Chapter 32 The Infinite Boss Invites You to "Eat the Melon" 32. One Way...

At 10:30 p.m., a full hour had passed since Lu Yu walked out of the internet cafe and locked himself in his car.

Inside the dimly lit carriage, there was no vibration from the engine or the hum of the air conditioner; a hollow, deathly silence enveloped everything still, making even breathing heavy and suffocating.

Lu Yu sat in the driver's seat, his eyes vacant and unfocused, like a soulless, silent stone statue.

The projection of the gossip system had disappeared, and his face was now dark and devoid of any light.

Indeed, after talking with Jiang Yan, on his way out of that shady internet cafe, Lu Yu finally clicked on the new content about Pei Yanzhi that the gossip system had unlocked.

Those words seemed like some kind of deadly curse; just one glance at them felt like being torn apart from the inside out, causing excruciating nerve pain.

But Lu Yu still finished reading it.

The entry is far more detailed than the few words or phrases Jiang Yan occasionally mentioned.

It told Lu Yu that Pei Yanzhi's parents did not last long after being involved in the Smiling Game.

They only managed to clear two instances before unfortunately encountering the Black Sea Great White Shark, a creature many ordinary players still avoid to this day, and perished at sea.

The family's pet cat was left unattended and somehow ran away. When Pei Yanzhi found it, half of its body was missing. It was thrown into a trash can, rotting and stiff, crawling with maggots.

Pei Yanzhi buried it.

In the courtyard of our old home, facing the portraits of my parents in the main room, we could barely call it a family reunion.

But this is far from the end.

Not long after, Pei Yanzhi's grandparents, maternal grandparents, aunt, nephew, friends, and classmates all had accidents.

Some of them died in the game, some were ruined by the "pranks" played by some crazy players on Mercury, and some couldn't bear the pain of losing their children, fell ill and eventually passed away.

In the game of Smile, there are certainly many players who achieve great success, enjoying extremely high status and boundless wealth even on Mercury, and society's attention is often focused on them. But what about the many more? There are ordinary people whose stories are so numerous that they can't even be reported on, and who are ultimately summed up in news reports with death tolls.

Countless ordinary people.

Lu Yu also had family, friends, and partners, and he knew what it felt like to lose them all.

He wished Pei Yanzhi happiness and joy, but little did he know that Pei Yanzhi had long ago walked a bloody path far more brutal than many others. The words describing his past were like dull knives, tearing and ripping at Lu Yu's flesh, causing excruciating pain.

[Host... are you alright?]

The "eating melon" system carefully turned on its projection.

As soon as the light appeared, Lu Yuru was startled awake, his stiff body suddenly trembling.

"……fine."

He opened his mouth and realized that his jaw was clenched so tightly that it almost tasted rust.

His hand holding the car keys trembled slightly. His eyes, pressed behind his glasses, waited a few seconds before he sluggishly turned to look at his watch.

He actually sat in the car for so long.

Lu Yu let out a breath, wiped his face, and started the car.

He desperately wanted to see Pei Yanzhi, more than ever before, but Pei Yanzhi had already returned to the game transfer station that afternoon and wasn't home that night.

His hands gripped the steering wheel, tightening and loosening repeatedly, before finally turning and heading towards Chenhun Apartment instead of Xingfu Community.

Pei Yanzhi returned home the next morning.

Smiley Game pulled a new trick in the second phase of the story missions, causing meetings among the major guilds to last at least half a day, chaos at the game's transfer station, and even S-rank players getting into a fight, forcing him to help resolve the situation. He also still held an official position on Mercury Star, so he needed to show up there occasionally.

After all that fuss, an afternoon and a night had passed.

Having not slept all night and dealing with a lot of annoying matters, even with Pei Yanzhi's extraordinary physique, he was somewhat exhausted upon returning.

The thought that he wouldn't be able to rest for more than a few minutes after returning home before having to rush out the door to work again only intensified his exhaustion, leaving him feeling utterly drained and his shoulders and back slumped.

He emerged from the spatial passage and appeared in the dimly lit living room, throwing himself onto the sofa while sighing silently.

The dungeon rewards given by Smile Games do not include large amounts of Blue Star Coins, and prevent all high-value items from Gold and Water from flowing into Blue Star and restrict the ways players can obtain Blue Star Coins. This is to ensure that when they and the players invade Blue Star, they do not attract large-scale abnormal attention and resistance from the people of Blue Star. However, this has made it hard for the wallets of S-level players on Blue Star.

For someone like him who has a proper job, being a little tired is still considered good; for someone who doesn't have a proper job, it's even worse.

Pei Yanzhi slumped on the sofa, closed his eyes, and didn't even want to unleash his spatial power.

"I wonder what Lu Yu is doing right now..."

He suddenly thought.

Subconsciously, he opened his eyes and looked towards the living room balcony, where a row of clothes that had just been washed yesterday were still hanging. Lu Yu's shirt was on the far side, large and conspicuous, unconsciously attracting Pei Yanzhi's attention.

As if guided by some unseen force, Pei Yanzhi got up and walked over.

He stood in front of the clothes rack, looked at it quietly for a moment, then took off the shirt, held it in front of him, lowered his face, and buried his mouth and nose in it.

It all smelled of laundry detergent; Lu Yu's scent had been completely washed away, not a trace remained.

Pei Yanzhi looked up dejectedly, about to put down the shirt and gather up the other clothes that had dried, when he suddenly stopped and turned his head sharply.

At the same time, with a click, Lu Yu opened the bedroom door.

Caught off guard, Pei Yanzhi was so startled that his spatial power surged, and he stuffed the shirt he hadn't had time to put down into his spatial dimension.

"Yan Zhi?"

Lu Yu caught sight of a figure on the balcony and paused as he stepped out of the bedroom. He hadn't expected Pei Yanzhi to return so early.

“It’s me. I came back early,” Pei Yanzhi said, a slight smile playing on his lips. He remained relatively calm, guessing that Lu Yu probably hadn’t noticed his actions. “Didn’t you go back to Chenhun Apartment last night?”

He asked the question very naturally.

"I went back, picked up some things, and then came back." Then, no matter what, I couldn't fall asleep, so I opened both suitcases I had brought and packed them up in the middle of the night, letting my things and my own scent fill the space little by little, like a giant beast building a nest.

If Pei Yanzhi hadn't been so focused on the shirt, but had taken a few more steps and looked around more closely, he would have noticed that there were new cups and tea canisters on the dining table, new ornaments and nightlights on the sideboard in the living room, and even two adorably ugly new penguins sitting on the sofa where he had been sitting for a full half minute.

Lu Yu made no attempt to conceal his intrusion.

"Hmm..." Pei Yanzhi didn't know if it was because he felt guilty or what, but he felt a little awkward, so he raised his hand and pretended to be collecting clothes. While collecting the clothes, he asked, "It's only a little past seven o'clock, it's not the time your alarm clock was set yet, why are you up?"

"I got up as soon as I woke up."

Lu Yu answered and came over to take the clothes: "I'll put them away. You didn't sleep last night, did you? Go lie down for a while."

"It's okay," Pei Yanzhi dared not let Lu Yu collect the clothes; it would be terrible if Lu Yu discovered he was missing a shirt while folding them. "I'm not sleepy. There shouldn't be much going on in class this morning, so I can slack off and take a nap. By the way, how did your chat with Jiang Yan and the others go? Have they joined in...?"

Lu Yu blocked Pei Yanzhi's path as he raised his hand.

Pei Yanzhi paused, then looked up at him.

“If it’s because of that shirt,” Lu Yu met his gaze, “it’s okay, I saw it.”

Pei Yanzhi: "..."

Lu Yu said matter-of-factly, "You miss me, so it's normal for you to smell my shirt. If I were you, I would do the same. Don't overthink it, go and get some rest."

Pei Yanzhi regained his composure.

As he reached out and took the shirt back, he glanced at Lu Yu and said, "A repressed pervert."

Lu Yu raised his eyelids slightly, but did not refute. He simply reached out and took the shirt, gathered a stack of clothes, and sat down on the sofa to start folding them.

Pei Yanzhi glanced at it twice and felt a little reluctant to go back to his bedroom.

He reached out and turned on the living room air conditioner fan, pulled over a thin blanket, and lay down not far from Lu Yu, quietly watching him through the increasingly bright dim light.

Lu Yu was still wearing his silver-rimmed glasses. The frames slid down as he lowered his head slightly, but were caught by his overly high nose bridge, preventing them from falling down.

Silver, an exceptionally cold metallic color, was diffused by the morning light streaming through the French windows, enveloping the man's entire face and making him appear even more aloof and piercing, like ice and snow in the dead of winter. But this coldness was not absolute. Beneath it, however, lay an indescribable gentleness, like spring water, capable of breaking through snow-covered rivers, shattering icy lakes, and reviving all things.

As he looked at the screen, Pei Yanzhi felt his eyelids grow heavy, and sleepiness washed over him. He closed his eyes without realizing it.

Lu Yu stopped what he was doing and turned to look at Pei Yanzhi.

A moment later, he leaned down and approached him.

Immediately afterwards, a gentle power was cast, and an even gentler kiss landed on the sleeping person, tender and precious.

“We will be a family,” Lu Yu said softly as the morning light spread and the rosy dawn streamed through the window, “as long as you wish.”

Pei Yanzhi's sleep was short, only a little over half an hour, but he slept very soundly and woke up feeling very refreshed, as if fully recharged. Because he was often by Lu Yu's side, even though they weren't in the same room, he often had such a rare good sleep, so he didn't suspect anything at this moment.

Lu Yu cooked two bags of frozen dumplings. Pei Yanzhi got up, and the two ate while waking up, briefly discussing the plot mission and the results of their conversation with Jiang Yan.

Most things went as planned, except for the new tricks played by Smiling Game, which made Pei Yanzhi a little uneasy: "After failing with the first Godhood fragment, Smiling Game might have gotten anxious. This time, they actually broke the established plot rules, changing the players participating in the second phase of the mission from the top ten in the exploration mission to the top two hundred in the points ranking. As long as they are S-rank players within this range, regardless of whether they are allowed to participate in the early mission phase, they can enter the story mission for the second Godhood fragment."

"Although players other than the top ten don't have any exploration points, as the number of people increases, the situation will inevitably become more chaotic, which will be disadvantageous to us..."

Lu Yu paused for a moment: "I don't think we need to worry too much about that."

Pei Yanzhi looked up.

“The second phase of the mission runs from Wednesday to Sunday, which happens to be our company’s team building time. The team building location is on Hailuolan Island, you should know that, but you probably haven’t looked up how much a single person’s self-funded ticket to Hailuolan Island costs,” Lu Yu held up his finger, “13,000 one way, 26,000 round trip, in Blue Star coins.”

Lu Yu reported a number that was terrifying for humble cattle and horses.

"Based on my understanding of players, there probably aren't many in the top 200 of the leaderboard who have this kind of financial resources, right?" Lu Yu asked the probing question.

Pei Yanzhi fell silent.

He didn't know whether he should be happy for Lu Yu or sad for the players.

After discussing the second phase of the story mission, Lu Yu talked about his conversation with Jiang Yan last night. The two of them decided to have a small meeting after get off work tonight to formulate a plan and distribute some of the materials needed for the mission.

...

Early Wednesday morning, just as dawn was breaking, three buses painted with the Fengdu Group logo swayed and drove onto the elevated road, heading towards the airport on the outskirts of the city.

One of the buses was packed with employees of Laughing Media Company. Since it was just past six o'clock, far from their usual wake-up time, while the other buses were filled with laughter, singing, and dancing, all that could be heard on their side was snoring and people slumping over.

Lu Yu and Pei Yanzhi mingled among them, sleeping quite soundly.

The reason it's considered "still acceptable" is entirely based on Lu Yu's unilateral opinion.

Although the two were sitting next to each other, Pei Yanzhi didn't approach him at all. He was worried that if he fell asleep, he might lean against him, so he very cautiously erected a spatial barrier. Under everyone's watchful eyes, Lu Yu couldn't keep using his abilities, so he could only lean helplessly against the spatial barrier, pretending that he was leaning against Pei Yanzhi.

Sleeping like this was really boring, so Lu Yu woke up quickly. He checked the route and realized he would be at the airport in less than half an hour. So he took out his phone and decided to check the team building schedule in the group chat.

As soon as he lifted his finger, a piercing screech of brakes suddenly rang out, accompanied by a violent lurch.

"Holy crap!"

"It hurts!"

"My phone!"

"What's wrong?"

Why did you brake suddenly?

A sudden stop sent everyone lurching forward and backward, jolting them awake. Some clutched their heads and cried out in pain, others groaned as they fumbled for their phones, and still others craned their necks, peering intently ahead. The bus, which had been relatively quiet except for the occasional snoring, instantly erupted into chaos.

The accident happened before we even arrived at the airport?

Lu Yu also raised his head.

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Author's Note: [Keep it up!] Thank you all, little angels, for the nutrient solution and landmines! Tomorrow, to celebrate reaching 3,000 nutrient solution points, I'll do a small bonus chapter—a combined 6,000 words!