LABMY CH39

In the business world, there were two names widely known by those who ran businesses and started companies. One was Jian Yuanbai, and the other was Wei Zhenge.

What was also widely known was the unique relationship between the two.

It wasn’t their romantic relationship that people talked about. Compared to their other “special relationship,” being lovers seemed insignificant.

Top jewelry businessman Wei Zhenge had a habit of randomly pulling people out to deliver ruthless, over-the-top lines. The targets of his harsh words ranged from low to high status, from young to old, with no pattern in their professions.

However, every time he did this, his lover would always be present, occasionally even pointing out that his aura was lacking or that his pronunciation wasn’t forceful enough.

The two of them resembled a pair of real-life “edgy teenagers.”

It wasn’t until Wei Zhenge turned thirty that he finally gave up this habit. However, the “famous lines” he had once spoken spread widely in secret, becoming legendary.

At thirty, Wei Zhenge had shed the slight naivety of his youth. The baby fat on his face had disappeared, and his features had become sharp and refined. He wore glasses to appear more professional and composed when meeting clients, and time had polished him into a more elegant and stunning man.

He had changed a lot, but the way he looked at Jian Yuanbai seemed to say that nothing had changed at all.

Jian Yuanbai walked over from the beach, holding a cake with a candle on it and handed it to him, “Happy birthday, Little Pillow.”

Wei Zhenge blew out the candle and said, “I’m thirty now. Calling me ‘Little Pillow’ is a bit inappropriate, don’t you think?”

Though he said that, there was a smile in his eyes.

Instead of sitting on the lounge chair beside him, Jian Yuanbai squeezed onto the same chair as Wei Zhenge. “Then what should I call you?”

At some point, his hand slipped around Wei Zhenge’s waist, pulling him onto his lap. With his warm lips brushing against Wei Zhenge’s ear, he whispered, “Wife?”

“What’s your birthday wish, my wife?”

Speaking of wishes, Wei Zhenge suddenly became serious. With an extremely solemn expression, he said, “I wish you would restrain that little hobby of yours.”

Jian Yuanbai: ?

“That day when I was chatting with my friends, do you know what they said about me behind my back?”

With an awkward expression and a resentful gaze, Wei Zhenge revealed,  

“Because I’ve had such smooth sailing in life, I didn’t get enough chances to deliver harsh, edgy lines. So I had to create opportunities to say them. They call me the ‘Edgy Master of the Jewelry World.'”

Jian Yuanbai pinched his thigh hard to stop himself from laughing under Wei Zhenge’s resentful gaze. He coughed twice to suppress his laughter and even tried to defend himself:

“I don’t have that hobby. It’s because you have that hobby but were too embarrassed to say it. So I pretended it was my hobby to help you out.”

Wei Zhenge turned around and straddled Jian Yuanbai, facing him directly. 

“I told you from the very beginning, I don’t have that hobby.”

“I only said those things back then because you saved me, and I felt like I owed you.”

“Later, when you said you really enjoyed watching me say those lines and thought it was cool… I didn’t reject you.”

Wei Zhenge let out a helpless sigh and relaxed in Jian Yuanbai’s arms,  

“But now, Jian-ge…”

“I’m already thirty. I can’t keep doing these ridiculous things in public anymore.”

Jian Yuanbai saw how serious and sincere Wei Zhenge was. After spending so many years together, he could naturally tell that Wei Zhenge wasn’t lying. But he still couldn’t help but ask again, “You really don’t?”

Wei Zhenge gritted his teeth and said firmly, “I really don’t.”

“Every time I said those lines, I was so embarrassed I wanted to disappear from that place,” he corrected himself with a pained expression, “No, from this world.”

It was only now that he had turned thirty and felt that he could no longer indulge his boyfriend’s strange little hobby that he finally decided to be honest.

Hearing this, Jian Yuanbai was stunned. He asked the system in his mind,
“Then why did you tell me that Little Pillow likes it?”

The system fell silent for a moment before suddenly bursting into laughter.

Jian Yuanbai: “What are you laughing at?”

System: “I didn’t laugh.”

Without giving Jian Yuanbai a chance to speak, the system explained,
“Even if Wei Zhenge doesn’t like it, he still has to say those lines. Because this is part of the mission, it’s a requirement that must be fulfilled.”

“I’m not the one who set the mission. As a system, I’m only here to relay the rules to you.”

“Telling you that Wei Zhenge likes it… Wasn’t that just to help ease your guilt?”

The system added with a faint sigh,
“Look at how happy you are every time you force your wife to say those cringy lines.”

“If I told you he didn’t actually enjoy it, would you still be this happy?”

Jian Yuanbai: “Thank you so much?”

Then, he suddenly realized something, “Wait… You just admitted that Wei Zhenge is my wife, didn’t you?”

The system instantly realized it had slipped up and hurriedly denied it with a cold laugh,
“I didn’t admit anything. A true protagonist like you should be surrounded by countless beauties, not settling down as someone else’s ‘wife.'”

Jian Yuanbai ignored it and shamelessly kissed Wei Zhenge on the face, which earned him a resigned plea from Wei Zhenge,
“Please… restrain your little hobby, Jian-ge.”

He pursed his lips and softened his voice, “Just… for me, okay?”

Jian Yuanbai was about to agree immediately, since all the missions had ended on Wei Zhenge’s thirtieth birthday. But suddenly, he thought of something, leaned in close to Wei Zhenge’s ear, and whispered something.

Even at thirty years old, Wei Zhenge’s face still flushed red from embarrassment at Jian Yuanbai’s words. He would always be shy about such things, and that was exactly what made Jian Yuanbai so obsessed with him.

The island belonged to the two of them, a private place where no one would disturb them. The villa by the sea, illuminated by warm lights, stood silently against the roaring waves, acting as a silent witness.

Wei Zhenge’s eyes were misty with tears, and his long, dark lashes were wet with the moisture that came from a mix of shame and stimulation. He bit his lip to suppress his breathing, leaving a pale bite mark on his soft, pink lips. A single tear trembled and rolled down from the corner of his eye.

Jian Yuanbai’s voice was low and teasing, filled with amusement,
“Not going to say it yet?”

“If you keep holding back, for every five minutes you delay, you’ll have to say an extra line, my little baby.”

Wei Zhenge, overwhelmed with shame, choked out a sob and cursed him softly,
“Shut up.”

But Jian Yuanbai wasn’t angry at all. Instead, he began counting down slowly,
“Five… four… three…”

Under the bright, dazzling lights, Wei Zhenge’s face was flushed red. His slender, pale hand pressed against his lips as he trembled. With each count from Jian Yuanbai, it felt like he was striking directly at his heart, keeping time with the rhythm of his rapid heartbeat.

It was unbearable. Just as Jian Yuanbai was about to finish the countdown, Wei Zhenge finally gave in. His voice trembled as he softly pleaded,

“Husband… please…”

He closed his eyes, and a crystal-clear tear rolled down his cheek, tracing over his beautiful, flushed face. His voice was broken with sobs, filled with extreme embarrassment and vulnerability,
“Be gentle with me…”

Jian Yuanbai’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He never expected that the thirty-year-old Wei Zhenge would look so devastatingly beautiful when he said such words.

The man, who rarely cursed, couldn’t help but swear under his breath,
“F*ck.”

Then, he kissed Wei Zhenge’s lips fiercely and murmured,
“I’ll be gentle with you, baby.”

…

Many decades later, the system appeared next to Jian Yuanbai, who was sitting beside the lounge chair. The system, still a small, golden cat after all these years, looked at the man on the chair.

But Wei Zhenge had already grown old.

So old that he had lost all signs of life.

The system sighed,
“I told you before, Wei Zhenge is just a character from this small world. If you chose to stay, you’d eventually have to watch him grow old and leave you.”

“I didn’t stop you when you chose to stay and accompany him for a lifetime. But now that he’s gone, you can leave too.”

“The next mission is dangerous. You might die this time. I won’t send you to the next world anymore. I’ll send you back to your original world instead. Let’s go.”

The golden cat tried to persuade him with a soft voice, but as it spoke, it suddenly noticed that Jian Yuanbai’s hand was pressed over Wei Zhenge’s heart.

A faint, transparent soul was slowly emerging from his body.

And Jian Yuanbai didn’t look sad at all. Instead, he said calmly,

“When I said I’d accompany him for a lifetime, I wasn’t talking about his lifetime.”

“I was talking about my lifetime.”

Jian Yuanbai’s tone was calm but filled with determination,
“I’m taking him with me.”

“Others can’t take the soul of someone from a small world… but I can.”

Dammit!!!

The system was about to curse out loud. Due to its unique nature, it could clearly see Wei Zhenge’s palm-sized soul about to escape from his body. It absolutely could not allow Jian Yuanbai to take the soul away.

If Wei Zhenge left the small world, he would die because his soul was incomplete.

After countless failures in becoming the “protagonist destined to dominate,” the system had completely broken down, and Wei Zhenge was trapped in the small world, endlessly repeating the cycle of starting over and failing. Each time, he would lose all his memories and start from scratch, only to remember everything again upon death.

He couldn’t escape the small world, and after a few more cycles, his soul would eventually dissipate within it.

Helpless, Wei Zhenge had no choice but to extract a wisp of his soul.

That missing wisp of his soul merged with the remains of the broken system, becoming the system itself.

The system, carrying all the memories, was influenced by the broken system’s remnants and had witnessed Wei Zhenge’s repeated deaths, which caused its personality to differ from Wei Zhenge’s.

It no longer resembled Wei Zhenge but instead acted more like a close family member who had watched over him. And in the future, they would never merge back into one again.

Wei Zhenge’s incomplete soul would eventually be restored through the small world itself.

Originally, the system had planned to show Wei Zhenge, who had played the role of the protagonist for a lifetime, the countless embarrassing moments it had recorded before sending itself to the next world.

But now, the system panicked. If it didn’t send Jian Yuanbai away immediately, not only would there be no fun to watch, but even the person would die.

Without hesitation, it directly sent Jian Yuanbai to the next world.

This time, the system didn’t hide the danger:
“You must leave the small world immediately and return to where you belong.”

“The mission I assigned you was flawed because there was danger involved. I was damaged from countless failures. I originally planned to hide it from you and make you obediently follow me from one world to the next, completing missions.”

“But now, I have to tell you the truth. The nodes between small worlds are broken. Every time you cross into another world, you are gambling with your life.”

“There’s an 80% chance you’ll die on the path to the next world, but you absolutely cannot die here.”

The system paused for a moment and softly added,
“I… I don’t want you to die here either.”

The system said a lot, but Jian Yuanbai didn’t hear a single word.

His hand rested on Wei Zhenge’s chest, and for the first time, his eyes showed helplessness and confusion.
“I… I can’t find Little Pillow’s soul.”

He kept searching over and over again, repeatedly reaching toward Wei Zhenge’s heart, but his expression only grew more desperate.

Light began to glow from Jian Yuanbai’s hand, and his fingers slowly transformed into a beast’s paw, resembling that of a large cat.

But it was useless.

He couldn’t find anything.

Jian Yuanbai sat in a daze beside Wei Zhenge’s gradually cold body. The light from his hand grew brighter and brighter, almost blinding.

His lips trembled as he spoke,
“Wife… stop hiding.”

Huge tears fell to the ground. The tall man slowly curled up beside his lifeless lover, looking helpless and utterly broken.

The system couldn’t tell him that Wei Zhenge had been sent to the next world. It couldn’t let Jian Yuanbai die here.

It watched silently and coldly said,
“He’s already dead. You should leave.”

Jian Yuanbai held Wei Zhenge’s body without saying a word, showing no reaction to the system’s words, as if he had lost his hearing.

A man who had always lived with ease, believing he was invincible, was now experiencing true powerlessness for the first time.

He couldn’t find his lover.

All he could do was helplessly feel the warmth slowly leave Wei Zhenge’s body.

It was like a slow, torturous punishment.

With every drop in Wei Zhenge’s body temperature, it felt like a sharp knife stabbing into Jian Yuanbai’s heart, painfully reminding him that Wei Zhenge was dead.

Jian Yuanbai desperately held Wei Zhenge tighter, trying to use his own warmth to heat up the cold body in his arms.

But the person in his embrace kept his eyes closed and continued to grow colder.

Jian Yuanbai carefully smoothed out Wei Zhenge’s slightly messy hair, trembling as he kissed his pale lips.

His warm tears fell onto Wei Zhenge’s face, which he hurriedly wiped away.

“Wife… please open your eyes and look at me.”

Jian Yuanbai called out to Wei Zhenge’s name again and again, his voice eventually filled with pleading.

“I’m begging you, wife…”

“Please… open your eyes and look at me, okay?”

He buried his face in his lover’s neck, unable to feel even the faintest pulse.

He whispered in despair,
“Please… stop hiding…”

The system silently watched this scene unfold.

But Wei Zhenge had already been sent away, and soon, the system itself would be forced to leave as well.

It couldn’t just leave Jian Yuanbai behind.

Using the power it had gained from successfully completing this world’s mission, the system quietly erased Jian Yuanbai’s memories.

Then, the energy turned into a colorless and invisible shield, protecting Jian Yuanbai as it sent him out of the small world.