“I seem to have discovered the truth,” Chu Tianshu said with pity as he looked at him. “All your abnormalities and irritability, along with your misunderstandings of me, are because you have already developed feelings for me.”
……
“…What did you say?”
“This is just a case of survivor’s bias. Because you care too much about me, you always feel like I’m stalking you, always think I have ill intentions towards you, and always believe I have a special interest in you.” Chu Tianshu lamented, “It’s like some narcissistic boys who think all the girls in the class like them…”
A vein popped on Lin Huai’s forehead.
“At the same time, because of your expectations for your future partner, you always project your fantasies onto me. Therefore, you always feel that I am hiding something, and you constantly find abnormal reasons for my normal behavior…”
A second vein appeared on Lin Huai’s forehead.
“But—stop—” Noticing the bark on his head starting to fall faster, Chu Tianshu shouted, startling Lin Huai, “Stop your thinking, recognize yourself, accept yourself—”
“Love is also one of the most important parts of life.” Chu Tianshu shifted his approach, slowly lowering his raised hands until he cupped Lin Huai’s face. “Love makes people numb, love makes people excited, love makes people lose their rationality, and love fills life with coincidences and surprises. Just like in novels, the male and female leads always meet due to inexplicable coincidences, and keep encountering each other. Even if it’s just taking an elevator together, they might get stuck inside for an hour. So, what do our series of encounters and entering Instances together count as?”
Lin Huai: …
“Do you find all this nonsense interesting?” As the saying goes, ‘Use the enemy’s strengths against them.’ He decided to change his attitude and shift the focus, “I really don’t understand why you are following me, and I’m genuinely scared. In such a chaotic modern society, a boy has to be careful about his safety, you know? Who knows if you’re some kind of bad person? Don’t think I was acting fierce just now; I was actually very scared deep down. I was so scared that I almost—”
—almost killed you.
As he spoke, he lowered his hand from the tree, leaving a deep palm print.
“Even though you keep talking about coincidences, I still feel uneasy… Who knows what you want to do to me? From the first time we met, you were always targeting me,” Lin Huai said, feeling wronged.
“…Actually, you make a lot of sense.” Hearing the other party show weakness, Chu Tianshu finally seemed moved and placed his hand on Lin Huai’s shoulder. “If I saw someone who kept appearing in my life for no reason, I would also be scared.”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s put ourselves in each other’s shoes.” Lin Huai blinked slowly. “So tell me—”
He slowed his tone.
“What do you know now? What do you want from me?”
“…Actually.” Chu Tianshu seemed to have thought for a long time before finally saying with great distress, “Everything I just said was to cover up my own feelings.”
“Oh?”
Lin Huai didn’t expect him to admit it so readily, and for a moment, he felt a bit confused. Then he heard the other person’s voice: “Yes, I have indeed been suspicious of you since the first time we met, testing you. Later, I pretended not to know you on purpose and followed you into the Instance, but the real reason is…”
“What is it?”
“It’s because,” Chu Tianshu said, “I have already fallen in love with you.”
Lin Huai: …
“Because of love, I have been watching you, stalking you. I like you, and I want to pay attention to your soul and study your body.” Chu Tianshu said sincerely, without a hint of impurity, “What I just said was also out of guilt, to cover up my own feelings…”
Lin Huai: …
“You can actually say such nonsense.” Lin Huai looked at him with great distress. “Do you still have any shame?”
“How can this be nonsense?” Chu Tianshu said. “Even if you don’t like me, you can’t insult my taste like this… Actually, I have always been very, very focused on you.”
As he spoke, he looked at Lin Huai: “Only this sentence is absolutely true.”
Lin Huai: …
He felt like he had truly been defeated. At this moment, he had only one thought in his mind.
…This person, not only is he reckless, but he also has no shame.
He stared at Chu Tianshu for a long time before finally spitting, shaking off his hand without looking back, and walking forward.
“Hey!” Chu Tianshu shouted behind him, “Actually, I have always thought you were pretty good-looking, smart, gentle and considerate, innocent and cute, kind and righteous… Actually, we could give it a try?”
“Get lost.”
“Calm down!” Chu Tianshu continued to shout, and then he even blew a kiss, “mua~!”
Lin Huai: Creeped out.
In the end, Lin Huai still walked away without looking back, leaving Chu Tianshu standing there. He stood up, looked down at the dent made by his hand on the tree, and let out a sigh of relief.
He was staring at that thing when Liao Guan, who had been ahead, ran back to find him. He patted Chu Tianshu on the shoulder and said, “Dude, what are you doing? You fell behind, you know? Huh? What’s this pit?”
Chu Tianshu: “Probably a groundhog’s.”
Liao Guan: …
Chu Tianmou stood there thinking for a moment and suddenly had a brilliant idea.
As the saying goes, in romance novels, all actions can be rationalized by love. For love, one can imprison benefactors/masters/apprentices; for love, one can wipe out entire families; for love, one can make a grown man pregnant and have an abortion… Chu Tianshu believed he wasn’t so extreme as to make someone have an abortion or wipe out an entire family, but he thought that using love to cover up one’s motives was absolutely permissible and could definitely be explained.
Moreover… Lin Huai was clearly obsessed with various novels and dramas.
Therefore, after calming his breath, he followed after them. When he caught up with the main group, Lin Huai, who was already standing in line, glanced back at him.
A strange alarm rang in his heart, and before more danger erupted, a sentence slipped out.
“Actually, I really think this idea is pretty good.” Chu Tianshu said, “From today on, I have decided to pursue you, Lin Zhishu.”
Lin Huai: “What the hell is Lin Zhishu? Huai = Zhishu?”
Chu Tianshu: “You don’t like this title? How about I call you Sanmu Gu Yilang? Lin plus Huai makes three woods, one ghost, Ghost Yilang-kun, I have decided to pursue you.”
Lin Huai: “Gun.”
“You clearly care about me too, so don’t be shy.” Chu Tianshu tried to wrap his arms around him, “You even took me to the small grove to chat, and you wall-slammed me…”
“Stop.” Lin Huai said coldly. He felt like his brain was filled with water again, looking at the fidgety man in front of him, feeling a chill all over. At this moment, he wanted nothing more than to stay eight feet away from him. “From now on, let’s keep our distance, got it? I won’t come looking for you, and you don’t come to bother me.”
“You’re so unreasonable.” Chu Tianshu pouted. “You’re homophobic.”
Lin Huai: “I’m not homophobic; I’m afraid of you.”
He deeply felt that talking to him would only drag his IQ down to the average line, so he rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and quickened his pace forward.
After he left, Chu Tianshu, who had been rubbing his hands, immediately returned to his original demeanor. He spread his hands to Ruan Tian and said, “You didn’t see anything.”
Ruan Tian: … Okay, newbie.
Chu Tianshu then smiled, “You’re really good.”
‘This is truly terrifying.’ She thought despairingly in her heart, ‘Is the infinite flow already this terrifying? Even a male newbie has to rely on selling his looks to please the big shots for protection. To avoid ubiquitous sexual harassment, it has to come to this…’
Earlier, she had witnessed the entire confrontation between the two from behind a tree. Although she couldn’t hear the voices, she had her own evaluation of the scene.
In her view, first, the black-haired big shot pressed the chestnut-haired handsome guy against the tree. Although the black-haired big shot seemed to be half a head shorter than the handsome guy, it didn’t affect their positions at all, because the chestnut-haired handsome guy even secretly bent his legs to cooperate with the other party…
Then, she saw the black-haired big shot seemingly threatening the handsome guy with a lot of harsh words. The handsome guy, who had been trying to explain and was anxious at first, gradually became flattering. When he finally showed a look that could be described as sycophantic, the black-haired big shot seemed to be quite shocked and stomped his foot before quickly leaving.
Later, the black-haired big shot returned to the group with an even darker expression. And the chestnut-haired handsome guy even chased after him, blowing him a kiss…
‘Got it,’ she thought with a flash of inspiration, ‘Is this the legendary “to entice and then capture”? The chestnut-haired handsome guy, as a straight man, pretended to be the most terrifying mother zero to avoid the harassment of the black-haired big shot, successfully dodging the other’s attack.’
She thought for a moment and decided to record this experience on her phone as a colorful stroke in her life experience.
Actually, Lin Huai’s original thought was very simple. He had always been a very competitive person. Although he didn’t want to expose his identity, Chu Tianshu’s awareness of his identity seemed to be a predetermined fact. Although he didn’t know how much the other party had realized or what kind of person he was—whether he was truly foolish or truly wise—since he dared to follow him to play, then he would play to the end.
—He wanted to see who would expose themselves first.
—The worst outcome would be just to silence this person.
…However, this person.
…He doesn’t play by the rules ah ah ah!!
…No, I can’t think too much. Lin Huai walked ahead, feeling that the sight of the other party throwing kisses and running towards him in a playful manner was turning his rationality to ashes.
To put it in simpler terms—Lin Huai was about to cry from the shock.
He thought this way, while Chu Tianshu was still haunting him. He seemed to have discovered the fun of teasing Lin Huai and ran to his side: “Lin Lin Ge~”
Lin Huai covered his ears with both hands, rolling his eyes and pretending he didn’t exist. Seeing that he didn’t respond, Chu Tianshu shrugged, returned to a normal walking posture, and even hummed a little tune in a good mood.
Lin Huai thought for a long time, hesitated for a while, and finally chose to give up competing with Chu Tianshu.
…Just treat him as a pure silly person. Thinking this way, his mood became clearer.
So he turned to Chu Tianshu: “Speaking of which, that cigarette case…”
“The cigarette case has two words inside.” Chu Tianshu quickly replied.
“What two words?”
“Love once.”
Lin Huai: …
Looking at Lin Huai’s gradually friendly smile, Chu Tianshu raised both hands: “Twinborn.”
“Oh, okay.” Lin Huai smiled. He walked past Chu Tianshu and lightly tapped his head with an iron rod: “You really won’t tell the truth unless you’re threatened a little.”
As he spoke, he felt a piercing gaze on his back.
He turned around and saw a tall, thin man named Zhang Mingge staring in his direction. When he noticed Lin Huai looking back, Zhang Mingge simply pushed up his glasses and shifted his gaze elsewhere.
…This person.
Lin Huai felt very uncomfortable for no reason, and then Chu Tianshu leaned close to his ear and said, “Look, that person has been staring at you.”
“…Aren’t you too?” Lin Huai smiled at him.
“That’s different.” Chu Tianshu replied confidently, “I look at you because I like you.”
“…Are you addicted to playing?” Lin Huai retorted.
“Should I go tell him ‘stay away from my man’?” Chu Tianshu eagerly suggested.
“…You can try.” Lin Huai smiled kindly.
Under his smile, Chu Tianshu looked up at the sky: “Ah, the weather is really nice today…”
Lin Huai shrugged and no longer paid attention to Zhang Mingge’s every move.
The group continued on their way. It was now four in the afternoon, but it wasn’t until three hours later that they finally saw their destination in the twilight.
“This is Jiang Village up ahead,” the driver pointed to the sign ahead and said.
Cheng Xin and the others surrounded the driver all the way, but to their disappointment, this driver really knew nothing about the clues outside of the cigarette case. Soon, they lost interest in the driver, and since the journey was indeed long, after walking for a while, they were all feeling drowsy.
Finally seeing their destination, they all perked up, rubbed their eyes, and looked ahead.
What appeared before them was a desolate village. Even in summer, the roads on both sides were lined with wheat and other green crops. However, surprisingly, there were no farmers in the fields, only a few farming tools carelessly abandoned by the roadside.
