Chapter 99

Chapter 99

The old man had once told him that there would be plenty of chances to work on puzzles in the future. At that time, he had taken it as a joke, and when he got the first piece, he had just tossed it into a drawer.

But now it seemed that wasn’t the case. The old man was really serious about playing this puzzle with him.

What would happen after all the pieces were put together?

...

No. Idea. Whatsoever.

Yi Ye sat on the floor, staring at the four pieces in front of him, and had been staring blankly for nearly two hours.

The design was unrecognizable, more like someone had randomly splashed a bucket of paint on it. Only the material was somewhat interesting. He knew that puzzles were usually made of wood or cardboard, but these pieces were different. They seemed to be made of alloy, yet lighter than ordinary alloy.

He hefted them in his hand a few times when suddenly, a dark figure lunged and quickly snatched one of the pieces.

"Stop!!"

Yi Ye quickly grabbed the smelly dog that was trying to escape, using all his might to pry its mouth open, but it had swallowed too quickly, and the piece was already in its stomach.

Little Orange: "Woof!"

Delicious, delicious, delicious.

Yi Ye: "!!!"

Yi Ye: "You stinky dog, how could you even eat a puzzle piece!"

Enraged, Yi Ye jumped to his feet, pacing around with his hands on his hips, resisting the urge to smack the dog with a slipper. Instead, he turned around and pulled out a few shiny screwdrivers! In the old days, they killed the goose that laid the golden egg; today, he would dismantle the dog to retrieve the object. Old man, your dog might not make it out of here alive.

But just as he reached out, he suddenly heard a "ding," followed by a message: [Chip scanned]

Yi Ye froze on the spot.

What the heck? A chip?

Yi Ye: "Don’t tell me your owner shaped the chip like a puzzle piece."

Little Orange: "Woof!"

Delicious, delicious, delicious.

"You’re a scanner? Not a dog?"

Little Orange: "Woof?"

It tilted its head with an innocent expression.

Man and dog locked eyes, and Yi Ye suddenly felt the old man's deep malice. Just as he was about to speak, the dog suddenly threw up, making a "blurgh blurgh" sound, and then a glob of engine oil with the puzzle piece in it was spat into his hand.

A sticky, black lump, reeking of engine oil.

Yi Ye: "...Blurgh—"

He covered his nose and mouth, rushed to the bathroom to wash the engine oil off his hands, his face looking like he'd swallowed a hundred flies. With mixed feelings, he picked up the smelly dog that was sniffing at the other puzzle pieces, flipping it over and examining it thoroughly, and sure enough, found a data port under its butt.

Impressive.

They turned a dog into a card reader.

Wait, no—they turned a card reader into a dog.

Once connected to the terminal, Yi Ye dragged over a chair, crossed his arms, and propped up his legs, staring at the big screen. After the blue progress bar, the screen suddenly flickered, followed by a "Dong!" sound effect. In the center of the screen, bold, blood-stained letters with a horror movie vibe popped up:

"Those who enter my database, there is no return—"

The hyper-realistic blood gushed down.

Yi Ye, now inexplicably cursed: ":("

Well, that’s just perfect for the old man’s quirky vibe.

The text then shattered into pixels, a blue light flashed, and the screen went blank. The bottom left corner displayed: "Little Orange's Appetite: 9/0"

No words.

The old man who made Little Orange is a freaking genius.

With a heavy sigh, Yi Ye fed all four fragments to the dog, then hooked the trash can with his foot, lined it with a clean bag, and got ready for the inevitable puke.

"Chip scanned"

A flat, mechanical voice came from the dog’s belly, and the number in the bottom left corner changed to [Little Orange's Appetite: 9/4], while a folder named "NEXT" appeared. Inside was only a document with a string of gibberish: ZP350.11 .B6 0369

Couldn’t understand it.

Did the old man write this when he was out of his mind?

Little Orange clearly didn’t get it either—just a dumb little thing that pukes after eating and naps in the sun when it’s tired. After spitting out the chips, it bolted to the yard for some fresh air.

As he jotted down the code, Yi Ye felt like he’d seen this format before, but he couldn’t place it.

His hand instinctively opened Bai Chuan’s chat, copied and pasted the code, added an emoji, and was about to hit send when he froze.

He and Bai Chuan weren’t exactly on good enough terms for casual messages like that!

After the awkwardness of that whole mess, if he suddenly asked, "Hey bro, do you know what this code means?" like nothing happened, wouldn’t Bai Chuan think he’d lost it?

So he quickly switched gears and sent the message to Kaiser instead.

The chat still showed last night’s barrage of messages and his morning reply. Bush Meihua had also messaged him, mostly checking on his health and subtly fishing for details on how he’d shaken off last night’s drug.

No way Yi Ye was telling the truth. With a quick mental twist, he spun a perfect tale of "I stood strong and conquered the demon of lust," earning a "6" from Bush Meihua.

Kaiser didn’t ask about that—he was just rambling, every word dripping with anxiety, like a big dog who’d pulled an all-nighter and was on the brink of a meltdown, desperate for reassurance until Yi Ye’s voice message calmed him down. But once he calmed down, he vanished. The last message was still Yi Ye asking about the Tenth Seat.

Half an hour later, Yi Ye finally heard back.

"God Kaiser" I think this is a library book number.

"Yi Ye" Any idea which library it’s from?

"God Kaiser" The Duchess of Wenz’s library uses this format. Is the book important?

"Yi Ye" Kind of. Planning to check it out tomorrow.

I thought Kaiser would say he would come with me, but he only told me to be careful when going out.

"Yi Ye, aren’t you coming with me?"

"Kaiser: Not going."

"Kaiser: I have things to take care of at the mansion, I don’t have time recently, don’t bother coming to see me."

Yi Ye: "What’s going on with him?"

Normally, he would bombard me with exclamation marks, but now his words sound distant and cold. Strange, this isn’t like the usual hot-headed Young Master.

"Yi Ye: Are you okay?"

"Kaiser: What’s wrong with me?"

That sounded more like his usual self.

"Yi Ye: Oh, by the way, I saw a post this morning that said, are you going to marry the young master of the Jones family? Congratulations, I saw the photo, he’s quite good-looking, you’re in luck."

"Kaiser: …"

"Kaiser: Do you want me to marry him?"

"Yi Ye: Don’t worry, as your roommate, I’ll give you a fat red envelope, I’m very generous."

If Kaiser gets married, that’ll totally stop anything from happening with Bai Chuan! That’s a good thing!

"Kaiser: You know I don’t want to get married, right?!"

"Kaiser: Why the hell should I marry him, I don’t like him, I can’t stand these weak, crying Omegas! Don’t you even know what I like?!"

To be honest, Yi Ye really doesn’t know, Kaiser never opened up to him about his ideal type.

"Yi Ye: What is it?"

"Kaiser: It’s…"

The "typing…" indicator kept popping up and disappearing for nearly 10 minutes, then he replied:

"Kaiser: It’s none of your damn business!"

After sending this message, he went offline.

The sheer anger in his tone made Yi Ye pause, he stayed silent for a while, then he picked up Little Orange beside him, stroking the dog and said sorrowfully: "Little Orange, people are complicated; being a dog is way easier, don’t you think?"

Little Orange: "Woof?"

But Yi Ye’s sorrow didn’t last long. After setting up a time with the Duchess of Wenz to visit the royal library tomorrow, he heard the door open outside.

He glanced and saw Bai Chuan’s golden hair. He panicked and bolted back to the bedroom, lay on the bed, rolled over, and wrapped himself in the blanket, pretending to be dead.

The door was pushed open, footsteps approached from behind.

A faint whiff of alcohol drifted over, Bai Chuan’s footsteps were unsteady, like he was drunk.

How’d he end up drinking?

Yi Ye muttered in his heart.

"Big brother..."

Bai Chuan called him in a low voice, sitting on the edge of the bed, clearly tipsy, his fingers brushing through the hair from his forehead. Yi Ye shut his eyes tight as the burning touch brushed the corner of his eye, making him wince.

But that hand quickly withdrew, and Yi Ye heard him stand up by holding the bedside table, then gently pushed the door and left.

He didn’t do anything—just called him "big brother," came in, and left.

The room was dead silent.