“Brother Zhennan, wu~~~”
“Save… save me.”
Qi Ran was already afraid of water, and with his leg cramping up, he couldn’t exert any strength. Becoming increasingly terrified, the result of his frantic flailing was that he quickly began to sink downward.
The other students were all practicing on their own to one side, and the teacher had gone off to who-knows-where. Absolutely no one was paying attention to this area until Zhang Dong, who was resting as he leaned against the edge of the pool, noticed that Qi Ran had vanished.
“A-Ran? Qi Ran?”
Discovering that Qi Ran had sunk to the bottom, Zhang Dong hurriedly called for help: “Qi Zhennan, this is bad! Qi Ran has sunk under the water.”
Having just stepped ashore, Qi Zhennan was also startled upon hearing the shout. No longer able to spare a thought for Qi Zhi, he turned around and dove back in, submerging himself at top speed to pull the person up.
“Qi Ran? Qi Ran?”
Qi Ran had already fallen into unconsciousness. Afraid that something fatal might happen, Qi Zhennan performed emergency first aid, pressing on his chest while administering artificial respiration.
Since someone had nearly drowned, the other students gathered around one after another. Qi Zhi, who had been completely absorbed in typing his manuscript, finally lifted his head as well, just in time to witness Qi Zhennan giving Qi Ran artificial respiration.
A faint ache rippled through the position of his heart, and his nostrils stung slightly with a sour sensation. It felt a bit uncomfortable, yet it wasn’t as unbearable as he had previously anticipated.
His love for Qi Zhennan had perhaps already dwindled away to nothingness over the past half-month as the other party abandoned him time and time again.
“Cough, cough—”
The emergency resuscitation was highly effective. After coughing up a couple mouthfuls of water, Qi Ran opened his eyes, and the students all let out a sigh of relief.
“He’s awake, he’s awake, he’s finally awake! Do we still need to call 120 for an ambulance?”
“I already called them.”
“It’s still better to go get a checkup. Near-drowning causes damage to the lungs.”
“…”
Qi Ran couldn’t hear a single word of the students’ discussions. He was terrified out of his wits; sitting up, he threw himself into Qi Zhennan’s embrace, gripping his arm tightly while shaking all over and weeping with low wails.
“Brother Zhennan, I’m scared.”
He had fallen into a river during his childhood and had always been intensely afraid of water; just now, he truly believed he was going to drown to death.
“Don’t be scared, it’s already fine,” Qi Zhennan also knew that Qi Ran wasn’t faking it this time but was genuinely frightened. Holding him close, he gently patted and comforted him.
“How truly tender,” Qi Zhi murmured in a low voice, watching from a distance.
Originally, this kind of tenderness belonged to him alone, but now it was given to another person. His hand holding the phone tightened slightly, and a bitter smile seeped from the corners of his mouth. Lowering his head, he resumed modifying the novel.
Yet the inspiration he possessed just a moment ago had vanished.
A single sentence was deleted then rewritten, written then deleted; no matter what, it didn’t feel right.
“What is there to be sad about? It’s not like it’s the first time seeing it,” his rims were slightly red and a watery mist flooded his eyes, yet Qi Zhi only felt a dull, suffocating pain in his chest. “I really want to write this bastard to death.”
If only he could write Qi Zhennan into the book; he would absolutely torture him to death.
…
After comforting him for a good while, Qi Ran finally calmed down. Qi Zhennan supported him over to the side to rest. “Zhang Dong, go pour some hot water. The ambulance will still take a little while.”
Then he instructed the other students: “Alright, everyone disperse. Pay more attention when practicing. It’s best if two people keep an eye on each other so that if a leg cramps, you can drag them ashore immediately.”
The teacher was also an irresponsible one, disappearing halfway through class; he would definitely report this to the school afterward.
His gaze shifted toward Qi Zhi, who was sitting not far away, still playing on his phone.
Does he simply not have a heart?
Does he truly not care in the slightest that I am close with Qi Ran?
His chest tightening, Qi Zhennan could bear it no longer. Leaving Qi Ran’s side, he rushed forward in a few strides and forcefully snatched Qi Zhi’s phone away. “Just what on earth are you doing?”
With his phone suddenly snatched, Qi Zhi was startled. Looking up, he found it was Qi Zhennan. “What are you doing? Give my phone back to me.”
His eyes were still red and his voice carried a trace of a crying tone; he looked exceedingly pitiful.
“…”
Qi Zhennan froze, realizing that Qi Zhi wasn’t indifferent, but had been secretly wiping away tears.
Qi Zhi was prone to crying; Qi Zhennan had always known this.
He also really liked this trait of his.
“Alright, alright, alright, I’ll give it back to you,” Qi Zhennan intended to hand the phone back, but his eyes inadvertently caught the characters on the screen. “Lan An, Lan An, all you know is Lan An!” The heart that had just softened was instantly flooded to the brim with fury. “Do you not know what kind of trash he is?”
“…What does it have to do with you?”
Qi Zhi knew Qi Zhennan had misunderstood, but he had no desire to explain. Standing up to snatch the phone back, he demanded, “Give the phone back to me.”
Qi Zhennan, however, held the phone and stepped backward, quickly scrolling through the text preceding and following the current line. “I want to see exactly what kind of garbage you’re writing.”
Glancing over it roughly, it was actually a novel written with Lan An as the prototype.
Is Qi Zhi insane?
“Just what is your brain stuffed with?” Qi Zhennan’s head throbbed with rage.
“You’re even writing a novel using him as a prototype? I’ll let you write, I’ll let you write!” Holding down the backspace key, paragraphs of text began to vanish rapidly one after another.
“What are you doing?!”
Qi Zhi instantly panicked. This was the original manuscript; what if the deletion of the text caused Lan An to vanish as well? What if the entire story world disappeared?
“Give it back to me, give my phone back to me!”
“Qi Zhennan, you bastard!”
Disregarding his leg injury, Qi Zhi went mad trying to scramble for the phone.
“For the sake of a Lan An, you actually curse at me?” Qi Zhennan’s face was flushed red with anger. Hoisting both hands high to keep the phone out of Qi Zhi’s reach, he tapped ‘Select All’ and hit delete in a single stroke.
“Qi Zhennan, I’ll fight you to the death!” Qi Zhi was utterly consumed by despair. Once the current state was saved, hundreds of thousands of words of content would completely vanish.
His baby, his Lan An.
“Get lost,” Qi Zhennan naturally knew he needed to exit and save the current state, so he forcefully shoved Qi Zhi away.
“Ah—!” Qi Zhi had been standing on a single foot to begin with, his balance unstable. With this shove, he fell straight toward the side thankfully, he was steadily caught by a pair of large hands.
“Are you alright?”
It was Lan An.
Qi Zhi instantly saw a glimmer of hope. “The manuscript, the original manuscript! He deleted the original manuscript!”
“…”
Lan An’s brain went blank for a split second. Snapping back to his senses, he cast Qi Zhi aside and went to seize the phone from Qi Zhennan’s hand, his voice deathly cold: “Give me the phone.”
Qi Zhennan was currently tapping to save. Seeing Lan An supporting Qi Zhi with one arm, his head grew hot with reckless impulse. Completely ignoring Lan An’s presence, he threw the phone directly into the swimming pool.
With a splash, the phone sank into the water.
“Aren’t you incredibly capable? Go down and fish it out then,” he acted arrogant, deliberately provoking Lan An’s bottom line.
“…”
The original manuscript is just gone like that?
Will the story world thoroughly vanish along with the deletion of the original manuscript? Does this mean he can never go back?
Or perhaps…
Will he also vanish right along with the disappearance of the original manuscript?
Lowering his head to look at his own hands, Lan An could almost see the image of this body gradually dissolving away.
Since it was so, then before he vanished, he would beat Qi Zhennan to death to serve as a burial companion for himself.
Shoving the stunned Qi Zhi aside, he delivered a fierce kick squarely into Qi Zhennan’s abdomen. This time, Lan An used the entirety of his strength, kicking the man a full two meters away.
“Ugh~~~”
As his body airborne and then crashed heavily onto the ground, a severe, agonizing pain struck, leaving Qi Zhennan’s entire mind completely blank.
Without waiting for him to react, Lan An strode forward again, grabbed him by the hair, dragged him to the edge of the pool, pinned his back down with a knee, and pressed his head directly into the swimming pool.
Pulling him up then forcing him down, pulling him up then forcing him down repeatedly, over and over.
“Blub~~”
Massive amounts of pool water surged into his nasal passages and oral cavity. Qi Zhennan was in agonizing distress, his arms struggling with all his might, but with his back pinned down by Lan An, he couldn’t exert an ounce of strength.
“…”
“…”
The other students were startled by this sudden turn of events. Once they reacted, they hurriedly rushed over to pull them apart.
Especially Zhuang Yuexiang and Zhang Dong; wholeheartedly wanting to help Qi Zhennan, they charged forward repeatedly, only to be blocked by Li Jian, who had been waiting on standby. “Let’s see who dares to touch a single hair on him!”
Li Jian spread his arms wide, shielding Lan An from behind.
“Lan An, Lan An, quickly let go! This is going to cost a human life!” Qi Zhi also snapped back to his senses at this moment. Limping and stumbling, he threw himself over, and Li Jian did not stop him.
“Get lost,” under the influence of violent rage, Lan An gave face to absolutely no one, shoving Qi Zhi aside.
“I have a backup! WPS backs up automatically!” Qi Zhi scrambled back up and tugged at Lan An again. “Furthermore, there’s still the website’s side! You’ve already purchased the copyrights; nothing bad will happen!”
He had also been too agitated just now to realize it.
So what if the original manuscript was deleted?
The website contract was already signed, the copyright already belonged to Lan An, and the original manuscript was nothing more than a pile of words.
“If it really comes down to it, I’ll rewrite it! I am the author; rewriting it is exactly the same! If you keep pressing him down, he will die!” Qi Zhi was so anxious that his tears fell continuously. Exerting his strength to haul at Lan An’s arm, he lowered his voice and advised in an anxious rush: “If he really dies, you won’t get off easy either! What if you don’t vanish, but are just trapped here forever?”
He knew why Lan An was so furious: one part was worrying that the story world would vanish along with the manuscript’s deletion, and the other part was worrying that his awakened consciousness would also perish with it.
But what if only the story world vanished?
What if Lan An could never go back?
Then a Lan An who had killed someone would still have to bear legal responsibility.
This was the real world, not the dangerous metropolises in books where laws were lax. Committing murder in broad daylight under the watchful eyes of the crowd, not even a thousand of Lan An’s supernatural talents could help him escape.
Stay in the real world forever?
Lan An was jolted awake by this sentence. Gripping Qi Zhennan’s hair, he flung the man to one side. His heterochromatic eyes, entirely filled with a malevolent aura, glared toward Qi Zhi. “It had better be as you say.”
Qi Zhi didn’t pay him any mind, hurriedly moving to check on Qi Zhennan. “Zhennan? Qi Zhennan, how are you?”
“Cough, cough, cough—”
Qi Zhennan was already in a semi-conscious state. Forcing out several heavy coughs to spit out water, his face was flushed entirely crimson, and he couldn’t hear Qi Zhi’s voice at all.
“Keep your fake kindness to yourself! Isn’t this all because of you?!” Qi Ran also rushed over at this moment. Giving a fierce shove, he pushed Qi Zhi straight into the swimming pool.
Then, he carefully supported Qi Zhennan up, helping him pat his back.
“Blub~~” Suddenly falling into the water, Qi Zhi forgot in his panic that he actually knew how to swim, flailing his hands around frantically.
“Qi Zhi!” Lan An, however, assumed that he didn’t know how to swim, hurriedly jumping down to pull the person up.
“Instead of practicing properly, what are you all crowding around here for?” The teacher, who had gone off to slack off somewhere, returned. Seeing the students squeezed together, they barked a harsh reprimand.
“It’s Lan An,” Qi Ran was the first to lodge a complaint while supporting Qi Zhennan. “He rushed over here for no reason at all; he not only beat someone up but also nearly drowned Qi Zhennan to death.”
“That’s not how it was.”
Supported by Lan An, Qi Zhi pointed at Qi Zhennan to defend themselves: “It was him who snatched my phone. Student Lan An was helping me ask for it back, but he not only refused to give it back but even threw it into the pool. Inside it was something very important to Student Lan An.”
After coughing up a few more mouthfuls of water, Qi Zhennan regained his clarity. Hearing these words, he looked toward Qi Zhi in sheer disbelief; he never expected the other party would still speak up for Lan An at a time like this.
“Do you not know… what… what kind of person he is? Qi Zhi, you are… bringing… bringing degradation upon yourself.”
Pain radiated from his lungs, making his speech awkward and halting for the time being.
Qi Zhi averted his face, refusing to look into his eyes. “What I said is the truth. If the teacher doesn’t believe it, they can check the surveillance footage.”
“You…”
Qi Zhennan was driven half-dead with rage. Forcing himself through his distress to stand up, he pushed away Qi Ran and Zhuang Yuexiang, staring at Qi Zhi with vicious intensity. “There will come a time when you regret this.”
Then he looked toward Lan An, sneering mockingly, “Something very important to you was inside the phone? Well, that truly is a pity it’s all gone now.”
Having soaked in the water for this long, the phone had long since become a piece of scrap metal.
From far away, the wailing siren of an ambulance echoed over.
Letting out a cold snort, Qi Zhennan hauled Qi Ran along and walked out without looking back. Zhang Dong and Zhuang Yuexiang hurriedly followed behind.
…