Translator: Moonlit
Editor: Aiya-ge
Kissing and cuddling without clothes?
Gu WenCheng sneered, straightened up, and said, “Go to school.”
The little girl replied, “This is a very important secret, you know.”
Li ZouXing, “You, at least give us some face. How is it possible for us to kiss and cuddle without clothes? You guys are girls, you’re still young. You’re not allowed to look directly at a boy’s naked body right now, you know?”
The two little girls looked at each other, “Okay.”
“All you have to do is kiss and cuddle,” one of the little girls added, “and keep us happy.”
This feeling of exposing their physical intimacy in public…
Li ZouXing and Gu WenCheng looked at each other. With teammates watching, and these enigmatic young girls staring, it was as if even the air itself was watching them.
This kiss was truly incredibly embarrassing, with rapid breaths, but then they became completely absorbed in it.
Nearby, someone let out a small, startled cry, and they stopped, as if they had just dipped their toes in the water, both of them intuitively pausing.
“Satisfied?” Gu WenCheng’s eyes were full of impatience, but his lips were unusually red.
The two young girls hugged each other, the blush on their cheeks deepening. “Now we can tell you a secret.”
“I’m Ajiao, and she’s Ahua.”
“The teacher at the payment counter, he lies even more than we do.”
After saying this, they grinned mischievously at them.
Li ZouXing furrowed his brow, as the statement itself was impossible to discern whether it was a lie or not.
The expression on the young girls’ faces was like they were watching a good show.
“Well, then I’ll tell you a story too.”
Li ZouXing smiled in a childish attempt at retaliation.
“Once upon a time, there was a naive and confused girl. She fell in love with a domineering CEO. Yes, this man’s name was Domineering CEO.”
“After she got pregnant, she suddenly realized that she was the substitute for the white moonlight in the heart of the domineering CEO. Her heart turned to ashes, she rushed out the door but suffered a car accident and a miscarriage, and tragically lost her memory… A year later, she recovered from plastic surgery and approached the domineering CEO again. She was determined to take revenge on this man… She smiled as she watched the man she once loved crying bitterly at her feet, but tears flowed from her eyes… But then she unexpectedly got a heart disease, and the only suitable heart happened to be the heart of the domineering CEO…”
Teammates: “…” Speechless, they didn’t know what to say for a moment.
The two young girls, with tear-streaked faces, asked, “Did they end up together?”
Their crying was particularly persuasive, and their eyes were filled with bloody tears as they stared at Li ZouXing.
Li ZouXing put on a brilliant smile and said each word slowly, “Not. Telling. You.”
!?!?
Li ZouXing had already walked confidently into the school with his teammates.
As they walked, one by one, his teammates began to stifle their laughter.
Damn! Awesome!
It feels great to outwit these little rascals!
No wonder it’s Li ZouXing!
They followed the signs into the school, bypassed the fountain at the center of the campus, and entered a small room for payment.
In the room, a teacher sat in front of a screen. His complexion was sallow, and his black suit appeared greasy and stained.
“Payment?” the teacher asked.
“Two girls’ tuition,” Li ZouXing took out two flashy bills and said, “One is called Ajiao, and the other is Ahua.”
The Ghostly Blossom Duo.
The teacher didn’t ask further questions and started looking up the information of the two young girls on the screen.
The presence of the screen was out of place in the surroundings, creating a stark contrast, just as Ling Nian had described – this virtual world had a somewhat mismatched appearance.
Nevertheless, achieving this level of detail was already impressive.
As Li ZouXing’s thoughts briefly wandered, the teacher had already finished checking the enrollment information for the new students.
He looked up, his eyes surprisingly large on his gaunt face. “There are no students with that name among the new admissions.”
“They are two individuals,” Li ZouXing clarified.
The teacher shook his head slowly, his movements sluggish. “No.”
The Dream Team stood there in confusion, not knowing what was happening.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, the teacher’s face changed. He leaned forward and started a second search on the screen. The data on the screen kept scrolling, and his hands began to tremble. In disbelief, he asked, “What are the names of the girls who came to register?”
“One is called Ajiao, and the other is Ahua,” they repeated.
The teacher took a sharp breath. “Last year, two students in our school died unexpectedly, and their names were Ajiao and Ahua.”
Silence. Everyone fell silent.
The teacher pointed tremulously at the money in Li ZouXing’s hand. “Isn’t the money you’re holding the money of the dead?”
Li ZouXing looked down and saw that the colorful bills had turned into a color soaked in blood. The money had become moist, even oozing liquid, staining his fingers red.
“Quick, get rid of it,” the teacher anxiously sat on the edge of his seat, trembling. “Young man, don’t touch such things.”
Gu WenCheng furrowed his brows. “ZouXing?”
Ling Nian frowned, and together they stared at the blood-soaked bills in Li ZouXing’s hand.
Si Wo Lin asked, “Throw… throw it away?”
The teacher was on the verge of going mad from their indecision. His expression showed genuine fear. “Quickly, throw it away, throw it away!”
“The teacher loves lying even more than we do,” Li ZouXing muttered, repeating the sentence, “Is this statement really true or false?”
“How did they die?” Ji Yu asked the teacher.
The teacher replied, “Their elderly relatives brought them to register, but the elderly person’s eyesight was poor, and they had an accident at the school gate. These two girls… had their heads knocked off.”
The information matched, but the Dream Team was hesitant to believe it easily.
After all, loving to lie doesn’t mean someone can’t tell the truth.
Li ZouXing took a deep breath, made up his mind, and handed over the two bills. “Quick, registration fee.”
The teacher’s frail hands kept shaking. “No, no, no—”
“Ling Nian,” Li ZouXing gave him a look, “Go.”
Ling Nian didn’t ask further questions and went up to operate on the screen.
Because the teacher didn’t appear intimidating, Ji Yu and Xi Nan each held one of his arms to prevent him from struggling and disrupting Ling Nian.
“No!” The teacher was terrified, his face, now just a collection of bones, had prominent veins, “Stop!”
Ling Nian had found the records. “They really were named Ajiao and Ahua, and they don’t even have a last name.”
His slender fingers moved skillfully, and he finally clicked “Done.”
At the same time, the struggling teacher stopped moving, and everything around them began to dissolve into white dots. Machine-like sounds echoed in the air: “Congratulations to the Dream Team for their success. Your rank in the world’s teams is—first place.”
They were ejected from the game, and all six of them simultaneously opened their eyes and removed the virtual helmets from their heads.
The first thing they asked Li ZouXing was, “How did you know the teacher was lying?”
“It was written in the newspaper that parents should bring their children for registration,” Li ZouXing explained. “The elderly person also repeated it three times. Regardless, just getting to the school wasn’t enough; we had to hand over the money.”
He suddenly grinned. “I didn’t believe that I and WenCheng’s kiss would exchange for false information.”
“It was half luck and half guesswork,” Ling Nian sighed in relief. “We won.”
The process had been frightening, but all in all, Li ZouXing felt it was manageable. Thanks to this being the first time the organizers had used a ghost story as a virtual world for the competition, it was still quite rudimentary and simple. If they continued this tradition, there would undoubtedly be more moments that would terrify the participants.
Finally out of the game, looking at the sunlight outside the window and its simulated waves, they couldn’t help but feel that real life was simply heavenly.
The world where the living and the dead were indistinguishable… they shivered at the thought, sincerely hoping that there would be a holographic movie to let ordinary people experience it.
The news of their first-place victory and exit from the virtual world was immediately posted on the official forum of the Strongest Team Competition, causing a frenzy among all the viewers following the competition.
Prince Nico, who was still in the palace, smiled genuinely as he watched this news. He forwarded the message to Raymond, and the princess’s eyes lit up the moment she saw it.
“They are amazing, aren’t they?” Prince Nico said to his sister. “I’m honored to be their leader.”
“Yes, they are amazing,” the princess hesitated for a moment. “Brother, do you need someone to congratulate them on their clearance?”
Prince Nico shook his head. “I’ll personally meet them during the finals.”
The finals were scheduled for a shorter time, just two days later.
The princess nodded secretly, determined to follow her brother to meet the Dream Team when the time came.
Back at school, the Dream Team dealt with a series of congratulatory messages one after another. While they were having a meal in the air garden, the students who were still in the competition approached them in amazement several times. Eventually, they had no choice but to abandon their half-eaten meals, buy some ingredients, and return to their apartment to cook their own food.
Their early exit this time was largely due to luck, and perhaps they should thank Gu WenCheng and Li ZouXing’s romantic relationship.
The teammates happily chopped vegetables in the kitchen, creating a lively atmosphere filled with jokes and laughter. It felt like a warm family gathering.
Midway through, Nana came, dropped off gifts, and left in silence.
Gu WenCheng’s harem was now rarely seen in front of Li ZouXing. However, Nana was a good girl, and if she missed out on Gu WenCheng, she would definitely find a boy who was more suitable for her and loved her.
The meal was served hot, and Li ZouXing opened about a dozen bottles of low-alcohol wine, pouring a glass for each of them. “Let’s drink openly tonight.”
They had secretly drunk once when they first started school, and the next evening they were scolded by the dorm supervisor, Ma Na. However, they later learned that the strict discipline was mainly for new students during the initial period of the school year. After that time, the school would usually become more lax, allowing them more freedom.
Without any surprises, they were determined to win first place in the finals in two days. After that, they would join Colonel Raymond to track down Jin Di and the forces behind him.
They were going to join the military.
The anxiety and unease turned into high spirits under the influence of alcohol, and the group of young men, as they drank, suddenly began to talk about their family backgrounds.
They had never asked each other about their families before, but now, under the influence of alcohol, they felt compelled to share.
Ling Nian said, “On the day they died, my younger brother wasn’t even a year old.”
“The Star Bandits plundered everything, including the lives of my family.”
Tears fell onto the table. This was the first time Ling Nian had shed tears in the real world.
The vulnerability he had shown in the illusion was now fully exposed to his teammates.
One by one, his teammates hugged him and wiped away his tears.
The death of innocent lives was the most heart-wrenching, and the death of parents and loved ones left one in despair.
But on the surface, Ling Nian appeared cold, yet his heart was warm.
He never expressed negative emotions in everyday life.
He detested the Star Bandits but didn’t harbor hatred for all of them—individuals like Walter, who often used evil to combat evil with a sense of limits, could earn his admiration.
The embrace from his brothers allowed him to pour out his pain unabashedly, knowing that his teammates would support him through the pain. After shedding tears and letting out his sorrow, there was a healing beauty deep within his heart.
“I and Xi Nan are orphans,” Ji Yu smiled, “We’ve supported each other, and the journey has been worth remembering.”
They took turns sharing their backgrounds, and it was Li ZouXing’s turn.
“Like Ji Yu and Xi Nan,” he smiled, “I’m parentless but have some inheritance.”
The author had arranged his character well, without any unnecessary burdens.
Gu WenCheng lowered his gaze. “I—”
‘What should I say?’
He fell silent, and everyone couldn’t help but look at him.
The expression on Gu WenCheng’s face was complex, reminiscent of Ling Nian’s just now.
“Let me think about it,” Gu WenCheng clenched his fist. “Let me think about how to say it.”
Before this moment, Gu WenCheng hadn’t revealed the fact that he was Walter.
His original plan was to obtain another vial of NK-03 and then let the identity of Walter and NK-03 die in front of the public.
But the atmosphere was just too suitable for a catharsis1a term often used in psychology and literature to describe the emotional release or purification that a person experiences after going through an intense and often difficult or traumatic experience. It’s a process of releasing pent-up emotions, such as fear, pity, or sadness, often achieved through art, storytelling, or sharing one’s experiences with others.
“Then let’s start with me,” Si Wo Lin spoke softly. “The one who raised me was my grandmother.”
He smiled warmly, “My grandmother has a small part of foreign blood in her lineage, so she has a long lifespan. She loves taking care of children, especially young and kind-hearted ones.”
He adjusted his expression, “If you’re willing, my grandmother can be your grandmother too. You can come to my home on various holidays, celebrate together, eat together, accompany my grandmother for walks, and live together.”
“Live like a big family, happily enjoying each day.”
In reality, Si Wo Lin was simply speaking words of joy. He didn’t mention why his parents weren’t there or how he and an elderly person had faced numerous difficulties and hardships while growing up.
Life has its share of pain, but they chose to focus on the happier side of it.
Despite enduring storms, they were not defeated by them.
Author’s note:
Love you all, and I hope everyone can meet warm-hearted friends.
