Chapter 37
Gu Xiyu woke up from the forced hibernation two hours later, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying in the school infirmary.
Lu Ziqing was sitting on a chair next to the bed, playing on his mobile phone, and in his mouth was one of the lollipops he had gotten from him earlier.
The game didn’t seem to be going well, and Gu Xiyu happened to see him frowning as he muttered to himself, “You’re such a weak chicken, isn’t it useful to give you such a good gun?”
“So what if I’m an elementary school boy? I only take care of my brother’s emotions.”
Gu Xiyu: “……”
“Brother, are you awake?” Lu Ziqing must have been keeping an eye on him during the game, as after cursing someone, he raised his eyes and suddenly looked at him. He first froze, then unplugged his earphones, quit the game, and came over.
Gu Xiyu took the opportunity to call up the panel and saw that his soul status had returned to stability.
Lu Ziqing frowned and asked, “Why did you suddenly faint?”
But Gu Xi Yu remembered the whisper from his mouth before he passed out and asked in return, “Why did you ask me that kind of question earlier?”
He didn’t expect Lu Ziqing’s expression to be even more puzzled than his: “What kind of question?”
Gu Xiyu did not directly point it out but only said, “Do you still remember what you said to me before I lost consciousness?”
Lu Ziqing paused for a moment and said hesitantly, “I don’t really remember, I was… No one had ever said those words to me before, and I was a bit emotional. Then you suddenly passed out in the office. Everyone was nervous, so I brought you to the infirmary.”
The infirmary was quiet, and there was only one teacher on duty outside.
Gu Xiyu’s fingers gently grabbed the bed sheet and did not pursue the matter any further.
He remembered the main purpose of coming to school today, “The meeting—?
“It’s already over.” Lu Ziqing said, taking out a folder from his school bag and handing it to him.
Gu Xiyu suddenly felt a little apologetic.
Lu Ziqing should have been looking forward to this day, but in the end, he was left to face it alone.
“Little —” probably because of the teacher on duty in the infirmary, Lu Ziqing took the initiative to silence the second word and asked him with a raised eyebrow, “Are you feeling guilty? Your expression shows you are.”
“Don’t think too much, the teacher also knew about your health condition, so she gave me these things in advance. I’ve been in the infirmary with you since then, so I’m not unhappy.” Lu Ziqing remembered something after finishing his sentence and suddenly changed his words, “It’s not that bad either, it’s still rather special.”
“At least, I’ve never heard of a family member attending a parent-teacher conference and ending up needing to be sent to the infirmary.” Lu Ziqing even raised the corners of his mouth and gave a chuckle when he finished.
Gu Xiyu, however, could not laugh and flipped through Lu Ziqing’s student record book in a somewhat complicated mood.
His grades last semester were so poor that Gu Xiyu simply skipped them. Lu Ziqing explained in front of him, “The teacher said that my performance this semester has been much better, and if I keep it up, I might have a chance to move up to the next class at the beginning of next year.”
Gu Xiyu closed the record book, saying, “What the teacher said is useless, you have to reach the target we set in this final exam first.”
Lu Ziqing asked, “What if I can’t do it?”
There was silence for a few seconds, then Gu Xiyu replied calmly, “There’s still a year to go before the college entrance exams.”
There was no excessive explanation, but Lu Ziqing understood.
His little mother would not give up on him.
Gu Xiyu lowered his head for a moment and remembered the male protagonist: “Where is Xu Chengxuan…?”
The moment Xu Chengxuan was mentioned, Lu Ziqing’s expression darkened by a few points.
However, he knew that Gu Xiyu was worried about his disciplinary situation, so even though he was very reluctant, he still replied, “There is no problem, that incident originally had nothing to do with me, Xu Chengxuan was quite honest and did not open his mouth to slander me, so the teacher let me leave.”
“That’s good.”
Today’s parent-teacher conference was not successful, but Lu Ziqing was in a good mood. He wasn’t even angry when he went back to the game and found that the team he was put in had reported him; he was even humming a song as he and Gu Xiyu left the school.
Gu Xiyu sat in the car, his thoughts drifting back to the words Lu Ziqing said in the morning and the image he saw before he fell unconscious.
The space-time realm actually has several different spatial levels, starting with the first level, which has the highest energy. The beings there were all very powerful, to a level that even the Lord God of the Management Bureau could not control. He had never been there, and the branch where he worked was in the twelfth realm, but his true identity was that of the top enforcer of a space-time fortress in the seventh realm.
Comparing a space-time fortress with the management bureau was the same as comparing martial and civilian authority. The fortress was located in one of the most dangerous places in space, and aside from the various dangerous creatures that came from other higher levels or places in the same space from time to time, the fortress also housed several prisoners who were equally dangerous but could not be killed outright as they would be if they were low-intelligence murderous creatures.
That was all Gu Xiyu remembered when he woke up in the ninth-level realm.
As well as some unpleasant memories of his life before he became a staff member of the Space-Time Realm.
The people from the Management Bureau on the ninth level said that the seventh-level time fortress he once belonged to had been destroyed, and even the prisoners who were originally housed there had been reduced to dust; he was the only survivor they could find.
Those in the upper levels had no way to investigate even if they wanted to, and he who might have known the truth had lost that memory.
Later, he found a box that had been sealed off in a special little room with his belongings. He had always had the feeling that if he could retrieve the contents of the box, he might be able to retrieve the missing pieces of his memories and get to the bottom of what happened in the first place, as well as many more memories that he wanted to know.
Including the missing part of his ‘self’.
Gu Xiyu once tried to retrieve it, but failed, and the commander of the twelfth-level management bureau that was with him even got injured. He was asked to take his place as commander as the other party recuperated.
When he asked about the box, the Lord God only told him, “You can’t control it yet.”
So he had to work hard for now.
The Lord God said that if he could complete the task of subduing the Great Demon, it would help him even if he still could not control it by then.
There were two ways to accomplish this task, one was the step-by-step strategy he was currently using, and the other was the simplest and most brutal—to do the opposite; after raising the target’s risk value to 100, seize the opportunity to simply annihilate him.
The worst-case scenario was that the soul fragment may be destroyed in the process, making the Great Demon incomplete even if all the souls eventually fuse. This was actually what the management bureau would like to see, then the Great Demon’s power would be reduced by a level, and it would become easier for them to restrict him.
Truth be told, Gu Xiyu had considered this approach. To him, completing the goal was the primary objective, and the process didn’t even matter.
It was only under the guidance of the mission objectives that he gradually deviated from his initial plans.
And now, he was certain that he could never use the latter extreme method to complete the mission again, and even if unexpected situations happened in the next world, he would do everything he could to suppress the target’s risk value.
Since he was able to recall some memories when he came into contact with the Great Demon, it meant that the other man was probably also a survivor of the fortress, or had some connection to that event.
If he wanted to solve the mystery and retrieve his memories, he might need his help, so he couldn’t let the fusion of the main soul go awry.
Gu Xiyu’s thoughts on mission execution became completely clear and unwavering at this moment.
Lu Ziqing did not know that Gu Xiyu had thought about so many things related to himself in that time of silence, especially since he usually said little, so he did not find it strange.
When the car stopped, Gu Xiyu realized that instead of going home, they had arrived in front of a restaurant.
Lu Ziqing had asked him about his health in the infirmary, but he couldn’t tell him the truth, so he made an excuse by saying, “Maybe I didn’t eat well in the morning because I left home in a hurry, so my blood sugar was a little low.”
He didn’t expect this guy to bring him here to fill his stomach.
If the soul fragments in each world were as easy to work on as Lu Ziqing, then the mission would not be a big problem for him, apart from taking a little more time to complete.
While eating, Lu Ziqing suddenly asked, “Little mom, don’t you want to go see Auntie?”
He was talking about Xie Chunhua.
Gu Xiyu was a little hesitant: “Xu Chengxuan lives there too.”
“It’s not like I’m going to see him, it’s none of my business even if he lives on another planet.”
Gu Xiyu thought Lu Ziqing was being whimsical, until he went on to say, “Don’t worry, I’ve prepared a change of clothes this time.”
……it turned out to be premeditated.
Lu Ziqing’s mind was not hard to guess, and Gu Xiyu probably knew why he would want to go with him to Xie Chunhua’s house. Apart from the fact that there was no Lu Mingren to be wary of, the clingy, rebellious teenager probably thought they’ll be sleeping in the same bed again.
It seems like he forgot that such an opportunity came about because of the unorganized clutter that was piled up in the third bedroom. It had been quite some time now, so Xie Chunhua had probably cleared it all up.
Gu Xiyu and Lu Ziqing called Xie Chunhua before they went over, so she didn’t look surprised when she opened the door and welcomed them with a smile, “I’ve just made dumplings, come in and try them!”
Lu Ziqing smiled and said, “Thank you, Auntie.”
Xie Chunhua had a good impression of Lu Ziqing and looked after him as if he were her own son. She immediately forgot about Gu Xiyu at the side and reached out to take Lu Ziqing’s bag and lead him to the third bedroom she had just prepared, “I knew you might come over with Ah Yu again sometime, so I prepared the guest room last week, you don’t need to squeeze into a bed with him again. ”
At these words, Gu Xiyu deliberately looked at the expression on Lu Ziqing’s face and did not miss the sudden stiffening of the smile on his lips.
He lowered his head to hide the hint of the smile that came to his lips, turned around, and said to Xie Chunhua, “You’ve worked hard, mom. I just had lunch with Ziqing, he even packed one for you. Come over and eat it.”
“Ha, why is Ziqing such a good boy?”
The voices of mother and son gradually moved to the kitchen, while Lu Ziqing was still standing in the doorway of the guest room, staring at the double bed in the room with a deadpan expression.
A blunder.
Because of Gu Xiyu and Lu Ziqing’s visit, Xie Chunhua, who had planned to go to work, simply decided to take a leave of absence to stay with the two children. Knowing that Lu Ziqing would soon be in his third year of high school, Xie Chunhua found many exercise books that Gu Xiyu had used during his high school years: “These are the notes your brother Gu made before, I initially planned to sell them for a little money after he graduated from university, but you can have them.”
The original owner’s handwriting was somewhat different from Gu Xiyu’s, the handwriting in the notebooks was not as flamboyant as the one he usually used with Lu Ziqing, this one was very neat, and you could tell the difference at a glance.
Gu Xiyu was quite worried that Lu Ziqing would catch this and ask him about it, but to his surprise, the attentive Lu Ziqing didn’t seem to notice it this time, and after looking at it a few times, he even praised, “Brother is really good at studying.”
Xie Chunhua was a little proud when she heard her child being praised: “That’s right, he has been very sensible and hardworking since he was a child, and he always came in first in his grade. If it wasn’t for his father and me failing to live up to expectations, we would have sent him abroad to see the world for a year or two.”
Lu Ziqing smiled, flipping through his book: “Actually, it’s not bad at home either.”
“Well, it’s mainly because this child has been particularly fond of those flowers, plants, and landscapes since he was young, so he’s always hoped to have the opportunity to see the scenery and experience another kind of learning atmosphere abroad.”
Lu Ziqing laughed a little and didn’t speak again.
Gu Xiyu pretended not to hear what they were talking about and walked into the bathroom to wash his face, then raised his hand to wipe the mirror.
The boy in the mirror still had one light and one dark eye color, exactly the same as his real eyes. He began to wonder if this was a system adjustment after crossing over, and not the original owner’s appearance.
Gu Xiyu looked at his eyes and froze.
He remembered that back in the Time Fortress, his right eye with the lighter pupil color was blind.
———-
When Gu Xiyu came out of the bathroom, Xie Chunhua and Lu Ziqing were still talking to each other. He took one look at them and walked back to his room to sort out the small, miscellaneous items under his desk.
When he saw the wooden box with many small designs painted on it, he remembered that he had intended to examine the contents properly that day but had been interrupted by Gu Sichuang.
After tinkering with it a few times, he finally opened the lid of the wooden box and took out the yellowing paper inside.
It was a letter left behind by the original owner’s grandfather.
The contents inside shocked him even more.
The original owner’s grandfather said that he had a land deed of great value in his possession. Gu Sichuang was his only child, but because he knew that he liked gambling, it would probably be exchanged for money the moment it was given to him. Not to mention that the amount Gu Sichuang would get might not be worthy of the value of the land, and even if it really was, he would surely lose the money soon.
So the original owner’s grandfather left this note, saying that if he found it before his 22nd birthday, he could find the lawyer who helped him with the will and officially inherit the land according to the contact details and address left on it. If it was not discovered, the lawyer would reach out to him after he turned 22 to inform him of the property transfer and inheritance.
Gu Xiyu sat at the table and froze for several minutes.
This was like a big pie suddenly falling from the sky.
If he hadn’t crossed over and the original owner had simply passed away, would that piece of land have gone around and ended up in Gi Sichuang’s hands?
The land matter was too sudden, so Gu Xiyu could only take out his mobile phone to take a picture of the address mentioned in the note before folding the paper and hiding it back in the compartment of the box.
He needed some time to digest and figure out the matter.
There was no class the next day, so Gu Xiyu and Lu Ziqing naturally stayed overnight at Xie Chunhua’s house. He originally thought he had gotten rid of Lu Ziqing that night, but it turned out that he had underestimated how thick-skinned Lu Ziqing was.
The rebellious boy directly splashed water on the bed, then came to his room with a pillow and quilt in his arms and said, in a very false tone, “Brother, I accidentally wet the bed, can I sleep with you tonight?”
Gu Xiyu leaned against the door and let out a sneer to show that he saw through everything.
Before Gu Xiyu could stop him, Lu Ziqing immediately squeezed in as soon as he finished speaking.
Gu Xiyu could only let him climb into his own bed. The other party forcefully hugged him like a body pillow and rubbed him playfully for a while.
In the end, he managed to get himself excited, and even asked him to help him out.
Lu Ziqing had long discovered that Gu Xiyu’s neck was sensitive from the few times of contact with him, so he deliberately touched it with his lips and kept asking: “…… I’m really hard, help me, okay? I can also help you, little mom, if you wish.”
“Use your hand ……,” Lu Ziqing said. His thumb brushed against Gu Xiyu’s lips a few times, his eyes filled with desire staring at him as he whispered, “Or use here, either way is fine. ”
Lu Ziqing seemed stronger than when they first met, and Gu Xiyu found himself struggling a little harder now.
He tilted his head slightly to avoid his touch and said coldly, “Don’t even think about it, I’m your guardian.”
Lu Ziqing, however, laughed out loud at this and forced Gu Xiyu to face him again, his eyes glowing with irresistible force: “Guardian, isn’t that how it works?”
Of course, in the end, Gu Xiyu was forced to help the young and exuberant youth to manually “put out the fire”.
He did so, more or less with the hope that he might be able to lower the risk value by another wave of points.
However, the process was not as smooth as he had imagined. Lu Ziqing’s dark gaze gradually took on a kind of oppression, his mood dropping the more his body felt pleasure.
When it was finally over, Gu Xiyu heard a notification from the main system, but not in the direction he had expected.
[[Target’s risk value is +5; the current risk value is 40.]]
He was a little bewildered, and for a moment, he even thought that he had heard it wrong.
That was until Lu Ziqing held him by the waist again and brought him back to face him.
Lu Ziqing raised his hand and wiped the side of Gu Xiyu’s lips with considerable force, sending all the stains into his mouth before he lowered her head and bit him hard on the neck.
Gu Xiyu was still reeling from the pain when he heard Lu Ziqing’s hoarse voice accompanied by anger, asking, “Why are you so skilled?”
Gu Xiyu, who finally knew the source of Lu Ziqing’s anger: “……”
If he answered truthfully, wouldn’t that make the risk value of the jar of vinegar double?