Lingyun had spent most of the present conversation trying to be patient.
But unfortunately for everyone in the room but his girl, his patience was becoming increasingly difficult to justify.
The living room was full of people talking. ilan was still arguing. Commander Li was still trying to make sense of the rebirth nonsense. Shen Kaiyang and Tao Jun kept bringing the conversation back to the first tiline whenever it started moving sowhere useful, and Zhenlan was still attempting to collect repaynt for the damage outside as though logic was going to accomplish sothing.
anwhile, Rouxi was unconscious on the floor.
That fact alone should have settled the room.
It should have made priorities obvious.
Instead, everyone seed determined to discuss future territories, future power rankings, and future accomplishnts that had not happened yet. Lingyun listened to the sa argunts circle the room for several more minutes before finally deciding that none of these people were interested in solving anything.
The jungle was still burning.
Rouxi was still unconscious.
And Huang Zedong was still standing there pretending he hadn’t caused the entire problem in the first place.
Lingyun glanced toward Yuche.
As the Dragon Head, he still technically commanded him... when it was useful to Lingyun to look to him.
The other man remained beside Rouxi, one hand resting close enough to touch her if she moved. His attention never wandered far from her for more than a few seconds at a ti. Every so often his gaze would shift toward Huang Zedong, linger there for a mont, and then return to Rouxi again.
That made sense.
If Yuche had to choose between protecting Rouxi and punishing Huang Zedong, Rouxi would win every ti.
Unfortunately, Lingyun had no such conflict.
"...the first tiline proved exactly what happens when certain people gain power," ilan was saying.
Commander Li looked exhausted. "You keep saying that as though the first tiline is written in stone and can’t be changed."
"It proves we know more than you do," sneered ilan like if she just kept saying the sa thing, it would eventually be right.
"All it proves is that you rember a different world," sneered one of Li’s n... Chen Minghao... maybe... probably.
Nas that weren’t Rouxi didn’t really an much to Lingyun.
"The worlds are the sa," hissed ilan
"No," Chenghai replied with a sharp bark of laughter. "They aren’t."
The argunt imdiately restarted.
Lingyun could practically feel it happening.
One sentence beca three. Three beca ten. Ten beca an entirely new conversation that sohow had nothing to do with the one before it. ilan’s group spoke as though future accomplishnts already belonged to them. Commander Li kept forcing the discussion back toward reality. Zhenlan kept trying to drag everyone toward the actual issue.
And none of it accomplished anything.
Huang Zedong remained silent through most of it with the faint smirk on his lips like he was happy with how things were going.
That bothered Lingyun more than the arguing.
The man had set fire to Rouxi’s jungle, yet everyone else seed to be doing the work of distracting the room for him. Every minute the conversation continued was another minute where the person responsible stood quietly in the background while other people talked.
That seed unfair.
Lingyun looked toward the windows.
The orange glow from outside was still visible.
Sure, the fire had been reduced, but it hadn’t disappeared completely, and Huang Zedong was still looking at it like he was seconds away from making the embers burn highter.
The more Lingyun thought about it, the less reasonable the man’s continued existence seed.
"...and if you understood what we beca in the first tiline—"
Lingyun stopped listening.
Nobody was helping Rouxi.
Nobody was fixing the jungle.
Nobody was paying for the damage.
Nobody was solving anything.
The entire room had beco trapped inside a conversation that kept moving in circles.
So Lingyun solved the problem himself.
Fire erupted from his hand before anyone realized he had moved.
The flas crossed the distance between them almost instantly and wrapped around Huang Zedong’s shirt, his sleeves, and part of his shoulder. For half a second the man simply stared at himself in confusion.
Then he started screaming and Lingyun had to hold back a smirk of his own as chaos followed the mont he opened his mouth.
Huang Zedong stumbled backward while trying to beat at the flas. ilan scread. Lin Cheng lunged forward. Tao Jun shouted sothing that disappeared beneath the noise. Commander Li’s soldiers reacted on instinct, powers activating throughout the room as everyone attempted to decide whether the situation had beco an attack, a fight, or a complete disaster.
Sun Ming threw up a barrier of earth before realizing it wasn’t helping. Liu Zhenyu imdiately tried to smother the flas with water. Wang Junjie moved toward Huang Zedong while Commander Li shouted orders that nobody seed interested in following.
The entire living room exploded into motion.
And just like the conversations that had been going on minutes before... none of it was helpful.
Lingyun watched for several seconds before glancing toward Rouxi automatically.
He wasn’t expecting anything.
Honestly, he wasn’t even sure why he looked.
Then he saw it.
The movent lasted less than a second.
The corner of her mouth twitched.
That was all.
The motion was so small that he imdiately questioned whether it had happened at all. Rouxi was clearly unconscious, Luo Xin was still working on her. Really, the movent could have been a muscle spasm. It could have ant absolutely nothing.
Lingyun considered those possibilities carefully.
Then he discarded every single one of them.
Rouxi had smiled at what he had done.
Obviously.
Anyone with a brain could see that.
The timing was too perfect for any other explanation.
His mood improved imdiately.
Across the room, Huang Zedong was still screaming while multiple people attempted to put him out. ilan looked horrified. Commander Li looked like he was trying to decide whether yelling at Lingyun was worth the effort and Zhenlan looked tired enough to develop a permanent headache.
anwhile, Rouxi had smiled.
That was the important part.
If setting people on fire made Rouxi smile, then clearly setting people on fire was helping.
The logic seed completely sound.
Eventually the flas were extinguished and Huang Zedong collapsed onto the floor... a blackened corpse that would never be able to set fire on sothing that belonged to Rouxi again.
The room slowly quieted as everyone tried to process what had just happened.
Lingyun didn’t have that problem.
He was perfectly satisfied with the outco.
He pointed toward the smoking man on the floor and grinned.
"One down."
Then he looked toward the remaining five mbers of ilan’s group.
"Who’s next?"
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