The two exchanged a glance and in each other’s eyes, they saw the same thought.
That was, kill.
After a brief moment of excitement, Ye Xiangxiang became sullen again. “Fujiang actually turned out to be a man. It’s infuriating. I originally wanted to compete with her, see who’s more beautiful, me or her…”
Zhang Mingge: “…If you really want to, you can still compete with him now.”
“That’s different.” Miss Ye tossed her hair. “When it’s a beauty, of course I want to compare looks but if it’s a handsome guy, well…”
She sighed. “What a pity. Even if he’s handsome, for the sake of the mission reward, I’ll still have to kill him ruthlessly. By the way, is that Lin Huai difficult to deal with?”
She looked at Zhang Mingge, her eyes curving into crescents. “Even though killing Fujiang alone would grant an S rank side quest reward, high returns always come with high risks. Since neither of us can take him down alone, how about we cooperate for now?”
Zhang Mingge pushed his glasses up. “What about Qiu Ran?”
“Her?” Ye Xiangxiang shrugged. “She seems to have followed Fujiang. Tch, what a face con.”
In the laboratory, Qiu Ran sneezed.
“Hey, hey, aren’t you tempted at all?” Ji Fengjian twisted around to look at her. “An S rank reward! S rank!”
“The reward is indeed very generous.” Qiu Ran smiled awkwardly. “But… can you beat him?”
“If you don’t even try, how would you- ”
“She’s right.” Lin Huai pushed the door open. “You seem very confident, hmm?”
Ji Fengjian: …
The moment he saw Lin Huai, his previously soaring courage instantly deflated. Lin Huai stuffed the rag back into his mouth and turned to Chu Tianshu. “Who else do you think might want to make a move against me?”
“Ye Xiangxiang, Zhang Mingge. That outlaw master doesn’t have the guts… but Qu Mei, hard to say.” Chu Tianshu shrugged. “He looks like the kind of reckless rookie who fears nothing and as for this Ji Fengjian…”
The two of them looked at Ji Fengjian together. Ji Fengjian struggled, making muffled “mmph mmph” sounds, shaking his head desperately.
“Kill him,” Lin Huai said.
“Fill him with cement and throw him into the river,” Chu Tianshu added.
“I…. I!” Ji Fengjian finally struggled free of the rag and let out a miserable scream. “I won’t dare again! I really won’t!”
“And what if you go back on your word?” Lin Huai asked.
“Well…”
“How about this.” Lin Huai snapped his fingers. “I’ll give you an afternoon probation period. Be my bodyguard and accompany me to do something… and then, ”
He patted Ji Fengjian’s face. “I’ll let you off for this round of the game.”
“This…”
Ji Fengjian still seemed hesitant. Lin Huai added, “In this game, the two of us could kill you as easily as flipping a hand and before this, you already offended us quite thoroughly…”
He gave him a meaningful look. Under that gaze, Ji Fengjian’s face turned pale. Gritting his teeth, he accepted this humiliating and one sided agreement.
After school, they split into two groups. Ji Fengjian was responsible for escorting Lin Huai to the commercial district, while Chu Tianshu went off to complete a mysterious task, searching for videotapes.
“Why is he looking for videotapes?” Ji Fengjian walked ahead of Lin Huai, maintaining a not too close, not too far distance.
“Hmm, because he wants to watch the Avengers trio?”
Ji Fengjian shivered. “Your jokes are really cold…”
Lin Huai kept his mask and sunglasses on the entire time. Without being able to see the other’s face, Ji Fengjian finally managed to maintain a sufficiently straight laced and iron hearted demeanor.
He had originally thought Lin Huai would go out of his way to torment him but to his surprise, throughout the entire afternoon, Lin Huai behaved quite normally. He brought Ji Fengjian along, wandering aimlessly through shops, like two ordinary high school boys passing time with nothing better to do.
After coming out of an ice cream shop, Ji Fengjian’s curiosity finally overcame his fear of the person before him. Holding two ice creams, he asked, “So what exactly is your purpose in coming here?”
“No particular purpose.” Lin Huai, still wearing his mask, replied lightly. “Even inside a dungeon, you should enjoy life a little.”
“…Really?”
Facing Ji Fengjian’s suspicious gaze, Lin Huai smiled again. “But it’s normal that you don’t believe me. After all, we’re enemies, aren’t we?”
…When you accept something from someone, you become indebted. The ice cream in Ji Fengjian’s hand instantly lost its flavor.
He stared at the ice cream for a while, then heard Lin Huai say, “Actually, I did have another purpose…”
“What purpose?”
The young man, hidden behind mask and sunglasses, smiled.
“You’ll find out soon.”
When that women’s clothing store appeared before him, Ji Fengjian’s state of mind collapsed completely.
“You…”
“I’m compensating you with an outfit. Your build is similar to mine and especially your back… it should work…”
“Damn it, are you joking?!” Ji Fengjian almost screamed. “No way!”
Behind the large dark sunglasses, a gaze fixed on him. “You really don’t want it?”
“Of course I don’t!” Ji Fengjian shouted. “Wear it yourself!”
Lin Huai stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. “Alright, then I’ll wear it myself.”
He stuffed the ice cream into Ji Fengjian’s hands. “Wait here.”
Ji Fengjian: …
Twenty minutes later, still standing in place and holding a half melted ice cream, Ji Fengjian began to grow restless.
“No, wait… why am I even waiting for him here?” He looked at the ice cream in his hand, starting to question his life choices. “Shouldn’t I take this chance to run away? Or attack him?”
The more he thought about it, the less he understood himself. He almost suspected that being tied to a water pipe earlier had given him Stockholm syndrome. Just then, a neutral voice sounded behind him.
“Sorry to keep you waiting…”
“You finally, ” Ji Fengjian turned around.
At that moment, he thought he had seen spring.
A girl in a red dress, beautiful to the point of being almost bewitching, smiled at him. “Well? Do I look good?”
Ji Fengjian: …
“G… good…” he said dazedly.
Straight man. Definitely a straight man. Lin Huai, pinching his voice into a soft, affected tone, silently made his judgment.
Since that was the case, things would be easy. Lifting the hem of the dress, he smiled sweetly. “Well then, since you think I look good, let’s go.”
“Go…?” Ji Fengjian stammered. “Go where?”
“To make it up to you.” Lin Huai smiled. “I’ll compensate you with an outfit, ”
Then he added, “Men’s clothing.”
On the way to buy the clothes, Lin Huai remained quiet, not saying a single word. Passersby on both sides couldn’t help but turn their heads, looking at the beautiful girl and the stiff, awkward man walking beside her.
Amid those gazes, Lin Huai hooked his arm around Ji Fengjian’s, his breath warm as he spoke softly, “Don’t you think, to them, we look like a couple?”
“I…” Ji Fengjian stumbled over his words. “You…”
“Well, take a look.” Lin Huai skipped into a wig shop, suppressing the urge to gag internally. “Does this red wig look like your hair?”
Ji Fengjian bent down to examine it. “It really does… the color, the style, it’s exactly the same.”
“Really?”
Ji Fengjian nodded.
“Then I’ll buy it.” After receiving his confirmation, Lin Huai’s smile became even more genuine.
“N… no, why are you buying that?!”
Under Ji Fengjian’s astonished gaze, the beautiful girl smiled. “Because it looks like you… I like it very much.”
Ji Fengjian: …
Watching Ji Fengjian walk as if floating on clouds, Lin Huai smiled again, thoroughly pleased. Finally, in a soft, gentle voice, he said, “Let’s go. I’ll buy you an outfit.”
Over the next hour, he bought Ji Fengjian a full set of men’s clothing, shoes and even a pair of gloves. Ji Fengjian stepped out of the fitting room wearing the entire outfit. The beautiful girl sitting outside cupped her face and smiled at him. “You look really handsome.”
Ji Fengjian: “…Mm.”
He felt as if he were living in a dream. The girl before him was everything he had ever dreamed of in reality, beautiful, gentle, sweet talking, considerate… and even a rich girl who bought things for him.
It was as if he had completely forgotten that just an hour ago, this “rich girl” had been a man who was, in certain aspects, even more impressive than him. The kind hearted and beautiful rich girl led him past the largest bank in town, arriving at an alley without surveillance cameras. Suddenly, she stamped her foot.
“Oh no, I dropped my wallet!”
“I’ll go back and help you look for it?”
Ji Fengjian immediately volunteered, stepping forward with such eagerness that Lin Huai was secretly delighted. He smiled gently. “It’s fine, I’ll go find it myself.”
“How could I let you-”
“Be good, wait here.” He rose onto his toes and brushed aside the other’s bangs. “Stand here and wait for me. I’ll be right back.”
Ji Fengjian remained where he was, his expression dazed, as if he were still waiting for the kind and beautiful rich girl to leave him with a kiss. Seeing how thoroughly he had been bewitched, Lin Huai’s smile grew even sweeter.
“Stay here and don’t move,” he emphasized.
Ji Fengjian nodded heavily.
Only then did Lin Huai feel reassured. No longer paying attention to Ji Fengjian behind him, who stood there holding his face and grinning foolishly, he clasped a few strands of his hair and left in high spirits.
An hour later.
“Why isn’t she back yet…”
Ji Fengjian had actually waited there patiently for a full hour. He looked at the sky, which was gradually darkening and a trace of genuine worry rose in his heart.
“Could something have happened?”
Just as he was growing restless, a commotion came from a distant alley.
“Catch him!”
“He’s the one who robbed the bank!”
Ji Fengjian: …?
He turned around, only to see someone dressed exactly like him, with a similar build, sprinting toward him with all their might.
And on that person’s head was a wig, one that looked almost identical to his own hairstyle.
The man in the wig rushed past him and disappeared into the darkness in an instant. Ji Fengjian stood there, dumbfounded and at the moment they brushed past each other, he heard the man speak.
“So obedient,” came the familiar, smiling voice. “What a sucker.”
Ji Fengjian: …
“That’s him!”
“He’s here!”
“Catch him!”
“You brat!”
Lin Huai slipped into the depths of the alley, removed his wig and changed back into his own clothes. Whistling cheerfully, he left the alley, while at the same time, Ji Fengjian was running for his life, shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Damn it!!” he cried out miserably. “You… bastard! You played me!”
“Sorry about that. To fulfill the system’s condition of ‘earning one million by toying with others’ feelings,’ I had to make quite a few sacrifices.” Lin Huai shrugged. “I even left a few strands of your hair at the scene…”
At the same time, the system’s voice rang in his mind.
“Task one: set a small goal, completed.”
Hearing this, Lin Huai revealed a genuinely satisfied smile. He took a suitcase filled with cash out of his inventory and, before Ji Fengjian could be caught by the police, placed it at the entrance of the police station.
One of the three tasks had already been completed. The remaining two were “make someone unable to sleep at night” and “obtain the title of Miss Liangchuan.”
With a thoughtful expression, Lin Huai hummed a tune as he returned to the street where he lived.
He vaguely sensed that someone was following him. As he passed a street corner, Lin Huai glanced back.
A school uniform hurriedly slipped behind a utility pole. Lin Huai recognized him, it seemed to be the boy who sat in front of him in class.
He didn’t have much of an impression of this introverted and timid boy.
The only memory he had of him was from when he had first entered the middle school under the identity of “Fujiang.” Unable to tolerate the crowd’s unsettling gazes, he had casually dragged a stalker who had been secretly photographing him into the restroom and beaten him up. That boy had also seemed to be in the restroom at the time.
He had been soaked all over, lying on the ground. Several people surrounded him, holding a bucket.
Looks like I ran into another “something.avi” scene again, Lin Huai thought.
“Although I can’t be bothered with other people’s business,” Lin Huai said lazily, “you’re blocking my way to deal with this person. So are you going to move, or do you want to be dealt with together?”
The group obediently retreated and Lin Huai was quite satisfied with that. After he finished dealing with the despicable voyeur and came out of the restroom, the soaked boy was still curled up on the ground.
Lin Huai tossed him his own coat, which was covered in wall dust but still dry.
After that, he left the restroom. To him, that diary and that coat were perhaps the only two points of intersection between him and the boy who sat in front of him.
The boy seemed to have been waiting for a long time on the road he had to take home. Lin Huai thought absentmindedly.
But he didn’t care about it.
“Yo,” Chu Tianshu’s voice came from the entrance of the Saeki house. “Finished your date?”
He was holding an old videotape. It seemed that over the course of the afternoon, both of them had gained something.
“Mm, the first task is already done…” Lin Huai walked toward him. “Is that Sadako’s videotape?”
“More or less. We’ll take it into Kayako’s house and play it later…” Chu Tianshu said. “Where’s Ji Fengjian?”
“Hmm, probably still being chased by the police but since the task is already complete, there’s no need for me to keep the money. So I returned it.” Lin Huai said. “Wish him luck.”
Chu Tianshu: “In the future, you… don’t… forget it.”
He seemed to hesitate, as if he wanted to say something but held himself back. Lin Huai continued, “We’re staying here tonight?”
“Yeah. One night to deal with both Kayako and Sadako together.” Chu Tianshu said. “Is everything okay on your side at home?”
“You mean them? They can’t control me… I’ll stay with you tonight…”
Muffled voices drifted faintly from the other end of the street. The boy who sat in front of Lin Huai in class crouched behind a utility pole, his fingernails digging tightly into the peeling surface of the wall.
“Damn it…”
He could hear Lin Huai talking with that newly transferred rich student. They seemed to be discussing things like dates, allowance and spending the night together.
A surge of intense inferiority, jealousy and anger gave rise to hallucinations. The tear mole beneath Lin Huai’s eye seemed to flicker.
For a moment, the young man who had once thrown him a coat overlapped with the current figure, wearing a pleasing, ingratiating smile, hooking his arm around the wealthy boy beside him in a gesture that felt almost threatening, following him into the luxurious villa and transformed into a shameless, despicable figure.
His fingernails cracked and blood trickled down along his fingers. The boy remained completely unaware of it.
✦ ✧ ✦
Cresvynia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
The Realm accepts your wallet. The translator accepts coffee. ✦
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 111 · Although the author really didn’t want to writeChapter 112 · An explanation of the main storylineChapter 113 · Lin Huai’s QuestionChapter 114 · Hello classmateChapter 115 · Let me introduce the protagonist’s family backgroundChapter 116 · The innocent and naive Lin XiaohuaiChapter 117 · The Trisolarans ArriveChapter 118 · He Isn’t Fighting AloneChapter 119 · Why Here?Chapter 120 · A World Where Everyone Is Sculpted in ClayChapter 121 · How Could It Be YouChapter 122 · I want to sell my carChapter 123 · The Mysterious Transfer StudentsChapter 124 · Gu BeichenChapter 125 · The Male Lead of This StoryChapter 126 · A Voice Never Heard BeforeChapter 127 · You’re Tomie, aren’t you?Chapter 128 · I’ll give youChapter 129 · I just want to be with youChapter 130 · The Principal’s OfficeChapter 131 · Chu: I Disbanded Your Hate GroupsChapter 132 · Speak ProperlyChapter 133 · A Trisolaran Enters the Grand View GardenChapter 134 · Ji FengjianChapter 135 · About Me and YouChapter 136 · Kayako Likes ItChapter 137 · YouChapter 138 · I’ll Beat MyselfChapter 139 · I Want to See MyselfChapter 140 · The Trisolarans’ First Experience of Love and SexChapter 141 · The Trisolarans Try Romance Once MoreChapter 142 · The Trisolarans Try Romance for the Third TimeChapter 143 · It’s All This Buff’s FaultChapter 144 · The Way You Straight Men TalkChapter 145 · Why are you taking it so seriously?Chapter 146 · Chu Tianshu Shows Off His MusclesChapter 147 · Enter the DreamChapter 148 · Leave a little secretChapter 149 · Shadow StreamerChapter 150 · Don’t Look at MeChapter 151 · The Trisolarans betrayed StalinChapter 152 · Then I WillChapter 153 · The Trisolarans rewrite the Book of Life and DeathChapter 154 · What Career Could Be More Important Than Your Wife?Chapter 155 · Aren’t We Already Together?Chapter 156 · MVP of the Entire FieldChapter 157 · Meeting the FamilyChapter 158 · A Phone Call Across Time and SpaceChapter 159 · Lu Jin, You’re So MiserableChapter 160 · The Lands Of DaughtersChapter 161 · The So Called Pregnancy StreamChapter 162 · The Street Where Only the Two of Us ExistChapter 163 · No bare faceChapter 164 · Question 1: Do you have hair loss?Chapter 165 · LaxativesChapter 166 · Where Exactly Do You Exist?Chapter 167 · Seven ZeroChapter 168 · The issue of 0 and 1Chapter 169 · Wind ChimeChapter 170 · Visa and Wind ChimesChapter 171 · Continue to persecute Lu JinChapter 172 · Examiner: I’ve fallen in love with himChapter 173 · Lin Huai intimidates scalpersChapter 174 · Night of EvilChapter 175 · Congratulations to the Male Guests on Successfully Finding Their PartnersChapter 176 · Before ThisChapter 177 · The gong says he is terrifiedChapter 178 · The Tasker CampChapter 179 · I’m So ScaredChapter 180 · The Final Transitional ChapterChapter 181 · Four Beauties Among the FlowersChapter 182 · Plum FragranceChapter 183 · Dry Weather and Flammable ThingsChapter 184 · The Heartless Sword ManualChapter 185 · Only MeChapter 186 · The North PoleChapter 187 · Let Brother Lin Learn to Meow Like a CatChapter 188 · Good Night