Their room was at the end of the hallway, the leftmost one at the very back. All the occupied rooms here had nameplates hanging on their doors, like the ones around Shen Lan and Xia Chuan's rooms. The door of the room assigned to them was bare, and Bonnie said someone would come later to hang their nameplate.

Shen Lan was very direct in expressing his feelings - if he liked someone a bit more, he'd chat with them more; if he really liked someone, he wanted to get closer in various ways. So as soon as they entered the room, without even looking at what it was like inside, he turned and pressed Xia Chuan against the door, lowered his head to rub their noses together, wanting to kiss him.

Just as his lips touched Xia Chuan's, Xia Chuan suddenly heard some faint noises in the room, like the light sound of a clothing button hitting something hard. He frowned and tried to move back, but his head was already against the door, leaving little room to retreat.

Shen Lan, as if he hadn't noticed anything, followed Xia Chuan's lips to continue kissing.

Xia Chuan: "..."

He could hear it, so he couldn't believe Shen Lan, whose hearing was thirty times better than normal people's, couldn't hear it!

With his head already against the door panel and no more room to retreat, Xia Chuan raised the hand on Shen Lan's waist and patted his back, not too gently - anyone who wasn't paralyzed would feel it.

Unexpectedly, Shen Lan only paused for a moment before stubbornly saying against Xia Chuan's lips: "I didn't hear anything, don't pat me."

Xia Chuan: "..."

He irritably pinched a ticklish spot on Shen Lan's waist, making him reluctantly shrink his waist with a resigned look and finally move his face away.

"It's a room we're going to live in, after all," Xia Chuan whispered, jerking his chin towards a half-open door inside the room.

The room's layout was actually similar to the infirmary, just much larger. The interior was simple and neat, with everything necessary and nothing extra, making it feel just right - neither empty nor cramped. Past that door, which matched the room's decor, was a washbasin, and the door clearly led to the bathroom.

The sound from earlier had come from behind that door. Shen Lan finally reluctantly let go, and he and Xia Chuan looked at the half-open door. They both stepped along the wall towards it, making almost no sound.

Truth be told, when these two were together, they rarely encountered problems they couldn't solve, even if faced with a small group of people, the opponents wouldn't stand much chance. Their caution was purely out of habit.

They exchanged a glance, then suddenly pushed open the door, moving behind it while already in attack postures. However, Xia Chuan stopped Shen Lan's movement when he saw the situation behind the door.

"What—" Shen Lan paused in confusion, then also saw the person behind the door — it was a black-haired man with a thin build, sitting on the ground with his back against the hard wall, bent over with his body half-curled up, one hand clutching his chest, the other supporting himself on the ground. The hand on the ground seemed to be trying to grab something, fingers half-curled, with the tendons and bones on the back of his hand protruding, making him look even thinner.

But what surprised Xia Chuan and Shen Lan most were his arms. Probably for convenience, his shirt sleeves were loosely rolled up a few times, exposing his forearms where veins were clearly visible, some bluish, some purplish, all bulging out, looking like a web of varying thickness spiders under his skin.

The man's complexion was pale, which made these blue and purple veins appear even more dense and terrifying, spread under his skin, a shocking sight that made one's hair stand on end. Even Shen Lan and Xia Chuan, who were usually fearless, couldn't help but frown at this sight.

The man's hair was slightly longer than Xia Chuan's, with sideburns covering half his ears, and the bangs in front were already damp with sweat. A few strands stuck to his forehead, while more cast shadows on his face due to his lowered head, obscuring his features.

From where Xia Chuan and Shen Lan stood, they could only see half of his side profile with tightly pressed lips, and his equally pale neck. These exposed areas of skin were also covered with spider web-like veins. His entire body was trembling slightly, seemingly enduring extreme pain, to the point where he couldn't react at all to the two people standing in front of him.

As the other person currently posed no threat, Xia Chuan thought briefly and then crouched down, asking, "What's wrong with you?"

Perhaps due to the intensity of the pain, the man seemed unable to hear Xia Chuan's words, so Xia Chuan raised his voice and repeated the question. He didn't know what caused the changes in the man's skin, so he didn't rashly touch him.

Seeing no response still, Xia Chuan frowned and looked up at Shen Lan. He saw Shen Lan with deeply furrowed brows, his gaze somewhat bewildered as he extended his own hands, looking at them for a good while, lost in thought.

"What are you thinking about?" Xia Chuan guessed that perhaps the sight of this person's suffering had triggered something in Shen Lan, reminding him of some past experiences. After all, judging from Shen Lan's attitude towards the German, Gerald, earlier, it was clear his past experiences were far from pleasant.

"I—" Shen Lan opened his mouth but didn't know what to say next.

After a long moment, he shook his head vigorously, then glanced at the person curled up on the ground and said, "Soaking him in water might help."

"Soaking him in water?" Xia Chuan was surprised, "Why?"

Shen Lan shrugged: "Intuition."

His intuitions were rarely wrong, and even if it was wrong this time, there weren't any other options. They couldn't just watch this person stay curled up here. After all, they still had to stay in this room for a few days before going ashore.

Xia Chuan's strength was already greater than normal people's, and Shen Lan's was even more so. Plus, although the curled-up man couldn't say a word from start to finish, he seemed quite cooperative when being moved. So the two of them easily placed this man into the bathtub and then turned on the faucet, letting water gush in.

Watching the water level slowly rise, gradually covering the man's feet, calves, knees... Xia Chuan stood by the bathtub with his arms crossed, frowning for a while, still feeling uneasy and said to Shen Lan, "Just like this? Is just soaking in a tub of water enough?"

Shen Lan looked at him with an equally uncertain expression and carefully said, "...Maybe add some salt?"

Xia Chuan: "..."

Only a fool would take him seriously. As they spoke, the bathtub had slowly filled up, covering the man's chest. He hung his head, one hand gripping the edge of the bathtub tightly, the other still clutching his chest. His slightly trembling body caused the water in the bathtub to ripple continuously, never settling down.

After a while, seeing that his pain still hadn't eased, Xia Chuan couldn't help but look at Shen Lan and say, "Was that about adding salt your intuition or..."

Shen Lan: "I just prefer it saltier."

Xia Chuan immediately closed his mouth with a blank expression, turning his head to look back at the bathtub, feeling that he must have been shot in the head earlier.

They didn't have any timing devices on hand, though there was a clock on the wall that matched the room's decor, but unfortunately neither of them had noticed it or checked the time. They only felt that every minute waiting by the bathtub passed incredibly slowly, as if it were an entire day.

The man's lowered head was almost touching the water surface, as if the slightest loss of strength would submerge him entirely, nearly drowning him. After a long time, Xia Chuan noticed that the ripples on the water surface, which had never stopped, seemed to have become smaller than before, showing a tendency towards calmness.

Looking at the man again, he saw the fingers tightly gripping the edge of the bathtub suddenly twitch as if in a spasm, and then actually loosened a bit. The originally whitened joints gradually regained some color, suggesting that the level of pain seemed to have lessened somewhat.

Xia Chuan looked up and exchanged a glance with Shen Lan, then returned his gaze to the man, only to see the spider web-like blue and purple veins on his skin slowly fading. Like a receding tide, they retreated from his face to his neck, and then disappeared beneath his slightly disheveled collar.

After all the visible veins on his body had disappeared, the man's barely audible breathing finally began to slow down and become even, no longer sounding like he couldn't exhale after inhaling. Throughout this process, neither Xia Chuan nor Shen Lan touched him or asked him any more questions.

After another good while, the man's hand gripping the edge of the bathtub fell into the water with a "splash", as if he had just gone through an extremely exhausting exercise and was utterly spent. He released the hand clutching his chest and, maintaining this posture, scooped up a few handfuls of water to splash on his face, brushing his wet hair back.

He raised his head, squinting at Xia Chuan and Shen Lan, and said in a hoarse, weak voice, "Thank you..."

His features, previously obscured by veins and shadows, were now fully revealed, clear as day. Xia Chuan didn't have any particular reaction, but Shen Lan was visibly stunned. "Who are you?!"

Because of the close distance, even Shen Lan could see this person's features very clearly. He couldn't help but look at the person in the bathtub, then at Xia Chuan standing beside him, asking the man with an extremely surprised expression.

"What's wrong?" Xia Chuan noticed his strange expression and behavior but couldn't quite react for a moment.

Shen Lan casually patted his hand, jerked his chin towards the person in the bathtub, and said, "He looks extremely similar to you! Didn't you notice?!"