"Smack!"
Before Jiang Lian could respond, Xi Ting naturally took hold of the hand that had just gripped his wrist, gently pulling him toward the sofa draped with a warm yellow blanket.
"Sit down," Xi Ting whispered, settling himself on the edge of the sofa first, then patting the spot beside him.
Jiang Lian paused for a moment before complying.
The sofa sank slightly under his weight.
In the next moment, Xi Ting picked up the soft, warm yellow blanket, shook it open, and draped half over his own lap while unceremoniously laying the other half over Jiang Lian’s knees.
The blanket carried the fluffy warmth of sun-dried fabric and the clean, sweet scent of the boy, enveloping them both in a shared, intimate space.
Then, Xi Ting did something that completely froze Jiang Lian in place—he tilted his body and gently rested his head against Jiang Lian’s neck, finding a comfortable position. He even nuzzled like a small animal, letting out a soft, contented sigh.
"This is much better…" he murmured, his voice muffled against the fabric.
Jiang Lian stiffened entirely. The warmth of the boy’s breath brushed against his neck, and the soft strands of hair tickled his skin, sending faint shivers of sensation.
The body heat and weight of another person seeped clearly through the thin fabric of his clothes—unfamiliar, yet carrying an eerie, undeniable intimacy.
He lowered his gaze, catching only the boy’s fluffy crown of hair and a small stretch of pale nape.
He had never been this close, this intimate, with anyone before. The feeling… was strange.
But not unpleasant.
Xi Ting seemed completely unaware of his stiffness, continuing softly, "Next time… you can’t do that again." His tone carried a hint of dependent reproach.
"If you hadn’t apologized so sincerely, I definitely wouldn’t have forgiven you this quickly."
Jiang Lian let out a soft hum, his attention wholly captured by the head nestled in the crook of his neck and the boy’s lingering scent surrounding him.
He tilted his head slightly, trying to see more clearly.
From this angle, he could see the boy’s lowered, lightly trembling eyelashes, like two small fans casting faint shadows beneath his eyelids.
Further down was the delicate, upturned tip of his nose and… those slightly parted lips, relaxed and soft.
A healthy shade of crimson, full and shapely, they shimmered with a delicate, soft glow under the gentle light of the lounge.
They looked incredibly soft.
Like newly bloomed petals brimming with moisture, or warm, honey-coated cheese, as if the slightest touch would leave an imprint, and a gentle press would reveal the hidden sweetness within.
The faint sheen on his lips trembled subtly with his soft, unconscious breaths, silently drawing Jiang Lian’s gaze and quietly plucking at an unfamiliar chord within him.
The air around them seemed to thicken, carrying the warmth of the blanket and the faint, sweet fragrance of the boy.
His gaze lingered on that spot for a long while. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he suddenly felt parched.
After a brief, fleeting struggle, he reminded himself once more that this was just a dream. Following the guidance of his heart, he slowly, tentatively lowered his head, drawing closer to the warmth that lay so near.
He could feel the boy's body leaning against him tense up for a moment, his breath catching. Those beautiful eyes lifted, long lashes blinking slowly a few times, clearly reflecting his own image within.
Xi Ting didn't pull away, only closed his eyes, his cheeks flushed a deep red.
This completely defenseless posture was like a silent invitation.
Their breaths intertwined at an extremely close distance, warm against each other's cheeks.
Just as his lips were about to touch that softness—
[Mission Completion: 100%]
[First Basic Mission Completed. Dreamscape Instance Closing.]
[Partial System Permissions Unlocked.]
The cold electronic voice rang out again without warning.
Jiang Lian was mere millimeters away from those tempting lips.
The next second, before he could react, the boy's flushed face so close at hand, the trembling lashes—everything vanished in an instant.
Jiang Lian snapped his eyes open, chest heaving, greeted by the familiar ceiling of his lounge—cold and ornate.
The dream had ended.
Everything from moments ago felt so vivid, as if the weight of reliance and the warmth of breath still lingered by his neck.
The room was dead silent, save for his own still-unsettled, somewhat ragged breathing.
…
This time, he was truly convinced.
A few seconds later, the last trace of haze faded from Jiang Lian's eyes. He sat up, leaning against the headboard, pressing his fingertips firmly against his temples, trying to dispel the image in his mind—that face flushed with a blush, lashes trembling, waiting for a kiss.
An extremely faint beeping sound suddenly came from beside his pillow.
He turned to look—it was his phone. The screen had lit up on its own at some point. Picking it up, he immediately noticed an app icon he had never seen before—
The background was an overly sweet, sickly pink, with a crudely drawn, cheap and tacky fluorescent heart in the center.
Below the icon was the app's name: [Sweet Lovers].
Instinct told him this "Sweet Lovers" was definitely connected to the boy in the dream and that strange dream he had just experienced.
Jiang Lian's brow furrowed instantly. His phone contained much confidential information, protected by the highest level of encryption, making it impossible for any unscreened software to be installed arbitrarily.
He reached for his communicator, fingers moving swiftly across the cold screen.
Long-pressing the icon—no uninstall option appeared. Entering the advanced system management interface, he attempted to force-stop the process, clear data, even utilize several hidden administrator permissions—yet that pink icon stubbornly remained in place, like some kind of irremovable virus.
Giving up on futile efforts, he directly tapped the icon.
The interface loaded, surprisingly simplistic, still that glaring pink background with only a few functional options, laid out so crudely it looked like an unfinished prototype. A dialogue box hovered in the center:
[Congratulations, Host [Jiang Lian], on completing your first Dreamscape Instance [Jealous Flames].]
[Task completion detected, prerequisites met. Dreamscape System officially activated.]
[Partial System Permissions Unlocked.]
He stared at the words, silent for a long moment. "…What is this?"
No response.
Frowning, he said coldly, "Speak."
[External voice command detected from Host. It is recommended that the Host communicate directly with the System via mental transmission for higher efficiency.]
A new line of text swiftly appeared.
Jiang Lian frowned, attempting to converse mentally with this "System" that had appeared out of nowhere: "What are you?"
This question seemed to trigger some strange switch. The System, which had always maintained a cold, mechanical electronic tone, suddenly began playing background music, its tone becoming animated and full of inflection.
[Ding-ding-dong-dong~ The "Sweet Lovers" Love Experience System is at your service. This System is dedicated to providing all Hosts with incomplete emotional modules the most ultimate and perfect love simulation experience in the world.]
Jiang Lian's first instinct was to throw the phone making the nauseating noise to the ground and stomp on it, but he still had unanswered questions and forcibly restrained himself.
"I don't need any love simulation. Get out of my phone."
[Request denied. The System has detected that the [Love] module within the Host's emotional data has long remained at an extremely low threshold, rendering the Host incapable of perceiving and understanding the beauty of love. This constitutes a significant deficiency in life experience.]
[Based on the spirit of universal humanitarian care, the System has hereby bound itself to assist you in completing this aspect.]
The System's voice returned to its original mechanical electronic tone.
"I don't need it."
[Once the Host completes all designated Missions, achieves all "Sweet Lovers" accomplishments, and gains a profound understanding of the true essence of love, the System will automatically unbind.]
"What if I refuse to carry out the Missions?"
[To ensure the Host can obtain the complete experience, the System does not support passive resistance. Mission failure will trigger the corresponding Regression mechanism. Once Regression opportunities are exhausted, punitive measures will be implemented.]
[Why does the Host refuse to carry out the Missions? According to the System's big data calculations, the Host is quite satisfied with this Capture Target.]
Jiang Lian coughed lightly and stopped dwelling on this question that clearly wouldn't yield a satisfactory answer.
He shifted to examine other possibilities: "Who created you?"
[The System's origin is top secret, absolutely not man-made, and cannot be disclosed. Please focus on the experience itself, Host.]
Jiang Lian's gaze fell once more on the crude interface. For some reason, the image of the black-haired youth from the dream, shy and angry, uncontrollably surfaced in his mind again.
After a moment of silence, he asked a question: "That 'Capture Target' in the Dreamscape you created… does it exist in reality?"
[Host, please rest assured,]
The System's reply was swift and resolute.
[To provide the Host with the optimal Dreamscape experience, all Dream Conquest Targets are perfect creations simulated by the System based on the Host's subconscious preferences. They are unique and absolutely cannot have corresponding entities in the Host's world. There is no need to worry about encountering them in reality.]
Perfect creations. Unique.
Virtual products that do not exist in reality.
Jiang Lian fell silent.
There was a hint of disappointment in his heart that even he hadn't noticed.
Fine.
An uninstallable troublesome app.
Consider it… an overly realistic, interactive wet dream.
He ceased the meaningless dialogue with the System and began browsing the crude interface. The main page was empty, with only two options: [Capture Progress] and [Achievement Collection].
He tapped on [Capture Progress].
The page expanded, displaying a solitary progress bar with a small [5%] annotation beside it. Jiang Lian thought to himself, this probably referred to the progress of Capturing that youth in the Dreamscape.
Five percent—better than nothing.
He then opened the [Achievement Collection]. Inside, there was a newly unlocked icon, named exactly as the System had mentioned earlier—[Jealous Rage]. Next to the icon was a small symbol indicating that details could be viewed.
Jiang Lian tapped on it.
A static image instantly enlarged, filling the entire screen.
The composition of the image carried a strange tension.
The background was deliberately blurred, vaguely recognizable as some kind of meeting setting. The scene was solemn and serious, with a large redwood round table and high-end chairs in the background blurred out. Not far away stood several indistinct figures, barely discernible as male silhouettes. Their expressions were unclear, but their gazes were fixed unwaveringly on the center of the image.
At the center of the image was a young man held tightly in the arms of a man. The young man’s black short hair was somewhat disheveled, perhaps after some struggle, and his complexion was pale. His warm, fair skin contrasted sharply with the dark clothing of the man behind him.
The man’s face was also blurred, making it hard to see clearly, but Jiang Lian recognized at a glance that the figure, the posture—it was unmistakably himself.
In the image, "he" was lowering his head, with a possessive and aggressive posture, his teeth sinking deeply into the young man’s slender, fragile neck.
One of the young man’s hands was weakly pressed against "his" chest, pushing away in a futile resistance.
The most striking, and most captivating, was that only half of the young man’s face was visible. Those honey-colored eyes, glistening with tears from pain and an indescribable sense of shame, were misty and filled with reluctance, gazing blankly and accusingly beyond the frame of the image.
As if looking directly at Jiang Lian.
Jiang Lian’s fingertips rested on the cold screen of the communicator, his gaze fixed intently on those tear-filled eyes.
The sensations, the warmth, the breathing from the Dreamscape, and the young man’s lowered eyelashes as he silently allowed a kiss—all of it suddenly overlapped with this static CG image.
The phone screen slowly dimmed due to prolonged inactivity, eventually turning completely black, reflecting his expressionless yet unfathomably deep eyes at that moment.
Jiang Lian remained in that position, unmoving for a long time.
Author’s Note:
Explaining the Dreamscape setting:
① The gong assigned Missions by the System knows they are in a Dreamscape, retains memories of reality, and can control their actions (like Jiang Lian).
② Pure dreaming—while dreaming, they are unaware they are dreaming, but retain memories upon waking (key point) (like Xiao Xi and the next Instance’s "Wen Zheng." The setting is that Xiao Xi has memories of dreams in the early stages but cannot recall faces clearly).
About the Dreamscape background:
It can be understood as the System’s miraculous time manipulation, placing Xi Ting/Background Character gong into the background while they sleep, rapidly simulating growth, interaction, romance, etc., within a second. Then, the timeline quickly advances to the part of the Instance where the gong needs to complete the Mission.
So all reactions are Xiao Xi’s own! In the first two Instances, Xiao Xi is very clingy because our Xiao Xi is adorable—when he falls in love with someone, he becomes very cute and soft. In the Dreamscape, Jiang Lian’s jealousy and biting are because, after falling in love with Xiao Xi, he becomes very possessive!
There will also be immersive instances in the future. Xi Ting's actions may show subtle deviations due to the growth experiences within the Dreamscape's background, such as the [Ghost/Wraith] becoming slightly childish or [Luring Him to Elope] turning shy, but the core essence remains unchanged! There's no need to get tangled in doubts like "Is this really Xi Ting or not?"
In summary: The essence of this text is an xp-focused story. Since dreams are bizarre and illogical, I hope everyone enjoys reading it ovo