Chapter 104
Chapter 104
Just as he lost control of his trembling body, it was as if something caught hold of him. He toppled backward, and in the blink of an eye, he plunged into the deep azure sea.
Bathed in sunlight, the seawater carried not only the briny tang of salt, but an endlessly accepting softness. He lay on his back in the water, sinking freely, bit by bit.
Unfortunately, happy times were always short-lived. An octopus shot up from the seafloor and wrapped around him, its suckers latching fiercely onto his hands and feet. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t escape.
In the end, he grew tired, and his consciousness sank with that hateful octopus into the misty blue depths…
When he opened his eyes again, it was already afternoon.
He instinctively reached out and touched the empty hospital bed beside him. There was still a trace of warmth.
Had he only just gotten up?
Qiao Yu lifted his head in a daze and saw the tall, long-legged young man standing by the window, holding a book and reading it with great focus.
The last glow of the afternoon sun spilled over his brows, eyes, and the tips of his hair. The soft halo surrounding him actually gave off the illusion that he was easy to approach…
Hearing movement, the man turned to the next page, though his eyes shifted over. “Awake?”
Qiao Yu had just woken up and didn’t really feel like talking. Rubbing his sore neck, he started to get out of bed and put on his shoes.
Shang Yan’s gaze swept over Qiao Yu’s pale, slender fingertips. He gave a dry cough, then set down his book and straightened. “I’m going out for a walk. There’s congee on the table. Heat it up in the microwave.”
Qiao Yu mumbled in response and shuffled into the washroom, still half-asleep.
Then he opened the plastic bag, stuffed the disposable toothbrush into his mouth, and looked at the mirror while brushing his teeth.
Unexpectedly, there was a note stuck to the mirror. With the toothbrush in his mouth, Qiao Yu casually tore it off.
[I collected a little interest. You didn’t think you could bite me for free, did you?]
Qiao Yu tilted his head, his mind still carrying that fresh-from-sleep… fog.
On the third brush, Qiao Yu’s eyes suddenly flew wide open. Looking at the dense red marks scattered over his neck, he nearly swallowed the foam in his mouth.
He abruptly leaned closer to the mirror, then tipped his head back and stared at the blotchy marks on his neck. In an instant, his mind flashed back to the octopus from his dream, the one whose suckers had latched onto him so viciously…
Furious and embarrassed, he yanked the towel hanging on the rack and hurled it hard at the mirror.
Out of sight, out of mind.
What else was he supposed to do? He couldn’t bear to break up with him.
Fuck!
-Is the person who said the streamer was a 1 still here?
-Stop talking. She seems even more excited now.
-The streamer is seriously so good-looking, aaaaaah!
-New upstairs, huh? Did you see the streamer’s neck? He’s taken. Come on, next.
-As if he’d belong to you if he were single. Wake up.
-You don’t know shit. Once he’s taken, his value drops. If he’s single, all us sisters still have a chance, get it?
-Uh… I read that as “all us crowdfunding sisters still have a chance.”
-I’m dying. Single or crowdfunded, none of you have a chance. The streamer’s gay, untouched, and a bottom.
-……
Qiao Yu finished the entire bowl of congee without seeing any sign of Shang Yan.
He nodded.
Mm. Reasonable.
After all, that guy had a smart head on his shoulders and would never put himself in danger. Heh.
[Ding! Live Assistant 9999999 reminds you that the review has been approved. The discarded Review Card recycling section is now open.]
What?
They even opened a special section for it?!
Finally, something worth being happy about. Haha.
That was what Qiao Yu thought, but on the surface, he acted like someone complaining after getting a bargain. “Your work efficiency really isn’t great. How many days has it been?”
[Live Assistant 9999999: Thank you. If you have any issues in the future, please file a complaint directly through the backend.]
Tch. It had quite the personality.
Qiao Yu was in a good mood, so he couldn’t be bothered to argue with it.
He pulled up the Live Stream Room directly, and sure enough, he saw a Review Card recycling section in the lower right corner.
After tapping it open, a thick, dark-themed art style came rushing at him.
Eerie red lines crisscrossed the background panel, like someone had splashed a bowl of dog blood across a blackboard. It reeked of cheap plastic.
“Your backend art department’s skills aren’t exactly up to par, are they?”
[Live Assistant 9999999: you can you up, no can no bibi]
O-kay then.
The Review Card recycling section had two options: exchange for cash, or exchange for coins.
Cash exchange rate: 10:1
Coin exchange rate: 10:3
(Note* Exchanged coins cannot be withdrawn and can only be spent in the shop.)
He knew it. This crafty system would never leave him a loophole to exploit.
[Live Assistant 9999999: Exchange them for coins. That’s thirty percent.]
Qiao Yu nodded, then exchanged them for cash. “Maybe when I get the chance.”
[Live Assistant 9999999: Ptooey. Scumbag.]
“Thank you for the compliment. I’ll keep up the good work.”
When Qiao Yu was little, he didn’t know what money was. After he grew up, for the sake of money, he could forget what shame was.
So that bit of verbal abuse couldn’t hurt him at all.
After turning the useless items into cash, even his earlier irritation seemed to fade.
Seeing the streamer-patients lining up and coming out of the ward over there, he even had the leisure to go over and watch the commotion.
“Head nurse, where are you all going?” Qiao Yu craned his neck curiously toward Ward 613 and greeted the stern-faced head nurse.
Meanwhile, Chi Shang, who still hadn’t drunk his medicine, stared in astonishment at the guy who had been a nurse yesterday and had become an intern doctor today.
His head was full of question marks.
Weird. This Instance was seriously too weird.
In the dispensary, he had thought that even if he could escape, he would have to go through a brutal fight. But the newly arrived nurse had let them off.
The baleful aura on that malicious ghost had been so dense it had practically taken physical form. How could it have let them go so easily?
And then there was that male nurse who had been on duty in the lobby. In the blink of an eye, he had transformed into an intern doctor.
So how exactly were all these things connected to the Instance?
Just as he was racking his brains and getting nowhere, Fan Jianqiang from Ward 602 showed the same bizarre reaction as him. The man stared straight at Qiao Yu, muttering in shock.
“Damn. A big shot really is a big shot. In just three days, he went from janitor all the way to intern doctor like he was using cheats. That’s seriously insane…”
Uh… your acting is seriously insane too. It’d be a total waste if you didn’t become an actor.
“What do you mean by that?”
Chi Shang’s voice startled Fan Jianqiang. He quickly looked around, and only after seeing that he hadn’t drawn any attention did he lower his head and ask in a quiet voice, “You didn’t drink the medicine either?”
Chi Shang nodded and returned to the earlier topic. “What did you mean just now? You know him?”
As he spoke, he secretly pointed at Qiao Yu, confusion in his eyes.
Fan Jianqiang gave a hum, then explained mysteriously, “He’s on our side too. He’s also a streamer. Big-shot level.”
Chi Shang: ??
“The streamer with the asterisks on the live list? That’s him. Actually, the big shot’s ID is pretty damn amazing too. It’s called ‘I’m Your Dad.’ Maybe that’s why the Live Stream Room treated it as a sensitive word and blocked it?”
Bullshit!
The corner of Chi Shang’s mouth twitched. Even if it was blocking sensitive words, neither you nor that Fuck You guy would have escaped either.
But if this big shot who had infiltrated the enemy’s ranks was the asterisked streamer in the Live Stream Room, then who was the gorgeous beauty living in 614?
Chi Shang truly… felt for the first time that his brain wasn’t enough to handle this.