Chapter 117: Chapter 109 Where is Li Chun?

Li Zheng didn’t expect that Xiao Siyuan, this soldier with thick eyebrows and a guileless face, would be so good at cracking jokes, one after another.

Coupled with the unintentional display of his soldierly toughness, the contrast was quite striking, giving an unreal feeling.

“What did you watch back on Earth?” Li Zheng stared blankly at Xiao Siyuan, “Are you usually like this in the outpost?”

Xiao Siyuan shrugged and said, “Pretty much, usually spending ten days to half a month at each outpost, facing the same old faces. If I don’t find some amusement in conversations to entertain myself, how boring would that be?”

On hearing this, Li Zheng nodded, surprisingly finding some sense in Xiao Siyuan’s words.

It’s like how everyone now enters the Matrix, and most of the time, the conversations in the regional channel are unserious, as if this could alleviate the feeling of loneliness and emptiness of being alone in the Matrix.

It can also relieve the mental stress of facing various dangers every day.

Not everyone can find familiar faces and team up to explore after entering the Matrix.

Although teaming up in twos or more adds some safety during exploration.

But everyone’s number of room entries per day is fixed, even in a team, passing through the same door requires each to use one exploration opportunity.

This aspect invisibly decreases the multiplied benefits.

Of course, it’s not that there are absolutely no team players in the Matrix, they are just relatively fewer.

“Outpost?” Phoenix Mountain placed the white cat in his arms on the ground, looked at Xiao Siyuan with curiosity, “What outpost? Aren’t you a doctor?”

Xiao Siyuan once told everyone that he had medical specialization, a skill that clearly implied he worked in the medical field on Earth.

“Well, to be precise, I’m a military doctor.”

When the topic touches on his profession, Xiao Siyuan becomes more serious: “But I’m retired now.”

“Retired? Military doctor? Outpost?”

Phoenix Mountain mumbled these key terms and basically figured out Xiao Siyuan’s profession: “You’re a border defense… What?!”

“Snap!”

Phoenix Mountain gave a not-so-standard military salute, with a solemn expression: “Salute to the hero!”

“How come everyone except Li Zheng knows my deeds?” Xiao Siyuan joked with a smile, then returned a standard military salute, “How am I a hero.”

“True heroes already rest in peace, I’m just an ordinary soldier who survived the battlefield.” Xiao Siyuan seemed to remember something, his eyes reddened.

“Sniff!”

Li Zheng turned his head to see Little Sakura standing on his shoulder, mimicking Xiao Siyuan’s actions, making a salute that looked quite decent.

“Haha, your little arms can’t even reach your forehead, what are you joining in for?” Li Zheng flicked Little Sakura’s head, and the little guy looked at him aggrievedly.

“Who says those alive aren’t heroes?” Phoenix Mountain said solemnly, “As a border defense warrior, defending the homeland is a heroic act. Old Xiao, as a military doctor, who knows how many warriors you have cared for, how many heroes you have healed.

If you’re not a hero, who is?

Those keyboard warriors on the internet opposing their fellow people?”

“Sometimes, I’d rather not be this so-called hero.” Xiao Siyuan looked much more downcast, “I’d rather they could come back to life; I’d like to see that kid cry in front of me again.”

The atmosphere, turned somber.

Li Zheng knew Xiao Siyuan was thinking about his comrades again.

After a while, Xiao Siyuan emerged from his memories, tears in his eyes but smiled: “Aren’t we here to relax? Let’s hurry up and go!”

With that, he led the way into the light screen.

“Wait, let me first choose a room type.”

Li Zheng followed behind, selecting a bath and sauna type through the system interface, and went in with Little Sakura.

Phoenix Mountain picked up his butt who had been scratching his pants leg and followed along.

…

The light screen dispersed like an illusory dream, and in front of Li Zheng appeared a small changing room with three standing lockers inside.

Opening the lockers, there were three sets of bathrobes and slippers and some bath supplies.

Xiao Siyuan, having been a soldier, moved quickly, stripped himself in no time, and put on the lower part of the bathrobe. (Just a very loose pair of shorts)

“Whoa! This place is pretty nice!”

Phoenix Mountain let out a sigh as he came in, swiftly stripped himself, and put on a bathrobe while looking maliciously at Li Zheng: “What, need us to help you change?”

Xiao Siyuan had a towel on his shoulders, holding bath gels and such, also with a mischievous smile, the implication evident.

“Haha!”

Li Zheng rolled his eyes at them and took a glance at ‘Little Phoenix,’ taunting: “I’m giving you both a chance to go soak first, to prevent getting shocked later.”

“Tch.”

Xiao Siyuan scoffed: “Unless you can wrap it around your waist, it won’t shock anyone… Sorry, my bad, I’m out of here!”

Before he finished his sentence, Xiao Siyuan decisively turned around and fled with the bath supplies.

It was because Li Zheng had already stripped himself and stood there with his arms open wide, legs apart and looking proud.

“I’m out too!”

Phoenix Mountain hurriedly grabbed his stuff and followed Xiao Siyuan through the small door inside the changing room.

Vaguely, Li Zheng heard them whispering.

“Damn… I could never remember how to write ‘wood’ in school, now I finally understand its meaning.”

“This is so damn exaggerated, it might really be able to wrap around his waist.”

…

“Look, did it get to you?”

Li Zheng pouted, changed into slippers and a bathrobe, took the bath supplies, with Little Sakura and Butt, and walked into the inner room, Connor steps wide.

The inner room was filled with steam, with one large and one small tile-covered pool.

Originally, Xiao Siyuan and Phoenix Mountain were soaking in the large one, chatting while splashing.

As soon as they saw Li Zheng come in, they turned around simultaneously, showing him their backs.

“What’s there to be proud of? Just being a tiny bit older than us?”

“Exactly, no jealousy at all…”

“…”

“I’m freaking losing my mind with jealousy!” x2

Li Zheng: “…”

He lifted his hand and tossed Xiao Ying and Pi Pi into the small pool, letting them play with the water on their own, then threw off his robe, let out a ‘yahoo’, and jumped high into the air, landing like a cannonball into the large pool.

“Thud!”

Water splashed everywhere, and once it settled, there was visibly less in the pool.

“Childish.”

“Exactly.”

Xiao Siyuan led the mocking, with Phoenix Mountain chiming in from the side.

“Phew~~”

Li Zheng emerged from the water, wiped his face, smirked proudly, and swam quietly to a corner to soak.

“As expected, I can’t feel the water temperature.”

Li Zheng could sense the water flow but couldn’t feel its temperature.

Neither cold nor warm.

In a very paradoxical state.

Beside him, Pi Pi somehow swam over from the small pool, paddling agilely, flipped onto its back by Phoenix Mountain, and started backstroking, circling around him.

Li Zheng found it amusing as he watched.

He had seen many cats on Earth forcibly bathed under various constraints.

It could be said that, generally, it takes two or three people to hold down a house cat for a bath.

Pi Pi, however, not only didn’t puff up, but also swam happily.

Especially with its dense long fur, as it kicked its legs in the water, the fur swayed smoothly up, down, left, and right with the flow, looking like a little white sea lion.

Relaxing moments tend to pass quickly. After soaking for a while, Li Zheng began scrubbing off the dirt accumulated over these days.

Game day five, Li Zheng had been injured, rolled like a donkey, and sometimes got splattered with blood when killing monsters.

Now, as he scrubbed, the pool water gradually became murky.

“Huh? Does this pool have an automatic circulation system too?”

Li Zheng noticed the dirty water flowing in one direction, entering another corner where there was a black pipe inlet.

The dirty water poured in, but the pool water didn’t continue to decrease.

“It’s a pity I can’t take this water away, or the newly built bathroom in the capsule residence could be up and running.”

Li Zheng felt a bit regretful, while a strange thought popped into his mind.

“If you can’t take the water out, what happens if a player drinks it? Will it be left behind when leaving?”

Shaking his head slightly, Li Zheng dismissed the thought.

Such a thing, probably only Lu Li could attempt.

Next time they encounter a leisure room, consider bringing Lu Li along to test it out.

Speeding up, Li Zheng quickly washed himself clean, feeling refreshed.

On the other side, Xiao Siyuan and his friend were not slow either, after finishing, they called out: “Wanna hit the sauna together?”

“No, you guys go ahead, I have kids to take care of.”

Li Zheng shook his head, calling Xiao Ying over, lathering her with some shower gel, letting the little one bubble herself up before rinsing her clean.

“We’ll go ourselves then.”

The two left this remark and whisked into the sauna next door.

“Sigh, it’s not that I don’t want to sauna. It’s just that sitting in a sauna is not as comfortable as being in the pool. At least in the pool, I can feel the water flow.”

Li Zheng glanced to the side, Pi Pi was still backstroking, so he reached over and helped bathe it too.

“Meow~”

While Li Zheng lathered it with shower gel to make bubbles, it was particularly docile, sitting steadily on the pool’s edge, not fussing or crying, even purring contentedly when it was comfortable.

“Hey~”

Li Zheng raised an eyebrow, amazed: “You sure are enjoying this, even needing me to bathe you.”

“Meow~”

Pi Pi, familiar with him, nudged his hand back a bit, looking to please.

“Sigh, since you’re so cute, I’ll let it slide this time.”

Li Zheng scrubbed diligently for a while, cupped some water to rinse it clean.

When Pi Pi dried off, its fur fluffed up like a furball, but once wet, the fur clung to its body, instantly shrinking its size by two-thirds, appearing rather thin.

…

After fifty minutes, Li Zheng bought a new set of clothes, dressed neatly, holding a hairdryer to help dry the fur of the two pets.

“Might get Li Chun that girl to make a set of clothes later…”

Li Zheng’s hand suddenly paused as he thought of something amiss.

“Hasn’t Li Chun sent any messages in the area channel since this morning?”

He flipped open the leaderboard for a glance, Li Chun’s name was still at the ninth position, not disappearing.

“Still there, should be fine, right?”

Li Zheng opened Li Chun’s private chat, trying to send a message.