[Task complete. Reward: survival time extended by]
[Task complete. Reward: survival time extended by 24h]
[Task Nine: Young Master Luo really does like you! You decide to show everyone just how much Loren favors you. Climb your way into Loren’s good graces, and you’ll never have to watch anyone’s face at Saint Rhode again!]
[Please get Loren to carry you out of the pool within five minutes. Task reward: 24h of survival time.]
[Task failure: deduction of 48h of survival time.]
[Task countdown: 4:59]
Though early summer had arrived, the pool was still cold at night.
The chill in the water vapor seeped ceaselessly through his soaked clothes into his skin. Cen Wan shivered twice, and for once felt a flicker of worry.
He needed to get out of these wet clothes as soon as possible. Otherwise, given his constitution, if he got sick, it wouldn’t be so bad but once sick, the illness would drag on, relapsing for a month or two without ever fully healing.
But as misfortune never comes alone, right now he first had to swallow his pride and do the task.
“You okay?” The protagonist shou, also soaked like a drowned rat in the water behind him, asked urgently.
“Found it?” Loren had appeared at the poolside at some point, face dark, expression unreadable.
Of course he hadn’t.
But luckily the water here at the edge wasn’t too deep. One cursory glance was enough to spot the watch, glittering brilliantly even underwater.
Cen Wan thought for a moment, then plunged his head back into the pool.
“Hey”
As a small splash rose, one voice or several overlapping ones cried out.
Jiang Xinian frowned deeply and dove in after him, hauling Cen Wan out.
[Task countdown: 3:38]
[3:37]
Cen Wan wiped his face haphazardly and shook his head, like a little cat shaking the water droplets from its fur.
The onlookers fell silent for another moment but the person in the pool was completely oblivious, excitedly raising his two clasped hands high. Resting in his palms was the watch.
“Found it!” When Cen Wan tried to step forward toward the shore, the person behind him pulled him back, and his back pressed against a source of warmth.
Jiang Xinian’s body temperature ran a little higher than Cen Wan’s, and his constitution was clearly better too.
“Your body temperature is too low. You can’t keep soaking in the water, I can carry you out faster.” Jiang Xinian’s brow knotted into a deep furrow, his expression grave.
As he spoke, he bent down and reached into the water, ready to scoop up the backs of Cen Wan’s knees.
Cen Wan hastily made a sound of protest and rushed to press a hand against Jiang Xinian’s shoulder.
At the poolside, Loren’s face grew even darker. Someone near him had already vaguely sensed the chill radiating from his body, hunching and stealing furtive glances at him.
“That’s enough.” Loren pressed his lips together impatiently and spoke, interrupting the two still tangled up in the pool. His usual smile had faded to nearly nothing:
“How unsightly.”
No one knew whom he was referring to. He merely dropped those cold words, lifted his eyelids slightly, and turned to leave.
“Wait!” Cen Wan frowned, wrenched free of Jiang Xinian’s hand, and hurried anxiously to the pool’s edge.
The young man’s wet black hair clung to his pale cheeks, his lashes matted into wet clumps. The fingers gripping the pool’s edge were bloodless white, and the cold water had flushed his cheeks a sickly pink.
His upturned neck was slender and fair, his thin shoulder blades faintly visible beneath the water’s surface, his soaked clothes clinging tight to his waist, outlining a fragile curve.
Sensing the other’s gaze sweep over him, Cen Wan lowered his eyes, his voice trembling:
“Could I trouble you to carry me up?”
The moment the shadow by the pool fell over him, in the boy’s widened eyes, the blond man turned and crouched down over Cen Wan, looking down at him from above.
A hand with prominent knuckles suddenly seized both sides of Cen Wan’s cheeks, fingertips digging deep into the pale, soft flesh, squeezing his whole face out of shape:
“Done pretending?” The man’s voice was dipped in ice, his thumb grinding hard across the boy’s water-dampened lower lip until the pale lips welled with blood.
“You really are”
“Making me sick.”
The color drained from Cen Wan’s face in an instant.
[Mission countdown: 58s]
[57s]
0813 couldn’t hold back, fuming: [If he won’t carry you, he won’t! Why does he have to curse at you too? So mean!]
After venting, it sighed dejectedly: [Vicious cannon fodder missions really are hard to complete. Wanwan, you’ve been through a lot… But we only need to hold on another two or three months!! Shortly after the school anniversary ends, we can log off!]
The instant Loren’s voice fell, everyone around them widened their eyes and held their breath.
But it was far from over.
Those words seemed to flip some vicious switch in Loren. He curled his lips into a malicious sneer and spat out one contemptuous line after another:
“Absolutely disgusting.”
“Do you think having a pretty face means every man will fall for you?”
“Tch.”
Loren’s expression darkened completely, his eyes sealed off by a thick wall of malice.
“Let me tell you”
“What I hate most is a shameless, fickle idiot like you.”
“You’d better stay as far away from me as possible, or else”
“Don’t blame me for being unpleasant.”
With that, he flung away Cen Wan’s face now marked with two red streaks from his grip and rose and left without a backward glance.
[Mission failed! 48h deducted from survival time]
[Warning! Host Cen Wan’s remaining survival time is less than 48h!]
[Mission 10: You must find a way to make the angry Young Master Loren stop being angry!]
[Obtain a hug from Loren before 24:00 tonight. Reward: 48h added to survival time]
[Mission failure penalty: 72h deducted from survival time]
Cen Wan froze in place for two seconds. If he failed, he’d actually owe lifespan back.
Furrowing his brow with a sigh, Cen Wan raised a hand to press against his forehead slightly warmer than before then, ignoring the whispers around him, made the most of his time, climbed out of the pool, and hurried after Loren.
“Is he going after Young Master Loren?”
“God he actually dares to…”
“I’ve never seen Young Master Loren that vicious.”
“Me neither so scary.”
“And Young Master Loren has never been like this even with the people he keeps around, right? No matter how ugly those people got, he was never this merciless.”
Someone brought up the endless string of pretty faces around Loren, and everyone recalled what he’d just called Cen Wan.
The crowd fell silent for a moment.
“Sigh… but honestly, I’m a little jealous of Young Master Loren.”
At that, the crowd went silent again.
“I… me too.” Several people in the crowd said in unison, and the vast space fell so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Only Jiang Xinian still stood in the pool, head lowered, his expression unreadable.
Two rows of attendants stood on either side of the carved doors, heads bowed, respectfully greeting Loren as he walked ahead.
Cen Wan was soaked through, water dripping onto the carpet and blooming into dark stains, as he staggered after the tall, cold figure ahead.
Loren shoved open the heavy sandalwood door and strode inside without a backward glance.
In the very last second before the door closed, Cen Wan squeezed through with the last shred of his strength.
“Bang!”
Loren slammed the door shut, the enormous sound echoing through the ornate room.
Loren spun around, cold fury burning in his eyes. He seized Cen Wan’s slender, icy wrist with a grip strong enough to crush bone, and without a trace of mercy, pinned him against the door.
“Cen Wan.” Loren’s voice was terrifyingly low, every word wrapped in shards of ice.
“Are you insane?”
Cen Wan stumbled from the yank, barely managing to stay on his feet.
He lifted his face. He was already starting to have trouble hearing Loren’s voice, but that face even in such a wretched state was still breathtakingly beautiful.
Only now it carried an abnormal flush. Cen Wan breathed in ragged gasps, his soaked body trembling uncontrollably, his gaze hazy, as if veiled by a layer of mist.
” I…” He opened his mouth, his voice hoarse and faint, almost inaudible.
A scorching breath escaped his lips, feverishly hot.
Before he could say anything more,
the world spun. Everything before his eyes swayed and blurred.
His throat felt as if it were plugged with burning sandpaper.
The next second, the last thread of strength he’d been clinging to snapped away.
Cen Wan’s beautiful eyes lost focus in an instant; his long lashes trembled once and fluttered shut. Like a puppet with severed strings, he collapsed sideways without warning at Loren’s feet.
“…”
The fury on Loren’s face froze instantly, dissolving into a flicker of shock and deeper suspicion.
He looked down at the drenched figure curled on the carpet, his thin lips pressed into a hard, cold line.
“What are you playing at?”
He sneered, his voice dripping with mockery.
“Don’t try those little tricks on me.”
With that, he reached for the door handle but Cen Wan was blocking the door, and he couldn’t get out.
Loren stood there, cold as ice, waiting for Cen Wan to give up the act.
One minute.
Two minutes.
The brass pendulum in the room ticked away for a long while.
Cen Wan still lay there, utterly still, his chest rising and falling with the faintest breath.
But the feverish flush on his cheeks grew deeper and deeper, startling against his deathly pale skin. His soaked black hair clung messily to the side of his face he looked as fragile as a piece of glass about to shatter.
Loren’s brow furrowed tighter and tighter. That thread of suspicion in his heart began to give way to an inexplicable agitation. He cursed under his breath in irritation, and finally bent down, reaching out to touch Cen Wan’s forehead.
The heat from his fingertips was astonishing.
Loren snatched his hand back, his pupils contracting sharply. All the rage, suspicion, and mockery were shattered in that moment by that terrifying fever, replaced by an unfamiliar, icy panic that seized his heart.
“Cen Wan?!” Loren called out in a low, urgent voice this time filled with a panic even he himself hadn’t noticed.
No longer caring about anything else, he dropped to one knee and swept the soaked, burning figure up from the floor into his arms.
The body in his arms was shockingly light, and even through the damp, cold clothes, he could clearly feel the relentless, scorching heat radiating from it.
Loren’s heart sank, and his arms holding Cen Wan tightened involuntarily.
He shot to his feet, without a trace of hesitation, and quickly carried the burning, unconscious body out the door.
【Mission completed. Reward: survival time extended by 48 hours】
“The patient’s physical condition is very poor. Long-term overwork and malnutrition have left his immune system weakened. His temperature has come down a little now, but we’ve also found several bruises on his body.”
“Judging from the examination results so far, this is not the kind of health a normal student should have.”