Xiong Ji smiled.
“Mm, Big Brother’s here. What’s wrong, baby?”
He was deliberately asking a question he already knew the answer to.
Li Tong turned her head and shot him a watery, coquettish glare with her beautiful eyes.
She was clearly just pouting at him.
…
Annoyed, she kicked his firm abdomen.
Chuckling, Xiong Ji caught her foot and kissed it.
When Qin Shuo returned to the Small World and found the two of them together, he knew at a glance what had happened. Jealousy consumed him, so intense that he nearly ground his back teeth to pieces.
A surge of fury rushed to his head. He grabbed Xiong Ji by the throat, his eyes frighteningly bloodshot.
Startled, Li Tong hurried over and grabbed Qin Shuo.
“Big Brother… Please don’t, Big Brother…”
Seeing that tears were about to spill from Little Sister’s eyes, Qin Shuo took several ragged breaths before barely managing to regain his senses.
He wanted to kill Xiong Ji.
Xiong Ji wanted to kill the others just as much.
It was unbearable. It hurt too much.
Their hearts felt as though they were being torn apart.
But there was nothing they could do.
They had already fallen so deeply and irrevocably in love with her that none of them could live without her.
Qin Shuo covered his face and rubbed it hard with both hands.
Xiong Ji let out a quiet sigh through his nose before turning and walking back outside.
“Big Brother…”
Qin Shuo looked at his little sister with pain written all over his face. He gently took the small hand clutching the corner of his shirt and pressed a kiss to it.
“I love you.”
Li Tong smiled softly.
“Mm. I like Big Brother too!”
He lowered his head for a long moment before finally raising his hand…
…
Li Tong had fallen asleep by the time they came back out, and it was already very late.
Qin Shuo carried her straight into his bedroom to rest.
He had only just tucked her beneath the blanket when Jiang Xun opened the door and walked in.
The following morning…
The weather was unbearably hot.
After finishing a glass of water, Jiang Xun carried his little sister into the Small World to wash up.
He lifted her onto the bathroom counter, which had already been covered with a towel.
Frowning slightly, Jiang Xun carefully checked on her.
After Li Tong healed herself, she shyly covered herself with her hands.
“Be good. Are you finished healing? Let Big Brother have a look.”
She stubbornly pushed against his shoulders, refusing to let him.
With just one hand, Jiang Xun easily caught both of her slender wrists and held them still. Only after carefully checking to make sure everything was fine did he finally let her go.
He personally helped Li Tong brush her teeth and wash her face.
The five of them sat quietly around the dining table, eating breakfast while listening to the raging storm outside.
For the remaining half month, they stayed home every day, constantly surrounding their little sister.
Then it finally ended.
The first natural disaster had come to an end.
The temperature plummeted.
The sky outside was overcast and devoid of sunlight, though at least daylight had gradually returned and the world was no longer shrouded in complete darkness.
Nan Qi glanced at the thermometer.
Minus fifty degrees.
Outside, the floodwaters were rapidly freezing solid.
Several more portable heaters had been added throughout the apartment, making it warm and comfortable.
Since they were worried that colleagues might come knocking, they no longer spent time in the cold living room. Instead, all their meals were taken inside the Small World.
The bedroom remained pleasantly warm.
Li Tong was still wearing her short nightdress, wrapped in a blanket as she leaned comfortably against Xiong Ji while playing on her tablet.
A thick fog had settled outside, reducing visibility to almost nothing. Although the frozen surface was already hard enough to support weight, it still wasn’t suitable for ordinary people to travel across.
Li Tong had been confined indoors for so long that she was beginning to feel stifled.
She wanted to go outside, but remembering all of her big brothers’ repeated warnings, she swallowed the words before they could leave her mouth.
Xiong Ji hugged her close and kissed her.
“Big Brother’s going to work out now. Little Treasure can play by herself.”
“Okay~”
He threw back the blanket, got dressed, and had just opened the bedroom door when someone knocked.
Without even thinking, he knew exactly why they had come.
“Be good. Whatever happens, don’t make a sound, understand?”
Li Tong nodded obediently.
Xiong Ji took a long down coat from the wardrobe, put it on, and went to answer the door.
Jin spoke first.
“We’re here to discuss going out to gather fuel for heating.”
Shan Cheng smiled.
“Mind if we go inside and talk?”
Shan Cheng was the second ranked mercenary in the Ghost Guild. Twenty six years old, he had grown up just like they had. Xie Lin had picked him up as a child and thrown him into the Underground City, where he survived brutal training, bloodshed, and slaughter before climbing his way out alive.
Jin liked teaming up with him the most.
Two more men stood beside Shan Cheng.
They were Jiang Jinghuai and Lu Ke.
The three of them formed a squad together.
Xiong Ji closed the door behind him.
“We’ll talk at your place.”
Lu Ke laughed.
“Damn, what are you hiding at home?”
Jiang Jinghuai grinned.
“Got a beauty locked away in there?”
The two of them burst into laughter.
Without acknowledging either of them, Xiong Ji expressionlessly bumped Lu Ke’s shoulder aside and headed upstairs.
Lu Ke merely shrugged and followed behind with his usual carefree grin.
After finishing his workout and taking a shower, Nan Qi came to see his little sister.
“Big Brother, your colleagues came by just now. Eldest Brother was called away.”
Nan Qi nodded before slipping beneath the blanket and pulling her into his embrace.
“But Big Brother… am I really going to stay home forever?”
Nan Qi remained silent, lowering his eyes to look at her.
“Maybe we’ll leave this place someday. When the insect race arrives, it might not be safe here anymore.”
“I know.”
He still didn’t answer her question.
Seeing that, Li Tong chose not to ask again.
Nan Qi’s hands began wandering restlessly.
“Little Treasure, can you promise Big Brother that you’ll never fall in love with another man?”
“I’ll only like my big brothers!”
That single word, brothers, pierced his heart with pain.
Nan Qi forced a bitter smile before gently kissing her.
“Mm, you can only like us.”
Every single word of their conversation was heard clearly by Qin Shuo and Jiang Xun, who had been standing silently outside the door.
The two men drew in deep breaths, slowly let them out, then suppressed the emotions surging inside them before opening the door and walking in.