Meanwhile, Zhuang Yuhua climbed up onto the edge of the pool. Seeing this, Li Chen made to jump in, but the legs he had been squatting on for too long started going numb the moment he stood up. After taking barely two steps, he pitched headfirst straight downward!
As it happened, someone dashed out from right ahead of them at an angle, and the two of them heavily slammed into the ground together.
Li Chen clutched his arm while Qi Lin clutched his leg. Exchanging mutual glares, they wailed and cursed back and forth, though their remaining limbs kept up the struggle.
“…” Divided between keeping an eye on the water and burning with anxious frustration for the people on the bank, Zhuang Yuhua found himself torn in two directions.
An alarm suddenly blared in his mind:
[The target has entered the dark corruption process, and the micro-world is beginning to collapse. Please handle this immediately, Host.]
The surface of the water gradually fell still. Zhuang Yuhua felt his heart skip a beat, and without hesitation, he dived back in, swimming with all his might toward the sinking figure.
Supporting the waist with one hand and frantically paddling upward with the other, he managed to lift Zhou Ze above the surface first. Yet the unconscious man slumped back toward the water on his own accord, dangling limply like a lifeless ceramic doll.
Quickly leaning Zhou Ze’s head against his shoulder to ensure his nose and mouth remained exposed to the air, Zhuang Yuhua swam forcefully toward the bank. Pushing hard against the man’s legs to hoist him up, he scrambled up right after with a shove of his hands.
“Zhou Ze? Can you hear me? Wake up!”
Watching the two people beside him going at it tooth and nail, half of his heart sank into despair: Finished, completely finished! Neither the protagonist gong nor the spare tire can be relied on, so surely it isn’t going to fall on me, a cannon fodder character, to do this!
A cannon fodder’s life is still a life, you know! Doing artificial respiration might literally get him killed under the big boss’s hands!
The alarm in his head shifted from red to orange:
[Target’s life countdown: one minute. Micro-world collapsing.]
[Host’s evacuation countdown: thirty seconds. Please prepare.]
No way!
Gathering all his resolve, Zhuang Yuhua began cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Chest compressions weren’t working. With a do-or-die expression, he pinched Zhou Ze’s nose, took a deep breath, and breathed it into his mouth.
[Host’s evacuation countdown: fifteen seconds. Please prepare.]
“Zhou Ze, you cannot die! Wake up!” Zhuang Yuhua roared.
Everything around them began to shatter and collapse; light and shadow tangled in a dizzying weave of black and white.
[Host’s evacuation countdown: three seconds. Three.]
Zhuang Yuhua performed rescue efforts with frantic desperation. In less than a minute, drenched in sweat from several rounds of CPR, Zhou Ze still showed no movement, heartbeat stopped, breathing completely gone.
The penalty for lying to him.
[Two.]
Choked with emotion, Zhuang Yuhua let out a sob, praying with every ounce of his soul: “Zhou Ze, big brother, don’t die, I’m begging you.”
“I was wrong, I was really wrong.”
“Big brother, please don’t die.”
Just a split second before that [One] rang out, Zhou Ze’s chest heaved. He broke into a violent fit of coughing as water surged from his mouth and nose, dry heaving with such dizziness and nausea that it felt as though his internal organs were about to spill out.
[Target’s life status normal. Dark corruption process halted. Micro-world repairing.]
[Mission continues.]
“Zhou Ze! You’re not dead! That’s wonderful!” Zhuang Yuhua hurriedly went to help smooth the man’s breath, snot and tears streaming down his face as he cried uncontrollably.
If this had become his very first failed world, he would never hear the end of it from his peers.
With eyes stinging with pain, Zhou Ze forced his eyelids open to find a crying youngster in front of him. He desperately wanted to help wipe away those tears, but every inch of his body ached so badly that he couldn’t muster even a shred of strength to lift his hand.
Water gurgled in his ears, and whatever the child seemed to be saying came across entirely muffled.
It felt as though water had flooded straight into his brain, spinning everything into dizzying nausea. The moment he parted his lips, the urge to retch proved unstoppable; after purging all the water, he began vomiting up bitter bile and stomach acid until it felt like his insides were turning inside out.
“Take it easy, take it easy.” Pulling the man into his arms, Zhuang Yuhua patted his back to soothe him. The man’s body was too slippery, forcing him to keep one arm firmly locked around him.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he apologized over and over.
Zhou Ze’s unceasing dry heaves and hoarse coughs felt like a blade slicing through his heart.
After a long while, Zhou Ze’s condition finally stabilized. Taking ragged breaths and gathering a sliver of strength, his fingertips gently grazed Zhuang Yuhua’s abdomen.
It felt to Zhuang Yuhua like the soft brush of a butterfly’s wings. He hurriedly caught the man’s hand, terrified that the butterfly might fly away: “Big brother, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have let go.”
He prayed frantically in his mind: I already called him big brother! Hopefully the big boss will factor in my sincere attitude and that tiny bit of brotherly affection, and grant me a dignified death?
System 999 queued up a mournful funeral BGM: [Big Boss Host, see you next time.]
Ah!
Looking at the tear tracks on the youngster’s face, a complex whirlpool of emotions churned through Zhou Ze’s mind. He squeezed out a weak smile, tightened his grip in return, and moved his Adam’s apple as every single word carried a trace of blood: “Xiao Hua.”
His voice was so light it threatened to drift away. Biting his lower lip, Zhuang Yuhua pressed his ear against the man’s lips, catching a fragmented: “Thank you.”
!
He froze in place, staring in sheer disbelief at the faintly smiling man.
Why?!
Why “thank you”? Anything like “I hate you” or “I’m going to kill you” would make sense, so why this?!
At that moment, Li Chen lunged forward, shoving Zhuang Yuhua aside with one hand before pulling Zhou Ze straight into his own arms and wrapping a bath towel around him.
He had been knocked unconscious while fighting Qi Lin earlier, and waking up to find this picture-perfect scene of brotherly affection made him want to stab someone’s heart out.
Supporting the man upright, he shot a glare at Zhuang Yuhua while bearing most of the weight: “A-ze, take it slow. Let’s head back first.”
If one of his arms hadn’t been acting up, he would have carried A-ze away right then and there. Seeing the man’s unsteady footing and having to pause every two steps to catch his breath filled him with excruciating heartache.
Poor Qi Lin was nursing a leg injury, wailing and unable to stand up.
Zhuang Yuhua fell into a brief internal struggle. Glancing at Zhou Ze’s side where he couldn’t possibly wedge himself in, he humanitarianly scooped up Qi Lin instead, hoisted him into his arms after a moment’s thought, and walked off in the opposite direction.
Consider it compensation for stripping away the protagonist gong’s aura.
Looking back, Zhou Ze caught sight of Zhuang Yuhua’s resolute back and the person in his arms, sending his brain spinning like a meat grinder with a strong momentum toward stirring his neural center into pure mush.
“A-ze!”
When Zhou Ze next woke up, it was already the following day. Opening his eyes to a heavy, swollen soreness, he shut them again immediately. Every joint ached with misery as his brows knitted tighter and tighter.
At that moment, a warmth settled over his hand. Opening his lids, he saw Li Chen smiling down as he held his hand: “A-ze is awake. I’ve prepared some electrolyte water; drink a little.”
A sudden dryness parched his throat. Based on his frequent bouts of fever, his voice was bound to be completely hoarse right now.
A slender straw pressed against his lips, and he drank in tiny sips. The water gliding across his swollen throat felt so irritatingly abrasive that it triggered a fit of coughing, intensifying the pain even further.
The sensation reminded him of the despair of drowning, causing him to turn his head away and refuse any more.
“A-ze, be good. You need to replenish your fluids; drink a bit more.” Li Chen stubbornly poked the straw back toward his lips.
Turning his head to dodge, the straw scraped against the dry, cracked wounds on his lips, the microscopic sting pushing his patience to its absolute limit as naked displeasure stained his features.
Li Chen’s movements paused. Staring at Zhou Ze’s delicate, refined face to gather his courage, he took a sip of water into his own mouth, gently cupped the man’s chin, parted his lips slightly, and leaned in to pass it over.
!
Drums hammered inside Zhou Ze’s ears. Wide-eyed with shock and pulling strength from unknown depths, he shoved the man away and swung a backhand slap across his face.
With a crisp crack, Li Chen’s face tilted to the side, and his glasses went flying.
Collapsing limply back onto the bed to gasp for breath, Zhou Ze locked onto him with the vigilant gaze of a lone wolf, issuing a hoarse, low growl: “Get out.”
Feeling the burning sting on his face, Li Chen stepped back a few paces, letting out a cold, overwhelmingly disappointed laugh.
A flower on a snowy peak, where on earth would it ever scatter such indiscriminate tenderness? Yet coincidentally, every single petal had been handed to one person.
And that person wasn’t him.
“Get some rest. I’ll step outside.”
As twilight fell, Li Chen sat downstairs drinking bitter coffee cup after cup, his unshed grievances still unvented when Zhuang Yuhua suddenly called him in an urgent rush: “Get back to the room right now, Qi Lin just forced his way in!”
Breaking into a jog, murder glinting in his eyes, Li Chen muttered: “Sneaking in while there’s an opening? Help me stall him, I’m right behind!”
Standing outside Zhou Ze’s door, Zhuang Yuhua genuinely lacked any desire to go inside. Third-wheeling was agonizing enough, and besides, he still hasn’t figured out what that “thank you” was supposed to mean.
Yet professional duty gave him the courage required to knock.
He knocked for a long while without a response, sending panic rippling through him: Surely it hasn’t happened already!
Did he back the wrong horse?
He picked up the frequency of his knocks: “Zhou Ze? Are you in there?”
The moment the words fell, the door swung open. Zhou Ze beamed at him with curved eyes, inviting him inside: “Xiao Hua is here. I thought it was Li Chen, which is why I didn’t open it earlier. Sorry about that.”
“No worries, no worries.” Observing that Zhou Ze was fully dressed and in decent spirits, implying Qi Lin hadn’t managed to make a move yet, Zhuang Yuhua let out a sigh of relief.
Giving the man a few extra glances and noting that his complexion wasn’t terrible, he asked cautiously, “Are you all better now?”
“All better.” Zhou Ze kept his trademark faint smile, his voice low and raspy.
“I’m looking for Qi Lin; he vanished in the blink of an eye.” Striding inside, Zhuang Yuhua hooked an arm around Qi Lin’s neck and hoisted him along: “Found him, I’ll be taking him away now.”
Zhou Ze stood frozen for a moment, the corners of his mouth stiffening as he forced himself not to look at their physical contact while blocking their path.
Keeping up a smile, he cast an expectant gaze forward: “Xiao Hua, I just brewed some tea. Would you care to taste it?”
Qi Lin struggled violently, but his injured leg refused to cooperate.
The person before him was younger than him yet possessed vastly superior strength, leaving him thrashing around immovably for several seconds before he huffed out a breath: “Fine, I’ll have a cup of tea. That’s Wuyi Mountain Da Hong Pao, the kind that auctions off at a hundred thousand per gram.”
“So expensive!”
Zhuang Yuhua wavered. Seizing the opening, Qi Lin wrricated free, plopped down into a chair, clamped his hands firmly onto the armrests, and haughtily raised his chin.
Pulling him down to a seat with a gentle smile, Zhou Ze said: “If you hadn’t come, I was planning to send some over anyway. My skills aren’t great, so please bear with it.”
“No complaints, no complaints at all.”
How could anyone dare complain? That was the big boss!
Zhuang Yuhua stared unblinkingly at the man’s movements. Like flowing clouds and running water, a pair of fair, slender hands fluttered up and down, their fingertips tinged with a soft blush, before a clear, bright cup of tea settled right before him.
“Careful, it’s hot,” Zhou Ze reminded him softly.
Jolting back to his senses, Zhuang Yuhua belatedly realized he had been staring at those hands for far too long.
To be honest, he couldn’t taste any high-end nuances, nor could he tell where the hundred-thousand-dollar price tag went, so he offered an awkward smile: “Pretty good.”
Amused by his cuteness, Zhou Ze chuckled softly: “Perhaps you’d prefer fruit juice next time.”
System 999 chimed in with a broadcast: [Protagonist Gong’s hatred value +12. Boss, the system detects he wants to kill you, please exercise caution.]
Startled into a shudder, Zhuang Yuhua spilled his tea, letting out an instinctive hisss as it scalded him.
Panicking as well, Zhou Ze grabbed his scalded hand and urged nervously, “Bear with it for a moment, I’ll go get ice and medicine.”
System 999 broadcasted: [Protagonist Gong’s hatred value +13. Boss, he wants to kill you even more now.]
Zhuang Yuhua’s mind narrowed down to a single objective: Escape the Shura field!
The moment he yanked the door open, Li Chen huffed and puffed as he approached to knock, but Zhou Ze had already grabbed the items, anxiously pulling Zhuang Yuhua back down to sit, squatting halfway down, and gently taking his hand to carefully apply the ice pack.
Lifting his head from time to time, he asked worriedly, “Does it hurt? I’ll be lighter.”
Zhuang Yuhua didn’t dare move. Two sharp, hostile glares pierced his back like daggers, radiating an escalating killing intent that made his very fingertips tremble out of control.
System 999 warned: [Boss, the fake death skill is unlocked, but if the host dies inside a micro-world, the real world will also suffer heavy trauma. Please avoid taking damage.]
Lacking confidence, Zhuang Yuhua asked: [They wouldn’t break the law, right?]
System 999 sounded equally helpless: [Due to the host’s successive wild operations, the system has completely lost plot predictability. Everything is an unknown, requiring the host to improvise.]
“I’ll be gentler, bear with it.” Zhou Ze watched him anxiously, gently rubbing the trembling hand as his movements grew even softer, leaning down to blow on it gently.
!
Unsure whether to use a tragic or joyful sound effect, System 999 randomly cued up the heroic ballad Hao Han Ge: [Protagonist Gong’s hatred value +37. As we say we go, we go, you and I have all we own.]
Tears welled in Zhuang Yuhua’s eyes; he really felt like he was about to go.
Hardening his heart, he yanked his hand away in a flash and scrambled toward the exit, only for Zhou Ze to suddenly catch his wrist: “Xiao Hua, your injury needs treatment.”
“No need.” Turning his head back, his eyes widened.
Floating right above Zhou Ze’s head was a virtual box wrapped in an ocean-like, melancholy blue, inside which a little octopus was shedding big tears:
Xiao Hua is leaving me again, I hurt him.
?! That cold and ruthless big boss was… crying?
System 999 offered a belated explanation: [Congratulations, Big Boss Host! The protagonist gong’s hatred value has maxed out, side quest completed, and the skill to hear the protagonist’s inner thoughts has been unlocked. Success is right before your eyes, go get ’em, Boss!]
Taking a deep breath, Li Chen seized Zhou Ze’s wrist, attempting to snatch the ice pack from his grip: “A-ze, I’m a doctor, let me do it.”
Without even glancing at him, Zhou Ze replied: “Thanks, no need.”
Seeing Qi Lin storming over with a furious expression to join the fray, Zhuang Yuhua hurriedly grabbed the other man’s arm, gritted his teeth, and shoved past Zhou Ze: “Qi Lin, let’s go, let’s go, we’re heading to the hot springs.”
Right before stepping out the door, he threw one last glance over his shoulder. Zhou Ze was standing completely straight, his face cast in profile out of sight, while the ocean waves behind him blended with the blue box overhead. The little octopus’s tears fell in an unbroken string, radiating a heavy, gloomy melancholy.
Xiao Hua doesn’t want me anymore.