Lan Yu Heng swore that before entering the Infinite Game, if she had ever encountered something like this, she would already have called the police.
But now she was merely a long-suffering wage slave. Cursing her boss a couple of times was fine, but if she dared interfere with his spectacularly clumsy attempt at flirting, her lunatic boss might very well cut her down on the spot.
Ning Yan had much better self-preservation instincts. He had covered his mouth long ago and was pretending to be both deaf and blind. Even more bizarrely, Song Zang had not voiced another word of refusal either.
Of course Song Zang had no reason to refuse. He had already been bridal-carried at the very beginning of the instance. What was so serious about having his shoulder touched now?
He could not tell whether Yin Chen was simply too innocent or whether his tastes were unusually strange. In any case…
After delivering that dark and twisted threat, Yin Chen’s long, beautiful hand remained resting on his shoulder, occasionally rubbing it lightly.
Other than that, he genuinely did nothing at all!
Song Zang was even starting to enjoy the massage. It was warm and comfortable, and he could still smell the pleasant, faint scent of mint on Yin Chen.
Secretly observing Yin Chen’s expression, Song Zang discovered that the man had visibly become happier for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Since that’s what he wants, I might as well go along with it. Song Zang happily lowered his eyes and bit his soft lips until they looked even paler, disguising himself as a pitiful little lamb helplessly waiting to be slaughtered.
Just as Sister Lan had said, he should treat Yin Chen a little better from now on.
…
Meanwhile, Lan Yu Heng was struggling against the meager remains of her conscience, but unfortunately, her conscience could not compete with the fact that Yin Chen was her immediate superior.
Irritated, she gripped her white cane and poked Long Jian Feng several times in the stomach, hurrying along the progress of his dream.
Long Jian Feng trembled violently, curling in on himself as spasms ran through his body. His face twisted in unbearable pain, and he looked almost ready to howl aloud in his sleep.
No one knew how much time passed. When he finally woke with tears streaming down his face, his tightly drawn features slowly relaxed as he realized that everything he had experienced had only been a dream.
He panted quietly, staring fixedly at the ceiling light as his dizzy, disoriented senses gradually returned to normal.
Song Zang watched him curiously. Long Jian Feng lay completely motionless, his eyes empty and deathly still. He looked as though he had struggled for centuries inside an eternal rehabilitation hell filled with despair and madness, forced to endure endless loneliness until, in the end, he had been forced to grow accustomed to being alone.
“How do you feel?” Lan Yu Heng thought the detoxification had probably worked rather well and gave him a friendly smile.
Long Jian Feng jolted from head to toe. His limp body immediately sprang off the floor, and he fled from the white cane’s reach at top speed.
He would rather have Yin Chen chase him around with a knife than go anywhere near this woman. The moment Lan Yu Heng took two steps toward him, his whole body began trembling, and he shut his eyes without saying a word.
The psychological shadow left by that illusory dream was clearly no small thing.
Ning Yan’s admiration for Lan Yu Heng climbed to an entirely new level, but at the same time, he was deeply puzzled. “Long Jian Feng has already been tortured into this state, so why couldn’t Sister Lan ever get Wang Shu to talk? What the hell happened to that lunatic in Tianhai City that lets him keep his mouth shut no matter what?”
Song Zang had plenty of experience with that question.
“Someone with faith, as long as that faith is strong enough, won’t fear any kind of torture or interrogation.”
The principle was the same even if the god they believed in was evil.
Long Jian Feng was an addict, but he remained rational. He wanted to escape the Long family’s control and possessed a sufficiently powerful desire to survive.
Wang Shu was different. He genuinely believed in everything the Earth Mother Goddess represented and was willing to sacrifice everything for it. That was why Song Zang could only exploit his beliefs to provoke and persuade him.
Song Zang had encountered people like Wang Shu before.
Before he found Xiao Bai, wave after wave of mercenaries had come to kill him. Yet Song Zang had never managed to extract their objective, uncover clues about their identities, or convince a single one of them to reveal even the slightest useful information.
Even when they lost control of their bodies from the terror of approaching death, trembling uncontrollably and even wetting themselves, Song Zang could still taste a fanaticism he could not comprehend in the unwavering expressions with which they willingly faced death.
People like that were the hardest to deal with. Either you uprooted them immediately, or sooner or later they would kill you instead. If Wang Shu’s permanent item had not potentially been useful for the Optional Mission, Song Zang would have killed him long ago.
As for Long Jian Feng… they had beaten him, and they had saved him. He should finally be ready to cooperate.
“Commander Long, want to talk about working together?” Song Zang lightly shook his thermos, speaking in a mild voice. “We’ll help you deal with the Long family. Once everything is over, you’ll still have to go to prison, but I can guarantee your safety while you’re incarcerated. And the good things you’ve done for Dragon Nation will never be erased.”
Long Jian Feng wiped the wet sweat from his forehead. With his eyes closed, he answered weakly, “Hold on, Director Song. I appreciate you helping me break the addiction, but before we discuss cooperation, I need to know exactly what relationship you have with the Guangming Consortium.”
He truly refused to let this subject go.
Song Zang fell silent for a moment. His black eyes met Long Jian Feng’s without blinking as he answered calmly and firmly, “Sponsor and recipient. I have no financial or vested-interest relationship with the Guangming Consortium. None at all.”
【Exquisite Mask】 glittered brightly on his status panel, yet Long Jian Feng stared at him without the slightest confusion in his eyes. He even gave a soft laugh.
“I could believe anyone in this room, including that terrifying blind woman. But I simply don’t believe in your character, Song Zang.”
The effect of his Special Title seemed to have suddenly stopped working on Long Jian Feng.
Just because Lan Yu Heng made him quit Dragon-Tongue Incense inside a dream, his Resistance somehow shot above one thousand?
Just how terrifyingly addictive is Dragon-Tongue Incense…?
Song Zang was shocked inwardly, but nothing showed on his face. He curved his lips. “Although I’m physically helpless, my research abilities and my special ability were enough for the Guangming Consortium to discover me and invest in me. They believed in my potential, and I produced results worthy of that investment. Isn’t that perfectly reasonable?”
Long Jian Feng shook his head. “It’s precisely because you’re physically helpless that it makes no sense for you to sit in that position.”
“Civil officials have commanded military forces since ancient times. What’s strange about that?” Song Zang looked utterly innocent. “If my character were truly that terrible, I could have copied the Long family’s ambitions long ago and used the Agency’s anomalies to tyrannize Dragon Nation, setting myself up as a local emperor.”
Elio’s Notes: “Local emperor” is a Chinese expression for someone who behaves like an unchecked ruler within their own territory or sphere of influence.
“How far is the cushy life you’re living now from being a local emperor?” Long Jian Feng sneered. “Assistant Yin’s entire future was ruined in your hands, and somehow you still have him completely wrapped around your finger. Poor bastard.”
Having gone through detoxification, Long Jian Feng no longer had any desire to keep pretending. He had completely given up on maintaining appearances and made it perfectly obvious that he could not stand Song Zang.
“…”
Having just experienced the chaste version of “workplace harassment,” Song Zang was both amused and exasperated.
There’s no talking to him. Looks like he still needs a little physical persuasion.
“All right. Since you’d rather communicate with Yin Chen, I’ll let the two of you talk privately.”
Song Zang stood with a cheerful smile, picked up his thermos without hesitation, and walked away. The glance he gave Long Jian Feng on his way out… held just a trace of pity.
“Huh? What do you—” Long Jian Feng froze, failing to understand for a moment.
Ning Yan and Lan Yu Heng both knew exactly what Song Zang intended. Neither said a word. They eagerly followed him out.
Just before the temporary interrogation-room door closed, Yin Chen met Song Zang’s eyes through the narrowing gap and curved his lips with faint excitement. “Of course, Teacher.”
The knives and guns in his pockets knocked against one another with a series of clinks.
…
The hotel’s facilities were nowhere near as good as the Agency’s. The so-called interrogation room was merely a sealed room with exceptionally good soundproofing.
Once the door closed, no matter what happened inside, the people standing outside could hear absolutely nothing.
There were no cameras and no one-way mirrors. It was perfect for letting Yin Chen loosen up and do whatever he wanted.
Yin Chen did not disappoint Song Zang. His efficiency was outstanding. Ten minutes later, Long Jian Feng burst through the door covered from head to toe in blood.
More precisely, he had used his super-strength ability to forcibly break the lock, ripped the entire heavy iron door off its hinges, and was now clutching it like a shield between himself and Yin Chen.
Holding back his laughter, Song Zang stepped backward and asked softly, “So, Commander Long, do you think I’m a decent person now?”
“…Director Song, my attitude earlier was inappropriate. Please forgive me.” Long Jian Feng continued clutching the iron door as he spoke in a trembling voice.
“Mm, it’s fine. I forgive you.” Song Zang smiled sweetly, his tone extraordinarily friendly.
“I’m willing to cooperate. I’m willing.” Long Jian Feng only gripped the door even tighter, his gaze wandering everywhere except toward Song Zang. “Let’s find somewhere with cameras before we… before we talk again.”
Hearing the tremor in his voice, Song Zang could not suppress his curiosity and asked Yin Chen, “What did you do?”
“Nothing worth mentioning.” Yin Chen wiped his hands with a disinfecting wipe and answered pleasantly.
Being cryptic again! Forget it. Song Zang was already used to it. As long as it worked, that was enough.
They returned to the hotel lobby. The spacious, brightly lit conference room finally gave Long Jian Feng some sense of security.
He rubbed his disheveled hair and became astonishingly cooperative, answering every question Song Zang asked.
Only after hearing Long Jian Feng explain the history did Song Zang and the others learn that when the Anomaly Containment Agency was first established, the Long family had actually been the single greatest contributing force behind it.
They had surrendered anomalies, donated resources, shared possible containment rules for high-rank anomalies, contributed entire procedures for researching anomaly attack conditions, and even provided systematic training methods for improving ability users’ combat strength…
All of it had been provided “free of charge,” laying a powerful foundation for the Agency’s creation and development.
Naturally, the Long family had not done all of this out of charity. Their true objective had been to infiltrate the Agency little by little from the very beginning, eventually swallowing and controlling Dragon Nation’s most unusual institution of power and using it as preparation for the Long family’s eventual resurgence.
Before Song Zang’s fraudulent assigned role successfully rose to power, every previous Director of the Agency had been either an ability user or researcher cultivated by the Long family’s faction. Each of them maintained countless hidden ties of interest with the family and remained heavily constrained by it.
No one could have predicted that the “anomaly expert” sponsored by the Guangming Consortium would suddenly rise to prominence and, worse, win enormous popular support, completely disrupting the Long family’s gradual takeover.
No wonder an anomaly had been deliberately arranged to attack me the moment the instance began. So that was why. Song Zang understood perfectly. If he were a member of the Long family, he would want to get rid of himself as quickly as possible too.
“Actually, the Long family originally planned to arrange for several people to board the warships and follow us to Carp Nation. They were supposed to assassinate all of you, throw the bodies into the sea to destroy the evidence, then blame the entire incident on the Carp Nation government.”
Long Jian Feng continued speaking without ever letting go of the iron door.
“The Long family still doesn’t completely trust me. Originally, I wasn’t supposed to lead this mission at all. But I had an informant planted near you and learned ahead of time that Dragon-Tongue Incense ash was hidden on the Deep Sea’s seafloor… I volunteered that information, which was how I managed to steal this assignment. Fuck, if I’d known what would happen, I never would’ve come.”
Song Zang frowned. “Wait. Who was the informant beside me?”
“Cough, cough!”
Before Long Jian Feng could answer, Ning Yan—who had been quiet for a very long time—suddenly coughed twice and gave an embarrassed smile. “That would be me.”
Song Zang froze. “Ning Yan, you really are something!”
“I had no choice. My personal mission is to restore the Dragon Nation Police Bureau to its former glory, and Commander Long also wants to restore the Police Bureau,” Ning Yan said with a shrug. “On that particular issue, our interests don’t necessarily have to conflict with the Agency’s. We can obviously cooperate and help one another. Just look at us now. So peaceful and harmonious.”
He had a point. It really was remarkably peaceful and harmonious.
Long Jian Feng was the only person in the room covered in injuries.
“Look at you with those thick eyebrows and big eyes. Who would’ve thought you had a few schemes of your own?” Lan Yu Heng laughed.
Elio’s Notes: “Thick eyebrows and big eyes” can literally describe someone’s features, but in Chinese it also suggests an upright, straightforward, trustworthy-looking person. The joke here is that blind Lan Yu Heng uses the expression figuratively, while Ning Yan immediately takes it literally.
Ning Yan became excited. “Sister Lan, you can actually see my thick eyebrows and big eyes?!”
“…The last time you fainted by the shore, I felt your face when I rescued you. Judging by touch, you’re pretty good-looking.”
“Hehe, of course. I really am handsome.”
The two chatted enthusiastically while Long Jian Feng listened in confusion. “What personal mission? Didn’t you just join the Police Bureau? Who else assigned you a mission?”
Ning Yan shrugged and immediately started feeding Long Jian Feng nonsense. “Director Song, obviously. Our Director Song is handsome and kindhearted. He has never once wanted to suppress the Police Bureau’s strength and has always been working hard for Dragon Nation’s future! Just look at yourself. You’re way more petty than Director Song.”
When you were out in the world, your identity was whatever you said it was. Ning Yan was thoroughly enjoying the experience of being a double agent.
Long Jian Feng stared blankly after being thoroughly lectured. He lowered his head and thought gloomily for a moment before a trace of life suddenly returned to his hollow eyes. “Fine. You’re noble, you’re impressive. There’s a chance to destroy the Long family at the end of this year!”
“Go on.” Song Zang immediately perked up.
“On Lunar New Year’s Eve, the Long family ancestral residence holds a major ancestral worship ceremony. Every member of the Long family is required to attend, and they hire a lot of temporary workers too—porters, servers, that sort of thing. I’ll draw you a map of the ancestral residence. Send undercover people inside to investigate carefully. I guarantee there’s something wrong!”
“What kind of problem?”
“I think there’s something horrifying inside the ancestral residence. Every year after the ancestral ceremony, I get seriously ill. It’s incredibly strange, almost as though my vitality has been drained away. I spend at least two months barely alive.”
“All right. Draw it now.”
Song Zang had barely finished speaking before Ning Yan rapidly shoved paper and a pen in front of Long Jian Feng.
“Can I smoke?”
Song Zang smiled. “Of course. We’re partners now.”
Click—
A spark flared. Long Jian Feng drew the map while biting down on the cigarette and taking a drag. He immediately screwed up his face, extinguished it, then turned aside and spat twice.
The dream detoxification had been absurdly effective. It had not only cured his addiction to Dragon-Tongue Incense, but apparently even ruined cigarettes for him. A chill ran through Long Jian Feng’s heart, and the hand holding the pen trembled involuntarily.
After finishing the map, he sighed and continued, “Earlier, you asked me what was inside the Police Bureau’s closed mountain training facility… Truthfully, all I know is that the place is used to process Dragon-Tongue Incense ash. As for what’s actually inside the factory, I can’t say. I don’t have enough clearance to know.
“If you plan to seize the training facility, bring enough manpower. But I need to warn you about one thing: the Guangming Consortium also funded that factory! The money was routed through shell companies, and the registered legal representatives are nothing but scapegoats. You’ll never trace it back to the Guangming Consortium. Without evidence, it doesn’t matter how much filth you uncover—you still won’t reach the real people behind it.”
“I see.” Lan Yu Heng became thoughtful.
No wonder Zhang Ming Shen’s Divination Coin had repeatedly shown such a dire omen, and no wonder it had been so difficult to identify the true buyers of Dragon-Tongue Incense. These people were all seasoned operators. Naturally, they knew how to hide themselves thoroughly.
They had obtained an astonishing amount of information in a single night.
At four in the morning, as the first light of dawn appeared, an exhausted Long Jian Feng was finally released back in one piece.
To avoid attracting suspicion, Song Zang even forced him to memorize a lengthy explanation. The Agency’s public account of the previous night’s raid had to match Long Jian Feng’s exactly.
—The Agency’s instruments had detected a highly contaminated zone aboard the ships. Following an emergency investigation, they discovered that a small amount of Dragon-Tongue Incense powder had accidentally been tracked aboard on police officers’ shoes, resulting in a false detector reading. After Agency personnel spent the entire night conducting cleanup and investigating the scene, the matter had been fully resolved.
Whether anyone believed the explanation was none of Song Zang’s concern. As long as Long Jian Feng cooperated and the official story was superficially plausible, that was enough.
“There has to be a major monster hidden either in the Long family ancestral residence or somewhere in the mountains. So what’s the plan from here?” Ning Yan yawned and forced himself to stay awake.
Lan Yu Heng turned her head. “Boss?”
“You decide. I’m going to get Teacher something to drink.” Yin Chen spoke carelessly, picked up Song Zang’s thermos, and headed toward the dining room.
Lan Yu Heng rubbed her temples speechlessly. “…Fine. Let’s return to Dragon Nation and meet up with Old Zhang. Have him perform a few divinations first. Also, I recommend dealing with the Long family and the training facility at the same time. Attacking either one first will alert the other. We can launch both operations simultaneously on Lunar New Year’s Eve.”
“Sounds good. I want to go undercover as a server,” Song Zang volunteered enthusiastically.
Ning Yan could not help laughing. “Song Song, your face is way too famous. Everyone in Dragon Nation recognizes you. How are you supposed to go undercover?”
“There are human-skin masks in the points shop. They only cost one hundred points.”
“Mm… All right. Then I’m going undercover too. From now on, I’ll be a triple agent!”
Somehow, they muddled their way into a rough operational plan, and the Carp Nation situation finally came to an end.
Song Zang finished his sweet hot milk, dropped into bed, and slept comfortably until noon the next day.
Bliss.
＊
Back in Dragon Nation’s capital after what felt like forever, the air was dry and fresh.
After publicly exposing the Carp Nation government’s “good deeds” and causing an international uproar, the players boarded a return flight overnight and immediately fled back home.
The moment Song Zang stepped off the plane, he was once again forced into the public eye and had to make statements before the media. It was exhausting. Fortunately, Yin Chen blocked quite a few camera flashes for him.
By the time Song Zang finally finished the interviews and returned to the Agency, he still could not rest. He had another meeting to attend.
The staff who had remained in the capital were extremely diligent and responsible. They reported every detail of the Agency’s recent operations, anomaly-containment status, and Fog Barrier expansion forecasts… Only after two full hours was Song Zang finally released.
Song Zang had never experienced this kind of mental exhaustion before and genuinely could not stand it. The instant work ended, he rushed back to his little courtyard, took out the iron wok, and started throwing gold bars inside. First, he was going to gorge himself on a serious amount of high-calorie chocolate.
While unwrapping the elegant gold foil from a piece of chocolate, Song Zang’s phone suddenly chimed, notifying him of two new messages.
They came from someone named Song Ting.
Still chewing chocolate, Song Zang opened the messages and immediately froze.
【Song Ting: Well done.】
【Song Ting: Your demeanor in front of the cameras was poor. You looked too timid and petty. Be more poised in the future.】
“Wait, who the hell are you?”
Song Zang frowned and opened the man’s profile. The information section was completely empty. After studying it for a long time, he could not find a single useful message record.
To be safe, he did not plan to ask the researchers to recover the deleted conversation history. Instead, he searched Song Ting’s name online himself.
That search actually produced a great deal of useful information.
Song Ting was a major venture capitalist in Dragon Nation, a member of the Guangming Consortium’s shareholders’ board, and an investor behind several publicly listed companies in Dragon Nation. He maintained a low profile despite possessing wealth in the hundreds of billions… If shareholder information were not legally required to be disclosed, a man like Song Ting could probably have remained even more hidden.
What relationship does this man have with me?
Song Zang stared at Song Ting’s photograph again and again before discovering something horrifying.
Song Ting is very probably my father.
That was right. Their eyes and brows were structured almost identically. At least within this instance, Song Ting was undoubtedly his biological father.
The problem was that Song Ting had publicly announced that he was married with a child—and that child was definitely not Song Zang.
Am I an illegitimate son?
Song Zang was somewhat bewildered. He put away the iron wok and casually tossed the remaining gold bars behind the computer desk.
That was when something changed.
A muffled scraping sound came from behind the heavy rosewood desk.
Immediately afterward, some hidden mechanism seemed to activate. Song Zang watched helplessly as his large bed began slowly rotating on its own, taking an entire section of wall along with it.
There was actually a narrow little room hidden behind his bedroom!
Song Zang immediately locked the main door, then cautiously stepped inside.
The little room was completely bare, with no unnecessary furnishings whatsoever. There was only a desk and chair, and a perfectly ordinary notebook lay on the tabletop.
The notebook was densely filled with handwriting that seemed to have been written entirely by the “Director.”
Sometimes the writing was messy, sometimes neat. Some pages had once been soaked and had dried stiff, while the ink had bled into blurry stains.
【I want to die so badly. I don’t want to do this anymore.】
【They’re all fucking idiots. Hahaha. I fooled them so badly they lost their pants.】
【I’m willing to do anything. Will he be proud of me?】
【First I fooled my mentor, then my students. First Dragon Nation, then the entire world… I give up. When the hell am I finally going to be exposed? A bunch of idiots! They’ll believe anything!】
【He has his own family. I don’t have one. He won’t allow me to go see him on my own. Why? What gives him the right?】
【My life is disgusting beyond belief, and yet I’ve also reached the very top. Look. So many people in this world care about me. I’m important. I can be important too.】
【I treated my student the same way he usually treats me. Hahaha. Now my student has changed too. He’s become exactly the same kind of idiot I am.】
【I’m already in my twenties, and I’ve finally found the courage to admit that Dad doesn’t love me.】
…
Song Zang sat inside the pitch-black hidden room without any source of light and carefully read the notebook from beginning to end.
Just as he had expected, the Director assigned role really was the illegitimate son of a major shareholder of the Guangming Consortium.
His mother’s identity was unknown and never mentioned. Perhaps she had already died long ago.
As for his relationship with Song Ting… their blood relationship had never been exposed publicly. The way they interacted resembled a superior and subordinate in some sinister organization far more than father and son.
—And yes, there really was a sinister organization beneath the wings of the Guangming Consortium.
Song Zang’s existence was like that of an agent carefully raised from childhood to work for the organization his father belonged to.
Their blood relationship made him more loyal and dependable, while the fact that no one knew about that relationship meant he could be exploited whenever necessary and discarded whenever convenient.
The organization appeared to be collecting anomalies and conducting secret research that even the Director himself knew nothing about. Its influence extended throughout every corner of Dragon Nation. Even the group responsible for establishing the Carp Nation government had been covertly pushed into place with their help.
As the highest-ranking leader of the Anomaly Containment Agency, the Director had far too many opportunities to manipulate things internally. Song Zang discovered that in the past, he really had secretly helped smuggle several minor anomalies out of the Agency, exploiting the confusion to transfer them into the Guangming Consortium’s hands.
The situation now was almost absurdly funny.
The three major powers openly standing at the center of Dragon Nation—the Long family, the Guangming Consortium, and the Anomaly Containment Agency—did not have a single innocent, law-abiding leader among them.
They could practically call themselves an all-villain lineup.
Even Long Jian Feng was kinder than Song Zang’s assigned role.
Song Zang suddenly realized that Long Jian Feng’s relentless hostility and rejection of him were, in fact, perfectly reasonable… Truthfully, Long Jian Feng wanting to kill him and put Yin Chen in the Director’s position could almost be considered an act of justice.
His emotions became complicated. He repeatedly reread the tangled love, hatred, and resentment written throughout the notebook, and an indescribable bitterness slowly rose in his heart.
He’s so pitiful.
Yin Chen is pitiful too.
“Yin Chen, what are you doing?”
For reasons he could not explain, Song Zang could not resist calling Yin Chen.
“I’m looking over the dinner menu. Is there anything in particular you’d like to eat?” Yin Chen answered patiently and politely. The faint sound of paper turning came through the receiver.
So pitiful!
Yin Chen really is so pitiful. He had all his power, reputation, and glory stolen away, and he still has to prepare dinner for that awful Director…
Song Zang’s inexplicably sentimental mood had not passed yet. Hearing Yin Chen answer him so gently immediately filled him with emotion.
God. A poor student who was oppressed, persecuted, psychologically controlled, and then had an affection-starved mentor project all his emotional issues onto him. How did his assigned backstory end up this miserable?
“Come over. I want to give you a free hug,” Song Zang said softly.
The instant he finished speaking, the call disconnected.
Song Zang had only just hidden the secret room in his bedroom again when Yin Chen was already standing at the door, a gun in his hand.
“What happened?”
Yin Chen’s sharp gaze swept Song Zang from head to toe. After confirming that he was unharmed, he began checking the bedroom for threats.
“Nothing. I’m just feeling kind of sad.” Song Zang immediately hugged him, instinctively breathing in that familiar mint scent.
The warm body in his arms abruptly stiffened, as though Yin Chen was not accustomed to being placed in such a passive position.
But he did not push Song Zang away.
Yin Chen gripped the gun tightly and stood rigidly in place, his voice hoarse and obscure. “What exactly happened?”
“I was thinking… you treat me so well, but you’re also so mean to me. Do you actually hate me?” Song Zang asked quietly. “How about this? You should be Director instead. You were always the only person truly qualified for this position. Everything I’m enjoying right now should have belonged to you.”
Song Zang did not notice that Yin Chen’s expression abruptly changed during the first half of his speech before he slowly concealed it again without showing a trace.
Yin Chen loosened his grip on the charged-energy gun, which had quietly developed a crack beneath his hand, and lowered his eyes toward Song Zang. “Teacher, did Song Ting ask you to do something for him again?”
“Wait. You knew?”
“Of course I knew.” Yin Chen’s lips curved slightly, but the smile was faintly gloomy, making him look exactly like the thoroughly brainwashed obedient student his role demanded. “The timing isn’t right yet. Once we obtain evidence of the Guangming Consortium’s crimes, whatever you want to do, I’ll cooperate.”
“Then you should also know how I treated you—”
Yin Chen raised an arm around Song Zang’s waist, turning their positions around as he leaned close and whispered beside his ear, “You don’t need to keep testing me, Teacher. I don’t need any more power. I only want you to get what you wish for.”
Help. He’s hugging me too tightly. I’m having trouble breathing.
Since becoming more familiar with Yin Chen, they had spent almost all their time dealing with one crisis after another in Carp Nation. Although the atmosphere occasionally became strange, they had not been this physically close in quite a while.
Besides, a superior and subordinate—or a mentor and student—probably shouldn’t be touching each other like this.
The tips of Song Zang’s ears turned faintly red, and it looked as though he was almost incapable of continuing the act. He hurriedly broke the strange atmosphere, raised his eyes, and asked softly, “Yin Chen, your role setting is so weird. Is he secretly, obsessively in love with me?”
“It isn’t secret.” Yin Chen still did not let go. “He’s pathetically and obsessively in love with you, and he makes it very obvious. How am I doing?”
His gaze leisurely swept over Song Zang’s fair, pink-tinged ear, and his voice carried an almost-smile. He seemed very satisfied with the results of taking the initiative.
“…Extremely well.”
Song Zang’s voice trembled slightly. He was also very satisfied with the results of taking the initiative.
Only now could he finally be reasonably certain that his role-playing mission and Yin Chen’s truly did not conflict.
Otherwise, since Yin Chen already knew the truth… he could have used Song Ting against Song Zang long ago.
Even if Song Zang’s identity as an illegitimate son were accidentally exposed in the future, as long as Yin Chen continued standing on his side and did not actively try to seize the Director’s position, Song Zang would still receive the full Completion Reward.
As long as Yin Chen had no intention of targeting him, Song Zang was perfectly happy to let him touch and hug him every day.
Such innocent physical contact really isn’t much different from Xiao Bai knocking me over, and both feel pretty comfortable.
They remained wrapped intimately around each other like lovers, almost like a real couple, while their thoughts drifted in completely opposite directions like two clouds separated by an uncrossable gulf.
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