Chapter 143: The Alter Ego Says He Loves Me (32)
Xiao Ji’s consciousness lingered in the darkness for a long time. Feeling himself seemingly growing flesh and blood, after a brief period of blurred consciousness, he opened his eyes and appeared at the entrance of the [Desire] shop.
Xiao Ji pushed open the door. The owner only gave Xiao Ji a glance before unexpectedly saying two words:
“Congratulations.”
Xiao Ji ignored his congratulations and only said one sentence:
“I want to sign a contract.”
The owner looked at him again. “Are you sure?”
Xiao Ji’s expression was indifferent. “Don’t dawdle.”
Familiarity breeds ease. Xiao Ji crisply signed his name on the contract and, in the wish column, filled in a line of characters:
[1. Resurrect Lin Chuan. 2. Reach the core of the wish redemption system.]
Soon, Xiao Ji received the number of points required for his wishes.
The first item wasn’t much.
But for the second item, the required points were a full six digits.
Xiao Ji always acted decisively. Tossing the contract to the owner, he asked:
“I want to enter a mission immediately. Cancel the rest time between missions; it cannot be interrupted.”
The owner was startled. “Rest between missions is necessary. People need to adjust and relax.”
Xiao Ji said flatly, “I don’t need to.”
Time in the mission world passed differently than in the real world.
Three to five days in a mission world were only three to five minutes in the real world.
He needed to complete the missions as quickly as possible and go to Xiao Yinnian’s side. If it took too long, Xiao Yinnian would worry.
The owner stared at Xiao Ji for a while, then asked once more:
“Are you sure?”
Xiao Ji responded as before, “Don’t dawdle.”
An ordinary mission world, for Xiao Ji, was like a thug who specialized in smashing and looting entering a kindergarten.
Aside from the main storyline that had to be investigated to obtain points, all rules and NPCs were not worth mentioning in front of Xiao Ji.
And with Xiao Yinnian not around, Xiao Ji had no need to consider anyone else’s feelings.
His posture of slaughtering NPCs with a “chainsaw” was as if an Asura had returned to hell.
After traversing the thirteenth mission world, Xiao Ji finally reached the core of the entire wish redemption system as he wished.
After a patch of void, Xiao Ji saw endless cages.
Countless baring-teeth-and-claws ghosts and monsters were trapped in the cages, roaring and struggling.
Xiao Ji’s performance during this period had long alarmed the masterminds behind the wish redemption system, but they didn’t take it to heart.
Xiao Ji could be king in individual worlds, could take down ten alone, could fight a hundred alone—but what if tens of thousands, or even more, ghosts and monsters swarmed toward him like an overwhelming tide?
Those masterminds were confident, thinking that Xiao Ji was destined to be submerged among these countless ghosts and monsters.
They watched Xiao Ji step across the void and stand tall at the core of the entire system, looking at those hideous ghosts. They made the biggest mistake they had ever made in their lives.
They opened the cages.
Countless ghosts surged out of the cages like black sandstorms, rushing toward the small, lonely Xiao Ji.
Xiao Ji stood in place, let out a cold laugh, and crushed the jade pendant he had already been holding in his palm.
In an instant, countless black shadows surged out of the jade pendant, turning into the Northern Frontier warriors Xiao Ji had been familiar with long ago—wearing black armor and riding tall horses, they swept into the black tide.
…
Xiao Yinnian arrived at the company in a daze. He didn’t say a word during the entire morning meeting. Meanwhile, his direct supervisor suddenly took a call and only said two words in shock:
“Awake?!”
Then he hurriedly got up and left the meeting room.
Xiao Yinnian’s brow twitched, as if he had realized something but didn’t quite dare to be sure. After returning to his office, he took out his phone, wanting to make a call to Lin Chuan, but was interrupted by a sudden work situation.
After he had absent-mindedly dealt with his work and returned to the office, he saw Lin Chuan sitting in his office with a haggard face.
Xiao Yinnian knew Lin Chuan’s situation—others couldn’t see him. He first closed the office door before asking:
“Why did you suddenly come here?”
To his surprise, as soon as he finished speaking, the office door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.
Xiao Yinnian turned back and looked at his superior. “President Lin?”
President Lin said a word of apology to Xiao Yinnian, then walked straight toward Lin Chuan.
“I went to the hospital for nothing. You’re something else; you just woke up and ran here? You don’t even remember my office?”
Lin Chuan chuckled at President Lin.
“Young Uncle, who would wake up and immediately run to find you? I came to find Director Xiao.”
President Lin was startled and looked at Xiao Yinnian. “You two know each other?”
Xiao Yinnian was shocked but said nothing.
During the next two hours, Xiao Yinnian listened to Lin Chuan explaining everything about the wish redemption system to his young uncle, one by one.
He only omitted Xiao Ji’s existence and only mentioned Xiao Yinnian.
President Lin didn’t believe it at first.
But the more that was said, the more he had no choice but to believe it.
Because before Lin Chuan had a car accident and was diagnosed as being in a vegetative state, he hadn’t met Xiao Yinnian.
And all the details about that “damn system” that Lin Chuan recounted during this time were things Xiao Yinnian could follow along with.
Even for two people who had seen the same movie or read the same novel, it was very difficult to have the details so clearly aligned.
President Lin, having learned the truth, needed time to digest it and left Xiao Yinnian’s office first.
After President Lin left, Xiao Yinnian suddenly became listless, leaning back in his chair and shutting his mouth.
Looking at Xiao Yinnian’s state, Lin Chuan asked with some concern:
“What is it? Did something go wrong on Ji-ge’s side?”
Xiao Yinnian shook his head. “I don’t know. There’s no movement at all.”
Lin Chuan pondered for a moment. “Yin-ge, I think he must have already returned, but perhaps he entered the mission system again.”
At this moment, Xiao Yinnian’s mind was a mess. All the gears had stopped working, and he had no energy to consider anything.
“What do you mean?”
“Otherwise, there’s no reason for me to wake up,” Lin Chuan said firmly. “Among everyone who knows about the existence of the wish redemption system, only you and Ji-ge would care about whether I live or die.”
Listening to these words, Xiao Yinnian felt a mixture of emotions for a while.
For a moment, he didn’t even know whether he should first be glad that Xiao Ji had really become independent, or glad that Xiao Ji hadn’t left Lin Chuan in the lurch, or blame Xiao Ji for not contacting him as soon as he came back to life.
He wasn’t even sure if Lin Chuan’s guess was true.
To be honest, since his mission panel disappeared, if Lin Chuan weren’t sitting in front of him right now talking to him about Xiao Ji, he would even suspect if he really had some mental illness.
And whether Xiao Ji had ever truly existed.
If Xiao Ji really had existed and had also returned, then why hadn’t he appeared yet? Was it because he didn’t want to be involved with him anymore and wanted to live a brand-new life alone?
Xiao Yinnian was in a bad state. After saying a few more words to Lin Chuan, he sent him out, saying:
“Let me be alone for a while.”
Xiao Yinnian sat in his office for the whole afternoon. When he got off work, standing in front of his bright red sports car, he hesitated for a moment between going home and going out for a drink, but in the end, he chose to go home.
The congested evening peak hour exhausted Xiao Yinnian’s patience.
The unknown wait made Xiao Yinnian irritable to the extreme.
Right at this moment, his phone beeped.
In the midst of the congestion where he couldn’t move an inch, Xiao Yinnian reflexively picked up his phone. He was about to delete the message appearing on the lock screen when he suddenly noticed something wrong.
The source of the message was his bank card.
The content of the message was that one minute ago, 172 yuan had been spent.
Xiao Yinnian looked at those few words on the message dozens of times.
This bank card—if he remembered correctly—was placed in the drawer of his bedside table in the bedroom.
Xiao Yinnian seemed to sense something. Sweat on the tip of his nose suddenly broke out.
In his extreme anxiety, he finally drove the car to the underground parking lot. He stayed for two seconds in front of the apartment elevator, which was even more congested than the road, then chose the emergency stairs.
He ran all the way upstairs. Opening the house door, he saw a familiar pair of sneakers placed in the entryway. On the entryway console, there was also a bouquet of cute pink-and-white porcelain roses.
His heart was pounding wildly.
Holding his breath, he walked into the house and saw a tall figure standing in the kitchen, cooking.
The person was wearing his pajamas and had a small floral apron tied around his waist.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Xiao Ji put down the kitchen knife in his hand, turned his head, and looked at Xiao Yinnian:
“You’re back? Go wash your hands; we’re about to eat.”
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