Only then did Yin Liuguang notice that the young man’s brows were nicely shaped—not too thick, not too faint.
His eyelashes were long and lowered.
The corners of his eyes tilted downward, making him look just like his personality: a harmless, overly kind person who seemed easy to bully.
Yin Liuguang thought critically.
The little red mole at the corner of his eye was quite pretty.
His fair skin clearly didn’t see sunlight often.
His nose bridge was straight, and the tip of his nose was small.
His mouth…
His mouth was probably the only outstanding part.
The color was beautiful, pink and tender, with very few lip lines.
His lower lip was a little fuller than the upper one.
Not too thin.
Just right.
Yin Liuguang crouched beside the sofa armrest, both arms propped against it.
He didn’t even realize that as he looked, he leaned closer and closer to the young man.
Until their breaths almost touched.
Until the tips of their noses were nearly brushing.
A dazed look appeared on his arrogant, flamboyant face.
His eyes slowly closed.
His lips parted as he leaned toward Yan Mo’s soft pink lips—
【Host!!!】
The system let out a scream.
Yan Mo suddenly woke up.
Then he was startled by the face so close to his and instinctively covered the boy’s mouth.
“Liuguang, what are you doing?”
“!!”
Unexpectedly, Yin Liuguang looked even more shocked than Yan Mo.
He froze for a few seconds, then suddenly shot to his feet.
His tall body swayed as he staggered backward.
“You—”
He covered his mouth and stared at Yan Mo.
The remaining half of his face and his ears rapidly turned bright red, the color seeming ready to spread down his neck.
Yan Mo froze.
“Yin… Liuguang…?”
“You, you, you—”
Yin Liuguang glared at him, covering his mouth as he stammered wildly.
Yan Mo stared blankly at the boy whose silver hair seemed to have exploded.
Before he could say anything else, the red-faced person suddenly shouted,
“You—you’re so ugly!”
Then he turned and ran.
Yan Mo: “…”
The surprise on Yan Mo’s face was gradually replaced by a trace of sadness.
The panicked Yin Liuguang did not notice at all.
He sprinted back to his room and slammed the door shut.
Leaning against it, his whole body flushed red, his chest rose and fell violently.
His heart pounded as if it might leap out of his throat.
How could I… how could I try to kiss—
Yin Liuguang instinctively touched his lips.
They tingled as if numbed.
He dazedly recalled the scene from just now.
He had almost touched him…
“Mm!”
Covering his mouth, Yin Liuguang glanced away with shimmering eyes.
His heartbeat thundered endlessly.
【That brat’s mouth is absolutely foul!】
The system spun around in fury.
【He’s the ugly one! He’s the ugly one!】
【That dog clearly wanted to take advantage of you, but then he turned around and insulted you. I’m so angry!】
“Maybe you misunderstood. Yin Liuguang just likes pranks.”
Remembering the phrase “you’re so ugly,” Yan Mo wasn’t exactly angry.
But he was inevitably hurt.
It wasn’t the first time Yin Liuguang had judged him that way.
“He probably did it on purpose to scare me because of what I said earlier.”
“Alright, don’t be angry.”
“We’re moving out today anyway.”
Seeing that the system wanted to rush off and hit someone, Yan Mo quickly stopped it.
He stood up and looked outside.
He hadn’t expected to sleep for so long.
Hurriedly, he picked up the backpack beside his leg, only to unexpectedly notice a bouquet of lilies.
“What’s this?”
【That guy gave them to you?】
“How could that be?”
Yan Mo laughed.
Yin Liuguang’s earlier behavior didn’t look like someone who had bought flowers for him.
“Forget it. Let’s go.”
【Mm!】
The system nodded quickly.
It couldn’t wait for Yan Mo to leave that annoying brat.
After leaving Yin Liuguang’s house, Yan Mo had no choice but to check into a hotel again.
After putting his things down, he contacted a real estate agency to find a place to stay.
He still didn’t know how long he would remain in this world.
The savings he had originally planned to spend freely now had to be used carefully.
After thinking it over, Yan Mo decided to rent somewhere cheaper.
The residential area was located on the outskirts of the city.
Along the way, he occasionally saw old single-story houses that had not yet been demolished.
Earth-colored small homes stood between tall buildings like remnants of the past caught between modern development.
Electrical wires were tangled everywhere.
Advertisements were plastered all over the walls.
The building itself seemed lifeless, like the corpse of some enormous dead creature.
Wearing a backpack and carrying a restrained air, Yan Mo entered.
He looked like a cloud beside the sun drifting into a moldy shadow.
Many residents in tank tops and shorts looked at him curiously, as though he were some new species.
At the broken gate of the community, a group of men smoking and talking quietly paused.
Their gazes landed on the young man like crows.
Silently, they watched him enter.
【The environment here is terrible!】
The system nervously shrank beside Yan Mo.
【Are we going to get robbed? How about I use Gu Yanhui’s card to support you instead? Let’s move somewhere more comfortable!】
Yan Mo was a little nervous too.
Forcing himself to calm down, he whispered,
“Gu Yanhui and I are already divorced. It wouldn’t be right to spend his money.”
“Once I rent a place, I’ll find a job, and we’ll move out later.”
【O-Okay…】
The system timidly followed Yan Mo upstairs.
There was no elevator.
Their new room was on the fourth floor.
There were ten units on each floor.
The hallway was filled with heat and a strange smell.
The agent wiped sweat from his forehead and used a key to open one of the doors.
He stepped aside with a smile.
“Don’t worry. The outside is a little dirty, but the inside is clean.”
“I’m telling you, at this price, it’ll be hard to find another place like this.”
【Tch. Agents all say that.】
The system complained.
Yan Mo held back a laugh and walked inside.
Although the unit had no furniture, it did have appliances.
Because of water leakage, part of the ceiling paint had peeled off.
But aside from that, everything was clean.
The sixty-square-meter unit had only one bedroom and one bed.
But the kitchen was separate, and the bathroom was quite spacious.
The agent hadn’t lied.
For this price, it was suitable.
“I’ll take this place.”
After looking around, Yan Mo said to the agent.
“Young people are always decisive!”
The agent happily pulled a contract from the bag tucked under his arm.
After Yan Mo signed, the agent used his phone to photograph both sides of Yan Mo’s ID card and said cheerfully,
“There’s nowhere nearby to print things. I’ll take it back and print it myself so you won’t have to look for a place.”
Yan Mo said,
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
“Here. Once you transfer the payment through WeChat, I’ll give you the key directly. You can move in without worry.”
“This is the landlord’s WeChat. I’ll send it to you. If anything comes up, contact him directly.”
Yan Mo lowered his head and added the landlord.
“Okay.”
After everything was settled, the agent waved and left.
Yan Mo stood alone in the empty room for a while.
Then he took the system downstairs to buy cleaning tools.
On the way over earlier, he had seen a very small convenience store.
While buying things, the slightly plump shopkeeper asked where Yan Mo had come from.
When she heard he had just moved in, she motioned for him to come closer and lowered her voice.
“At a glance, you look like an honest student.”
“Our place might not look nice, but it’s still safe.”
“But you know those men smoking near the entrance, right?”
“Don’t bother with them.”
“If you see them at night, pretend you didn’t.”
Yan Mo froze.
“What do you mean?”
The shopkeeper raised her eyebrows mysteriously.
“Don’t ask too much.”
“They’re not local residents, but they’ve rented here for several years.”
“I’ve never seen them go out to work.”
“Every day, they just guard the community and wander around the area.”
“At night, cars always stop at the entrance, and they move back and forth with those people.”
“No one knows what they’re doing.”
“Understand?”
Her words made it hard not to overthink.
Yan Mo immediately understood why the rent was so cheap.
Seeing his face pale slightly, the shopkeeper comforted him.
“Don’t worry.”
“As long as you mind your own business, they won’t bother you.”
“I’ve never seen them fighting or doing anything bad.”
“Just live your own life.”
“Besides, from another angle, with them patrolling the area, the community is actually much safer.”
“Not even petty thieves come here.”
“They’re more reliable than Old Li, the nearly seventy-year-old security guard!”
“…Thank you for reminding me.”
“No need to thank me. Just come buy things from my shop often. Big Sis will give you a discount!”
Yan Mo, drenched in sweat, carried five or six large bags of items back to the rental.
Rolling up his sleeves, he began cleaning.
When he went downstairs once to throw out trash, he suddenly felt someone watching him.
When he looked over, a man immediately turned his face away and walked off.
…Probably one of the men at the gate.
Yan Mo felt a little afraid.
He sensed that the man had been assessing him.
But aside from caution, there didn’t seem to be malice.
“I should change the lock today.”
While cleaning, Yan Mo found an advertisement for locksmith services and called one.
The locksmith arrived quickly.
Thinking of those men’s gazes, Yan Mo glanced at his bank balance and sighed.
With great pain, he chose a 488-yuan lock.
After installing it, the locksmith promised confidently,
“Don’t worry, young man. Even if this door breaks, my lock won’t!”
Yan Mo trusted the 488-yuan lock core very much.
He then went out to buy bedding, cookware, and other items.
By the end, he was carrying so much that he could barely move.
Old Li, the security guard, helped him out.
After working the whole day, Yan Mo was so tired that he raised a hand to wipe sweat from his chin.
He truly didn’t want to cook.
His savings were already close to bottoming out after several expenses.
To save money on takeout, he made a cup of instant noodles.
After showering, he sat damp-haired on the freshly mopped floor, eating dinner under the creaking old fan.
The unit had no air conditioning.
Ping City’s summer was humid, stuffy, and suffocatingly hot.
Yan Mo had little appetite.
After drinking some instant noodle soup, he barely managed to pull out the new paper and pen he bought.
Then he began discussing the Main God’s mission with the system.
“We’ve攻略ed seven worlds in total.”
Crystal-like sweat dripped from the young man’s temples.
It slid across his pale face and fell onto the notebook.
Yan Mo pressed his lips together and wrote the number seven.
“An Zhihan from the first world.”
“Lan Ge from the second.”
“Chu Chen from the third…”
“Bian Xun, Yin Liuguang, and the others.”
“And Gu Yanhui from the final world.”
The system fanned him with its little claws and nodded along.
“We have to choose one out of these seven.”
Yan Mo didn’t want to choose any of them.
But this was the trouble he had caused.
He couldn’t refuse responsibility.
Besides, not all of them necessarily wanted to win him back.