Life and Death on a Razor's Edge

#What kind of cafe doesn't even serve stir-fried pork with green peppers?#

Lu Yan dragged Yu Zechuan straight out of the cafe. Perhaps to cover his embarrassment, he gave a low cough. "Forget it. Let's go back and order takeout."

Yu Zechuan stared at the road ahead, lost in thought. He silently slipped both hands into his coat pockets, his fingers feeling around for a moment before he suddenly said, "I'm going to buy a lighter."

"I'll get it for you," Lu Yan said instinctively.

The words were out before he remembered he was supposed to be a hostage. Before he could amend them and say they should go together, Yu Zechuan casually tossed out, "Stay here. If you dare run, you'll bear the consequences."

With that, he turned and left, heading directly for the twenty-four-hour convenience store at the corner. Yu Zechuan was already dressed in dark clothes, and as he walked away, his silhouette nearly merged with the night. In the blink of an eye, he was gone.

Lu Yan stayed where he was and looked around. Cars streamed past without pause. Shoppers came and went through the brilliantly lit mall, and the clamor carried far into the distance.

It had been a long time since he'd experienced the life of an ordinary person. Looking back now, all he could remember was the daily torment of illness. Even his every breath had carried the inescapable smell of hospital disinfectant.

Lu Yan found a bench and sat down. Crossing one leg over the other, he propped his head lazily on one hand and let his mind wander. A group of young people were skateboarding in the plaza nearby. One short-haired girl circled past Lu Yan again and again, unable to stop looking at him. Her fair cheeks gradually turned red, carrying all the innocence and vitality of her age.

Lu Yan smiled at her, gentle and handsome. Embarrassed, the girl turned away and zipped off with a swish.

Liking someone was watching them, wanting to get closer, and then fleeing in panic at the end.

Bzzzz--

The phone in Lu Yan's pocket suddenly vibrated. He frowned slightly, surprised to find the phone on him. When he took it out, the screen displayed two striking words: Manager Chen.

Lu Yan cautiously accepted the call. "Hello?"

Before he could even bring the phone to his ear, a thunderous roar burst from the other end, loud enough to rival speakerphone. "LU YAN!!! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET YOURSELF FIRED?! Why didn't you reply when I sent a message in the work group yesterday?!"

Lu Yan turned his head away from the phone and dug a finger in his ear. "Sorry, Manager Chen. My phone broke yesterday."

Manager Chen only got angrier, slamming his desk with a bang-bang-bang on the other end. "Your phone broke? Then how did you post heartbreak crap on Moments?! How did you go out drinking with your friends all night?!"

Lu Yan: "..." A miscalculation.

Manager Chen said, "Get your ass in here tomorrow and work overtime!"

Lu Yan's eyelid twitched. How was it that even in a game world, he couldn't escape overtime? "Do I get overtime pay?"

"I'd be doing you a favor if I didn't fire you, and you still dare ask for overtime pay?!"

Lu Yan refused flatly. "Not happening."

Manager Chen was stunned, unable to believe Lu Yan had actually refused him. "Why?"

Impatiently, Lu Yan said, "Because I've been kidnapped!"

He hung up at once and tossed the phone into his shopping bag. What a joke. He didn't even know whether he'd live to see tomorrow, and they expected him to work overtime? What kidnapped person could still go work overtime?

[Why aren't you running?]

A cold mechanical voice abruptly sounded behind him, enough to scare a timid person half to death.

Lu Yan turned around instinctively and, sure enough, found the System had appeared. Countless blue-violet currents swirled around that black heart, as though they were the energy it needed to survive.

Lu Yan tilted his head in confusion. "Why would I run?"

The System flew to his ear, its voice seductive, like a demon luring someone into hell. [Your mission is to stay alive. Running away is, of course, also for the sake of staying alive.]

[This is a busy downtown area. If you run, Yu Zechuan won't be able to catch you.]

Lu Yan fell silent, seemingly tempted. The System gave a low laugh. [Why do you think Yu Zechuan suddenly left? He did it to give you a chance to escape.]

[A man like him is softhearted for only an instant. Miss this chance, and you will never get another.]

The night air was faintly cool. As the System's voice gradually dissipated into the air, even the wind blowing toward him seemed to carry the smell of blood.

Yu Zechuan leaned against the railing by the roadside, messy strands of hair hiding the expression in his eyes. He lowered his head and lit a cigarette. As the flint wheel turned, a ghostly blue flame sprang to life in the depths of his pupils. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back, slowly exhaling a thin, pallid plume of smoke, as though he had breathed out his soul with it.

Yu Zechuan smoked slowly, as if he were in no hurry to go back. Nor had he gone to the convenience store to buy any lighter. He timed it carefully, and only after about ten minutes did he toss the long-extinguished cigarette butt into a trash can and retrace his steps.

Lu Yan should have run, Yu Zechuan thought.

He had deliberately brought him to this crowded part of town, deliberately slipped the phone into his pocket, deliberately used buying a lighter as an excuse to leave. If he still didn't run after all that, he would be too stupid for words.

Yet when Yu Zechuan strolled back, he saw a familiar figure sitting conspicuously by the roadside, and his expression changed slightly.

Lu Yan sat on the bench with his legs crossed, watching the older men and women square dance ahead of him with great interest. His gaze happened to sweep to the side, and he spotted Yu Zechuan. Carrying the shopping bag, he rose and walked over. "Well? Did you get the lighter?"

His tone was perfectly normal, as though he had noticed nothing at all.

Yu Zechuan stood motionless, staring at Lu Yan as if he wanted to see through him. "You've been here the whole time?"

Lu Yan paused, surprised. "Didn't you tell me to wait here? What's wrong?"

But Yu Zechuan didn't answer. He turned his gaze aside and frowned. "Nothing. Let's go back."

With that, Yu Zechuan hailed a cab. He and Lu Yan got in, neither saying a word the entire way. The System silently appeared at Lu Yan's ear, its voice dark and sinister. [Why didn't you run?]

Lu Yan now knew how to speak to it with his thoughts. Why would I run?

The System ground its teeth. [If you don't run, you'll die!]

Lu Yan smiled faintly. "If I run, that's when I'll die."

He turned to look out the window. A silver-gray sedan was quietly parked by the curb. In the driver's seat sat a refined-looking man in an immaculate blue suit: Xue Jin.

The scene flashed past the cab window too quickly to catch, but Lu Yan still recognized him. Calmly, he told the System:

"Yu Zechuan doesn't trust me."

"If he lets me go and I tip Jiang Boyun off, his grand plan for revenge will be ruined."

"How could he possibly let me go?"

Quite the opposite.

"Yu Zechuan has wanted to kill me all along."

"It's only because of the affection I've acted out, because I took care of him all night yesterday, that he keeps wavering and can't find the right moment to make his move."

"If I'd really run just now, Xue Jin would have caught me and brought me back immediately."

And then what awaited Lu Yan would be a death even more brutal and hopeless than in the first round of the game.

"And you," Lu Yan said, staring at the black heart floating before him, his meaning obscure, "you want me dead too."

The System froze.

Lu Yan didn't know why, but he could feel the System's malice toward him. And how could a System so full of malice possibly help him live out of kindness?

That could only mean one thing: if he had really run, death would have met him at once.

Lu Yan gave a faint smile and mouthed a sentence soundlessly. "I'll never believe a word you say, so stop trying to interfere with my judgment, you black-hearted fiend."

Black-hearted fiend was the friendly nickname Lu Yan had given the System.

The System was a black heart, without any expression that belonged to a human face. Yet its trembling form revealed a measure of suppressed fury. It coldly spat out:

[Lu Yan, I hope your cleverness doesn't backfire on you!]

Its form turned transparent, and with a whoosh, it vanished into the air.

The cab was dim and unlit. Warm yellow streetlamps shone against the window glass, casting indistinct reflections. Yu Zechuan couldn't help glancing at Lu Yan. Lu Yan turned at just the right moment, and their gazes met in the air. The corner of his lips curled upward, rippling with tenderness and adoration.

Look how much I love you.

Every part of Lu Yan seemed to be speaking those words. His gaze was indulgent, as though it could weave an invisible net and draw Yu Zechuan tightly within it.

Yu Zechuan couldn't meet that kind of gaze. The hand resting on his knee tightened involuntarily. Just then, the cab stopped below the apartment building. Lu Yan took out his phone and paid by scanning the code, then got out with Yu Zechuan.

"Sorry. I don't know how it happened, but I accidentally brought my phone out when I left this morning."

Lu Yan's voice was remorseful. As though afraid Yu Zechuan would misunderstand, he handed the phone over directly. "Don't worry. I didn't do anything. I just took a call from my boss."

Yu Zechuan accepted the phone, cracked the password in front of Lu Yan, and casually glanced at the call log. "What did you talk about?"

"Nothing. He just told me to go back and work overtime."

Yu Zechuan countered, "You're sure you didn't tell him you'd been kidnapped?"

"..."

Lu Yan paused. Only then did he remember there was a listening device in the phone. He smiled at Yu Zechuan without the least sign of panic. "Don't worry. Even if I had said it, he wouldn't have believed me. What kidnapped person can make a phone call on their own?"

Apparently, none.

Yu Zechuan didn't pursue the matter. He gave Lu Yan an indifferent glance, then turned toward the apartment building. There was a knife in his pocket. He had carried it for so long that it pressed painfully into his skin, but he had never found a chance to draw blood.

Yu Zechuan had been looking for a chance to kill Lu Yan the whole time.

If Lu Yan had run, it would have meant everything he had said before was a lie. If he truly liked Yu Zechuan, how could he run away from his side? When you liked someone, shouldn't you want to be together every moment?

But unfortunately, Yu Zechuan's test had failed. Even Xue Jin, who had been watching in secret, had been of no use.

Yu Zechuan didn't know whether he felt more disappointment or irritation. He still had many things to do, after all. Keeping someone at his side whom he could neither kill nor let go was, frankly, troublesome.

Lu Yan followed behind Yu Zechuan and saw the other man's pace grow faster and faster. Then Yu Zechuan abruptly stopped. Lu Yan couldn't halt in time and nearly walked straight into him.

Lu Yan keenly sensed that something was wrong. "What is it?"

Yu Zechuan didn't turn around. His hands were in his pockets, his sharply defined face hidden in the shadow of his cap brim. Then he suddenly said:

"Lu Yan, stop following me."