Chapter 79

Chapter 79

What does "give you three million to leave him" mean? Zhong Xiaye was stunned by Bai Fuling's words, momentarily forgetting to pull his hand free, allowing Bai Fuling to hold it with both hands and gently shake it—a gesture that almost seemed like pleading.

Until a shout came from behind: "What are you two doing?!"

Bai Fuling shifted his view and saw familiar pixel figures at the doorway—Olbert and Pang Chengyu.

The two had stood frozen for a moment, and after realizing Bai Fuling had disappeared, they finally let go of each other's hands.

But when they came looking, they saw Bai Fuling and Zhong Xiaye holding hands again.

The one who had yelled was Pang Chengyu. Question marks popped up over his head like mushrooms after rain, his brows furrowed together.

What's going on?! Wasn't Cabbage Classmate just holding the mixed-race young man's arm? How did another random guy show up to steal the cabbage?!

Now that he thought about it, Pang Chengyu felt this newcomer looked familiar, as if he'd seen him somewhere before.

He thought for two seconds and realized: Isn't this the heir of Red Maple Group?

Pang Chengyu's father had once attended a banquet at Red Maple Group, and Pang Chengyu had seen Zhong Xiaye from a distance a few times, though they'd never interacted.

He'd only heard that the family's elderly tutor had taught him in a way that was...

To put it nicely, chivalrous. To put it bluntly, his personality could be a bit outdated and stiff.

While Pang Chengyu was stunned, Zhong Xiaye came to his senses. He flinched like he'd been stung by a bee, quickly pulling his hand away from Bai Fuling—but he pulled so hard he almost knocked Bai Fuling over.

Seeing Bai Fuling stagger, Zhong Xiaye instinctively grabbed him and yanked him back.

The result was another loss of control: Bai Fuling was yanked forward, slamming into his chest, and Zhong Xiaye's lower back slammed into the hard porcelain sink.

"Hiss!" A sharp pain shot through Zhong Xiaye's lower back. He instinctively tightened his arms, holding on to whatever he'd grabbed.

Then, catching sight of Olbert at the doorway out of the corner of his eye, he forced his pained expression into a serious one and said, "Wait, I can explain—"

Olbert arched an eyebrow.

That's when Zhong Xiaye realized who he was still holding.

The black-haired youth in his arms didn't struggle, just looked up at him with big, dark eyes.

Zhong Xiaye: "..."

...How could he be holding someone else right in front of his crush?!

No, no, no—how could he be holding his crush's boyfriend?!

Zhong Xiaye quickly shoved Bai Fuling away: "Sorry, this was a total accident!!"

He shot a quick glance at Bai Fuling, signaling him to explain too, to clear things up.

Zhong Xiaye didn't want to cause trouble between Olbert and the antelope-like guy. Even though he hated seeing his crush being all lovey-dovey with someone else, he wouldn't use dirty tricks to break up a couple—that went against his chivalrous code.

Besides, he didn't want to leave a bad impression on his crush.

Now, Zhong Xiaye really regretted following them. If he'd known so much would go wrong, he would've...

He turned to the antelope youth beside him, frantically blinking to urge him to say something.

But from Bai Fuling's perspective, he saw the rainbow-glowing NPC turn to him and wink, with sparkling star effects popping up around him.

What does that mean? Bai Fuling wondered. An NPC winking at a player with special effects—was that a come-on?

Gotta say, this whale was something else, with all those flashy effects everywhere!

Phone in hand, Bai Fuling's mind raced as he let out a silent sigh.

According to game logic, when you don't know how to respond to an NPC's action, just copy it.

Basically, the same action means the same thing whether it's the player or an NPC doing it, so mimicking shouldn't mess things up.

So Bai Fuling, after a moment's thought, made his character give a playful wink back at Zhong Xiaye.

Zhong Xiaye: "..."

His expression froze for a second.

Wait—what does that mean?!

His crush's boyfriend, instead of explaining or going back to his boyfriend, is winking at him—right in front of his boyfriend and his own crush?!

At the doorway, Olbert raised his eyebrow even higher. He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, watching silently.

Zhong Xiaye felt sweat running down his back. He took half a step forward and said to Bai Fuling, "Come on... just say something!"

Say something? Bai Fuling tilted his head and went back to the earlier topic: "Give me five million, and I'll leave him?"

Zhong Xiaye instinctively replied, "Wasn't it three million just now?" Then he quickly corrected himself, "No—I never said anything like that!!"

His eyes widened, and his hands clenched into fists at his sides. After shouting, his heart sank: He hadn't expected the seemingly innocent antelope youth to be so sneaky.

...Was he deliberately getting close to make Olbert think Zhong Xiaye was the one hitting on him? And even making up that line out of nowhere!

Zhong Xiaye straightened up. Even though he had a chivalrous desire to protect the weak, he wasn't dumb enough to let himself get bullied.

Just as he was about to fire back, Bai Fuling suddenly spoke again.

"Oh, I was just kidding," Bai Fuling said.

Seeing the NPC's resistance, he sighed to himself. Even with all those flashy effects, this guy wasn't acting like a typical domineering CEO at all.

Maybe it was some game mechanic that stopped players from exploiting loopholes like that. So Bai Fuling brushed it off as a joke and got ready to try another approach.

If meme-ing didn't work, he'd go for sincerity!

"Just kidding. Actually, if it were you, I'd leave him without any payment," Bai Fuling typed swiftly into the dialogue box, "because I like you."

Players were always efficient. Having chosen a romance route, he decided to go straight for a confession.

Zhong Xiaye: ?

Pang Chengyu: ?

Both of them had giant question marks pop up above their heads.

Olbert: "..."

He fought the urge to facepalm. But having heard Bai Fuling say similar stuff before, he kept his cool.

Zhong Xiaye had just narrowed his eyes into that sharp, princely look, but now his eyes went wide at Bai Fuling's bombshell "I like you."

He thought he must've misheard: "...What?"

Oh, the NPC didn't flat-out say no, so there's still story here. Could he really score a direct confession and inherit billions?

Bai Fuling got excited, spun the expression wheel, and made his character flash a shy little look: "Yeah, I said, I like you."

"..." Zhong Xiaye's face scrunched up like a wrinkled bun, like he was about to turn into a ball. "Aren't you Olbert's boyfriend?!"

"That's right." Bai Fuling nodded calmly, then asked with confusion, "Is there a law that says just 'cause I'm Olbert's boyfriend, I can't like you?"

Zhong Xiaye: "..."

He opened his mouth, totally speechless, his brain short-circuiting. On instinct, he turned to look at the other guy involved.

Olbert, leaning by the door, couldn't just keep raising an eyebrow and watching. He pieced together what was going on in his head.

Sure, that Kitten King... Bulingbuling was usually all over the place, but he always came through on the important stuff—like when he patched him up earlier, or had Luo Qingyue's back, and called the shots on the final evacuation at the asylum.

This guy knew when to do the right thing. So now, after mulling it over, Olbert figured he got what Bai Fuling was really saying.

He figured Bulingbuling was thinking ahead.

Since their whole fake-couple thing was just temporary, to dodge drama later, he was using this crazy talk to handle it. This way, the two of them would definitely call it quits.

And with a scene this wild, Zhong Xiaye wouldn't wanna remember it later, so there'd be no risk of them getting caught.

So Olbert went along with that theory, putting on a suitably shocked face, drooping his eyes and looking a little pitiful: "Bulingbuling? So we're done?"

"Sorry, Ol. I caught feelings for someone else." Bai Fuling said with a straight face.

After a beat, he remembered his hospital-couple roleplay mission wasn't over, so he quickly tacked on, all dutiful, "But I'm still your boyfriend, you know!"

Olbert: "..."

Shouldn't they have just broken up? What was that extra bit!? His heart dropped—something felt off. Could it be the other wasn't acting, but serious??

Pang Chengyu watched the whole thing, unable to say a word until now, when he hesitantly stammered, "Uh, three people?"

"What's wrong with three people? A triangle is the most stable structure." Bai Fuling said calmly. "You love him, he loves me, I love you—rounding it up, he loves you. So three people make a perfect closed loop."

Zhong Xiaye's face went green then red, but when Bai Fuling suddenly stepped forward and took his hand, it turned completely red.

"Consider it—let's be together, the three of us?" Bai Fuling said sincerely.

In the game, players had no scruples! They went for maximum profit.

The blush on Zhong Xiaye's face was either from heat or shyness. His stern features tightened as he looked down at the pretty, fawn-like young man—who looked like anyone who got angry at him would be committing a sin.

The chivalrous Zhong Xiaye couldn't bring himself to yell out the fire in his heart, so he held it in, his princely face slightly twisted.

He could only squeeze out a whisper from his lips: "What do you mean?"

Huh? Did the NPC really need him to spell it out? But wouldn't that be a banned word, getting him muted if he sent it?

Bai Fuling hesitated, then cautiously typed: "I mean, do you wanna have a threesome?"

Zhong Xiaye: ?

Nearby, Pang Chengyu was in a mental storm: This plot was a bit messy, let him sort it out... Anyway, the transfer student must have his reasons... Truly a superpowered transfer student, reeling in two guys at once—impressive!

So when he heard Bai Fuling's words, Pang Chengyu almost immediately raised his voice, using a tone full of trust and admiration to cheer for the transfer student: "Excellent decision, perfect choice! I support it."

Zhong Xiaye & Olbert: ?

They rarely synced up in their pause.

...Wait, did this guy even understand what he was agreeing to? Don't just support and praise everything!!

Author's Note:

Player: In this three-person movie, everyone gets a name.