【In the dark, damp basement, Lin Luxi gazed through the small window at the sliver of blue sky outside. He lay motionless on the bed.
A caregiver accidentally splashed scalding hot water on his hand and quickly apologized, but Lin Luxi stared silently at the red, blistering skin with a hollow look in his eyes.
He had lost all sensation below his neck. Not to mention scalding water, even if a car ran over him, he wouldn’t feel a thing. His body was already ruined, crushed inch by inch by Yue Xinghe’s own hands years ago.
Thinking back to the boundless agony of that time, Lin Luxi’s face contorted with fear.
It took over ten minutes for him to gradually calm down, though his chest still heaved violently and his breathing remained labored.
Living a life worse than death, his mind moved as slowly as a rusted gear. Day after day, like a frog at the bottom of a well, his world was no larger than that palm-sized window.
He never left that basement until the day he died.】
Like rolling bullet comments, scenes of the original owner’s fate from the novel scrolled through Lin Luxi’s mind.
He shivered involuntarily. If he ended up like that, he’d rather be dead.
Then Lin Luxi suddenly thought of a key point.
Wait a second. It was the original owner who had contacted the antagonist, not him.
What if he just came clean?
No, that wouldn’t work. The male lead had been so good to the original owner. What if he suspected that Lin Luxi had done away with him? He might even kill Lin Luxi to avenge the original owner.
Even if Lin Luxi was confident in his abilities, Yue Xinghe was the protagonist of this world. Lin Luxi wasn’t sure he could beat him.
Wait, no. At this point in the story, the male lead didn’t know Zheng Jun yet, right?
It was only later, after all the supporting characters turned dark, that Yue Xinghe investigated and discovered that Zheng Jun had been pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Right now, Yue Xinghe and Zheng Jun shouldn’t have even met yet!
How could he have forgotten such a crucial detail?
Panic really does make a person lose their mind.
Lin Luxi seemed to be thinking a lot, but in reality, only about ten seconds had passed.
“Lin Luxi, explain yourself! What have you done now?”
Lin Yinyue had finally found something to hold against him, and he wasn’t about to let go.
Zheng Jun, sitting on the shoulder of his mech, glanced at Yue Xinghe and burst into laughter. “Hahahaha, Lin Luxi, I—”
Fearing that Zheng Jun would say something misleading, Lin Luxi kicked a heavy sofa chair hurtling toward him.
Startled, Zheng Jun quickly bent backward to dodge it.
Zheng Jun: “I’m waiting for—”
Lin Luxi: Oh, you’re still talking?!
A table flew toward him.
Having his words interrupted twice, Zheng Jun grew irritated and smashed the table with one punch. “I’m waiting for your light-brain to—”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Lin Luxi’s hands and feet moved in rapid succession, leaving afterimages in the air.
Go on! Keep talking!
Fragments of the shattered table scattered in all directions. As Zheng Jun tried to speak again, tables, chairs, a mini-fridge, all sorts of objects came flying at him.
Zheng Jun: “What the—”
He quickly maneuvered his mech to crash through the window. As police sirens wailed in the distance, Zheng Jun decided not to linger. But before leaving, he still threw out one last line: “Lin Luxi, I’ll be waiting for your light-brain to connec—”
Ahhh! Shut up!
Lin Luxi grabbed the nearest object and hurled it with all his might.
A glass was thrown with speed and precision, landing right in his mouth.
Cursing internally, Zheng Jun made a pop sound as he forcefully pulled the glass out.
He tried to say something else, but the sirens were already drawing close.
Before leaving, Zheng Jun glanced at the person whose bounty was worth ten million. A sudden chill ran down his spine, and he made his getaway just before the police arrived.
A few seconds after he left, a blue-and-white police mech, sirens blaring, zoomed past. A loudspeaker announcement echoed: “Stop right there! You have violated Article XXX of the Alliance Law, illegal possession of regulated weapons. Cease immediately and cooperate with the police investigation!”
ᘻᘿᓍᘺ
The window now had a massive hole, and with the building standing hundreds of stories high, cold wind howled through. Lin Luxi’s heart felt just as cold.
Unbeknownst to him, Yue Xinghe had approached. He pointed lightly at his own nose. “You’ve got a bit of dust here.”
His expression and tone were as gentle as ever. Lin Luxi’s chaotic thoughts instantly settled. He let out a small sigh of relief. Although his heart was still beating a little fast, the earlier panic had faded, replaced by something else.
Lin Luxi wiped his face with less-than-gentle enthusiasm and leaned in toward Yue Xinghe. “Is it gone?”
His small, fair face was clean, save for a faint smudge on his chin. Yue Xinghe pulled out a tissue, handed it over, and gestured to his own chin. “There’s still a little here.”
The Blue Dream manager arrived belatedly. With the ongoing Alliance University tournament, fights and brawls had become common, so they were used to it.
But this was the first time a mech, a regulated weapon, had been used in an altercation.
It was no different in severity from gun violence a thousand years ago.
In this incident, Lin Luxi and his group, like Blue Dream itself, were victims. They weren’t required to pay any compensation.
“Lin Luxi.”
Lin Yinyue, unusually, wasn’t fuming. Instead, he looked at Lin Luxi with a complicated expression.
That series of moves just now wasn’t something someone with a D-rank physique could pull off. What did that mean? It meant Lin Luxi had been putting in the work behind the scenes, training in secret, waiting to shock everyone in the tournament and make those who looked down on him eat their words.
As someone who had also dismissed Lin Luxi, Lin Yinyue felt the sting of being proven wrong.
He struggled for a long time, his face turning red, before finally forcing out a stiff, “You… did well.”
Lin Luxi wasn’t really listening. Instead, he was thinking about the male lead’s behavior earlier.
He probably hasn’t noticed anything yet, right? Otherwise, he wouldn’t still be treating me so gently.
Lin Luxi unconsciously touched his chin, completely missing Lin Yinyue’s words.
Not that Lin Yinyue minded the lack of attention, after saying his piece, he stepped back, feeling awkward.
He thought about what he had told Yue Xinghe earlier but, after a moment’s hesitation, decided not to mention it to Lin Luxi.
He would just remain a silent, nameless benefactor.
It was getting late, and there was still a competition tomorrow. The group had no plans to continue the evening elsewhere, so they left Blue Dream and headed back to school.
The walk back was somewhat quiet.
Zhao Fankong and the two female members of his team had somewhat changed their perception of Lin Luxi, realizing that he wasn’t as useless as the rumors claimed, nor as terrible as the online gossip suggested.
Reflecting on today’s match, which they had initially doubted, they were now almost certain that everything Lin Luxi had displayed during the competition, seemingly a string of coincidental luck, had been deliberate.
Perhaps his goal had been to toy with the audience.
The next match would likely confirm it.
Once back at the dorm, Lin Luxi threw himself onto the bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.
He might not need to explain himself deliberately, but anyone with eyes could see that he and Zheng Jun knew each other. Right now, the male lead didn’t know Zheng Jun, but he would in the future. And when that time came, he would surely recall today.
Then, he would inevitably suspect that Lin Luxi had colluded with Zheng Jun early on, that he was planning to betray the male lead, to serve as Zheng Jun’s inside man.
Just thinking about it gave him a headache.
He needed to find a way to make the male lead understand that he harbored no ill intentions toward him.
It was past eleven at night, over an hour after returning to the dorm.
Yue Xinghe had already finished showering and was on a video call.
On the screen, a scholarly-looking man with silver-rimmed glasses spoke respectfully. “We’ve gathered most of the evidence. Zheng Jun has escaped. Boss, should we take down his headquarters directly?”
Despite Qin Tian’s refined appearance, there was always a hint of menace in his words.
Yue Xinghe sat on the sofa, one hand propping up his cheek. His tone was indifferent. “Wait a little longer. Increase the bounty and let him keep reaching out to others.”
Qin Tian nodded, making a mental note, then shifted to discussing the newly discovered energy substance. “After analysis, we’ve found that the substance does indeed affect mental strength. Boss, your foresight is truly remarkable!”
He followed up with a small, flattering remark.
But Yue Xinghe didn’t acknowledge it. With a languid lift of his eyelids, he asked, “You seem quite free. Would you like me to send you to Planet A02?”
Planet A02 was a desolate wasteland where even birds wouldn’t go.
Qin Tian adjusted his glasses and promptly returned to reporting on work, ensuring not a single unnecessary word slipped out.
Just as he was finishing, a knock came at the door.
Yue Xinghe raised a hand to pause the call. “Who is it?”
A clear, clean voice came through the door. “It’s me. Are you asleep?”
Yue Xinghe paused for a moment and glanced at the screen.
Since the work report was already finished, Qin Tian was about to end the call when he suddenly spoke in a low voice. “Boss, could it be a misunderstanding? Maybe we should observe a little longer. What happened tonight might have been a mistake.”
Just moments ago, Yue Xinghe had given orders to set up a scheme against Lin Luxi.
As if struck by a thought, Yue Xinghe’s gaze darkened. His expression turned dangerous in an instant. A tremor in his S-rank mental power caused the glass beside him to shatter with a crack. “Are you questioning me?”
Qin Tian didn’t expect Yue Xinghe to react so strongly to a single question. Even through the screen, he couldn’t help but shudder with a mixture of awe and fear.
“Understood. I’ll take care of it right away.”
Not daring to linger for another second, Qin Tian immediately ended the call.
Lin Luxi stood outside the door, shifting from one foot to the other, feeling somewhat anxious.
After waiting for what felt like nearly three minutes, long enough for his unease to morph into the frantic hopping of a nervous rabbit, the door finally opened.
Lin Luxi kept his head lowered. The first thing to appear in his field of vision was a pair of long, powerful legs.
His gaze traveled upward. Yue Xinghe was clad in a black bathrobe, his strong chest partially exposed.
After a few seconds of silence, Lin Luxi gathered his thoughts and said, “Um, there’s something I want to talk to you about.”
The hallway lights were off, and Lin Luxi was entirely enveloped in Yue Xinghe’s shadow. Tilting his head slightly to look up at him, he appeared rather docile.
Yue Xinghe half-turned to make room. With a faint lift of his thin eyelids, he masked the weariness and detachment in his eyes. His lazy voice was slightly low. “Come in.”
Author’s Note:
There’s something wrong with the male lead!