The ring was so small that no one from the program team noticed it. It was not until the afternoon of the next day, when they arrived in Germany, when Yan Qiuchi was helping Wang Siyi carry her luggage, that she saw he had an extra ring on his hand.
She was taken aback for a moment, then went to look at Shen Jintai’s hand and found that he also had an extra ring on his middle finger.
She immediately screamed like a groundhog. “Ahhhhhh! Brother Jin, when did you two start wearing that ring!”
This made everyone look over. The people in the program group became frenzied!
These two people were too considerate of their program team!
It was already sweet enough when they hooked their fingers as they gazed at each other during the wedding yesterday, but who knew that after they had sprinkled on so much sugar, they upgraded it, and they actually went out and got a couple’s rings?
The program team felt their ratings for the second half of this variety show would definitely stabilize. In fact, it was already proven that the show had stabilized, as during the third episode, the ratings for the first half they filmed had risen higher than their first season. By the time the twelfth episode aired, the ratings had directly broken 4.
Because it was broadcast weekly, its popularity lasted for a long time. Yan Qiuchi and Shen Jintai remained popular, but since Yan Qiuchi kept a low profile and wasn’t a member of the entertainment industry, all the dividends were transferred to Shen Jintai. Relying on this variety show, Shen Jintai once again broadened his already amazing popularity and became a household name.
Many people referred to this year in the entertainment industry as the “Year of Shen Jintai”.
At the beginning of the year, <When You’re Older> was released and racked up nearly 2.5 billion at the box office. In late spring and early summer, <Honey, Let’s Travel> became a phenomenon variety show. The popularity continued until the summer, when it even drove up Yan’s company stock. Now, <Pilot> had started making its rounds on the hot search.
As an annual masterpiece, <Pilot> scored an astonishing ranking rate of more than 50% as soon as it was released. The film lived up to expectations. The heroic deeds of those pilots ignited the entire summer box office, eventually ending with a miraculous number of 5.7 billion.
Shen Jintai made a successful comeback with a TV series, two movies, and a star-studded variety show. He became the most popular young artist in the entertainment industry, and his stardom and reputation had almost reached their peaks. He didn’t lack anything except for heavyweight awards.
In October, the Golden Dragon Awards, the most prestigious film awards in the domestic film industry, announced their nominations. <When Your Older> had 9 nominations, with both Bai Qingquan and Shen Jintai nominated for best actor, while <Pilot> received 12 nominations and Shen Jintai was shortlisted for best supporting actor.
With one person being nominated for two works, this was a festival for gold powders!
“A lesson from the past. Everyone must keep a low profile this time!” The president of the support association issued an announcement.
In the beginning, <The East Palace is Coming> was a major hit, skyrocketing Shen Jintai’s popularity, but they never expected that it would be a major blow to them. This matter still hurt the gold powders hearts. They still remember the scene of Shen Jintai comforting his fans before getting into the car with red eyes. This video had resurfaced, raising interest from many people.
They would never make the same mistake again!
“This year’s best actress will probably be Teacher Song Wei, who rode the dust1 last year. The Golden Dragon film queen shouldn’t run away this year2, but this year’s competition for male movie stars is too fierce. I think it’s amazing that my brother can be nominated for the Golden Dragon at such a young age, while everyone else is ordinary.”
1(骑绝尘) Metaphor referring to one who runs so fast it leaves others in the dust. Referring to someone who is particularly prominent among competitors. 2(没跑了) Refers to being sure. In this context, they’re saying Song Wei should be a shoo-in for Film Queen/Best Actress.
“Zhang Wei is also hot this year, right? His <I Want Us to Be Together> performed pretty well, and he’s also a first-liner in both stardom and box office. His limelight is too strong.”
“There’s also veteran actor Wei Wenyao’s performance in <The Year of Destiny> which is very exciting.”
“However, my brother’s performance in <When You’re Older> is also amazing. The box office was higher than the previous two, so I think he has the strength to compete against them.”
“This year, my brother was shortlisted for two awards. <When You’re Older> for best actor, and <Pilot> for best supporting actor. I think the judges will give at least one to encourage young people.”
“But competition between male actors this year is very fierce. He’s up against a bunch of veterans.”
“The box office of the movie <Pilot> is there. It’s impossible to give only a bunch of technical awards. My brother’s performance in it is very eye-catching, and tons of film critics have praised him for it.”
“No matter what, if I go hiking tomorrow, I will pray for my brother!”
—
It rained just last night. The temperature suddenly became much cooler. A car slowly drove into the Yan’s Manor and stopped in front of the courtyard. Yan Tiefeng and Fang Fengmei stood under the porch with smiles.
The driver got out of the car, hurriedly ran to the back, and opened the door. Shen Ruhai and his wife got out with Shen Xiao Mei. Yan Tiefeng and Fang Fengmei greeted them.
Fang Fengmei hugged Liu Qi, then smiled and looked at Shen Xiao Mei. “Xiao Mei, you’ve grown so tall.”
Shen Xiaomei said angrily, “My name is Shen Jinyan now.”
Liu Qi smiled and said, “She doesn’t like people calling her by nickname these days. Have they arrived yet?”
“Isn’t Jintai going to participate in the Golden Dragon Awards ceremony? Qiuchi sent him to try on his outfits, saying that they were on their way back. It’s cold outside, so let’s go in and talk.”
Yan Tiefeng smiled and said to Shen Ruhai, “Old Shen, you’ve put on weight.”
Shen Ruhai said, “I could say the same about you.”
“Living carefree and becoming fat*,” Yan Tiefeng said as he walked in. “I have been free recently, and I want to learn how to play golf. I heard that you are a frequent visitor to that club in East Lake. I just got a membership card. Let’s have a match when we have time.”
*(心宽体胖) Refers to being open-minded and serene in appearance. It’s generally used as a compliment.
As soon as his voice fell, he noticed that a car honked its horn. When everyone looked back, they saw a black Maybach driving over. Fang Fengmei smiled and said, “What a coincidence. They’re back.”
Shen Jinyan had already run over, and Shen Ruhai hurriedly shouted, “Be careful of the car.”
The car stopped in the front courtyard, and Shen Jintai got out first. He smiled and stretched out his arms towards Shen Jinyan, who ran over and threw herself into his arms.
Shen Jintai picked her up and said, “Oh, is Xiao Yan getting fat?”
“She’s thirty pounds now,” Shen Ruhai said. “Her face is so round now and she’s growing up so fast.”
“Dad, Auntie.” Shen Jintai greeted them with a smile.
“Brother Qiuchi.” Shen Jinyan shouted to Yan Qiuchi.
Yan Qiuchi smiled and pinched her face, and then she greeted Shen Ruhai and Liu Qi.
“You came back so quickly. We just arrived,” Liu Qi said with a smile.
“They took all the clothes to the hotel, so we didn’t have to travel,” Yan Qiuchi said.
With Shen Jintai’s popularity nowadays, he usually participates in various activities. Shoes, clothes, watches, accessories, and the like were all prepared for him. Brands took the initiative to send over various clothing items for him to choose from. Now that his high-luxury clothing endorsement was about to end, several big names were vying for him.
Shen Jintai had started filming a new movie recently, so Fang Fengmei hadn’t seen him for a long time. Today was one of his rare rest days, so she invited Shen Ruhai and his family over for a gathering. In their conversation, she mentioned that she hoped the two families would have dinner together on New Year’s Eve this year. Shen Ruhai readily agreed.
At the end of their chat, everyone started talking about the upcoming Golden Dragon Awards.
“Let’s stop talking about this,” Yan Qiuchi said. “He has been under a lot of pressure recently.”
“No matter what the result is, you are the best actor to all of us,” Fang Fengmei said with a smile.
“Isn’t there another? <Welcome Rain on a Spring Night>? I heard Qiuchi say that the film looks good. This is the highlight of winning the awards, right?” Yan Tiefeng said.
“When will this movie be released?” Shen Ruhai cared about this movie the most. He had visited the set when Shen Jintai was filming it and was particularly moved after watching it.
“This film is going to participate in the Cannes Film Festival, and it will be next year,” Yan Qiuchi said.
“If you are popular, it seems you’ll be destined to win awards at Cannes,” Yan Tiefeng said.
“Jintai is already very good,” Liu Qi said. “To be shortlisted for two awards at the same time.”
“Come, I suggest we have a toast to Jintai.” Yan Tiefeng stood up with a glass of wine. “I wish Jintai victory.”
Everyone got up one after another, and Shen Jinyan also joined them in raising her glass of juice. They clinked their glasses together, and the meal ended successfully.
After the meal, Shen Ruhai and Liu Qi were about to go back, but Shen Jinyan refused to leave. Shen Jintai hurriedly said, “Let her stay. Tomorrow I’ll go home, and I’ll take her back with me.”
After speaking, he glanced at Yan Qiuchi, but Yan Qiuchi didn’t speak. Liu Qi noticed the subtle look between them, so she insisted on taking her away.
Yan Qiuchi’s expression obviously changed after that, as he sent Shen Ruhai’s family to their car.
When they returned to their room, he asked Shen Jintai, “What’s the idea of trying to get your little sister to stay behind?”
Shen Jintai’s ears flushed slightly. “It’s not that I want to keep her. She just didn’t want to leave. Didn’t you see it?”
Yan Qiuchi looked at him with that iconic smile of his. “Whatever you are thinking in your head, you can’t hide it from me. If you want to run, you can certainly try.”
The author has something to say:
It’s nice to have a big reunion at the end.
Isn’t Yan Yaoxuan still missing?
Something happened to him yesterday, and he’s still in bed.
Bai Qingquan only stayed in Italy for a day and a half. He had picked a new TV series that would start filming soon. Because they had to continue to record the show, Shen Jintai and the others couldn’t send him off. He went back to pack his luggage and left alone in a car provided by the program team. When he was about to arrive at the airport, he received a call from Shen Jintai.
Bai Qingquan asked, “Shouldn’t you be at the church by now?”
“We’ll go in later,” Shen Jintai said. “Where are you now?”
“Almost at the airport.”
Shen Jintai: “Nn. After you return, let’s get together again.”
Bai Qingquan laughed. “You called just to specifically say that?”
“I don’t know how fragile your girly heart is. I’m afraid you’ll be lonely and sad since you left alone.” Shen Jintai said, “Zheng Siqi called out to you. Did you hear?”
As soon as he finished speaking, Bai Qingquan heard Zheng Siqi shout again, “Xiao Bai, have a safe trip.”
Inexplicably hearing this made Bai Qingquan sad. It was like when he was in school. His parents once came to school to visit, which was a common thing, but when they left, he suddenly felt sad as he stood in front of the school gate alone for a while before almost crying.
He was now older, but it seemed he had become even more fragile. He seemed to have a melancholic feeling in his heart that would come out at every possible opportunity.
“Thank you,” he said. “I’ll see you in China.”
After hanging up, Bai Qingquan wondered why he was sad. Well, first there was the parting factor. It always felt lonely when you parted with friends. Second, he probably participated in this show because he wanted to fall in love. He didn’t know where his love was, but he still hoped that he could still meet the person he’d love the most while he was still in his prime.
Shen Jintai returned his phone to the program group, then returned to the team. They were about to usher in the most romantic moment of this journey by attending the wedding of a local couple.
There’s nothing more suitable for a couple’s variety show than a wedding. The wedding they were attending was held very grandly. The church was surrounded by flowers, and the decoration was romantic and thoughtful.
The solemn oath of the wedding made Shen Jintai’s eyes red.
The sense of ceremony in a marriage was truly touching. The groom obviously loves his bride very much. She had been crying ever since she stepped into the church holding her father’s arm, but as soon as she saw her groom, she smiled and wiped away all her tears.
Shen Jintai couldn’t understand the wedding vows, as they were spoken in Italian, but human emotions were a common language. It moved him beyond words. He smiled and turned to look at Yan Qiuchi, who also returned his smile as they hooked their fingers.
The camera had captured this scene, causing everyone in the program group to become extremely excited. They have already figured out how to broadcast this part and with what subtitles.
After the wedding, they were invited to the reception. There was Italian food, singing, and dancing. It was one of the most cheerful and romantic activities they did during their journey.
On the way back, everyone was discussing marriage.
“I will definitely wear a wedding dress when I get married in the future,” Wang Siyi said wistfully. “I originally thought that as long as I can wear a wedding dress, it will be enough, but after attending this wedding, I think I will not only wear a wedding dress but also do it in a church!”
Yang Lizhi and Wang Siyi usually didn’t talk with each other, and their personalities were even more different. Many of their thoughts were opposite, but only in this matter had the two of them unified like never before. “A girl must have a grand wedding in her life. Isn’t the sense of ceremony the most important thing in marriage? The grander, the better!”
“Are you considering getting married at such a young age?” Zheng Siqi asked.
“Marriage has nothing to do with age,” Tang Ye said. “It depends on when you meet the right person. If you meet the right person, you can get married in your early twenties. If you don’t meet the right one, even if you don’t get married in your forties or fifties, I think it’s still normal.”
After speaking, he glanced at Wang Siyi ambiguously.
Wang Siyi smiled coyly in cooperation and then asked Yan Qiuchi, “Brother Chi, when will you get married? Do you plan to have a wedding?”
Without waiting for Yan Qiuchi’s answer, Shen Jintai said, “It’s a bit early for us to get married.”
Zheng Siqi said, “Are you of legal age to get married?”
The atmosphere became a little awkward, and Shen Jintai licked his lips and only smiled. Yang Lizhi couldn’t help feeling he became famous way too easily. After overturning, he made a comeback and instantly turned red, all while being younger than 22.
Regarding their marriage, they had already discussed it. Yan Qiuchi had put his arms around him one day and asked about it. Fortunately, their views were the same: As long as they could get married, the wedding didn’t need to be grand.
They would invite a few friends and family members to have a warm and low-key wedding in an unknown church abroad. There was no need to entertain the media or guests. They only need to enjoy the sanctity and beauty of marriage the moment they get married.
This was their last night in Florence. After covering the camera and taking off their mics, Yan Qiuchi suddenly suggested the two of them sneak out for a stroll behind the program group’s backs.
As soon as he ran to the street, Shen Jintai laughed. “I really didn’t expect you to come up with such an idea.”
Yan Qiuchi took his hand and said, “There are cameras following you wherever you go. It’s really stuffy. This is a city that is suitable for couples to walk freely.”
Because he had just returned from a wedding and his heart was full of warmth and love, Shen Jintai felt that the air was full of romance. There would probably not be many opportunities for him and Yan Qiuchi to walk on the street hand in hand like this.
“Where are we going?” He asked Yan Qiuchi.
Yan Qiuchi said, “At the wedding today, when I saw them exchanging rings, I suddenly wanted to wear them on a whim.”
Shen Jintai said, “Then let’s buy it now?”
Because it was a bit late, the jewelry stores were closed. In the end, they bought a pair of male rings in a small merchandise store opened by a Chinese person, which only cost a few dozen yuan. Still, a ring had nothing to do with the price. Even if the ring was made of grass, it still represented a lifelong promise for two people who really love each other.
For both of them, this pair of rings was of great significance, as it was the first couple’s ring they had worn.
Shen Jintai was an actor, so he didn’t wear rings often, but since this day, Yan Qiuchi’s hand had never lacked a ring. Eventually, it was moved from his middle finger to his ring finger. The last wedding ring he wore was engraved with his and Shen Jintai’s names, and he wore it for a lifetime.
Dong Zhi panted. “Boss Long, I have a question I want to ask!”
Long Shen motioned for him to continue.
Dong Zhi asked, “Are the ordinary people we met in the simulation training real?”
Long Shen: “Naturally they are fake.”
Dong Zhi: “But their reactions were very realistic. How is this done?”
He was extremely curious about this. During the crisis, the ordinary people he met in the mall had different reactions, and they all perfectly mimicked the aspect of human nature. They had children who held grudges because they didn’t understand the situation, as well as middle-aged women who were aware of the current situation. If these are all false, just how powerful is the programming of this system?
Long Shen said, “There are various characters in the database that provide different reactions based on their personalities. The training simulation randomly selects from the database and combines various aspects, like personality, together, so you end up with a wide range of humanlike NPCs. These personalities were in fact extracted from real personalities and reactions.”
Dong Zhi: “So we didn’t actually eat any of the food that I recovered from the supermarket?”
Long Shen nodded. “You only had the feeling of fullness due to the psychological trigger given to you by the illusion. This simulation training combines modern technology with a mix of arrays and enchantments in order to expand space and time infinitely. It’s somewhat similar to the training ground on the rooftop of the Special Administration building, except for the added enemies and passersby.”
How awesome. Before, Dong Zhi had thought that the only way to subdue demons was to attack them with a peach wood sword*. Now it seems that he was too naïve. These days, to fend off demons, you’ll need to keep pace with the times and combine science as well.
*(桃木剑) Taoist sword considered to have the function of warding off evil spirits and attracting fortune. It’s made from peach wood, which is generally believed to have the essence of the five woods, which is why it’s effective at warding off evil.
“Do you think the same as what Boss Wu said? By that I mean, do you have any other suggestions?”
Though exhausted, he felt invigorated by this experience. When he came back from the edge of death, his adrenaline was still fully intact. Just now, the feeling of being up against a hundred zombies was still there, and Dong Zhi still felt the exhilaration in his heart.
The Special Administration Bureau took the initiative to expose their shortcomings in the beginning, not only to give everyone a dose of reality but also to let them learn a painful lesson, as Wu Bingtian said.
Hearing this, Long Shen frowned slightly as he showed a thoughtful expression, which made Dong Zhi’s heartbeat accelerate.
What will he say? Maybe he’ll say that he had bad judgement and couldn’t distinguish between light and heavy, and that he should have rendezvous like Li Ying suggested and find the army. Or perhaps he would say he was still too weak?
Boss Wu was right. If the training hadn’t ended in time, most likely there would be two more on the death list, him and Gu Meiren. As soon as he died, Gu Meiren would not be able to protect the group of ordinary people. Although she could fight against ordinary zombies, she couldn’t deal with the second-level evolution ones.
After pondering for a moment, Long Shen said, “If I were you, I would do the same as what you did.”
Dong Zhi was shocked as he didn’t expect to get such a high evaluation from the mouth of someone as strict as Long Shen.
Long Shen said, “What you need most now is to rest and continue practicing.”
Dong Zhi’s heart rose as he felt a strong sense of accomplishment. It was like he had worked extremely hard on his homework and was acknowledged by the teacher.
“Thank you for your affirmation.”
He wanted to say more, but suddenly everything around him turned dark. Long Shen naturally caught his body as he fell softly forward. Dong Zhi’s complexion was blue and black all over, obviously signs of heavy fatigue and hunger.
When Long Shen was watching his performance in the simulation, although he was not the only one he watched, his performance from the moment he entered the practice world and his ability to persist until the end was quite remarkable. Though he may not be the strongest among the candidates there, he was one of the best performers.
Being able to protect yourself shows that you’re an excellent practitioner. Being able to protect ordinary people and fulfill that duty is their job as a member of the Special Administration Bureau.
Long Shen wanted to call someone to send him back, but after thinking about it, he felt that the weight in his arms wasn’t light. Everyone must be worn out from the excursion just now and probably didn’t have the strength, so he carried Dong Zhi himself and started to walk in the direction of the dormitory.
Dong Zhi was probably completely exhausted as he lay motionless on his back, breathing softly, and there was no indication that he would wake up. When Long Shen reached the door to Dong Zhi’s room, he suddenly encountered a problem. He didn’t know where Dong Zhi had put the key to his room, and with him carrying Dong Zhi on his back, he couldn’t search for it himself.
Long Shen paused, then went to open the door to his dorm room and put Dong Zhi on his bed. He didn’t control his strength well when he let go, but that didn’t rouse Dong Zhi from his sleep at all. Dong Zhi was still sleeping soundly, and even an earthquake probably wouldn’t wake him.
It was broad daylight now. After Long Shen put him down, he went back to the office to continue his work. After a busy morning, at around noon, Long Shen remembered that there was another person in his dorm, and that person hadn’t eaten for an entire day and night. He might be hungry enough that it could wake him, so Deputy Director Long decided to be merciful and ordered takeout and brought it back to his dorm.
When he returned, Dong Zhi was still sleeping. The air conditioner was turned on and the curtains were drawn, not allowing a single trace of light to enter. The bed was large, making it an entirely suitable environment for resting and sleeping.
Long Shen felt as if he had overlooked something. After thinking about it for a long time, he finally recalled it. He had set the a/c to 22 degrees. Dong Zhi was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt and jeans. He had tossed and turned a bit while sleeping, and his T-shirt had rolled up to reveal his stomach, causing him to curl up slightly on his side.
Perhaps he’s cold?
Long Shen found a blanket and covered him. The warmth from the fluffy blanket made Dong Zhi involuntarily grip it tighter, causing the blanket to wrinkle as he hugged it into a tight ball.
Long Shen put the takeout in the living room and came in again. Seeing this scene, he couldn’t help but frown. He stepped forward to pull the blanket out, then wrapped it around Dong Zhi’s, covering him from his neck down to his feet tightly.
Looking at the “zongzi*” on the bed, Long Shen finally left, feeling satisfied.
*Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings wrapped in bamboo leaves.
Dong Zhi generally doesn’t dream much when he sleeps. His sleep quality has always been good, but he would sometimes dream of what was on his mind that day. When he was a child, he went swimming every day for a while, but every night that he was lying in bed, he always felt the rippling of water, and sometimes he would even dream that he was struggling in it.
Now he felt that feeling again. In his dream, there were zombies coming in all directions. He raised his head to look around and found that he was on his own. The Qingzhu Sword in his hand was so heavy that he couldn’t lift it up, but without it, he couldn’t vanquish the zombies. Suddenly, he was rushed up and hugged by the zombies, overwhelming him like a stacking arhat*. Despite his desperate struggle, Dong Zhi couldn’t get free. He sweat profusely until he abruptly opened his eyes!
*Gymnastic formation using only human bodies without instruments.
He blinked, then blinked again. He was covered in sweat and his hands and feet seemed to be bound. Looking around, he couldn’t help but laugh. It turned out that he was wrapped in a blanket like a silkworm cocoon, so it’s no wonder why he had that dream.
He twisted his body vigorously, trying to free his hand, when he suddenly let out an inaudible sound. It didn’t seem like he was in his dorm. He raised his head and looked around, then frowned. It wasn’t until he got up and saw the yulu plant on the table that he finally confirmed that he was in Long Shen’s dorm.
His well-rested brain worked quickly, trying to recollect the previous events of yesterday. He had ran out of the classroom abruptly to chase Long Shen to ask him questions, then later…
Most likely, he had fainted from exhaustion and was carried by the male god here. This seems to be a blessing in disguise.
He saw takeout on the table with a note next to it. Opening the container, inside was char siu pork, white chopped chicken, and rice.
The note reads: [Heat it up.]
In this moment, Dong Zhi didn’t know how to describe his mood. He looked at the vibrant yulu on the table and suddenly sighed as he gently touched the fat and lovely leaves of the plant with his fingers.
“Boss Long is too good. Do you think I can really catch him?”
“He doesn’t even have a girlfriend. If we just skip directly to a boyfriend, will that scare him?”
“In his eyes, I should be a candidate to be his apprentice. If I confess, will he kick me out of the Special Administration Bureau? Would it be safer to wait until after the training exam is over?”
“That’s right, I have to rely on my strength to get through the exam in a dignified manner. I can’t let him think that I just want to hold onto his thighs or take the opportunity and take advantage of it.”
“But then again, he took care of you so well, which shows that he’s not disgusted with the gift itself. This should mean he has a good impression of the person who gave the gift, right? If I can gain his favorability again, maybe he’ll understand.”
As he talked to the yulu, he realized how idiotic his behavior was, so he got up and went to heat up his meal. In light of yesterday’s sudden training, they were given a day off today and will resume class tomorrow. After eating, Dong Zhi checked the time. It was about lunch break now, so he went to Long Shen’s office.
When he walked to the door, he saw that it was closed and was about to raise his hand to knock when he heard a strange sound coming from inside.
“What a beauty. Come, come, let me take a closer look!”
It seemed to be Zhong Yuyi’s voice, but it didn’t look like that was something he would say. It was as if someone was talking through him.
Dong Zhi hesitated about whether he should just open the door and go in when he suddenly heard a violent shout from inside.
“Who’s outside the door! You sneak, behaving like a villain!”
Taken aback, he hurriedly opened the door and said, “Boss Long, it’s me…”
The sound he heard disappeared automatically, and Dong Zhi was stunned when he looked at the scene in front of him. Zhong Yuyi had one foot on Long Shen’s chair and the other on the table, posing in a heroic posture while holding Long Shen’s face with both hands.
The distance between their face, as Dong Zhi swears by, was no more than five centimeters!
Seeing him come in, the two of them glance at him together, as if they were silently condemning him as an uninvited guest.
Long Shen asked him, “What’s the matter?” He didn’t scold Zhong Yuyi’s behavior, let alone push him away.
Dong Zhi finally found his voice and said, with great difficulty, “Nothing. I just came here to thank you.”
Who knew that suddenly Zhong Yuyi pushed Long Shen away and leapt to Dong Zhi’s side and pinched his chin.
“The eyes are pure, and the skin is fair, and the hands and feet are slender to boot. What a beauty! He can be painted!”
Dong Zhi: ???
At this moment, Zhong Yuyi seemed entirely like a different person from the Zhong Yuyi he usually knows. His eyes were sharp, and his movements were even more amazing. Dong Zhi wanted to retreat, but he couldn’t shrug off Zhong Yuyi.
Holding Zhong Yuyi’s wrist with one hand and gently moved it away, Long Shen stood in front of Dong Zhi and said to Zhong Yuyi, “The younger generation doesn’t know Huanhou’s* identity, so it’s impolite to bother him like this.”
*(桓侯) Refers to titles of praise or derogation given to people of high status after death. It’s also the title given to this character, which will be explained in a bit.
Zhong Yuyi chuckled. “How overprotective. Is this your son? No, you two don’t look alike! Perhaps your younger brother? Nephew? Or maybe the joy of a cut sleeve*?”
*(断袖) In ancient times referred to homosexuals/homosexuality between men.
Long Shen: …
Dong Zhi looked at Long Shen’s attitude towards Zhong Yuyi and didn’t say anything but kept looking at Zhong Yuyi curiously.
Long Shen said, “Elder, it’s getting late. It’s time to go.”
Zhong Yuyi shook his head. “I don’t want to go. It’s rare to return to this world. I’ve heard the sound of the world of mortals and seen fireworks on all sides. Why rush to leave so soon?”
Long Shen stretched out his hand and brushed Zhong Yuyi’s forehead. Zhong Yuyi wasn’t slow to react and wanted to avoid it, but Long Shen was faster than him and managed to touch his forehead. Suddenly, Zhong Yuyi slowly closed his eyes and fell back.
Long Shen grabbed him by the collar and dragged him directly onto the sofa, throwing him there. His actions weren’t rough, but they were enough for Dong Zhi, who witnessed the whole thing, to think. ‘After I fainted yesterday, was I dragged to the dorm like this?’
So scary!
“Is he okay?” Dong Zhi asked.
Long Shen shook his head. “He is going to teach the class tomorrow for the first time, so he’s nervous. Come and let me take a look.”
Dong Zhi remembered that when Kan Chaosheng introduced Zhong Yuyi’s identity, he said that the other party was an oracle. When Dong Zhi went back, he checked up on what an oracle was. Comparing the symptoms of how Zhong Yuyi was acting just now, he suddenly came to a realization. “Did he invite a God to enter his body?”
Long Shen snorted, “To be more precise, it’s a ghost. A ghost is the sustenance of a remnant soul between heaven and earth. It may be a ray of consciousness or a memory. After the death of some people, they are still worshipped with incense, which allows them to last for a long time and retain the power of faith. Through this, it can maintain the ghost, and it is these ghosts that the oracle invites.”
*Military general under the warlord Liu Bei and a major character in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He was assassinated by his subordinates and was posthumously granted the title Huanhou. You can read more about him in the Wikipedia.
Zhang Fei, later known as Huanhou, was brave and good at fighting. He was best known for sleeping without closing his eyes, but most people didn’t know that he was also good at drawing pictures of beauties.
In other words, what he saw just now was Zhang Fei, a fierce general from the Three Kingdoms Era? Zhang Fei, who forged a three-way friendship with Liu Bei and Guan Yu and was one of the brightest stars of the Three Kingdoms Era?
Dong Zhi took a deep breath. “Zhong Yuyi, ah, no. The lesson Teacher Zhong wants to give us is on how to invite a God?”
Long Shen, seeing that he was eager to try, wishing that he could wake Zhong Yuyi up and ask clearly, showed a meaningful smile. “Go back and memorize history.”
Dong Zhi: “Huh?”
Long Shen: “It’ll be used for tomorrow.”
When he left the office, he ran into Liu Qingbo.
‘’Enemies are bound to meet when the road is narrow*’ was the thought that appeared in his mind.
*(冤家路窄) Idiom referring to enemies or people who don’t want to meet happen to meet.
Liu Qingbo gave him a smile that wasn’t really a smile. “I didn’t have time to congratulate you last night. I didn’t expect your name to be on the list of the ten survivors.” The implication is that he originally thought that Dong Zhi would be “sacrificed” soon.
Dong Zhi smiled and said, “Same to you. Same to you.”
Of course, Liu Qingbo wasn’t dumb enough to bicker in front of Long Shen’s office. He curled his lips, passed by Dong Zhi, and knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Liu Qingbo pushed the door in but found that Dong Zhi had also followed him in.
“What’s the matter?” Long Shen asked.
Liu Qingbo glanced at Dong Zhi, who pretended not to notice.
Liu Qingbo said, “Boss Long, I have something I want to ask privately.”
Long Shen said, “It’s okay. Just say it.”
Liu Qingbo stared at Dong Zhi, who returned his gaze with an innocent look.
‘This guy’s skin is thicker than a pig’s!’ Liu Qingbo thought as he secretly gritted his teeth.
Anyways, it didn’t matter how angry Liu Qingbo got as he couldn’t do anything to him, not while in front of the male god.
Zhong Yuyi was still sleeping on the sofa. Since Liu Qingbo couldn’t get him to leave, he had to say it upfront, “Since I heard that Boss Long is teaching us tomorrow, I happened to have a sword here, which was collected by the elders in my family. I was wondering if this would be useful for you to use in class?”
He handed the sword over with both hands.
Long Shen was slightly moved. “The Shuixin Sword*?”
*Water Heart Sword (水心剑) Name of a legendary sword. Legend will be explained shortly.
Liu Qingbo smiled and said, “It’s said that Boss Long has a keen eye and deep understanding of kendo. Sure enough, your reputation precedes you. This is the legendary Shuixin Sword.”
He glanced at Dong Zhi and said casually, “Has Shidi Dong heard of the Shuixin Sword?”
Here we go again. In front of others, it was Shidi Dong, and when he turned his back, he was fellow Taoist Dong. Dong Zhi couldn’t help but twitch the corners of his mouth.
“If I remember correctly, Wun Jun of the Southern Dynasty mentioned this sword in his “Continuation of Qi Harmony”, saying that it was a Jin man who came from the west, offered the sword to King Zhao of Qin during one of his banquets. There were poets in the Tang Dynasty who mentioned this sword, saying that it’s the sword spawn from the Yellow River in the Western Xia Dynasty and the Qingluo River in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.”
Liu Qingbo looked surprised, as if he didn’t expect him to really know. Even Long Shen was astounded, giving him a slight nod of approval. With his back facing Long Shen, Liu Qingbo grimaced as Dong Zhi gave him a triumphant look.
Unexpectedly, this brother was an artist who had drawn countless legendary game props. Liu Qingbo wanted to make a fool out of Dong Zhi in front of Long Shen, but he didn’t expect him to take the limelight instead. Dying of anger, he almost couldn’t breathe as he gave him a fierce look.
Long Shen ignored the squabble between the two of them as he held the sword. He held the sword, slowly pulled it out of its scabbard, focused on it, and was so completely absorbed by it that he had forgotten himself.
Dong Zhi and Liu Qingbo only felt a glint from the sword that pierced their eyes so that they couldn’t help but blink. Long Shen held the sword in his hand and, in an instant, the white paper that was in his hand turned into pieces and scattered everywhere.
The famous ancient sword can not only cut gold and jade but can also blow and split hairs.
Long Shen nodded. “It really is a good sword.”
Liu Qingbo held back his pride and said with a smile, “No matter how good the sword is, there must be a suitable owner. It would be an honor for this sword to be used by you.”
However, when Dong Zhi looked at Long Shen, there seemed to be a trace of… regret on Long Shen’s face? Seeing such a good sword, how can he make such a regretful expression?
Long Shen returned the sword to its sheath and handed it back to Liu Qingbo. It was only an instant that it felt like what Dong Zhi saw was just an illusion.
Liu Qingbo was taken aback. “Boss Long?”
Long Shen: “The sword is good, but I don’t accept gifts.”
Liu Qingbo became anxious. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to bribe you. Our family has a lot of swords like this. My father knows that you also use swords, so he specifically asked me to send them here for you.”
Long Shen shook his head and put the sword on the coffee table.
“There are not many swords like this. One that can fit in your hand is enough. Take it back.”
Seeing the two ancient swords hanging on the wall, Liu Qingbo felt that Long Shen was actually referring to them. It was difficult for him to accept it because of Dong Zhi’s presence. He felt that Dong Zhi was such an eyesore, but nonetheless said, “Boss Long is exemplary. I’ll take the sword back!”
Dong Zhi felt giddy as he thought that it’s not that Long Shen doesn’t accept gifts, but he doesn’t accept ones that are too previous. How can he bring an ancient sword that’s seemingly priceless and say that it’s not a bribe? Who would believe such a thing!
With the gift that couldn’t be given and his rival staring at him, Liu Qingbo felt miserable. He heard Long Shen ask him, “Is there anything else?”
He had no choice but to say, “No, you’re busy, so I shouldn’t bother you.”
Liu Qingbo started to slowly walk out when Long Shen suddenly said, “That’s right.” He immediately stopped.
Long Shen: “Stay back, Dong Zhi.”
Liu Qingbo: …
Inside, his heart was roaring so loudly that he could almost sing the <Yellow River Cantata>*. Feeling helpless that Deputy Director Long did not receive his hints at all, Liu Qingbo could only cast a resentful look at Dong Zhi before sadly leaving.
*A cantata written by Chinese composer Xian Xinghai. The work was inspired by a patriotic poem by Guang Weiran, which was adapted as the lyrics and eventually became popular and spread to all parts of China.
Dong Zhi also felt a little uneasy as he thought. ‘He’s not going to return the yulu too, right?’
Long Shen said, “We had three groups of people watching Hui Yiguang since the incident, but there were no results. She behaves normally, and her surroundings are clean and there’s no active demonic aura. The Special Administration Bureau has limited resources, so it’s impossible to follow her all the time. This matter has come to an end. You can tell Li Ying and the others later.”
Dong Zhi nodded. “Liu Qingbo was also involved. Why didn’t you tell him just now before he left?”
Long Shen said, “With his temperament, if I told him, he might run to follow up on the matter again in order to try and impress me.”
That’s true. Dong Zhi heavily agreed with his assessment and found that Long Shen actually had a relatively in-depth understanding of everyone’s character.
“It’s a bit strange to say. At that time, Hui Yiguang was entangled by a living soul, but Cheng Yuan couldn’t see it. Why couldn’t Li Ying and the others even sense anything supernatural, even with a compass? He Yu and I used it to find clues at the foot spa in Yangcheng. As soon as there was any demonic scent, the compass would immediately pick it up. It stands to reason then that if the demons were weaker this time, it would be much easier to detect,” Dong Zhi said.
Long Shen shook his head. “The other party attached itself to the living soul and used it to hide itself. You don’t have much experience, so it’s normal to be blinded by the past.”
In the end, does this mean he wasn’t good at learning? Dong Zhi felt embarrassed and scratched his nose.
Zhong Yuyi suddenly roused and rubbed his eyes as he slowly woke up. His blank expression had returned.
“…What’s normal?”
Long Shen said to Dong Zhi, “Take him with you when you leave.”
Dong Zhi agreed and stepped forward to help Zhong Yuyi. The latter still seemed as if he was dreaming as he was dragged away by Dong Zhi. After Dong Zhi left, he contacted Li Ying and informed him of the results from Long Shen’s side and asked him to tell everyone, which Li Ying naturally agreed to.
Li Ying regarded himself as the leader of this term. Zhang Song and Liu Qingbo weren’t convinced, and thus they competed with him openly and secretly, but Dong Zhi wouldn’t grab his limelight, so he has been good to him.
The next day, Dong Zhi got up early and climbed the stairs to the rooftop and practiced for an hour. He came to the classroom feeling refreshed.
Today was Long Shen’s class. Deputy Director Long’s name was resounding like thunder, and it wasn’t just him; everyone had been looking forward to this for a long time. Despite coming in early, there were already people who came even earlier than him.
Kinky Thoughts:
Long Shen already treating Dong Zhi special without knowing it. These little tidbits make my heart melt.
What Long Shen said to Dong Zhi regarding the living soul only further confirms my suspicion. Even if you are just guessing, no predictions in the comments please, as it could be a potential spoiler. We’ll discuss our thoughts when the mystery is revealed, or you can discuss it on Discord.
As soon as this thought occurred, a woman’s scream rang through the mall.
The group!
Ba Sang quickly turned his head and Dong Zhi became highly alert! The incident in the underground supermarket just now had tightened his reflexes, so his body reacted instantly. He sent a talisman flying in the dark, and it turned into a bright light in midair as it flew towards the source of the sound. Roars of beasts cried mixed in with the screams of humans.
Many people’s eyes haven’t been able to adjust since they went from a bright environment to complete darkness. Unfortunately, the monsters had no problems since they rely on smell to catch their prey. Two people died instantly in the dark before Dong Zhi had time to react.
Dong Zhi turned on his phone flashlight and held his sword in his other hand as he kept an eye on the surroundings. Gu Meiren played her flute in an attempt to paralyze the monster’s mobility while Ba Sang gathered the remaining group of people as he stood on the periphery.
With a crack, a small movement sounded, but it was particularly conspicuous in the silence and darkness as everyone was holding their breath. Dong Zhi’s reaction was getting sharper. Almost immediately after the sound was made, he hadn’t had time to see what it was, but quickly threw a talisman at the source!
Roar!
Sure enough, there were monsters there, and his talisman seemed to have hit one as the monster jumped into the partition of the ceiling with a whoosh. Everyone tried to suppress their gasps. A woman who wanted to cry gritted her teeth for fear that she would be the next prey.
Dong Zhi said sullenly, “We have to find the emergency power supply quickly!”
The monsters are smart, and it was precisely when the lights went out that they took advantage, knowing that humans could not see in the dark and chose this opportunity to attack.
Ba Sang said, “I’ll go!”
The teller stammered, “I-I-I’m scared!”
Ba Sang told her. “I’m scared too, but if we just stay here, we’re all just waiting to die together!”
Dong Zhi said softly, “Ba Sang is very strong. Don’t be afraid to follow him. When we have light, we can deal with those monsters and protect everyone.”
His kind words seemed to comfort her. The teller followed Ba Sang tremblingly as she held his arm tightly and the two quickly left. Dong Zhi was worried that the monsters would attack while they were alone, but given the current situation, it was impossible for him to come along as the people here needed his protection.
It seems that it hasn’t even been a year since his encounter on the train heading towards Changbai, but his mentality has changed a lot. From trembling like this ordinary group of people who could only wait around and be protected, he had taken the lead in protecting others.
Dong Zhi couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment for him to have made such progress. It would be even better if the male god could see his heroic performance right now. A faint regret flashed in his heart when he suddenly heard a woman’s scream. It was the teller!
His heart instantly seized up as Gu Meiren shouted, “Ba Sang!”
What answered back was the sound of violent fighting and Ba Sang’s whistle. He heard sounds of flapping wings, which he surmised should be a falcon that Ba Sang summoned.
Dong Zhi reminded Gu Meiren. “Play the flute!”
His notion brought her attention back, as if she had just woken up from a dream, and she quickly picked up her flute to play. Dong Zhi frowned, and suddenly remembered something. If there were more than one monster, one of them was probably following Ba Sang, while the others were waiting for them to relax their vigilance before taking the opportunity to attack again…
A faint fishy smell rose from his nose. Without thinking about it, he threw the talisman fire directly above him. The light from the fire illuminated a dark shadow flashing past him, confirming his guess.
Dong Zhi suddenly turned around and saw the dark shadow rushing towards Gu Meiren’s back.
“Get down!” He yelled as he ran towards her at full speed with his sword pointing at her.
Gu Meiren trusted Dong Zhi. As soon as she heard his words, she leaned forward without a second thought. At this moment, the sword was thrust through in the position that she was previously standing in and stabbed right into the monster’s head!
Gu Meiren only felt the heat radiating from the back of her head as fishy liquid splashed on top of her. The strange smell made her retch. Dong Zhi panted as his legs gave out and he fell to his knees.
If Gu Meiren’s reaction had been any second slower just now, it would’ve been her head that the Qingzhu Sword pierced. He almost took the life of his companion.
Suddenly, the lights turned on, indicating that Ba Sang was successful in turning on the emergency power supply.
He said, “Thank you for trusting me.”
Gu Meiren: “Happy to cooperate.”
When Ba Sang came back, he was dragging his feet, and there was no joy on his face. Everyone knew why. Most likely, the teller was killed by the monster or Ba Sang had to end her life in order to prevent her from turning into a zombie.
“A piece of her flesh was torn off by the monster, so I had to kill her.” Ba Sang said.
“You did your best.” Dong Zhi wanted to pat him on the shoulder, but he avoided him as he slowly turned around.
Gu Meiren took a deep breath to calm herself down as several of the ordinary people subconsciously took several steps backwards. Ba Sang’s shirt had been slashed, and there were blood marks that were slowly bleeding out from the upper left to the lower right of his back. While the wound wasn’t fatal, the monster was poisonous. Once bitten or damaged, what awaits will be the fate of becoming a zombie. There was no exception.
Gu Meiren stared at his wound in a daze, unable to speak for a long time. Dong Zhi reluctantly put on an ugly smile as he said, “Maybe-Maybe there’ll be an exception!”
Ba Sang said sadly, “I saw that woman get hurt with my very own eyes, and she started to change, so I had to kill her.”
Dong Zhi said, “But you are a practitioner, and your body is stronger than ordinary people…”
“Which means after becoming a zombie, I’ll be even more difficult to deal with than an ordinary zombie!” Ba Sang interrupted him. “Kill me. I don’t want to become a zombie.”
Dong Zhi didn’t even want to think about it. “No!”
Ba Sang stretched out his hand, seemingly to pat his arm, but drew back halfway. This Kangba Tibetan man was reckless and always rough but sharp. His unwillingness to hurt his friends made Dong Zhi’s eyes sour.
“It’s nice to meet you all, truly. In fact, my master disapproved of my trying to join the Special Administration Bureau. I wanted to see the outside world and had been cheated so many times that I thought the people on the outside were all really bad, but after meeting you, I felt my thoughts were too naïve. If there are bad people in the world, then there must be good ones as well. I’m very lucky, and as soon as I came out, I had two more friends who are as close as brothers that we can live and die together.”
Gu Meiren covered her mouth with a whimper to muffle her sobs. Dong Zhi couldn’t help it anymore, so he stepped forward and hugged him tightly.
“I originally wanted to invite you to visit my place on vacation. Our butter tea is the best brewed in that area, but if you have the opportunity in the future, I have to trouble you to help go back and tell my parents and master the news of my death!” Ba Sang patted him on the back and motioned for him to let go.
Dong Zhi: “Stop talking!”
Ba Sang suddenly broke away from him with force, causing Dong Zhi to be pushed away several steps away. He was off guard, so he didn’t notice that Ba Sang had pulled out a short blade from his waist and inserted it directly into his throat.
“Ba Sang!” Gu Meiren rushed up.
Ba Sang smiled at them as blood gushed from the corners of his mouth and his eyes gradually became lax. His hand slowly loosened from the place where he held the knife, eventually falling down limp. Moistness spread quickly to Dong Zhi’s eyes, and his throat choked up as if there was a stone lodged in place. He couldn’t move and couldn’t speak at all.
“Zombies! There are zombies coming in again from outside!” Someone shouted in panic.
Looking back, Dong Zhi saw a few more figures slowly wandering towards the entrance of the mall. At first there was only one or two, but after a closer look, he found a string of them was slowly wandering in, seemingly attracted to the remaining vitality here.
Gu Meiren panicked as she picked up the flute and began playing it. Dong Zhi gritted his teeth; his hungry and weak body was filled with anger over Ba Sang’s death as he clenched his sword and strode forward. The talismans he had left weren’t enough to deal with this hoard of zombies, but he didn’t need talismans. He can be like Liu Qingbo and use only his sword. As the sword rises and falls, wherever it goes, zombies fall one after another, as if they were taking the initiative to make way for him. They crawled on the ground, looking as if they were his slaves and servants.
Gu Meiren watched Dong Zhi walk among the zombies in a daze, slashing his sword wildly and with ease. Under the light, the young man with black hair and fair skin, and a face that was calm and indifferent, looked as if he was doing something extraordinary. But in the eyes of others, it was completely shocking. Gu Meiren never knew that killing zombies could create such a sense of artistry.
Dong Zhi discarded everything and gave zero fucks. He was simply holding on to a single breath, and all he knew was that his hands began to tremble and the sword in his hand seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.
A zombie had grabbed his shoulder from behind, opened his mouth and was about to bite him, and he almost didn’t have the strength to turn around and defend himself.
Too tired. I really miss the big bed in the Special Administration dorm. I really want to lie down and get some sleep.
Zombies poured in from outside, one after another, as if they were endless. At such a critical moment, Dong Zhi suddenly remembered that night in Long Shen’s dormitory. He had received a call from Gu Meiren saying that Hui Yiguang had encountered an accident, so he hurried out and Long Shen stopped him and asked him to bring the Qingzhu Sword with him.
He still remembered that the light in that room was warm and pleasant, and that Long Shen felt a bit softer under it. His heart wasn’t as cold and unkind as it seemed.
Suddenly, the ceiling broke with a bang, and a dark shadow fell from the sky into the throng of zombies and leaped towards him with great force!
Monster!
Unfortunately, Dong Zhi didn’t have the strength to react. He could only watch the monster approach him at lightning speed. In one-thousandth of a second, the monster appeared right in front of him, about 2 meters away, and reached out to grab him with its sharp claws!
I can’t dodge in time!
Though Dong Zhi realized this, his body could no longer keep up with the reaction of his brain. Even his spirit had dulled. After fighting fiercely all night, he was so exhausted that his eyes could barely stay open, and he felt he was seeing doubles when he looked at things.
Forget it. Fighting to the death means you’re worthy like Ba Sang. Furthermore, there was Gu Meiren and those ordinary people behind him…
At that moment, the sky was bright outside as dawn finally arrived. Dong Zhi wanted to turn around and help them escape, but he was completely exhausted, so he could only watch as the monsters got closer and closer.
In the next moment, the surrounding scenery was suddenly distorted and blurred, and there was a bright light in front of him. The oncoming monsters had all suddenly disappeared, and the bloody aura and fishy smell that filled his nose were gone as well.
Together with the shopping mall and all the zombies that were pouring in, they were all gone. He felt only dizziness and his legs were so soft that he couldn’t help but sit down on the ground. Dong Zhi closed his eyes, feeling that he might have been too tired and was hallucinating. Otherwise, how could he suddenly see Wu Bingtian and Long Shen?
He was not the only one who was in a daze. Everyone was sitting in the classroom. All had pale faces, or expressions of pain. Some were gasping for breath, while others had faces full of vigilance. It seems that they haven’t recovered from the doomsday crisis they’ve all experienced just now.
Wu Bingtian stood in front of them clapping his hands and saying coldly, “I announce that of all the 20 people who participated in the training, only ten survived. They are Li Ying, Liu Qingbo, Dong Zhi, Gu Meiren, Zhang Song, Xie Qingling, Liu Si, Ou-Yang Yin, Zuo Xingui, and Zhaun Rongrong! All those who “died” in the simulation training will have that noted on their file. If you are eliminated during the next training, you must leave the Special Administration Bureau and take the exam again next year!”
So, the night that just passed was really training?
Everyone looked around blankly at each other and couldn’t help being surprised when they saw their companions who had already “died” last night. Dong Zhi looked at Ba Sang. He had just gotten up from the ground and touched his throat with a painful expression, as if he was afraid of being pierced by his own dagger again. Gu Meiren burst into tears as she was unable to suppress her emotions and covered her mouth as her shoulders trembled slightly.
The others weren’t much better, and some were even more emotional than them. Some people touched their chests and muttered to themselves, “I’m not dead. I’m really not dead!”
Wu Bingtian and Long Shen didn’t stop them and allowed them to continue venting. Dong Zhi couldn’t help but look at Long Shen. The latter seemed to notice his gaze and glanced back at him, giving him a slight nod.
Dong Zhi’s heart, which was seemingly exhausted and deflated, had suddenly been infused with vitality. He couldn’t stop himself from returning a self-confident smile. Long Shen’s smile seemed to be a little deeper than his, though.
When Wu Bingtian looked over, Dong Zhi’s mood had slowly calmed down. After everyone calmed their emotions, Wu Bingtian said, “The equipment used for the simulation this time is the latest achievement of the Sino-US cooperation. The Americans firmly believe that a Resident Evil situation will happen in the future, so the simulation’s background is a modern city in a Resident Evil setting. For people who died in the simulation training, their bodies will be ejected from the simulation environment, but in the simulation world, their ‘corpses’ still exist and are converted to NPCs. This is the first year we have implemented this simulation. We hope to use this kind of sudden training to test your on-the-spot abilities in each of you.”
Everyone smiled bitterly, obviously fearful of everything just now.
Wu Bingtian’s face was not good. “There are 20 of you, yet the survival rate is half. If this number is placed among ordinary people, I would be extremely grateful, but don’t forget, you are the future members of the Special Administration Bureau! You’re not ordinary people! As a national-level practitioner, half of you managed to die in a single night. How can you compete with other countries when you have this kind of survival rating?!”
His voice became louder, and, in the end, he angrily reprimanded everyone.
Liu Qingbo couldn’t help but say, “But we didn’t know that it was training since we had already taken a day class at that time…”
Besides, all of them hadn’t even eaten dinner yet.
Wu Bingtian said angrily, “When there’s a crisis, people don’t care if you are hungry or tired! What is a crisis? It just happens without warning! What is sudden training? It’s to test your ability to react to emergencies! Will the zombies call you first before they come out?! Will those monsters and demons drop off a text message first to announce their arrival?!”
Some people couldn’t help laughing out loud, but quickly suppressed their throats under Wu Bingtian’s glare. He glanced at everyone, and as far as he could see, many people lowered their heads, not daring to look at him.
He snorted coldly, “I know that you have lived in a comfortable environment for a long time and feel that the world is safe. At most, there are occasional emergencies. However, what I want to tell you is that the world is uneasy, and danger lurks everywhere, especially in the dark. If you’re ignorant and don’t know when and how you’ll die, you’ll be just like an ordinary person. How can you protect others when you can’t even protect yourself?”
This stick* was extremely effective. During the day, Director Jiang’s lectures made everyone surprised and amused. They couldn’t help thinking, ‘The Special Administration Bureau is nothing more than this.’ As a result, just when their minds were relaxed, the Special Administration Bureau gave them such a vivid lesson.
*The stick is part of the carrot and stick. Metaphor used of a combination of rewards and punishment is used to induce a desired behavior.
Most likely, everyone will never forget this experience for the rest of their lives.
“You think that after you have passed the written examination and interview, you already have one foot in the door of the Special Administration Bureau, ah? Let me tell you that there will be countless tests waiting for you in the future. If you come here depending only on luck and muddle your way through hoping to pass until training is completed and the practice exam is held, let me tell you that you will possibly lose your life!”
Seeing that everyone was dejected, Wu Bingtian sneered and stared at Chi Banxia. “Chi Banxia, you thought you would be safe if you followed Li Ying, so you went out of your way to stick with him. Unexpectedly, you still lost your life. Let me tell you, the Special Administration Bureau never raises dodder grass*. If you hold onto the idea of depending on others, reality will teach you what ‘death’ really means, and I hope you can remember this lesson!”
*Also known as cuscuta, it’s a type of parasitical plant that attaches itself to other plants and sucks the nutrients from its host.
Chi Banxia’s face flushed from being admonished that she couldn’t lift her head.
Wu Bingtian: “And you, Ba Sang! At that time, the second-level zombie came from behind you. If you were more flexible and reacted faster, you could have avoided it, but because you were half a second too late, you lost your life. Don’t you feel wronged?”
“Injustice! I will definitely practice my reflexes going forward!” Ba Sang nodded repeatedly.
Wu Bingtian then began commenting on the people who died in the training one by one. Dong Zhi found that their performance from last night was clearly seen by the leaders, including what everyone did, how they dealt with the crisis, how they got along with their companions, how they treated ordinary people, and so on.
Then again, if the future of the backbone elites of the dignified Special Administration Bureau would be wiped out in half when they encountered a crisis, it was no wonder that Wu Bingtian was extremely annoyed. Not only were the ‘dead’ people scolded one by one, but the survivors who failed to escape were also on the chopping block.
Wu Bingtian said, “Liu Qingbo! At that time, you were in a team with Li Ying and the others. Why did you have to leave by yourself halfway and run back to the Special Administration Bureau!”
“I want to go back and see if anyone else in the bureau survived,” Liu Qingbo defended.
Wu Bingtian: “What about the ordinary people in the mall? Don’t you care about them? You just threw them to your companions to deal with! Even if there are still survivors in the Bureau, you should still remember the lessons from the past. Your behavior isn’t bravery, it’s recklessness! Completely brainless!”
Liu Qingbo was unconvinced. “But I survived to the end!”
Wu Bingtian frowned. “So what? If you hadn’t passed by the cafeteria and happened to find an electrician’s room, would you be so lucky?”
His voice became sterner. “Don’t forget, you are not the only cultivator. You represent the Special Administration Bureau, which means you must not only protect yourself, but you’re also responsible for the lives of ordinary people! You are the law enforcers and defenders in another sense! You left your companions and ordinary people who needed protection. Even if you survive in the end, what can you be proud of? You should be ashamed of yourself! If you dare do it again, I rather have Ba Sang or Chi Banxia than a selfish person like you!”
After being reprimanded so fiercely in front of everyone, Liu Qingbo’s face turned pale from all the embarrassment. Because of his father’s background, since he came to the capital, he has always been taken care of along the way. Whether they were leaders or elders who met him, they were all kind and pleasant towards him, constantly offering praise for his youth and achievements. Even Deputy Director Wu Bingtian’s attitude towards him before was quite amiable. Let alone reprimanding him, he didn’t even say a single serious word towards him. For the first time in his life, Liu Qingbo, who had always been surrounded by praise, felt so humiliated in public.
He clenched his fists tightly, but he could no longer say a word of rebuttal.
Wu Bingtian: “Dong Zhi, your abilities are relatively singular. In your three-person group, as soon as Ba Sang died, the combat effectiveness of you and Gu Meiren was greatly weakened. If the simulation hadn’t just ended, there would be one more name on the death list! Also, when Li Ying proposed to separate, not only did you not try your best to persuade him to stay, but you also let him take people away. With a broken-up team and zombies swarming all around, you all would have been wiped out in the end! Your total score ranks first, but you don’t have the corresponding team leadership. What’s the use of a high score?”
What he said was very pertinent, and Dong Zhi accepted it gracefully, “I was wrong.”
Wu Bingtian glanced at him, then turned his gaze to the others. “And you, Li Ying. You took Chi Banxia and Liu Si to find a large army. You rescued a group of ordinary people halfway, but at the same time, you made a fatal mistake. Do you know what it is?”
Li Ying nodded. “When I was saving people, I didn’t carefully check their identities and ignored the dangerous elements hidden inside, which got Chi Banxia killed.”
What dangerous element? Everyone looked curious.
Wu Bingtian said, “In the simulation, ordinary zombies are generally lethal and may be fatal to ordinary people, but for practitioners, except for a relatively large number, they do not pose a threat. The second-level zombies are the evolved bodies encountered by Dong Zhi and Zhang Song. They have no vision, but they have a strong sense of smell, and their mobility is much faster than that of ordinary zombies. They can fly from wall to wall. In large numbers, it’s difficult for even practitioners to deal with. Further up, the third-level zombies have evolutionary bodies that can simulate biological forms in a short period of time, such as humans. This kind of zombie can mix in with the general population and cannot be prevented. This is what Li Ying and the others met.”
That was too unlucky. Who would have expected a zombie that could disguise itself perfectly as a human! According to this, they could also simulate animal and even plants. How could such thing be prevented?
As if seeing everyone’s doubts, Long Shen, who’d been silent this whole time, finally spoke up, “You’re not ordinary people. You have to do better than what ordinary people can and can’t do. The incompetent can only use excuses like ‘negligence’, ‘inattention’, and ‘carelessness’ to comfort themselves.”
Wu Bingtian nodded. “Boss Long is right. This sudden training is to teach you a profound lesson and let you know how far you are from truly being qualified to be a member of the Special Administration Bureau! Do you know what the survival rate of the United States was? In the first emergency training, they had a total of 50 people, and in the end, 29 people survived. The survival rate is 58%, which is 8% higher than ours! Among these 50 people, some were ordinary people who are not practitioners, but what about you?”
Everyone was disheartened by the training. Wu Bingtian finally calmed down when he saw that they were all in low moods.
“I hope that through this training, you can discover your shortcomings instead of blindly making excuses to get rid of your prevarication! A person who doesn’t know how to self-examine themselves will never make progress. No matter how much you practice, you can only go so far! Take a day off tomorrow and return here at 9 AM the day after that. Classes will be held as usual. You’re dismissed!”
After that, he remembered that Long Shen was next to him, and hurriedly said, “Does the Boss Long have anything else to say?”
Long Shen said lightly, “Boss Wu has said all that needed to be said, so I have nothing to add.”
Wu Bingtian choked. “Then that’s it, dismissed!”
Rumors that Boss Jiang was not good at his job and loved to command blindly have been widely circulated in the Special Administration Bureau. It is said that the impression of him wasn’t as good as before, and that news of his removal or transfer would surface from time to time. If this news is conclusive, then the position of the head of bureau will be vacated.
Wu Bingtian was naturally eager to move into this position and was ready to play the game. He didn’t think Song Zhi was competition, but he didn’t dare underestimate Long Shen, who’s a powerful competitor.
However, these are high-level competitions that have nothing to do with Dong Zhi. Many people haven’t eaten yet, but hunger didn’t strike them when they were too hungry.
The people who “died” during the training were naturally dejected, and some “survivors” weren’t so happy either. People with high self-esteem like Liu Qingbo found it more uncomfortable to be scolded than to be killed. He left with an ugly face, and no one dared go forward to provoke him.
Gu Meiren helped Ba Sang stand up and looked around to find Dong Zhi, only to find that he had disappeared.
“Boss Long!” Dong Zhi had rushed out of the classroom to chase him down.
The author has something to say:
Everyone was scolded to death. How inexplicably cool. →_→
Kinky Thoughts:
Well, I should have thought it was a simulation given that it was literally based on Resident Evil. Still, I was very sad about Ba Sang’s death! I hope he joins group two with Dong Zhi.
Also, isn’t this test a little bit unfair for some people? Like, WTF was Chi Banxia supposed to do? She only knows voodoo and witchcraft. How the fuck is she supposed to fight against zombies when those things have no effect over?
And also, that martial arts dude that could only fight with his hands. Like… Hand-to-hand combat has a higher risk of getting yourself injured/bitten so what was he supposed to do? Not fight with his abilities?
There should be a goal or something in mind instead of just survival, like finding the army or finding a base, or something. Judging based on whether someone survived or not is too unfair.
The liveliest day on <Honey, Let’s Travel> was the day of the webcast. The program group and the exclusive online broadcasting platform jointly conducted a one-day live webcast.
“Everything will just be the same as usual. What should I do?” Chief Director Guo Huaimin said.
The location of the live broadcast was in Florence, which was rich in tourist attractions and has many humanistic qualities. When the program team was in the car, they were told that there would be a flying guest today.
Everyone knew it would be Bai Qingquan, but they still cooperated with the program team and acted as if they didn’t know.
“Who is it? Is it one person or a pair?” Tang Ye asked.
Zheng Siqi said, “I’m also very curious.”
After speaking, he turned his head and glanced at Shen Jintai. Shen Jintai and he both looked at each other, and both couldn’t help but smile. Zheng Siqi noticed Yan Qiuchi’s slightly concerned eyes and quickly narrowed his smile.
He didn’t know if he was seeing things, but he felt Yan Qiuchi was a little jealous of him. It may have to do with how he and Shen Jintai have been singing in harmony and having such a tacit understanding.
This was unavoidably tough, as the two of them are good friends and already familiar with each other. In addition, his character and that of Yang Lizhi didn’t match very well, and Yan Qiuchi’s character was introverted, so he didn’t talk much, so relatively speaking, he had the most interaction with Shen Jintai. Moreover, Shen Jintai didn’t seem to have any hints towards him, so he treated him just like any other ordinary male friend.
Yan Qiuchi has always been self-restrained, so he never darkened his face, but every time he and Shen Jintai looked at each other tacitly, he always felt that Yan Qiuchi’s eyes held a bit of jealousy.
As they were waiting around, a commercial vehicle with a logo slowly drove over and finally stopped in front of them. As soon as Bai Qingquan got out of the car, he heard Wang Siyi and Tang Ye covering their mouths while shouting, “Wow! Bai Qingquan!”
Shen Jintai laughed and took the lead in jumping out and giving Bai Qingquan a hug.
“It’s been a long time since I saw you.” After Bai Qingquan hugged him, he hugged Zheng Siqi. The three masters of the East Palace are known for their good relationship. Wang Siyi still remembered the scene when the three took off their masks together, and now she felt beyond moved as she could see it with her very own eyes.
Such a thing was destined to happen. The friendship between the three seems to continue with an underlying secret emotion from The East Palace. Every time they are in the same frame, it’s exciting and causes an inexplicable burst of emotions.
The barrage on the live webcast exploded in an instant.
“Touhua and his three men!”
“Jintai Qiongying, Jintai Meizhou, and Qiuchi Yingjin. Jintai’s three CP fandoms send congratulatory messages on this historic meeting!”
“Bai Qingquan has kept a much lower profile since the scandal, and I feel that he’s becoming more and more like a fairy. Today, I’m amazed by his face.”
“No matter how coquettish this person is inside, he’s a fairy on the outside. His beauty has always been there. He and Shen Jintai have the top two faces in the industry.”
“Speaking of which, when Touhua first debuted, it was really different from what it is now. Not only did his quality change, but his appearance seems to have changed a lot, but there don’t seem to be rumors of plastic surgery.”
“He’s slowly growing. Since he made his comeback, he doesn’t have time for plastic surgery. He’s been filming all year and hardly takes a break. After all, celebrities can nourish people. As long as they are popular, their beauty will soar.”
“A CP is a true CP. With the three of them standing together, I feel that Yan Qiuchi and Touhua are the best match. With such a clear gong and shou, it makes a perfect harmonious relationship.”
“Ever since I stumbled across the Yan Dabao nickname, whenever I look at Yan Qiuchi, I feel as if he’s always so eager.”
“Yes. He’s always the one who wears the most layers on the show, and his appearance is also one of someone who’s cold and abstemious, but when I look at him, I always think about what he looks like when he takes off his clothes. Touhua said that he’s sappy, and I have to wonder how he’s like that.”
“I think the barrage is about to get dirty.”
“Pollution is healthier. When they aired the second episode of the hot spring scene, the barrage became completely yellow.”
“Watching the live broadcast, I felt that Yan Qiuchi looked so gentlemanly, which makes it particularly contrasting, and I can’t help but find that attractive.”
Guo Huaimin stood behind the camera and read a brief introduction to Florence, and then said, “The next step is to choose your rooms. Except for our flying guests, the remaining six people still have to rely on the competition to determine first place, second place, and third place. The rules of the competition are also very simple, as your rank will determine which room you get.”
Shen Jintai took the card from the director’s hand and said, “Each pair must carry their partner. Their feet cannot touch the ground. If it does, they will automatically lose.”
“Is it okay to carry them on your back or hold them?” Tang Ye asked.
Guo Huaimin said, “It’s okay, and it’s not just limited to men carrying women. It’s okay for female guests to try to carry their male partner.”
Last season, there were many female guests who did so, which was very impressive for the ratings. It was just that this season couldn’t reproduce such a classic scene. Wang Siyi was too dainty, while Yang Lizhi wore high heels wherever she went.
After everyone discussed it, Wang Siyi chose the princess carry, while Yang Lizhi chose Zheng Siqi’s back.
“Why don’t I carry you?” Shen Jintai asked Yan Qiuchi.
Yan Qiuchi didn’t refuse him, but instead laid down on his back and asked him to try. As soon as Shen Jintai turned his back, he found that he could barely lift Yan Qiuchi up, let alone walk ten steps carrying him.
“Why are you so heavy?”
Bai Qingquan couldn’t help laughing next to him. He was the referee, and when he saw this, he wanted to be playful, so he immediately blew his whistle. “Take your places.”
Bai Qingquan wasn’t willing to wait for him, and before he could put Yan Qiuchi down, he immediately shouted, “Start!”
The other two pairs ran straight away.
Upon seeing this, Yan Qiuchi put his arms around Shen Jintai’s waist. Shen Jintai whispered, “God damn it”. Suddenly his body became light as Yan Qiuchi hugged him and directly lifted him off the ground onto his shoulders. With great energy and long legs, he surpassed the other two pairs within seconds. Yang Lizhi and Wang Siyi screamed at the top of their lungs non-stop, and the atmosphere suddenly became lively.
“Hahahahaha, Yan Qiuchi is awesome!”
“Damn, he just carried him by the shoulder and ran with it. So fucking good!”
“Yan Qiuchi’s hands are in a troublesome area. Isn’t it really close to Touhua’s ass? Won’t something suddenly turn up?”
“My, his physical strength is really good. Hee hee hee hee~!”
“Touhua’s ass looked even more upturned on Yan Qiuchi’s shoulders.”
“The Touhua couple takes first place!”
Shen Jintai hung his head down, clutching Yan Qiuchi’s clothes with one hand and blocking the camera with the other, smiling foolishly. Yan Qiuchi was also afraid that he was uncomfortable, so he lowered him down and finally ran, carrying him on his back. Shen Jintai wrapped his arms around Yan Qiuchi’s neck while using his legs to clamp around Yan Qiuchi’s waist.
All this was done while they were still running. Yan Qiuchi supported Shen Jintai’s ass as Shen Jintai clung to his body like a koala.
“Damn, in this posture, my phantom limb is rising.”
“Running with them on your back or a princess carry—both are too weak compared to this.”
“Good arm strength, better waist strength.”
“I was relieved to see that the barrage finally got dirty.”
After this live broadcast, Yan Qiuchi’s evaluation became even better. It seems that what was shown on the show wasn’t edited and was reflective of his true abilities and character. His fluent Italian drove the fans crazy. In this day and age, if an amateur spoke a foreign language, that was seen as a plus.
Shen Jintai successfully won first place and stayed in the largest and most luxurious room. Since the recording this time around, they both were much more relaxed than the first time. They didn’t deliberately show their affection, nor did they hide it either. With little actions like these, it made netizens even more excited, and the national couple had slowly started to take shape.
The live broadcast ended two hours later, and everyone was more than satisfied.
Since the three hadn’t been together for a long time, after recording the show and taking off their mics, Shen Jintai and Zheng Siqi went to Bai Qingquan’s room for a chat at night.
“Don’t talk too late,” Yan Qiuchi said.
“You don’t have to wait for me. You go to bed first.”
The three talked for hours, eventually going into midnight. At first, they just talked nonsense, then talked about work, and finally, they talked about the show. Bai Qingquan said, “By the way, do you know that President Yan has a nickname now? It’s Yan Dabao.”
Shen Jintai was taken aback for a moment. “Why Yan Dabao?”
Bai Qingquan told him about the screenshots of the netizens, and Shen Jintai’s face instantly turned red.
“Sister, you are very blessed,” Bai Qingquan said.
Zheng Siqi was gentler and more serious in nature. When they talked about this kind of topic, he simply laughed. It would have been better if he wasn’t here, since when he was present, Shen Jintai would feel more embarrassed. “It’s getting late, so I’m heading back to rest.”
Shen Jintai returned to his room with a smile and saw Yan Qiuchi watching TV. He didn’t understand what he was watching as they were all speaking Italian.
“You haven’t slept yet.”
Yan Qiuchi turned off the TV and said, “How come you three can talk so much?”
“It’s been a long time since the three of us got together.” Shen Jintai took off his clothes and laid down on the bed, then turned his head to look at Yan Qiuchi.
Yan Dabao. Why is this nickname so funny?
Yan Qiuchi looked at the time. It was very late, so he said, “Go to bed quickly. We’ll have to get up early tomorrow morning.”
Shen Jintai took off the rest of his clothes very consciously, then turned off the lights. Yan Qiuchi put his arms around him and asked, “Why do you have such a good relationship with Zheng Siqi and Bai Qingquan?”
“I would’ve forgotten if you didn’t ask. During our chat just now, Siqi asked me if you were jealous of him, saying that he didn’t dare interact with me too much now.”
“A little bit,” Yan Qiuchi said. “I know you have nothing to do with them, but I still feel sour when I see it.”
Shen Jintai asked, “They?”
“There’s also Tang Ye and Bai Qingquan,” Yan Qiuchi said.
Shen Jintai felt happy. “Then you are a bit jealous.”
Yan Qiuchi smiled but didn’t answer. While he was possessive, it was very light, and it wouldn’t affect the relationship between them.
However, Shen Jintai was particularly self-disciplined in this regard. He was keenly aware that as an artist in the entertainment industry, he would be facing many colorful characters and may have to shoot intimate scenes. He felt that Yan Qiuchi would always support his work, but that didn’t mean it would be easy for him. Although vinegar would not make him sad, it wasn’t as good as sugar.
He hoped that what he could give to Yan Qiuchi would only be sweet, not sour. He put his arms around Yan Qiuchi’s neck and said, “I belong to you alone. Don’t worry. You are the only one in my heart. The number one in my world, and no one can beat you.”
Yan Qiuchi whispered, “Truly?”
Yan Qiuchi always had a restrained personality. He wasn’t very good at speaking affectionate words, so when he tries to speak affectionately, it usually comes out direct and non-romantic. For example, when they were in bed together, he would peck Shen Jintai one by one while saying “I love you”. With such strong desire and love, Shen Jintai could feel how truly he was loved by this man.
This was something Shen Jintai had a hard time doing, as he felt it was something he inherently couldn’t do.
“Yes,” he said. “I am very happy and satisfied to have you in this life, truly.”
Often, these non-literary, trivial, and life-oriented languages are the most moving. He hugged Yan Qiuchi tightly and tried to express his love through body language as he kissed Yan Qiuchi on the chin.
Yan Qiuchi smiled and said nothing. Shen Jintai thought that Yan Qiuchi was jealous because he wasn’t sure about his intentions, which gave room for insecurity.
In fact, it wasn’t that Yan Qiuchi was jealous; it was simply in his nature as a man to have a strong possessiveness that slowly ate at him no matter what. He simply didn’t want Shen Jintai to become close to anyone, especially those who are in better standings. Shen Jintai loved him, and this he knew as it was proven time and time again whenever he “devastates” him. The tears that he would shed as he desperately kissed him—this was his truest form, which he would only reveal during their most intimate time.
But he didn’t want to tell Shen Jintai this because he liked it when Shen Jintai said words of affection to him; it warmed his heart.
In this world, those who were easily infatuated by others would often become unfaithful. When one single-minded person met another single-minded person, they were destined to have a good marriage and would never separate for a lifetime.
The author has something to say:
The countdown to the end of the text.
Kinky Thoughts:
Shen Jintai stepping up. That’s so sweet what he said to Yan Qiuchi to ease his vinegar and give him sugar.
What made Xiao Tang the happiest was that the Gold Powder had completely accepted Yan Qiuchi and even wished blessings for the two of them. Some even thought that Shen Jintai and Yan Qiuchi were like an immortal couple.
—
Since Yan Qiuchi was there, they arrived at the family hotel prepared for them by the program team without a hitch.
“If there was no Brother Chi, what would we have done?” Tang Ye said with a smile. He was smart and could see that the program team was intentionally supporting Yan Qiuchi, and he was more than willing to follow their intentions. The compliments and praise from other guests were conducive to solidifying Yan Qiuchi’s perfect image of a male god. Yan Qiuchi’s popularity would drive the popularity of the program, and if the program is popular, he would be able to rub heat from it. Recently, his fans had risen by the hundreds of thousands, so he was quite satisfied.
Besides, starting from this point, he and Wang Siyi would start sprinkling sugar. The drama of two “strangers” falling in love was about to be staged.
The accommodation prepared for them by the program group was a house that reflected the local area. There were three rooms that were very simple. Wang Siyi and Yang Lizhi would share a room, Shen Jintai and Yan Qiuchi another, and the remaining would go to Zheng Siqi and Tang Ye. However, the program group was like a band of chicken thieves, as one of the rooms had only a single bed.
Among the six people, it was obvious which group that bed was intended for.
Shen Jintai took the initiative to say, “We’ll take this one.”
Although everyone understood the intention of the program team, they were still polite in front of the camera as Yang Lizhi and Wang Siyi offered, “We girls are small, so we can squeeze together on this little bed.”
Of course, they knew that the four men present wouldn’t have a bad personality and would actually make them squeeze into that bed together. However, their offer wasn’t just for the show; they were also afraid of Shen Jintai’s and Yan Qiuchi’s fans. If they took his offer for granted, they would most likely be torn apart by the gold powders.
With the size and influence of the gold powders in the entertainment industry today, who would willingly provoke them?
In the end, Shen Jintai and Yan Qiuchi chose the room with the small bed. Not only was it small, but it was also wooden. Shen Jintai first laid down and tried it. “It’s okay. We can sleep on it.”
However, when they went to bed, they found a problem. The bed was not only narrow, but it was also too short. Yan Qiuchi was 1.9 meters tall, so when he lay down on the bed, both of his feet were exposed.
Although the weather had warmed up, with both feet exposed, it could still get cold after a while. Yan Qiuchi laid on his side facing Shen Jintai and bent his legs as he clamped them onto Shen Jintai’s legs. “It’s fine.”
There was a camera installed in the room, so Shen Jintai whispered, “If you can’t stretch your legs all night, won’t you feel uncomfortable?”
As he said it, he got up from Yan Qiuchi’s arms, got out of bed, and brought him a pair of socks to put on. This way was better. Besides, they only had to stay in Rome for a night, and tomorrow they will go to Florence, the art capital of the world, which was the focus of their trip to Italy.
On the day they arrived in Italy, they felt that the weather was gloomy. As a result, not long after they had laid down, they heard pattering sounds outside. Shen Jintai got up slightly, glanced at the window, and said, “It seems to be raining.”
On rainy days, it was best to sleep, and it was most suitable when sleeping in the arms of the one you loved. After holding him for a while, Yan Qiuchi started to unbutton his pajamas.
Shen Jintai was afraid that the people in the program group would hear, so he whispered, “It’s raining and it’s cold.”
If he fell asleep, Yan Qiuchi’s feet would get cold since they’re exposed, so it was better to sleep with pajamas on in this weather. There was also a camera in the room. Though it was covered by a towel, he still couldn’t fully relax, as he felt that if he took off his clothes, it’d be watched by the program team.
Yan Qiuchi said, “I have to stick to you without any barriers.”
His appetite has now been raised so much that if he didn’t have skin-to-skin contact, he couldn’t sleep at all.
“What about the business trips you’re going to take in the future, and I can’t follow you? How can you sleep?” As Shen Jintai said it, he felt Yan Qiuchi’s warm, hard chest press against him.
Yan Qiuchi hadn’t fully stripped them. He only took off the top halves and put their upper bodies together. Shen Jintai shook as he felt the heat from Yan Qiuchi’s body spread all through his internal organs from the skin that he was sticking to. Yan Qiuchi’s body temperature seems to always be a little higher than his.
“I’ll try not to travel,” Yan Qiuchi said. “If I go on a business trip, you can follow me. You smell so good.” He buried his head into Shen Jintai’s neck and sniffed him. It was an aroma but not an aroma, but in short, it just smelled so good to him.
“Do you feel comfortable now?” Shen Jintai asked suddenly.
Yan Qiuchi was taken aback for a moment, feeling that this inexplicably provocative question was arousing a fire. He smiled and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Let me just ask you, are you comfortable now?”
“Comfortable.” Yan Qiuchi said, “How could it be uncomfortable to hold you?”
Shen Jintai immediately said, “Look, we’re not doing it, but it’s very comfortable just to embrace, right?”
Yan Qiuchi let out a “Nn”.
Shen Jintai hurriedly said again, “I think we can hug each other and sleep together every day in the future, and since you’re very comfortable now, we’ll need to be more restrained when doing that in the future.”
Yan Qiuchi said, “But it’s more comfortable to sleep with you after it has been done.”
Shen Jintai: “…”
“Don’t you think?” Yan Qiuchi asked.
After all, the ultimate comfort came after the ultimate satisfaction that brought on laziness, so embracing each other would be much more comfortable afterwards. Moreover, he loved to see how Shen Jintai looked when they were doing it. His ears and face would be flushed red, making him extremely beautiful and attractive, as if he had been the artist who painted Shen Jintai that color.
“Go to sleep, go to sleep,” Shen Jintai said.
He estimated that Yan Qiuchi was truly born to be a man who wanted it every day and night, and he couldn’t change it, so he would just have to put his hope on work!
Shen Jintai had a dream that night. In his dream, he became a superstar, but he still worked hard and stayed on the set every day. Everyone was moved by professionalism. Once, when he was walking the red carpet, the host interviewed him and asked, “What makes you have such a strong sense of professionalism? You’re already at the top of the industry, yet you still work so hard!”
He replied, “Because of Yan Qiuchi.”
How fucking ironic that he became a superstar to avoid his sex life!
He himself woke up with a smile from his sleep. When he opened my eyes, he saw Yan Qiuchi squinting at him. “What did you dream of? You’re so happy.”
“I dreamed of you,” Shen Jintai said with a smile.
As he spoke, he drilled into Yan Qiuchi’s arms. Yan Qiuchi said, “Early in the morning, it’s best to stay away from me.”
Shen Jintai said, “I want to be closer to you.” He said that he rubbed himself on Yan Qiuchi’s chest.
The rain outside was still rumbling. The camera that was covered by the towel made a slight sound that was caught by both Yan Qiuchi and Shen Jintai. They were now very sensitive to this noise. The two of them got up slightly and looked before Shen Jintai smiled and got into Yan Qiuchi’s arms again.
“Are you relatively free in April?” Yan Qiuchi said, “When we finish recording this show, let’s have a real two-person trip and play all over the world.”
“No problem,” Shen Jintai whispered. “As long as you don’t play with me, I can do it.”
Yan Qiuchi’s gaze tightened. Shen Jintai was not a hypocritical person. Sometimes he would be honestly blunt, but this time, he caught none of that. Seeing as how he said it in bad taste, Yan Qiuchi leaned towards his ears and whispered, “Play it all.”
If you didn’t slow down or pause while watching the clip, there really wasn’t a problem with the video. After the female stars came out of the hot springs, they were wrapped in bathrobes while the male stars came out one after another. Bath towels were given to them by the program team and were tied to their waists. When it was broadcast on TV, everyone was amazed at the good example set by the Touhua couple.
The intention of the program group was also simple: to show off their figures. They were all handsome men. Being wrapped in bath towels made it a very seductive scene in contrast to the formal clothes they had worn at the City Hall dinner party in the last episode.
Netizens who took this screenshot were also very powerful. When Yan Qiuchi came out of the hot spring, Shen Jintai had blocked the camera for him. When it was broadcast, the program team strictly controlled the camera scale. The shot of him coming out of the water that was focused on the lower half of his body was taken in less than half a second, even though he was wearing shorts.
However, the sugar sprinkled by Yan Qiuchi and Shen Jintai was so imaginative that netizens were anxious to find anything and everything. When the second episode was released online, one clever netizen focused on the hot spring section with the mentality of trying to intercept the shot*!
*Clarity: In case you’re missing this. She basically zoomed in slow mo on the scene where he’s getting out of the hot spring so they could get a picture of his bulge.
“Ah, mom, my eyes are polluted. I am no longer a pure child!”
“What did I say?! Yan Qiuchi is thin yet has such a big nose*. It’s not easy to tell at first glance, so some people refuted me!”
*Clarity: Referring to his dick.
“When Yan Qiuchi untied his bathrobe, I was awed by his abdominal muscles, chest muscles, and those mermaid lines. The clothes he usually wears make him look so thin*.”
*Clarity: She’s saying the clothes he normally wears make him look so thin that she didn’t expect he was packing so much heat underneath, which is why people were refuting the poster above who said he definitely has a big “nose”.
“Please look at your own figure and nose! I think it depends on your temperament! Men are simple animals. They will be confident if they are good at that aspect. Although Yan Qiuchi is a gentleman and restrained, he’s extremely confident as well!”
“It seems that everyone has sharp eyes.”
“Although the lighting is a bit dark, it’s definitely really good… Should I congratulate Touhua or should I feel sorry for him?”
“This is really quite common among Europeans and Americans. It’s a pity that I can’t see it clearly!”
“Sister upstairs, what do you want to see clearly?!”
It was already evening by the time Shen Jintai and the others arrived in Italy. This time, the program team abandoned them halfway and told them they needed to find the way to the hotel themselves. The purpose of setting up this plot is simple. In addition to increasing the visibility of the show, they wanted to support Yan Qiuchi because they knew that he could speak Italian.
The image of the almighty male god needed to be held up for people to see. They needed to add more fuel to the fire. Generally, popular variety shows and popular people complement each other. As long as Yan Qiuchi’s fans are stable, the ratings of their program will also stabilize.
“Here is the accommodation information. This time you’re staying in a family hotel.” Guo Weimin handed the information and keys to them. “You’ll need to find it by yourself and assign your own rooms.”
“Can you ask someone?” Shen Jintai asked immediately.
“Of course.”
“That would definitely make Brother Chi stand out.” Zheng Siqi laughed.
Five people stood on the side of the road, listening to Yan Qiuchi speak in fluent Italian as he asked passersby for directions to their hotel. While they didn’t understand what they were saying, they all thought how amazing he was.
“I’m really convinced of Brother Chi,” Tang Ye said as he looked at Yan Qiuchi. There was no need to support a person like that, as his own built-in conditions were enough already.
“Brother Chi is the hottest person in our show now,” Wang Siyi said cutely. “All my friends are fans of him. The second episode had just aired in China. It’s a pity that our phone was confiscated by the program team. Otherwise, I want to check out the comments online.”
“How many languages does he speak?” Yang Lizhi asked Shen Jintai.
Shen Jintai said, “I don’t know either, but I counted at least four. French, English, Chinese, and Italian.” His tone was quite proud.
“He can’t speak German too, right?” Tang Ye said.
Among the five of them, only Zheng Siqi was regarded as college-educated, though his other qualifications weren’t very good. He could only speak average English but was used to being held in high regard because of this, but compared to Yan Qiuchi, who was blessed by the heavens, there was no need for such a comparison.
This time, Yang Lizhi accepted her fate. Just like when she filmed <The East Palace is Coming>, she was dissatisfied at first and tried her best to fight back fiercely. In the end, she reluctantly gave up and thought it would be better if she didn’t drag herself down and just silently sipped on the broth.
Shen Jintai was truly enviable. He was born to be a superstar, and when he was looking for a man, he seemed to have found the perfect one waiting in the wings, which now made him even more powerful. Yan Qiuchi’s contributions to Shen Jintai were by no means small, not to mention that he still owned an entertainment company that would definitely be put to use to help Shen Jintai’s future career.
Having said that, though, when filming <The East Palace is Coming>, Yang Lizhi couldn’t help but marvel at Shen Jintai’s abilities. It was so damn good. Now that she was filming <Honey, Let’s Travel> and she looked at Yan Qiuchi in the distance, she couldn’t help feeling that he too was so fucking good.
Yan Qiuchi in the night looked handsome and elegant, with an extremely personable demeanor.
—
Xiao Tang didn’t follow Shen Jintai to Italy. He stayed at home and continued his vacation. Although he wasn’t currently working, he still paid close attention to all information about Shen Jintai and Yan Qiuchi online. Today, he came back around midnight after having fun with some friends. After showering and laying down in bed, he habitually went to the gold powder group to look. When he saw thousands of unread messages, he knew something must’ve happened.
Taken aback, he quickly read the contents from beginning to end, only to learn that Yan Qiuchi has a new nickname: Yan Dabao*.
*(大包) Means big package.
However, this nickname was too inappropriate for his fans, so he gave Yan Qiuchi a new one: Yan Tiancai*.
*(天菜) Means (Chinese) celery but is slang for “heavenly dish”. It spawned from the (ironically) variety show Happy Camp, where He Jiong refers to it as the best dish that meets his standards.
“Isn’t Yan Qiuchi a heavenly dish? Does he still have any shortcomings now?!”
“Hahahaha, it seems that there is none.”
“Don’t mention height, temperament, appearance, education, family background, etc., that’s all cliché and already identified as excellent. Now there’s another size that’s been added to the hardware. Isn’t he truly the perfect male god?”
“I’m so envious. This little fairy, did he save an entire galaxy in his previous life?!”
The remarks of these people spread to the gold powders, who reacted quite strongly.
“What galaxy did my brother save! I still think Yan Qiuchi still needs to catch up to my brother. Ahh, will it be okay once he gets older? I feel so sorry for him!”
“Don’t pay attention to these people. Just think, no matter how good Yan Qiuchi is, he was the one who chased my brother humbly, as revealed by his alt. As long as you think about it like this, you’ll feel relieved!”
“Yes, I feel so happy when I think of Yan Qiuchi, who once ascended to heaven and has now become a licking dog to my brother!”
“I wish my brother and Yan Qiuchi a long relationship!”
“Blessings all around.”
“Blessing my ass. Am I the only one who hopes he won’t be with Yan Qiuchi? I just watched the second episode today. The scene in the next morning where they swam around the lake, didn’t he look kind of weird… but Yan Qiuchi was full of vitality like the spring breeze!”
After reading the chat history from the gold powders, Xiao Tang went online to search for some information and had to thank God that the screen shot never made it to the hot search. Otherwise, it would be too embarrassing.
However, though it didn’t make it on the hot search, everyone was discussing it rabidly on major forums. Xiao Tang looked at some of the posts and felt that he had collected an entire encyclopedia of materials that were inappropriate for children.
Thinking of the voice that he heard that morning in the hotel, Xiao Tang couldn’t help feeling emotional. It was no wonder he screamed like that. Totally understandable. Brother Jin didn’t have it easy.
The author has something to say:
Xiao Tang, what do you understand? Tell Kangkang quickly.
Kinky Thoughts:
Rather, I’m more interested in this encyclopedia that he had collected…
Yan Qiuchi smiled, glanced down, and said, “Let me cut your toenails.”
So it looks like he does understand human language.
“Don’t kick me,” Yan Qiuchi said.
Shen Jintai took a pillow and leaned his back against it. Yan Qiuchi got out of bed, took out some nail clippers, and began cutting his toenails. He pruned them very carefully and then polished them after.
Shen Jintai’s feet are particularly beautiful. The toes were well-proportioned, and the middle had a healthy blush. Yan Qiuchi rubbed them lightly twice, and then held his ankles up to see.
Shen Jintai wasn’t shy. He opened his toes slightly, looking arrogant, and asked, “Do you want to kiss it?”
Yan Qiuchi raised his head, showing him the smile that he was particularly familiar with. Seeing this, Shen Jintai felt uneasy and wanted to shrink back his feet, but Yan Qiuchi held them firmly in place.
In his daily life, Yan Qiuchi was a bit of a neat freak. He loves to be clean and organized, so everything around him was orderly. On the surface, he’s a gentleman with an abstemious and cold appearance, reflecting what a noble son should look like.
However, when in bed, he was a completely different person. He had no inhibitions and was willing to kiss and love everything. Moreover, he would be coquettish and abrasive, making Shen Jintai powerless; thus, there was only one result: Shen Jintai stayed in bed until it was time to film the variety show.
Yan Qiuchi went overboard again. Every time he thought Yan Qiuchi could no longer go further, he would be proven wrong. The worst thing was that he was terribly addicted to that feeling now!
Fuck! Yan Qiuchi does his job too well!
However, Yan Qiuchi didn’t blindly always ask for it. He cared a lot for Shen Jintai, and if he was really feeling unwell, he would restrain himself. The problem was, he found out Shen Jintai was like King Kong and was extremely resilient to their tossing and turning. Such a physique that was different from that of an ordinary person surprised him every time.
He’s been testing it over and over again as he went further and further, and he felt that if he truly let go and released all his inhibitions, Shen Jintai could withstand it. When they finished filming the show, he wanted to try it!
Shen Jintai simply counted down the days and waited until they filmed the second half of the variety show. He wanted to work, as that was the only excuse he could have to escape Yan Qiuchi.
“What jobs do I have lined up?” He asked Li Meilan while lying in bed.
Li Meilan looked at him and said, “You’re recording the second part of <Honey, Let’s Travel> tomorrow. You didn’t forget, right?”
“This recording will be finished in a week, right?” His new movie won’t start filming until May, so what did he have to do in April? Jesus, he really can’t stand it for an entire month!
Yan Qiuchi’s sentence: “But you haven’t worked recently, so you’re on holiday every day now.” echoing in his mind, sending chills down his spine!
“Are there no other jobs?”
“There are some public events,” Li Meilan opened the small notebook and looked at it. “There will be a brand event in Nancheng on March 27th and in City A on April 6th. On April 15th, you will record…”
“Isn’t this too little work?” Shen Jintai interrupted her.
“What?” Li Meilan adjusted her glasses and raised her head. “You barely even rested for less than a month last year. Your next two movies are back-to-back, so you’ll have to free up time to promote them. <Pilot> will be released in the summer, followed by <Welcome Rain on a Spring Night> at the end of the year. Not only do you have to run publicity for them, you may also have to participate in film festivals along with various brand endorsements. There’s also fashion week in September and October. You should take time to rest this month so you can do your best.”
Sister Lan, please look at me. Where am I resting? Do you think it’s okay for me to keep lying still all day?
He coughed. His expression was quiet as he said, “I can’t rest well.”
Li Meilan looked at him and said, “I think you look pretty good after a week of rest. Your complexion is all ruddy and shiny.”
Then Li Meilan also coughed, remembering the noise she heard last time she came to visit Shen Jintai. She became embarrassed and said, “Besides, you are busy, and Yan Qiuchi is also busy. You have to make time so you two can spend it together. I ran into him in the parking lot when I came here today. He told me not to arrange too much work for you this year because he’s afraid you’ll get tired.”
Hur, hur, hur! He just wants more time so he can do it!
“I like work.” Shen Jintai said, “I’m an ambitious person, so I get antsy if I don’t work. Besides, I’m still in my ascending period. I want to fight harder while I’m still young.”
Li Meilan was quite moved when she heard this and said, “I know you work for 11 months in a year, which is really a lot. Even the average worker is not as busy as you. It’s currently impossible to pick something up right now, but I’ll find a few more events in April. Besides, your appearance fee is quite high now.”
“Good, good.” Shen Jintai hurriedly agreed.
The first episode of <Honey, Let’s Travel> was broadcast for a week, and word of mouth had spread all over. Before the second episode aired, the group had already set off to Italy to film the second half. This time was completely different from last time. Yan Qiuchi has now become a national son-in-law, and he was recognized by many people at the airport.
On the night they flew to Italy, the second episode was broadcast on TV, and the popularity was even better than the first episode.
“Sisters, is anyone watching the live broadcast of <Honey, Let’s Travel>?”
“It’s coming! Yan Qiuchi’s about to undress. Hee, hee, hee.”
“I heard that the Honey program crew will have a live webcast next week. Oh my god, I’m looking forward to it!”
“Where are they going next week, Italy?”
“Italy and Germany. I don’t know which day it will be broadcast live.”
“It’s starting, it’s starting. Sisters, Yan Qiuchi’s about to undress!”
As soon as Yan Qiuchi took off his clothes, Weibo fans went into a frenzy again. The entire network was envious of Shen Jintai.
“Rich, handsome, and tall, with a great family background to boot. Cultured, capable, and hot. There are few good men like this in the world, and one has been taken away by Touhua. Shen Touhua has been my rival in love ever since!”
“In the last episode, he attended the dinner in City Hall dressed in formal clothing, and he exploded. As soon as he took his clothes off in this episode, what did I see? A waist of a male dog with long legs and a mermaid line!”
“He has such a good figure, and Touhua too, but they are completely different types. One’s a clear gong, and the other’s a clear shou. Touhua and Yan Qiuchi are so blessed!”
“Seeing the two of them soaking in the hot spring together, I can’t control my mind! Are there any yellow texts out there of the two of them for me to read?!”
“Hahahaha, someone must have written something with such a hot CP.”
The comments of netizens reached a climax during the meal that was featured in the trailer. The famous scene of Shen Jintai saying to the restaurant owner, “He’s my boyfriend” appeared.
“Ahhhhhhhhh, Touhua said Yan Qiuchi is sappy. How exactly is he acting in this way? Begging the program group to broadcast it!”
“Fuck. I just can’t visualize Prince Yan that way. Is he sappy? Who could resist?”
“I died when Yan Qiuchi touched Shen Jintai’s ear.”
“Yeah, yeah. Especially when he asked if he drank too much. So doting and shy. I love it!”
“What kind of mythical variety show is this? I really didn’t expect a variety show to make me so hyped. I wasn’t even this excited about Jintai Qiongying!”
“Reading between the lines, the amount of information revealed is super suitable for replenishing the brain!”
“Can anyone tell me what the last few words Touhua whispered into Yan Qiuchi’s ear?”
“I’m guessing it’s something along the lines of ‘I like it’.”
“It’s natural to like each other. Wuwuwu, I’m hugging my teddy bear tightly. They are so sweet it makes single dogs want to fall in love.”
“Why are the two of them running away so fast?”
“What else can they do? Did everyone forget that on the way to Evian in the last episode, the program team said that they would not install cameras in the room?”
“Hahahaha, how could I forget. This program group is really too good. This episode deliberately replayed that last scene at the beginning.”
“Young and lonely men, staying in the same room, full of vigor and love, what else can they do? Of course, they are doing something they love to do, hee, hee, hee~!”
“Everyone seems to understand the sinister intentions of the program team!”
“Damn it, did everyone see in the next post over?! Spurting blood!”
“What’s the matter? What’s the matter? Speak quickly!”
“Someone posted Yan Qiuchi’s wet body!”
“Where is this screenshot from? Why don’t I remember this picture!”
“I don’t know which little clever ghost took this, but it’s the shot when they were coming out of the hot springs. Didn’t Shen Jintai block the camera for Yan Qiuchi? At that time, I only saw a little bit!”
Kinky Thoughts:
I was pretty curious as to what Shen Jintai had whispered to Yan Qiuchi in that scene. Hah! So tsundere.
Also, I would like some yellow text for this CP too…
Suddenly, a sharp whistling sound was heard, followed by movements like fireworks. In the great battle just now, Chi Banxia used the least strength, so she had reserve energy to spare to be on the lookout.
“Could it be a signal from Zhang Song and the others letting us know where to rendezvous?”
Li Ying’s expression moved. “What do you think?”
As he finished his words, Chen Xun’s throat made a cracking sound, as if bones were being split apart. Liu Qingbo stood up with vigilance and pointed his sword at Chen Xun. “He was scratched by those monsters just now. Could he be infected?”
Everyone subconsciously retreated from Chen Xun, only to see his complexion paling and his eyeballs rolling upwards. His hands kept grasping the wounds on is body that were profusely bleeding, and he refused to stop.
“Don’t touch it, Chen Xun!” Gu Meiren couldn’t help but say
“Xiao Chi, see if he can still be saved!” Liu Si said anxiously.
Chi Banxia took something from her pocket and sprinkled it on Chen Xun, but the latter’s symptoms were not alleviated. The wound was growing bigger, and Chen Xun’s breathing began to shorten as he started to roll around, frightening the ordinary people who hid to the side. Dong Zhi wanted to come forward and check, but Ba Sang grabbed him tightly.
Chen Xun didn’t move for a long time, but everyone knew what would happen next. They stared at him in silence and as expected, after a while, Chen Xun slightly moved again. He slowly got up and folded his upper body desperately as he straightened his body into a weird posture that normal people could not do and slowly walked towards them.
“Chen Xun!” Liu Si yelled.
Chen Xun naturally did not respond. Everyone knew that he had become like Xiang Yongnian, who had lost his mind and attacked his companions. Sure enough, he let out a low roar and rushed towards Liu Qingbo.
Unfortunately, this was the wrong decision. Liu Qingbo waved his sword and penetrated Chen Xun’s neck. Chen Xun desperately tried to grab onto Liu Qingbo, but in the end, he lowered his hands in vain.
Dong Zhi clenched his fists. They had lost another companion.
If this was reality, then who among them could survive until the end? He couldn’t help but think of Long Shen. If it was him, he would leave behind the corpses of thousands of monsters, but such a strong man never stops for the world. It was the world that stopped for him.
Liu Qingbo continued holding his sword in place and his long-suppressed emotions finally broke out. “I don’t want to be consumed like this anymore. I want to go back to the Special Administration Bureau and look. I need to know whether it’s training or reality because I don’t believe that everyone around me has been killed!”
Li Ying frowned and said, “Calm down. I think it’s best for us to find a large army first and then move out of the city.”
Liu Qingbo: “What do you mean by a large army?”
Li Ying: “If everything is real, then the government will definitely organize a retreat. If it’s just training, it’s better to rendezvous with Zhang Song and the others first, then find a way to hold out until it’s over. It’s impossible to keep us trapped in this world.”
Liu Qingbo disagreed, “Then it’s better to go back to the Special Administration Bureau to ask clearly!”
Li Ying shook his head and said, “If this is training, do you think you can just find someone back at the Special Administration Bureau? You also saw what happened to Xiang Yongnian just now.”
Liu Qingbo tilted his chin slightly, not concealing his arrogance. “That’s because he’s too weak!”
Originally, although Liu Qingbo had a deep background, he still maintained a certain degree of politeness in front of Li Ying. After all, Li Ying’s father was a consultant to the Special Administration Bureau, and Li Ying himself was born on Mount Maoshan, so his background was no less than Liu Qingbo’s, but at this moment, Liu Qingbo had finally stopped maintaining his superficial politeness and insisted on returning to the Special Administration Bureau.
Seeing that no one wanted to go, Liu Qingbo snorted coldly, and without saying goodbye, walked out with his sword in hand. He walked quickly and, after a short time, left the mall and disappeared into the distance.
Li Ying looked at Dong Zhi and asked, “What do you think?”
Unlike Liu Qingbo, Li Ying took Dong Zhi seriously. He knows that although Dong Zhi looks harmless on the outside, his actual abilities aren’t that weak. His potential may be even greater than Ba Sang’s, who looks quite domineering in his own appearance. After hearing Boss Wu’s intention to recruit Dong Zhi into his group, Li Ying had always maintained a good relationship with him, as was in line with his usual behavior.
This time, however, Dong Zhi didn’t speak on his behalf but rather asked, “What about these ordinary people?”
Li Ying said, “The world is vast, and they are not the only ones. We can protect for a while, but not for a lifetime.”
Dong Zhi understood and pondered for a moment before saying, “Well, you go meet with Zhang Song and the others, and I’ll stay here to guard. I just saw a semi-closed building on the other side of the mall. We should be able to hold out there for a while. After you rendezvous with them, you can come back.”
Li Ying knew that Dong Zhi couldn’t leave these ordinary people alone. He couldn’t help feeling that Dong Zhi was too kind and soft-hearted, but he couldn’t say anything condemning. After all, there’s nothing wrong with the other party doing this. As a member of the Special Administration Bureau, he shouldn’t leave ordinary people behind at such a critical moment. Although, his reason wouldn’t be as magnanimous as Dong Zhi’s.
Having said that, a kind companion is better than a ruthless one who would stab you in the back or abandon you at a critical moment.
“Okay then,” He nodded and looked around at everyone. “Who wants to go with me?”
Chi Banxia slowly raised her hand. “Brother Li, let me join you.”
Li Ying smiled. “Okay!”
Chi Banxia’s had limited combat power, but she was closer to Li Ying and naturally would want to go with him.
Ba Sang pondered, “I am cooperating well with Dong Zhi, so I’ll stay with him.”
Gu Meiren said, “I’ll stay too.”
Li Ying knew that they had a better relationship with Dong Zhi, but he didn’t care. He nodded and looked at the remaining Liu Si. “What about you?”
Liu Si thought for a while, then said, “I’ll go with you. When we find a large army, someone needs to come back and tell them.”
Li Ying stopped dawdling, got up, and said, “Alright. Before the zombies return, let’s take this chance and move out.”
He also said to Dong Zhi, “Take care. As soon as we find a helping hand, we’ll come back to help you!”
Dong Zhi nodded. “You be careful too.”
The two groups parted ways as the ordinary people shrank to the side at a complete loss. Seeing Li Ying and the others leave, they timidly asked Dong Zhi. “Are you leaving too?”
Dong Zhi comforted them and said, “No, we’re staying.”
The attack from the three monsters just now killed, in addition to Chen Xun, two other ordinary people. One was a young girl, and the other was a middle-aged woman. Luckily, they were stopped in time by Li Ying and Ba Sang, so there were no more casualties.
While the young girl seemed to be alone, the middle-aged woman had a son who was about ten years old. He had been crying for his mother and was being comforted by a woman next to him. He regarded Dong Zhi’s group as enemies as he looked at them with hatred through his wailing.
Dong Zhi felt a headache coming on as he said, “We didn’t kill your mother. She was bitten to death by a zombie. If we didn’t deal with it, she’d soon come to turn you into one. She no longer recognizes you after she was bitten, understand?”
The child responded with a sharper cry. If it weren’t for being hugged by the woman next to him, he would have run towards Dong Zhi to hit him. His cries attracted a few zombies to enter the mall, and their numbers started increasing. Ba Sang stepped forward and kicked the leading zombie while Dong Zhi found a silk scarf somewhere on the ground and ripped it in half, stuffing one piece into the kid’s mouth while using the other half to tie up his hands.
“Mff, mff, mff!” The child stared menacingly at Dong Zhi, as if he was launching death waves at him.
Dong Zhi looked at the woman next to him and said, “Keep an eye on him. Don’t let him make a sound. Otherwise, it’ll attract more zombies. The three of us can escape, but you will all die!”
Since his face was kind and amiable, even if he pretended to be fierce, it didn’t have much lethality. However, given the situation, whether it be the zombies or their life hanging on by a brink, his tone was flat that it served as enough deterrence to make several of the women nodded profusely as they obeyed his command and took the initiative to hold the boy’s leg to prevent him from moving.
Turning around, Dong Zhi saw three zombies besieging Ba Sang, who had his vulture assisting on the peripheral. Unfortunately, he was quickly outnumbered as a swarm of zombies quickly gathered. Under Gu Meiren’s flute, the speed of the zombies was slightly slowed down, but it was only for a short time. Seeing as Ba Sang was about to be grabbed by a zombie from behind, Dong Zhi held his sword in one hand and a talisman in the other. He kept running towards the zombie until he got close enough to slash its neck.
It could be because his strength wasn’t strong as he failed to cleanly cut its head off like Li Qingbo did, but it mattered not. If one strike won’t work, just strike a few more times! Dong Zhi pulled back his sword and slashed again, using more force this time. The sword blade embedded into the gap he made just now and cleanly cut off the zombie’s spine, causing it to collapse onto the ground.
He found that climbing more than 30 floors up and down from the rooftop daily wasn’t a complete waste of time. At least he was able to practice his kung fu tona in the process and, at the same time, work on his physical strength. It wasn’t visible at that time, but during such a critical moment like this, it had revealed itself. Although his reflexes weren’t as light as a swallow, compared to a month ago, it was a world of a difference. His speed of running and his reactions were much more explosive than before.
He pasted the talisman on the head of the zombie, and it ignited, turning into a raging fire that covered its entire head. The zombie roared, falling over and bumping into other zombies, giving time for Ba Sang to breath.
While Ba Sang focused on strength, Dong Zhi focused on skills. Their cooperation had developed from unfamiliar to tacit understanding, and their efficiency in fighting zombies had significantly improved. With a snap, the last zombie fell as its neck was twisted by Ba Sang.
Seeing that there weren’t any new zombies coming in, the three of them wiped off the sweat on their foreheads and rested. Gu Meiren turned her head and saw the child was still struggling desperately while staring at them intently. She put the flute to her mouth and played a minor melody that made the child’s eyes heavy, and he quickly tilted to the side afterward.
Ba Sang gave her a thumbs up. Upon seeing this, Dong Zhi breathed a sigh of relief. People’s lives are the cheapest in troubled times. Seeing the corpses of the zombies, they had gradually started to realize this. Some of their identities can be easily distinguished by the clothes on their bodies.
There were white-collar workers in suits, students in their school uniforms, old men and women, and even children. They had walked on different paths in their lives, but now they all had the same fate in the end.
Dong Zhi sighed softly, looked around at the survivors behind him and said to Ba Sang and Gu Meiren. “This place is located in the middle of a shopping mall, so it’s too dangerous. If there are too many zombies, it’ll be easy to get overwhelmed. Let’s move to a corner over there first.”
Ba Sang and Gu Meiren had no opinion. They moved to the southwest corner of the mall together. There was a separate area here where they could see the movement from outside, and with two walls as a natural barricade, it wasn’t easy for them to be attacked on all sides.
They hadn’t eaten for a while, and after so many encounters, everyone was starving. Ba Sang’s and Dong Zhi’s stomachs grumbled while Gu Meiren covered hers, trying to hold back the sound.
“How are you, beauty?”
Gu Meiren said softly, “I’m okay. Just need to take a break.”
Dong Zhi said, “Maybe you are too hungry. Did you bring any food with you?”
Everyone shook their heads. They were originally going to go to a restaurant nearby, but who would have expected a crisis like this to suddenly happen.
A woman took out half a bottle of water. “I still have some water here. Would you like to drink some?”
Dong Zhi thanked her and took the water and handed it to Gu Meiren.
“It’s not good to go on like this. Everyone needs to eat something. I remember there should be a supermarket on the ground floor here.”
Ba Sang said, “I’ll go. You stay and rest!”
Dong Zhi grabbed him and said, “I’ll go. You still have a lot of strength left. There are old and weak women and children here. If something happens, you can still hold them off for a while. It’s more convenient for me to act alone. I’ll come back soon after I find food.”
Seeing the worried eyes of Ba Sang and Gu Meiren, Dong Zhi smiled and said, “Don’t worry. I’m well equipped!”
He put his backpack on the ground and checked its contents. His wallet is useless for the time being, but since it was light, he’ll take it with him. After all, it did contain important documents. He had developed a habit of carrying talisman papers and cinnabar with him since the incident at Tianyuan Building in Yangcheng. He would usually paint a few talismans when he had nothing to do and had accumulated around 50 talismans so far. 30 sheets had been used and there were about 20 remaining, which is a bit small for his supply but should be enough just for a trip to the supermarket. He could always paint more when he returns.
He took out the talismans and put them in a stack in one pocket and left his backpack at the base. He mounted the Qingzhu Sword on his back and set off. He could feel the burning gaze of everyone from behind him without needing to look back, as they were looking at him for the very last time. He couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry and couldn’t help but ask, “Can you stop staring at me like this? It makes me feel as if I’m never coming back!”
“Be careful and come back safely!” Gu Meiren said.
Dong Zhi made an OK gesture to her, turned around, and walked towards the escalator entrance. The path was calm, and there were no zombies on this floor. Not long after the crisis occurred, the escalator was still running. Dong Zhi didn’t rush down but stood by its entrance as he turned on his phone, clicked on a song, and pressed play.
His phone didn’t have signal since the crisis broke out, but he could still play songs that were originally downloaded on his phone. The sound was loud and clear on the phone’s speaker and soon attracted the attention of the zombies. They gathered around the escalator, following the breath of the living as they staggered towards Dong Zhi.
The escalators have two directions, one going up and one going down. Since the zombies weren’t intelligent, many of them piled on the escalator going down and weren’t able to move up. As more zombies gathered, the area got crowded as they all started piling on top of each other to board the down escalator. Dong Zhi thought it was quite funny to see the scene of a bunch of zombies trying to go up but struggling.
The zombies who came from the other side slowly came up the escalator. As one was about to reach the top, Dong Zhi kicked it with one foot, causing it to fall, and like dominos, all the zombies behind it fell with it. Taking his chance, he got out his sword and stepped onto the escalator and pierced the zombies’ necks before they had the chance to get back up.
The Qingzhu sword was extremely sharp. As long as proper strength was used, it could cleanly cut off the heads of zombies. With the increased usage, his proficiency with the sword had also increased. Before, it took him up to three attempts before he could kill the zombies, but now he only needed a single cut to slice them cleanly in half.
After solving the problem around the escalator, he guessed that all the zombies around the first floor should basically be solved. He turned off the song and continued to walk towards the supermarket with his sword in hand.
The supermarket was a mess, with items scattered everywhere, most likely due to everyone leaving in a panic after the chaos erupted. There weren’t any signs that the supermarket had been ransacked as there were still many things left on the shelves. He found a shopping cart and started putting food and water into it.
His goal was clear. He selected foods that were easy to carry, mainly things like bags of instant noodles, various cookies, and candy like chocolates. The higher the calorie, the more energy it can provide. He mainly only took pure water and functional drinks, like those loaded with vitamins. The shopping car was quickly filled with things that it became difficult to push. He had to selectively discard some drinks that were too heavy and refocused on efficiency on the lowest number of trips he’d need to make.
Beep, beep.
Dong Zhi suddenly turned around! The sound came from behind him, several aisles away. He didn’t plan to check out the noise as he stood there waiting for a while. When he didn’t hear the sound anymore, he hurriedly pushed the cart out.
Beep, beep, beep.
The sound was eerie as it echoed in the empty store, especially when he knew that there couldn’t possibly be living people around. Dong Zhi accelerated his steps as he held the cart with one hand and his sword with the other. He vigilantly surveyed his surroundings as he continued moving forward.
The wheels on the shopping cart made such loud noises as it rolled on the ground that he was afraid he’d miss the eerie sound that was coming from behind him, so he slowed down his pace and started to push it slowly.
Beep, beep, beep.
The haunting noise was getting closer. Dong Zhi suddenly stopped and swung the sword behind him. A black shadow flashed past within his sight, so fast that he didn’t have time to see his opponent clearly, but Dong Zhi knew that it was one of the monsters that had attacked them earlier.
They were also in the supermarkets! With a crash, the monster jumped between the rows of shelves in the aisle and disappeared in an instant, leaving behind a smashed alarm clock.
…It was an alarm clock held by the monster. Was the monster using it as bait? Truly, they were much smarter than average zombies. This thought made him shiver with fright as all his hair stood up!
No matter how fierce a zombie is, at least they weren’t fast, and they could be defeated using conventional human wisdom. These monsters, however, could set up “traps” and “decoys” to lure humans in. When combined with their strength and speed…
He didn’t dare to think about it anymore. This monster must still be hidden somewhere in the supermarket, secretly looking for an opportunity to attack. Dong Zhi quietly took out a talisman from his pocket.
Could he attract Heavenly Thunder in an underground place like this? If he couldn’t, he would be paying the price with his life. He didn’t dare bet on it, so he held a Sunlight Talisman in his hand just in case. This talisman was a basic talisman that was taught to those who had just gotten started in the Hezao Sect, but Master Fang had told him that no matter how basic things were, they could play a huge role. The most important thing was to familiarize himself and be able to use them freely.
His heartbeat was getting faster, and the palms of his hands were already covered in sweat. Dong Zhi gritted his teeth and pushed the shopping cart forward. It made a loud clanging noise as it rolled by itself past a few aisles before gradually slowing down. At this moment, a dark shadow suddenly appeared on the shelf in front of Dong Zhi. His opponent hadn’t fallen for his trick but went straight for him! His trap was seen through by the monster!
Dong Zhi reacted too late. When he threw the talisman in his hand at the monster, it ignited in mid-air as it swept towards the monster’s face. The monster dodged and avoided it as it clawed towards Dong Zhi’s head. He stepped back quickly and swung his sword out just in time to slash at the monster’s arm!
With a howl, the monster’s elbow was cleanly cut off. It roared fiercely before jumping to the ceiling and disappearing. Dong Zhi didn’t think that such an injury was enough for the monster to lose its combat effectiveness. Since it had brains, it most likely would hold a grudge against him.
He got to the shopping cart, quickly arrived at the elevator, and pressed the up button all in one breath. When the elevator door opened, he pushed the shopping cart in first. Suddenly, he felt a light breeze hit him from behind. Dong Zhi was alert the whole time. Not bothering to turn his head, he stabbed his sword directly behind him.
Miss! The monster let out a low growl and opened its mouth, hitting his face with its foul breath. In the next second, a Sunlight Talisman was attached to its forehead.
“The Ancestors of the Sanqing who sit above the throne. The mighty Heavenly King of Swords turns talisman into fire. Royal edict!”
With a boom, the monster’s head burst into flames as Dong Zhi quickly retreated into the elevator. The elevator door slowly closed as the monster rushed towards him! Its upper body had entered the elevator, jamming the door.
“Roar!” It bared its yellow fangs that were dripping with saliva as its claw stretched towards Dong Zhi, just inches away from his forehead.
Too close!
The distance between him and the claws was barely half a meter long! The prey was right in front of it. Seeing its opportunity was about to be lost, it rushed towards the elevator to jam the door from closing with its body.
Suddenly, a sword was pulled out and inserted into its throat. Dong Zhi had his back against the elevator wall as he gripped the hilt of the sword tightly before thrusting it forward vigorously. The blade penetrated the monster’s head, piercing out from the other end.
The monster fell to the ground, causing the elevator to shake uncontrollably due to the sudden weight. Dong Zhi took a deep breath, then raised his sword to cut off the monster’s head before kicking its heavy body out of the elevator. He squatted down and examined the monster’s head.
He could still see vague facial features on it. It seems to have mutated from a human, but it really looks similar to the Licker in those American movies. The difference was that this monster was completely dark all over and the flesh of its head was stretched open by the bones below. The original eyes were missing, replaced by two black ones, and its nose was high and bulging. This most likely was because after its visual degeneration, its sense of smell replaced its need for vision, which is why it could accurately find him every time.
After leaving the elevator, Dong Zhi picked up a coat on the ground and wiped his Qingzhu Sword to clean it. He then pushed the cart and walked towards where Ba Sang and the others were. In the past, when he first got the Qingzhu Sword, he would clean it every day after practicing and would sometimes take it out to polish it so he could admire it from time to time. Now that he had started using it as a real weapon, he felt even more gratitude towards its original owner.
If it weren’t for Long Shen giving him this sword, it would be unknown whether he could have survived for this long.
Ba Sang and the others had been waiting anxiously for him and got angry when he hadn’t returned for a long time. If it weren’t for the old and weak, plus the women and children, he would’ve gone down to find Dong Zhi. Everyone was happy to see him return safely with the food. Ba Sang hurriedly ran towards him and helped him push the shopping cart.
“Thank you for your hard work!” He patted Dong Zhi on the shoulder.
Dong Zhi shook his head and took the mineral water handed to him by Gu Meiren. He drank most of it in one gulp and only then felt he had relieved some of his dehydration.
“Just now, when I was down there, I ran into another monster.”
Ba Sang’s and Gu Meiren’s expressions changed drastically.
“But you’re okay?!” Gu Meiren scanned his body up and down.
Dong Zhi nodded his head. “How is it here? Is there any news from Li Ying?”
Gu Meiren sighed. “No.”
Dong Zhi said, “This building is dangerous. I suspect that there are still many monsters lurking in the dark. The electricity in the mall may not last much longer. Haven’t you noticed? The air conditioning is no longer as good as when we first came in…”
Before he could finish his sentence, the lights above his head suddenly went out and the entire mall fell into darkness, causing the group of ordinary people to scream.
Dong Zhi: …
Gu Meiren, Ba Sang: …
Gu Meiren cried, “Stop jinxing us!”
Dong Zhi covered his mouth. “I’m shutting up now!”
Ba Sang was worried. “Is there no emergency light in the mall?”
“There is!” The teller said. “There’s a unified emergency power supply on this floor in the electric room. I know where it is!”
In this kind of weather, coupled with the current mood, it was inconceivable what a muggy and sweltering night it would be to spend inside the mall. More importantly, there were monsters hidden in the dark, which became more lethal with no light to protect them.
Fortunately, this look lasted only a few seconds before Wu Bingtian continued, “Third place, Zhang Song. Fourth Place, Liu Qingbo…” and he continued on until he named all 20 people.
“…All in all, the written exams and interviews represent everyone’s most intuitive level, but how far you can go in the future is not determined by them. I believe you’ll be able to learn a lot more in this next training course. I hope you’ll make persistent efforts and have the courage to keep climbing! Next, we’ll begin today’s training session.”
Seeing everyone sitting upright with their ears pricked up, he couldn’t help but smile. “The first day of the training course is not from me, but from the Jiang Bureau. Please welcome Director Jiang Jun!”
Amidst enthusiastic applause, Director Jiang Jun walked in. He clasped his palms and motioned for everyone to calm down. He looked around for a while and saw eager eyes and said with satisfaction, “Hello everyone. I’m Jiang Jun. Today’s the first day of your training with the Special Administration Bureau, and I have the honor of teaching you. Our theme today is duty, integrity, and efficiency, and how you can make your contribution to the Chinese dream!”
Everyone: ???
It wasn’t that they had never heard of the origin of this Director Jiang. Rumors swirled that he wasn’t a practitioner but was someone that had been parachuted in from another department. He was quite enthusiastic about speaking and talked incessantly every time his mouth opened. Unfortunately, everything he talked about had nothing to do with training. Ba Sang and the others couldn’t help but doze off after an hour, while Dong Zhi lasted a little longer, and only an hour later did he start to get distracted. Li Ying was the strongest and held on until class was almost over. As a result, his eyes were completely glazed over and listless.
Director Jiang spoke for three hours and didn’t even break for a sip of water in between. It wasn’t until Wu Bingtian came back and announced that class was over that he stopped. As everyone watched the two of them leave the classroom, they all collapsed on their table with a scream.
Ba Sang said in despair, “It won’t be the same kind of course this afternoon, will it?”
Dong Zhi was uncertain. “I don’t think so. Director Jiang must be tired.”
Unfortunately, after their two-hour lunch break, Director Jiang came back and not only didn’t he feel the slightest bit of fatigue, but he was also actually in higher spirits and went on for another three hours. Everyone felt anguished in their hearts and suddenly felt that there was no God.
Even Li Ying, who was the most astute, couldn’t bear it.
It was a bit easier to get through the afternoon session. Director Jiang finally left in the evening. Everyone was afraid that he was going to say he’d be continuing tomorrow, but fortunately, he left without saying anything, so it gave them a glimmer of hope.
“Shall we go to dinner?”
At the end of the day, Ba Sang stammered when he spoke. He had to rub his eyes hard in order not to fall asleep and leave a bad impression and had used up almost all his willpower for half of his lifetime. The others didn’t fare much better, as Li Ying yawned and asked if everyone would like to have a meal together.
The 20 people in the training class had already formed their own circle of friends. Of the ten that had helped Hui Yiguang, Cheng Yuan and another person had failed the interview, leaving only eight people left. Both Dong Zhi and Gu Meiren are friends with Ba Sang, so naturally they invited him as well as Li Ying and Liu Qingbo.
The other group was headed by Zhang Song. As a disciple of the Longhu Sect, he didn’t want to “succumb” to Li Ying, a disciple of another sect, so he started his own group and brought several rising stars to his side. There were three people in it. One was named Ou-Yang Yin, who was good at divination. Another was Zhou Yue, who came from a line of feng shui masters. Finally, there was a young girl named Xie Qingning. She was secretive about her abilities, so no one knew what she was good at.
These three, like Zhang Song, didn’t want Li Ying to stand out as their “de facto leader”, so they naturally banded together.
In contrast, Dong Zhi, who came in second in the interview and first in the written exam, attracted the most attention but had no intention of leading. When Li Ying invited him, he felt relieved.
Li Ying asked them what they wanted to eat. After Director Jiang’s “poison” today, no one had an appetite. Seeing as everyone was lacking interest, Li Yi suggested they go to a hot pot restaurant not far away. It was also convenient as people could eat as much or as little as they wanted.
After climbing the stairs all the way down and condemning the inhumanity of the Special Administration Bureau for their refusal to fix the elevator, everyone finally reached the back door. When they went out, Dong Zhi let out a sound of surprise.
“Left something behind?” Ba Sang asked.
Dong Zhi pointed to the position where the guard would usually sit and said, “The uncle is gone?”
Except for him, no one else lives in the Special Administration Building, so they didn’t realize the importance of his position and how he was always there. Ba Sang casually remarked, “Maybe he went to dinner.”
Li Ying and the others had already walked further ahead, so Ba Sang and Dong Zhi hurried their steps to catch up. As soon as they left the alley, everyone was stunned.
At this time, it should have been the liveliest hour as rush hour had just started. White-collar workers should be heading off from work, children heading back from school, traffic police should be abound directing the congestion, and tourist exploring the city, all converging around the area. The streets should be filled with a mix of cars and bicycles, showing the vibe of a bustling metropolis.
Yet no such scene appeared in front of them.
The bustling streets were empty. A car suddenly drove in the middle of the road and its door flung open, but there was no driver or passengers inside. Briefcases, water bottles, and even armbands from volunteers were discarded and scattered everywhere on the ground.
The center of the country, the heart of the city, was now completely desolated at this moment. It was as if a countrywide emergency was in effect, and everyone was on lockdown.
“What happened… What’s going on?” After a few seconds, Chi Banxia recollected herself.
Dong Zhi remembered his encounter in Yangcheng and said, “I broke into an enchantment set up by a demon before thinking that I had traveled through time and space. It’s very similar to the current situation we’re currently in!”
But were demons really rampant to this point? They were in the center of the capital, just right outside the Special Administration Bureau. Who would dare to create an enchantment like this?
Everyone was shocked to hear Dong Zhi’s words.
“No,” Li Ying rejected. “If you look, extending from here, it will mean that most of the capital is completely empty. I have never heard of a demon that has such great ability!”
“Let’s go back to the Bureau. It must be safe there!” A young man suggested. His name was Xiang Yongnian, but Dong Zhi wasn’t familiar with him.
“I don’t suggest…” Before Li Ying could finish, Xiang Yongnian had already turned around and hurried to the backdoor of the Special Administration Building, and his figure quickly disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Li Ying made an ugly expression. “I suggest everyone continue forward. We are practitioners, not ordinary people. We must find out what happened. If there’s a situation, it’s precisely where we are needed.”
“I agree.”
“Me too.”
Everyone else, including Dong Zhi, nodded.
“What!!!” At that moment, Xiang Yongnian’s scream came from the building.
Everyone’s expressions changed slightly. As they were hesitating whether to go investigate, Xiang Yongnian had already run out again. He covered his neck with one hand and blood kept flowing out of his fingers, quickly soaking his collar as half his shoulder was completely covered in blood.
“Zombies! There’re zombies in the building!”
His complexion drained of color, as if he were a ghost, and he wailed loudly before collapsing motionless in front of them.
“Everything was fine when we were about to go downstairs!” Someone shouted in disbelief.
“Could this be a trial for us?” A different person questioned.
Perhaps it was. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain how the entire world had seemingly changed after they went downstairs.
Ba Sang walked towards Xiang Yongnian slowly while the others stood back. Everyone wanted to know what happened to him. When Ba Sang got close to the body, he squatted down and reached towards its nose, but his wrist was suddenly grabbed.
He was taken aback, and his body reflexively wanted to retreat, but he was gripped tightly. Among the men in the group, he could be considered the strongest, yet Xiang Yongnian’s strength was so far superior to his that he couldn’t break away. As soon as he was about to use his other hand, he saw his opponent slowly raise his head. His eyes were soulless and blue veins were bulging from the area where he was bitten. There was a gaping hole in his neck as blood still flowed freely, yet all Xiang Yongnian did was stare intently at Ba Sang. Suddenly, he rushed towards him, intending to bite him on the shoulder when Ba Sang kicked him in the chest, causing him to fly four meters away. It didn’t seem like he was affected as Xiang Yongnian slowly got up and walked towards Ba Sang again.
He had clearly become a zombie!
Ba Sang let out a whistle, and a vulture came out of nowhere, swooping past everyone’s heads as it swept towards Xiang Yongnian. When his opponent wanted to pounce on Ba Sang again, the vulture pecked directly at Xiang Yongnian’s head. He threw himself onto the group and finally remained motionless.
Everyone was frightened and confused. They didn’t know whether they should continue forward or return to the Special Administration Building. Before they had the chance to think, two more figures appeared at the back door, walking towards them, stumbling in their steps.
One figure was missing an arm, and the other was missing half his neck. Their pace was slow but looking at them was still a terrifying sight.
Gu Meiren exclaimed, “I recognize him. When I came to register on the first day, he was the person who registered me!”
Not everyone in the Special Administration Bureau had extraordinary skills. With regards to this person, he was just an ordinary staff member in logistics.
They couldn’t help but ponder whether this was a trial or a real emergency. There was no sign at all.
After those two figures, more shadows emerged at the doors as zombies started to pour out. Without a second thought, everyone turned and ran.
Dong Zhi wanted to go back to the Special Administration Building to check up on Long Shen and Zhong Yuyi, but the large swathe of zombies that had appeared had now blocked the path. He was pulled hard by Ba Sang and had to run along with him. The zombies’ speeds were relatively slow, so they quickly left them behind.
When everyone reached the sidewalk across the street, they stopped at the corner and all bent over, holding their knees as they gasped for breath.
“How could… this kind of thing happen?!”
“Could it be a training exercise?”
“But I have never heard of this part of the training in the past years!”
“It’s impossible to tell. Otherwise, what kind of sudden training is this?”
“But what happened to Xiang Yongnian just now and those staff member… It’s so realistic… It’s hard to imagine that it’s fake. Is Xiang Yongnian really dead?”
Everyone continued discussing, and some were showing traces of helplessness.
Liu Qingbo scoffed at the reaction of these people. “Whether it’s training or reality, isn’t this the time when we’re needed the most? What are we panicking for?!”
Li Ying gasped. “Qingbo is right. Boss Wu and the others are much more skillful than us. Even if this is reality, they have the means to get away. Instead of worrying about them, we should focus on ourselves. Going forward, we need to adjust our mentality and we cannot treat this as just a training exercise. We have to think of it as real. Think about what happened to Xiang Yongnian just now. Do you want to end up like him?”
These words made everyone’s faces suddenly serious. The sense of mendacity intertwined with the tragic death of one of their companions gave rise to a sense of crisis that was both terrifying and humorous.
In any case, everyone dared not take things lightly any longer.
Li Ying looked around at everyone. “What do you think?”
Liu Qingbo said, “I suggest dividing into two groups to investigate the situation, then agreeing to a place to meet.”
Dong Zhi said, “I think with the current situation, it is better for us not to be separated for the time being, because we don’t know how serious it is yet.”
Liu Qingbo sneered, “Even if there are zombies, they’re just zombies of ordinary people. Or is it you’re afraid you’ll not be able to protect yourself and end up like Xiang Yongnian?!” When he wasn’t in front of the leaders of the Special Administration Bureau, he immediately erected all his spikes.
Dong Zhi pulled on Ba Sang’s arm and showed it to everyone. There was a bruise with five finger marks clearly indented on it that was left by Xiang Yongnian just now. Being able to leave such a mark showed just how much strength he had used at that time.
“The known situation now is that when we’re attacked, we can be injured and bleed. They may be ordinary people turned into zombies, so you’re not taking it seriously, but what if there are other unknowns? The zombies could turn into beasts or evolve into something more frightening in a short period of time. The more people we have, the greater our strength!”
Not everyone could deal with zombies either. People like Gu Meiren’s and Chi Banxia’s abilities weren’t useful when it came to handling zombies.
“You’re right. We better not separate for the time being!” Li Ying nodded as he agreed with Dong Zhi’s words.
Liu Qingbo showed dissatisfaction but didn’t say anything in the end. Gu Meiren and Chi Banxia breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Ying asked Gu Meiren and Chi Banxia to walk in the middle while he and Liu Qingbo led the way in front and Dong Zhi and Ba Sang handled the back. There were two other people with them. One was named Chen Xun, and the other was Liu Si, who were on the side encompassing the girls.
At first, they stumbled upon a few corpses that had fallen on the side of the road, but the further they walked, the more corpses they encountered. The scene was like everyone had scattered from the downtown area and was eventually overtaken by zombies who died on the road as they tried to run away.
Everyone reluctantly went towards the corpses to check on them and found that they were still warm. The touch felt so real that it didn’t seem as if this was some kind of exercise. The deaths of so many people were appalling. Some had missing limbs while others were resurrected as zombies and wanted to attack them but were suppressed.
The streets were empty and occasionally the anti-theft alarms from cars would blare in the distance. It startled everyone at first, but eventually they got used to it and they would turn a deaf ear whenever they hear it now.
The sky gradually darkened and some of the streetlights came on while others were broken, which put an invisible layer of pressure on everyone’s hearts. This was truly like hell on earth and didn’t seem to be a training exercise at all. Their hope was beginning to fade as haziness took over.
Dong Zhi thought about the missing Long Shen and his mood became heavier. Others were not much better than him, but they all tried to prevent their mood from sinking to the deepest level of despair so as to not affect the efficiency of the team.
Li Ying suddenly stopped and listened.
“You guys, did you hear anyone yelling for help?” He asked uncertainly.
“I heard it.” Chi Banxia said.
Everyone else nodded.
Ba Sang said, “It seems to be at three o’clock!”
Li Ying said, “Let’s go and take a look!”
No one had any objections, so they headed that way. The sound of shouting grew louder as they got closer. Eventually, they came upon a commercial building. The building was brightly lit, and corpses were littered around the door. At the intersection next to it, the traffic lights were still working, adding to the unreal-like scene.
Blood marks covered the once bright and clean glass door that left everyone in shock. Li Ying and Liu Qingbo entered first, followed by the others.
The building was a mall that mainly sold high- to medium-end products. Goods were scattered everywhere, and not a single salesperson was in sight. Perhaps people took advantage of the chaos and ransacked the place since they found empty containers everywhere and glass that displayed gold and jewelry was broken into and most of the items in them were missing.
Could a training exercise be realistic to this extent? Doubts started to creep into everyone’s hearts.
After passing through the shopping mall, they finally saw the people that were shouting for help. There were more than a dozen people on the other side, mainly women and children. They piled up clothes hangers and cabinets, forming a circle that surrounded them, and each was holding onto some makeshift weapon, like clothing poles or fire extinguishers. They all had panic-stricken expressions on their faces.
On the other side of their barricade, zombies roared at their prey that couldn’t be seen or eaten. With the arrival of Li Ying and the others, the zombies found new targets to focus on; ones that were not blocked by obstacles and could be easily reached by their fingertips.
The zombies turned around and rushed towards them. Liu Qingbo held tightly to his sword as he jumped a few steps when he saw this. The long sword in his hand unsheathed and he slashed it at the zombie’s neck, taking off its head. It flew high and bounced on the ceiling before falling to the ground and rolling away.
Liu Qingbo’s imposing yet elegant manner was like a rainbow as he slashed several more zombies in a single breath, which was more efficient than Li Ying who was burning them with talisman fire. Ba Sang cooperated tacitly with Dong Zhi. As Dong Zhi controlled the zombies’ movements with his Sunlight Talisman, Ba Sang took the chance and broke their necks.
Unsurprisingly, Gu Meiren’s flute had no effect on the zombies, while Chi Banxia’s witchcraft could somewhat control them, but it worked very slowly, and she was out of just after a short while.
There was also Chen Xun, who was good at martial arts1. It would be fine if there were only a few zombies to deal with, but his two fists couldn’t beat four hands2. He was powerless when he was besieged. Fortunately, Liu Si was there to assist him. Taking out a whip, he snapped it at a zombie’s neck, and with just one flick, he broke its neck. Dong Zhi had to do a double take when he saw this, as he thought of Old Zheng from the Northeast Branch.
1Horizontal Training (横练) Three method of practice: boxing, martial arts, and horizontal training method. It’s referred to as the “three trainings”. It’s basically a mix of kung fu + boxing. See lore for details || I’ll be referring to it as martial arts. 2(双拳不敌四手) Idiom referring to one person cannot be a crowd (AKA being outnumbered).
When the women and children saw their saviors, they were overjoyed. Seeing that all the zombies had been wiped out, they got even more excited and shouted loudly.
“Come here!”
“Come in to avoid them!”
When the team had finally resolved the last zombie, they retreated into the barricade. The place was originally a jewelry store but had now been transformed to accommodate around a dozen people. With Li Ying and the others, it caused the space to become a lot more crowded, as now more than twenty people were inside.
“What the hell is going on?!” Liu Qingbo asked anxiously.
A teller wearing a uniform from a luxury brand answered his question. “I don’t know. I was on duty tonight, so I came over half an hour early. Not long after, the colleague who I was taking over her shift left, then suddenly I saw her running back being chased by several zombies1…”
“They’re called jiangshi1. Jiangshi2 are not the same as zombies.” A young girl corrected her.
1Clarity: There are two terms being used here. The teller is calling them [Jiangshi] (僵尸) which refers to the Chinese hopping zombie/vampire while the young girl corrected her saying they are zombies [Sangshi] (丧尸) as the normal zombies that most people think of. Both translate to zombies, but they are different types. 2[Jiangshi] (僵尸) Chinese hopping vampires/zombies. They are reanimated corpses in Chinese legends and folklore. See lore for details.
The teller continued, “I saw my colleague being thrown down and bitten to death by those zombies, and the whole mall erupted in chaos. I was so frightened that I hid in the fitting room and didn’t come out until a long time later and ran into them.”
“There are also more zombies outside. I came from outside but ran in here to avoid them. Later, we had to bar ourselves in here since we could no longer leave until you guys came!” The young girl said.
Hearing their stories, it seems that these people and their experiences were pretty much the same. No one knew where the zombies came from or how.
If the zombies could spread this quickly that it took out an entire police force, wouldn’t an army stand no chance?
Dong Zhi and Ba Sang looked at each other as if they seemed to have the same thought. They both felt it was odd, as they thought to themselves. ‘’Can it be that it’s really just a training exercise? But then how can they explain all these people that are in front of them?’
This wasn’t a blessing that they found this suspicion, but it invariably increased their vigilance. Even if it was a training exercise, it only showed that the level of practice this time was very high to the point where they could possibly lose their life at any moment. No one wanted to be the next Xiang Yongnian. What they wanted to do was pass this training period smoothly.
“There’s more than that!” A middle-aged woman shivered as she cried, “I was outside just now and saw something that had a red body and could lie on the walls. I saw it jump from the eaves of a building towards a person as it pierced their heads with its claws…”
“Licker*! That’s a Licker!” The young girl cried out so loudly that it made her voice hoarse.
*A fictional creature from the Resident Evilseries. The Licker has lost the use of its eyes and cannot track prey by sight. Their super-developed hearing, however, more compensates for the loss. Upon detecting potential prey, it will attack full force with teeth, tongue and claws, often alerting others of its kind in the vicinity as well.
“What is a Licker?” Li Ying asked with a frown.
The girl was so scared that she stuttered her words. “It’s from… that’s right, a movie… American movies…”
“There’s a series of American movies called “Resident Evil”, which is based on the game. It mentions the Licker in it. They have much stronger mobility and attack power than zombies and are difficult to deal with.” Dong Zhi clarified, helping the girl out.
The girl nodded desperately.
As soon as he finished speaking, the ceiling collapsed with a bang, startling everyone, but nothing came through. Seeing that all his companions weren’t in good shape, Li Ying said, “Let’s take a break here for now and plan for our next step.”
No one had any objections. They all sat on the floor and didn’t care much about it. Zombies could vaguely be seen passing by from outside. The women and children were frightened, so Li Ying let them stay in the inner area of the barricade while their group sat on the periphery.
“I’m questioning if this is a training exercise for an emergency situation. If that’s the case, what task do we need to achieve in the end?” Chen Xun, who was usually taciturn, suddenly spoke.
Chi Banxia glanced at the group of ordinary people before she hesitantly said, “Could it be that we need to protect them?”
Liu Qingbo said, “Maybe we need to go back to the Special Administration Bureau, but we just now went in the opposite direction.”
While talking, another piece of the ceiling collapsed not far away. This time, everyone thought it was just a building issue, so they didn’t pay much attention to it. Suddenly, in the next moment, a black indistinguishable creature jumped out of the hole in the ceiling behind their backs and landed directly in the middle of the crowd.
The young girl screamed as her shoulder was bitten and her entire body was picked up. The monster moved so quickly that Li Ying and the others only had time to grab onto her ankles.
Liu Si attacked the monster with his whip, causing it to throw the girl’s body at him with a flick of its neck. This forced him to catch the girl and prevented him from landing any more shots, giving the monster the chance to attack its next target.
Another monster suddenly swept down from the ceiling and pounced onto the middle-aged woman who was fleeing from fright. It happened to be in a blind spot where Li Ying and the others had no time to rescue her. The monster’s claw pierced directly into the woman’s head as it bellowed out a scream and withdrew its claws that were covered in blood. The body of the woman fell limply as the monster licked the blood on its claws.
The fragile alliance instantly fell apart. Everyone screamed and hid behind Li Ying and the others for protection.
Dong Zhi found that compared to the zombies before, these monsters- although their appearance wasn’t the same as the Lickers in the movies, their combat capabilities were indeed much higher than ordinary zombies, and they seemed a lot smarter as well. They specifically targeted ordinary people and deliberately hurt them, but not kill them, causing the other ordinary people to scream and panic, thereby disturbing Dong Zhi’s focus and judgment.
He grabbed a talisman and threw it at the monster that was rushing towards him. The talisman burned in mid-air and shot like a rocket towards the center of the monster’s forehead. The monster quickly reacted and turned sideways to avoid it as it used one of its claws to grab it. Fortunately, Dong Zhi was prepared and had thrown out another Sunlight Talisman. The talisman made contact with the monster and burst into flames. The monster roared in pain and turned around to retreat, rushing towards the others.
With his sharp sword in hand, Liu Qingbo was invincible. He didn’t take these monsters seriously at all, as any of them that approached him were easily cut down by him. Three monsters seemed to be aware of his lethality, so they gradually stopped approaching him and turned to other targets instead.
Ba Sang summoned his vulture to fight the monsters, but their mobility was more agile than his vulture. Under their claws, the vulture was wiped out within a few swipes. Chen Xun was in an even more precarious situation since he had to fight them with his bare hands. His clothes were ripped in several places, showing off wounds from the monster’s claws.
Chi Banxia and Gu Meiren were protected in the middle. Gu Meiren kept trying to control the monsters with various flute sounds and finally found a tune that could slow them down for a few seconds. This was enough time for Li Ying and the others to quickly counterattack.
Chin Banxia’s witchcraft had no effect, so she could only serve as everyone’s eyes and ears, pointing out to the team any sneak attacks being made.
Finally, with everyone’s combined efforts, they were able to kill two monsters while a third one escaped with injuries. Everyone was exhausted from the battle, and all collapsed on the ground, laying there immobile.
Kinky Thoughts:
Interesting turn of events…
—
Horizontal Training (横练)
Referred to as the “three trainings”, it encompasses:
Boxing method: It’s the orthodox practice of boxing that focuses on attack and defense and uses this as the guideline for its application for the purpose of self-cultivation. During training, the fist is capable of hitting the air even if there’s no physical obstacle.
Martial arts method: Hitting the object quickly using martial arts. Training involves rapidly punching sandbags, hitting wooden stakes, kicking objects such as trees, brick walls, ect. to stimulate oneself, but by no means is it comparable to “heavy” kung fu or an experienced boxer. This method is for the inexperienced that cannot refine qi and regulate their dantian, and training is more impromptu than following a set of guidelines, thus could result in hidden damage to oneself and affecting one’s body.
Horizontal training method: Special training in Chinese boxing that exceeds the physical capabilities of an ordinary boxer. Training method includes strengthening all parts of one’s body to the extreme, such as using your body, legs, arms, chest, ect. to break objects like bricks, wooden boards ect. In short, this method is designed to cultivate a special offense and defensive skill that surpasses ordinary people. It is a combination of combining kung fu and boxing together.
Also known as the Chinese hopping vampire/ghost. It’s a reanimated corpse in Chinese legends. They are typically depicted as a stiff corpse dressed in a Chinese shroud that moves around by hopping with its arms outstretched. It kills living creatures to absorb their qi, or “life force”. It usually moves at night and during the day it will hide in their coffins or dark places.
The Qing Dynasty scholar Ji Xiaolan mentioned in his book Yuewei Caotang Biji (閱微草堂筆記) (c. 1789 – 1798) that the causes of a corpse being reanimated can be classified into either of two categories: a recently deceased person returning to life, or a corpse that has been buried for a long time but does not decompose. Some causes are described below:
The use of supernatural arts to resurrect the dead.
Spirit possession of a dead body.
A corpse absorbs sufficient yang qi to return to life.
A person’s body is governed by three huns and seven pos. The Qing Dynasty scholar Yuan Mei wrote in his book Zi Bu Yu that “A person’s hun is good but the po is evil, the hun is intelligent but the po is not so good”. The hun leaves his/her body after death but their po remains and takes control of the body, so the dead person becomes a jiangshi.
The dead person is not buried even after a funeral has been held. The corpse comes to life after it is struck by a bolt of lightning, or when a pregnant cat (or a black cat in some tales) leaps across the coffin.
When a person’s soul fails to leave their deceased body, due to improper death, suicide, or just wanting to cause trouble.
A person injured by a jiangshi is infected with the “jiangshi virus” and gradually changes into a jiangshi over time, as seen in the Mr. Vampire films.
The Licker is a fictional creature from Capcom’s Resident Evil series. It first appeared in the video game Resident Evil 2. It has appeared outside of video games, including in films. It is one of the most iconic creatures in the game series, as a result of a further mutation in zombies infected with certain strains of the T-virus. This process is known as V-ACT. The Licker is noted for its large, exposed brains; lack of skin; sensitivity to sound; and its eponymous tongues.
The Licker has lost the use of its eyes and cannot track prey by sight. Their super-developed hearing, however, more than compensates for the loss. Upon detecting potential prey, it will attack full force with teeth, tongue, and claws, often alerting others of its kind in the vicinity as well. Weapons that emit very little sound, such as the bowgun, are especially useful.
There are also different forms of Licker. Once it has ingested flesh, it will mutate into a stronger, faster hunter. It has been regarded by critics as the most terrifying monster in Resident Evil.
Kinky Translations 