Chapter 84: Brief Respite

Chapter 84 A Brief Respite

The atmosphere was truly charged.

Hazy lighting, an empty corridor, two young people into each other, young and restless.

Li Zhiyan thought: Now I should kiss him.

If he doesn't pull away, then it's settled—they could naturally take things to the next level, becoming a pair, like two butterflies fluttering together!

Never mind that the phrasing isn't quite right; Li Zhiyan goes with his gut, his word choices rely entirely on feeling, which is why his essays never scored high.

After entering society, those messy, writing-from-the-heart pieces actually started gaining popularity among netizens.

Hmph, a bunch of drama-loving spectators.

"Shen Ji." Li Zhiyan called out Shen Ji's name.

"Is this what you wanted to hear?"

Shen Ji and Li Zhiyan locked eyes, a hint of a smile in Shen Ji's gaze. He remained silent, leaving it to Li Zhiyan to guess.

But they both knew perfectly well—no guessing was needed.

This was exactly what Shen Ji meant.

Li Zhiyan reached out, pressing one hand against the door. Tall and long-limbed, he easily cornered Shen Ji in the small space between them.

He leaned in gradually. The closer he got, the more Li Zhiyan could smell Shen Ji's faint fragrance and feel the warmth of his breath.

It was the thrill of being too close to another person. He could feel the heat spreading from his fingertips all the way to behind his ears. Li Zhiyan even suspected the tips of his ears had turned red. In truth, Shen Ji was the same, enveloped by Li Zhiyan’s body heat and presence.

This was the first time Shen Ji had been this close to someone.

And they were getting even closer.

So close. If it were just a kiss... is that enough?

"What else do you want to do?!"

The system shattered the ambiguous atmosphere and wailed, "Do you have to make me block my vision?! Don’t get it on in front of an intelligent system!"

Shen Ji—

Please block your vision right now!

Li Zhiyan continued leaning in. Just then, a cough sounded not far away. Shen Ji and Li Zhiyan simultaneously turned toward the side of the corridor.

They saw Li Qing'an quickly snap a photo while they were turning.

After taking the picture, she said, "Go on, continue. Don't mind me."

With that, she quickly turned and ran off.

Li Qing'an had heard that Li Zhiyan took on a mission here, so she came to ask him about it. Remembering that Shen Ji was at the X City Shelter, she figured Li Zhiyan taking such a low-level mission was probably for Shen Ji's sake. So she deduced that coming to Shen Ji's place would allow her to see both of them.

She guessed right but didn’t expect to stumble upon such a scene.

Yikes, this is awkward now.

"Li Qing'an!" Li Zhiyan pulled away from Shen Ji and shouted after the fleeing Li Qing'an.

Just as Shen Ji thought he was about to spout some domineering CEO line.

Li Zhiyan yelled, "Remember to send me a copy of the photo!"

Shen Ji:...

Tch, typical of you.

What is shame? Li Zhiyan simply doesn’t have it!

But anyway, the mood was gone now.

He sighed softly, grasped Li Zhiyan's wrist, and led him into the room. He’d forgotten—they were in the corridor, and this was the X City Shelter’s dormitory. Someone could come by at any time. Li Zhiyan might have no shame, but Shen Ji had no intention of putting on a show for others.

Pulled into Shen Ji's temporary dorm room, Li Zhiyan looked up at the ceiling. The small mushrooms had already turned the place into a mushroom cave.

Blue-white hyphae were everywhere, with small mushrooms growing out of them. A significant number of them were still flashing.

"Why are they glowing?" Li Zhiyan asked Shen Ji curiously.

"Light bulbs."

Li Zhiyan tilted his head in confusion. "Light bulbs?"

"Imitating the special effects when Healing-type Mutants perform healing," Shen Ji explained.

Li Zhiyan:...

You can even play like that?!

"Since you’re here," Shen Ji patted his shoulder, "send out your butterflies and swap them for the light bulbs."

"Why?" Li Zhiyan’s eyes sparkled as he gazed at the small mushrooms on the ceiling. "This is fun."

"But at night when we’re trying to sleep, they’ll flash on the ceiling like a disco dance floor," Shen Ji said. "I don’t want to sleep in a nightclub. Do you?"

"I’ve never slept in a nightclub before!" Li Zhiyan grew even more interested.

Seeing the dangerous look in Shen Ji’s eyes, Li Zhiyan coughed and quickly released a swarm of little butterflies. The blue little butterflies flew up to the ceiling, facing the small mushrooms.

The small mushrooms instantly perked up eagerly.

Little butterflies! Delicious!

Want to eat little butterflies!

But to eat little butterflies, they have to drop the light bulbs. The light bulbs are pretty.

Hesitating, the small mushrooms still couldn’t resist the temptation of food. They spat out the light bulbs and began arresting the little butterflies fluttering in the air. Li Zhiyan watched with great interest as the mushrooms arrested the butterflies, and small light bulbs fell to the floor all around.

Whoa, they really are light bulbs.

This light pollution is actually science-based.

Shen Ji picked up the small light bulbs from the floor. As if on purpose, he took Li Zhiyan’s hand. When Li Zhiyan looked at him questioningly, Shen Ji dropped the small light bulbs into his palm.

Li Zhiyan looked down at the light bulbs in his hand.

"To compensate you," Shen Ji said.

Using the small light bulbs produced by the little mushrooms to make up for the butterflies he released? Li Zhiyan pondered this logic oddly, thinking it over and over, feeling pretty sure that Shen Ji had tricked him.

But looking into Shen Ji's smiling eyes, which held a hint of cunning, he found himself glad to be fooled, wanting to get lost in them.

Ugh, I can't handle this.

Is this what it's like for everyone in love?

So lame.

To avoid appearing so pathetic, Li Zhiyan clutched the light bulbs and looked at Shen Ji. His pale blue eyes reflected Shen Ji's figure, as if trying to take all of him in.

Li Zhiyan grumbled, "It's not enough."

Shen Ji quirked an eyebrow. "You say it's not enough?"

"Yes, not enough."

Li Zhiyan opened his hand, and the small light bulbs fell to the ground, making crisp, clattering sounds like marbles. At the same time, he grabbed Shen Ji.

Amid the bulbs' clatter, Li Zhiyan pulled Shen Ji close and kissed the lips he'd wanted for ages.

Warm, soft, and sweet.

Just as he had imagined, Shen Ji's lips were indeed so good to kiss, so much so that he didn't want to stop.

On the ceiling, the little mushrooms chewed on the butterfly wings while curiously watching their owner and the Big Butterfly.

What is the owner doing?

Is the owner eating the Big Butterfly?

Is the Big Butterfly tasty?

Probably not, since the owner has been eating for several seconds without getting any pollution off the Big Butterfly.

Is it that bad?!

The system silently stopped looking.

See no evil, hear no evil!

In the end, Li Zhiyan didn't dare to ask to stay the night. After that kiss, he ran off, but before leaving, he invited Shen Ji out for the next evening.

With an unmistakable "I want to date you" vibe.

Shen Ji wiped his lips with the back of his hand.

Li Zhiyan was strong; he felt a tingling on his lips. Without looking, he knew they were noticeably redder than before. To avoid being too self-conscious, he didn't go check the mirror in the bathroom.

After tidying up the small light bulbs on the floor, Shen Ji lay on the sofa and started playing on his phone, yawning as he did.

It was only then that the system belatedly looked again.

"Huh?" The system was shocked. "You finished so quickly?"

Shen Ji clicked on the Pollution Forum, confirming it was still updating.

Ever since discovering it was updating, he couldn't help but check periodically to see if it had finished. His curiosity was really piqued by this thing.

"You're overthinking it," Shen Ji said dismissively after checking the forum. "No matter how desperate, we wouldn't jump into bed that fast."

"But you already kissed!" The system grumbled. "The villain and the protagonist still ended up together!"

"Today it's just kissing; tomorrow it could be the bed!"

Shen Ji clicked his tongue. "I never said we're together."

The system was shocked again. "You can kiss without being together?"

"Why not?" Shen Ji continued to baffle the normie system. "We can have lip-friendship."

"Kissing now and then, but not as romantic partners lip-friendship!"

"..."

So shameless! So shameless!

Truly a super villain!

/

The next day, Shen Ji went to the X City Shelter on time.

He treated the contaminated patients inside again. After this session, the environmental pollution level in the shelter finally dropped to normal. Although the pollution levels of the patients didn't decrease significantly, several high-talent mutants had awakened.

Including the Director of the Pollution Fissure Research Institute and Wu Chi, the last person in X City to be possessed by a pollutant.

After confirming that medical staff could enter the shelter, the Shelter Director immediately arranged for the contaminated patients to be assigned to each medical worker. Shen Ji stayed in the shelter all day to ensure no complications arose with the patients.

He stayed until late at night before finally leaving the shelter to head back.

Just as he stepped out, he saw Li Zhiyan sitting on the shelter's steps.

He didn't know how long Li Zhiyan had been sitting there, but his guard uniform was chilled, and his white hair spread over the steps under the streetlight, looking like a white blanket.

Shen Ji walked over and patted Li Zhiyan's shoulder from behind.

The moment he saw Shen Ji, Li Zhiyan smiled, his eyes sparkling like stars.

"Shen Ji."

"Were you waiting for me to get off work?"

"Yeah, didn't I tell you yesterday we'd go out together? So I came to wait for you."

As he spoke, Li Zhiyan coughed, clearly remembering last night's kiss.

The kiss felt great, and Shen Ji hadn't rejected him, so Li Zhiyan was convinced Shen Ji was willing. Thus, he moved fast and came to find Shen Ji.

Shen Ji then recalled that there indeed had been such a thing yesterday.

He sat down next to Li Zhiyan and asked curiously, "Where are you taking me so late at night?"

"There are plenty of things to do at night!"

Shen Ji looked at him strangely.

"We could go to an open area to stargaze, have a BBQ, night hike up a mountain to watch the sunrise! It's not the season for fireflies anymore, but if it were summer, we could go see them together."

Shen Ji: "..."

Ahem, so this is what he meant by "things to do."

Shen Ji sighed to himself, realizing that his mindset was truly different from Li Zhiyan's. As a modern-day journalist, he had plenty of connections; even if he wasn't an entertainment reporter, he still knew more secrets than the average person. As a result, all sorts of bizarre scandals were stuck in his head, and the only nighttime activities he could think of were the R-rated kind.

Similarly, as an adventurer, Li Zhiyan's head was also filled with a bunch of strange ideas—except his were all about nature, and nothing but nature.

Not hearing a response from Shen Ji for a while, Li Zhiyan turned to him curiously.

He watched as Shen Ji averted his gaze, and only then did he sense a hint of something subtle.

Wait a minute?

Nighttime... activities?

Li Zhiyan fell silent too.

A few seconds later, Li Zhiyan spoke up again, "...Well, actually, I was thinking of taking you to see the Academy of Sciences' low-level pollutant cleanup."

"I think it's pretty cool."

"Human negative emotions can cause pollution to spread, darkness can amplify human unease, but at the same time, light can strengthen people's sense of security. That’s why low-level pollutants hate light," the system explained. "Based on this characteristic, the Academy of Sciences developed a method to deal with low-level pollutants: using light."

"It’s something like fireworks—they light up the night sky and can dissipate those minor pollutants not even worth rating. But to prevent accidents, the security team is also deployed to patrol the area."

"Then let’s go take a look."

Shen Ji said calmly, "I’ve never seen it before; I’m quite curious too."

So Li Zhiyan stood up, grabbed Shen Ji's wrist, and led him forward. In the darkness, Li Zhiyan’s white hair fell over his shoulders, softly glowing.

Shen Ji watched his retreating back, his eyes full of warmth.

You can't hide affection, and you can’t deceive yourself about it either.

So Shen Ji turned his wrist, and when Li Zhiyan looked back in confusion, he gripped Li's hand in return, shifting from being held by the wrist to holding each other’s hand.

Li Zhiyan froze for a second, then couldn’t help but smile.

By the time they arrived, the Academy of Sciences' cleanup operation was already underway.

The sky was filled with patches of white light, bright but not blinding—a new technology the Academy was proud of.

Zhou Ye was watching those white lights not far away. Yes, this time Li Zhiyan had brought Zhou Ye along. After all, this was a mission that needed to be taken seriously. Zhou Ye’s Talent level was high enough, and he was alert enough to his surroundings. Even though X City was the S-class pollutant’s chosen puppet city, he was more than capable.

Li Zhiyan didn’t disturb the big cat; he pulled Shen Ji up onto the nearby city wall.

Yes, it was once again the mutant with the wall-building Talent stuck working overtime to put it up.

They sat on the city wall, watching the white lights in the sky. This was the first time Shen Ji had seen such a scene.

In modern times, Shen Ji often saw fireworks—he’d even done a special feature on them, interviewing everyone from the manufacturers to the spectators about their experiences. So fireworks were nothing special to him.

But unlike fireworks, which were for aesthetics, in the apocalypse, this kind of scene was meant to protect people.

Low-level pollutants that couldn’t even be rated could still contaminate humans. They were like airborne viruses, waiting to infect anyone with low immunity.

So this was a necessary process.

Shen Ji watched, captivated, but Li Zhiyan wasn’t interested in any of it. He couldn’t help but keep looking at Shen Ji.

You can't hide affection, and you can’t deceive yourself about it either.

Li Zhiyan’s romantic nature told him that he should confess now, say something romantic, but he had no idea what to say. His mind went blank, and he could only stare at Shen Ji’s profile, trying to memorize every part of him.

Damn, he really did like this process and found it beautiful.

But now he couldn't focus on it—all his thoughts were focused on the person beside him.

Is this what love is like?

So he lowered his head, tucking his head down.

Shen Ji noticed his odd behavior and turned to look at him.

"What are you doing?"

"Hatching chicks."

Shen Ji: ...?

"I think I really like you."

Just like that, Li Zhiyan said something Shen Ji found hard to respond to. "Maybe even more than I expected."

"It feels really strange."

Shen Ji looked at him. "What’s strange about it?"

"I don’t know either." Li Zhiyan thought for a moment. "Seeing you makes me happy, and I want to do something for you, but the thought of you rejecting me makes me sad. Before, this feeling only happened with places I loved visiting."

"You’re comparing me to mountains, rivers, and trees?"

"What can I say? I’ve never liked a person this much before—I don’t know what else to compare it to."

Shen Ji: ...

This guy always said things like this, leaving Shen Ji not knowing how to reply.

Shen Ji leaned back, supporting himself with his arms behind him. He looked up at the sky, feeling the cold wind hit him. It was a bit chilly—in modern times, he would've never come out in this cold. But this was the apocalypse, and he didn't mind the cold anymore.

"I never really thought about spending my life with anyone before."

Shen Ji said, "Because people are lonely—they come alone and leave alone. Most of the time, I was by myself, and I didn’t want to let anyone get close."

"So, when someone once called me bisexual, I really wanted to argue. I’m actually asexual—I'm not attracted to men or women. I never planned on starting a romantic relationship with anyone."

Li Zhiyan couldn’t help but lift his head, his eyes filled with tension.

What did that mean?

Rejection? An explanation before rejection?

Was Shen Ji about to reject him?

In that moment, Li Zhiyan felt a pang of hurt. He began to worry about something that might not even happen yet.

"But..."

Shen Ji dragged out his words, glancing at Li Zhiyan, a glint of amusement in his eyes.

"If it's you, I actually think it's pretty good."

Li Zhiyan's heartbeat raced, his breathing grew uneven; he even felt his fingers trembling.

A new white light flashed across the sky. Little mushrooms curiously crawled up from the edge of the city wall, staring up at the white light.

They coiled around Shen Ji's wrist, then curiously noticed that Li Zhiyan's hand and their owner's hand were overlapping. So, the little mushrooms also wound their way onto Li Zhiyan's wrist.

"Master, master! What are you looking at?"

"It's white! It's polluted! But it smells so faint!"

They accompanied Shen Ji, watching the white light in the sky.

One of them even held a lightbulb in its mouth, proudly showing off that its bulb matched the sky.

/

Meanwhile, at the X City Shelter.

Wu Chi, who had been deep in sleep, bolted upright from a nightmare.

He gasped in terror, drenched in cold sweat, and quickly rolled out of bed, frantically slamming the alarm button.

"No, no!" he shouted. "Something is definitely about to happen!"

He had dreamed of his wife and child again—dismembered over and over. He had grown accustomed to this memory; under Shen Ji's treatment, his emotional state had improved somewhat. Even though he understood the grief of this memory, he had begun to think about how to accept it.

But this time, he saw something different.

After his wife and child died once more, time suddenly froze. Their corpses turned, their eyes staring directly at him.

They opened their mouths and began to accuse him—why didn't he save them? Why did he let them die? And even after death, why were their souls forced to suffer repeatedly?

This blindsided Wu Chi.

Just as he was crying and apologizing, something seemed to jab into the back of his neck. After a momentary sting, he suddenly regained consciousness.

In that instant, he saw something.

It was an entity, pure white all over, its face pale as if veiled in mist, its hair like white silk flowing down like a river, endlessly spreading outward. It reached out a hand—red threads resembling human veins.

Those red threads were connected to him.

The moment he saw it, Wu Chi was on the verge of madness. Sheer terror made him want to scream. He tried to flee and succeeded in waking from this nightmare.

"It's a pollutant!" Wu Chi hammered the shelter's alarm button. "That must be the S-class pollutant!"

Medical staff rushed over upon hearing the alarm. In an unnoticed corner, blue little mushrooms chattered on the shelter's ceiling.

"Should we tell the owner?"

"The owner's in a good mood right now—would it disturb him?"

"But the owner told us to stay here and report any problems."

"Let's go, let's go."

"Yeah, yeah, let's report!"

The blue little mushroom dissolved into mycelium and swiftly made its way to Shen Ji.

Shen Ji had already sensed something unusual.

He and the little mushrooms were connected through pollution; the moment the little mushrooms felt doubt, he sensed it.

The blue little mushroom coiled around Shen Ji's neck, pressing its little cap against his ear.

"What happened?" Shen Ji asked.

"We saw it! It appeared!"

"It was sneaking around trying to eat our prey, but the little mushrooms noticed! We won’t let a snack get away!"

"It's right here in our territory!"

Li Zhiyan got to his feet too. "A pollutant from the Dead Silent Cold Region?"

"Yes, it might have appeared at the X City Shelter," Shen Ji sighed. "Really bad timing."

"The Pollution Prevention Center has named it [Diary]. We can use that name for short from now on."

Shen Ji looked at Li Zhiyan with a strange look, turning it over in his mind but failing to understand how they came up with that name.

Curious, he asked, "Who came up with that name?"

"Me," Li Zhiyan said proudly. "Since I was little, I’ve hated writing diaries, especially on the last day of vacation when I had to cram two months' worth of entries! I had to desperately dig through my memories to recall what I’d even done and how to finish dozens of diary entries!"

"Isn't that just like it?"

Shen Ji: ...

How the hell is that even remotely similar?!