Chapter 7: The Mangaka Really Knows How to Play
The air at the tip of his nose had a damp, fishy smell.
The brown-haired youth frowned, then groggily opened his eyes.
What he saw was pitch blackness.
“Why can’t I see anything... Am I dreaming?” He felt as if his brain had been twisted by something, his reaction surprisingly dull.
He moved his arms and legs; he didn't feel any pain.
But a persistent smell of blood lingered.
Just as he thought he was merely talking to himself, a stranger's voice suddenly came from the darkness.
That voice said methodically: "If saying so makes you happy, then you are indeed dreaming."
Dreaming isn't just about being happy, it's either dreaming or not.
Yiming thought, staring blankly into the darkness for a good while.
“Who are you!?” He sat up with a start, but the room had no windows, and the door was tightly closed. There was no light, and he couldn't see the appearance of the person whose voice he heard.
The youth who had just spoken paused: "So you don't know me at all, yet you were going to pull me along."
“Li, just call me Li.” Seemingly amused, before Yiming could say anything, the youth gave his name.
These words gradually brought Yiming's memory back.
He remembered making a grand promise to a youth who, like Tang, was merchandise, that he would help him escape from Qing Tong.
“My name is Yiming.” The brown-haired youth couldn't help but show a look of annoyed in the darkness. “So we still didn't manage to escape in the end?”
The youth stated plainly: “Yes, we didn't escape.”
Although in this situation, stating the fact directly made him feel even more like he had been slapped in the face.
In the silence, Yiming couldn't even pretend he hadn't heard that sentence.
Heat gradually spread to his ears.
He lowered his head and said with utmost sincerity, “I’m sorry! I thought I could get you out! I’m really sorry for interfering with your plan and getting you caught!”
Even though the other person probably couldn't see his expression clearly.
“You wouldn't have escaped even if you were anxious, Little Corgi.” The youth said unhurriedly, his clear voice exceptionally distinct in the small room. “As for ‘sorry’? Who was it that spoke with such confidence back then, only to end up getting caught like this.”
Yiming quickly covered his face, his ears bright red: “...It was me.”
Little Corgi was fiercely attacked by his own confidence.
He couldn't help but review what he had done, and in the end, only tugged at the baby fat on his cheeks even harder.
After a good while, he heard the youth say: “Just teasing you.”
Yiming: “...”
What a wicked sense of humor! What did he mean by teasing him! He was genuinely feeling guilty!
But...
Yiming's nose twitched slightly.
He sniffed the undeniable scent in the air, turned his head towards the source of the smell, and looked in the youth's direction in the darkness.
“Will there be punishment for being caught trying to escape?” he suddenly asked.
“This, ah.” The youth replied after a moment, “No, there won’t be.”
“Besides, Qing Yu Chen had already returned by then. We wouldn't have been able to escape no matter what. It's not your fault.” The youth spoke slowly, with a very methodical and convincing tone.
But Yiming didn't listen.
He directly got out of bed and walked over in the dark, stopping in front of the voice.
The close proximity allowed him to vaguely make out the other person's features, blurry. The youth seemed puzzled, wondering why he had suddenly come over.
He reached out, wanting to help the youth up, but the next second, the youth accurately gripped his wrist.
The palm gripping his wrist was sticky underneath, so thin he could almost feel the bones knocking against his wrist.
The pungent smell of rust assaulted his senses, and in the darkness, the youth's face seemed to turn cold with this action.
Yiming knew almost instantly what it was. It was blood.
Why was there blood for no reason? Whose was it?
Yiming himself was fine, without any wounds, so it could only be from the youth.
Recalling the fleeting glimpse from last night, he had thought then that the youth was too slender.
At this moment, he even felt that the strength of the hand stopping him was very weak.
In the pitch-black silence where one couldn't see their own hand in front of their face, even sounds seemed like whispers beside the ear.
In this silence, it seemed there was only the other person's somewhat trembling breath.
What on earth happened while he was asleep? Was his being unharmed also because someone had suffered in his place?
Why hide it?
“You really are injured. It’s because you were caught trying to escape, right?” Yiming’s voice became hoarse. “You don’t need to comfort me, I know it’s my fault.”
From the moment he woke up, the youth had been using jokes to distract him, trying to hide his injuries.
Yiming felt like he was being taken care of.
No one had taken care of him like this since his adoptive father disappeared.
Although sharp-tongued, the youth never mentioned things that would truly make Yiming feel bad.
“I’m sorry.” Yiming lowered his head, like a dog soaked wet by the rain.
He remembered his adoptive father being like this in his childhood, hiding everything from him, letting him know nothing about his adoptive father, and then growing up carefree.
Yiming sniffled and slowly lowered his hand.
“Even if I said no, you wouldn’t believe me.” The youth paused, then finally let go of his hand, seeming to give up on hiding. “Then what do you want to do?”
“I will make up for my mistake!” Yiming raised his head, his eyes determined.
But no one in this darkness could see his eyes, yet he would definitely do so.
After all, he couldn't bring himself to ignore the mistake he had made with a clear conscience.
The youth paused, then said as if for final confirmation: “Are you serious?”
“Serious!” Yiming said firmly.
In the darkness where he couldn't see, the ‘injured’ black-haired youth slowly curled his lips.
Li · Completely Uninjured · Blood Belongs to Others · Li: “Is that so...”
How should she put it? Her conscience wouldn't ache.
...
[Detected that update target has been achieved.]
[Opening passage for you...]
[Welcome back to reality.]
...
At twelve o'clock sharp, Li Li returned from the manga world.
Returning so suddenly was somewhat unexpected for Li Li.
She thought she would really have to stay for a full day each time.
"Isn't it said that one day in reality equals one day in the manga world, with back-and-forth travel?" She asked directly when she had doubts.
[You may need to travel once a day, but it is not mandatory to travel every day.]
[You can leave early after fulfilling the update requirements.]
"But what if the manga update spans months or years?"
Li Li inquired. "For example, Yiming trains for three months before reappearing, or falls off a cliff and only climbs out after three years."
In such cases, the time span in the manga world between updates was too vast, and three days wouldn't be enough to complete.
The system immediately responded: [It will be on hiatus.]
Li Li: ...
You're going to play mahjong too?
But for Li Li, such rules were actually better.
Who wouldn't want a couple of extra days to rest? Even she needed to adjust herself and seize the time to enrich her life.
"So, is the remaining usable time in the shop calculated based on manga time or reality?" Li Li was more concerned about her trump card for posing as a big shot.
[Reality time.]
Li Li felt this aspect was a bit inhumane.
She tried to haggle with the system, hoping to switch reality time to manga time.
After all, according to the system, she wouldn't need to go to the manga world for the next two days in reality, and she couldn't use the shop in the real world, so that was two days of shop usage wasted.
But the system was unyielding, showing no possibility of budging.
After failing to negotiate, Li Li could only give up.
...
In the next two days, besides completing school tasks, she prepared for several extracurricular courses, such as parkour and kickboxing.
After her last traversal, she had 182 popularity points left, but after deducting survival points, only eighty-two remained.
Li Li noticed that popularity surged fastest right after an update, but if there was no buzz later, the growth would slow down.
On the first afternoon back, right after her professional class ended, her popularity points barely reached 101, enough to keep her alive until 6 a.m. after the update.
Daily traversal at midnight, settlement of survival points at 6 a.m.
If her survival points ever fell short, she'd probably drop dead at 6 a.m.
Time quickly passed in her fulfilling life, and soon it was the night of the manga update.
[Current popularity points: 92. If it doesn't reach 100 before 6 a.m., the transaction ends.]
Li Li wasn't too nervous.
No matter what, she was bound to appear in this update.
She pulled the bed curtains, lay down, recited some vocabulary, and then clicked on the update.
The first thing she saw was a colorful title page, but one glance left her stunned.
This title page featured nearly all the characters from the Jiao Huang arc.
Yiming, wearing a yellow hoodie and jeans, stood at the forefront, tightly holding the frail Tang.
Behind him was the boss, smiling gently at him.
On the same level as the boss was Qing Yu Chen, dressed in a light green changpao magua.
The two flanked Yiming, their positioning hinting at some deeper meaning.
Li Li also saw herself.
She was positioned in front of Qing Yu Chen, behind Tang.
A black-haired youth in a black trench coat faced away from the viewer, the coat draping down to his calves, the overly long waistband lightly fluttering, outlining a slender waist.
'He' turned his head slightly, revealing one deep black eye, his gaze passing over Tang, looking at Yiming ahead with an expression devoid of joy or sorrow.
Above everyone, a shattered mirror-like surface revealed sharp triangular edges. Amid the fragmented cracks, a youth wearing sunglasses was smiling.
It was a smile laced with malice, as if reveling in delight.
'He' watched everyone, as if he saw everything.
But as Li Li stared at this smiling face, she slowly tilted her head.
Didn't this look a bit like her outfit when she first appeared?
Li Li had assumed she would only have one identity, so when she pretended to be weak in front of Yiming, she maintained her 'pseudo-big shot' demeanor, using words and props to make him think she was injured but too strong to admit it.
She had calculated everything perfectly, but the title page depicted both her big-shot identity and her commodity identity.
Did that mean these two identities could be counted separately?
Li Li's mind buzzed as a thought emerged.
So, could she earn two streams of popularity points at once?