Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The five-meter-long table welcomed two more occupants.

Shen Ju and Guan Mulin sat facing each other, with Pei Haochuan beside Guan Mulin. For four days straight, they had reported to this spot almost daily.

Sometimes, Pei Haochuan couldn't help but question himself:

How did he ever end up in this situation?

He glanced at Shen Ju, who was sitting diagonally across from him.

Wait, aren't you supposed to be the studious type? How can you sit still like this?!

School starts tomorrow, ahhhh!!

At the moment, Pei Yan wasn't in the study.

His head injury had almost healed, so Gao Chuanbai had pulled him back to deal with company business again.

Galaxy Technology was a company co-founded by Pei Yan and Gao Chuanbai.

It had absolutely no connection to the Pei family.

On the surface, Gao Chuanbai was the public face, while Pei Yan, as the major investor, was the behind-the-scenes boss. However, in reality, many of the key decisions that propelled Galaxy Technology to its current stature were ultimately finalized by Pei Yan. Gao Chuanbai knew just how brilliant his classmate was—he just couldn’t figure out why Pei Yan hadn’t gone directly to the Pei family’s company but had instead chosen to go into business with him.

In just a few short years, Galaxy Technology had expanded to such a scale that Gao Chuanbai sometimes thought that even without the Pei family, given a few more years, Pei Yan would likely achieve incredible heights.

But sometimes he found Pei Yan unfathomable, or rather, incomprehensible.

Although Pei Yan seemed difficult to talk to—and indeed was hard to approach—he could sometimes pretend to be approachable. If Pei Yan were willing, he could probably draw a constant stream of followers, the kind who would even help him count money after being deceived. Yet Pei Yan scorned such methods. Often, Gao Chuanbai even felt that Pei Yan universally pushed people away.

Lately, however, Pei Yan had been behaving rather oddly.

For example...

“Since when did you start moonlighting as a tutor?”

When Gao Chuanbai found out that Pei Yan had been tutoring someone at home these past few days, he was absolutely floored and joked, “Are you short on money?”

“It’s free—I’m even paying out of pocket.”

“Huh? Really?”

Pei Yan glanced toward the study door. “But it’s worth it.”

“Worth it? What’s worth it?”

Pei Yan: “Are we going to talk about work or not? Otherwise, you can take care of it all yourself.”

“Hey, no, no...”

“Quit staring, Mulin, school starts tomorrow!”

Pei Haochuan couldn’t contain himself any longer and elbowed Guan Mulin gently.

“Ke Cheng just texted me saying he had a run-in with some Yude guys, and they’re going to settle it with a game at the Central Street basketball court this afternoon. He’s rounding up players.”

Guan Mulin: “He’s gathering you, right?”

“And you.”

Pei Haochuan rubbed his hands together. “Let’s go, let’s go. It’s the last day—what could it hurt to go out? We’ll just go out in the afternoon.”

Guan Mulin wavered.

He shot a glance at Shen Ju.

In the past, Guan Mulin would have agreed without a second thought.

He wasn’t the type to only focus on studying—he enjoyed a good time himself. Besides, since it was Ke Cheng gathering people, Guan Mulin was even more inclined to accept.

But with Shen Ju right there...

Even though Shen Ju still maintained his distance, Guan Mulin felt it wouldn’t be right to just abandon Shen Ju.

“Bro 996, should I take the initiative and ask to go along?”

Huh?

Guan Mulin couldn’t help but prick up his ears.

Lately, it seemed like Shen Ju had been communicating less with his system.

A few seconds later, 996’s hesitant voice sounded: “Of course.”

After those three words, it fell silent—a stark contrast to its previously talkative and animated manner.

Shen Ju couldn’t help but scratch his chin. “Bro 996, are you still mad at me?”

996 exclaimed, a bit too loudly: “I’m not!”

“Then why have you been ignoring me these past few days? We still have tasks to complete, don’t we?”

996 paused before replying, “It’s you who’s ignoring me, Host!”

Guan Mulin: “............”

What kind of elementary school-level argument is this?

And a one-sided one at that.

Guan Mulin took out his phone and tapped away quickly.

The “Special Events Investigation Bureau” group chat became active again—

Qin Suxi had instructed them beforehand to share anything they overheard in the group for analysis and discussion.

As the saying goes, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.

They needed to gather as much information as possible now.

“I haven’t been ignoring you.”

Shen Ju spoke up: “I’ve been reflecting on myself too.”

“I know, Bro 996, that what you said was from the perspective of completing tasks. Maybe you said it in the heat of the moment, worried that I might break character. I should have understood that. But the situation was urgent at the time, and I couldn’t think too much about it—I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. So I acted on instinct to save someone. But I know I still have to complete the tasks. I’ve always remembered that.”

"You see, I now know to stay close to Guan Mulin and Pei Haochuan, don't I?"

Shen Ju rarely spoke such a long sentence, so 996 couldn't keep acting "distant" anymore: "Alright then, I understand."

After a pause, it added: "It's my fault too."

"I promised before not to cross that line where others get hurt, but I really said it without thinking in the heat of the moment. Next time, don't shout at me, okay?"

"And... and I was also worried about completing the mission."

"If your character doesn't hold up, how are we supposed to move the relationship forward between the protagonist shou and the protagonist gong!"

Protagonist shou and protagonist gong?

This is...

Pei Yan pushed the door open and walked in. He glanced around, then saw Guan Mulin looking at his phone with an expression of confusion and hesitation.

996's voice continued—

"After all, in our mission instructions, the highlighted part—in bold text and everything—is that because of your appearance as the real young master, driven by jealousy and resentment over Guan Mulin taking your place for over a decade, you constantly belittle and make things difficult for Guan Mulin, trying to push him into the ground. This is what causes the important change in the relationship between Pei Haochuan and Guan Mulin!"

Thud—

Guan Mulin's phone fell onto the table.

The sound drew the attention of the others, and both Shen Ju and Pei Haochuan looked over.

Shen Ju didn't speak, only showing a puzzled expression, while Pei Haochuan came over looking both confused and concerned: "What's wrong, Mulin? You've been... mmm—"

"Just give me some space."

Guan Mulin pushed Pei Haochuan's face away with one hand and covered his own face with the other.

Calm down.

He had to calm down.

He's the gong, right?

Right?

Yeah, he's the gong.

—Wait! The point isn't which position he's in! The point is, how is he supposed to develop feelings with Pei Haochuan?! Isn't Pei Haochuan his sidekick?!

Pei Yan arched an eyebrow and came over curiously.

He pulled out a chair and sat next to Shen Ju.

"What were you all just discussing?"

Pei Yan looked at Pei Haochuan, couldn't help but look him over: "I thought I heard you talking."

"Talking to—your friend Guan?"

Pei Haochuan didn't find anything odd about it, nor did he notice Guan Mulin's slightly awkward expression nearby. He gave a weak laugh: "Uncle, you've got good hearing."

Pei Yan nodded: "I do have good hearing."

"So, what were you talking about just now?"

Shen Ju immediately spoke up: "We were talking about going to the basketball court to play basketball this afternoon."

Pei Haochuan immediately snapped: "Guan Shenju, who's 'we' with you?"

Shen Ju looked at Pei Yan: "I want to go too."

Shen Ju then looked at Guan Mulin and deliberately called out in a teasing, sweet tone: "Se—cond brother, you want to go too, right?"

Guan Mulin seemed distracted: "I..."

"Do I want to go... or not..."

"Huh?"

Guan Mulin came back to himself and looked at the chat group.

Earlier, in the corridor, when Shen Ju rushed forward to stand up for him, the system said Shen Ju might be punished if he acted impulsively like that again. But what if it wasn't Shen Ju's fault?

Qin Suxi didn't want to risk Shen Ju, but she also couldn't accept her child being bound to such a system, forced to play the role of some "vicious true young master." Could this role-playing mission be interrupted if they didn't cooperate? Did Shen Ju even care if the mission was interrupted? Admittedly, they still had too little information, and some questions needed testing.

This was just a first test—

And it proved that even if they "didn't cooperate," it wouldn't cause Shen Ju any harm, since from the system's perspective, their "non-cooperation" was due to circumstances beyond their control.

But based on what they could see, Shen Ju still seemed willing to cooperate with the system to do the tasks.

Guan Mulin had mentioned in the group that Shen Ju might follow them to the basketball court. Qin Suxi's view was that they couldn't always refuse to cooperate—they had to play it by ear and balance between cooperation and non-cooperation. They also couldn't oppose everything just for the sake of non-cooperation, in case it drew the system's attention. Although it seemed this little system had some glitches too.

Director Qin: [A-Lin, was there anything else after that?]

Guan Mulin: "............"

There was, but he didn't want to say.

He hadn't worked it out yet.

Guan Mulin pretended to skip over the question, typing in the group while saying to Shen Ju: Okay, he'd—go!

Shen Ju rubbed the tip of his nose.

Why did it sound like he was marching to his doom?

"Speaking of which..."

............

Inside the Central Street basketball court, Pei Haochuan looked at Pei Yan standing beside them: "Guan Shenju coming is one thing, but Uncle, why did you come along too?"

"Not welcome?"

Pei Yan glanced at him.

Pei Haochuan gave a weak laugh: "Welcome, of course welcome."

It's just that he was reminded of the feeling of being controlled.

Who let being one generation older always let them boss you around? *Sigh*.

In contrast, Ke Cheng gave an extremely warm welcome to Pei Yan's arrival—

That's Pei Yan we're talking about, after all!

Who in their Qichen group hasn't heard of Pei Yan's name? Even now, Pei Yan's photo is still displayed on the honor wall!

"That's awesome, senior! You're joining the game too, right?"

After saying this, Ke Cheng nudged Pei Haochuan beside him and winked at him: Dude, you're really something, hey! You actually managed to invite Brother Pei! Hah!

But why did you bring Guan Shenju along too?

Pei Haochuan tsked in annoyance.

His uncle was already here, and having him join the game would be a boost, but Guan Shenju...

"Isn't this Shen Ju?"

A voice suddenly rang out, full of malice.

"Long time no see."

"But why don't I see your crippled brother around, Shen Ju?"

Ma Rui walked over with a basketball and a group of people, then added as if suddenly remembering something: "Oh, look at me forgetting... you're rolling in it now, aren't you? Your status is different now. Of course, you can't be seen with a cripple anymore, right? That would really kill your vibe, wouldn't it, man?"

Author's Note:

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