·35｜Exclusive to Jinjiang·35 (Bonus Chapter)

Elementary school kids fight by pulling each other's hair.

The more passionate the kiss was just now, the colder Lai Chuan Huang Quan is now.

Lai Chuan Huang Quan was a member of the Time and Space Administration Bureau, so she wouldn't suffer from hypothermia or feel cold, but she felt a chill emanating from within. Her icy fingertips began to turn white, and she huddled in the entryway, leaning against the door, which was chilled by the winter wind, tears streaming down her face.

Her shoulders heaved as Lai Chuan Huang Quan cried uncontrollably. Her eyelids burned, and her vision was blurred by tears.

"Administrator, what should I do?"

She thought the administrator wouldn't bother with such a trivial matter, but after a moment of silence, she heard the administrator ask her:

—Do you like him?

Lai Chuan Huang Quan remained silent, unsure how to respond.

It felt like the company had a strict rule against office romances, but her boss had discovered she was secretly dating her superior. How could she possibly answer? She'd definitely be punished.

Lai Chuan Huang Quan wiped away the tears on his face haphazardly with the back of his hand, but more tears welled up in his eyes.

Lai Chuan Huang Quan sobbed, curling her toes and pulling herself even tighter. It seemed that only by doing so could she feel a moment of warmth.

Her eyes were red and her voice was hoarse: "Why did you have to bring me into this world? I hate it so much."

"If you hadn't come to this world, how would you have gotten to know that commander of the mobile unit?"

Lai Chuan Huang Quan sniffed hard: "Administrator, I need some paper."

As soon as she finished speaking, a newly opened roll of paper fell out of thin air beside her, landing at her feet and rolling twice, stretching the white paper strip.

Lai Chuan Huang Quan tore off two pieces of paper, blew his nose hard, and then sobbed intermittently, "Why did I have to get to know him?"

—"You like him."

“Ugh,” Huang Quan stopped crying, blinking her teary almond-shaped eyes, looking extremely aggrieved: “But, but even if I didn’t know the second-year graduate student, I would still know other people and fall in love with other people. It’s not like I can’t live without him.”

A sense of loss is like a vulture circling overhead, and Yomi Yomi is like a dying person struggling in a swamp. Deeply entrenched, there is no way to save oneself.

She muttered, "Maybe I'll meet some other handsome male employees who come to help me on a mission, and then fall hopelessly in love with them."

But rather than explaining it to the administrator, she seemed to be trying to convince herself.

Lai Chuan Huang Quan sniffed twice, but still cried until tears and snot streamed down her face. She stretched out a roll of toilet paper, crumpled it into a ball, and wiped her face haphazardly.

"I am destined to leave after the mission is completed. And if the mission fails, I will be removed from the mission in advance."

"It's impossible for me to end up with Kenji Hagiwara."

It was this bloody truth that caused Lai Chuan Huang Quan's emotions to plummet from the heights of being confessed to by the person she liked, shattering her into pieces, after she closed the door.

How long can she stay with Kenji Hagiwara?

Six years.

Only six years passed between the first death of Kenji Hagiwara and the last death of Wataru Date.

If Yomi Lai Chuan applied for a time jump to skip the blank periods where no one died, this number would be even shorter.

The moment the relief was completed was the day she said goodbye to Kenji Hagiwara.

The ever-decreasing numbers on the death list not only represent the number of people waiting for relief, but also the countdown to her being taken from this world.

A chill crept into her heart; an invisible hand gripped Lai Chuan Huang Quan's heart tightly, almost crushing it. It felt as if blood was pooling in her lungs, making even breathing a sharp pain.

The pain and despair were like a sharp knife, each cut drawing blood and slicing open her throat.

Yomi Lai knew she shouldn't fall for someone from another world, but she just couldn't help being attracted to Kenji Hagiwara.

Love arises without warning, and deepens with each passing moment. (Note 1)

She loved the apple-flavored hard candy that Kenji Hagiwara peeled off and fed to her; she also loved the bear-shaped cookies that Kenji Hagiwara bought for her, with their crispy shells and sweet fillings.

She loved being carried on Kenji Hagiwara's back as they ran along the riverbank under the moonlight, listening to the wind whistling past her ears; she loved him calling her "soft bread" in his sweet voice. She even loved the feel of kissing him.

I love it, I love it so much.

Taking a deep breath to try to regulate his breathing, Lai Chuan Huang Quan tidied up the dirty paper balls scattered on the floor, took off his shoes, and plopped down on the soft bed.

She lay face down on the blanket and buried her head in the pillow.

Lai Chuan Huang Quan remained silent, as did the administrator. The cold room was dark and damp, with neither air conditioning nor lights on.

The clock hand moved to the next number, and the person on the bed remained in the same position, as if asleep. But her shoulders began to tremble slightly, and then her whole body began to shake.

The pillow was soaked with tears, and sobs that could no longer be suppressed escaped from between her tightly clenched lips. Lai Chuan Huang Quan gripped the pillow tightly, so hard that the flesh of her fingers, which were glued to her nails, ached slightly.

The crying gradually became more unrestrained. Lai Chuan Huang Quan could no longer suppress her emotions. She shed all pretense and collapsed completely.

Lai Chuan Huang Quan had cried before, but this was the first time she had cried so badly, with tears and snot streaming down her face. She wailed and cried, her voice filled with anguish: "Why did you send me? Administrator, you clearly had more suitable candidates under your command, why did you have to send me?"

"Why me?"

"I don't want to like that jerk of a police officer, I don't want to!"

"But I really like him so much."

"Can't!"

"...You can't like him."

On one hand, there was the self-protective instinct to try to escape, and on the other hand, there was the true voice of her heart. These two emotions were constantly pulling at each other, almost tearing Lai Chuan Huang Quan apart. She sobbed until she couldn't breathe, and her body trembled uncontrollably.

She was crying so hard that the administrator, who had been silent all along, finally spoke up slowly:

"The Administration has no regulations prohibiting dating."

But this did not bring comfort to Yorikawa Yomi.

"But I've never heard of a similar precedent."

Even when Lai Chuan Huang Quan spoke, his tone was filled with a deathly oppressive atmosphere, devoid of any vitality.

"Have you forgotten? The administrator I used to work with had two employees who were in relationships."

Lai Chuan Huang Quan replied in a muffled voice, "But that's at least within the Bureau. I've never heard of any employee falling in love with a resident of another world."

The administrator paused for a moment, then asked:

—"1107, you like Kenji Hagiwara, you really like him, don't you?"

Lai Chuan Huang Quan also fell silent. She was thinking, carefully reviewing the details of her time with Hagiwara Kenji, and seriously assessing Hagiwara Kenji's importance in her heart.

After a long silence, she finally answered in a hoarse voice, "Yes, I like him very much."

—"Then say yes."

The administrator's response caught Lai Chuan Huang Quan off guard. She stopped crying and her mind went blank for a moment.

The administrator can detect employees' intense emotional fluctuations. He'd always known that Lai Chuan Huang Quan had actually been crying for the seemingly quiet hour or so just now. He also clearly saw her love for Hagiwara Kenji.

—"Yomiwa Yomi".

The administrator called her name, not that cold string of numbers.

"Don't be timid, just do what you want."

Lai Chuan Huang Quan lifted her head from the pillow. Her beautiful almond-shaped eyes were swollen from crying, pressed together so tightly that she couldn't even open them fully.

Even her eyes, which were brighter than a clear blue sky when she laughed, lost their luster and became dull and lifeless.

“Administrator,” she whispered, “I feel like you’re encouraging me to date that jerk of a police officer.”

I thought you would stop me.

After he finished speaking, Lai Chuan Huang Quan was left with only silence—the administrator did not answer.

The evening wind picked up, whistling through the falling snow outside the window. Just when Lai Chuan Huang Quan thought the administrator wouldn't answer anymore, the other person spoke.

He said:

"No more."

His deep voice, tinged with exhaustion, conveyed the full weight of his life's vicissitudes in just three short words.

—"The Underworld".

The administrator's voice contained emotions that Lai Chuan Huang Quan couldn't understand; it was heavy and suffocating.

"Do what you want."

Lai Chuan Huang Quan frowned: "But..."

"I'll take care of everything."

These four words were spoken very slowly, yet with great force, giving people an inexplicable sense of peace.

After saying this, the administrator remained silent for a moment before cutting off the communication with Lai Chuan Huang Quan, leaving her alone to calm down and think.

Lai Chuan Huang Quan stared blankly, utterly bewildered. After completing the rescue of the last person, Date Hang, she was destined to be removed. But the administrator told her to do whatever her heart desired…

Lai Chuan Huang Quan rolled over, turning from a prone position to a lying position. She stared at the dark ceiling, the scales in her heart gradually tilting towards emotion.

"Hmm..."

Raising her hand, she vigorously rubbed her tired and sore eyelids. The weight that had been hanging over her heart finally lifted. Lai Chuan Huang Quan turned to her side, curled up, and hugged the pillow to her chest.

She softened her voice, her tone still slightly nasal: "Administrator, I'll go and accept the second-year graduate student's dating request tomorrow."

--"Um."

Lai Chuan Huang Quan had long since cried herself to sleep. Now that her worries had been temporarily relieved, she hugged her pillow and closed her eyes. In just a few breaths, she was enveloped by sleepiness and gradually fell into a peaceful dream.

Her breathing slowed, Lai Chuan Huang Quan's eyes were red, and a few tears still clung to the base of her eyelashes. She hugged the pillow in her arms and murmured softly, occasionally rubbing her face against the edge of the pillow.

She slept soundly that night.

...Yeah, right!

Lai Chuan Huang Quan had only been asleep for a short while when the landline phone by the bedside started ringing.

Lai Chuan Huang Quan was so tired from crying that she slept too soundly and didn't hear the phone ring the first time. It wasn't until the second call was almost over that she was groggily woken from her sleep.

Reaching out and groping haphazardly on the bedside table, Lai Chuan Huang Quan picked up the landline phone receiver: "Hello..."

The sound on the other end of the phone was a man's heavy breathing, as if he had just been awakened from a nightmare.

Matsuda Jinpei was panting heavily, as if he had just sprinted twenty kilometers at full speed with a heavy load. He asked, "Yorikawa Yomi, where are you now!"

Lai Chuan Huang Quan rubbed his eyes, his brain, which had only slept for half an hour, was not yet fully awake: "At home."

She spoke in a hoarse voice, her voice sounding soft and sweet from not being fully awake.

Matsuda Jinpei glared at her and said fiercely, "Stay there and don't move!"

He hung up the phone immediately, leaving Lai Chuan Huang Quan with only a busy signal.

"Hmm?"

Lai Chuan Huang Quan frowned and squeezed out a single syllable from her throat. She pouted, rubbed her eyes which were almost closed, hugged her pillow, and lay back down in bed.

Ten minutes later, the loud knocking on the door pulled her from her sweet sleep once again.

Matsuda Jinpei's voice came from outside through the thin wooden door: "Yorikawa Yomi, open the door quickly!"

Lai Chuan Huang Quan sat up in bed. She poured herself a glass of water before slowly opening the door, dragging her tired body.

Outside the door, Matsuda Jinpei had only hastily put on the white shirt and suit trousers he had worn when they met that evening; he hadn't even buttoned all the buttons on his shirt. The collar hung down, revealing a large expanse of muscle.

Matsuda Jinpei leaned against the door frame, panting. He sped to the apartment building, not even waiting for the elevator, and ran up the stairs.

Matsuda Jinpei's forehead was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and a few strands of his hair were damp with sweat. His face was deathly pale, and his deep eyes were filled with terror.

Lai Chuan Huang Quan kept rubbing her eyes, complaining in confusion, "Officer Matsuda, you..."

She only managed to utter half a sentence before Matsuda Jinpei forcefully pushed her back into the room.

When Matsuda Jinpei turned on the room light, the bright light instantly warmed the entire room, making it so bright that Yomi Raikawa couldn't open her eyes. Thanks to her extraordinary self-healing ability, Yomi Raikawa's eyelids were no longer swollen beyond recognition, but her eyes were still sore.

Matsuda Jinpei gripped Raikawa Yomi's shoulders, his gaze sweeping over her again and again. After a long while, he finally relaxed, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and sighed heavily, "Alright, go to sleep."

Yomi Laichuan: ...?

She tilted her head in confusion and slowly squeezed out a question mark.

Matsuda Jinpei withdrew his hand from Raikawa Yomi's shoulder, irritably ruffling his curly hair: "Tch."

Letting out another long sigh, Matsuda Jinpei said slowly, "You can continue sleeping. I'm going back."

Lai Chuan Huang Quan: ? ?

This time, she was completely awakened by the ordeal.

Anger surged to her head, and Raikawa Yomi's eyes widened as she lunged forward and grabbed Matsuda Jinpei's hair: "You came knocking on my door in the middle of the night just to play a prank? You bastard!"

Matsuda Jinpei was pulled so hard he bent over. He grabbed Raikawa Yomi's wrist, trying to ease the dull pain in his scalp: "It hurts, you idiot! Let go!"

Lai Chuan Huang Quan: "You're finished. I'm going to tell on you to the second-year graduate student and we'll isolate you together!"

Matsuda Jinpei: "Are you a middle school student?! Can't you be a little more mature?!"

Lai Chuan Huang Quan: "How dare someone who dragged me out of bed twice in the middle of the night tell me to be more mature!"

Matsuda Jinpei: "Hiss—let go!"

Lai Chuan Huang Quan: "I'll skin you bald!!"

[Author's Note]

Note 1: Love arises without knowing its origin, and deepens with each passing moment. —From the inscription on Tang Xianzu's *The Peony Pavilion* (Ming Dynasty).

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The interrogation scene you've all been waiting for is in the next chapter!! The next chapter probably won't be updated at 8 PM; it'll be a few hours later!

【Time Jump】: A double jump in time and space. The application time limit and requirements are very strict, and the cooldown time is extremely long.

[Spatial Jump]: Displacement. Huang Quan just used it once; the cooldown time is approximately 7-10 days.

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