Chapter 44 The Infinite Boss Invites You to "Eat Melon" 44. Every night...
The stone statue forest has split into two distinct factions.
Behind Pei Yanzhi, the Great Prophet, Xiao Qian, and the others were either astonished or bewildered, not knowing how things had developed to this point.
Lu Yu, surrounded by a group of players led by Lin Xiaoman and Lao Bai, stood in the shadows of the jungle, his face displaying an unprecedented coldness.
He gazed at Pei Yanzhi, his eyes growing farther and farther away, fading into indifference, as if in an instant, they had gone from being intimately close to being complete strangers.
“We share the same goal. I hope that even if we are no longer allies and lovers in the future, we will not become enemies,” Lu Yu said calmly through the ripples of the spatial passage. “If we are enemies… I will not show any mercy.”
"Lu Yu!"
Pei Yanzhi's expression turned to one of deep sorrow, and he strode forward.
Lu Yu, however, stepped back.
The power of space swept through, and Pei Yanzhi's attempt to block it grazed past Lu Yu's clothes, missing its target.
The stone statue forest suddenly became empty; Lu Yu, who was confronting him, along with the players around him, had all been teleported away.
Pei Yanzhi's empty hand froze in the wind.
His expression turned terrifying in an instant.
The great prophet and the others looked at each other in bewilderment.
A few seconds later, the great prophet spoke up: "You should at least tell me, what exactly is going on?"
Pei Yanzhi stood in the shadows, his back to the crowd, and remained silent.
Seeing this, Xiao Qian swallowed hard and whispered what Lu Yu had said when he led them out of the instance.
Basically, Pei Yanzhi suddenly attacked him in the underwater secret chamber, but he was on guard and survived, though he was injured. Zeng Ming and Qian Yue then appeared, intending to kill him together. Since he hadn't fully recovered and couldn't control the power of the rules, he had to summon a portion of the natural disaster's power to amplify his presence and scare them away.
After Qian Yue appeared, Lu Yu could tell that Pei Yanzhi might have been affected by the Heart-Piercing Sword, but as he said, the Heart-Piercing Sword requires a loophole to be created before it can be used to kill.
He thought he had established a certain level of trust with Pei Yanzhi, but he never expected that trust to be so fragile. If it hadn't been exposed, it would have been fine, but now that it had been suddenly revealed, it would be difficult for them to continue as lovers or comrades-in-arms. This meant that a rift had formed at its very foundation.
"……is that so?"
The great prophet's gaze fell on Pei Yanzhi's isolated figure.
The figure remained motionless and silent, offering no rebuttal.
This is tantamount to tacit agreement.
The great prophet sighed.
"Now... what do we do?" Wang Kun seemed a little dazed. "The captain's situation... is understandable, right? No matter how close the relationship, it's impossible to have complete trust and no reservations, isn't it? Didn't the boss admit that he didn't trust the captain either? It's mutual!"
Xiao Wan whispered, "I think he never truly trusted the captain from the bottom of his heart, otherwise why would he have broken off relations so decisively? It's like he used him and then discarded him. He used the exploration points, and he also copied away the spatial power and the Great Prophecy Technique..."
"Alright," the great prophet interrupted them, "one was used, and the other was injured. They're both angry, which is understandable. Let's talk again when it's light and they've calmed down."
The great prophet looked at Pei Yanzhi's retreating figure and said to him, "You two are lovers and allies. You can't act so recklessly."
“This alliance has never been stable,” Pei Yanzhi suddenly said.
The great prophet paused, "What?"
Pei Yanzhi turned his face slightly, about to speak, but suddenly realized something, frowned sharply, and then the power of space suddenly twisted, sweeping away everything.
The scene in front of Ji Chengchuan shattered instantly.
His face darkened, he cursed under his breath, but did nothing more.
After Lu Yu and the others left the instance, he could no longer spy on them. However, since they did not leave the Stone Statue Forest, and the tree hole stone statues were part of the instance, he was able to use a medium to peek a little more.
Although we can no longer see more or learn the secret of Lu Yu and Pei Yanzhi's alliance, this is enough.
"What a fine parting of ways! The probability of Jiang Yan's intelligence being an opportunity far outweighs that it is a trap."
Ji Chengchuan gazed at the boundless night and the vast ocean, "My time to make my move has finally come. But just in case, it's best to..."
The rest of the words were swallowed back down his throat, with only the faint sound of the sea breeze.
Meanwhile, inside the Stone Statue Forest.
Everyone sensed the surge of spatial power and subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, slumping their shoulders.
"Is it over yet? Nobody's watching, right? My god, I'm exhausted," Xiao Qian plopped down on a tree root. "I don't know why, but this feels even more tiring than playing the innocent, heartbroken heroine in a dungeon. I refuse to believe this won't seduce Ji Chengchuan..."
Wang Kun and Xiao Wan huddled together like brothers in distress, cautiously observing Pei Yanzhi's expression: "Captain, we just followed the script exactly, we didn't add anything. The lines were exactly like that, like Boss Lu of Yin Yang and stuff, so don't blame us..."
Pei Yanzhi ignored them and rubbed his face.
If we're talking about challenging tasks that truly test acting skills, then it has to be the two main characters, him and Lu Yu. What are these minor supporting characters, these 18th-tier actors, arguing about?
"Alright, pack up and let's go back."
Pei Yanzhi said as he swiped open his phone.
Not long after Lu Yu and his group left, his phone started vibrating intermittently, clearly Lu Yu was secretly sending him a message.
"Yes, Captain!"
Upon hearing that the show was over and they could finally go back to rest, Xiaoqian immediately jumped up. Halfway up, she remembered something and asked in confusion, "By the way, Captain, I'm still wondering, since we've already performed, why didn't we finish that scene and explain why the alliance is unstable? Didn't we prepare the script?"
“After thinking about it, I think it’s better not to say anything,” Pei Yanzhi said briefly. “Ji Chengchuan will believe at most 30% of the reasons we give, but he can believe more than 50% of the reasons he comes up with himself.”
As they were talking, the chat interface opened, and there were more than ten messages in a row. Sure enough, they were all from Lu Yu, with the screen full of "Baby," "Yan Zhi," and "I was wrong."
Pei Yanzhi's eyes flashed with a helpless smile, his fingers twitching slightly: "How to act was something we discussed together. What are you apologizing for? What mistakes are you admitting? It was because I didn't want to say those lines that you took them on, and that's why the script was written that way. If anyone's to blame, it's me, isn't it?"
Lu Yu replied instantly: 【Of course not!】
"Even if it was acting, you must have felt bad after hearing those words," Lu Yu said. "I could tell."
Pei Yanzhi's heart softened instantly: "I know you were hurting when you said those things."
Lu Yu sent me a cat sticker.
Pei Yanzhi: [Since we're both upset, let's smooth things over, okay? I didn't take those words to heart, so I only felt a little hurt. I know what kind of person you really are, what kind of relationship we have, and I know you wouldn't say or do those things to me.]
There was a moment of silence on Lu Yu's end, then he sent a message: "I really want to kiss you, Yanzhi, like last time. Can I go back Sunday night?"
Pei Yanzhi's Adam's apple bobbed, he paused, and replied: [Put it in the books.]
Lu Yu: [You don't want to go to work next week?]
Pei Yanzhi: [I'd like to take three days off. It's up to you, okay?]
Lu Yu: [Three days isn't enough.]
Pei Yanzhi recoiled as if his finger had been burned by the phone screen.
He seemed to see a terrifying storm in those four short words from Lu Yu, and his body recalled some recent memory, causing a slight numbness in his spine.
"...Captain, Captain?"
In a daze, a hand was stretched out in front of his eyes and shook.
Pei Yanzhi suddenly composed himself and looked up.
It was Xiao Wan who came to call him. Xiao Qian and Wang Kun huddled to one side, whispering, "The captain's smiling sweetly, he must be chatting with Boss Lu, they can't be separated for even a second..."
Pei Yanzhi: "..."
He was so engrossed in chatting with Lu Yu that he didn't even realize he'd smiled or not, so he couldn't deny it. But that's not the point. The point is: "What's wrong?"
He ignored Xiaoqian and Wang Kun's whispers and asked seriously.
“We’re talking about Qian Yue,” the great prophet said. “Her intervention was solely for the purpose of purifying the pollution. You suppressed her pollution with the pendant before, and in return for her help this time, it was also her pledge of allegiance. So what’s next? How should we handle it? Should we have Lu Yu purify it?”
"No."
Pei Yanzhi's answer was absolutely firm.
Purification would harm Lu Yu, which Pei Yanzhi didn't want to see. Although they guessed that the more divine fragments there were, the less harm purification would cause to Lu Yu, they decided to avoid using purification on Lu Yu as much as possible now that the second fragment hadn't been found yet.
In fact, when Qian Yue came to see him that evening, Pei Yanzhi's first reaction was not surprise, but shock.
Other players, either because of him or because of their hatred for the Smiling Game, were willing to accept their conditions and undergo purification to remove the pollution after their divine status was complete. But Qian Yue was unlikely to be one of them. She had no good feelings towards him, nor any hatred towards the Smiling Game; the only thing she cared about was her own life.
Such people are not within their sphere of influence.
She followed Lu Dan's trail not out of trust, but out of suspicion.
But what Lu Dan wanted wasn't her trust, but rather the outcome of her going through this together. As long as they went through this together, he believed that Lu Yu would definitely have a way to make Qian Yue wake up, just like him.
Of course, Lu Yu did have this idea, but before he could speak, Pei Yanzhi stopped him and took out the pendant while talking to Qian Yue.
Pei Yanzhi used the pendant's purifying power to suppress Qian Yue's pollution and negotiated with her, asking her to help them put on a show that wouldn't directly harm Ji Chengchuan. After the show, he would help Qian Yue truly solve the pollution problem.
Whether she wanted to turn the tables on them or genuinely hoped for the best, Qian Yue decided to agree after careful consideration.
Lu Yu originally wanted to directly perform the purification, but after hearing Pei Yanzhi's negotiation, he felt that this might be a safer approach. Lu Dan and Lu Shuang were experiments, so they were naturally separate cases. However, for the others, the purification could not be given too easily. Therefore, he kept quiet and did not say anything more.
Anyway, there's no problem with cleaning it up after the performance.
As for whether Qian Yue would back out halfway, Lu Yu and Pei Yanzhi were not worried. Whether they would be controlled by the Heart-Slaying Sword, Ji Chengchuan did not know, but didn't they know themselves?
Pei Yanzhi's mental strength far surpassed Qian Yue's, exceeding their expectations.
Subsequently, once Lu Yu takes action to purify the situation, Qian Yue will naturally wake up, and the possibility of her helping Ji Chengchuan again is extremely low.
Of course, Pei Yanzhi was unaware of Lu Yu's thoughts. His plan was simple: "After fusing with the forbidden object, I will help Qian Yue suppress the pollution..."
Faced with the great prophet's question, he gave an answer he had already prepared.
"You have to pay a considerable price to control yourself with forbidden objects, and you still have to help Qian Yue?" The great prophet sighed.
After listening to it for a while, Xiaoqian and the others understood a little and quickly asked, "Forbidden item? What forbidden item? Is it the one the captain mentioned before?"
"Why do we have to fuse with forbidden objects again? Didn't we find Boss Lu and be able to purify the pollution? Why do we have to..."
Pei Yanzhi didn't intend to hide anything from them and said directly, "Last time when Lu Yu was purifying things for me, there was a slight accident. The president and the mad scientist discovered that purifying pollution could harm Lu Yu. In severe cases, it might completely contaminate him, and he might never wake up again. I don't want him to take such a risk, so..."
“But,” Xiao Qian suddenly said, “it seems that Boss Lu just used purification power during the day today, right?”
Pei Yanzhi was taken aback: "What?"
"Just single and double."
Xiaoqian recalled and recounted the scene from the daytime, then asked, "This must be the purification process, right? Boss Lu didn't say anything at the time, and we didn't ask, but I was wearing a monitoring watch and was very close to the two of them. The readings were affected, and I saw the pollution decrease."
Pei Yanzhi looked at Wang Kun and Xiao Wan, who were also thinking and did not refute him.
His expression turned a little grim, but it was still manageable: "I told him before not to purify the players yet, I didn't expect him to suddenly... However, the pollution of these two people isn't that severe, their combined pollution level is less than Qian Yue's, and far less than mine, so the damage it will cause him shouldn't be significant..."
Before he could finish speaking, the great prophet asked, "Have you checked your pollution levels these past two days?"
"Me? No, I..."
Pei Yanzhi looked up, then realized something and paused.
The great prophet faced Pei Yanzhi, raised a strange object, and projected his aura onto him: "Actually, your pollution has lessened considerably since the last time I saw you."
He said, "If Lu Yu has been purifying things for you all along, and he's fine now, does that mean this pollution is probably insignificant to him? Maybe the mad scientist and I made a wrong diagnosis or assumption?"
“Yanzhi, I wanted to say this last time: you're too worried about him. You can just ask him directly about these things; what he says might not necessarily be a white lie…”
Pei Yanzhi's gaze was fixed on the great prophet's hand: "I haven't had any direct contact with him recently."
"Perhaps it was when you were unaware?" the great prophet said.
Pei Yanzhi fell silent.
He seemed to have thought of something, and his eyelashes trembled slightly.
Even the most rational and clear-headed person can become confused and blinded by emotions. Concern leads to confusion, that's how it is. You two should have a proper talk first.
"If it's confirmed, then naturally the mad scientist and I will also bear responsibility for this..."
The great prophet sighed in conclusion.
Pei Yanzhi's mind was in such a mess for the first time in his life.
He escorted the Great Prophet and Xiaoqian back, then stood alone in the Stone Statue Forest for a while before raising his hand, slowly typing, and sending a message.
I miss you so much.
...
When Lu Yu received Pei Yanzhi's message, he had just taken a shower and treated his fake wound. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, folding Pei Yanzhi's underwear.
Kneading the delicate, smooth fabric, and thinking about how to go all out in the act, Pei Yanzhi wouldn't be returning to the resort tonight but would stay with Xiao Qian and the others, occasionally appearing as a down-on-his-luck person, Lu Yu felt sleepless.
Maybe……
He slowly lowered his eyes, looking at the underwear in his hand, his Adam's apple bobbing almost imperceptibly.
He pushed up his glasses, seemingly trying to suppress or conceal something with this gesture. But a few seconds later, he leaned back against the headboard, and with the piece of fabric still on his hand, reached down.
"Buzz, buzz!"
The vibration interrupted what he was about to do.
Lu Yu paused, pressed his finger to his brow, rubbed it hard, took a deep breath, then reached for his phone and swiped the screen. He guessed the message was from Pei Yanzhi, and felt like he was about to do something wrong and had been caught red-handed.
The screen lights up and displays a message.
Lu Yu's expression faltered slightly.
He had already planned to sneak over to Pei Yanzhi's hotel later that night, since the purification process shouldn't be stopped anytime soon. Now...
Or should we go earlier?
A brief appearance or two in a scene depicting heartbreak and separation should be enough, right? Pei Yan is so tired today; he needs to rest sometime later tonight…
Lu Yu glanced at the clock on the wall, thought for a moment, opened the chat interface, and found Xiao Qian. He needed to find out about the acting situation first.
An hour later.
It's 2:30 a.m. on Hellolan Island.
After a careful spatial teleportation, Lu Yu silently appeared in Pei Yanzhi's room at the new hotel.
The room was pitch black, with no lights on, only the sound of a long, familiar breath rising and falling quietly.
Lu Yu slowed his pace slightly, using his abilities to make Pei Yanzhi sleep even more soundly as he walked inside.
He was already quite skilled at this, and by the time he reached the bedside, Pei Yanzhi's breathing was already heavier, and there was no longer any sign of him waking up.
In the dim light, Lu Yu stood by the bed, his tall figure like a dark cloud, shrouding the unconscious young man sleeping soundly on the bed.
The young man was sensitive to the cold, so the air conditioner was set high. He was only covered with an air-conditioning blanket, and his handsome and refined face was exposed outside the blanket as he obediently leaned against the pillow, his skin clean and fair.
No matter how many times Lu Yu saw Pei Yanzhi like this, his heart would race.
He slowly and calmly unbuttoned his shirt one button at a time, then removed his belt, before bending down and lifting the thin, air-conditioning quilt.
Pei Yanzhi was still only wearing a bathrobe.
Lu Yu reached out his hand.
Pei Yanzhi seemed startled; her crimson lips trembled slightly, her brows furrowed, and her face radiated a unique and enchanting charm, like peach blossoms reflected in water.
Lu Yu's mouth watered, and he exhaled a satisfied breath. Just as he was about to bury his face in his hands, he suddenly felt a sinking sensation beneath him.
A foot stepped on him.
Almost simultaneously, a clear, even more lucid voice drifted down from above.
Is it like this every night?
Lu Yu froze, then suddenly looked up and saw a pair of amber-colored eyes in the darkness.
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