276: Chapter 276 Give Me a Break

"Young Master Lin."

Xu Zhixia didn't wait for Lin Fan to finish speaking before interrupting him.

"Hmm?"

"That theory of yours just now was pretty good, center of gravity concentration area, forty-five-degree inclination angle, emergency rescue landing point."

Xu Zhixia's speaking pace was unhurried. "But I have a question."

"Go ahead."

"This emergency rescue of yours has been going on for almost a minute."

Xu Zhixia tilted her head slightly, her gaze falling on the pair of hands that Lin Fan still had resting right where they were without pulling them back.

"Doesn't first aid emphasize the golden thirty seconds?"

"You've already exceeded the time limit, this counts as over-treatment."

Lin Fan's five fingers tightened for a moment, then relaxed.

That soft touch underwent a slight deformation with the movement of his fingers, and the rebound force transmitted from his fingertips to the base of his palms.

"Oh... right."

Lin Fan withdrew his hands, but Xu Zhixia's body didn't retreat backward along with them.

She had been standing for too long, and after her ankle was tripped by that vine, her entire left leg from the knee down was completely numb.

The moment Lin Fan let go, her center of gravity leaned forward, and her whole body pressed up against him again.

This time it wasn't a matter of hands.

Xu Zhixia's chest pressed directly against Lin Fan's front chest. Her lapels had already had two buttons loosened, and with this press, the layer of fabric in between was practically non-existent.

The touch, separated by a thin layer of cotton cloth, transmitted from the chest cavity all the way to his back.

Lin Fan's entire body tensed up like a stick.

"Dr. Xu."

"Hmm."

"Shouldn't you... give me... an... explanation..."

"My leg is numb," Xu Zhixia said dismissively, "I was tripped by a vine just now, my left ankle is sprained, and now my whole leg has no sensation."

She tried moving her toes, but below the knee there was no response whatsoever.

"Let me slow down a bit."

"Uh..."

Lin Fan lowered his head, and his perspective wasn't quite right.

Looking down from his angle, a large swath of Xu Zhixia's collar was wide open, and the curve below her collarbone crashed directly into his field of vision.

It was a bit excessively white.

The light in the woods was shattered, leaking down from the gaps in the canopy, printing piece by piece onto that patch of skin between her neck socket and chest.

The light spots moved with her breathing, rising and falling together.

Lin Fan's Adam's apple rolled.

"Gulp."

This sound was much louder than the time the fruit dropped just now.

Xu Zhixia was pressed against his chest, and she felt the vibration caused by this swallow clearly.

She didn't raise her head, her mouth twisting slightly.

"Saw something to eat again?"

"No."

"Then what are you swallowing for?"

"My throat is dry."

"Your throat is dry and you don't drink water, you swallow empty saliva?"

"Why do I feel like you're the one who's hungry?"

Lin Fan turned his face away. "You haven't recovered yet, if you don't get up soon, my legs are going to be the ones going numb in a moment."

Hearing this, Xu Zhixia finally shifted her center of gravity back to her own legs, and her left foot tentatively stepped on the ground, a dense tingling sensation coming from the soles of her feet like pinpricks.

She retreated half a step backward, peeling her chest away from Lin Fan's body.

At that instant, Lin Fan clearly felt a rebounding force.

Like dough that had been kneaded for a long time, bouncing back to its original shape on its own when let go.

No, it was much more elastic than dough, how could dough have this kind of resilience?

After Xu Zhixia stood firm, she lowered her head and pulled at her lapel, buttoning back one of the loosened buttons.

Her fingers pinched the second button, paused, and didn't button it.

"Let's go."

Xu Zhixia raised her foot and stepped forward, walking two steps before turning her head back.

"What are you standing there in a daze for, aren't we going to fetch water?"

Lin Fan snapped out of it, hoisted the back-basket straps onto his shoulders, and followed behind.

He walked behind Xu Zhixia, those images stirring back and forth in his mind.

Could this woman be doing this on purpose?

Being tripped by a vine could be true, and a numb leg could also be true.

But loosening two buttons and only buttoning one back, this operation was quite questionable.

Moreover, her expression hadn't changed from beginning to end. With that level of calmness, either she truly didn't care about this kind of thing.

Or she was dead certain that he wouldn't dare do anything.

If Su Qingxue and the others weren't potentially in danger inside the Karst Cave, he would have had to verify today just how much substance this Dr. Xu really had.

Field operations, although the conditions were a bit crude, had the advantage of vast skies and open earth with circulating air.

Lin Fan shook his head hard, throwing those messy thoughts out of his mind.

No, business comes first.

The two passed through a patch of low bushes, and the ground under their feet began to grow damp and soft. The water vapor in the air grew thicker and thicker, and the sound of flowing water could be faintly heard coming from ahead.

Walking for less than five minutes, a stream appeared in their field of vision.

The water wasn't deep; the deepest place reached the calves, clear enough to see the stones at the bottom.

Lin Fan put down the back-basket, pulled out empty mineral water bottles from inside, and then squatted at the edge to start filling them with water.

A rustling sound came from behind.

Lin Fan turned his head to look.

Xu Zhixia had taken off her outer long-sleeved shirt, leaving only a low-cut tank top and a light-colored bra underneath, the shoulder straps sticking out a bit from the edge of the tank top.

Below was a pair of loose-legged trousers that Lin Fan had picked up earlier.

She bent over and rolled her trouser cuffs up to around the root of her thighs, exposing her two calves, her skin still stained with mud spots brushed against in the woods just now.

"What are you doing?"

"Washing up."

Xu Zhixia stepped on the stones and walked to a position four or five meters downstream from him, putting one foot into the water first.

"Anyway, this stream water flows into the sea in the end. You fetch water upstream, and I wash my body downstream, it won't affect your water quality."

"Any problem?"

Lin Fan pulled back his gaze, aiming it at the bottleneck in his hand.

"As you like."

Lin Fan shoved the mineral water bottle directly into the water, and before long it was full. He tightened the bottle cap and set it aside, then picked up the second empty bottle.

Lin Fan stared at the rising water level inside the bottle, his gaze pinned to that plastic opening, unmoving.

Because of his body's evolution, he could actually hear that the sound of the water downstream had changed, gaining a rhythm.

Lin Fan's peripheral vision disobeyed him and drifted toward the lower right.

In the stream section four or five meters away, Xu Zhixia had her back to him, bending over, cupping stream water with both hands and pouring it onto her neck.

The water dripped down her back neck, flowing all the way down along the shallow groove in the middle of her spine. After her tank top was soaked, it clung tightly to her skin, outlining the lines on both sides of her waist dimples clearly.

Her movements were not fast. After pouring a handful of water, her fingers rubbed twice near her collarbone, then she bent over to cup a second handful.

The entire routine was as smooth as flowing clouds and running water, without a shred of deliberateness.

Lin Fan's bottle was already full, and water overflowed from the bottleneck, flowing down along his wrist.

He didn't notice.

Xu Zhixia cupped another handful of water. This time she didn't pour it on her neck, but instead turned sideways, splashing the water onto the inner side of her forearm, her fingers wiping all the way from the bend of her elbow to her wrist.

The moment she turned sideways, a section of the outline popped out from the edge of the tank top.

That arc, combined with the fragmented light reflected from the stream water, branded a mark onto his retina.

Lin Fan's throat tightened, and he quickly turned his face back.

He couldn't look anymore.

He really couldn't look anymore.

"Lin Fan."