Lu Xi suddenly raised his head and, upon seeing the newcomer, immediately stood up from his chair.
He brought his legs together and raised his right hand to his head in a military salute: "Major General Yan Ye!"
Yan Ye's light brown short hair gleamed brightly in the sunlight, his posture tall and straight. He removed the white gloves from his hands and swiftly returned Lu Xi's salute.
"Adjutant Lu, how is Lieutenant General Lu doing now?"
Lu Xi was startled: "Major General, how did you know..."
Yan Ye's golden eyes narrowed, his voice lazy: "Just because you and Lan Yuxiang didn't tell me doesn't mean I wouldn't know, does it?"
Seeing Lu Xi's cautious expression, he chuckled.
Yan Ye casually draped his arm over Lu Xi's shoulder: "Don't worry. I've already gotten His Majesty's permission."
As he spoke, he took out his communicator and opened his chat history with His Majesty, playing a voice message.
His Majesty's steady, mature voice came through: "Alright, I understand. You can go, check on Lu Qi's current situation, the address is in Gao Fu Town..."
Lu Xi instinctively looked up upon hearing His Majesty's familiar voice, saw Yan Ye's big white teeth as he smiled, and awkwardly smiled back.
Qi Qi was the Lieutenant General's nickname.
His Majesty had five children, and the Yunzheng Clan and the Singing Snake Clan had always been closest to the royal family.
These few cubs had played together since childhood, and as they grew up, each developed their own charm, once dubbed by Kashida's young females as the "Kashida F7."
Lu Qi was the youngest of these seven cubs, while Yan Ye was the sixth oldest.
Thus, Lu Qi was affectionately called "Qi Qi" by His Majesty and his parents.
This nickname hadn't been used for a long time, and now only His Majesty and a few princes still used it.
Major General Yan Ye naturally didn't use it.
Because whenever he called "Lu Qi Qi," Lu Qi would shout back even louder, "Yan Sixth."
The two had quarreled many times over this.
Yan Ye put away his communicator, sat down in the chair next to Lu Xi, and while leisurely rolling up the sleeves of his uniform, asked:
"Tell me, what's Lu Qi's current situation?"
Lu Xi snapped back to reality: "Ah, oh, the Lieutenant General's condition isn't good right now..."
He proceeded to explain Lu Qi's situation to Yan Ye in detail.
Yan Ye's expression changed from initially nonchalant to serious as he listened, and by the end, his expression had become completely grave.
"How did it get this severe?"
He knew Lu Qi's mental power was in disorder, but he hadn't realized it had reached such a critical stage.
Just one step away from falling into the abyss of darkness.
Although he often bickered with Lu Qi, they had grown up together and shared a bond of brotherhood.
Yan Ye sighed lightly, his tone tinged with relief: "Fortunately, I brought help with me."
Lu Xi was momentarily confused.
What help?
He hadn't seen anyone following behind Yan Ye?
Was it someone he couldn't see?
As Lu Xi's imagination ran wild, he felt cold sweat forming on his back.
At that moment, a bright ball of light flew in from outside the door, flying directly in front of the two before revealing its true form.
It was a palm-sized little person, wearing a pure white off-shoulder long dress, with light golden curly hair reaching her ankles like dense seaweed. Her violet-colored pupils matched the purple gem on her forehead, her complexion fair and delicate, looking too crystalline to be real.
Most eye-catching were the pointed elf ears on either side of her face and a pair of transparent thin wings on her back. The wings had faint, complex silver patterns, with a soft light falling from their center.
Lu Xi: An elf!
His jaw nearly hit the floor as he stammered: "An... an elf?! Major General, how is she here??"
The elven race had always disdained contact with the outside world, and moreover, other races needed entry permits to come to Kashida, which wasn't easy to obtain.
Lu Xi was shocked: "No way, she didn't sneak in illegally, did she..."
Yan Ye, unable to tolerate this any longer, rewarded him with a knock on the head: "She has an entry permit!! Rein in that wild imagination of yours!"
Turning his head, he carefully extended his hand to let the elf stand in his palm, gently saying: "I'm sorry, this person is as impolite as his superior."
The elf girl folded her wings and landed in Yan Ye's palm, looking up at him slightly, and smiled faintly, her voice like wind chimes: "It's alright."
Only after seeing that the elf didn't mind did Yan Ye continue to look at Lu Xi.
"This is my friend, her name is Alice. She's a mental power counselor I specially invited."
"She's an excellent counselor from Lanqi Country, and every patient she's counseled has shown improvement."
Lu Xi's painful cry suddenly stopped: "Really?"
He scrambled up and moved closer to Alice, his eyes shining: "Are you really willing to help the Lieutenant General with counseling?"
Alice glanced at his fluorescent green hair, pursed her lips, and spoke softly: "Yes."
She added: "Yan Ye helped me before, this is my way of thanking him."
Yan Ye cupped his right hand around the elf in his left, taking two steps back: "Don't get so close, keep your distance."
Lu Xi agreed readily, making a big gesture of retreating to the end of the corridor, shouting: "Okay! Is this far enough?"
"Thank you so much! Miss Alice! We're counting on you for the Lieutenant General!"
Alice couldn't help but smile, her eyes curving: "Alright. You beast people are really interesting."
The tail Yan Ye hadn't released behind him wagged: "Is that so?"
Night fell, the heavy darkness spreading across the sky like spilled ink, colliding with the paint of the sunset at the edge of the canvas, blending into a beautiful orange-pink, as dreamy as a fairy tale.
After closing the dessert shop, Yun Manman took the cream puffs she had reserved for Yuan Qing, planning to visit her at the hospital.
Standing behind Yun Manman watching her pack up, Yin Qian hesitated for a long while. Seeing that she was about to leave, he finally closed his eyes and spoke:
"Boss, I'll go with you."
Yun Manman looked at Yin Qian a bit bewildered: "Huh? To the hospital? Sure."
Yin Qian's tense shoulders relaxed, and he turned with light steps to take off his apron.
Yun Manman glanced at his slightly reddened ears beneath his granny gray short hair, belatedly realizing.
Tsk tsk tsk, something's going on.
The dessert shop was a bit far from the hospital, so Yun Manman and Yin Qian took a taxi.
Upon arriving at the hospital, they headed straight for the VIP ward.
"Sister Qing, we're here..." Yun Manman had just pushed open the door when her greeting got stuck in her throat.
"Oh my, sorry to disturb, excuse us."
Yin Qian watched her quickly apologize three times, retreat, and close the door, tilting his head in confusion.
What happened?
Yun Manman scratched her head in embarrassment, muttering: "I mean, I hadn't heard that Sister Qing was in a relationship..."
How rude of her to suddenly barge in like that.
Yin Qian's black pupils contracted slightly.
In a relationship? Does that mean having a partner?
Inside the ward, the two people looked at each other as the door was opened and quickly closed.
Yuan Qing immediately realized that Yun Manman had misunderstood, and kicked the man in a suit sitting by her hospital bed from under the blanket: "Brother! Go open the door and bring Manman in."
"Watch your smelly paws."
Yuan Ci leisurely smoothed out the wrinkles in his clothes, adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses on his face, and then got up to open the door.
Yuan Qing watched his slow movements, wishing she could get out of bed and open the door herself.
In the time it took him, she could have opened the door ten times!
Vain tomcat!