Atmosphere destroyer
Time stood still.
The system's repair progress jumped from 3% to 3.01% as Lin Yehuan's adrenaline surged.
"Damn it," Lin Yehuan thought, "it's going to be hard for this not to be discovered."
“You must be Miss Lin,” the replica of Gu Ye said. “I am Gu De Wai Rui.”
"And this is...?"
Xu Pengpeng interrupted his introduction with her own: "I am Victor."
You can't change their appearance by scrambling their order, nor can you simply swap their heads and bodies—that's absurd. Even as NPCs, they'd sense something's wrong. Lin Yehuan now wholeheartedly agrees that maintaining hunger is indeed beneficial for mental processing; brainstorming is as simple as drinking water, except it won't yield any useful conclusions.
Lin Yehuan is not very good now and has no confidence in winning. As a last resort, he chose the system's mirror function and flipped Victor and Gu De's faces. Thanks to his side-sleeping, at least they don't look so familiar at first glance.
She then pulled her hand out and touched her face to make sure that she was smiling with the corners of her mouth turned up, rather than showing some evil Frankenstein's monster expression. Under the death stares of the two, she mustered up her courage and helped Lu Xingzhi remove the hood as if lifting a veil.
Lin Yehuan had anticipated the trajectory of his gaze after he removed the hood, and when he turned his head, he happened to meet the eyes of the man looking at him.
“We just…” Lu Xingzhi’s gaze darted away, blinked a few times, and finally chose to look at the gray pigeons outside the window, “We don’t think we just took a plane, did we?”
The unexpected question made Lin Yehuan chuckle, and he felt he should say that classic line: "Heh, man, you've successfully caught my attention."
However, just to be on the safe side, she restrained herself. Firstly, she was afraid that Lu Xingzhi's CPU, which had just been hit hard, would completely break down. Secondly, she wanted to leave enough room for system repair. The "100 points of favorability" that came out with electronic music a few seconds ago was unnecessary. Focusing on fixing the bug was the best approach.
“I also feel like I’ve seen this before,” Lin Yehuan whispered in his ear. “However, this will give us a great opening line.”
Due to the significant height difference, Lu Xingzhi's neck still retained a warm breath.
The system screen was lagging, but it was clear that Lu Xingzhi's sanity value was dropping steadily, falling below the factory settings.
Wow, you should have said so earlier! I could have just bought a little megaphone and put it on his shoulder. All that effort before was for nothing.
[Host, please ensure that the male protagonist's stats do not fall below factory settings, otherwise the plot may collapse.]
The plot is collapsing? Isn't it collapsing enough already? Lin Yehuan's lips twitched twice. This is my strategy for dealing with your unscrupulous, brain-degrading system. Go fix your broken program.
“You look a lot like our good friends.” Lu Xingzhi decided to say this again to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
Very well, this opening line wasn't as effective as I thought; at least the two people on the other side looked quite puzzled.
"Lu Xingzhi?" Gu De pronounced his name with broken pronunciation, a hint of disdain on his face.
Lin Yehuan vaguely sensed something was wrong and tried to stand on tiptoe to cover up Lu Xingzhi's expression of watching an acquaintance put on a show, but obviously it did nothing but make the scene more ridiculous.
"Back off," Victor said to the person behind her, pressing down Lin Yehuan, who was still struggling to stand on tiptoe.
Lu Xingzhi glanced back, wondering what she was up to, but still followed her instructions and took a few steps back.
"Back off again."
"Turn right."
Lu Xingzhi turned around and stumbled out the door.
"close the door."
[Warning: Please ensure the male lead is present throughout the entire process.]
Lin Yehuan rushed to the door amidst the alarm, quickly closing it slightly before anyone else could react. He wiped a cold sweat from his apprehension at his own slow reflexes.
She's a genius—she can completely isolate the room from sound without causing conflict, and she doesn't have to worry about Lu Xingzhi saying something outrageous again, nor does she have to worry about Lu Xingzhi sneaking away and seeing those strange portraits in the corridor.
Gu De was clearly still resentful of what Lu Xingzhi had just said. He simply tidied up the table for the two of them and then sat down alone without saying another word.
Lin Yehuan didn't want to ask any more questions. There are plenty of eccentric people in scientific research; why ask so many "whys"?
Victor didn't waste any words and went straight to the point: "I know that Rei provided you with some of the experimental data."
Lei was the first girl Lin Yu hurt, and also the girl who sent them experimental data despite the twelve-hour time difference that day.
Even though the notification page had frozen in time like a still animation, the system still reminded you: "[Please remain cautious; it has been nearly twelve hours.]"
At first, they thought it was just fake data that Lin Yu made up to pick up girls, and that the carbon-carbon four bonds and the six single bonds attached to the carbon in the molecular formula were enough to support this conclusion.
However, just as Lin Yehuan was about to give up on this clue, the system unexpectedly issued a task. A few minutes later, they found the email address hidden in the clues, and the moment they finished communicating, they got into a taxi to go to the airport.
So when Victor opened the experimental data, Lin Yehuan had very mixed feelings.
Aside from the superficial flaws that she could point out with the little knowledge she had left after the final exams, and the doubts about whether the new drug even existed, there was probably no reason to convince them to abandon their cooperation with the Star Group.
Victor didn't seem to need her to persuade him; her eyes hadn't left the screen since she opened the document.
“Gu De, we agreed that we couldn’t do this.”
"Enough, do you really want me to hand over the data to them?"
“They can’t even keep the most basic secrets,” Gu De said, as if he had been holding back for a long time and finally exploded. Veins bulged on his forehead, and his neck and ears turned red. “Otherwise, why would these random people come knocking on our door?!”
"Oh ho, I'm just following orders, please don't take offense," Lin Yehuan said, tossing his head back and forth between the two of them. He took a few steps back, chair and all, to give them space to argue and to get closer to the thinker by the door.
"You've always understood that we've always been the ones being used!"
"If we hand over the real data, we'll only face certain death!"
Tsk tsk tsk, just as I expected...
“I’m not accusing you of providing false data. Would I want to send this out?” Unlike Gu De’s desperate outburst, Victor remained calm. “But the flaws you’ve made are too obvious. Even these seemingly dim-witted kids can spot the problems.”
The silly kids who were watching the drama unfold looked even more bewildered: "Hello? We didn't offend anyone."
"They won't find out; they're a bunch of idiots."
"That's right," Lin Yehuan said, pursing his lips and nodding vigorously in agreement.
Gu De calmed down a little, but still stuck to his point of view: "They don't even realize how important the cause they are doing, otherwise we should be in the sterile room right now, instead of arguing about these stupid questions in front of these two silly kids."
People do seem to be less sensitive to foreign language attacks. The two people at the door were not bothered by the insults at all, and even wanted to buy some popcorn and cola to slowly enjoy the drama.
"They'll find out sooner or later. Do you think they'll kill us first and then find out, or find out first, take the data, and then kill us?"
"I will die after submitting the last fake document."
"Don't talk nonsense. Only someone who's ready to die wouldn't go and adopt three more stray cats at once."
"Ha, Professor Victor, you seem to care about me a lot, but I'm the kind of irresponsible person who only does things for the sake of having fun in that moment."
"Then you should have resigned ten years ago, instead of saying 'It's another unlucky day' every time you see me, and killing half of the cells and potted plants with your resentment as soon as you enter the lab."
“I find pleasure in my resentment, what’s wrong with that?”
"Thank you." Lin Yehuan took the snacks from Jiang Ju and ate and drank with Lu Xingzhi while watching the argument inside the room gradually go off track.
“I have a feeling,” Lin Yehuan whispered in his ear, “they’ll…”
Lin Yehuan was speaking when Lu Xingzhi suddenly reached out and covered almost his entire face with his large hand. The whole room fell silent, and through the gaps in his fingers, one could vaguely see the two who had just been arguing kissing passionately.
"I knew it." Lin Yehuan pushed the large hand away, casually stuffed a handful of popcorn into his mouth, and mumbled, "That's how it's always portrayed in TV dramas."
Lu Xingzhi laughed out loud at her bright red cheeks and her forced composure.
The atmosphere inside the room was instantly shattered.
[Male lead unlocks new character setting: Atmosphere destroyer, character completeness +20, character setting completeness +5]
"Looks like the mood-breaker is someone else," Lin Yehuan thought to himself, relieved that he was finally no longer the one constantly being harassed by the system. Wait, why is ruining the mood a bonus? Damn system, I'm so pissed off!
An awkward atmosphere permeated the entire space; no one spoke, presumably everyone was thinking about their opening remarks.
"Shall we...still talk?" Lin Yehuan finally couldn't help but speak first, only to be met with two sharp glances. He waved his hands repeatedly, "I didn't mean anything by it, it's just that this chair is really hard to sit on..."
Victor seemed a little embarrassed. He exchanged a glance with Gu De, as if he had made up his mind, and pointed to the right side of the corridor: "Let's go to the lab. I'll explain everything to you."
Lin Yehuan leaned back slightly and glanced at the corridor on the right. He then took the hoods and put them on his and Lu Xingzhi's heads.
“No need,” Victor interrupted. “We trust you completely now, Lin.”
"No, it's what we should do, and we completely trust you." Lin Yehuan insisted on wearing the hood. She didn't want to be suffocated under the dark hood. Although she didn't know how Lu Xingzhi could accept these two familiar faces, it would be hard to explain if his family tree was hanging on the wall.
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