Chapter 51.2
After two days pa.s.sed and entered the night, it was nearing the time where Yang Ye’s script enactment was about to end.
Gu Liang took an afternoon nap and strolled around the garden before returning to the hotel to eat dinner.
Once he was done with his meal, he returned to his room for a shower. Then, while he was still wrapped in his towel, he sat on the bed and raised his hands to ma.s.sage his temples. Having gauged that now was the appropriate time, he took out his reward card and gave Yang Ye a call.
A moment later, the “call” connected.
“Yang Ye? Did I call at an appropriate time?”
“It’s appropriate. I just finished the summary and entered the one-on-one interrogation room, I haven’t called anyone in. However, even if it wasn’t right now—”
“Mn?”
“As long as you’re the one calling, it’s always appropriate, no matter what the time is.”
“……”
Yang Ye could essentially imagine Gu Liang’s expression. He let out a deep laugh before he said: “Fine, I’ll stop digressing. Certainly, there are some things I’d like you to help me a.n.a.lyse.”
Nearly 20 minutes pa.s.sed.
When Gu Liang and Yang Ye were done a.n.a.lysing, they were almost ready to hang up the call. Yang Ye asked him: “So where are you right now? They couldn’t possibly make you sleep on the snow-covered ground, right?”
“They didn’t. I’m staying at a resting area.”
“Resting area? What’s that?”
“Our scenario premise was burnt down. Thus, the system brought us to… Right, Number x.x.x561 public resting area. It has a hotel, garden and everything. It’s like a vacation village.”
“Okay. I understand.”
“Then… Goodbye.”
“Mn. Goodbye.”
The system cut the connection automatically, and the card surface turned grey.
The three chances to communicate had been used up. The Request for Help Card was thus obsolete.
* * *
The next afternoon, in the hotel restaurant.
Gu Liang was eating his steak at a leisurely pace.
Professor w.a.n.g had ordered some Chinese-style stir-fried noodles. He counted. “We have 15 days of downtime this time around, and the system gave us 100 virtual coins each. Do you think it’s enough to spend? Isn’t the steak slightly expensive?”
Gu Liang said indifferently, “It’s more important to maintain our strength. Who knows what the next scenario will be.”
Professor w.a.n.g let out a sigh: “Huh. Say, why do none of the NPCs here speak?”
Upon hearing that, Gu Liang tossed a look at the service counter.
There were two service staff standing there. They were both female and they wore standardised smiles on their faces.
But no matter what they said to them, they would not open their mouths to utter a single word, as if they were genuinely mute.
They were not alone in this; whether it was the lobby manager of the hotel or the barista at the coffee shop, all of them seemed incapable of speaking.
During the first few days, Gu Liang had disdained Professor w.a.n.g for speaking too much.
But after staying here for some time, he realised that it was inordinately quiet here; when no one was speaking, it was akin to a dead town.
And with Professor w.a.n.g speaking, the exceedingly bizarre atmosphere could be ameliorated a little at least.
After he cut a small piece of steak and placed it in his mouth, Gu Liang caught sight of something from the periphery of his vision, which caused him to look towards the restaurant entrance.
They were currently facing the hotel lobby.
Gu Liang could see two service staff pus.h.i.+ng out a cart from the laundry room at the back of the lobby, and items like pillows and blankets were piled on the cart.
The service staff pressed the b.u.t.ton for the elevator, pushed the cart and entered the elevator, and the elevator doors closed again.
As Gu Liang stared at the two service staff throughout the entire process, Professor w.a.n.g followed his gaze to look over, and he witnessed everything as well. He could help but comment: “Hm? Are there new players coming here to stay?”
Very quickly, the sound of footsteps travelled over from the lobby.
Gu Liang gave Professor w.a.n.g a silencing hand gesture as he stood up and walked towards the restaurant entrance.
Since he was standing behind the door, the majority of his body was hidden, and he only peeked his head out slightly to observe the situation outside.
Sure enough, five sedans came to a rest at the front of the hotel’s entrance.
Five players alighted from the sedans immediately after. The men in black raised the sedans and left, and the five players were brought into the main lobby under the lead of the service staff.
Their faces were mired with some dirt and ash, their bodies were littered with quite a few wounds, which made it apparent that they had been through an extremely dangerous scenario.
Gu Liang’s line of sight locked onto one of the players in their midst.
Battle fatigue lined his entire frame. Among all the people, his injuries were the most severe. He was essentially messed up from head to toe: his body covered with an unknown yellowish-green substance, one side of his sleeves was gone, his pants were riddled with holes and his wounds were still trickling with blood ceaselessly. Furthermore, the gla.s.ses on his nose bridge had shattered, and it was unknown if he could see the road in front of him properly.
His facial features were imperceptible due to the mud caking his visage, but his eyes were akin to stars, suffusing radiance.
He was still grinning at the present moment. His smile was extremely confident and composed, as though he hadn’t skirted along the lines of death, and merely went on a field trip and played some games.
If Gu Liang ever felt that he was stuck in a quagmire, then the person right in front of his eyes was a ray of light piercing through the clouds and mist, lighting up all the dark and narrow corners.
In the instant he saw him, the nerve that had been stretched taut in Gu Liang relaxed as he breathed out inaudibly. After examining his condition, however, a subconscious frown spread across his visage again, untold worries wrinkling the s.p.a.ce between his eyebrows.
Very quickly, the five people entered the elevator and went to their rooms upstairs.
Turning around, Gu Liang returned back to the restaurant, sat down, and continued eating his steak.
As he was eating his steak, he picked up the smart menu and placed an order with a series of audible taps. When the server came over with the food, he opened his mouth and requested: “Help me pack it up. Additionally, where can I purchase medical supplies? I know you can’t speak, but I’ll be troubling you to give me some directions. Lastly, can I ask about the rooms that the other players are staying in?”
“You, this… What are you doing?” Professor w.a.n.g asked.
Gu Liang: “Looking for a friend.”
Oh? Friend?
That’s not it, with his sort of personality, he actually managed to make a friend?
* * *
30 minutes later.
Gu Liang walked over to Room 1373, and knocked on the door.
After a while, Yang Ye’s voice sounded from behind the door in m.u.f.fled tones. “Is that Su Lan? Give me a moment.”
Su Lan?
Gu Liang raised an eyebrow without uttering a word, merely moving sideways.
Half a beat later, the door opened.
The lack of people outside the door made Yang Ye poke half his body out.
When Gu Liang stepped into the frame again, he saw Yang Ye drying his hair at a glance.
Water droplets were rolling down the front of his forehead as he dried his hair with a white towel, making it evident that he had just showered. Fortunately, the bathing robe provided by the hotel was wrapped around him in a strict and exceedingly proper fas.h.i.+on.
Mn, this was fine.
He did not meet some Su Lan with a wrapped towel.
As Yang Ye continued to dry his hair, he saw Gu Liang at the turn of his body.
Obvious joy flooded his eyes. His body acted faster than his brain as he immediately stretched his arms out as if he wanted to give Gu Liang a hug.
However, Gu Liang stepped backwards, avoiding Yang Ye’s arms, before he raised both his hands: one of them was holding some food, and the other was holding a plastic bag with medicine and gauze inside.
While he held the aforementioned posture, Gu Liang gave Yang Ye a cold and cheerless look. He raised his chin slightly. “Go in and talk?”
* * *
The first thing that Gu Liang did after entering the room was help Yang Ye deal with his wounds.
Although there were a lot of wounds on Yang Ye’s body, the silver lining was that most of his injuries were comparatively shallow.
Only the wound on his right arm was far more severe, and it was deep to the extent where you would see bone if you went a little deeper.
It goes without saying that it was also Gu Liang’s main focus.
After iodising and anaesthetising the wound, he wrapped the bandage around his arm several times.
“Is it too tight? Why aren’t you making a sound?” Gu Liang asked him.
Yang Ye lowered his eyes and gazed at Gu Liang who was well within reach. His hair was just beside his own lower jaw, and he only had to move forward a little before he could kiss it.
Yang Ye chucked, shaking his head. “It’s not tight, it’s just right.”
“Why did you shower when you have such a huge wound?” There was some reproach in Gu Liang’s tone of voice.
“I don’t have a choice, zombie blood smells absolutely terrible. Plus, it’s yellow and green in colour, which looks particularly disgusting.”
Yang Ye stared at the crown of Gu Liang’s head where the hair was soft and unkempt. “Had I know you were here earlier, I would have asked you to help me shower. If I could keep my left arm raised, the wound wouldn’t have gotten wet.”
Gu Liang raised his eyelids to shoot him a look. “Less blathering. Your wound might become infected later.”
“It’s fine,” said Yang Ye. Gu Liang had already wrapped up Yang Ye’s wound by this point, so Yang Ye moved his arm, “I can raise it by myself, no? It was inflicted by the zombie’s claws. It looks frightening, but the problem isn’t big.”
Lowering his head, Gu Liang kept the remaining gauze, adhesive tape and medical products properly before he looked at the food placed on the table pointedly. “The steak here is decent, so I bought you a portion, and there’s some small dishes accompanying it. But judging from your arm…”
Yang Ye thought internally, Why did I say that it wasn’t severe again? I should have said it was serious.
Consequently, Yang Ye let out a hiss. When he was met with Gu Liang’s questioning look, he used his left hand to brace his right arm. “It suddenly hurts.”
“Was it irritated by the iodine?”
“Maybe!”
“Stay seated and rest then. I’ll help you cut the steak.”
“Are you going to feed me?”
“I’ll help you cut it into smaller portions, you can eat it with the fork in your left hand.”
“En… that works too?”
“Still being picky?”
“No. It’s just that I honestly feel that you’re a good person, and loyal to your friends.”
Gu Liang sat at the dining table and started cutting up Yang Ye’s steak. “I’m merely returning you a favour. You helped me in this scenario.”
Yang Ye seated himself in front of Gu Liang and propped his chin on his left palm as he squinted his eyes to scrutinise him. “You just have a hard mouth. You called me during my centralised discussion and helped me too. You’ve already returned the favour. Your current actions, namely the bringing of food and medicine, and even helping me cut the steak, stems from the fact that you’re concerned about me.”
In lieu of speaking, Gu Liang raised his eyes slowly to gaze at Yang Ye.
In that instant, the soft colours of the lights shone into the frigid depths of Gu Liang’s eyes, which softened his overall countenance.
Gu Liang opened his mouth, wanting to speak, when knocks sounded at the door again.
After the knocks stopped, a gentle and distinctive female voice followed. “Yang Ye, open the door, it’s Su Lan.”
Oh. Su Lan.
Did Yang Ye promise to meet her tonight?
Or else why would Yang Ye a.s.sume that he was Su Lan when he knocked?
Gu Liang placed down the knife and fork, pus.h.i.+ng the plate with the steak towards Yang Ye. “It’s been cut. You should eat it. I’m going back to sleep.”
Just as Gu Liang was about to stand up, Yang Ye leaned forward and pressed down his wrist instantaneously.
“Yes?” Gu Liang turned his head back.
Yang Ye’s gaze sunk slightly as he stared into his eyes. “Help me with something.”
Gu Liang: “Speak, what is it?”
Still maintaining eye contact, Yang Ye smiled. “Help me open the door. Greet the guest in my stead.”
“Do you not have hands and legs?” Gu Liang asked.
— Hold on, what do you mean by greeting the guest in your stead?
Yang Ye released Gu Liang’s wrist and proceeded to lift up his pants leg.
It was only at that moment where Gu Liang saw that his calf was completely swollen, and one of the bruises was even slightly purple in colouration.
“It’s that serious? Why didn’t you mention it earlier?”
“Yeah, my leg hurts. Help me open the door please?”
“Fine.”
Gu Liang walked towards the door, “But she’s probably finding you because she has something to say to you, it’s better if I avoid—”
Yang Ye said: “What is there to avoid between you and me? What’s more, I’m not familiar with her, I just met her in this script. Isn’t there a phone in the room? When I just stepped out of the shower, I received her call, and she said that she was looking for me for something. Before I could reject it, she hung up the phone.”
Knocks sounded at the door again. “Yang Ye, are you there?”
Despite giving Yang Ye a look, Gu Liang still went up to open the door.
A neat and delicately pretty lady stood behind the door; now that the dirt had been washed off her body, she had become quite refined in appearance.
She was holding two bags as well: one contained the rice and dishes, the other contained some medicine.
Upon seeing Gu Liang, she felt a little awkward. “You…”
Before Gu Liang could reply, his neck was suddenly hooked by someone— it was Yang Ye.
Gu Liang: ?
— Wasn’t this person struggling to walk because his leg was in pain? How did he manage to walk over so quickly?
Arm hooked around Gu Liang, Yang Ye leaned on his shoulders and pressed half his body weight against him before he smiled at Su Lan. “What’s the matter?”
“I… Oh…” Su Lan raised the two plastic bags. “I brought you something to eat, and medicine too. I wanted to thank you for helping me. You saved me life in this script. I’m quite thankful towards you.”
“Oh, thanks for that.” Yang Ye nudged Gu Liang, “Wife, help me take it!”
Gu Liang: ???
Su Lan: ???!!!
Seeing that Gu Liang was not moving, Yang Ye hugged him and kissed his hair before he went up to receive the items in Su Liang’s hands. He told her: “Apologies, my wife is shy, he doesn’t talk to strangers much. He’s quite thankful towards you as well. That, we just met again after a long period of separation, and we would like to spend more time together. If you don’t mind—”
“I…”
“Su Lan, you don’t discriminate against h.o.m.os.e.xuals, right?”
“I don’t. I’m not…”
“Thanks for the medicine and food again. See you tomorrow?”
“See… See you tomorrow…”
“Pa!”
Yang Ye closed the door and reached out to ruffle Gu Liang’s hair. “I’m sorry about that. The truth is that, I could sense that she had some intentions towards me precisely because I saved her. I was using the opportunity to tell her I’m bent to break her possible infatuation.”
Having said that, Yang Ye looked into Gu Liang’s eyes deeply. “You don’t mind, do you?”