Chen Liexue.
‘This name sounds so familiar…’ Lin Huai, behind the door, was trying hard to dig into his memories.
He instinctively placed his hand on his chin, his thumb rhythmically tapping his jawbone: “Chen Liexue… Chen Liexue…”
‘That’s it.’ A flash of inspiration struck his brain, ‘Chen Liexue, Chen Xing, the leader of the Chen Xing Mercenary Group?’
After figuring this out, he continued to look through the peephole at the man outside. Despite the sweltering heat, the man outside was still draped in a long black coat, his figure tall and slender. He was handsome, with phoenix eyes that tilted upwards, and an aura that sent chills even in the scorching summer.
Leader, traitor… The first thing that came to Lin Huai’s mind was “catching an affair,” no, “eliminating a traitor”…
His eyebrows couldn’t help but twitch, and the needle in his heart’s scale began to sway between “catching an affair” and “eliminating a traitor.” Before he could react further, footsteps were heard on the stairs.
Then, a hand with distinct knuckles picked up the remote control, and the electronic lock on the door clicked open with the press of a button: “Come in.”
As the door opened, a thin layer of mist drifted in. Chen Liexue entered the room with the scent of the wind. He shook the water off his long umbrella and leaned it against the umbrella stand outside.
After entering, his sharp eyes swept across the room and stopped on Lin Huai’s face.
Then, they didn’t move again.
Next, he scanned Lin Huai from head to toe with a look of suspicion, mixed with a hint of self-doubt.
“Have I seen you somewhere before?” Chen Liexue asked.
“What?”
“You look familiar,” he said, “In reality, or in some Instance?”
His gaze made Lin Huai’s scalp tingle—any man would feel the same when being intensely stared at by another man a head taller, especially when that person took a step closer and stared at his face unabashedly. He took a step back, secretly tiptoeing to meet the other’s gaze: “Hehe, that’s normal.”
“What?”
Lin Huai said, “Handsome people often look alike, while ugly people each have their own unique features. You’re not the first to say I look like Wu Yanzu.”
Chen Liexue: “…”
Seeing that the other was still staring at him, Lin Huai shrugged and gestured to the side, “Please.”
With his gesture, Chen Liexue finally withdrew his gaze. He casually placed his coat on the nearby sofa and went upstairs.
“…Wearing a coat in such hot weather, aren’t you afraid of the heat?” As soon as Chen Liexue went upstairs, a muffled voice came from the sofa, “Are you cosplaying as Gin or a Men in Black?”
Chen Liexue didn’t respond. He looked around the living room and sat on the chair: “Looks like you’re doing well.”
As he spoke, he frowned when he saw the other’s attire: “Did you just come back from an Instance?”
“Yeah,” the person on the sofa lazily replied, “Obviously, I almost lost half my life.”
“You said you had no plans to enter an Instance these days,” Chen Liexue frowned, “What kind of Instance was it?”
“Boring,” Chu Tianshu quickly said, resting his chin on Pikachu’s head and lifting one eyelid, “Boring food, boring statues, and no Wi-Fi… But at least I confirmed some things, though I got beaten up for it… Tsk.”
As he spoke, his amber eyes flashed in the sunlight and turned towards the downstairs direction.
“Confirmed what?”
“A conjecture,” he said.
“…Another one of your pseudo-scientific theories?” Chen Liexue bluntly retorted, “I’ve told you before, those things are meaningless. You’ve always been like this…”
“So I left Chen Xing,” Chu Tianshu lazily said, “And another person told me that he thought it was good that I’m like this. Not everyone is as pragmatic as you…”
“And then he disappeared,” Chen Liexue coldly said, “That’s the fate of idealists.”
The room fell into silence, with only the sound of rain outside and the ticking of the clock. After a while, Chen Liexue spoke again: “I didn’t come here to argue with you…”
“Stop, stop, stop,” Chu Tianshu covered his ears, “You just hurt me, I don’t want to talk to you now.”
Chen Liexue didn’t speak. He waited for a while, but Chu Tianshu maintained his ear-covering posture, turning around and showing the back of his head to him.
After a long while, he said, “Five hundred thousand.”
“RMB?” Chu Tianshu opened one ear, “Am I the kind of person who would sell out my principles for money?”
“Central Coin,” Chen Liexue said expressionlessly.
Chu Tianshu maintained his ear-covering posture, turning his head away for a moment, then turning back.
“Alright, ten minutes,” he said.
After holding onto his principles for ten minutes, he let go of his ears: “Speak, what’s the job?”
“A commission from the Central Realm,” Chen Liexue handed him a brown paper bag, “Go to a low to mid-level upgrade world and find something. Chen Xing is too busy in the Advanced Zone, so it’s up to you.”
“Oh…” Chu Tianshu flipped through the contents of the bag, “What’s the name of that world?”
Chen Liexue didn’t blink: “Civilization World.”
During their conversation, Lin Huai had been lying on the sofa on the first floor. He looked around, having nothing to do and not wanting to disturb them, so he simply looked down at the floor, counting the tiles.
‘Rather than staying here, I might as well look around,’ he thought, and stood up with his hands in his pockets.
The layout of Chu Tianshu’s first floor was quite bland. He wandered around the living room for a while but found nothing of interest. Just as he was about to give up and go upstairs, a soft “meow” came from his feet.
All his hair stood on end at that moment.
‘Hehe, hehe,’ he forced a laugh, ‘It’s just a four-legged creature, I’m not afraid of it, not at all.’
He stiffly turned his head and saw an orange cat lying by the sofa, staring at him with an eerie persistence.
A ghost and a cat stared at each other, both with wary eyes. After being stared at by the cat for a while, he secretly stretched out a long nail from one hand.
At that moment, the orange cat was picked up by someone: “You and it seem to get along well.”
Seeing the cat being taken away, Lin Huai finally secretly let out a sigh of relief and retracted his nail. The young man holding the cat said to Chen Liexue, “Look at you all in black, people might think you’re from some spy training center.”
Chen Liexue put on his coat, took his umbrella, and gave Lin Huai a final glance, nodding slightly in acknowledgment, then disappeared into the rain with his umbrella open.
After Chu Tianshu locked the cat upstairs, he was exhausted and slumped back onto the sofa. Seeing Lin Huai’s strange expression, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Lin Huai sniffed the air, “I thought there would be some murder happening here…”
“This is the 21st century, a society ruled by law…”
“Is he your former leader?” Lin Huai asked, “You two seem to get along quite well.”
After he said this, Chu Tianshu, who had already sunk into the sofa, immediately popped his head out.
“Don’t misunderstand,” Chu Tianshu said seriously, “Our relationship is purely transactional.”
“…” Lin Huai looked at him deeply, “I see.”
“Wait, what do you mean, ‘I see’?”
“How could I bear to blame you for your mistakes, I gave you too much freedom…”
“Love is a beam of light, so beautiful… Stop, stop, stop,” Chu Tianshu said sternly, “Don’t talk nonsense, if there are any discrepancies in future reports, you’ll be held responsible.”
“Then what exactly happened between you and Chen Xing?” Lin Huai crossed his legs, “Tell me about it.”
“Mutual benefit, exchange of interests,” Chu Tianshu said, “Later, our values diverged, so I left the group.”
He thought for a moment and added, “Actually, it had to do with two people. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have left so quickly.”
“Who are those two?”
“One is Chen Liexue’s brother, an arms dealer named Xia Xingye,” he said, “The other is an old friend of mine… someone I was once very… how should I put it.”
He looked at Lin Huai for a long time, racking his brain but couldn’t find the right adjective.
“Someone I was willing to… prepare for a long time.”
“Who is that person?”
“The Crow.”
