Chapter 40

Click.

A drop of cold water hit his brow.

Lian Yu frowned and waved his hand casually. His mind was still hazy, so he didn't have the energy to delve too deeply into it.

Whoever is pulling this prank, stop it.

Plop. Another drop of water falls.

One drop, two drops, whenever Lian Yu became increasingly sleepy, the drops would fall unpredictably, forcibly driving away Lian Yu's sleepiness with coolness and noise, like some kind of torture.

Lian Yu couldn't bear it any longer and sat up suddenly.

"Stop bothering me!"

"You're awake."

The hoarse voice, like a piece of cloth being rubbed to pieces, mixed with the sound of drops of crisp water, was abrupt.

Lian Yu was stunned.

In a dark and damp dungeon, a young man was hung high by pitch-black chains. His face was pale, tinged with blue in the dim light, as if he had not seen the sun for a long time, and his blood had mostly drained away during his time in captivity.

The chains were tied so tightly that some parts had rusted into the young man's body, and dark blue cracks crawled across his exposed skin.

Lian Yu took a step back, alarm bells ringing in his head.

"Who are you?"

"You don't remember me?" The young man raised his eyes somewhat dully, and looked at Lian Yu with a pair of lifeless eyes: "I've been with you for so long, how come you even forgot me?"

"My name is Number Two."

As the young man finished speaking, Lian Yu's head suddenly hurt. He suddenly hugged his head, but he couldn't stop the memories from rushing in violently.

The picture of memory is hazy, and there is a warm yellow glow in the air. It was probably evening.

"My name is Number Two."

The young man with white hair and red eyes looked at him with a complicated expression in his eyes.

"What's the Number Two? Is our big movie star getting into the role again?"

Lian Yu lovingly cupped the young man's face and rubbed it vigorously, like rolling a ball. He blew softly on his frosted eyelashes, causing his bright red eyes to blink.

"Instead of calling her Number Two, I think I should call her Little Rabbit. Two, Rabbit...don't laugh at my pun!"

The memory flashed by, Lian Yu half-knelt on the ground with his head in his hands, his eyes wide open, and he was gasping for breath.

What is this? Recall who the person on the other side is? Why doesn't he have any impression of it at all?!

The young man in chains suddenly chuckled, and the faint and hoarse laughter echoed in this airtight prison, mixed with the unpredictable sound of dripping water, which made Lian Yu feel creepy.

He met the young man's dark and lifeless eyes.

The next second, a familiar electronic mechanical sound suddenly rang in his head.

[I am Tutu!]

Lian Yu heard a buzzing sound in his ears, like a balloon with air deflated.

The eyes gradually turned into a dark vortex. A gust of wind blew up from somewhere, blowing coldly into Lian Yu's body along the collar and hem of his clothes.

Lian Yu took a sudden step back.

His back slammed against the iron chains, which rattled and vibrated in the rhythm of Lian Yu's trembling. A strong sense of fear and loss of control swelled in his chest, as if his internal organs had been pulled out of an ice cellar and immediately placed back into his body.

"What is your purpose?" Lian Yu couldn't control his distorted tone.

"I'm here to save you." The young man slowly raised his face, tiny specks of light falling into his pupils. "I'm here to take you away."

"Shut up!"

Unspeakable anger surged in Lian Yu's heart, instantly overcoming his fear. He rushed forward and grabbed the young man by the collar:

"What the hell are you guys talking about? What are you trying to say? You all say you want to save me, but why do I need you to save me? Explain clearly!"

The young man was chained to the stone wall, with his head lowered. His hair, which had not been trimmed for a long time, brushed across Lian Yu's brows.

Lian Yu instinctively closed his eyes.

But the next second, something touched his lips.

Salty, rough rust.

Lian Yu suddenly looked at the young man and saw that there were also dark blue cracks crawling under his thin pale lips.

That's rust.

"Who are you?" Lian Yu felt his own voice was like a branch shaking in a rainstorm.

The young man did not answer, but an unfathomable light flashed in his eyes.

"Once I get the timeline in Qin Yi's body, I can take you away from this damn place, and we can live happily together."

"...Timeline?"

Lian Yu remembered the person Tutu had mentioned before as a warning - the tasker who fell in love with the NPC of the small world and stole the timeline to take the NPC away from the small world, and the tasker who lost the timeline and was finally imprisoned in the time wilderness and suffered torture.

"It's you..." He suddenly looked at the young man, "Then who am I? Who is Qin Yi?"

The young man tilted his head slowly: "What do you think?"

Lian Yu shook his head, his body a little unstable.

"I'm a missionary from the Space-Time Administration. Qin Yi... Qin Yi is a defector who stole the tunnel key."

He muttered in a low and fragmented voice, as if trying to convince himself to believe it.

"You believe everything I say."

Lian Yu's heart sank as he met the young man's bright eyes. He finally understood where that light came from. It was pride, madness, and everything being under control.

Lian Yu had to realize one thing now. "All this was told to me by Tutu."

The young man laughed loudly, and his laughter echoed in the prison, hitting the stone walls and splashing on them like a cruel tsunami.

"You've always been like this, so easy to trust others."

"Once your mission is completed and the timeline is back in my hands, that troublesome Qin Yi will die, and we can be together forever."

"What's that expression on your face? Surprised, huh? Did you always think you were the only one completing the mission? Make that expression more often. I like it."

"Mission? What is Qin Yi's mission? He's been kept in the dark and is so eager to know the answer. How pitiful."

"Be angry, but you can't kill me. I am time, immortal and indestructible. No one of you can kill me."

"Want to stop me? It's so simple, just don't fall in love with Qin Yi."

"Xiaoyu, you must remember not to fall in love with Qin Yi."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" Lian Yu covered his head in pain.

The laughter stopped, and the surrounding scene suddenly shattered, like a mirror shattered by a bullet, and the fragments were swept into the swirling water.

In an instant, the sky lost its color.

"Xiaoyu!"

As he called out, Lian Yu sat up and felt pain in his abdomen, causing him to take a breath.

Soon a hand supported him.

It was a beautiful face, but now, the delicate brows were furrowed, and the dark eyes were filled with worry. Those eyes looked at him wholeheartedly.

"Xiaoyu," she held up his face with her hands, "Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? Do you want me to call a doctor?"

Lian Yu blinked.

He heard a mechanical sound in his mind, and a red-eyed mechanical rabbit jumped out, jumping around excitedly.

[Hello, tasker, I am your system Tutu, please check your task!]

The mechanical rabbit chattered incessantly, and the worry in its bright black eyes looking at him grew even more intense.

Lian Yu turned his head to meet those eyes and called out tentatively:

"Little...Mom?"

——

After the stitches on the abdominal wound were removed, Lian Yu sat in the bedroom in a daze.

At this moment, he was on the second floor of a six-story villa. From his angle, he could just see the busy figure of the gardener in the garden outside the window.

A black Cayenne slowly drove in, and a capable man with slicked-back hair and silver glasses got out of the car. It was his father.

In the corridor, a young man walked quickly towards her. She was his beautiful stepmother... and first love.

The two hugged each other stiffly.

"Why does he look unfamiliar?" Lian Yu clicked his tongue.

[Because you were his first love, it's a bit awkward for me to suddenly marry your dad and become your stepmother.] She slurped down the sunflower seeds.

"Don't spit melon seed shells in my head."

[Oh.] Tutu silently swallowed the melon seed shells.

Lian Yu was satisfied. He looked at the two people outside the window, their atmosphere as cold as ice, and stroked his chin. "So, because I'm a scumbag who abandoned my first love, causing him to be forced to be my dad, his resentment towards me is off the charts, and my job is to make him stop hating me, right?"

Tutu nodded repeatedly.

"Then I understand!"

Lian Yu slammed his fist on his palm:

"If you want him to stop hating me, just bring him and my dad together! Once they get along well, my role as matchmaker will be offset, and he won't hate me anymore."

[Good idea! Xiaoyu is so smart!]

"Yeah, just so-so."

Lian Yu raised his chin and looked at his reflection on the computer screen.

His red hair blazed brightly, drawing attention from a distance of several hundred miles. And that wasn't enough; he also had a handsome face, perfect for the entertainment industry, with a high nose bridge, a sharp jaw, and a pair of amber eyes that could make a dog look affectionate. An obsidian stud gleamed on his earlobe.

The more Lian Yu looked at this face, the more satisfied he became. Although he couldn't remember what he looked like originally, his intuition told him that this face would never go unnoticed with him.

Just as he was admiring his handsome face, Lian Yu suddenly caught something out of the corner of his eye.

As if sensing something, Lian Yu lowered his head and looked out the window, while the man under the window raised his head.

Lian Yu was caught off guard when he met those bright black eyes. His heart stopped beating for a moment and he covered his mouth.

"Did he hear what I said?" The voice squeezed out from behind his palm.

The computer suddenly dinged and a new message popped up.

It was his college classmate and good friend Zhou Fei.

[Fei Ah Fei: Yu Ah, let me remind you that the online exam ends at 12:00 tonight, so don’t forget.]

[Light rain today: Online classes? Exams?]

[Fei Ah Fei:? Final exam, you didn't forget, did you?]

[Today's Xiaoyu: Of course not. By the way, let me ask you, which platform is our exam on?]

[Fei Ah Fei: ...I think you want to fail the exam]

[Fei Ah Fei: How dare you forget this? If you really have to ask the teaching assistant for mercy, then you're really done. You know who our teaching assistant is.]

[Today's Xiaoyu: Who is it?]

[Fei Ah Fei: Tsk, just pretend.]

A little yellow-faced emoticon with rolled eyes popped up, and Lian Yu touched the tip of his nose.

Is there any special connection between him and that assistant coach?

But he really didn't know who that teaching assistant was, and the original owner didn't seem to have any memory of this.

Zhou Fei, despite his complaints, was actually quite righteous and quickly sent over the exam link. Fortunately, the computer had a password memory function, so Lian Yu logged in quickly. The webpage indicated that there were still over six hours until the deadline.

The mouse moved to the button to start the exam, and just as he was about to click it, Lian Yu suddenly brought up the chat box again.

[Today's Xiaoyu: By the way, Brother Fei, do you know where I can get that kind of medicine?]

[Fei Ah Fei: Sildenafil, just go to the pharmacy and buy it.]

[Today’s Xiaoyu: I’m talking about the kind… that can improve a relationship between two people, the kind that, how should I put it, warms people’s bodies?]

[Fei Ah Fei:? Torture you, you are getting more and more cruel.]