Yan Ruojun was a little startled.

No matter what, he had never expected that after he said, “[Don’t hate me],” Lin Zhu would show that kind of expression—

The blond boy’s face went blank for an instant. Those drooping eyes widened, and the eyelid of his left eye seemed to twitch uncontrollably several times in a row, as if something had fallen into it.

But nothing had.

Instead, it seemed that something inside was desperately trying to get out, only to be forcefully suppressed by the boy, so much so that he kept clenching his jaw tighter and tighter, making his features look even more twisted and strange.

…As if what Yan Ruojun had said had broken through his defenses, stirring up a storm inside him. Moisture surged upward, transforming into a rainstorm that wanted to escape.

Lin Zhu was holding it in with great difficulty.

It took him a long while to suppress the sourness that had rushed from his heart to the back of his head and finally surged into his eyes.

Just as the man had never expected this.

Lin Zhu also had never imagined that in this argument—where one side questioned and pressed while the other stayed silent and evasive…

Yan Ruojun would actually be the first one to lower himself and show weakness.

Just like now.

The man carefully leaned in, gently curling himself into Lin Zhu’s arms. He said nothing, only stretched out that slender neck of his and kept kissing Lin Zhu’s eyes, pressing away the excess dampness.

Lin Zhu couldn’t speak anymore either.

With his eyes closed, he thought with something close to sorrow:

No matter how much he wanted Yan Ruojun to be spared from harm, the other man had already, before Lin Zhu even realized it, begun to show faint traces of that version of himself from the original novel—the one who would give and give, letting himself be taken from at will…

At certain moments, the man even revealed a bit of unconscious humility. He himself hadn’t noticed it.

That was the one thing Lin Zhu could not bear.

He suddenly felt that the love he had given Yan Ruojun was not something good at all.

So, Lin Zhu abruptly raised his hand to cover the man’s eyes, holding his breath, and said that sentence again, each word heavier than the last:

“…Ge, don’t love me this much.”

His tone was unusually serious.

Half of Yan Ruojun’s face was covered, leaving only part of the straight bridge of his nose and his slightly parted lips exposed. The inner line of his lips was a little wet. His tongue lightly brushed over them, tasting a trace of salt.

It was Lin Zhu’s taste.

After a long while, the corners of the man’s lips curved slightly. He leaned close to his young husband’s ear and softly, very softly, said,

“Lin Zhu, do you know what it means when…”

“—spilled water can’t be taken back?”

He bit down hard on the last four words.

“I was the one who invited you first. You were the one who crossed the line first. Neither of us is innocent…” Yan Ruojun paused for a moment. “So you don’t need to pity me.”

“I do it willingly,” he said.

And in Yan Ruojun’s eyes, the boy saying those words wasn’t much better off either. Did he not realize that his hands were trembling when he said them?

Yan Ruojun kissed Lin Zhu’s Adam’s apple, then quietly pulled away. Taking advantage of the climate-controlled room, he simply left his clothes hanging open as he walked out of the bedroom, saying as he went,

“I saw there’s ginger in the fridge.”

“Lin puppy, I’ll go make you a bowl of ginger soup to warm you up.”

Lin Zhu couldn’t force out a single response.

It was only the system—who had heard everything from the system space—that popped out and acted as half a mouthpiece for its host:

“Wow, host, your wife really is… I can’t even tell if he’s low-posture or dominant as hell. Pretty good. One wife, two flavors—each with its own charm!”

Lin Zhu: “…”

That second half carried a familiar wave of nonsense head-on.

At this moment, Lin Zhu was the only one left in the bedroom.

Only after Yan Ruojun was no longer in front of him did he break out of that full chest of sourness and shift his attention to the system, which had disappeared for quite a long time.

Before he even had time to open his mouth, the system started babbling familiarly:

“Huhu, I haven’t even congratulated you yet, host, for successfully patching up the last key plot point. Another huge success for your role-playing mission!”

“According to the original novel’s progress, host, you don’t have much left to do. As long as you successfully complete the very last missing key plot point, you can wrap filming and go home!”

Lin Zhu stayed silent for a long time, as though he hadn’t heard anything.

The system coughed, then first set off two fireworks, and with its own hand turned its volume up another two notches.

“Con-grat-u-lations!”

Lin Zhu did not respond to the congratulations. Instead, he asked bluntly,

“System, why did you disappear again? During this whole period, I’ve been trying to contact you in my head every day, but you never answered once.”

Compared to how chatty it had been when it first bound itself to Lin Zhu, this was practically the complete opposite.

The system immediately pulled out the excuse it had already used once before:

“Low battery, so I automatically went into sleep mode!”

Lin Zhu thought for a while, then questioned it sincerely:

“When you said that last time, I already started wondering… are you actually a power bank or some kind of surreal AI?”

System: “…”

Eh, ehhh?

Had its pure and innocent host’s wording suddenly become sharp?

The system had no choice but to change direction and say:

“Actually, I’ve been busy with some stuff lately, and the outside signal wasn’t very good, absolutely, absolutely—”

Lin Zhu said, “…I’ll just assume you weren’t doing it on purpose.”

The system was lying.

And honestly, this didn’t even require intuition or strong evidence to prove, because the lie was told so carelessly that it almost seemed like the system wasn’t afraid of being seen through at all.

System: “Ahem, ahem, ahem!”

Ignoring the long string of performative and awkward coughs, Lin Zhu finally took the chance to ask the question that had been pent up in his heart for a long time.

He took a deep breath and asked,

“System, you said before that as long as the key plot scenes involving the scumbag ex-husband happen the way they did in the original novel, that would be enough, and there weren’t restrictions in other areas…”

The role-playing task could not be interrupted. Lin Zhu understood that.

Although in his heart he resisted the original novel’s cruel and vile plot a thousand times over, he no longer wanted to quit halfway like he had before—and there was only one reason for that…

Yan Ruojun was still here.

But regarding the reward for completing the task, Lin Zhu had already begun to form another idea.

“I’ll do my best to complete the final key plot point. If the role-playing mission ends smoothly…” he asked, “can I choose not to return to my original world, and instead stay here?”

Inside the system space.

Through the light screen’s perspective, the white sphere examined the blond boy’s expression and found that there wasn’t even a trace of hesitation in his eyes. Instead, they were full of intense hope and longing.

Even though the system had long been prepared for this, and the current situation was also one it had constantly pushed along itself, it still couldn’t help but say wow in surprise.

It didn’t answer Lin Zhu’s question. Instead, it began to chatter on in reverse, asking:

“Host, do you know what you’re saying?”

“This place is only a false, low-dimensional, book-world that the Bureau treats as an energy output point…” The electronic voice suddenly became strangely impassioned. “But host, you are a high-dimensional soul from the real world!”

Lin Zhu didn’t know if it was just his imagination, but when the system said the words [high-dimensional], its tone sounded oddly sarcastic and mocking.

But it wasn’t directed at him.

Lin Zhu paused, then instinctively replied,

“But I don’t think this world is fake.”

The system’s electronic voice paused in a strange way, then abruptly changed the subject and started carefully explaining the reward mechanism after task completion:

“The flow of time in the original world and the book world is not the same. After the host successfully completes the role-playing task, your soul will automatically detach from this world, return to the moment of your car accident, and revive at the same time. Your injuries will naturally heal without leaving any hidden problems behind.”

“Even though the Bureau is trash, the rewards are genuinely never vague, okay? Are you really willing to give that up?”

Lin Zhu only asked:

“…Do you have a way to let me stay?”

Inside the system space.

The white light orb stared at Lin Zhu’s face for a long time, and its tone suddenly became light and cheerful.

“Although the Bureau doesn’t have a precedent for this, if you’re really determined to exploit loopholes and bug abuse, it should be possible~”

The moment he heard this, Lin Zhu’s heart instantly lifted.

His breathing quickened. His hands clenched unconsciously. His eyes lit up as if some animated special effect had gone off with a flash.

…He really could stay?

Immediately after that, he heard the system say:

“As long as host privately transfers the revival reward to me, I can help convert it into points for you. Then you can use those points to buy permanent rights to this body.”

Lin Zhu fell silent.

To be honest, that sentence sounded like one of those scam messages asking for money in advance. At this point, even old people probably wouldn’t believe it.

And Lin Zhu had only just learned that his body in this ABO world apparently had a usage time limit.

The system had never mentioned that before.

Wronged by the suspicion, the system cried out:

“How could I have known there’d be a host willing to stay in a book world voluntarily! This kind of niche trivia naturally wasn’t something I had time to explain!”

Lin Zhu was half-convinced, half-skeptical, and had no choice but to believe it.

“There’s no helping it—host, you’re a high-dimensional soul, so you can be downward-compatible and inserted into a book world,” the system said. “And because of that, this current body consumed a huge amount of points to construct. Ownership belongs to the Spacetime Book Bureau.”

“After the task is complete, once your soul leaves, this body will be reclaimed by the Bureau and managed by an NPC system. But as a staff system, I can use internal channels to buy its usage rights for you!”

After saying all that, it confirmed once again:

“So then, does host really plan to stay?”

The air went silent for one second.

Then it heard the host’s firm answer.

“—Yes.”

Perhaps because of a conscience it shouldn’t have had, or perhaps because of something else, the system—who by rights should have stopped there—spoke up again:

“The reason host wants to stay… is because of the protagonist of this world, right?”

“Mm, friendly reminder: after the role-playing task is completely over, even if the protagonist doesn’t necessarily fall in love with the main gong the way he did in the original novel, that still doesn’t mean he’ll definitely remarry you!”

“When that time comes, won’t host regret it?”

Lin Zhu thought seriously for a long while, then shook his head.

“I don’t know about the future.”

After a pause, he continued,

“But at this moment, I simply want to do this. I want to stay…”

Stay by his side.

Just then—

Yan Ruojun’s voice came from outside the bedroom.

“Lin Zhu, the ginger soup is ready.”

The moment the man’s words fell, Lin Zhu hurriedly stood up. He straightened his clothes and strode outside.

“I’m coming.”

The main lights in the living room were off.

Only the kitchen and dining area were lit.

The air carried the spicy smell of ginger.

The man turned off the stove and came out of the kitchen carrying a big steaming bowl of ginger soup. He had added some brown sugar, so the broth was a slightly darker color and looked a little like Chinese medicine.

It wasn’t until the instant he saw Yan Ruojun that the blood in Lin Zhu’s body suddenly seemed to start boiling, belatedly. He even had the urge to jump in place twice, but in order to look normal…

Lin Zhu forced himself to hold back. He stood in front of the man without moving, staring at his face with both eyes.

Yan Ruojun noticed the long obstacle standing in front of him and raised his eyes to glance at him.

“Don’t block the way.”

Lin Zhu made a small sound of acknowledgment and obediently moved aside.

The man had added too much ginger, and the soup was especially spicy. Lin Zhu had only drunk half the bowl before his whole forehead was covered in sweat.

After hesitating for a long while, he still pushed the bowl toward the other side and said softly,

“Ge, I don’t know if it’ll be contagious, but you should drink some too…”

Across from him, Yan Ruojun was pretending to play on his phone, his thumb swiping back and forth even though the screen wasn’t even on. When he heard that, he replied in a flat tone,

“It won’t. We didn’t kiss today.”

Lin Zhu stayed quiet for a few seconds, then nudged the bowl forward a little more with his finger.

“…We’re going to kiss later.”

At those words, Yan Ruojun slapped his phone down on the table and stared at the boy for a long moment before asking slowly,

“Does this mean we’ve made up?”

Lin Zhu immediately nodded, his golden hair swinging wildly.

Yan Ruojun said again, “You strange child. Just now you were crying, and now you’re grinning like an idiot?”

Lin Zhu instantly wiped the expression off his face and said quietly, “I wasn’t crying.”

After thinking about it, he added,

“…My eyes were just a little red. Maybe because of the fever. Sweating it out should make it better.”

Even though it was only 37.5°C, it was still possible!

Yan Ruojun took the bowl from him and drank a sip, his brows immediately knotting together tightly, while in his heart he couldn’t help but think:

—Damn it, he’s so unbearably cute.

So, the man glanced at the blond boy across from him, quietly stretched out one leg, and hooked it around his young husband’s ankle.

Then he said softly,

“Lin puppy, want to sweat a little more?”

As he spoke, Yan Ruojun’s foot slowly moved upward until it came to rest on Lin Zhu’s knee. At the same time, he reached into the decorative vase on the table and pulled out a small square packet.

“No more anger. I’m only feeding you.”