Cutting his way into the cornfield with a butcher knife, Liu Fen began to question his life decisions. Not only was he on a completely unknown, foreign planet, he was there with Tao Yong. With the latter following him like a childhood trauma.
He was absolutely unaware of any planet similar to Earth in every way possible, which made him wonder if they'd ever truly left Earth. It could be a possibility. But if so, they had landed somewhere very far from society (that meaning the big cities, of course), since there was no sign of any technology. Nothing at all! No drones inspecting the harvest, no weather aligning machines, no robots tending to the damn plants! What kind of savagery was that?
"There's a house somewhere near," a voice startled him out of his own turmoil of thoughts. "It looks inhabited. We could take shelter there."
Liu Fen didn't say anything, opting for only uttering a dismissive sound. It was just Tao Yong's fashion to take charge of the situation and boss people around. Very predictable. He hadn't changed a thing.
He smothered an annoyed groan as he slaughtered more corn stalks with the knife, his cut aching a bit at the process. Tao Yong had volunteered to be the one to clear the path out of the green sea of overgrown plants, but Liu Fen quickly protested, not thinking twice before snatching the knife out of Tao Yong's hand, almost cutting himself in the process, then attempting to do a trick with it, just out of spite at the sight of Tao Yong's amused face… And getting accidentally cut from it.
It was nothing serious, just a small scratch on the knuckle of his thumb, but of course Tao Yong had to make a big deal out of it. Gods forbid if Liu Fen, senior almost-first-in-his-year intergalactic engineer (and pilot, mind you!), could not make a human mistake as cutting himself! That was one of the ways Liu Fen had identified as Tao Yong's evil schemes to damage his reputation: overreacting over small missteps, undermining his work. That was why he dated him, Liu Fen reasoned, it was all to steal everything he had.
"Are you sure you don't want me to take care of it?" Liu Fen's soul almost jumped out of his body. Tao Young's voice was very, very close. He turned his head to look at him, just to confirm the proximity. "The wound, I mean," he added after looking at Liu Fen's annoyed expression.
Liu Fen scoffed, "It's nothing. I'm fine." He raised the knife to proceed, but a hand caught his wrist before it could swing on the stalks.
Tao Yong was annoyingly close, stupid hand stopping his from doing its job.
There was a moment where he only breathed, and Liu Fen's patience was hanging by a thread. But he finally spoke: "I know you won't say when it hurts, but I have a basic first aid kit, if you want it you could use it yourself—"
Liu Fen abruptly broke free from his grasp.
"I don't need anything from you! Just take care of your own business, and I'll take care of mine!" He snapped at him, angry, and swung the knife dangerously close to Tao Yong as he proceeded to open the path.
It was just perfect. From all the people, all his colleagues, and all the aspiring pilots in the world, Liu Fen had to collectively crash his spaceship along with Tao Yong, in the very same location? What were the odds? Did the Universe hate him or something? Not only was Tao Yong the first to have an intergalactic ride with the project he created, he also interfered with Liu Fen's first ever mission! He was absolutely sure none of that would've happened if Tao Yong hadn't been there: no crashing, no explosion, no nothing.
Liu Fen stole a glance at him. The tall bastard was hammering his fingers on his communication tablet, trying to get it to work. He should know Liu Fen was a specialist in engineering, right? And the tablet was an older version, which meant he could fix it in a nanosecond! That was that, when they were dating, Liu Fen couldn't bear: Tao Yong was mediocre with technology, only caring about piloting and memorizing the commands necessary to fly a ship. That dismissive attitude probably led to the crash — no! It certainly led to the crash! And it took Liu Fen's ship with it. It was all his fault!
A sharp pain exploded from his hand. Dropping the knife on the ground, Liu Fen took a look at it, finding the scratch more open than some minutes ago, a steady stream of blood flowing out of it. Maybe the strain of bearing the heavy butcher's knife refrained it from healing properly.
Pressed his other hand's thumb over it, in hopes of stopping the bleeding, but, just like an intrusive thought, Tao Yong was already beside him, slapping his other hand away to roll a gauze on his wounded finger.
Liu Fen lightly protested, but let himself be taken care of. At least for now.
He stared at the small patch of blood wetting the gauze, tightly enveloping his thumb, and thought, "Man, is this how this journey is going to be?"
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