To avoid the dramatic scene of Xiao Zhenyun suddenly standing up in front of everyone, Si Di quickly hoisted him over his shoulder and dashed off as soon as he fainted, pulling another vanishing act. This time, they disappeared together, making it a dual act of disappearance.
Surprisingly, this inadvertently revived the plotline of ‘Xiao Zhenyun’s disappearance’ that Xiao Nian had given up on, pushing the story completion up by a challenging 1%.
—But they left Xiao Nian behind.
The black wolf and the stag bravely covered their masters’ retreat, though Tian Lu soon revealed his true nature. He looked up at the viper coiled around the antlers and excitedly ran in circles, resembling branches decorated with holiday lights.
Of course, Xiao Zhenyun and Si Di’s double disappearance left Xiao Jingfeng utterly furious upon waking up. The nephew who had promised to explain everything had vanished without a trace once again. This was intolerable.
In less than three days, the guild chairman on a white horse appeared outside Xiao Zhenyun’s countryside villa, with an imposing air. It wasn’t that Xiao Jingfeng couldn’t find Xiao Zhenyun during those three years; he had guessed his nephew chose to disappear, so he hadn’t seriously looked.
But now, Uncle was upset and serious. Within three days, he uncovered everything about Xiao Zhenyun, or whatever alias he used, and came with great fanfare to settle accounts.
From three miles away, the sound of a noble steed pierced the sky, reaching Si Di’s ears. Xiao Zhenyun, half-paralyzed, had no choice but to open the door and welcome the distant guest, forced to confess and face the consequences.
Three days had passed, and Si Di’s long-desired car sex still hadn’t happened.
On the first day, Xiao Zhenyun slept for a full 24 hours, suffering from a high fever, sweating, convulsions, and a rapid heartbeat.
When he woke up the next morning, Si Di lifted the blanket intending to check on Xiao Zhenyun’s legs but was greeted by a very spirited guy, happily basking in the sunlight and breathing fresh air, greeting Si Di with a cheerful ‘Hi.’
Si Di must have licked his canines and said ‘Hi’ back.
Xiao Zhenyun wasn’t up for engaging in close combat with an S-class sentinel right after recovering from a severe illness. He politely but firmly declined Si Di’s request for morning exercise. Sitting up, he pinched his thigh muscles, feeling a sensation he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
“I can feel it,” he said lightly, without the excitement he had when he first took a step with his prosthetic limb. But as he wiggled his toes, lifted his leg on his own, moved his joints, sat up straight, and placed his feet on the ground, feeling the carpet’s soft texture against his toes, his chest swelled with growing excitement, slowly turning into a joyous smile.
He stood up from the bed, baring his long, straight legs.
They were no longer thin as bamboo-stick due to muscle atrophy; they were healthy, strong, and powerful—just like his original legs before crossing over.
Si Di stepped back to the doorway, opening his arms wide for Xiao Zhenyun. Tai Ji leaped down from mid-air, crouching at Si Di’s feet, with his wolf tail swishing against his paws.
Xiao Zhenyun, like a newborn fawn, lifted his legs and walked towards Si Di with a smile.
—Then promptly fell face-planted onto the carpet.
“…”
When he first wore his prosthetics, Xiao Zhenyun couldn’t walk. Now, without them, he had forgotten how to walk again.
Si Di found this ‘mermaid’ look amusing, jokingly saying he wanted to put Xiao Zhenyun in a mermaid tail skirt.
Xiao Zhenyun retorted, “Just wait, in a week I’ll use these legs to kick you in the head with a scorpion kick.”
Unfortunately, just as he began his shaky day of rehabilitation, his uncle arrived on horseback to demand answers. Technically, the story’s plot had ended, the world was stabilized, and nothing he said or did would cause it to collapse. But the real issue was, would Xiao Jingfeng believe his explanation and accept his story?
After much hesitation, Xiao Zhenyun decided to reveal half of the truth.
He only told Xiao Jingfeng that Xiao Nian wasn’t human but an administrator from a higher-dimensional world. He possessed a magical hardcover book that could predict the future, and they had to ensure reality matched its predictions…
“To save the world?” Xiao Jingfeng raised an eyebrow. “Should I be calling you heroes now?”
Xiao Zhenyun: I knew he wouldn’t believe it.
Si Di: It’d be a miracle if he did.
That afternoon, Xiao Nian arrived at the countryside villa under the escort of Hedgehog, personally putting on a magical book performance for Xiao Jingfeng and Hedgehog. Hedgehog was mostly convinced, about eighty percent, but Xiao Jingfeng insisted it was just a trick and started arguing with Hedgehog.
“The story’s over. Why are you still here?” Xiao Zhenyun asked Xiao Nian. “I thought the moment ‘The End’ appeared, you’d ascend to immortality and resign.”
Xiao Nian rolled his eyes dramatically. “I finally finished my work, and you think I can’t take a vacation in this world you almost ruined?”
Their conversation was entirely transparent, right in front of Xiao Jingfeng and Hedgehog, with nothing held back.
Combining this with Xiao Zhenyun’s bizarre actions towards Si Chu, Hedgehog was almost fully convinced, nodding. “I thought once you revealed the true reasons behind those contradictory behaviors, I’d find it as dull as uncovering the truth in a mystery game—just so-so. But a world with a script that causes destruction if not followed? That’s fascinating! It means we’re living inside a book? This is too interesting!”
He turned to Si Di. “Black Wolf, I really hit the jackpot when I took that job to kidnap Si Chu on a whim.”
“You kidnapped Si Chu?” Xiao Jingfeng took a deep breath, his ears sharp as blades and his sleek tail bristling.
“That’s all in the past,” Xiao Zhenyun said. “There was no choice; he’s the male lead. Being the lead is never easy; he had to endure mental and physical hardships.”
“Exactly,” Hedgehog chimed in, adding fuel to the fire. “Kidnapping, locking him in the basement, pushing him off a cliff, injecting him with QTA.”
Xiao Jingfeng narrowed his eyes. “I almost forgot about QTA. Si Chu’s spiritual body is still in a coma. Good job.”
“Xiao Mu will wake up in a year,” Si Di quickly said. “But you can’t tell him. He needs this year’s struggle to gain unexpected rewards.”
Xiao Jingfeng, Hedgehog, and Xiao Zhenyun all looked at him in confusion and asked in unison, “What unexpected reward?”
Si Di sighed and looked at Xiao Zhenyun. “So, the script is right in front of you, and you didn’t even read it?”
Xiao Nian opened the hardcover book, flipping to the epilogue page. “After his spiritual body fell asleep, Si Chu believed it was because he wasn’t strong enough to protect the dog he loved. Motivated by this, he trained diligently and unexpectedly broke through to S-rank a year later.”
“Tsk,” Xiao Zhenyun grumbled, clearly displeased. “This so-called ‘S-rank’ is handed out like free cabbages. Out of the five people here, three are S-rank. Even Ye Feiran is S-rank. Finally, we had an A-rank protagonist who was unique, but in the epilogue, he becomes S-rank too. It’s just a cliched happy ending.”
He concluded, “So why don’t I get to be S-rank too? Why am I the only one stuck at C-rank?”
Si Di had a thought. “Administrator, when you restored Xiao Zhenyun’s health, didn’t you think to tweak his data and upgrade him to S-rank?”
Xiao Nian snorted haughtily. “That would cost extra.”
Hearing about the healthy body, Xiao Jingfeng looked curiously at Xiao Zhenyun. Xiao Zhenyun understood and rolled up his pants to reveal his long, firm calves. Xiao Jingfeng, surprised, squatted down, holding Xiao Zhenyun’s calf and moving the joint, asking if it hurt and how it felt.
Because of these healthy legs, Xiao Jingfeng started to believe these crazy stories a bit more.
But then came a deeper question, one that had plagued him from the beginning: “Are you really Xiao Zhenyun?”
Xiao Zhenyun paused, slowly lowering his gaze, knowing he couldn’t avoid this question forever.
After asking, Xiao Jingfeng hesitated, knowing the answer might bring him great pain, but he still sought the truth. “You don’t seem like him at all. Although I didn’t interact with him much before—he always avoided me, and I didn’t like him, even though he is my sister’s son—but…”
Xiao Jingfeng turned his head. “Xiao Nian, my sister…”
“Your sister is just a line of text,” Xiao Nian said bluntly, without any hesitation. “She died before the timeline of the script began. The company didn’t give her character a soul, so she is just text.”
He was this straightforward to set up what he needed to say next: “Your sister’s son is the same. Before the plot began, Xiao Zhenyun’s soul had already arrived, which means the nephew you remember is just text too. Xiao Jingfeng, I know this is harsh, but it’s what you asked for, and you have to deal with the consequences. I’m sorry, your memories and your past, although real, are just two-dimensional text. The day Si Chu graduated from the academy and got recruited by the Guild is the real beginning of this three-dimensional world, the start of reality.”
“……”
Xiao Jingfeng silently walked outside, questioning his entire existence.
As soon as he left, the normally tough-as-steel Hedgehog excitedly jumped in front of Xiao Zhenyun and Xiao Nian. “Black Wolf told me that in the original story, I died two years ago after being injected with QTA, at the hands of Professor Briggs, right?”
“Feeling proud of yourself?” Xiao Zhenyun teased him sarcastically.
Hedgehog’s eyes showed the snake-like pattern at the corners, and his cold snake tail hung down, curling in an S shape and twitching on the carpet. “This is too exciting! I had no idea I narrowly escaped death because of a moment’s hesitation. It’s so cool!”
“Si Di was supposed to die even earlier than you,” Xiao Nian added. “He was killed off in Chapter 2. A guide specializing in collecting graveyard grasses gave me a big surprise right from the start.”
Hedgehog was momentarily disappointed that he wasn’t the unique ‘graveyard grass’ but quickly regained his excitement. “Black Wolf, we’re both so cool!”
Si Di, confused about what made them cool: “?”
An hour later, Xiao Jingfeng, his face numb from the cold wind, returned inside. He stared at the vast starry sky and accepted the truth. “On second thought, it’s not so bad. Those hardships are just segments of text. My sister didn’t really go through them; everything exists only in my memory. Thinking about it that way, it’s easier to move on.”
“This is you coming to terms with it?” Hedgehog asked exaggeratedly.
“What else?” Xiao Jingfeng replied indignantly. “Should I kill Zhenyun and Nian Nian and then scream for my sister and my nephew back?”
“It’s good that you’re okay with it,” Si Di quickly offered a way out. “Zhenyun is your nephew, and so am I.”
Xiao Jingfeng sighed and accepted the consolation. He then brought up a thought he had while stargazing. “You mentioned earlier that in the book, Si Chu believed his spiritual body’s coma was his fault because he failed to protect it, so he worked hard and broke through to S-rank. But in reality, you two forcibly injected him with QTA, and he didn’t resist because he trusted you. Will he still feel remorse and work hard now?”
Xiao Zhenyun, Si Di, and Xiao Nian fell silent: “…”
Si Chu was indeed feeling deeply remorseful. The pain was real, but his thoughts were focused on why his brother and little uncle injected him with QTA, causing his spiritual body to fall into a permanent coma.
After a thorough hospital check-up, he found no tumors in his brain. Apart from the issue with his spiritual body, he was perfectly healthy.
Ye Feiran frowned, saying that Si Di and Xiao Zhenyun had gone missing again. “Could they be on the run, avoiding responsibility?”
Si Chu refuted, “That’s impossible. There must be a reason. Haven’t you heard that Duan Pei injected QTA again and his tumor is continuously shrinking? It’s a medical miracle, and it’s closely related to my Little Uncle.”
Ye Feiran was speechless.
There’s no saving you.
How did I end up with such a foolish sentinel?
Well, I chose this fool, so I’ll have to deal with it…
When Xiao Jingfeng left the Guild, he was fuming. Two days later, he returned with a kind expression, lovingly patting Si Chu’s head without saying a word but assigning him a pile of heavy tasks. He also gave the little dog some motivation, saying, “You need to become a sentinel without a spiritual body but stronger than those with one!”
Two days later, Si Di returned to work at the Guild. Si Chu and Ye Feiran immediately rushed over to block the door, asking when Xiao Mu would wake up and why their Little Uncle hadn’t come back with him.
Si Di didn’t mention that Xiao Zhenyun had bought a new house and was waiting for renovations. Instead, he replied cryptically, “When the Czech wolfdog is meant to wake up, it will. By then, you’ll see a whole new him, and he’ll see a better you.”
“Oh~~” Si Chu seemed to have an epiphany, his round puppy eyes lighting up. “I get it, brother!”
Hedgehog, eavesdropping outside the door, couldn’t help but chuckle and nearly collapsed from laughter.
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
