Yi Luo was very enthusiastic towards Yan Qingyuan. Perhaps it was because they were old acquaintances who hadn't seen each other in a long time, or perhaps it was simply for the food. He put on a pitiful look, "When you weren't around, I didn't eat well, I wasn't warm enough, and birds and beasts would bully me, pecking at me..."
At the point of sadness, Yi Luo even pretended to wipe away tears.
Yan Chi: "..."
If Yan Chi hadn't witnessed him eating a mountain of roasted meat, he probably would have believed him.
Clearly, Yan Qingyuan knew Yi Luo's character perfectly well. He glanced at Yi Luo coldly, handed him a large chicken leg, and said, "Here, go away, don't bother me."
Yi Luo swallowed hard. "Is it Orleans flavor?"
Yan Qingyuan: "...Yeah."
Yi Luo took the chicken leg and immediately transformed back into his round, golden jelly form. This time, he deliberately kept his size to be about the size of a basketball—not in the way, but easy to kick.
When Shen Mingsu went out to greet Yan Chi, he caught a glimpse of the unidentified golden object at his feet. He withdrew his foot, thus preventing the unfortunate scene of Yi Luo being kicked away.
Shen Mingsu's toes were only centimeters away from Yi Luo. Startled, Yi Luo quickly jumped behind Yan Qingyuan, "Look, look! This is how I'm always bullied!"
Shen Mingsu took a deep breath: "...Who told you to block the way?"
He was lucky he hadn't kicked him away.
Yan Qingyuan glanced at Yan Chi, unusually not refuting Shen Mingsu, "Yeah, you shouldn't have stood in the middle of the road."
Yi Luo received no comfort, only criticism. He angrily took a bite of his chicken leg, but the next second the bitten part was completely healed, just like his request to Yan Qingyuan—an endless chicken leg.
When Yan Chi entered, he saw about a dozen familiar parents in the living room. He instinctively reverted to his teacher persona, greeting them with a smile, "Mingcai's mom, Lian Deng's dad, Tan Mo's dad... hello."
Yan Chi finished speaking in one breath, only to find everyone silent, staring at him and Yan Qingyuan beside him. Someone chuckled softly, and the atmosphere livelyened again.
Since Yan Qingyuan's return, his memories of him had returned, and this group of high-level bosses swarmed around him.
Yan Qingyuan pulled Yan Chi around the group of super S-class bosses and sat down on the sofa.
Yi Luo quickly finished eating the chicken leg, carefully wrapped it in paper, placed it in his small backpack, wiped his hands clean with a wet wipe, and jumped onto Yan Qingyuan's lap.
Yan Qingyuan frowned, but before he could throw the jelly, Yi Luo jumped onto Yan Chi's lap, clutching his clothes tightly. "Teacher Xiao Chi, protect me!"
As he jumped, his chubby jelly-like body trembled. Yan Chi had long been itching to touch Yi Luo's soft, jelly-like body, and unable to resist, he pinched his little belly.
So soft!
Yan Chi's eyes lit up. He turned to Shen Mingsu, sharing his joy. Shen Mingsu smiled slightly, pulled Yan Chi's hand off the jelly, and held it tightly in his own.
Yan Qingyuan scanned everyone's faces, finding no joy at seeing old friends, only weariness. "So what do you want to do?"
"Nothing much, just came to see you."
Mingcai's mother smiled and walked to Yan Chi's side. She wore a long red dress and was half a head taller than Yan Chi, her light gray eyes filled with laughter. "Yuanyuan, your son is so cute."
Yan Qingyuan didn't like that title, but the latter part of the statement suited him perfectly, so he reluctantly nodded. "He is cute."
Yan Chi awkwardly turned his head away, forcing a smile.
This kind of awkwardness—seeing relatives during the New Year, being showered with compliments, and having parents nod in agreement—was terrifying. Yan Chi wanted nothing more than to go upstairs immediately and hide under the covers.
Mingcai's mother quickly pinched Yan Chi's cheek. Before Yan Chi and Shen Mingsu could react, she had already withdrawn her hand. "No wonder I felt he looked familiar when I first met Teacher Chi; it turns out he's your child."
Yan Qingyuan looked listless. "Don't pinch his cheek, he doesn't like it."
"Okay, okay, I won't touch your little one then." Mingcai's mother soothed him. "Actually, I came here on serious business. I caught a member of the termite family, alive!"
All eyes turned to Mingcai's mother.
Mingcai's mother, thinking of this person, said with disgust, "The person has already been sent to the director. You can go and see him later. I won't be able to get anything out of him. This ant is quite ruthless; he gouged out his own eyes. He's a stubborn guy."
"?"
Yan Qingyuan didn't know what termites were. His amber eyes showed obvious confusion. Yan Chi explained to him, "They're the players who killed Li Xian."
"It's been so long, and you still haven't caught the leader of this organization?" Yan Qingyuan asked, puzzled. "Is this player very powerful?"
Upon hearing this, the group of high-level bosses glared at Xing Zhinan with eyes like knives.
Xing Zhinan touched his nose, feeling guilty, and said, "Well, I prepared a lot of self-defense gadgets for Li Xian, but after his accident, all of them were taken by the players."
Xing Zhinan had anticipated Li Xian's misfortune. He originally planned to have Yan Qingyuan protect Li Xian, but Yan Qingyuan took his own life first. He then went to Feng Yun to introduce Li Xian, but the two hit it off immediately.
Even with Feng Yun's protection, Xing Zhinan was still uneasy and gave Li Xian all the self-defense items he had collected from other bosses.
In the end, it was the players who benefited.
Thinking about this, Xing Zhinan felt a pang of heartache. All of those items were the result of his hard work and shameless efforts to obtain them, and now they were all gone.
Yan Qingyuan: "What did you give him?"
"A jade pendant you gave me that can ignore your abilities, glasses that can prevent memory invasion, and a fluffy ball that reduces the monsters' aggression..."
The items Xing Zhinan gave him basically disabled every boss's skills.
Yan Chi's feelings were complicated: "No wonder they were able to hold out for so long..."
It turned out it was all thanks to the contributions of friendly forces.
After saying all this, Mingcai's mother went to find Mingcai. Before leaving, she asked Shen Mingsu, "I'm not leaving for the next few days. Can I stay with my Mingcai?"
Shen Mingsu waved his hand, "Whatever you want."
Ahui's mother also got up. She casually braided Yan Qingyuan's hair, tying a bunch of lily-of-the-valley flowers at the end. During this time, Yan Qingyuan lazily glanced at her, then leaned back on the sofa, letting her do whatever she wanted with his hair.
Ahui's mother looked at her work, nodded in satisfaction, and looked at Shen Mingsu, "I want to live with Ahui too."
Shen Mingsu: "...I already said it's up to you!"
Mingcai's mother and Ahui's mother left together. Yan Chi looked at his father's braid, touched the lily-of-the-valley hair tie at the end of his hair. Yan Qingyuan, thinking he liked it, pulled it off and gave it to him.
"I just think it looks pretty." Yan Chi looked helplessly at the lily-of-the-valley in his hand, gathered Yan Qingyuan's silky long hair, and re-tied it back up.
Suddenly, a feather appeared before Yan Chi's eyes, swaying in front of him. He looked blankly at the father, Lian Deng's, in front of him. What was he doing?
Seeing that he didn't react, Lian Deng's father waved the feather in front of Yan Qingyuan a couple more times. Yan Qingyuan narrowed his eyes dangerously, grabbed the feather, and tossed it aside.
The feather landed gently. The little black bird on Lian Deng's father's shoulder angrily picked it up, stuck it in its tail feathers, and chirped incessantly at Lian Deng's father.
Yan Qingyuan's patience finally reached its limit. He directly herded everyone outside. At the same time, Yan Chi felt the weight on his knees suddenly disappear, and the space around him was empty. Shen Mingsu was nowhere to be seen.
He searched everywhere for Shen Mingsu, finally finding him standing blankly outside the window.
Beside Shen Mingsu were the other Super S-level bosses who had also been thrown out of the house. They smiled, clearly already used to it.
Ning Zhu's father plucked a tail feather from the blackbird and played with it in his palm. "Wow, amazing! He actually held back for a full half hour before throwing us out."
Yi Luo retorted, "It's all because you angered him!"
"I just wanted to see him flap his feathers. Don't you think it's cute?"
Ning Zhu's father put his arm around their shoulders. "Let's go, let's go. I heard a lot of new shops have opened outside the school. Call the kids and have them pay by card."
"..."
They left with a flourish, leaving Shen Mingsu alone, bewildered in the wind.
Yan Chi panicked: "Dad? Why did you throw Shen Mingsu out too!"
"...I just got carried away."
Yan Qingyuan reluctantly pulled Shen Mingsu back.
Shen Mingsu timidly hugged Yan Chi. "I thought your dad was finally going to kill me..."
"No, he didn't mean it." Yan Chi patted his hand, and Shen Mingsu grasped it, quickly kissing the back of his hand.
Yan Qingyuan glanced at their tightly clasped hands, slightly pursing his lips. He hadn't done it unintentionally.
That's right, he deliberately threw Shen Mingsu out; he was intentionally retaliating.
After lunch, Shen Mingsu was called away by Lin Heng, while Yan Chi accompanied Yan Qingyuan to find the director.
The director had only heard of Yan Qingyuan's reputation. He treated Yan Qingyuan with great respect, straightening his tie and leading them to a small room. "The termite player is locked up here."
Yan Qingyuan nodded and pushed open the door.
A strong stench of blood hit them. Yan Chi frowned, but the unpleasant smell quickly dissipated, replaced by a faint floral fragrance.
In the dimly lit room, the curtains were drawn. A long-haired woman lay on the floor, covered in blood, her eyes sunken, blood flowing from them. Her white dress was stained with blood.
Yan Chi was horrified by the bloody scene, but the next second he remembered that this person was a member of the termites, and any budding sympathy he had just felt was nipped in the bud.
The director felt troubled. "We can't get a single piece of information about the termite master out of her. This person is incredibly stubborn."
The voice caught the woman's attention. She twitched her fingers and tilted her ear. "Hmm? Someone's here?"
She looked to be only in her early twenties, in the prime of her life, but she was a member of the termites.
Yan Chi pursed his lips. He had heard from Mingcai's mother that this person was a tough nut to crack. He looked at Yan Qingyuan. "Do you have a way to get her to tell the truth?"
Upon hearing this, the woman struggled excitedly for a moment, her tone pleading. "You don't need to find a way. I can tell the truth. Big brother, I beg you, just ask me anything you want to know, and I'll tell you everything I know."
Yan Chi: "...?"
What kind of development is this? Wasn't she supposed to be stubborn and unyielding?
The director snorted. "That's just stalling. No matter what you ask, this person will say they don't know."
"That's because I really don't know, you idiot!" the woman cursed, slamming her fist on the floor. "I'm not some big shot in the Termites, just a lowly henchman. How much do you expect me to know?!"
The director: "..."
Yan Qingyuan: "Tell the truth."
"That's the truth!" the woman screamed hysterically. "I've been in the Termites for years and I'm only an A-level player. I'm not even ranked! I can't leave, I can't run away, and I get beaten and verbally abused every day..."
It sounded pitiful, especially since she was a girl. Yan Chi subconsciously softened his voice. "If you obediently tell us everything you know, we won't hurt you."
"Then ask away!" The woman wiped away her tears. "But please, please don't ask me who the termites' owner is. It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's that I really don't know. I have absolutely no right to meet the termites' owner."
Thinking of this, the woman was overcome with grief. "Why is my life so miserable? My brother tricked me into this organization as soon as I entered the game. Everyone here is a lunatic."
"I, a normal person, don't fit in with them. Being isolated and targeted is bad enough, but I'm never promoted. All those useless guys who joined the termites with me have become managers, while I'm still working like a slave."
For a moment, the room echoed with the woman's heartbroken sobs.
Yan Qingyuan coldly rebuked, "Stop crying."
"Waaah... Oh."
Yan Chi and the director walked outside. Yan Chi glanced at the woman silently weeping and asked, "Did Mingcai's mother only ask her about the termite's owner?"
"Yes, that's why she kept saying she didn't know. We thought she was just being stubborn." The director looked embarrassed and coughed lightly. "Then this person is completely useless. What should we do?"
Yan Chi hesitated. "This..."
"Please don't kill me!" The woman struggled in her death throes. After going blind, her hearing had become exceptionally sharp. She knew they were now adversaries. If she wanted to survive in their hands, she had to show what benefits she could bring. "As long as you don't kill me, I... I can be your undercover agent!"
Yan Chi and the director exchanged a glance. Yan Chi walked up to her. "Why should we believe you?"
"You are both high-level bosses; you must have methods to control others." The woman desperately tried to maintain her composure. "You can heal my eyes, then I can invade my memories, so you'll know I'm telling the truth."
"You're willing? But your eyes..."
"I didn't blind myself." The woman clenched her fists, gritting her teeth. "The termites give each member a portable device. If an NPC catches us, this device will instantly blind us."
Yan Chi gasped. He knew the termites were ruthless, but he hadn't expected them to be so cruel to their own members.
But whether to truly believe this person depended on whether Ming Danxi could examine her after her eyes recovered.
Soon, the school doctor arrived with a medical kit. He smiled at Yan Chi, "Long time no see, Teacher Chi."
Seeing him reminded Yan Chi of being frightened unconscious by Feng Wang at the start of the semester. He chuckled and nodded, "Long time no see."
The school doctor examined the woman's eyes, gently prying open her eyelids. Her eyeballs were a pile of rotten flesh, a chilling sight. Yan Chi reluctantly looked away.
“Your eyeballs are completely dead,” the school doctor said, dropping a bombshell. “I’ll gouge them out and replace them with new ones.”
The woman’s voice trembled. “Ah?”
“Don’t worry, it won’t hurt at all,” the doctor reassured her, opening his medical kit to reveal a variety of colored eyeballs. “You can choose your own color, miss. What color would you like?”
The woman swallowed hard, rubbing and touching the eyeballs. “Do you have purple? I’ve loved this color since I was little.”
“Yes, you have excellent taste. This color is beautiful.”
“Do you think this color suits me? Won’t it look out of place?”
“No, you’re beautiful. You can totally pull off this color.”
The patient and the doctor chatted as if no one else was around, not discussing eye replacements, but casually talking about hair color.
Yan Chi, having seen many outrageous things, didn’t react much.
Half an hour later, Zhou Yan slowly opened her eyes, meeting a pair of light gray eyes for a moment. Her mind went blank.
"Yes, what she said is true." Ming Danxi walked to Yan Chi's side. "She's been working for the termites for seven years, and in the end, she's still the lowest-ranking errand girl. Those who came later have climbed higher. Tsk tsk... so pitiful."
Yan Qingyuan felt a pang of sympathy at that moment. "Yeah, so pitiful."
Ming Danxi chuckled. "Do you know what I mean? You've been spoiled since you were little, and you've never worked like a slave."
Yan Qingyuan: "..."
He had worked before, but he would never say that.
"Dad, are you hiding something from me?" Yan Chi keenly noticed the strange look on Yan Qingyuan's face and asked.
Yan Qingyuan hesitated for a couple of seconds, then turned his head away. "I'll tell you when we get back."
So, there really was something? And he admitted it so honestly. Yan Chi was stunned for a few seconds before saying okay. As for Zhou Yan, Yan Chi and the director planned to send her back to the Termite organization as an inside agent. Ming Danxi could easily control Zhou Yan's thoughts and wasn't worried about her betraying them.
“I can't go back now,” Zhou Yan calmly analyzed. “The Termite people are very suspicious. They must know I'm being held hostage. Even if I go back now, they'll kill me.”
“As long as you spread the word that I'm here, the Termite will send people to kill me to silence me. Then you can control them to help you.”
After switching sides, Zhou Yan began to wholeheartedly consider the interests of her current organization.
Yan Chi was completely unaware of these tactics and simply nodded blankly.
Ultimately, the director and the others adopted Zhou Yan's suggestion and arranged accommodation for her. When Zhou Yan saw the small detached villa the school had prepared for her, her eyes instantly welled up with tears.
In this blissful moment, Zhou Yan thought of her brother, "Brother, I've changed jobs. You should prepare to die too."
Meanwhile, Yan Chi and Yan Qingyuan walked along the campus path. Yan Qingyuan confessed to him, "...Um, I have Xie Tao's memories, so I've worked. Working was exhausting."
Yan Chi froze.
Yan Chi couldn't believe it. "Huh?"
Yan Qingyuan briefly explained Xie Tao's identity, "Now I'm merged with him. In a sense, I am him, but you can let him be alone if you want."
The amount of information was overwhelming. Yan Chi's mind went blank for a few seconds. How did things come to this? Xie Tao still became his father?
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