the new calendar the base just started. In the old calendar, it’s September 18th.”

Bian Changxi calculated—she’d only slept two days. Not bad. Given how exhausted she’d been, she’d feared she might sleep for several days.

“They all have things to do? What is it?”

Chen Yisha smiled, a bit proud. “Good news! Today, the base finally recognized Captain Gu’s military status. Commander Zhuge is going to officially award him the rank of Major General in front of everyone at the base. The ceremony is probably happening right now.”

Bian Changxi was stunned—this hadn’t happened in her previous life. But she quickly realized the key point: “With this status, it won’t be long before the 100,000-strong army in Jiangcheng falls in line.”

“Exactly! Our Commander Qu Shangjin is only a Major General, and Hu Aiquan isn’t even that. Now, let’s see how they try to keep control of the troops. The soldiers will definitely be more convinced.”

Bian Changxi thought to herself, this was indeed a good thing. It meant the base acknowledged Gu Xu as the leader of Jiangcheng, legitimizing his position and clarifying his status—a significant development. But the base had held out for so many days and suddenly relented; there had to be a reason. Gu Xu must have offered them something.

She immediately thought of the weapons cache. No, the weapons were still with her—temporarily, at least. As for that invitation, she hadn’t responded yet.

“I heard this had been on the agenda for a while, but the supporters at the base were making excessive demands, and the opponents were strongly against it. Captain Gu kept negotiating with them. Then yesterday, the Qiao Base delegation arrived, and everything changed.”

Bian Changxi was surprised—what did this have to do with Qiao Base?

Suddenly, a commotion erupted downstairs, and Lin Rongrong’s angry shout rang out: “What are you trying to do?!”

Bian Changxi frowned. Chen Yisha said, “I’ll go check.”

Bian Changxi got out of bed too, her legs still a bit weak. She slowly made her way to the door, but suddenly, as if sensing something, she turned her head to look back.

ps:

Thanks to Xiangnang, ranked seventh!

Thanks to anna0626 for the safety charm!

Thanks to Dreamy Danube for the pink ticket!"