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The sky was dark and overcast, the wind humid and sticky.

My sleep quality last night was quite poor. The atmosphere was so damp and thick that when I went to lie down and sleep, I felt a blanket of wetness cover my face. When I went to breathe, the steam made its way through my windpipe and into my lungs. Then when my biological clock told me to open my eyes, I felt my four limbs aching, my arms ice-cold, and my mind a little dizzy.

I splashed some cold water onto my face, re-applied my makeup, then left to find Fang Thirteen.

Knowing that Fang Thirteen wouldn’t be in her room, I softly and quietly pushed open the door to her office. Like always, Fang Thirteen was sitting on her wheelchair with her body leaning forwards, her delicate and pretty face pasted onto the big limestone table as she snored lightly. The clothes originally draped on her shoulders had long since slipped onto the floor and even in her dreams, Fang Thirteen’s arms were crossed and her brows tightly creased.

She probably won’t be able to hold on any longer.

I swept a glance at the sketch in front of her and discovered that the formation on it was something I had never seen before. I had learned a lot of information pertaining to formations through these days by Fang Thirteen’s side, so I could tell at a glance that the formation on her drawing was fine and exquisite. However, it was merely a shell and the content hadn’t been filled out yet.

I was momentarily astonished.

Normally, strategists study battle arrays on ancient books and at best, accommodate them according to circumstances. As long as they’re used flexibly, they will exert the maximum amount of might. But it appeared as if Fang Thirteen planned on creating an all-new formation, a formation that would only suit the current Sky Star City’s situation, and would certainly crush its opponent’s formation after being used.

Or perhaps she already realized that studying ancient books would be of no use in saving Sky Star City.

The formations within books are after all fixed forms; no matter how flexible and accommodating they were several hundreds of years ago, there would always be some constraints in using it in the present. From Fang Thirteen’s stance on things, I could see that she intended to combine her own theories and experiences into an undefeatable formation that would protect the current Sky Star City and its four subordinate cities.

I drew closer with the wish to investigate it. But it was also at this time that Fang Thirteen woke up, lifted up her head, and turned in the direction of the footsteps with a nervous expression.

I quietly whispered:

“It’s me.”

The expression on her face visibly relaxed.

I picked up the clothes on the floor and draped it back over her body, then asked:

“If you’re tired, I can carry you back and you can rest for a while?”

Fang Thirteen rubbed her hands together and spat out a mouthful of air before responding:

“Thank you……but I slept for a while just now and already feel much better.”

I walked over into the kitchen and boiled a pot of water. Once it was boiled, I poured it into a cup, blew on it a couple times to cool it down, and handed it over to Fang Thirteen after testing to make sure it wasn’t still scalding. Afterwards, I returned to the kitchen and rummaged through the supply corner to find some green beans. After acquiring the green beans, I chopped them up on the cutting board. I estimated that it was very early in the morning right now, most likely around 5 o’clock, so Tila still hadn’t gotten up. Apart from me, there was nobody else who would be able to cook some food for Fang Thirteen. And so, I lit the fire and poured some oil into the pan to stir-fry the green beans, then placed her usually eaten millet pancake——or more accurately, this era’s most primitive “biscuit”——into a steamer basket to steam for a while. Subsequently, I cracked open an egg to make eggdrop soup. Once everything was complete, I brought a serving to Fang Thirteen.

Fang Thirteen was slightly astonished as she raised her head and asked:

“You can even cook?”

“Yes, I can.”

I responded:

“Give it a taste, if you like it, I can make more for you in the future.”

Fang Thirteen giggled and whispered:

“I like it very much.”

I mocked with a joking smirk:

“How would you know when you haven’t even eaten it yet?”

Fang Thirteen lowered her head and mumbled:

“Even if it doesn’t taste good, I’ll still be able to always eat it in the future.”

Just like last time, I continued delivering food into her mouth.

Fang Thirteen chewed slowly. When she swallowed, she resembled a happy child who had just received her favorite toy as she joyously said:

“Really yummy.”

I performed another round of feeding play and fed her a mouthful of food. Watching her eyebrows smoothen, my mood improved by a lot.

It seemed that she was eating a little slower than she usually ate.

I sat by her side and didn’t continue chatting. She also began refocusing her attention on the rough drawing. I stayed quietly by her side, feeding her another mouthful after she swallowed the previous mouthful of food. She seemed to become used to this feeling. The entire room’s atmosphere momentarily became full of tranquility and peace while my full bowl of food slowly decreased in volume.

It was also at this moment that an eyesore arrived at the scene.

Fang Lita was rubbing his eyes as he walked outside and grumbled:

“Why was the bathroom built so far away, it’s too tortuous to walk to in the early morning……”

As he spoke, he passed by the doorway, he carelessly shot a glance towards the inside of the room.

Naturally, he saw Fang Thirteen who was in the middle of drawing, as well as me, who was sitting by her side.

Fang Lita wrinkled his brows and entered the room. Fang Thirteen seemed to have heard the sound of his heavy footsteps, so she lifted up her head and gradually removed her attention away from the rough drawing on the table.

Fang Lita stood in front of Fang Thirteen’s desk and looked left and right before asking:

“Where is Tila?”

Fang Thirteen answered:

“Tila’s been a little tired recently, it’s fine for her to sleep a little longer.”

Fang Lita muttered to himself “how dare a lowly subordinate sleep for so long”, then pointed at the food on the table and questioned:

“Then who made this?”

I replied:

“I did.”

Fang Lita exposed a taunting expression and pressed his eyebrows towards me and remarked:

“You finally know your place, eh? A grown man who will actually go into the kitchen and cook, I wonder if you’re really a man. Isn’t this something only women and cooks do? From what I’m seeing, you don’t have much skill that’s why you’ll do some things only women and servants will do. Come, I’ll give it a taste.”

He took the bowl of eggdrop soup from my hand and drank it down with one gulp, then threw the bowl onto the table and wiped his mouth before saying:

“The current mansion is so poor yet you still dare to use eggs. Don’t you know that we need to save?”

He shook his head and stated:

“Forget it, forget it, sis, when will we defeat Fang Yuan, are you still not done? It’s already been so long, didn’t you say before that this problem would be resolved quickly?”

Fang Thirteen opened her mouth to explain:

“Soon……”

Fang Thirteen immediately started beaming with happiness as he used both hands to hold Fang Thirteen’s arm and he smiled:

“It’s still big sis who loves me best. Then big sis, do your best, I’ll be going back to sleep a little longer! When I wake up, maybe Fang Yuan will have run away with his rat tail in his hands!”

Fang Thirteen reluctantly smiled, nodded, and responded:

“Mm.”

Fang Lita glanced at me pretentiously, then turned around and walked away. When he walked far away, I stood up and quietly told Fang Thirteen:

“I’ll go get another bowl of soup.”

Fang Thirteen extended her hand and held my arm after groping around for a bit, and whispered back:

“A’ta’s right, we need to save whatever bit we can……”

I turned silent for an instant, then sat back down and complied with her demand:

“Okay.”

Fang Thirteen picked her pen back up and went back to slowly drawing the sketch before her, but she was obviously a little distracted this time.

If Fang Thirteen resembled a child who received her toy when I was feeding her the food I made before, then she now resembled a child who had her toy snatched away. Not only that, but she also had to ship out an “I’m fine” appearance and force herself to place all her attention on the formation drawing in front of her.

Faced with Fang Lita’s expectations, her guilt towards me, her desire to safeguard Sky Star City, her doubts towards her own capability……each and every one of them were like gigantic mountains bearing down on Fang Thirteen’s body.

It wasn’t long before Fang Thirteen’s pen trembled and she leaned her body sideways to cover her mouth and violently cough.

Blood seeped from the gaps between her fingers and dripped onto the floor.