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XĂź Beijin, shocked, looks up at Lin Qin.
Lin Qin stares at him for a while with widened eyes. XĂź Beijin is unable to discern much meaning from the look. Lin Qin sure did have nice features with that baby face of his, but he always had that unimpressed poker face on. He always seemed to show barely any outward emotion.
Though when it comes to Xü Beijin, he’s always subverting expectations.
… What would the little apple be thinking about right now?
Suddenly, Lin Qin rolls up his sleeves to say, “got it. I’ll deal with the owner of the Nightmare right now. So that you don’t have to keep suffering here,” he then starts complaining, “seriously, why would there even be Nightmares that make you ill in the first place?”
Xü Beijin “…”
He holds his forehead with his hand, feeling the situation grow out of hand.
Lin Qin, concerned, immediately asks, “are you alright?”
“Lin Qin, oh man, Lin Qin…” Xü Beijin says, “I’ve told you before, but if you really want to fight with me, then you can’t treat me so well. You have to act tougher, to make me angry.”
Lin Qin seems to freeze up for a moment before giving a muffled ‘oh.’
He sure looks pretty obedient right now, though then he can’t help but say, “but…”
But, he thinks he can’t really act tough towards Xü Beijin much.
Right now, there are no other Actors near them. Only Wu Jian is standing a slight distance away, still within earshot of what’s going on.
… Wu Jian’s eyes are the widest they have ever been thus far.
Oh fuck fuck fuck! What is this he’s hearing?!
Gossip!
While he is part of that underground organisation, he still largely behaves no different from any unremarkable normal person, including the fact that gossips intrigue him. Lin Qin and Xü Beijin’s conversation is seriously knocking it out of the park for Wu Jian, though.
Lin Qin, dalao, man, you’ve fallen… in love.
Wu Jian rubs his eyes a little dramatically, feeling like he’s so touched he could be tearing up.
Though Xü Beijin’s words have also petrified him.
‘Fight’? ‘Tougher’?
Right now, Wu Jian’s mind is being subtly infiltrated by rather unsavoury things…
Reflexively, he clears his throat, to dispel those largely impolite thoughts from his mind.
Which also successfully breaks the tense atmosphere that has settled in just now between XĂź Beijin and Lin Qin, and also, that sentence Lin Qin has yet to finish.
Both of them turn towards Wu Jian, XĂź Beijin with his usual, expressionless gaze, but Lin Qin looks slightly unfriendly.
… Finally he’s managed to get hold of Xü Beijin to talk to him, to explain what he thought, and now the guy is here to interrupt him?
Wu Jian gasps, feeling like he might become a freely mouldable sandbag in Lin Qin’s hands soon enough, and thus shocked, he immediately produces an excuse, “um… dalao, are we still going to descend the stairs?”
Descend the stairs?
Lin Qin finally recalls his unfinished mission.
Xü Beijin exhales slightly in relief. The strange mood that just enveloped him and Lin Qin is largely gone now, so he also asks, “are you going then?”
Lin Qin gives him a look, as if confirming something, and asking, “are you feeling alright?”
Xü Beijin opens his mouth, looking rather dazed while wondering what Lin Qin is worried about, and answers, “uh… yes?”
Lin Qin looks at him for a while before finally nodding, and tells Wu Jian, “we’ll keep going then. Get this Nightmare done with as soon as possible.”
XĂź Beijin, speechless at the thought that Lin Qin is probably trying to get him out of this Nightmare quickly because he is feeling unwell, is both amused and honestly, touched. His heartstrings have been tugged.
XĂź Beijin has always been one for whom soft tactics work better.
Lin Qin, perhaps entirely coincidentally, has struck him right with this weakness. So, even if this has never been directly related to XĂź Beijin, he still ends up caring about it, with his attitude towards Lin Qin growing softer and softer.
When those Missiontakers besieged Xü Beijin’s bookstore, he was nowhere near as gentle with the heavy-handed response.
He is feeling pretty complicated inside as he sees Lin Qin and Wu Jian off to descend the stairs.
Just before he leaves, Lin Qin pauses, and then, after a bit, makes up his mind not to waste the opportunity. He turns around, and wants to clearly convey to Xü Beijin that──he wants him to stop ignoring him.
Lin Qin, with his side profile and front face to Xü Beijin, tells him, “you know… Just like how, when it comes to me wanting to fight you, I don’t want to force you to do it; similarly, the thing with me liking you, is also my…”
He mulls over his words for a really long time.
Finally, he says, “also my own volitional, unrequited feeling.”
Xü Beijin “…”
What’s with the tragic undertone in that?
XĂź Beijin is having goosebumps all over hearing that.
And from his angle, he can very clearly see Wu Jian’s expression that has ‘shock’ written all over it. He feels tired. Can he have some time to explain to Wu Jian, that what Lin Qin is saying doesn’t actually mean what those words are supposed to mean…?
Nope, he can’t.
Since he is merely an ‘artificial intelligence.’
So he can only sigh wearily inside, while nodding with his poker face on the surface.
Lin Qin continues, “so, please stop ignoring me; please stop being angry at me.”
XĂź Beijin is silent once again. The feeling of lost in translation is stronger and stronger with this one.
He really, really wants to know all of a sudden, what kind of image does Lin Qin actually hold of him? What does he really mean when he asks whether he, XĂź Beijin, can feel that he, Lin Qin, likes him?
What, is Lin Qin seriously feeling romantically inclined towards him?
XĂź Beijin thinks that is absurd, but can also feel the initiative of the situation slipping from his hands.
He glances over at Wu Jian in his silence. This is really private between him and Lin Qin now, so it would be rather inappropriate to discuss in front of a stranger. Maybe, when they’re back at the Tower…
So finally, Xü Beijin answers, “got it.”
So Lin Qin, thus satisfied, leads Wu Jian out of the floor.
Though Wu Jian is currently bitterly embroiled in his negative vortex of emotional tsunami from how tragic the love story of dalao Lin Qin is, and especially the phrases ‘unrequited feeling’ and ‘please stop ignoring me.’ He is crying a river in his mind already.
To be fair, this member of the organisation, codename ‘Wu Jian,’ who is overly imaginative, and would occasionally end up loosening his lips, has always been a source of worry for Fei.
Though this time she was thinking that, nothing could go wrong with simply going down the stairs behind Lin Qin, probably.
Of course…
Murphy’s law is here to ruin Fei’s intended script.
Speaking of which, it wasn’t until Wu Jian has left the 16th floor behind, and is now several storeys down, that he slaps his thighs, realising how much he screwed up.
Look at all those Tower residents who look sane and communicable on the 16th floor, and look at the bookstore owner, Xß Beijin, there! It must have been a really special floor! They should have collected more information there!
Too late to cry over spilt milk, though, since they are already on the verge of realising, that something is off, after descending those several storeys.
They are currently on the 9th floor.
Wu Jian is poking his head out in bafflement, saying, “what in the world?! The stairs have all collapsed down there!”
Before their eyes, the stairs leading down from the 9th to the 8th floor has completely snapped off and collapsed down from the walls. And even if they can carefully parkour their way across the stubs of protrusion among the ruins downwards, they can already see the sea of rubble filling up the bottom from here.
Facing a totally blocked off way forward, Wu Jian is subconsciously furrowing his brows.