Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 191: Extra — Their 4:37

Five people popped out from the Owl, and only Qi Shan ended up hanging from a tree.

“Stop gawking. Hurry up and save me!” Hanging from a branch four meters high, he dared not even move his fingertips, fearing he’d upset the balance.

“Hold on, I’ll find some stationery to catch you.” Li Xia, pretending to be serious, lifted his arm and started scribbling on his empty hand.

“……” Qi Shan considered jumping down to take him down with him.

“Is it done?” Li Zijin asked Han Buting, his confusion mixed with uncertain trepidation.

Han Buting opened the WeChat group on his phone. The first message was also from a cautious teammate, asking—Did we succeed?

Followed by Captain Xu’s immediate response—Before 5:00, all thirteen Owl Jades were destroyed. What do you think?

There was also an attached smirking emoji.

From there, the newly established Beijing Owl Travel Group WeChat group was flooded with messages. It had been less than half a minute since they came out, and the screen was filled with “hahaha” and various “laughing out loud emojis” of various styles, genders, and species, turning into an ocean of emoticons.

Li Zijin, relieved and laughing, finally dared to ask. “What exactly did I dream about?”

He hadn’t expected to be the one left in the dark compartment, clueless about the nightmare he had. When he woke up, he only felt his head was a mess and even more uneasy.

Thankfully, his teammates succeeded. Otherwise, he would have been the sinner.

“What did you dream about?” Li Xia said with a meaningful tone. “You should ask Qi Shan.”

Li Zijin looked up. The moon was half-visible, shining on Qi Shan, hanging by the tree.

“Your Millennium Falcon!” Qi Shan eagerly claimed credit, but at the crucial moment, he became a bit shy, lowering his voice for the latter half. “And my Tetris.”

Li Zijin widened his eyes. “Your Tetris?”

If Qi Shan had been closer, he would have caught the dangerous rise in tone, but alas, he was hanging too high.

“Surprised, huh? Let me tell you, I was too. It took half the battle to realize the operating system was too damn familiar! Once we removed the metal plate, we were in your Millennium Falcon! Guess who was the source of fear?”

“You,” Li Zijin said expressionlessly.

Qi Shan compensated for his lack of emotion with his own mixture of shyness and excitement. “How could we be so fated to bump into each other in such a niche game! If I had known the Millennium Falcon was yours back then, I wouldn’t have destroyed you every time. I would have carried you to the top on a palanquin!”

Li Zijin: “……”

Qi Shan: “Too bad we couldn’t record it. The battle just now was beautifully fought. I’m so familiar with Tetris’ tactics, it was like playing for fun to me. I indirectly avenged you, right?”

Li Zijin walked to the tree, opening his arms. “Come down.”

His figure was still slender like a young man’s, seeming like a younger brother ready to catch his elder brother. Qi Shan, fearing he might harm his idol, said, “Let Yan Ge come over.”

Li Zijin didn’t move, looking up at him. “It’s okay, come down. I have something to say to you.”

Qi Shan’s heart raced as he reached behind the hooked piece of clothing. Without hesitation, he tugged down, letting himself fall freely.

Li Zijin was ultimately knocked off balance, falling to the ground, but the moment Qi Shan pounced on him, he wrapped his arms around him, firmly protecting him.

The two fell together, unharmed.

Qi Shan, allowing himself to lie on top of his idol, was blissfully content. “What do you want to tell me?”

Li Zijin, as calm as an emotionless assassin. “You’re expelled from the fan club.”

Meanwhile, Zhu Mo in Guizhou received a message from HBT: Did we succeed?

The WeChat group was ecstatic, and this person was asking him alone…

If it weren’t for the status of “being awkwardly flirted with”, Zhu Mo might have taught Han Buting how to flirt hand in hand.

Zou Jun saw him staring at the phone with a complex expression and glanced at the screen casually. “Very… weird? Who is this person?”

Zhu Mo was startled. Usually, he would change the remark of someone he wasn’t very familiar with to their real name for easy recognition. When remarking on this person, to avoid any misunderstanding from anything inappropriate sent impulsively, he took a detour and changed the remark to initials.

Now, he felt guilty.

Zou Jun merely asked casually, then turned back to join the emoji battle with his own phone.

Zhu Mo changed Han Buting’s remark back, hesitated, and replied: Yeah.

Normally, seeing such a one-word reply, anyone should understand the meaning.

But Captain Han wasn’t just anyone.

Han Buting: Sent the wrong message?

Zhu Mo, tired, more so than from any challenge: No.

Han Buting: I’m very happy.

“……” Zhu Mo felt a subtle pressure, like being reviewed by an old professor.

Han Buting: Wait for me.

A few minutes later.

Han Buting: Okay, let’s continue.

Zhu Mo was curious: What did you do?

Han Buting: Logged out.

Zhu Mo: ???

Zhu Mo: Aren’t you talking to me right now?

Han Buting: The one talking to you now is the main account. I logged out of the secondary account.

Zhu Mo: Why log out?

It’s not strange to have multiple WeChat accounts, but Zhu Mo couldn’t understand why, in the middle of a conversation, the idea to log out of the secondary account suddenly came up.

Han Buting: Since you’re willing to chat with my main account, there’s no need for the secondary one.

“……” Now he understood.

Han Buting: When I get back, I’ll send you my resume. If you think it’s okay, we can move on to the next step.

Resume? The next step? Zhu Mo recognized every word, but when combined, they baffled him, and he dared not ponder too deeply, fearing the sight of a huge pit with a chilling breeze blowing from its bottom.

Han Buting: You understand what I mean, right?

Zhu Mo took a deep breath. The air of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau finally calmed him down: Actually, I don’t quite understand.

He didn’t want to know his height, place of origin, hobbies, career history, and all the potentially bizarre information!

Han Buting: No problem. You go back to the hotel and have a good sleep. There’s plenty of time ahead.

Sitting in the back of a taxi together, Zou Jun saw Zhu Mo earnestly tapping on his phone. On the screen was the WeChat page for changing remark names. The original remark had been deleted, and Zhu Mo was entering new characters—Very Weird.

“See, changing to a straightforward description.” Zou Jun had seen “HBT” last time and “Very Weird” this time, completely unaware that there had been another change in between.

Far away in Guangdong, Han Buting didn’t know that before becoming “Very Weird”, he briefly had a real name.

If any team was seriously navigating levels that night, it was the Colorful Assault Gray Man’s Team. At 4:37, their storyline was at the point where Handsome Senior B’s mother came to school to report Delinquent Boy D for leading her son astray, resulting in Delinquent Boy D being suspended. Throughout, Handsome Senior B didn’t dare speak a word in his defense.

After popping out, the first thing the captain of the Colorful Assault Team did was scold him, genuinely and fervently. “Scumbag!”

The actor playing Handsome Senior B, part of the unsuspecting team, endured a night of madness from their opponents, especially since he, forced by the script, repeatedly ended up in the mini-KTV with Delinquent Boy D, working hard like a laborer, only to end up with such a reputation?

Moreover…

“This is the storyline you guys picked up!” The screenwriter blamed the actors—what kind of logic is this?!

But their two opponents didn’t care about them anymore, hugging and jumping together in celebration, joyful as if they were at a wedding party.

Handsome Senior B, unable to suppress his curiosity, had to ask, “What are you guys laughing about? What succeeded?”

“Senior,” Delinquent Boy D, Red Wine, still used the familiar address. “From now on, you, us, everyone from the first thirteen levels, don’t have to enter the Owl anymore!”

Handsome Senior B and his teammates, all five of them, stepped back in unison and turned to hail a taxi.

Madness, absolute madness.

In Henan, but in different cities, Yue Shuai’s team and the Broom Team were on a call.

Yue Shuai: “How do you plan to celebrate?”

Broom Team Captain: “Wait for the breakfast stall to open. Then have a bowl of spicy soup.”

Yue Shuai: “What lofty ambition, always thinking about eating. Can’t you think of something healthier and slimming?”

Broom Team Captain: “Like?”

Yue Shuai: “Like, travel. Finally, we have the time and mood. No need to run around blindly. Take this opportunity to explore Henan.”

Broom Team Captain: “I’ve been here so many times but never really explored. Do you want to see the peonies in Luoyang or seek out Justice Bao in Kaifeng? We’re all for it.”

Yue Shuai: “Shaolin Temple on Mount Song.”

Broom Team Captain: “……”

Fu Wenqing and Wang Duanran, the two captains in Hunan and Jiangxi, respectively, had identical reactions after popping out—calmly looking up at the sky, like philosophers.

Their teammates had to suppress their celebratory urges, carefully asking, “Captain, what are you thinking about?”

Fu Wenqing, staring up, motionless, had thought about a lot, but in the end, he uttered only one sentence, with a profound calmness. “In this lifetime, I mean this lifetime, don’t ever let me see Aeroplane Chess again.”

Wang Duanran held his curly hair, reminiscing about sitting on a giant pumpkin all night with longing eyes. “I want to eat pumpkin porridge.”

They harbored joy for their success, but this joy was covered by a greater peace, gently enveloped. That peace came from the end of the nightmare, from returning to normal life, from the mundane yet precious moments of everyday life.

At 4:37 Beijing time, in two more hours, the city would awaken.

Mao Qiping would bring back his wife’s favorite breakfast and soon find out he needed to look for another job. President Chi would start a busy day and, in the near future, receive a notice of the dissolution of the Beijing Owl Travel Group.

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