“And following you is?” Bai Chen Zhu slapped his hand away. With the incident resolved and Jiang Ye having saved him, he was grateful—but the more he thought about the aftermath, the more stifled he felt.
Why? Why did Jiang Ye presume to control him like that? Did he seem that easy to bully?
Bai Chen Zhu couldn’t swallow it.
Whatever Jiang Ye wanted—reliving his past life’s path here, building a base, hunting ghost fragments to save the world—it wasn’t his concern. He’d never felt any belonging to this world, so he had no responsibilities or obligations.
“You forgot why I followed you?” Bai Chen Zhu lifted his chin. “Not cursing you out is me being polite. You dared scheme against me once; who’s to say there won’t be a second? Am I sticking around to die for you?”
“It’s not that exaggerated.” Jiang Ye rubbed his temples in headache. His cheek still bore the bruise from Bai Chen Zhu’s punch yesterday. He raised his hands in surrender. “My fault. But if it was that dangerous, would Tang Jie have dared approach? I even said you had a heart condition and couldn’t run far, so they wouldn’t guard you heavily… Besides, if I told you upfront to scout the Ghost House, would you have agreed?”
“No.” Bai Chen Zhu had no patience for the rambling excuses.
Part of him felt he might be overreacting, but another part couldn’t control his temper. Seeing Jiang Ye’s casual dominance over others infuriated him. “No, don’t want to, not happening. Get lost!”
Using his life to test things—even if only minor injury—Bai Chen Zhu would never agree once he knew. He always valued his own life most.
But Jiang Ye had done it anyway, despite knowing he’d refuse. Even if the plan was foolproof, disregarding his will enraged him uncontrollably.
“You’re the best fit; just to scout…” Jiang Ye’s voice trailed off under Bai Chen Zhu’s increasingly icy gaze.
Jiang Ye craved a smoke. He patted his empty pockets—no cigarettes, no lollipop.
The man opposite stared with an unprecedented look, like when they’d first met. Jiang Ye smiled. “Bai Chen Zhu, why are you so guarded?”
“It’s all over now. We got the intel, killed the zombie, Tang Jie’s fallen that far—it’s done. No need to make it ugly.” Jiang Ye couldn’t fathom why his anger was this intense. Even if upset over being used once, it shouldn’t drive him to leave with his bag.
He reached for Bai Chen Zhu’s hand, but it was shaken off.
“Make it ugly?” Bai Chen Zhu inhaled sharply, thin anger overlaying his aloof demeanor. He said coldly, “Jiang Ye, you shameless bastard. Which of that concerns me? The world ending has nothing to do with me. I followed you because you’re capable, good to friends, and I could learn something. So when you said before you’d use me as a tool, that was real.”
Amid the fury, Bai Chen Zhu felt an unnoticed pang of hurt.
Oh, so that’s what friends are. He thought. Great, that’s the treatment for the protagonist’s top lackey—stabbed in the back at the key moment.
He’d once considered being a lackey, but when actually ordered around, he exploded.
Jiang Ye looked at the distant man and suddenly regretted it. He’d done this before, but no one had ever blown up like Bai Chen Zhu.
He vaguely felt he’d erred somewhere, but after two slaps away, his own temper flared. His hand rose halfway in the air before reason suppressed it.
Jiang Ye pressed his lips, face darkening as he watched Bai Chen Zhu. “You really leaving?”
No answer.
No answer meant room to negotiate. Jiang Ye sighed and reached out a third time.
Bai Chen Zhu stood fixed. Jiang Ye’s motion froze mid-reach, that instant stretching infinitely—unnoticed by him.
To Jiang Ye, it was just a blink. He grabbed for Bai Chen Zhu’s wrist, but clutched air. The man had vanished instantly, nowhere to be seen.
Vanished into thin air? Jiang Ye froze.
Then he realized—it was the move Bai Chen Zhu had used to briefly control Uncle Duan’s mind.
At this moment, Jiang Ye only realized in hindsight and felt a surge of panic. Back then, Bai Chen Zhu had used this trick to save him, and now, the second time he used it, he had turned the ability he had just learned not long ago against him to escape.
“Bai Chen Zhu?”
“Bai Chen Zhu! Stop hiding, I can find you!”
However, the surroundings were empty. He wanted to search, but the wind, the rusty smell, everything in his sight… he had lost all traces of Bai Chen Zhu.
Just as he had come to understand the other man over this period, the other man had also come to understand him.
Jiang Ye’s anger truly flared up. He vented with a punch into the air, unable to comprehend what kind of messed-up nonsense had just happened.
Carrying an intimidating aura, he returned to the villa. He ran right into Zhou Zhuo Hua.
Zhou Zhuo Hua poked her head to look behind him. Nothing was there. Somewhat displeased, she clicked her tongue: “Tch.”
Bai Tao, following behind her, mimicked speech like a parrot: “Tch.”
Jiang Ye was irritated. “Tch what? Bai Chen Zhu ran off! That guy’s legs aren’t even healed yet, he hasn’t learned to control his mental power, and now he just bolts. Who knows whose dinner he’ll end up as.”
Bai Tao always knew what to say at key moments. “Anyway, not yours.”
Jiang Ye: …
He gave up arguing with her and sat on the sofa, pressing his forehead with one hand. “That inexplicable guy. If he wants to run, let him. Who cares about him.”
After all, without Bai Chen Zhu, it wouldn’t affect what he did.
Still, Jiang Ye couldn’t help thinking: Where the hell did he go?
At last night’s gathering, Zhou Zhuo Hua had stayed with Jiang Ye and naturally witnessed his talkative side, guessing about seventy or eighty percent of the situation.
“Jiang Ye, not to nag you or anything.” She propped her hands on the back of the sofa. “You clearly had better options, but you didn’t consider other people’s feelings at all. You just tossed him into the Ghost House for a whole night. You really treated him like a tool, and you didn’t even make a sound beforehand.”
“Even a single sound?”
“He wouldn’t have been happy if you did.” Jiang Ye frowned.
“Then you knew he wouldn’t be happy and did it anyway.” Zhou Zhuo Hua spread her hands helplessly.
Jiang Ye was stubborn: “It’s not a big deal.”
Zhou Zhuo Hua said: “If he were stupid and didn’t figure it out, fine. But Bai Chen Zhu knows full well. By now, the matter itself isn’t important anymore. What’s important is that he feels you didn’t respect him, or maybe that you don’t see him as a friend. He’s pissed off.”
Jiang Ye started to speak but stopped, probably wanting to say “not a big deal” again.
“Yeah, not a big deal. Just up and leaves.” Bai Tao mocked. “I thought you two were such good friends. Now it looks like you’re not even as close as Sister Zhuo Hua and me. Sister Zhuo Hua wouldn’t do that to me~”
Zhou Zhuo Hua adjusted her glasses with her fingertip and shook her head with a long sigh. She truly regretted it. She quite liked this young man Bai Chen Zhu—good-looking face, great figure, not much of a talker, but delicate and sensitive. Though sometimes he could be pretty stubborn too.
Jiang Ye’s stubbornness was out in the open, plain to see. Bai Chen Zhu hid his in his heart, making him hard to read. Once they got moving, though, both were equally decisive and swift.
Zhou Zhuo Hua said: “He values you, Jiang Ye. You hurt him, and you don’t know how to take a step back.”
“He values me?” Jiang Ye seemed unable to grasp the meaning, staring at Zhou Zhuo Hua.
“Thinking about it won’t help.” Zhou Zhuo Hua crossed her arms. “Don’t bother. Whether you’ll see him again is up in the air.”
Jiang Ye covered his face in self-mockery. “Yeah.”
Even as he said this, his expression darkened. He didn’t look like someone willing to let it go at all.
Bai Tao grumbled: “Big man acting like he lost his wife.”
She earned a warning slap on the back from Zhou Zhuo Hua, who then dragged her away. “Don’t talk nonsense. Let’s go see if we can find a microphone. Your throat’s all hoarse.”
Two days later.
Bai Chen Zhu, backpack slung over his shoulder, pedaled his bicycle to a stop at the entrance to the district.
To be precise, it was the newly developed Villa District in this small county of Fuguang. Some areas weren’t finished construction yet, exposing the concrete and rebar inside. The asphalt road still had plenty of sand remnants, but it had been requisitioned as a temporary shelter.
The entrance was guarded by people armed to the teeth, strictly checking everyone entering or leaving. Every person had to undergo a thorough body inspection before being allowed in.
He was panting, wiped the fine sweat from his forehead, and his eyes lit up as he gazed at the official shelter.
