“I won.”
Shen Yuhuai approached Bai Xinjian, his head lowered, his dark blue right eye fixed intensely upon him. Bai Xinjian seemed to finally come to his senses and pulled his gaze away from Gu Yue’s direction.
“Oh,” Bai Xinjian said with a smile, appearing entirely carefree. “Congratulations.”
The system watched with trepidation. “Jianjian, your acting is truly excellent.” It had originally wanted to say, “You have a lot of nerve.” However, it feared that if it kept implying the monster was terrifying, the host might retreat out of fear and fail the mission. It remembered their ultimate goal. Strangely, 0048 had never encountered a human like Bai Xinjian. He seemed curious about everything, but upon closer observation, one would find that this curiosity, or rather, all the emotions he displayed, remained entirely on the surface. No matter the world, he seemed like a transient traveler who could pass through a garden of flowers without a single petal clinging to him. It was no wonder he accepted all the system’s unreasonable requests so readily.
0048 was born at the Transmigration Bureau and had worked there for many years, bonding with many hosts. It knew that the Bureau was always domineering; hosts chosen by the Bureau had to be prepared to risk their lives. 0048 had once wondered why the Bureau treated its chosen hosts this way. But it was only a system. Its existence and purpose were merely to serve the Bureau. Its consciousness and curiosity were limited, unable to delve deeper. Sometimes 0048 felt that its current host, Bai Xinjian, might be the perfect employee the Bureau had always been looking for.
Bai Xinjian continued to play the part of an absent-minded cheater. “Captain Gu seems to have fallen? How is he? Is he all right?” His gaze continued to fall frequently on Gu Yue, who was surrounded by a crowd not far away.
Shen Yuhuai was truly enraged. He clamped a hand onto Bai Xinjian’s chin, forcing him to turn his head and face him directly. “It was just a fall; it will not cost him his life. Are you that concerned about him?”
“Only because he is a neighbor,” Bai Xinjian said with a smile, removing Shen Yuhuai’s hand from his chin. “After all, whenever someone we know takes a fall, we should always be concerned, right?”
The expression on Shen Yuhuai’s face softened slightly. He lowered his head and kissed Bai Xinjian’s lips firmly.
Bai Xinjian’s eyes widened in shock. This was his first kiss! He felt he had sacrificed too much. The previous light touches, the cheek kisses, and the neck kisses, meant nothing to him; he did not have those absurdly pedantic views on chastity. Or did he? He remembered classmates in college constantly reminding him that a first kiss was important; if the first kiss of one’s life was not with someone you loved, it would be meaningless. How detestable! Even if he was emotionally detached, he still valued ritual! Although it was unlikely he would know what liking someone felt like in this lifetime, or his next, or the one after that, this wretched monster had stolen his first kiss.
Bai Xinjian pushed against Shen Yuhuai, but he did not budge. Shen Yuhuai sensed the resistance and did not understand. When he had bitten into the human’s neck before, he had seemed to love it. He had told him he liked watching the Unfortunate One fall, blood blooming like a flower. Why, then, did he not like it when he tried to kiss him like a human?
“Beep.” The pollutant detector around Shen Yuhuai’s neck emitted an alarm for exceeding pollutant levels.
“Not good!” The Special Task Force members signaled each other, their nerves taut, preparing to surround and detain him.
Bai Xinjian’s expression shifted before he settled on the most appropriate look. He reached out to stroke the back of Shen Yuhuai’s neck and smiled, signaling for him to let go. Only when Shen Yuhuai sensed that the human was no longer resisting did the alarm on the detector gradually cease.
“Alright, I remembered,” Bai Xinjian said to Shen Yuhuai with a smile. “My husband won the race, so I should reward him instead of just watching others.”
Bai Xinjian snapped his fingers and produced a plastic rose from behind his back. “I picked it by chance when I passed the decorative flowerbed over there,” he whispered into Shen Yuhuai’s ear. “This must be Alliance property, Mr. Shen. I have stolen it to offer to Buddha as a borrowed flower. Remember to pay them back later.”
The decorative flowerbeds at the racecourse used fake flowers that were never maintained, covered in dust from the track, making them look dirty and ugly. When Bai Xinjian had passed them, he had plucked one and washed it in the restroom. Now, the bright red plastic rose looked vibrant in his hand, a world apart from the wretched things in the flowerbed.
The monster was appeased. He was even quite pleased. He cares for me. He cares for me! He even gave me a rose.
The monster extended a hand to take the rose, using his remaining shred of reason to say, “I will have the racecourse staff come to me for the fine.” He sounded as if it were a matter of little consequence.
The pollutant detector around the monster’s neck showed his levels stabilizing. The Special Task Force members behind them all breathed a sigh of relief. The monster had reverted to the appearance of a graceful general of the Falcon Theater.
Winning the race required a speech; it was a tradition. Shen Yuhuai had participated in the Wanqing Festival races years ago, when he was young, unmarried, and full of vigor. Whenever he participated, he always took first place and gave the speech. Such was the style of the Alliance’s youngest general.
As the professional and amateur races concluded, the race was coming to an end. When the commander announced on the podium that Shen Yuhuai would not be the one giving the closing speech this year, whispers rippled through the stands. Soon, opposition grew louder.
“Why is General Shen not speaking?”
“He always speaks in previous years!”
“General Shen won the friendly race again this year!”
“Yes! I thought after all these years, General Shen was no longer a match for the younger generation.”
“General Shen is not even thirty yet, is he? He is still very young!”
“Is something wrong with him? I saw a pollutant detector on his neck; is that what that is? I have never seen one, but I feel like…”
“Are the rumors about him being infected true? I feel like the Alliance is hiding something from us!”
“Look! Even when he meets his spouse, he is followed by a group of Special Task Force members! I do not believe he is fine.”
“Even General Shen is infected? Then what will become of us?”
High up on the podium, someone approached the stern-faced commander and whispered something in his ear.
“Everyone,” the commander picked up the microphone and said. “Due to a temporary mishap, let us now invite our young general of the Falcon Theater to say a few words.”
With that, the guards beside the commander gestured to the Special Task Force members nearby. Someone leaned in and whispered to Shen Yuhuai. Shen Yuhuai smoothed his cravat, his face twisting into an evil smile that none of the soldiers or colleagues had ever seen before. Shen Yuhuai took the stage.
Bai Xinjian stood in the spectator stands below, smiling as he looked up at Shen Yuhuai on the podium.
“Jianjian,” 0048 was puzzled. “What kind of tactic is this? Why are you distancing yourself from the monster one moment and being so close the next?”
“Have you not read many novels?” Bai Xinjian turned his gaze toward the corner where Gu Yue was bandaging his wounds alone. “This is called the carrot and the stick; it is a catalyst for emotion.”
After speaking, Bai Xinjian smiled and turned toward Gu Yue. On the podium, Shen Yuhuai was giving a steady, polite speech when he suddenly noticed that Bai Xinjian’s gaze was no longer on him, but rather toward that wretched Gu Yue. Shen Yuhuai’s right eye began to turn blue. The blue deepened like thick fog until it covered his entire black pupil. Shen Yuhuai began to lose his sanity.
He is mine. He betrayed me. He betrayed me. No, no one can compete with me!
“Beep.” The pollutant detector around Shen Yuhuai’s neck began to scream frantically.