“It’s not quite that extreme.”
Song Zang acted as though he had not noticed anything strange about her at all. He offered a casual reassurance and naturally rolled up his sleeve.
He gently placed his right hand against Ye Xiao Xi’s tense abdomen, then quickly signaled Yin Chen with his eyes to hurry and take a look.
The instant someone else touched her, Ye Xiao Xi, who had been trembling all over with her face twitching, suddenly fell silent and immediately became calm.
Song Zang was somewhat surprised too. The moment his hand touched her, he seemed to brush against some kind of power that disturbed the mind. Yet that power instantly retreated from Ye Xiao Xi in full force and fled for its life, vanishing without a trace.
Even stranger, Ye Xiao Xi seemed to become a different person all at once.
Not only did her twisted expression disappear, she lowered her eyes slightly and smiled down at her abdomen, a serene, gentle… maternal glow appearing in her gaze. The earlier madness vanished as though it had never existed, almost like a fleeting hallucination.
Yet neither version of Ye Xiao Xi, whether better or worse, stable or unstable, was the Ye Xiao Xi Song Zang remembered.
When they first met, even though she had been lying miserably on the ground, rigidly sawing at her own neck with a rusty kitchen knife and weakly crying until tears streaked her makeup… Ye Xiao Xi had still been remarkably fashionable and full of personality.
At least, Song Zang genuinely thought she was fashionable.
Her thick, curled false lashes had remained perfectly attached the whole time. Bold, ink-black liner completely ringed her eyes, making them look large and bright. Heavy blush and highlighter across the bridge of her nose and brow bones gave her complexion vivid color.
Seen in person, the makeup might have seemed so intense that it overwhelmed her own distinctive features, but on camera she would absolutely photograph beautifully and dominate everyone around her. That rich, aggressive makeup could also hide Ye Xiao Xi’s private insecurity and lack of confidence, making it easy for her to become “outgoing.”
Painting a beautiful mask for herself and wearing it to reduce the burden of social life was both clever and convenient.
That was what had left the deepest impression on Song Zang, which was why he could see so clearly that Ye Xiao Xi was still very wrong right now. The disconnect was extraordinarily strong.
He knew little about medicine and could not tell whether it was connected to her pregnancy. Pregnancy hormones could already reshape a mother’s brain in ways more twisted, frightening, and deranged than an evil god.
But Yin Chen was more perceptive than he was and would certainly notice any supernatural factors that should not exist.
“Baby, hurry.” Song Zang urged him softly.
Yin Chen gave him several cold looks, then unhurriedly slithered down the back of Song Zang’s hand and barely brushed Ye Xiao Xi with a light touch. Immediately afterward, his tail flicked and he vanished from sight.
Song Zang froze, then turned around without hesitation. On the television’s news channel, the abnormality appeared almost instantly.
The male anchor delivering a short news bulletin was sitting upright and speaking normally, yet the shape of his face and features suddenly blurred and distorted. In the blink of an eye, he had become someone else entirely.
It seemed Yin Chen really did have something to say.
This time, the speed at which Yin Chen “possessed” another person’s face was several times faster than it had been at the beginning of the instance. It was flawless, effortless, and seamless.
Song Zang could see it clearly. He was not the only one who had grown stronger. Yin Chen had obviously become far more powerful too.
Song Zang understood what was happening, but Ye Xiao Xi was badly frightened. Her face went white. She stared blankly at the handsome, dangerous-looking man on the television for a long time before an inexplicable survival instinct surged through her.
In the end, she awkwardly managed a greeting. “…Hello, Brother Song’s boyfriend.”
Yin Chen seemed perfectly willing to accept that neither-here-nor-there form of address. He gave a soft “Mm,” his long phoenix eyes resting on Song Zang with the hint of a smile and an inexplicable chill.
Song Zang had no idea why he was being stared at like that. Yin Chen had already begun speaking lazily. “Your child is very healthy, but a trace of obsession still remains. Resolve that obsession and the remaining ghostly aura will disperse on its own.”
As for exactly what the obsession was, even Yin Chen could not trace it. The players would still have to work to investigate the story’s hidden thread themselves.
“I see. I’ll make sure the baby lives without worries. Is there anything else I need to pay attention to? I’ll do my best.” Ye Xiao Xi pressed her lips together and stroked her abdomen uneasily.
“If the obsession can be resolved in time, you also need to deal with your arm as soon as possible.” Yin Chen looked thoughtful, and a trace of curiosity entered his gaze toward Ye Xiao Xi. “After you clear the instance, immediately spend points on a flesh-regeneration medicine and heal your arm, no matter the cost. If anyone notices how bizarre your injury is, you’ll die very badly.”
Even Yin Chen had never seen a player successfully conceive inside an Infinite world and leave safely afterward.
Normal people would never do such a thing, nor dare to. Temporary couples would not be that bold, while genuine lovers would be even less likely to act so irresponsibly.
He was equally curious about what might happen in the future.
Ye Xiao Xi listened intently. “All right, I’ll remember. Thank you… Brother Song’s boyfriend.”
“Any other problems?” Song Zang tilted his head.
Yin Chen glanced at him. “No.”
Tch. So fierce.
“Then that’s it for now. I want to make stir-fried squid tonight. Fresh ingredients are being delivered, so open the door for me later. Arrange whatever other dishes you all want.” After speaking to Ye Xiao Xi, Song Zang turned back toward the television. His previously mild tone gained a meaningful edge. “Baby, shall we go back to the bedroom and talk?”
He had encountered far too many bizarre new things today. It was time for a private conversation.
Yin Chen nodded slightly. “We absolutely need to talk.”
The moment those words ended, the television picture abruptly returned to normal. The male anchor’s face twitched and blurred, then quickly sharpened back into his original features.
His broken, intermittent voice was dry and hoarse as he returned to the news brief, reporting the casualties from the traffic accident outside Happiness Community. Strange mottled static threaded through his voice, making anyone who heard it uneasy.
The problem was not the anchor. The television itself had begun to buckle under the strain and could no longer sustain Yin Chen’s presence for long.
Seeing Ye Xiao Xi’s increasingly pale, uneasy face, Song Zang inexplicably wanted to laugh.
Inside this warm little home, there were times when Yin Chen’s elusive way of appearing and disappearing… was far more frightening than an actual ghost.
The instant the television completely returned to normal, the cold little white snake dropped back into Song Zang’s palm.
This time, Song Zang had raised his hand to catch him on purpose.
Pale fingertips hooked the snake’s tail and slowly rubbed it back and forth.
After Yin Chen disappeared from the television, the path of his rapid transfer into the space before Song Zang’s eyes was now incomparably clear.
This was the greatest difference in the world Song Zang could see after abruptly becoming stronger. On the surface, everything looked the same as always. In reality, traces of subtle abnormality were everywhere.
Song Zang was shaken and deeply moved. The idea of having “clear eyes and sharp ears” was no longer limited to ordinary daily life. His ability to perceive all kinds of unusual disturbances was rapidly climbing as well.
For example, at this very moment, Song Zang personally saw a crack in the world.
Yes. A crack.
For one brief instant, Song Zang glimpsed endless streams of complicated data coexisting, communicating, and interacting in the forms of solid, liquid, gas, and invisible signals, powerfully supporting the vast, magnificent framework of the virtual world.
Strange yet familiar, bizarre yet logical, the data traveled, interwove, and tangled tightly together like a flowing web that never stopped, filling unknown fissures as it desperately repaired the spatial cracks Yin Chen had created.
The snow-white little snake swimming through it all was extraordinarily relaxed. Threads of invisible electrical energy wrapped around his entire body. The system frantically attacked him as a bug, yet he remained completely unharmed.
He abruptly emerged from terrifying, bottomless darkness, wound himself around Song Zang’s fingertip, and looped around it ambiguously.
The instance space that had been forcibly torn open immediately snapped shut again at lightning speed, repairing itself into flawless perfection without leaving a single gap, as though nothing had ever happened.
Meanwhile, the culprit who had caused the entire mess remained perfectly fine, with the system making no attempt to hold him accountable.
Song Zang’s eyes nearly blurred from watching. At the same time, he could not help privately marveling that Yin Chen truly was incredible.
Of course, Song Zang himself was pretty incredible now too. In the past, he never could have captured details that vanished this quickly.
No, never mind the past. The same had been true that very morning. After he and Yin Chen finished “fighting” and Song Zang had gone weak from showering, he genuinely had not seen that enormous python tail appear out of thin air.
Song Zang still felt somewhat muddled about how Yin Chen had knocked him unconscious. His head faintly ached whenever he remembered it. Damn it, Yin Chen had hit him hard.
But… case solved. Song Zang could finally determine that the moment his mental power became stronger had definitely occurred during that long afternoon nap.
Yin Chen had knocked him unconscious without allowing any argument, and it really had been for Song Zang’s own good…
But that violent, perverted method was absolutely unacceptable!
Holding the little snake, Song Zang returned to the bedroom, locked the door, and looked at the battered door handle with increasingly complicated feelings.
He sniffed, and tears fell on command. “Baby, you’ve been so mean to me these past two days. I’ve clearly treated you so well. I even let you sleep inside my heart! I’ve always kept you at the very tip of my heart, physically and literally, yet you keep hurting me and bullying me. You treat me worse and worse, more and more…”
Before he could finish, Yin Chen’s voice suddenly came through the phone and cut off his deliberately mournful accusation.
“You’re not allowed to hurt yourself again. I don’t want to see you deliberately injure yourself. There will not be a next time.”
His tone sounded icy, but the genuine concern in Yin Chen’s words made Song Zang feel strangely more at ease.
Naturally, Song Zang was not satisfied with only that and continued making a theatrical fuss. “That’s not fair. Why are you the only one allowed to hurt me?”
“…I was saving you.”
Yin Chen looked utterly unashamed on the phone, perhaps even slightly helpless.
He had never maliciously harmed Song Zang’s body. Blood drinking was different because it was consensual fun between them. He could tell Song Zang enjoyed it too, so that did not count.
Song Zang’s eyes were red, his voice still thick with aggrieved tears. “You can’t be that crude and violent even when you’re saving me. I’m so upset. I would never bully you like that. Yin Chen, you’re such a hypocrite.”
“I’m not. You can cut me into pieces, sew me back together, then cut me apart again. I wouldn’t object at all. Do whatever you want with me.” Yin Chen spoke in an eerie, low voice.
Song Zang: …
Damn. That’s deranged, but so exciting I almost got turned on just hearing it.
Song Zang struggled to suppress all the ideas beginning to stir and refused to let the matter go. “No. A relationship like that isn’t healthy. Yin Chen, you have to promise me that before you bully me in the future… um, you have to warn me first. You’re not allowed to scare me on purpose, or I’ll ram my head into your front door and die.”
“Fine.”
“And why are you so cold toward me? Now that you’ve gotten me, you don’t treasure me anymore? You’re tired of me?”
“I’m not tired of you, and I do treasure you. In the next instance, I’ll be more emotional.”
Song Zang blinked. “Baby, I don’t understand.”
“…Right now, reason has the upper hand. You provoked Xu Qing and forced me to swallow him completely in one go. It was too rushed,” Yin Chen explained seriously. “His power makes me exceptionally rational for a short period.”
Really?
Song Zang had swallowed some fragments of Xu Qing’s power too and had not noticed himself becoming particularly rational.
A little resentful, he sarcastically complained, “So rational that you tied me up and did it with me all night, huh?”
“I like having sex with you. What’s wrong with that?” Yin Chen curled his lips on the screen, his eyes openly filled with recollection and unsatisfied desire.
Song Zang fell silent for a long moment and decided to abandon this fruitless attempt at emotional communication.
He flopped onto the bed, buried his face in the pillow, and spoke in a muffled voice. “Then in the next instance, will you kiss me, coax me, and be very gentle with me?”
“Lift your head. You’re not allowed to try killing yourself by suffocation.”
“…I’m not!” Song Zang rolled over and stared speechlessly at the screen. “Fine. We’re done with that. Let’s talk about something serious.”
“All right. Something serious.”
“Yin Chen, are you familiar with the existence of a Collective of consciousnesses? Don’t lie. Xu Qing and Xu Ming are both connected to it. If you deceive me, I’ll never forgive you.” Song Zang wiped away his tears, put on a stern face, and spoke quietly.
He was not particularly intimidating even when he tried to look fierce, but to Yin Chen, it was more than enough.
Yin Chen remained silent for a moment before answering honestly, “Extremely familiar.”
“And then? Keep talking.”
“Song Zang, I believe in you.”
“…What does that mean?”
“I believe you can uncover the truth. You’ve survived longer than any other player in the Infinite Game. No one is stronger than you. You’re the most unique one. You can do anything.”
Song Zang looked confused.
What use was it to randomly praise him once?
“Yin Chen, you’re saying I can only rely on myself to uncover every truth I want to know. Is that it?”
“Yes.”
Song Zang considered this. “If you tell me the truth in advance, which of us gets erased, you or me?”
“This has nothing to do with the game’s execution procedure.” Yin Chen looked steadily at him. He spoke slowly, as though carefully weighing safe and appropriate wording so he would not accidentally reveal too much. “But it really is dangerous for you.”
“So you’ve been thinking about me from the very beginning, haven’t you? Even when our relationship was still terrible, you didn’t want me to just die inexplicably.” Song Zang’s lips curved, finally revealing a smile.
“Only I’m allowed to bully you. Only I’m allowed to kill you. Isn’t that right? Do you think anyone else is worthy?” Yin Chen did not deny it. He frowned slightly and asked the question with complete seriousness.
He stared directly at Song Zang, killing intent faintly appearing and disappearing inside his beautiful phoenix eyes.
Utterly serious.
“Fine, fine, they’re not worthy. None of them are. Only you are.” Song Zang hurriedly answered, soothing Yin Chen’s inexplicably unstable emotions.
Somehow the situation had suddenly reversed again, and Song Zang had become the one comforting Yin Chen…
What happened to being extremely rational? Hm?
Song Zang could not help suspecting that Yin Chen sometimes genuinely wanted to chop him to death. They had kissed, they had slept together, they had done everything, and Yin Chen still occasionally developed the urge to kill him.
This man’s emotions constantly bounced between two extremes. It made absolutely no sense.
From there, Song Zang deduced another possibility and cautiously tested it. “Yin Chen, during the two years I’ve forgotten, did I offend you somehow? I mean really badly, enough to make you miserable and hurt, enough to make you want to tear me limb from limb.”
“…Mm.”
“I knew it! I’m so smart.” Song Zang tapped the phone screen. “Do you still hold a grudge now? Don’t lie.”
“I have never lied to you, Song Zang.”
Yin Chen’s slightly shadowed gaze fixed directly on him through the screen. After a pause, he answered with the same honesty. “I don’t want to hold a grudge. But before you remember the good things you’ve done, before you can give me a reasonable explanation… I can’t help feeling resentment. I can’t control it.”
“I see.” Song Zang committed the words to memory and sighed. “I knew you were the grudge-holding type. I’m the same. We’re both petty and calculating. But I can completely accept your explanation. Really. I understand.
“From now on, I’ll seriously look for the truth. I won’t let the wrongs you suffered be muddled over and left unresolved.”
Yin Chen froze slightly, lowered his eyes, and answered in a lukewarm tone. “So we’ve settled this? Anything else you want to ask?”
“Hm?” Song Zang narrowed his eyes warily, dissatisfied with his attitude. “What’s that supposed to mean, Yin Chen? You’re already sick of me? You don’t want to talk to me anymore?”
Yin Chen sneered. “Because I suddenly want to do it with you. Right now. Is that a problem?”
“Ah…” Song Zang froze.
“Hurry. Once now. We should be finished before dinner.”
Song Zang hesitated, carefully chose several words that would not sound too abrupt, then lowered his voice with red cheeks. “Are you really sure the snake’s body has recovered?
“When I checked it this morning, it seemed kind of swollen. Almost broken.”
Those two perfectly sincere and practical sentences silenced Yin Chen for a full half minute.
Separated by a screen, Song Zang could not tell whether Yin Chen was embarrassed or simply speechless at him.
“…Do it.”
After an agonizing stretch of dead silence, Yin Chen ultimately chose an affirmative answer again.
“All right. You said it yourself.” Song Zang gently curled his lips. His pale ears flushed with shy red, and the dimple quietly appearing in his cheek made him look exceptionally innocent. “I’m not deliberately bullying you.”
Rumble!
An enormous python radiating overwhelming pressure suddenly appeared inside the cramped bedroom, its snow-white tail sliding over itself with the chilling rasp of scales.
It accidentally crushed Song Zang’s solid-wood desk.
But those were minor matters, far too unimportant to worry about.
…
Two hours later, Song Zang took a lightning-fast shower, put on an apron in high spirits, and wielded a wok to make stir-fried squid.
The dish was actually simple. With sufficiently fierce heat, fresh blanched squid needed only a few seconds in the wok before an intense aroma burst out. A little soy sauce was enough to draw out its natural savory sweetness.
Song Zang was in an excellent mood as he arranged the piping-hot dish neatly on the new ash-wood dining table.
He was quite satisfied with his cooking and buried himself in dinner. Even the limp little snake collapsed beside his rice bowl was forcibly fed several big bites.
Of course, the overall atmosphere at the table was not nearly as relaxed and pleasant as it seemed through Song Zang’s eyes.
From everyone else’s perspective, he was feeding an invisible ghost… and each piece of food his chopsticks offered into empty air actually disappeared bite by bite.
There was no chewing or swallowing sound whatsoever, yet the visibly steaming food rapidly vanished before everyone’s eyes. It was deeply unsettling.
Only Ye Xiao Xi, nestled in Chen Jing Sheng’s arms, happily accepted being fed, the pair looking like blissful lovers with no concern for the rest of the world.
Noticing Sun Ling Yun’s stiffness and the little girl’s confused, frightened gaze, Song Zang finally deigned to distribute some attention to the others.
“Hm? Does anyone have anything to say? Xiao Xiao Xiao, you go first.”
Xiao Xiao Xiao glanced discreetly at the little girl. Her expression was unusually ugly, anger barely restrained. “Brother Song, Wang Tie Zhu is a fucking animal. Not only does he love threesomes, he’s a pedo too!”
She deliberately kept the wording vague in front of the child, but everyone understood what she meant.
Wang Tie Zhu was also a child predator.
Chen Jing Sheng set down his spoon, his expression becoming more serious. “Was she hurt too?”
“Mm. I asked around it indirectly. Something is seriously wrong,” Xiao Xiao Xiao reported quickly in a low voice, already furious. “That whole family only ever treated her as a tool for pleasing ‘lovers’ and pleasing people in authority. They never treated her like family.”
Chen Jing Sheng nodded, equally disgusted. “There’s no way she’s the only one. I’ll go back to the station later and check his hotel-room records.”
“Um… can I speak?” Sun Ling Yun carefully raised a hand.
Song Zang nodded. “Of course. Go ahead.”
“The Jiang family is the biggest power behind the steelworks. Madam Jiang was the one who pushed Wang Tie Zhu into his position back then too.
“A lot of people probably think a major factory like that is supported by the government, but in reality every important client and every major contract came from anonymous Jiang-family funding. The cash flow passes through link after link, circulating overseas multiple times, so none of it can be traced back to the Jiang family.”
Chen Jing Sheng narrowed his eyes. “How do you know about things from that many years ago?”
“My grandfather cursed about it at home a few times. He said they couldn’t find evidence of those sons of bitches’ crimes, that every man and woman in that family was a savage animal with nothing but money and sex in their heads. He didn’t dare intervene publicly either. He said it might get the entire Sun family killed…”
Sun Ling Yun spoke in one rush, then finally slowed down. “He was secretly cursing about it with his aide. He swore horribly, every filthy word he knew. I was so scared I cried in the middle of the night several times back then, so I remember it especially clearly.”
“Could get the entire Sun family killed?” Song Zang immediately caught the key point. “Your grandfather holds that much power and he’s afraid of the Jiang family too?”
“That’s right. My dad survived the drug traffickers and made it home alive, only to die in a private hospital funded by the Jiang family. Grandpa told me never to investigate and never to casually mention the suspicious parts of my father’s death, or I wouldn’t even know how I died.” Sun Ling Yun shrugged and smiled bitterly. “Of course, now everyone in the Jiang family is dead. Heaven sees all. Retribution comes eventually.”
“Supernatural forces were involved. There’s no doubt about that,” Song Zang concluded. “The Jiang family was willing to give up profits in exchange for conducting living foundation sacrifices inside Happiness Community, and they specifically demanded direct relatives of the project’s business partners. That means the sacrifice was far more than feudal superstition. It must have provided deeper, longer-term benefits to the entire Jiang family.
“Maybe the Jiang-linked developments scattered across the entire city are the ultimate foundation of their ability to run rampant through Xinjiang City…”
Mraow!
Before the words had fully left his mouth, the hairless cat lying quietly on the little girl’s lap suddenly screamed in extreme alarm. The inhuman shriek was so sharp it nearly pierced everyone’s eardrums.
Song Zang’s dark eyes sharpened. He instinctively stuffed the little snake into his pocket. Immediately afterward, the ground began to heave and shake.
Rumble!
The building trembled, the chandelier swung, and dishes on the coffee table crashed to the floor.
Song Zang reacted instantly, snatching up his own stir-fried squid and bracing the creaking new dining table. “Chen Jing Sheng, protect your wife.”
“An earthquake?”
“…If only it were just an earthquake.”
Song Zang looked toward the floor-to-ceiling window, his tone grave.
Across from the window stood Building C of Happiness Community.
It had the highest occupancy rate, every household glowing with light.
The enormous building, nearly eighty meters tall, violently swayed before Song Zang’s eyes and flung dozens of living residents into the air, sending them flying everywhere like flowers scattered by celestial maidens.
Before anyone could react, another tremendous roar spread through the shaking ground.
Building C of Happiness Community collapsed with a thunderous crash.