Chapter 14 Part 2

The living room light wasn’t bright. They watched one match and found the next was also Wiki Team—a victory recap.

Zhou Jinsheng thought of something and suddenly asked Shen Yu, “Do you know why Wiki Team always wins?”

Shen Yu raised a brow and countered, “Why? Because people can’t help staring at their blue-and-white striped prison uniforms?”

Shen Yu always caught his words perfectly.

Zhou Jinsheng leaned back casually on the sofa and laughed. “As opponents, they can’t escape it either.”

It seemed most people were easily fooled by appearances. Knowing this, Shen Yu still asked, “What about you?”

Zhou Jinsheng gave him a “what kind of nonsense is that” look.

Since it was a Wiki Team victory recap, there were no surprises. Shen Yu started off excited but soon grew drowsy watching.

As drowsiness hit, his head bobbed down with the crowd’s cheers on the field—once, twice. Before long, he vaguely leaned against something and fell asleep…

In a haze, he seemed to be pulled into a warm embrace by a pair of hands.

The other’s body was solid and broad. The familiar body wash scent put Shen Yu at ease, and he couldn’t help nuzzling closer.

The other person stiffened for a moment.

Then came a low curse, followed by hot breath blasting against Shen Yu’s ear before suddenly dissipating.

He was carried upstairs, into the bedroom, and placed on the bed. The soft mattress enveloped him like clouds.

Shen Yu rolled over and slept deeply.

Shen Yu had a dream.

In the dream, he was trapped in this world, repeatedly deleting saves and restarting.

The Zhou Jinsheng in the dream wore a demon mask. Though his face was hidden, Shen Yu always pinpointed him by his aura time and again. But recognizing him did nothing—his favorability stayed stuck, not budging an inch.

After the ninety-ninth failed strategy attempt, he either perished in silence or erupted from it.

Shen Yu laughed in frustration. He’d never met someone stingier with emotions—not even willing to spare a thumbnail-sized bit of favorability.

In a fit of rage, Shen Yu didn’t know where he got the courage, but while Zhou Jinsheng wasn’t paying attention, he plunged a knife into Zhou Jinsheng’s chest.

Blood spilled like overturned tomato juice onto the floor, but the gleaming blade stuck in his chest couldn’t advance a fraction further.

Shen Yu froze and looked down to see rough stone chips falling from the bleeding chest cavity.

A heart of stone?

Shen Yu’s emotions were complicated. For some inexplicable reason, he felt a spark of joy and profound relief.

If this strategy didn’t succeed, it really couldn’t be blamed on him.

When Shen Yu woke, dawn was breaking.

The morning light was hazy and blurred. His mind, just detached from what could barely be called a nightmare, felt a bit dazed. He thought it was his own room.

After washing up, Shen Yu remembered he had class today.

Back at the bedside, as he bent down to change clothes, 007 saw its host’s oblivious state and hurriedly reminded him: 【Host, cameras, cameras.】

Shen Yu’s mind cleared instantly. He paused in silence for a moment and asked: 【007, how much time left?】

007 calculated and replied: 【27 days.】

So soon? Could listening to “Clocks” by Coldplay on repeat a hundred times send him back three months?

007: 【No.】

007 offered a dubious suggestion: 【Maybe the Host could sacrifice some allure.】

After all, Zhou Jinsheng liked men. If the little brother was a handsome hunk with a great figure, it looked pleasing to the eye, and favorability naturally rose steadily.

Although Zhou Jinsheng appeared to soften on the surface, Shen Yu hadn’t even sensed what Heavenly Dao Power was yet. This showed that Zhou Jinsheng’s heart hadn’t truly loosened at all, leaving his thoughts completely inscrutable.

With progress stalled, Shen Yu grew irritated deep down. He had no intention of letting favorability develop into love. First, love was too uncertain—one misstep and it could spiral into negative emotions, impossible to salvage. By comparison, becoming close friends was far more stable.

Second, he was straight.

007: 【……Not really.】

Shen Yu sighed. He even considered finding someone to shoot Zhou Jinsheng, then heroically taking the bullet himself to rack up some favorability. But given the plan’s near-zero feasibility, he abandoned the idea.

In a last-ditch effort, Shen Yu asked: 【Will your method really work?】

Stumped by the question, 007 hesitated: 【Give it a try.】

In the footage, Shen Yu closed his eyes and then opened them. He paced around the room, stripping off his shirt and pants along the way. He reached the wardrobe, opened it, and sure enough, spotted several brand-new sets of Jingyang school uniforms.

The light rendered his skin flawlessly luminous. Shen Yu quickly changed into the uniform, his fingers brushing over the Deep Silver White Sail Emblem on the right side of the shirt. The long black tie was still tied sloppily.

Zhou Jinsheng might not even be awake yet—and who stared at the surveillance feeds all day anyway?

With that in mind, Shen Yu relaxed. He stretched lazily and headed downstairs.

In the first-floor dining room, the butler had already prepared breakfast.

A blue velvet tablecloth draped the rectangular dining table. An array of exquisite breakfast pastries and sweets were artfully arranged around the central enamel vase.

The vase featured a wide mouth and slender neck, with a single golden tulip tucked into the narrow opening. Delicate bone china tableware gleamed under the light, neatly set before each chair.

Zhou Jinsheng sat calmly at the table.

With the temperature plummeting that day, he wore the standard Jingyang three-piece suit, which lent the lavish table an even more imposing air of luxury. Only the messy black hair on his forehead hinted at just-woken laziness, along with a flicker of suppressed ferocity between his deep brow bones—almost too subtle to notice.

Had he not slept well?

Shen Yu paused mid-step, then continued downstairs with composure.

The sound of footsteps descending caught Zhou Jinsheng’s attention. He looked up and saw Shen Yu.

Zhou Jinsheng’s gaze drifted over Shen Yu’s loosely open collar before he raised a brow. “You’re up pretty early. Not sure what you’d like, so I had the chef prepare a bit of everything.”

Shen Yu pulled out a chair and sat down. He stared at the abundant breakfast in shock. “Doesn’t someone make breakfast for you? You usually skip it?”

His tone carried a hint of disapproval.

Zhou Jinsheng leaned back lazily in his chair and picked up his knife and fork. He paused mid-cut into a piece of bread on his plate.

A moment later, he answered with utter honesty: “Can’t get up.”

Such a plain and simple reason.

Shen Yu weighed his words carefully, framing his probing question as perfectly measured concern. “But why’d you get up so early today?”

The silver blade flashed with a cold gleam. With a sharp snick, it sliced the bread cleanly in two.

Zhou Jinsheng didn’t alter his movements at Shen Yu’s question.

He lifted his thin eyelids for a glance at Shen Yu. Those eyes were profoundly dark, like twin pools hidden in shadow.

Look any deeper, and Shen Yu would have spotted the wildfire beneath—raging enough to consume everything.

Shen Yu noticed the faint dark circles under Zhou Jinsheng’s eyes. “Didn’t sleep well?”

Zhou Jinsheng’s gaze shifted as he offered a reasonable reply. “Yeah, thunder last night kept me up.”

Something occurred to him, and he teased: “Unlike some people, who sleep like the dead even if the sky falls. You’d probably not even notice if someone sold you off.”

Shen Yu extended his foot under the table and lightly bumped Zhou Jinsheng’s leg, feigning anger. “Hey, Zhou Jinsheng, I’m actually concerned about you here, and you’re shading me?”

“Who told you to sleep so dead to the world.”

“Get lost. Clearly, you have crap sleep. Nap in the car later.”

After they finished breakfast, Old Li had the car waiting at the villa entrance.

The morning air carried the fresh, moist crispness left by the rain.

The gravel path curved past a snow-white sculpted fountain, snaking like a serpent all the way to the villa door.

The heavy metal gates stood wide open. Walls of green, crawling with vine leaves from the Vinewood Trees, stretched endlessly in both directions—an boundless, shimmering blur.

Zhou Jinsheng’s shadow was faint, like a veil of mist.

Shen Yu stared at that hazy silhouette as he followed Zhou Jinsheng into the back seat.

Zhou Jinsheng settled by the window. Sleepiness washed over him, and he wearily rubbed his temples—a gesture already echoing the man he would become eight years from now.

Shen Yu blanked out for a second. Then, with great righteousness, he patted his own thigh. Under Zhou Jinsheng’s bemused gaze, he offered in a bro-like tone: “Want a pillow?”

Shen Yu’s eyes darted as he recalled Zhou Jinsheng’s cleanliness obsession. He started to retract the offer.

Spotting the hesitation, Zhou Jinsheng immediately rolled onto his side and flopped heavily onto Shen Yu’s lap. Arms crossed, he shot Shen Yu a half-smile. “No take-backs. I’m sleeping. Wake me when we get there.”

With that, Zhou Jinsheng’s eyelids drooped, and he began to nap.

Before long, his breathing settled into a steady, soft rhythm.

The substantial weight pressed down on Shen Yu’s leg. He gazed down at Zhou Jinsheng.

Tentatively, Shen Yu called out: “Zhou Jinsheng…”

No response, of course.

He really was exhausted.

Who knew what he’d been up to last night.

Shen Yu studied Zhou Jinsheng’s face up close for a moment. The contours were sharp and profound, the features handsome to the point of divine favor.

Unthinkingly, Shen Yu raised a finger and brushed Zhou Jinsheng’s eye corner.

The warm touch mingled like shared breath.

Zhou Jinsheng’s breathing remained even, unchanged.

Shen Yu lowered his gaze and gently tucked a few stray strands of hair from Zhou Jinsheng’s eye back behind his ear before withdrawing his hand.

Through the hazy mist, the morning sun roused the slumbering city. One beam slanted perfectly onto the back seat, washing over half of Zhou Jinsheng’s face and accentuating the chiseled lines of his features.

Instinctively, Shen Yu reached out to block the sunlight.

Old Li glanced at the pair in the rearview mirror and frowned.

Hold on—what exactly were these two getting up to? He couldn’t make sense of it.