Chapter 101: A Windfall

The nurse was gone, and Katerina had arrived.

“Want an apple?” was the first thing she said when she entered, and it was so pragmatically ordinary.

“Want it, want it!” Chang Yu nodded like a chicken pecking at grain, terrified that if he hesitated even a second, Katerina would change her mind.

With practiced ease, Katerina picked up an apple and carefully peeled it before cutting it into small pieces.

Apple juice stained her slender fingers, and she simply wiped her hands with a tissue.

“Here’s your apple. Eat up!”

She lifted a small piece with a toothpick and held it out to Chang Yu.

Delighted, he opened his mouth wide and bit down on the apple she fed him, filling his mouth with sweet, blissful flavor.

Katerina was almost alarmingly dutiful now, always knowing exactly where she stood.

When it was time to feed him, she fed him, and he did not even need to hint.

In such moments, love’s first sparks were easiest to strike.

“I asked the doctor about your condition,” Katerina said, suppressing the faint embarrassment in her heart and forcing herself to sound calm.

“The doctor said your injuries are serious. If you want to be discharged, you’ll need at least two months.”

“Isn’t that great?” Chang Yu spoke before he thought, blurting out his true feelings without guard.

As for being hospitalized, he took it very lightly.

Not for any grand reason, but simply because once he was admitted, he could once again eat the meals Katerina made with her own hands and enjoy her attentive feeding.

Unlike other people, on hearing that he would need to stay in the hospital for so long, he even felt a faint thrill of excitement and secret delight.

“G-great?” Katerina thought she had misheard. It was the first time she had ever met someone like Chang Yu, someone who loved being hospitalized.

After a pause, she went on, “You did very well this time. Exceptionally well.”

“If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have been able to take down that great salmon so smoothly.”

“In view of your willingness to throw yourself into danger and your outstanding achievement in saving more than a dozen innocent civilians, the organization has a very favorable opinion of you.”

“To reward your noble deed, the bureau has decided to make an exception again and have Shirley heal your injuries...”

“That is to say, it won’t be long before you can be discharged. And not just discharged, but discharged in perfect health!”

Chang Yu: ∑(っ°Д°;っ!!!

“No, no, absolutely not!” Chang Yu’s face turned green the moment he heard this news.

“I’m just an insignificant nobody. I can’t possibly accept the organization’s concern and care.”

“Who is Shirley? She’s the bureau’s precious treasure, a strategic talent!”

“Someone as exalted as her is not even someone an ordinary investigator would have the chance to meet, let alone learn her name.”

“I’m not worthy of having such a lofty figure treat my injuries.”

“Besides, her rank is higher than mine. It’s against the rules to have someone in leadership personally heal me.”

Chang Yu tried to come up with every possible reason and excuse to refuse Shirley’s treatment.

In short, no matter what, he would never let that little wench come and treat him.

What a joke. It had taken him great effort to get admitted to a hospital; he did not want to be discharged so early again like last time.

At the very least, he had to stay for two months, no, no... half a year before he would be willing to leave.

He had not yet enjoyed enough of Katerina’s tender care, nor had he had his fill of Katerina’s gentle feeding. How could he possibly be discharged?

For the sake of a good two-person life with Katerina, Chang Yu was prepared to go all in and stubbornly remain in the hospital.

“You... aren’t you trying to loaf around in the hospital?” After a long silence, Katerina asked cautiously, “Using this to avoid the tasks the bureau assigns you?”

“You’ve only been in the Disaster Response Bureau for less than a month, and already you’ve run into calamity after calamity. You’ve gone out on three missions, and two of them left you seriously injured...”

“It’s understandable that you’d think that way. Our line of work is simply too dangerous. Not everyone can adapt to a life like this, where tomorrow may never come.”

“But I advise you not to evade the bureau’s assignments. It won’t do you any good, and it could easily make the goodwill the bureau has just begun to feel for you vanish without a trace.”

“In a sense, you are the bridge between Yangyang and the Disaster Response Bureau. Your relationship with the bureau will directly affect how the bureau treats Yangyang.”

“To be frank, Yangyang’s performance this time has drawn the Disaster Response Bureau’s attention. As a thousand-year-old spiritual fungus of unclear allegiance, the bureau is very cautious in how it regards him.”

As she said this, Katerina deliberately did not avoid Yangyang beside her, clearly intending these words for him as well.

“He is not like you, and he is not like me. We are both human, and by nature stand on the opposite side of creatures like calamity.”

“He is a spiritual fungus. The bureau cannot tell how he views calamity, nor can it tell which side he will ultimately stand on.”

Chang Yu frowned, somewhat displeased. “Yangyang is my child. Of course I will take responsibility for him and guide him in the right direction. The bureau need not worry about that.”

“You also saw how Yangyang performed before. If he hadn’t stepped in at the end to bring down that great salmon, whether the two of us would even have made it back alive would have been an open question. So I have reason to believe Yangyang stands with us.”

“Yangyang has shown tremendous ability. No one can say how much potential he may have in the future, so it’s only natural for the organization to have such concerns,” Katerina said lightly.

“That’s how things work in our bureau. Better to do too little than too much, and better to be cautious than take risks.”

“Many things, when done well, attract no attention at all. But if something goes wrong, everyone remembers our faults and forgets our merits.”

“The special nature of the Disaster Response Bureau’s work means we absolutely cannot make mistakes. Once we do, it is our dereliction of duty.”

“So?” Chang Yu knew Katerina would not bring this up for no reason. She clearly had something left unsaid.

“So the bureau sent me to observe him and assess whether Yangyang might pose a danger to human society,” Katerina said after a brief hesitation.

“To ensure the work proceeds smoothly, I rented an apartment downstairs from your place, and I plan to keep an eye on your and Yangyang’s movements at all times, as required by the bureau.”

“In truth, I could have chosen to keep this from you, but I don’t want to hide anything from you. I hope you can understand the organization’s decision.”

After saying all this, Katerina’s mood also sank.

The organization still did not trust Chang Yu and Yangyang enough, and that made her feel uneasy as well.

She shifted her gaze slightly, unwilling to look at Chang Yu’s expression right now.

In her view, he must be feeling both dejected and helpless.

At any time, mistrust is a blade that wounds the heart.

“You don’t need to say any more!” Chang Yu suddenly cut her off, his voice steady and forceful, every word crisp and clear.

“The organization is treating me far too well. How could this be surveillance? This is obviously a delivery of benefits, a delivery of warmth!”

Katerina: ????

What on earth was this guy talking about?

Why was it that she could understand every single word, yet altogether they made no sense?

“Since it’s the bureau’s decision, I’ll definitely cooperate enthusiastically,” Chang Yu said, and the excitement and joy on his face only grew, until he even wore a rather lecherous expression.

“Just tell me when you’re moving, and I’ll come sit at your place.”

“From now on we’re neighbors, so we should visit each other whenever we have the chance.”

Originally, Chang Yu had been somewhat resistant to the bureau’s decision. He had always felt the Disaster Response Bureau was a place full of suspicion, forever mistrusting one person or another.

Either they thought one person was a spy, or that another was a dangerous element opposed to human society.

Our Yangyang is so well-behaved and adorable; how could he possibly side with calamity?

He would certainly help his dear old dad beat calamity into the ground and contribute his bricks and mortar to the grand cause of building a communist harmonious society!

But after hearing that Katerina had actually rented the apartment downstairs from his own place just to keep watch over Yangyang, Chang Yu no longer felt the slightest dissatisfaction with the Disaster Response Bureau.

All that filled his mind now was this: the organization is truly too good to me. It turns out I misunderstood the organization.

How could this be surveillance? It’s clearly a welfare package!

A wife delivered straight to his door, an opportunity delivered straight to his door—the organization was simply too thoughtful.

He had just been worrying over how to get closer to Katerina and deepen their relationship!

And now, look, a good thing had come knocking on its own.

Honestly, if the two of them really became neighbors living one above the other, how could Chang truly still worry about not finding chances to be with Katerina?

Even after Katerina got up and left, Chang Yu was still lost in an ocean of happiness, grinning foolishly up at the ceiling.

Yangyang, however, looked thoroughly disgruntled, utterly unlike Chang Yu in mood.

“So you sold me out, huh?”

“You traded my freedom for your love? What kind of thing is that?”

“Don’t put it so harshly,” Chang Yu said, and considering Yangyang’s mood might not be very good, he actually managed to rein in his smile for once.

“What do you mean, ‘what kind of thing’?” Yangyang asked blankly.

“Life is precious indeed, yet freedom is more valuable. For the sake of love, one may cast both aside!” Chang Yu told him solemnly.

“Tch!” Yangyang rolled his eyes. “If you’re going to be blinded by love and abandon your friends, just say so. You think changing the wording will stop me from seeing through you?”

“Honestly, I think that Disaster Response Bureau doesn’t trust you. Working in a place that doesn’t trust you is going to give you plenty of grief in the future.”

“It doesn’t matter whether the bureau trusts me. As long as I trust the bureau, that’s enough,” Chang Yu said carelessly.

“After working under the Disaster Response Bureau for so long, I’ve come to understand its way of doing things a little.”

“You? Trusting the Disaster Response Bureau?” Yangyang clearly did not believe his nonsense. “Then why don’t you say you trust me too?”

“If you paid me a salary every day, rented me a place to live, and gave me a car to drive, I could trust you too,” Chang Yu said dismissively, waving a hand at Yangyang’s words.