Chu Zehuai didn't know that his dark history had been seen by the plants, and he was still enthusiastically showing Bai Yu the stories of his youth and some strange little objects.

Homemade stick insects, clay pen holders, flower-wrapped fans...

In the end, he even brought a box from beside his bed, which was full of glass beads.

"No one my age can beat me in marbles. I won all these."

Chu Zehuai stood next to a box of marbles. It was obvious that he was trying to remain humble, but he still had a sense of pride.

“Very impressive.”

Bai Yu praised.

The game of marbles is extremely demanding on concentration, eyesight and hand strength. Chu Zehuai's efforts and talent in this area far exceed those of others. No wonder he is regarded as a young genius by others.

As he was talking, Bai Yu saw something on the wall nearby.

That was originally the corner where the boxes were placed. After Chu Zehuai moved the boxes away, the blocked wall was fully revealed.

...

...

It was a very strange pattern: there were two large circles painted in black with a ballpoint pen in the middle, and a circle of regular characters around them.

"What's this?"

Bai Yu was curious. He looked carefully and could barely recognize the vague outline inside the black circle.

Those are two pigeons snuggling together.

"Ah... this... the ones in the middle are my parents, and the characters around them are the days I counted when my parents would return from their business trip."

Chu Zehuai looked at the wall, as if he remembered something, and said in a low voice.

The fourteen-year-old boy couldn't control his expression very well yet and tried to act as if he didn't care, but he was obviously much more depressed than before.

"Feel sorry."

Bai Yu turned the other person's face away, regretting why he had said so much just now.

The young version of Chu Zehuai was almost no different from a normal boy except that he would occasionally express physical pain. For a moment, he did not think of the second point that Lin Mo mentioned.

"It's okay. An investigator's job is very dangerous. I know that. When awakened, all awakeners know that they will most likely die in a mission one day in the future. I am no exception. They are excellent investigators. To leave in this way is... an honor."

Chu Zehuai shrugged and smiled at Bai Yu. However, as he spoke, the smile on his face began to wane and his voice was visibly choked.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault. I shouldn't have let you think about this."

Bai Yu sighed deeply, reached out and hugged the person in his arms, and even conjured up a vine and patted the person's back.

"If you don't want to laugh, don't force yourself."

"No, actually...actually I've been thinking about my parents the whole time."

Chu Zehuai wanted to leave a good impression on Bai Yu, so he always appeared happy. However, when he encountered something related to his deceased parents, he could not maintain his previous state at all.

"I just think that no one likes someone who is taciturn, negative and cries easily."

"I've said this to your future self once, but I think it's necessary to say it again to your present self."

Bai Yu reached out and touched the other person's face, his beautiful phoenix eyes were full of seriousness.

"No matter what you become, I like you very much."

The next second, he saw the other person's eyes were red.

"If you want to cry, then cry."

"No."

"I can lend you my shoulder, wanna come?"

"....Um."

Feeling the other person's hot body temperature in his arms and the slightly wet clothes on his shoulders, Bai Yu remembered Chu Yunrou's instructions. No wonder the other person looked worried. It turned out that this guy had been learning to disguise his emotions since he was a child.

Time slipped away minute by minute. It took a long time to reminisce the past with each other, and it also took a long time to comfort each other. Before we knew it, the moon was already rising outside.

"Chu Zehuai?"

Feeling the breath in his arms gradually calming down, Bai Yu asked tentatively, but did not get the expected response.

Fell asleep.

Bai Yu stood up, carried the person to find Grandpa Chu, and then was thrown two sets of pajamas and pushed into a guest room.

"Shall we sleep together?"

He lowered his head to look at the sleeping face of the person in his arms. Even in the dream, the other person's expression did not look very good.

"Whether it's day or night, his body is suffering from the pain of being burned by fire. I think it will be better if he holds you, so let him hold you."

Grandpa Chu sighed and looked at his grandson with heartache.

I thought Chu Zehuai was done with the pain he endured when he was fourteen, but an accident brought him back to that dark year.

"Okay, leave it to me."

Bai Yu nodded, carried the person into the house, and used all his vines to change the person into pajamas with great effort.

There was no other reason. It was just that the little guy was hugging him too tightly. He looked exactly like the octopus that he had killed and then eaten last time.

After changing clothes, the other party immediately came close again, trying his best to make every part of his skin touch the plant.

After a lot of effort, the two of them finally lay safely in bed.

[I can now detect that his internal temperature is 73 degrees Celsius.]

The system looked at the young man in Bai Yu's arms and said.

[If I were a pile of hay, I would have been burning by now.]

Bai Yu stretched out his vines and weaved the dense vines together to form a small mat, which he covered the back of the person in his arms.

He transforms himself into a place that humans cannot touch, so that the vine mat can touch it. This way, the plant surface that the other party can touch is larger, and it can be cooler and more comfortable.

Sure enough, after the vine mat was covered, Chu Zehuai's expression obviously felt better.

[…..You scared me. I just saw you stretching out the vines and thought you were going to do something. Grandpa Chu was really careless to hand him over to you. He is fourteen years old now, and although he is a Schrodinger's fourteen-year-old, Bai Yu, you have to stay calm.]

The system, which had just been silent for a moment, breathed a sigh of relief.

【I am a moral plant.】

Bai Yu twitched his lips. Moreover, in order to better disguise himself as an ordinary Dongzhou person, he had read the Dongzhou laws several times.

【That's when you pretend. 】

The system glanced at this boss who was once praised by players as the "Big Devil", and regretted that he had not recorded the other party's previous killing spree.

[Bai Yu, how long do you plan to stay here? Don't really indulge in the gentle countryside, we have our own goals. ]

Bai Yu paused and fell silent.

After a long while, he looked at Chu Zehuai who was sleeping peacefully in his arms, and said softly: [...I know, don't worry, we still have a lot of time. ]

[I'm not rushing you, Bai Yu. The world is completely in chaos. Opportunities in troubled times are rare and precious. I want to seize them.]

The system let out a long sigh. It was afraid that Bai Yu didn't just want to gain Chu Zehuai's energy, but was diving into the whirlpool of love.

[Yeah, me too. I will think about it carefully.]

The days as an investigator at the Qinghe City Investigation Bureau were a stable and happy time that Danwu had never experienced before. He had a salary, friends, tasks that were completely stress-free and risk-free for him, and a boyfriend who could make a climbing trellis for him out of clay and go out to play together.

I really haven't thought much about identity and future issues these days.

Plants do not need to sleep for a long time. In the following night, Bai Yu and the system talked about their future plans for the first time in a long time. They talked about everything from the Church of Light to the Four Continents Alliance, from pollutants to blue crystal. When the conversation ended, it was already dawn outside.

The figure in his arms moved and opened a pair of confused golden-orange eyes.

"Feeling okay?"

Bai Yu reached out and touched the other person's fluffy hair.

"It's okay. I haven't slept so soundly in a long time."

Chu Zehuai rubbed Bai Yu's shoulder, then lifted the vine mat, put on his clothes, and walked forward with a hint of sleepiness.

"It's only five o'clock now, don't you want to continue sleeping?"

Bai Yu retracted his vines and looked at the figure holding the sword in surprise.

"Go to the yard and wash your face with cold water, then practice with your sword, and then learn to control your wings."

The not-so-big golden wings spread out behind him. The young version of Chu Zehuai held the Dingguang Sword in one hand and pushed open the door with the other, and then -

Then he got stuck in the door frame.

"It's stuck again."

The other party was angry and anxious. He tried hard to retract his wings, but found that he could not do so. He then tried to pry open the wooden door frame.

“Puff.”

The uncontrollable laughter coming from behind made the boy blush with embarrassment.

"It's just an accident. I haven't gotten stuck that many times."

Chu Zehuai struggled hard against his wings and the door frame.

"If it didn't get stuck many times, then it must have gotten stuck a few times, more than once."

Bai Yu sat on the bed and laughed until he had enough. He admired the other person's embarrassed and blushing face, and then he walked slowly to the door.

"Don't move, I'll help you untie it."

The slender white fingers touched the edge of the wing, and the slightly cool touch made the wings underneath tremble slightly.

After a moment.

"alright."

Bai Yu withdrew his hand and looked at the person who immediately folded up his wings for fear of getting stuck again, and he wanted to laugh again.

"Thanks."

Chu Zehuai swore in his heart that he would never spread his wings before going out again, and then he smelled a faint smell of blood.

Being very sensitive to blood, he looked over reflexively, but after seeing where it came from, his golden-orange pupils shrank sharply.

There was a scratch about three centimeters long on Bai Yu's hand, and blood was oozing out of it.

You can tell at first glance that it was just drawn.

And the suspicious sharp object that the other party had just touched seemed to be only one.

"I....I'm sorry."

Chu Zehuai panicked for a moment.

He is still unable to control his golden wings. Not only is he unable to freely extend and retract his wings, but he is also unable to control his feathers.

As the longest and largest feather on the wing, the feather can be transformed into the sharpest hidden weapon or dagger, which can easily cut a person's neck.

But in daily life, awakened birds can control their feathers so as not to scratch others or other objects.

The young version of Chu Zehuai cannot do this yet. The feathers of his wings do not flap when they should, and they flap randomly when they should not.

"It's okay, it's just a minor injury."

Bai Yu comforted him. In fact, he himself had just noticed this scar which was so shallow that it couldn't be any shallower.

"Well... I'll blow it for you, and it won't hurt anymore."

The boy came up carefully, held his hand, and blew carefully.

The warm breath brushed over the back of his hand. Looking at the other person's extremely serious expression, Bai Yu suddenly felt like teasing him:

"What if I say that this is useless? It's just a psychological effect. The pain will still hurt."

Hearing this, Chu Zehuai was stunned for a moment.

In the past, when his feathers accidentally scratched his relatives and friends, he would do this, and everyone would smile and say that this method was very effective and the wound would no longer hurt after being blown away.

It was the first time he heard such words.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Chu Zehuai held up the hand, his long eyelashes drooping: "How about... I kiss it."

After saying that, he leaned down and kissed the small scar.

A soft touch came from the back of his hand, and Bai Yu was stunned as he did not expect things to turn out like this.

Chu Zehuai didn't think too much about it. After standing up, he subconsciously licked the blood on his lips, feeling a little confused.

His sense of smell clearly told him it was the smell of blood, but why did his taste buds smell like plant juice?