Chapter 444 – Palpitations from That World – Exposure (11)
“I’m currently a sophomore, and the coursework isn’t difficult for me. After this storyline ends, if I confess again in a sea of flowers and propose with a hot air balloon… will Tang Tang say yes to me?”
Bai Tang, who had been eating tomato braised noodles, was stunned—he nearly dropped his chopsticks.
“A Nan, you…”
“I remember everything about us—every little moment, my little squirrel prince.” Wen Junnan pulled Bai Tang into his arms. This time, now that he had found him again, he would never let go.
Inside the space, Qiu’er watched the two embracing and couldn’t help but take out a handkerchief to wipe away tears. It was so moving. The master’s power was recovering—he could already recall his past experiences. It wouldn’t be long before he could condense his soul and return to his divine position.
Wen Junnan’s origins were indeed far from simple. He hadn’t fully recovered yet; the spiritual energy Ning Sitong had sensed was merely a trace of his primordial power leaking out. To maintain the world’s balance, he had refrained from releasing it on a large scale.
“It’s fine. Watching A Nan rack his brains to confess every time is actually quite fun.” Bai Tang was both shocked and delighted, unable to tell which emotion weighed more.
He had long realized that his lover was no ordinary person. Every time, he could be chosen by the Heavenly Dao as the Son of Destiny. His mysterious power—even Qiu’er and Xiao A couldn’t trace its origin—while he himself was just an ordinary little squirrel who had narrowly survived after encountering Qiu’er by chance at the brink of death.
The gap between him and A Nan was simply too great. When Anan eventually remembered everything, that might be the moment they would have to part.
The joy in Bai Tang’s heart gradually turned cold. Tears welled up in his eyes, and with a blink, round droplets rolled down his cheeks.
“I’m just so happy. Really,” Bai Tang said.
It had to be said that Bai Tang had honed his acting skills in these small worlds. He buried his sorrow beneath a façade of happiness, and even Wen Junnan didn’t notice.
Aside from the task of preventing the male and female leads from getting together and the matter of the two systems, Bai Tang had almost no secrets from Wen Junnan. At this point, there was nothing left to hide. He decided to lay everything out, even revealing the weaknesses of the bandaged man. Defeating the bandaged man wouldn’t count as him helping A Nan cheat—A Nan himself possessed great strength, and even the Heavenly Dao couldn’t blame him.
Li Tefeng and Ning Sitong each finished half a bowl and came out carrying another. “Hot, hot, hot—make way!” Li Tefeng shouted, the noodles in his bowl almost spilling over. Following behind him, Ning Sitong—her foodie nature fully activated—was no less eager.
Wen Junnan didn’t help, but he kindly stepped aside with Bai Tang to let them pass.
The two of them staggered over and set the bowls on the table, their palms reddened from the heat. Li Tefeng and Ning Sitong exchanged a smile, clearly pleased they had managed to save their beloved tomato braised noodles.
At the staircase on the second floor, Li Pai let out a miserable scream as he tumbled down the stairs, blood splattering everywhere. Bai Tang, Li Tefeng, and Ning Sitong instinctively shielded their bowls—if anything filthy got in, the food would be ruined.
Li Pai was too weak to accuse the others of not helping him. Lying on the ground, he gasped for breath. His right sleeve hung empty—there was nothing left inside.
After losing an arm, Li Pai no longer dared to underestimate players who could leave the game intact. His gaze gradually focused, and his exhausted body was drawn to the aroma of food.
He looked at Li Zhifeng with undisguised longing—more precisely, at the bowl of braised noodles in Li Zhifeng’s hands.
Li Zhifeng covered the bowl with his palm like a lid. “There’s still a bit left in the kitchen. If you want some, go get it yourself.”
It was the habit of someone who didn’t want to wash dishes—so long as he wasn’t the last one to eat, the chore wouldn’t fall on him.
Li Pai also wanted to eat to regain his strength, but after several attempts, he still couldn’t get up. Instead, he only caused more blood to spill onto the floor, and the pain from his severed arm nearly made him pass out.
Ning Sitong roughly guessed that the bandaged man was in a bad mood tonight and planned to amuse himself with the players tomorrow night. With injuries like Li Pai’s, if the bandaged man hadn’t intentionally spared him, there was no way he could have returned alive—unless he was a powerful player like Wen Junnan. But clearly, Li Pai was not.
Ning Sitong went to the kitchen and poured out the last bit of noodles. She helped Li Pai up, intending to feed him.
“Hey, wait.” The moment Li Zhifeng called out to stop her, he regretted it. He didn’t know what had come over him—perhaps he’d just lost his mind for a second. “I’ll feed him instead. Girls shouldn’t look at something this gruesome; you’ll have nightmares tonight.”
As soon as he said this, everyone’s gaze toward Li Zhifeng changed. The others looked surprised and curious, while Li Pai looked disgusted.
Now that the arrow was on the string, it had to be released. Under Li Pai’s murderous glare, Li Zhifeng stiffened and forced himself to take the bowl and chopsticks from Ning Sitong. “Alright, hurry up and eat. You need to fill up before you can recover your strength.”
Li Pai said nothing and cooperated as he was fed, but a bloodthirsty glint flickered in his lowered eyes.
Wen Junnan had no intention of wasting time on their grudges. As long as no one’s life was at risk, he followed Li Tefeng’s attitude—if you liked someone, go after them. If you didn’t pursue the person you liked yourself, were you going to wait for them to come to you?!
According to the game rules, players were not allowed to enter other rooms after the game ended. Bai Tang opened the door to his own room, about to persuade Wen Junnan to go back and rest, when the other suddenly pushed him inside and squeezed in after him.
“A Nan, the rules say—”
“It’s fine. I won’t be punished.” Wen Junnan was very clear now—the bandaged man had been seriously injured by him and wouldn’t dare confront him head-on.
“But…”
Bai Tang wanted to say more, but Wen Junnan cut him off and firmly pulled him onto the bed.
“Go to sleep, Tang Tang. Tomorrow will be a new day. Before long, we’ll be able to see the sunrise.”
There was no sunrise in this parallel space. Bai Tang might have his ultimate weapon of acting cute, but Wen Junnan had his own way of dealing with Bai Tang. Dazed from Wen Junnan’s kisses, Bai Tang could barely keep a sliver of clarity—
No matter what, he absolutely couldn’t do anything intimate with A Nan under the bandaged man’s watch. That bandaged man didn’t deserve to see A Nan’s six-pack abs.
Driven by the resentment of failing to develop abs across more than twenty worlds, Bai Tang fell asleep while touching Wen Junnan’s firm abdominal muscles.
Wen Junnan endured the entire night, his body burning with restrained desire. As the sky gradually turned pale at dawn, he lowered his head and kissed Bai Tang on the lips. “Good morning, Tang Tang. See you tonight.”
Back in the real world, Li Tefeng jumped up from his bed and felt around his body. Seeing that Wen Junnan on the opposite bed had also sat up, he grinned foolishly, showing his white teeth. “Hey, Junnan, guess what I dreamed about last night?”
“A wet dream.” Wen Junnan climbed out of bed expressionlessly, took an unopened tube of toothpaste from the cabinet, and prepared to wash up.
“Bet you can’t guess this—it’s related to you. And there’s also—” Li Tefeng’s words abruptly stopped when he saw Wen Junnan take out a protective talisman and place it on the table.
That talisman was exactly the same as the one Bai Tang had given him during the Thirteenth Step game—down to the slightly curled edge. There was even a scorched mark in the center from when it had blocked an attack for him. It was the very same talisman he had returned to Bai Tang after coming back.
“Why’d you stop? Let me guess—you had a romantic candlelight dinner with a girl and couldn’t sleep all night.” Wen Junnan was very familiar with his roommate’s character and easily guessed what Li Tefeng would have done after the game ended in the parallel space.
“Holy crap—Boss Wen, you’re my boss now.” Li Tefeng hurriedly climbed down from his bed.
“Didn’t you say you were switching to calling Tang Tang the boss?” Wen Junnan walked toward the sink with a towel and other toiletries, Li Tefeng quickly following behind.
“No, wait—about last night… was it real?”
“What do you think? Can roommates have linked dreams like that?”
The parallel space was dangerous. After teasing Li Tefeng for a bit, Wen Junnan stopped joking around. Just because the bandaged man couldn’t make a move against him didn’t mean he lacked the ability to harm someone like Li Tefeng, an ordinary person.
“Then what should I do? It’s really dangerous—I thought I was going to die.” Li Tefeng grabbed Wen Junnan’s sleeve and wailed. Beautiful girls were nice to look at, but his life was more important.
Although the thought of possibly never seeing Ning Sitong again made him feel a bit down, life still mattered more. “If I stay up all night and don’t sleep, then I won’t enter that space, right?” Li Tefeng proposed what sounded like a feasible solution.
Wen Junnan spat out the foam in his mouth. “You can try tonight, but you’ll most likely still be pulled in. Prepare for both possibilities.”
“No—this is so unfair! Other people play games, I’m risking my life! They go home with prizes, and I’m stuck with a crush…”
That was just Li Tefeng’s personality. Wen Junnan didn’t stop his complaining. He casually walked into the sleeping area, grabbed his phone and keys, and headed to the cafeteria. Meanwhile, Li Tefeng’s overly “tragic” wailing earned him two pillows and three smelly socks.
“Shut up, you’re so loud.”
Amid the beating from his other roommates, Li Tefeng’s fake wailing quickly turned into real screams.
Parallel space.
Summoned by the bandaged man, Bai Tang reverted to his original form and ran back to the bandaged man’s residence.
The black aura surrounding the house seemed to have diminished significantly; from the outside, the outline of the building was now visible.
Qiu’er and Xiao A informed Bai Tang of the bandaged man’s current condition. “Don’t be afraid. The bandaged man is injured—he needs to feed on fear to recover. If you produce any negative emotions, he will definitely devour you.”
Bai Tang pressed his lips together tightly, trying his best to stay calm.
“You’re back. Who exactly is that Wen Junnan? Is there anything unusual about him?” The bandaged man no longer cared about Ning Sitong. Right now, he only wanted to figure out Wen Junnan’s background—someone who could seriously injure him… damn it!
Bai Tang played dumb. “I don’t know. Wasn’t he brought in by Ning Sitong as a player?”
The little squirrel had stayed by the bandaged man’s side for a long time and hadn’t interacted with others, so it was only natural that he didn’t know the players’ backgrounds. Combined with his superb acting skills, the bandaged man shouldn’t be able to see through him.
Judging solely from Bai Tang’s expression, the bandaged man would have completely believed that the little creature wasn’t lying. But through his informants, he had seen Wen Junnan holding him intimately and even staying in the same room. Saying they had nothing to do with each other—who would believe that?
“I see.” The bandaged man pretended to turn away. Just as Bai Tang let out a breath of relief, he suddenly struck, wrapping Bai Tang up in his bandages.
“Traitor—die!”
The bandages tightened more and more. Bai Tang’s face flushed red as he struggled to breathe.
“Master, I didn’t betray you.” Bai Tang made one last attempt, hoping to win the bandaged man’s trust through a show of suffering.
“Oh~ I can believe you. Then make one final contribution for me.”