Xia Huanao slept soundly, while Li Han and Xia Pingdong were surrounded by their teammates. Led by Ruan Tian, they were being pressured to reveal what had happened. This was understandable, as the two had been too smug and arrogant when they were boasting…
However, Li Han and Xia Pingdong's "dead pig not afraid of boiling water" attitude was infuriating. Everyone could understand Xia Pingdong; as the vice-captain, he sometimes wielded his authority, and if he truly angered everyone, no one would have a good time. But what right did Li Han have? Just because he had a captain girlfriend? She was a girlfriend, not a wife.
Ruan Tian first grinned maliciously at Li Han, then turned to Cai Rou: "Captain, we're just trying to get along with Li Han. You should go back to sleep."
Cai Rou tilted her head and put on a cute face: "Hmm? I'll just watch, I promise not to interfere, okay?"
Li Han was sweating profusely: "Wifey, you can't do this…"
Cai Rou put her arm around Yu Linglong next to her: "Pfft, who's your wifey? I haven't agreed to marry you yet. Ruan Tian, you guys go ahead, I don't care anymore."
Seeing Ruan Tian and the others glaring at him menacingly, Li Han squeezed out his last shred of courage: "If you dare, come at me! See how Boss Xia deals with you if I wake him up!"
Upon hearing Xia Huanao's name, Ruan Tian and the others were still somewhat hesitant. Although Xia Huanao was easygoing, it didn't mean he wouldn't get angry if woken up.
Ruan Tian chickened out, but his girlfriend didn't. Shui'er glanced at Xia Huanao's tent: "I remember Boss Xia saying he'd be on watch in the latter half of the night. As long as everyone waits until just before midnight to make a move, it's fine even if he wakes up. As for now, why don't we just shut him up so he doesn't make noise?"
Li Han's eyes widened in horror as he looked at Shui'er: "This is truly, the most venomous heart of a woman…"
Shui'er didn't react, but Cai Rou stamped her foot: "Sisters, go! Take him down!"
…
Finally, Yu Linglong made the final decision: "Alright, stop messing around. You just want to know what Li Han and Xia Pingdong found out, right? I'll tell you."
Everyone: ?
What kind of mind-reading ability was this? Was Sister Linglong a human elf? Could she do something like this?
Yu Linglong walked over to Cai Rou and began to grope her.
"Sister Linglong, what are you doing? It tickles."
Yu Linglong quickly found a small object on Cai Rou and held it in her hand. She glanced at Li Han and Xia Pingdong. The two culprits exchanged glances, then pretended to be calm. But Yu Linglong lightly tossed the small object to the ground and stomped on it…
Watching Li Han and Xia Pingdong twitching on the ground, Yu Linglong snorted: "Learning bad things. Stop pretending. This little thing, even if it's damaged, doesn't have that much power. Get up."
Xia Pingdong and the other two got up from the ground: "Sister Linglong, how did you discover it?"
Yu Linglong put her hands on her hips: "No matter what, I'm still a pretty popular celebrity. I've seen plenty of these eavesdropping and secret recording tricks."
Cai Rou looked at the corpse of the small object on the ground and glared at Li Han with dissatisfaction. Li Han quickly begged for mercy and, by betraying Xia Pingdong, said: "It was Xia Pingdong who made me do it. It has nothing to do with me…"
"Li Han, you…"
After another period of commotion, seeing Li Han and Xia Pingdong equally disheveled, Yu Linglong asked: "How is it? Have you calmed down?"
The two nodded: "Yes, we've calmed down. We won't do this again."
Yu Linglong shook her head: "That's good. Cai Rou and I won't say anything about tonight. No matter how much you guys mess around, just don't let me know, you understand? As for what you heard from the listening device, it's all true. Xia Huanao did intend to cause trouble in the middle of the night."
"What?"
"Shh, keep your voices down. Don't wake up Xia Huanao. Alright, I've said all I'm going to say. You guys go back and rest. I need to get my beauty sleep too."
With that, Yu Linglong went back to her tent and climbed into her sleeping bag. As for the others, could any of them sleep?
Li Han and Xia Pingdong exchanged glances: "I've decided, I'm not sleeping tonight."
…
At midnight, Xia Huanao crawled out of his sleeping bag, rubbed his eyes, and looked around: "This t/
Xia Huanao's words were full of teasing. The boys all looked away, what could they say? To defend against Xia Huanao's surprise attack, they hadn't slept all night?
Xia Huanao naturally knew what they had been doing last night. Yu Linglong could detect the listening device with her instincts as a celebrity, and Xia Huanao could accurately locate it with his system. However, the system was quite disgruntled, mainly because its appearance rate had decreased. To be precise, as Xia Huanao's Pokémon gradually gained combat strength, its presence became less and less significant.
Xia Huanao truly hadn't expected them to stay up all night waiting. But then again, these rich second-generation kids could party all night and still be fine the next morning, so why would staying up one night wear them out so much?
"Um, I say, why don't we rest in the morning and deal with the mission in the afternoon? After all, your health is important."
Li Han shook his head: "No, we can't delay everyone's progress because of us."
Xia Huanao nodded: "You've made great progress. Alright, then we'll continue the mission today. However, for your safety, we won't split up today. The whole group will move together."
After a simple breakfast and tidying up, Xia Huanao and the others continued their "Mission to Capture Affected Pokémon." Li Han cautiously tugged on Cai Rou's sleeve: "Xiao Rou…"
Cai Rou nodded: "Okay, okay, I know. Wait here."
After saying this, Cai Rou walked to the front of the team and asked in a low voice: "Coach Xia, didn't you say there was movement last night? Why didn't I hear anything all night?"
Xia Huanao shrugged: "Perhaps they forgot. I only thought humans were untrustworthy, I didn't expect Pokémon to be like this too."
Cai Rou looked at Xia Huanao, not saying a word. Xia Huanao asked: "No, what's wrong? You don't seem to believe me."
"I don't believe you. I can confirm you're lying."
"Yes, that's right, I was lying. Do you think I don't know why you're here? However, for the sake of you being Mu Zhishui's student, I'll mercifully tell you. Night raids will definitely happen. As for the specific day, I can't say more. If I told you, it wouldn't serve the purpose of training everyone. How can everyone just wait for that day?"
Saying this, Xia Huanao pointed forward: "Everyone, who wants to go first?"
…
Thus, under the strategic threat of Xia Huanao's potential night raids, a few days quickly passed. Because they didn't know which day the raid would happen, and given Xia Huanao's personality of stirring up trouble, everyone was cautiously vigilant against surprise attacks.
Every morning, Xia Huanao would tease them: "No, what's going on with you guys? You all look like this. Are you too nervous living in the same tent as me? How about we change the living arrangement? You guys can share a tent with your girlfriends, maybe then you'll be able to sleep."
Similar to the boys, the girls' mental state wasn't great either. However, this mainly applied to Cai Rou. As the captain, she felt it was her duty to protect her sisters from all dangers. The people in the best mental state in the entire team were Xia Huanao and Yu Linglong. Xia Huanao was the instigator of the entire event, and as someone who had everything "under control," he couldn't possibly experience mental exhaustion.
As for Yu Linglong, her judgment of people was too sharp. Xia Huanao's true intentions might be hidden from others, but they were definitely not hidden from Yu Linglong, who had navigated the entertainment industry.
On the night before everyone was about to leave the secret realm, Yu Linglong found an opportunity to approach Xia Huanao: "You're really wicked, making up such a lie to trick them. Look how scared they are, they're almost mentally exhausted."
Xia Huanao nodded: "Don't worry, there are plenty of people outside the secret realm monitoring their physical and psychological conditions. Besides, who said this was a lie?"