Leaning against the wall while browsing his phone, a wave of drowsiness washed over him. He yawned continuously, wondering how much longer it would take before he could leave.
The redemption 999 talked about, now that he had pulled the person back from the gates of hell, did that count as a successful redemption?
After almost forty minutes, the emergency room doors opened, releasing a pungent wave of iodine smell.
Shen Jin’an’s injuries were identical to those in his previous life. Although there were five or six knife wounds, they were not deep and there were no fatal injuries. Whatever needed stitching was stitched, and whatever needed to stop bleeding was taken care of.
Inside the emergency room, Shen Jin’an sat expressionlessly on the hospital bed, his dark eyes slightly lowered. Before the nurse could pull back the privacy curtain, he heard Qin Zhen thanking the doctor at the doorway.
The doctor briefly told him some postoperative precautions, but Qin Zhen remained silent for a long time.
After a few seconds of silence outside the door, Shen Jin’an heard Qin Zhen say, “Well, if he is fine, I will be leaving first.”
Shen Jin’an’s face instantly darkened.
The nurse who was helping Shen Jin’an tidy up his bandages felt a sudden chill in the air. Originally gazing at Shen Jin’an’s face, she quickly retracted her gaze, thinking that this patient was truly fierce. While bandaging him, there was even a delicate dagger placed right beside his hand.
The doctor-patient relationship instantly felt inexplicably tense.
However, this patient was also genuinely good-looking, with a high bridge of nose and thin lips. The cold, ascetic aura about him made people dare not meet his gaze.
999: [You cannot leave right now.]
Shen Jin’an: “You cannot leave.”
The two voices rang out simultaneously in the quiet hallway. Qin Zhen, who hadn’t taken more than a few steps yet, frowned and looked back upon hearing this. “What?”
This question was directed more at 999. After all, this piece of junk wouldn’t show up for ages, but the moment it did, it ordered him not to leave. Was it playing with him?
He used his consciousness to ask 999 what it had just been doing. Why didn’t it show up when it was specially needed? He had thought he wouldn’t be able to summon 999 using his mind.
999’s entire body flashed with a blinding yellow light. [Apologies, Host. I just returned to the Interstellar era to replenish my energy. A warning just came through stating that if you leave right now, the redemption mission will fail.]
Qin Zhen completely ignored the person inside the emergency room, only impatiently firing off a string of questions to 999.
“Then what counts as success? Is there some kind of data metric? It can’t be that whatever you tell me to do, I have to go do it, right? Then if you tell me to risk my life to save him, do I have to go? If you tell me to commit murder and arson for him, do I have to go too? If we are throwing the law away, then I don’t give a damn about being reborn. I might as well go pick out a graveyard to lie down in right now.”
“Shen Jin’an’s life is saved now, but my life is in danger!”
999 hadn’t expected Qin Zhen to be such a law-abiding good citizen. It immediately felt very guilty, and upon hearing this, it bashfully began to shrink its body smaller and smaller.
[There are no metrics. Warnings are only issued when failure or success is imminent, but you will never be asked to do anything that violates discipline or the law.]
Qin Zhen wished he could slap it right across the face. “Isn’t that just talking nonsense?”
999 was dissatisfied. [Of course, this is not nonsense!]
“Right, it’s not nonsense. It’s pure bullshit.”
Man and system bickered back and forth in the hallway. Shen Jin’an had already walked out of the emergency room. His expression was cold and sharp, his dark pupils seemingly devoid of anything, yet at the same time holding many things.
“Out? Everything is all good, right?”
Qin Zhen didn’t know why he felt a bit guilty. He licked his lips and, looking as if it were completely nonchalant, rubbed his nose, offering a farewell remark before leaving.
“You’re pretty lucky, and your life is quite big. Well then, I won’t disturb you anymore. I have a lot of things to take care of at home.”
Shen Jin’an raised an eyebrow, a dangerous smile blooming at the corner of his lips. “Just try walking away and see what happens.”
A flash of the previous life’s Shen Jin’an abruptly crossed Qin Zhen’s mind. He was expressionless, holding a dagger in his hand, stabbing multiple bloody holes into a person in ragged clothes one by one, while a row of bodyguards stood by watching as if they saw nothing at all.
Even to a grown man like Qin Zhen, seeing such a scene felt eerie.
They had no further interactions after that, and he had no idea what happened to this guy later on that he still needed to be redeemed. Shouldn’t a dangerous individual like this be locked up?
Besides, let’s see what happens if I try. Who’s afraid?
One hour later.
Qin Zhen looked at the unexpected ancestor suddenly crammed into his already small room, falling into deep thought with his scalp tingling numbly.
How on earth had he gotten careless enough to bring this person back with him?
And he even borrowed money from him to pay the medical bills?
There wasn’t just a system in his head; there was an absolute idiot in there, right?
999 made a beeping sound. [Attacking or verbally abusing the system is prohibited.]
Qin Zhen was annoyed and told 999 to go stay somewhere else and stop bothering him.
His apartment was rented, located in an apartment complex outside the third ring road of Lianshi, spanning around thirty square meters with just one bedroom and one living room. The living room was set up as a live-streaming studio, leaving only a very small, cramped sofa beside the dining area.
“There, you see? Extraordinarily small.”
Seeing that Shen Jin’an had no intention of leaving, Qin Zhen changed his shoes, dug out a pair of slippers for Shen Jin’an, and tossed them toward the doorway. “No other choice. Just make do with it for tonight.”
“One night?”
“Oh.” Qin Zhen glanced at the already brightening sky, lazily sitting on the sofa to change his phrasing. “Make do with it for one daytime first.”
Shen Jin’an glanced at him sideways for a few seconds, casually took off his wristwatch, and tossed it to him. “For expenses.”
Qin Zhen had stripped off his outer black shirt, leaving only a black tank top on his body. His broad shoulders and muscular back made his physique look solid and toned, combined with an exceptionally bold, handsome, and striking face, not looking at all like someone who would be short on money.
He caught the watch and smiled, casually studying it for a few seconds. After staring at it for a long time, he still didn’t recognize the brand, and feeling drowsy, he yawned again.
“Is this worth anything?”
Shen Jin’an looked at the slippers with disdain for a moment before finally choosing to enter the bathroom barefoot.
Before closing the door, he left a sentence. “Enough for the medical bills and accommodation fees.”
Qin Zhen shrugged, figuring the watch was worth at least several thousand yuan. He would keep it with him for now, and when this person eventually decided to leave whenever he pleased, he wouldn’t be at a loss.
Naturally, Shen Jin’an got to sleep on the bed at night. After all, the redemption target was a grand master.
It was terribly uncomfortable for a 190-centimeter tall man like Qin Zhen to curl up and sleep on the sofa, but after tossing and turning all night he was utterly exhausted, so he fell into a deep sleep without thinking much further.
He completely missed the inspecting gaze probing out from the bedroom door crack.
At 9:00 AM, the summer sunlight unceremoniously pierced into the room, fully exposing the uninhibited sleeping posture of the person on the sofa.
Qin Zhen was sleeping soundly when his phone alarm suddenly started ringing frantically like its life depended on it. Annoyed, he cursed and picked up the call.
Mu Xiaoxiao’s exasperated, fierce roar instantly pierced right through his eardrum.
“Qin Zhen! Why haven’t you arrived at such an important meeting yet? Only your seat is empty. Don’t tell me you are still sleeping in bed! Do you have too much money, or do you not want your live-streaming salary this month?! Do you not want your contract renewal either?!”
“Yeah, getting up now.”
What meeting? He had been reborn, so how could he possibly remember a meeting from three years ago?
Qin Zhen narrowed his eyes with a perfunctory attitude, thinking that this young girl Mu Xiaoxiao was still as noisy as ever.