Thank you to biki for the ko-fi~
Li ZouXing was talking and laughing with his teammates when the training room’s door burst open, and a stern-faced Gu WenCheng rushed in, heading straight for Li ZouXing.
The cheerful atmosphere came to a halt as they saw him. The warmth in Li ZouXing’s eyes turned into a calm gaze as Gu WenCheng stood in front of him, staring at his smooth and full forehead.
That thing just kissed Li ZouXing’s forehead. It was the first time he had looked so seriously at Li ZouXing’s appearance.
Even though Li ZouXing’s expression remained calm and rational, his eyes were bright, filled with warmth and hope.
His facial features were well-defined: high nose bridge, attractive lips, and a face that would be adored by many.
Li ZouXing asked, “What’s the matter?”
His tone had no fluctuations.
It was the same as always.
Gu WenCheng grew frustrated and, with a sudden impulse, reached out to wipe away the imaginary mark on Li ZouXing’s forehead. But before his hand could touch, Li ZouXing had already turned his head to avoid it.
The tension in the room became unbearable, with Gu WenCheng’s lips tightly pressed together, and his fingers frozen in mid-air.
His eyes went from unpredictable to deep and obscure. Finally, he turned around and quickly left the training room.
The atmosphere in the training room gradually returned to normal. Ling Nian snorted, “That was bizarre.”
Li ZouXing lowered his head and looked at the palm of his hand.
In the center of his palm was a silver-white mental energy.
The color of this energy reflected in his eyes, making him appear exceptionally cold.
He tightened his hand, and the energy dissipated as he exerted pressure. “Let’s continue training.”
…
In the evening, when the group returned to the dormitory, they saw a familiar face they hadn’t seen in a while.
Bai Tong was in the living room, watering the green plant by the window. Her straight hair flowed behind her, looking elegant and gentle. Upon seeing them, she smiled lightly and placed a slender finger in front of her lips. “As for Cheng, he’s fallen asleep.”
In the past week, Li ZouXing hadn’t seen her, but now he knew that this was not the cross-dressing expert but the real Bai Tong, often referred to as Gu WenCheng’s spiritual partner by readers.
He gave a wry smile and responded to his teammates around him.
Bai Tong ran her fingers through her hair and said with a smile, “A-Cheng’s mental power unexpectedly went haywire. By the time I arrived, he had already caused some damage, but thankfully, I managed to somewhat calm him down.”
Gu WenCheng’s mental power went haywire.
Li ZouXing’s thoughts started to drift, and someone nearby asked, “Why did it suddenly go haywire?”
“I don’t know either,” Bai Tong sighed and then resumed her cheerful tone. “Just be a little quieter when you rest, everything else is fine. But, ZouXing, I might have to ask you to look after A-Cheng more.”
“Sure,” he replied.
After taking a shower, Li ZouXing entered his room.
Gu WenCheng was lying on the bed opposite to his, looking pained, but his breathing was steady.
Half of his blanket had fallen off, and his clothes were soaked with sweat.
Li ZouXing walked over and covered him with the blanket. In the moonlight, he noticed an unusual redness on Gu WenCheng’s face.
He reached out and checked the temperature of his head, and it was burning hot.
Gu WenCheng was sick.
The cool sensation of his hand awakened Gu WenCheng. He opened his eyes and saw Li ZouXing. Without hesitation, he turned his head to avoid Li ZouXing’s touch, with a retaliatory quality, just like how Li ZouXing had dodged his touch during their training as if his current mental power outburst had nothing to do with Li ZouXing.
Li ZouXing paused, got up, and went out to call Bai Tong.
Bai Tong entered in a hurry, helped Gu WenCheng up, placed a cold towel on his forehead, and brought him medicine and water. She bustled around Gu WenCheng, who leaned against the wall, his lips so dry that they were peeling, yet he had no desire to drink water.
His mood was suppressed.
Suppressed to the point of explosion.
He wanted to pour everything out in one go, but he didn’t know where the outlet was.
“You go out,” he turned to Bai Tong and said, “Please leave for now.”
Gu WenCheng’s girlfriends clearly knew what kind of person he was. At this moment, they could only contain their worries. Bai Tong said, “ZouXing, please take good care of him for me.”
Take good care of him for me.
Li ZouXing suddenly got up from the edge of the bed and walked into the bathroom. The sound of water started. He responded amidst the sound of water, “I understand.”
Bai Tong breathed a sigh of relief and left the room.
The atmosphere in the entire room took on a different kind of strangeness.
A mixture of restraint, with Gu WenCheng suppressing his explosive temper, and Li ZouXing suppressing his emotions.
Li ZouXing washed his face and came out of the bathroom, holding another damp towel in his hand. He approached Gu WenCheng without reaching out to touch him. “Change the towel.”
His tone was also calm. It was surprising how this person knew what kind of dish Gu WenCheng disliked.
He would get along well with anyone as long as it kept him away from Gu WenCheng.
Gu WenCheng remained still, just staring at him.
The emotions in his eyes went through countless changes, but it seemed as though Li ZouXing didn’t notice his emotional turmoil.
Even if any of the other members of their team, be it Ling Nian, Ji Yu, or Xi Nan, were sitting in that chair, Gu WenCheng wouldn’t have acted this way.
The bedding under his hand was crumpled, and suddenly, Gu WenCheng smiled.
He didn’t move.
Seeing him like this, Li ZouXing absentmindedly changed the towel for Gu WenCheng and then returned it to the bathroom. After washing his hands back and forth, Li ZouXing lay down on his own bed.
Throughout the process, not a single word was exchanged. Gu WenCheng’s expression grew increasingly grim.
He recalled the scene he had witnessed earlier.
The moment when the person who looked exactly like him kissed Li ZouXing on the forehead.
Li ZouXing opened his eyes sharply, muttered under his breath, and looked in Gu WenCheng’s direction. “Your mental power is erupting again.”
The room was filled with his intensely high mental power, darting around in the confined space.
People outside gathered at the door, anxiously asking the people inside to open it.
“Gu WenCheng!” Bai Tong’s voice sounded especially urgent. “Gu WenCheng, open the door!”
However, Gu WenCheng’s dark and deep eyes remained fixed on Li ZouXing.
He seemed to have not heard them, and the overflowing mental power surrounded Li ZouXing according to his will, sharp and focused, following him wherever he went.
It was as if he wanted his life.
But he couldn’t bring himself to harm him.
Li ZouXing moved with great difficulty, and he shouted to the people outside, “His mental power is erupting!”
After a mental power eruption, the healing capabilities of female mental powers could help him calm down.
Bai Tong possessed powerful healing abilities. She gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and sent her mental power inside.
Her delicate and gentle mental power carried the power of healing, gently touching Gu WenCheng’s mental power.
Li ZouXing watched this scene and then closed his eyes a few seconds later.
Bai Tong and Gu WenCheng.
In the eyes of both readers and the author, they were naturally a perfect pair.
No one, not even Gu WenCheng himself, believed that only Bai Tong could approach him when his mental power erupted.
How perfectly matched they were.
But then, a painful groan suddenly reached his ears.
Outside the door, Ling Nian and the others exclaimed, “Bai Tong!”
Bai Tong’s mental power was repelled and consumed by Gu WenCheng’s spirit power, causing her to faint.
Ling Nian’s expression was frantic as he pounded on the door. “ZouXing!”
His light brain had already emitted a distress signal to the surroundings, and his eyes were red with anxiety.
If it were their usual Gu WenCheng, Ling Nian wouldn’t be this worried. But in the room, the Gu WenCheng who was with Li ZouXing was an enigma.
The heavy knocking on the door continued, but Gu WenCheng remained silent.
The towel on his head had already been torn off by him. Li ZouXing locked eyes with him, and at this moment, they appeared to be like adversaries.
His mental power formed swords and shields in his hands, waiting for Gu WenCheng’s move.
Even though he knew that his mental power was no match for Gu WenCheng’s, Li ZouXing never had the thought of retreating.
The light in his eyes flared again.
Gu WenCheng’s headache throbbed at his temples, and his mental power moved closer to Li ZouXing.
Li ZouXing extended his hand in front of him, creating layers of shields that enveloped him.
But Gu WenCheng’s mental power still broke through his defenses, rushing to the front of Li ZouXing.
The pointed tip of Gu WenCheng’s mental power was just a centimeter away from Li ZouXing’s eyes. At such close range, Gu WenCheng could see everything in Li ZouXing’s eyes.
It was something Gu WenCheng had never seen before, something he had never possessed.
Li ZouXing closed his eyes.
Calm and composed, he prepared himself for Gu WenCheng to take his life.
But the sharp mental power transformed into the shape of a hand, moving from his eyes to his forehead, and then it vigorously, repeatedly wiped there several times.
…
The sound of running water continued gently.
Ling Nian stood in front of the bathroom door, arms crossed, contemplating. “He only touched your forehead?”
“Yeah,” Li ZouXing replied, “and he rubbed it repeatedly, which was quite strange.”
Both of them fell into deep thought.
After Gu WenCheng’s mental power went wild, it encountered Li ZouXing. Gu WenCheng’s mental power had a sharp and icy texture, which felt both familiar and completely unfamiliar.
As his mental power repeatedly rubbed against Li ZouXing’s forehead, Li ZouXing spoke, “Bai Tong fainted.”
Gu WenCheng’s spirit power paused for a moment, then dissipated. He left the dormitory with Bai Tong as if fleeing.
“You’re…,” Ling Nian began to say.
Cold water splashed on his face, and Li ZouXing chuckled, “I can’t stop thinking about Gu WenCheng, not for a moment.”
Ling Nian hesitated for a moment, then smiled and softly said, “Me neither.”
At night, when Bai Tong woke up, Gu WenCheng was sitting next to her, leisurely reading a book. He had a cold and distant demeanor, a stark contrast to how charming he could be when he smiled. When he didn’t smile, he seemed quite aloof.
Bai Tong smiled and asked, “Have you recovered?”
Gu WenCheng finally curved his lips, looking at her with a full smile. “Luckily, I had you.”
“Me?” Bai Tong chuckled. “I got injured by you. How can I comfort your mental power?”
But apart from Bai Tong, no one else had comforted Gu WenCheng’s mental power. It couldn’t be that merely wiping away the marks on Li ZouXing’s forehead stopped his mental power from going wild.
Gu WenCheng closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, his smile grew deeper. He lowered his head and kissed Bai Tong, silencing all her questions, including his own.
A woman’s lips were soft and sweet.
Suddenly, Gu WenCheng opened his eyes and met hers for a moment, then lowered his gaze. There was no light in her eyes.
Later in the evening, he unexpectedly chose not to stay over at Bai Tong’s and returned to the dormitory in the darkness.
All the people in the dormitory were asleep. Gu WenCheng opened the door to his own room and noticed a faint, soft light.
He quieted his own footsteps and opened the door as wide as possible.
The dim warm light illuminated the bedside lamp in Li ZouXing’s room. He had a furrowed brow, indicating he wasn’t sleeping soundly.
Suddenly, his mental power started to pulse intensely. Gu WenCheng seemed to sense something, so he concentrated his power around his eyes and looked again.
There was an additional presence standing by Li ZouXing’s bed, a figure like air, transparent as a soul. This person tried to shield Li ZouXing’s eyes from the glaring bedside lamp, but it was ineffective. They also attempted to turn off the light repeatedly, but they couldn’t touch physical objects.
This transparent figure, identical in appearance to Gu WenCheng, had an intense expression of sorrow and restraint on its face. The emotions emanating from them were as powerful as the aura of killing that surrounded Gu WenCheng.
Gu WenCheng’s eyes darkened, and after a while, he curled his lips and stepped forward. While this transparent figure kept making futile attempts, he effortlessly turned off the lamp beside Li ZouXing’s bed.
“Worthless,” he sarcastically remarked to the transparent figure.
A sense of murderous intent surfaced in the darkness. To him, this figure, identical to him in appearance, was just an eyesore. Gu WenCheng didn’t even want to know what it was or the reason behind it; he only wanted to deal with it right now.
Before Li ZouXing could become aware of the presence beside him, Gu WenCheng aimed to get rid of it.
However, the other figure, identical to him, simply cast a cold glance at Gu WenCheng and then bent down to gently smooth out Li ZouXing’s furrowed brow.
He continued to comfort Li ZouXing repeatedly, his voice gentle. “It’s okay, Xing Xing. I’m here.”
“Cheng Cheng is here.”
His hands couldn’t physically touch Li ZouXing, but for some reason, Li ZouXing’s furrowed brow really did smooth out as he was consoled again and again.
Li ZouXing murmured, “WenCheng…”
The person comforting him felt a sting in their eyes but restrained their emotions. Their tone remained steady. “I’m here.”
However, only Gu WenCheng could hear the words spoken.
Gu WenCheng’s hand in his pocket tightened slowly.
Lips pressed tightly together.
His intuition told him that when Li ZouXing called out “WenCheng,” it wasn’t meant for him. It was meant for the person beside him, someone who looked exactly like him.
And the light in Li ZouXing’s eyes wasn’t meant for him either.
It was meant for this person.
The growing agitation suddenly found an outlet.
The water glass nearest to him began to crack inch by inch.
He wanted to kill the person who looked exactly like him.
— Before Li ZouXing discovered him.
