Yu Xi gave a faint nod, eyes fixed forward, his body still. Jian Wei returned with the blood vials, only to halt mid-step. His gaze landed on Jian Ci, who was still running his fingers through Yu Xi's hair, eyes glazed with quiet fascination.
Jian Wei's expression soured. His brother looked like a child obsessing over a doll's hair, and the urge to smack him upside the head was real.
He glared at him as though saying WTF.
Jian Ci met Jian Wei's glare with a calm, unbothered expression. "What?"
Yu Xi, sensing the tension thickening between the brothers, began to turn his head toward them, but Jian Ci gently pressed his hands on either side of Yu Xi's head and turned him back. "Eyes forward," he said softly.
Yu Xi obeyed without protest.
Jian Ci started combing through his movements slow, as though savoring the moment. His fingers moved with care, collecting the shed strands with practiced ease and slipping them into a containment bag. The silence between them was filled with the soft clicks of the comb and the hum of the diagnostic equipment.
"Was that enough?" Jian Ci asked, holding up the bag.
Jian Wei glanced at the comb, then at the pile of hair. "Are you trying to make him bald?"
"I didn't comb for that long," Jian Ci replied, feigning innocence.
Jian Wei narrowed his eyes. He had seen him combing for far longer than necessary, while Yu Xi sat there like a doll, letting him do whatever he wanted.
"Done," Jian Ci said, stepping back.
"Thanks," Yu Xi murmured.
Jian Ci frowned. "We talked about this. Don't keep saying thanks. We are friends."
As Jian Wei inserted a needle into Yu Xi's vein, he muttered, "You can't force an unwanted friendship."
"I didn't force him," Jian Ci said, undeterred. "He said he wants to be my friend. Right, Yu Xi?"
Jian Wei rolled his eyes. "Stop talking nonsense and make yourself useful."
Jian Ci tilted his head and asked, "What do you need?"
"A medical gown," Jian Wei snapped.
Jian Ci gave a mock salute and turned on his heel, heading toward the storage room at the back of the medical bay.
A moment later, his voice echoed through the sterile space. "I can't find it!"
Jian Wei, still focused on drawing blood from Yu Xi's arm, didn't even glance up. "Bottom right shelf."
Two minutes passed.
"There is nothing here!" Jian Ci shouted again.
Jian Wei sighed, finally turning to glare in that direction. "Do you need your eyes checked?"
"Never mind, I found it!" Jian Ci called back, triumphant.
Jian Wei muttered under his breath, "Seriously, it's like talking to a child."
Jian Ci returned, holding the folded medical gown, and leaned in with mock indignation. "Don't embarrass me in front of Yu Xi."
Jian Wei didn't dignify that with a response. Soon he finished drawing the last vial of blood and glanced at the volume. "Why so much?" Jian Ci asked, raising a brow. "Are you secretly a vampire?"
Yu Xi watched their banter quietly, his expression unreadable. He and Xiaobao had never been like that. His little brother clung to him begging for stories. He was always gentle and careful like he was afraid being too much would make Yu Xi abandon him.
Yu Xi had told him the same tales their mother used to whisper, stories woven with love and warnings. They never bickered like these two.
Jian Wei handed over the gown. "Change into this. I need to do a full body scan."
Yu Xi took it, nodding. "Okay."
Jian Wei stood and walked to the floating screen, his back now turned.
Yu Xi stood with his back to them, fingers hooked under the hem of his shirt, when Jian Wei's voice cut through the quiet.
"Why are you still here?" he asked Jian Ci, not looking up. "Give him some privacy."
Jian Ci scoffed. "What? We are both men. And Espers at that. What's the problem?"
"Go get him some electrolyte water," Jian Wei said, tone clipped.
"Fine," Jian Ci muttered, turning to leave with exaggerated reluctance.
Jian Wei returned to his floating screens, fingers dancing across the interface, eyes narrowed in concentration. He didn't notice when Yu Xi finished changing.
"I am done," Yu Xi said softly.
Jian Wei blinked, then looked up. "Oh. Sorry. I got to immersed in my work. Come lie here."
He gestured to a solid diagnostic table, its surface embedded with thin, glowing lines and wires that pulsed faintly.
Yu Xi climbed onto it, lying flat. Jian Wei tapped the air, and a constellation of floating screens bloomed around them, each displaying a different stream of data.
"This won't be painful," Jian Wei said. "Just stay still."
"Okay," Yu Xi replied.
The medbay lights dimmed to a soft blue, casting long, cool shadows across the room. Yu Xi lay stiffly, hands resting at his sides, eyes flicking between the shifting data and Jian Wei's focused expression.
Jian Wei's coat hung open, sleeves rolled to the elbows, but there was nothing relaxed about him. His movements were precise, his gaze sharp.
The machines hummed quietly, scanning every inch of Yu Xi's body, recording everything from cellular structure, Esper resonance to latent anomalies.
Yu Xi's voice was quiet, but it cut through the hum of the medbay. "What's wrong with Jian Ci?"
Jian Wei didn't expect the question. His fingers paused mid-air, hovering above the diagnostic interface. Slowly, he turned, the glow of the floating screen casting his face in cold, clinical light.
"He suffers from a rare and extreme case of Cerebral Fracture Syndrome," Jian Wei said. "Psychic in origin."
Yu Xi frowned. "I have never heard of it."
"You wouldn't have," Jian Wei replied. "It's classified in most archives. The official term is Neuro-Eidetic Collapse. But among those who have seen it… we call it the Shatter. Because that's what it does. It shatters the mind."
He tapped the screen, and a neural map bloomed into view. It was Jian Ci's brain, lit with erratic pulses of psychic energy, like a storm trapped in glass.
"It starts with pressure behind the eyes. Then hallucinations. The body tries to contain the overload, but the psychic channels rupture. Pain becomes constant and excruciating. Every nerve in the body screams."
Jian Wei's jaw tightened. "And then... then the mind goes. Not slowly. All at once. The patient becomes a conduit for raw psychic force with no control or restraint. Just instinct, rage, and survival."
He looked at Yu Xi, voice low. "They attack anything that moves. Not because they want to but because they have to as the pain demands it."