DA chapter 46

Lin Jia did not like troublemakers. However, he had encountered and tamed many of them.

He didn’t express any dissatisfaction with Yan Xu’s lack of cooperation. Instead, he took out the compressed biscuits that Xiao Yao had stuffed into his sleeve.

“Toast.” Lin Jia said, “Come here, sit down.”

The cat, which was sneaking around near the curtain, froze for a moment, unsure of Lin Jia’s intentions.

However, when Yan Xu’s gaze shifted over, the cat gave Lin Jia some face and walked over, squatting down obediently.

Lin Jia tore off a piece of the biscuit, crushed it in his palm, and fed it to the cat.

Yan Xu looked at the cat and said, “Your cat understands human speech.”

While feeding the cat, Lin Jia asked: “What does Captain Yan think about this doctor’s order?”

Yan Xu had refused to answer this question before, yet Lin Jia asked it again. Suddenly, Yan Xu seemed to understand something. As he watched the cat eat the biscuit crumbs, he thought for a moment and snorted. “The doctor’s order is an important clue. I mean, it’s related to whether we live or die.”

Something was tossed toward him. Yan Xu caught it with one hand and lowered his head to look. It was a compressed biscuit.

So it really was as he thought.

It wasn’t that there was no food; it was that one could only get a share of food after satisfying Lin Jia.

Yan Xu looked deeply at Lin Jia. He disliked being controlled. “Your way of controlling people is quite original.”

“Originality isn’t important.” Lin Jia patted the cat’s head, urging it to finish quickly. He still did not look at Yan Xu. “What matters is making Captain Yan comply.”

Yan Xu stared at Lin Jia. While feeding the cat, Lin Jia slightly curved his neck like a white egret hunting prey.

Perhaps finding this method of controlling people novel, Yan Xu suddenly asked, “As long as you’re satisfied, will there be rewards?”

Lin Jia did not look at him: “Want to try?”

Try then.

Yan Xu said: “Whether we can find clues in the doctor’s orders depends on whether the orders differ from person to person or if everyone has to obey them.”

In other words, if everyone had to obey the orders, then the person in the VIP ward would also have to obey because they were a patient at the maternal and child health hospital.

The nurses repeatedly emphasized that they must obey the doctor’s orders. Clearly, the doctor’s order was a restriction. If the person in the VIP ward had to obey it too, then when the order became a restriction, it most likely restricted the VIP ward patient. After all, nurses could easily catch those in ordinary wards.

Find the doctor’s order, and they could find clues about the ward.

However, the premise was that the order was shared.

Another biscuit was tossed over. Yan Xu reached out and caught it. His palm squeezed the packaging, producing a soft crackle.

Lin Jia’s clear voice followed: “As for the doctor’s order, what ideas does Captain Yan have?”

Lin Jia turned his head slightly and looked at Yan Xu.

Yan Xu’s eyes revealed his thoughts, which were the same as Lin Jia’s, yet Lin Jia still asked him.

Yan Xu tossed the biscuit playfully in his hand, his gaze fixed on Lin Jia. Yet he caught the falling biscuit steadily every time. “Could it be you can’t guess my thoughts?”

Lin Jia saw the thoughts in his eyes, and Yan Xu also saw the thoughts in Lin Jia’s eyes.

Lin Jia turned his head back and continued feeding the cat. “Can’t you tell, Captain Yan, that I’m creating opportunities for rewards for you?”

Plop!

The sound of the biscuit falling to the floor.

Yan Xu stared at Lin Jia, his teeth itching. This kind of blatant control… wrapped in sugar-coated bullets and mixed with a bit of sincerity.

After a while, when he still hadn’t heard Yan Xu’s voice, Lin Jia turned his head toward him again. He saw Yan Xu bend down to pick up the fallen compressed biscuit, avoiding his gaze.

Lin Jia waited patiently. He watched as Yan Xu pinched the biscuit packaging, making the wrapper rustle.

Amid the sound, Yan Xu finally spoke. “The second Fishman question.”

It was exactly what Lin Jia had thought—he would ask about the doctor’s order and materialize the order itself.

He tossed another pack of compressed biscuits over, which Yan Xu caught steadily.

Looking at the “reward” in his hand, Yan Xu gave a soft laugh. It seemed that Lin Jia was quite satisfied—he had received two rewards in a row.

Would there be a third reward?

Yan Xu thought for a moment. “All the Fish Spirit can go to you. I don’t need any.”

Lin Jia did not move.

Yan Xu paused, a little surprised: “That’s still not satisfactory?”

Lin Jia calmly glanced at him.

Yan Xu caught something in Lin Jia’s gaze and suddenly understood. He snorted. “Oh, so you never planned to give me any in the first place.”

There was no need to delve into the topic of Fish Spirit. After feeding the cat, Lin Jia went to the bathroom in the ward to wash his hands. Then, he took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped every trace of moisture from his hands.

The cat pouted, thinking: You were the one who wanted to feed me, and now, after I ate, you rejected me again.

Yan Xu leaned back lazily by the bed and stared at Lin Jia’s handkerchief. He thought this person was really particular.

Under the gaze of one person and one cat, Lin Jia still slowly wiped his hands. He didn’t mind Yan Xu observing him. Since Yan Xu wanted to look, he let him. Growing up until now, not a single person had ever fully understood him just from appearances. Of course, beyond appearances, no one had ever completely understood him either.

Lin Jia’s confidence was not groundless. Yan Xu looked at Lin Jia for quite a while but saw nothing useful.

Yan Xu could not guess what Lin Jia was thinking at all, nor Lin Jia’s true purpose.

This quickly wore away the novelty of receiving rewards. Finding it uninteresting, Yan Xu wiped the smile off his face and stood up.

“Fed and watered, time to do proper business.” After saying that, Yan Xu paused. He remembered that Lin Jia had fed the cat and given him rewards, yet Lin Jia himself had not eaten.

Only when Yan Xu spoke did Lin Jia tear open a compressed biscuit for himself.

“Forget it. Eat slowly.” Yan Xu hadn’t planned to ask the second Fishman question with Lin Jia anyway.

He jumped off the bed and walked to the door. Just as he was about to open it, a flash appeared beside him. Just as before, when Lin Jia had stood in front of him against the nurses, Lin Jia once again blocked him. Yan Xu had only pulled the ward door open a crack when Lin Jia stopped him from opening it fully.

The crack in the door appeared only briefly. Through it, they could see nurses constantly walking by outside.

Yan Xu glanced at him sideways.

Lin Jia closed the door again, shutting out the noise, and said, “Captain Yan, obviously running around counts as violating the doctor’s orders.”

The nurses had told them many times not to run around and to obey the doctor’s orders. This showed that not running around was one of the doctor’s orders. Now, the nurses had arrived—they were the supervisors of the doctor’s orders. No one could guarantee what would happen if they violated the order.

Lin Jia did not want Yan Xu taking risks when danger could be avoided.

Yan Xu said: “You’re afraid?”

His tone rose at the end, clearly indicating his disbelief that Lin Jia would treat the doctor’s order as sacred law.

“If you’re afraid, I’ll lure the nurses away. You go ask the Fishman the question,” Yan Xu said.

Lin Jia did not accept the favor. Instead, he asked back: “If there’s a better method, why take risks?”

The nurses were gathered around the nurses’ station. Yan Xu didn’t know of a better method, so he raised an eyebrow and waited for Lin Jia to explain.

Lin Jia looked toward the cat.

Yan Xu followed Lin Jia’s gaze and looked at the cat too.

The cat: “…”

Yan Xu was amused. “You’re not thinking of using the cat to lure away the nurses, are you?”

Lin Jia: “Why not?”

Lin Jia’s answer was so convincing that Yan Xu was speechless for a moment.

“No, how could a cat possibly do that?”

The cat also wanted to say: What? Who’s luring away the nurses? Huh? Me?

But its doubt got stuck in its throat. Lin Jia grabbed the cat by the back of its neck and threw it out through the newly opened crack in the door before it could start struggling.

The cat: “…”

Yan Xu: “…”

So he wasn’t joking.

Lin Jia shut the ward door. Just as Yan Xu was about to ask, ‘Will this work?’ a burst of commotion suddenly came from outside the ward.

“Ahhhhhh—”

The nurses at the third-floor nurses’ station screamed. “Something ran past! It was black and furry. It ran past my feet! Ahhh!”

“Catch it quickly!”

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

Utter chaos.

Lin Jia noticed Yan Xu’s gaze deepen, carrying a trace of scrutiny. This was exactly what Lin Jia wanted. He needed Yan Xu to gradually notice the cat. Perhaps, somewhere in the process, it would trigger a qualitative change. If Yan Xu was indeed the cat, and if he could discover that the cat’s desire to leave Underwater Wold was exactly what Lin Jia wanted, then everything would become much easier.

He said lightly, “Toast isn’t a patient in this ward. It doesn’t need to follow the doctor’s orders.”

Yan Xu said, “Wasn’t it supposed to be the witness between you and your lover? Even if it doesn’t need to follow the doctor’s orders, it won’t end well if it gets caught. Are you that unconcerned?”

This questioned Lin Jia’s earlier lie.

Lin Jia said: “My cat is very smart.”

“Is that so?” Yan Xu saw no flaw on Lin Jia’s face. Shifting his gaze away, he said in an unreadable tone, “Then it seems your cat is quite spiritual, able to understand human speech and help you do things.”

Lin Jia remained calm and said, “Everything in the world has spirit. It just depends on how you tame it.”

Yan Xu’s gaze, which had just shifted away, returned to Lin Jia. Looking at Lin Jia’s calm face, he felt, for some reason, that his words carried hidden meaning.

The chaos outside the ward lasted about four or five minutes before it calmed down somewhat.

Yan Xu opened the door slightly, saw that the nurses’ station was empty, and turned back to give Lin Jia a strange look.

The cat had actually done it—it had really lured the nurses away.

Lin Jia still looked flawless and impossible to read. Yan Xu could not see through anything, and now was not the time to probe further. He was just about to pull the ward door open and leave when he saw Lin Jia widen the gap in the door first.

Yan Xu frowned slightly. “You’re going too?”

Lin Jia said: “I need to confirm my cat’s safety, and also need to…”

At this point, he stopped and did not continue.

After waiting a while for the second half that never came, Yan Xu asked, “Also what?”

Lin Jia said: “Nothing.”

Yan Xu replied sincerely, “You’re a very strange person. Be careful—don’t let me catch your fox tail.”

Lin Jia said, “Thank you for the reminder, Captain Yan. I’ll hide my tail well.”

Yan Xu had already wanted to end his conversation with Lin Jia. He said nothing more, opened the door, and walked out.

Lin Jia followed closely behind.

Clearly, Yan Xu had no intention of walking with Lin Jia. He moved quickly.

Lin Jia’s profession was different from Yan Xu’s—he was only someone who sat in an office year-round, no match for Yan Xu who moved through Fish Belly all the time. Soon, Yan Xu left him behind.

But Lin Jia was not anxious. He knew Yan Xu was headed to the consultation desk on the first floor of the inpatient building, and he only needed to do the same.

Chaos erupted again on the second floor. Yan Xu leapt across the stairwell, quickly descending from the third floor to the first. Before leaving the stairwell, he turned back once to see if Lin Jia had caught up.

No.

Yan Xu pressed his lips together. It should be fine. Lin Jia was bold yet careful and deeply calculating; he absolutely would not put himself in danger.

With this thought, Yan Xu stopped waiting for Lin Jia and headed toward the Fishman.

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