Hello, Arknights

Although Ling Dengxian was lucky enough to find the right direction this time, Provence also added that it was still two days' journey from here to Longmen. Ling Dengxian nervously asked if he could invite her to go to Longmen together.

"Well, of course." Provence nodded to show that she was happy to accompany him, and then asked in confusion, "If we have the same destination, it's only natural for us to go together. Why are you asking me?"

Ling Dengxian smiled and said, "It's better to confirm your intention. Objectively speaking, Miss Provence, we have only known each other for less than half a day. We are still strangers. Please be vigilant."

He would not tell her that he had been ambushed by someone before and almost succeeded.

But Miss Lupo was very alert. She glanced at him and said softly, "Did you encounter something bad?"

"..." Ling Dengxian was really helpless. Was his thoughts really easy to guess?

"No, if he really thinks so, he will definitely fall flat on his face." Xiaoxie, who had not spoken for a long time, suddenly spoke. Ling Dengxian paused and immediately asked in his heart: "Xiaoxie?"

"It's me. Don't ask me where I went. If you ask, I was on vacation. I will also pay for providing you with that ability."

"...Thank you for your hard work." Ling Dengxian comforted Xiaoxie. After the latter snorted, "I need to rest for a while, don't disturb me" and disappeared, Ling Dengxian's eyes were complicated.

Xiaoxie is lying.

He had no evidence, but his intuition told him that Xiaoxie was not telling the truth.

"Actually..." Provence's voice drew his attention back, "It's not like I'm completely unaware of these dangerous things. I've encountered them before, but..."

"Mr. Ling Dengxian is not a bad person. My intuition tells me so."

Ling Dengxian scratched his head and said, "Miss Provence, don't trust your instincts completely... You have to be on guard against others."

...Didn’t I just discover something based on my intuition?

What a contradiction, life...

"Mr. Ling Dengxian... Who would talk about themselves like that? This topic is getting stranger and stranger the more we talk." Provence smiled brightly, looked ahead, and found the source of water.

"Mr. Ling Dengxian, shall we stay here tonight?"

As she spoke, the girl jumped off the wolf's back and walked ahead to survey the terrain, moving the grass to determine the dryness and wetness of the soil.

"Listen to you... By the way, Miss Provence, you keep calling me 'Sir', and I feel a little..." Ling Dengxian felt a little embarrassed. He would only be eighteen years old in a while, and being called like that, and in Yanyu at that, made him feel strange.

"Didn't Ling Dengxian also call me 'Miss Provence'?" Provence turned around and blinked at him with a hint of cunning in her eyes.

"...Okay, Provence."

"Yes, Ling Dengxian."

After they finished speaking, both of them felt a little embarrassed, and then they each took charge of a part of the work and began to set up the camp.

By the way, when Chi Yu had nothing to do, she would never let Ling Dengxian ride on her, so Ling Dengxian walked all the way.

Chi Yu and Mr. Grape have no conflicts and seem to get along very well. Perhaps it's because Chi Yu is still a child, and the two wolves sitting side by side make her look more active.

The two of them quickly built a simple camp. Provence set up a tent, but when she saw Ling Dengxian's "work", she fell silent: "You are..."

"Hmm? For sleeping." Ling Dengxian didn't feel anything wrong. He patted his small wooden box hard to check its toughness, then nodded to indicate that he was done with work.

If time permits he even wants to expand it into a small shed like the one in Qicheng Town.

"... Ling Dengxian, you don't have a tent?"

"Yes, do you think my backpack looks like it is stuffed with a tent?" Ling Dengxian patted the empty backpack and dusted it off.

It was hard for Provence to imagine how he endured the bitter cold of the wilderness night.

"Don't worry, my little nest is not inferior either. I just do miss the days when I could lie on the bed and sleep soundly." Ling Dengxian waved his hand and did not continue the topic to the tent. After all, it belonged to someone else.

Even if you have the favor to help, you can't get embarrassed with a girl over a tent.

After all, this guy does look like the kind of person who would let a tent…

So when it came to making a fire, Provence put the collected firewood on the table and looked at Ling Dengxian.

Ling Dengxian understood what he meant, raised his hand, took out the flint and lit the firewood.

Provence was stunned: "Huh?"

Ling Dengxian also looked at her: "Hmm?"

"Ling Dengxian, don't you have Originium skills?"

"Yeah. Oh, so you thought I could use white flame to make fire?" Ling Dengxian suddenly realized and shook his head as if sighing, "My white flame is more for auxiliary medical treatment. The temperature is relatively low, not exceeding 37.5 degrees, and it can't be used to light a fire."

"Ah?" Provence felt it was magical. Seeing her curiosity, Ling Dengxian rolled a ball of white flame and threw it to her for her to observe.

Provence hurriedly held the white flame and found that this quietly burning flame really would not burn people. It was warm and had a great touch. If it were made into a pillow, it would definitely be a best-seller.

Ling Xian controlled the range of the campfire and then began to heat up the dry food, which was one of the few stocks he had. Seeing that Provence was still curiously poking and touching the white flame, he mischievously threw a small stone past her fluttering ears and jokingly said, "Miss Provence, do you want to eat?"

Provence responded dissatisfiedly: "Come on, Ling, wait, Xian, sir!"

Ling Dengxian felt embarrassed. Seeing his embarrassment, Chi Yu snorted as if in a sneer and was speechless about Ling Dengxian's performance.

Although Provence was invited to have dinner together, the two of them still ate separately. Chi Yu only ate some of her stored food symbolically. She had a full meal before and was not hungry for the time being.

"Chi Yu doesn't eat?" But the Lupo girl didn't know and asked while preparing food for Mr. Grape.

"Well... guess why we were being chased by a group of prairie beasts?"

"..." Provence could only say that she had underestimated you. You dared to provoke the prairie beasts. But she remembered another thing: "Oh, by the way, what happened to the claw beast that you caught before and it screamed a warning, causing chaos in the claw beasts? Did you do anything?"

Chi Yu yawned, indicating that it was not her fault.

"Oh, that... maybe I've been too ruthless recently and they have a memory of me - I can't help it, this meat is really good, do you want to try it?" Ling Dengxian took out another string of well-preserved claw beast meat.

"...Thank you then." Provence was stunned. She didn't expect this to be such an outrageous reason, but the color of the animal meat attracted her, and her intuition told her that Ling Dengxian had no intention of harming her.

Ling Dengxian silently handed over the beast meat. He was just talking... Ever since someone gave him a free meal of shrimp meat, he found that he seemed to be a little protective of his food.

However, this seems to be a short-term symptom caused by the food shortage in the wilderness, and it will disappear automatically after returning to the mobile city.

"By the way, Provence, can I ask why you became a messenger of natural disasters? This job seems very dangerous. A dangerous situation like today... it's really not worth it." Ling Dengxian looked at the girl's tired face and her slightly relaxed expression, and couldn't help but ask this question.

Provence paused and looked down at her palms. Some wounds were clearly visible. She seemed to recall something and closed her eyes. "Yes, the working environment of the Scourge Messenger is quite dangerous, and life is not guaranteed. When I chose this job, people around me opposed it. They were all very worried...but ah——"

The girl opened her eyes, her gaze flickering with the light of the bonfire. Her expression was gentle and firm. After looking at Ling Dengxian, she cast her gaze into the distance:

"If it's very dangerous, what will happen if no one does it? Behind the Messenger of the Scourge are thousands of lights."

"I want to protect them too."