Lin Qiao threw Yuan Tianxing on the lawn by the lakeside, then forced open his mouth and poured the catmint juice in. Then, she squatted aside and narrowed her eyes to look inside his body.
Lu Tianyi slowly came to her with curiosity and said, "I've been feeling that you're a little too close with Yuan Tianxing and Lin Feng's family. Why? Have you known them for a long time?"
He had been wondering about that all the time. The way his sister treated Lin Family people was strange. She and those people seemed bizarrely familiar with each other. What was the reason? He never heard Lu Tianyu making any contact with Lin family people. He had been paying attention to her since the apocalypse and protecting her. He knew about most of the things she did.
However, he never found her in contact with the Lin family people. Did she know them before the apocalypse?
Lin Qiao saw the mutated catmint juice flow into Yuan Tianxing's body, transform into a green stream of energy, and spread from his stomach. Hearing what Lu Tianyi said, she stopped short, then turned to look at him silently.
Seeing the look on her face, Lu Tianyi knew that she wanted to say something. He waited for a short while, but she still stayed silent. She clearly had something to say to him, but she wasn't saying a word yet. What did she want?
"What's wrong? Is it hard to say?" Lu Tianyi was even more curious.
"No," Lin Qiao immediately turned around and kept observing Yuan Tianxing. How was she supposed to tell the boy that she was no longer his sister, and that she was only someone wearing his sister's skin?
Lin Qiao didn't have the heart to tell him that. She felt that Lu Tianyi might be heartbroken when he knew that Lu Tianyu was gone. After all, she was family to him, and he had been trying very hard protecting her. Lu Tianyu never saw him as family, but he did care a lot about her.
However, he would know sooner or later. After all, everyone else already knew about it but him. Lu Tianyi was such a poor young man. At least, he had the right to know that the person he had been protecting was gone. Her body remained, but her soul was gone. Lin Qiao was still hesitating. She wasn't sure if she should tell him the truth herself or let someone else do it.
"You haven't answered my question yet," Lu Tianyi looked at her and said.
As he wouldn't give up, Lin Qiao gave a sigh. She stood up as she looked at him and said, "Do you want to know? Perhaps, you don't want to know the truth about that."
Lu Tianyi looked at her peacefully. His handsome face wore no expressions. He simply looked at Lin Qiao, his eyes as peaceful as a quiet lake. Despite his peaceful look, his tone of speaking wasn't as calm as before. "Your words give me a bad feeling," he said.
While looking at Yuan Tianxing, who was lying on the ground, Lin Qiao responded to him with, "What's in your mind?"
She saw the green energy linger in Yuan Tianxing's body for a few minutes, then be devoured by the black energy which was sparkling with a red light.
"I think you should tell me about it yourself. After all, the real Lu Tianyu would never look after anyone, especially one who has nothing to do with her," Lu Tianyi said. After saying that, he glanced at Yuan Tianxing before turning and leaving.
He was saying that if she were the real Lu Tianyu, even if she managed to build a base of her own, she would never try so hard to take care of the people in her base. At the very least, she wouldn't care so much about Yuan Tianxing's current condition.
Lin Qiao didn't know what to say.
Lu Tianyi had discovered that something was not right long ago. He asked her about the truth, because he wanted to hear it from her personally. It seemed that she had to tell him about the truth herself. She wondered how he would react.
However, since he already had doubts, it was probably going to be easier for him to accept the truth.
Lin Qiao watched him walk into the vegetable field and sighed, then turned and kept observing Yuan Tianxing. The dark energy devoured the green energy quickly. But, if she were right, the energy from the mutated catmint did tend to neutralize the dark energy before being devoured. Due to the small amount of the green energy, it was eventually devoured by the dark energy, which was ten-million times stronger.
It was the juice of the least mutated catmint that Leng Xuantong could find, meaning that only purer catmint had a chance to cure Yuan Tianxing and defeat the underground creatures out there.
Where in the world could she find any completely uninfected plant?
It was probably impossible, but Lin Qiao still had hope. What if a miracle happened? People should believe in miracles.
As the catmint energy disappeared, the dark energy became active again, because the energy from the lake was no longer suppressing it. So, Lin Qiao hurriedly threw the naked Yuan Tianxing back into the lake. She wondered how the man would feel if he knew that he was thrown from here to there nakedly by her.
Once again, Lin Qiao came out of the lake and put on her clothes, the picked up a towel that someone put on the chair for her earlier and walked to her house while wiping her hair.
"Come in if you want to know." Walking near Lu Tianyi, she paused and said a few words to him, then kept walking toward the house.
Lu Tianyi, who was picking lettuce leaves, raised his head and looked at her back as he stood up. He handed the basket in his hand to one of his subordinates, and then followed her toward the house.
In the living room, he found Lin Qiao sitting on the couch with her head tilted, rubbing her wet hair with a towel.
"Sit down!" Seeing Lu Tianyi standing before the tea table motionlessly, Lin Qiao couldn't help but give a glance at the armchair near him. After spending a short while looking at her quietly, he walked to the chair and sat down. Straightening his back, he rested his hands on his knees and said to her, "Tell me."
Lin Qiao looked at him and stopped short, then continued rubbing her hair and started talking, "It's been quite long. I guess you found out long ago. You already have the answer, don't you? Do you really want to hear me say it? I'm afraid that you might be sad."
Lu Tianyi slightly lowered his head and landed his eyes on the tea table. On hearing what she said, he gave a bitter smile that was full of sadness. "But, I'll know the truth sooner or later, right? I'll know eventually. You think I'll feel better being the only one who doesn't know the truth yet?"
Lin Qiao looked at him, but didn't know how to start talking. So, she stayed silent while Lu Tianyi stared at the tea table, and the two of them suddenly fell into a weird silence. About ten seconds later, he asked her a question, "Who are you?"