LABMY CH99.2

“Not like you guys.” Jian Yuanbai smiled at Qu Wenxuan. “I’m really troubled—you wouldn’t understand.”

With that, he walked out, leaving behind a bewildered Yang Jinhang, who struggled to say to Qu Wenxuan, “I can’t shake the feeling that he’s showing off.”

“What’s there to show off to us, two straight guys?”

Qu Wenxuan’s expression darkened. He had only brought up two men on purpose to test Yang Jinhang, not because he thought Jian Yuanbai was showing off. But now, it was obvious—Jian Yuanbai had been flaunting it right in front of him.

Jian Yuanbai claimed he only wanted to be a guardian, yet Shen Nian refused that kind of relationship. Qu Wenxuan had always liked Yang Jinhang, yet Yang Jinhang was so dense he only saw him as a friend.

That I’m really troubled felt like a slap of pure bragging right to Qu Wenxuan’s face.

Only Yang Jinhang remained oblivious, mumbling with a complicated look, “What’s he showing off to us two straight guys for?”

Qu Wenxuan glanced at him and let out a long, heavy sigh.

Meanwhile, Jian Yuanbai headed upstairs.

Inside the bathroom, freshly bathed, Shen Nian was idly flicking his silver-blue fishtail against the water, waiting for him. The moment he saw Jian Yuanbai walk in, his eyes lit up.

Jian Yuanbai caught his expression perfectly. To test his suspicion, he asked, “Why did you want to take a bath so early in the morning?”

Shen Nian let out an awkward ah, stammering, “B-Because I turned into a fish… I like water.”

His nervousness was painfully obvious, but it could be interpreted another way—as fear that Jian Yuanbai might realize what kind of dream he had been having.

Jian Yuanbai picked him up as usual, carefully drying the water off his silver-blue tail. Then, in a completely natural tone, he asked, “Did you wake up midway through the night?”

The tip of the tail in his hands instantly curled up, flicking anxiously. Shen Nian’s ears turned bright red, and his gaze darted everywhere except toward Jian Yuanbai. “No! I only woke up because you suddenly got up!”

Jian Yuanbai lowered his head slightly, amusement flickering in his eyes, though his voice remained calm. “Oh? I thought I heard you call me. Maybe I was still half-asleep and imagined it.”

Shen Nian nodded rapidly. “Maybe you heard me calling you in a dream and mixed it up when you woke up.”

Jian Yuanbai made a sound of agreement, accepting his explanation. Then, he carried Shen Nian downstairs for breakfast.

By now, Shen Nian had learned to fully conceal his blue eyes and fishtail, obediently curling up in Jian Yuanbai’s arms, pretending to be an ordinary human afraid of the cold.

Breakfast was simple—porridge with a plate of packaged pickled vegetables. Jian Yuanbai scooped a bowl and placed it beside Shen Nian’s hand.

Qu Wenxuan watched as Jian Yuanbai, looking like he was one step away from feeding Shen Nian himself, served the food.

To be honest, it was hard to see how this was just a guardian taking care of a child.

So this was what self-deception looked like.

He understood now.

After realizing that Shen Nian had done it on purpose that morning, Jian Yuanbai’s mood instantly brightened. Anyone could see the radiance in his expression, yet he still tried to speak in a deep, serious tone to the system:

“Did you notice?”

The system, suddenly being addressed, was a bit confused. “Notice what?”

Jian Yuanbai let out a long, lingering sigh. “Shen Nian likes me.”

The system’s expression turned complicated. Literally everyone with eyes can see that, okay? “And?”

“What do you think—should I accept him?” Jian Yuanbai asked. “I really only intended to be his yafu.”

“He still has half a year until he’s of age. I have time to think about it. It’s very troubling.”

The system: “…”

“One question—what if Shen Nian is already of age?”

“Really?” Jian Yuanbai only pondered for less than two seconds. “Well, I still can’t hurt him, right?”

“You know, I really never planned on making him my wife.”

“That’s a lie. I don’t actually know when Shen Nian comes of age,” the system admitted. “Also, your tone doesn’t sound troubled at all.”

Annoyed by his smugness, the system decided to challenge him: “What if he really was dreaming this morning? What if the name he called out was about the real Bai Lingchen?”

The moment those words left its mouth, the system witnessed what true Sichuan opera face-changing looked like—one second bright and sunny, the next, dark and stormy.

Jian Yuanbai’s voice turned ice-cold. “Nian Nian said before that his relationship with Bai Lingchen wasn’t good. They hadn’t seen each other in three years. There’s no way that’s possible.”

The system replied with a sarcastic chuckle and ignored him.

And he calls this ‘considering’? He just wanted to indulge his strange obsession with playing the yafu role for another six months. The system had seen through too much.

He already told Qu Wenxuan once, and now he has to say it again in his own head? If this place weren’t so deserted, he’d probably even stop a passing dog and ask if it knew Shen Nian liked him.

Don’t get too smug.

—

The group continued on their journey. Now that Jian Yuanbai had his suspicions, he could see all of Shen Nian’s actions even more clearly. He claimed he only wanted to be Shen Nian’s yafu, yet he indulged Shen Nian’s every move.

The subtle teasing, the deliberate closeness, the way he curled into his arms and refused to come out, acting all coy—Shen Nian played his role perfectly. Meanwhile, the man who kept insisting, I really don’t intend to make him my wife, had been secretly counting down the days to his eighteenth birthday.

Shen Nian had no idea that, long ago in the S City Fortress, when he casually mentioned he had one year left until adulthood, Jian Yuanbai had remembered it so clearly.

In reality, he had already passed his eighteenth birthday while traveling. He never mentioned it because, in an apocalypse, birthdays didn’t seem worth celebrating. He had also completely forgotten his own claim of still being underage.

He kept trying to seduce Jian Yuanbai in every way he could think of, but Jian Yuanbai remained unbelievably virtuous, like a saint.

Yet another failed attempt.

Tomorrow, they would reach the D City base, and after that, they would probably get busy.

Shen Nian gripped the bedsheet in frustration, preparing to slip into his dreams once more.

Lately, he had been having those kinds of dreams more and more frequently. If this kept up, he feared he would start looking at Jian Yuanbai with unfulfilled desire!

Two parts fear, three parts frustration, five parts anticipation—Shen Nian slowly drifted off to sleep.

While he slept soundly, Jian Yuanbai’s eyes slowly opened. His gaze toward Shen Nian was unreadable.

Ever since Shen Nian had become a pollutant, there was always something strangely seductive about him. Yet, at the same time, he was so easily flustered.

More than once, Jian Yuanbai had wanted to just lean in and kiss him.

He moved closer and, under the moonlight, lightly pressed a fleeting kiss on Shen Nian’s lips.

“Grow up quickly.”

Stepping into the role of yafu already carried an ethical weight. If he were to make a move on an underage Shen Nian, he would be no better than a beast.

So, he restrained himself.

What he didn’t know was that all this restraint only rebounded violently in his dreams.

He wouldn’t remember, but Shen Nian suffered through them every night.

—

The next day, Shen Nian was drowsy, nodding off in Jian Yuanbai’s arms.

After so many consecutive nights of those dreams, he hadn’t been sleeping well at all.

As they entered the D City base, he yawned and forced himself to stay awake, taking a look at their surroundings.

Unlike the towering steel fortress of S City, which radiated a strong sense of security, D City had no such walls. Instead, many people stood guard around the perimeter.

As they passed through the entrance, Shen Nian noticed a large damaged section of the wall, with several people busy repairing it.

D City’s population was noticeably smaller than S City’s. There were far fewer ordinary people walking the streets.

Their group of three ability users received priority treatment wherever they went, and D City was no exception.

A woman leading them to their lodgings curiously glanced at Shen Nian, who had been cradled in Jian Yuanbai’s arms the entire time. She explained,

“D City is naturally colder, and with the extreme weather getting worse, there’s no central heating here. It wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway.”

“You should buy a few fire pits for your rooms. Charcoal is a bit expensive in D City, but you could also burn wood.”

“All food here must be earned through labor. Ability users can leave the base freely, but ten percent of their harvest must be handed over upon return.”

Jian Yuanbai and the others were once again assigned separate lodgings. He and Shen Nian shared a house, while Qu Wenxuan and Yang Jinhang stayed next door.

After entering the house, Shen Nian took a few steps. His “walking practice” had shown promising progress—he was no longer completely unable to move.

Jian Yuanbai let him choose a room he liked, and Shen Nian casually picked one. Looking at the swirling snowfall outside the window, he remarked, “It must be even harder for ordinary people to survive here.”

“Mm.” There was no real solution to this issue, so Jian Yuanbai could only give a brief response.

One good thing about the D City base was that it provided hot water—though for a fee. Still, for Shen Nian, who hadn’t had a proper hot shower in a long time, it was a novelty.

As the warm water flowed over his body, Shen Nian narrowed his eyes slightly, glancing at Jian Yuanbai’s faintly visible silhouette through the frosted glass door.

So much time had passed—he wouldn’t resort to childish tricks like deliberately falling just to lure someone in anymore. Instead, he focused on taking a serious, proper bath.

Deep in thought, Shen Nian decided to try a different approach.

Stepping out of the bathroom, he saw Jian Yuanbai inside the room and hesitated before suggesting, “We should sleep in separate rooms.”

Jian Yuanbai, who was changing the bedsheets, paused slightly and turned to look at him. “Why?”

Shen Nian gave a perfectly reasonable explanation. “I’m not afraid of the cold anymore, and since there’s no central heating in D City, everything is inconvenient. Tomorrow, when we go outside the base, I can get ‘accidentally’ scratched and pretend I awakened an ability after being infected.”

“That way, things will be easier. Otherwise, if you keep carrying me around all the time, it’ll be inconvenient for both of us.”

Jian Yuanbai frowned, clearly disagreeing. “There’s no need to get injured. Even if you keep pretending to be an ordinary person, it doesn’t matter.”

“As long as you have the ability to protect yourself in dangerous situations, what you do normally isn’t important.”

Shen Nian was persistent. “There’s no heating here, and there aren’t many ordinary people around. If I stay like this too long, I’ll start standing out.”

“It’s just a minor injury. It’ll be fine.”

Jian Yuanbai fell silent for a moment, then finally nodded. “Alright. We’ll do it this way tonight.”

Shen Nian rejected him outright. “No need. It’s just the two of us here.”

He smiled at Jian Yuanbai, his brows curving beautifully. “Thanks for making the bed for me.”

Shen Nian smiled happily, while Jian Yuanbai, looking like an unhappy little cat, walked out of the room. His displeasure was so obvious that Shen Nian couldn’t quite figure him out.

A man who remained unmoved by all his teasing and flirting—yet got upset the moment he suggested sleeping separately.

So, did he like him or not?

Sometimes, Jian Yuanbai’s reactions were truly confusing. But since he had been sticking so close to him all this time, perhaps distancing himself a little wouldn’t be a bad idea.

A game of push and pull—sometimes, it yielded even more unexpected results.

—

The next day, Qu Wenxuan and Yang Jinhang quickly noticed that something was off between the two of them. Or rather, Shen Nian was noticeably speaking less to Jian Yuanbai.

The two exchanged a glance, both seeing the same question in each other’s eyes. Are they giving each other the cold shoulder?

There were few pollutants near the base since people frequently went in and out to clear them. One had to travel farther to encounter them.

When a pollutant rushed toward them, Shen Nian patted Jian Yuanbai’s hand, signaling for him to put him down.

To his surprise, not only did Jian Yuanbai refuse to let go, but he held him even tighter. In the blink of an eye, the approaching pollutant was taken down.

As Shen Nian widened his eyes in disbelief, Jian Yuanbai shrugged, looking helpless. “You know I wouldn’t let you get hurt by something like that.”

“It wouldn’t seem reasonable.”

Shen Nian clenched his teeth. Fine. So it’s not reasonable, huh?

—

The next day, Shen Nian didn’t go out with them. He stayed behind under the excuse of looking for work suited for ordinary people within the base.

Jian Yuanbai knew exactly what he was up to. Though he didn’t approve, Shen Nian was firm in his decision, so Jian Yuanbai could only follow Qu Wenxuan and the others out of the base to repeat the tedious cycle of scavenging for supplies and clearing pollutants.

He expected to return and find a slightly injured Shen Nian.

Instead, what he saw was Shen Nian sitting in a wheelchair.

“What happened to your leg?!”

Jian Yuanbai immediately picked Shen Nian up, about to rush off to find Yang Jinhang, but Shen Nian stopped him.

“No, it’s fine. I met someone today. When they heard I had trouble walking, they made this for me.”

Shen Nian’s eyes sparkled as he marveled, “It’s amazing! It even has a heating function—it’s really warm to sit in.”

Jian Yuanbai gripped the wheelchair so tightly that he nearly crushed it. His voice was laced with discomfort. “You like this?”

Shen Nian nodded. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a wheelchair that can generate heat without electricity. But apparently, it needs to be recharged with ability energy from time to time.”

Jian Yuanbai let out a mocking chuckle. “What’s so special about that?”

—

On the third day, Jian Yuanbai finally met the person who had given Shen Nian the wheelchair.

A bespectacled man who looked like the very definition of a refined scoundrel.

He was also an ability user, and Jian Yuanbai could clearly see how he was staring at Shen Nian. When the man at the door said he had come to recharge Shen Nian’s wheelchair with his ability, Jian Yuanbai shut the door in his face without hesitation.

Shen Nian blinked, staring at the now tightly closed door. Tilting his head, he looked at Jian Yuanbai and, with a hint of complaint in his voice, asked, “What are you doing? My chair hasn’t been heated yet.”

Jian Yuanbai gritted his teeth. “Aren’t you planning to fake an ability awakening? You won’t need this chair.”

Shen Nian replied, “But I haven’t awakened yet. I can still use it for now.”

Jian Yuanbai didn’t want him to get injured just to pretend he had an ability, nor did he want him sitting in a chair given by a man who clearly had ulterior motives. After a brief moment of thought, an idea came to him.

He opened the door again and found that the man hadn’t left. Instead, he looked slightly puzzled and awkward. “Did I say something wrong just now?”

Jian Yuanbai cut him off bluntly. “What’s your name?”

“Yu Rubo.” Yu Rubo extended his hand, introducing himself politely.

Jian Yuanbai didn’t shake it. Instead, he asked, “You’re an ability user too? What rank?”

Yu Rubo replied, “Rank five.”

“Oh, rank five.” Jian Yuanbai sneered. “And you’re just lazing around in the base instead of going out to clear pollutants and improve your abilities?”

Yu Rubo remained unbothered by the remark. “I’ll be heading out after I recharge Nian Nian’s wheelchair.”

Jian Yuanbai’s expression darkened. “Nian Nian? Who said you could call him that? You two are that close?”

“If you’re so compassionate, why don’t you provide heating for all the ordinary people in the D City base?”

Yu Rubo’s composure cracked slightly, and his tone carried a hint of irritation. “And who exactly are you? You’re being a little too nosy, aren’t you? If a rank five ability user is nothing in your eyes, I’d like to know what rank you are.”

Bang.

The door slammed shut in his face once again.

Jian Yuanbai turned to face Shen Nian, who was still sitting in the wheelchair, and said seriously, “Didn’t you want to fake an ability awakening? Do you remember how Yang Jinhang thought he awakened his ability?”

“This is your chance. I’ll open the door, and you tell him, ‘A mere rank five? Within three years, I’ll surpass you.’”

Shen Nian: …

In a small voice, he asked, “Do you want me to bury myself alive?”

Jian Yuanbai, looking completely serious, said, “This way, you’ll have a proper reason to explain your ability later. And right now, he’s in a state of disbelief and provocation.”

Shen Nian hesitated. “But he was saying that to you.”

Jian Yuanbai countered, “With our relationship, if I’m insulted, wouldn’t you be upset?”

Shen Nian honestly shook his head and replied sincerely, “Not right now.”

Jian Yuanbai suddenly said, “I’m very upset.”

“The moment he called you ‘Nian Nian,’ I was really, really upset.”

Saying this, Jian Yuanbai crouched down in front of Shen Nian, holding his hand and letting out a sigh. “Go out there and draw a clear line with him, okay?”

Shen Nian: …

The door opened again, and Yu Rubo, who had been waiting outside, saw Shen Nian standing there with a flushed face, looking awkward.

Avoiding eye contact, Shen Nian stumbled over the words and, as soon as he finished, slammed the door shut before Jian Yuanbai could do it himself.

Never again.

He would never use someone else to provoke Jian Yuanbai again.

Forget whether it actually worked or not—he was the only one suffering the embarrassment here.

Why was it so hard to say no when this man crouched in front of him, looking disappointed, upset, and a little hopeful?!

Compared to Shen Nian’s internal breakdown, Jian Yuanbai was in a great mood. He picked him up and coaxed, “Let’s throw this wheelchair away, okay?”

“You’re not actually disabled, just temporarily unable to walk properly. There’s no need for something this dramatic.”

After thinking for a moment, Jian Yuanbai added, “When your eighteenth birthday comes, I’ll give you a present you’re guaranteed to love.”

Shen Nian blinked in surprise, cheeks still flushed. “But my eighteenth birthday already passed.”

Jian Yuanbai: ?

“What?!”