/
In the meantime, having finished exploring the stairs, Wu Jian and Lin Qin are going back up once again.
Seeing the exits to the stairs completely blocked down there has convinced them to forgo elevators altogether and rely on the reliable stairs for now; they’re not going to take any risks having zero knowledge of them.
Though Wu Jian had an idea as well, asking, “dalao, since the Nightmare is still ongoing, everyone else is probably still exploring normally. Why not go back to the 16th floor then? We can ask the Tower residents for clues.
Oh, and you can also be with the guy you liked.”
Lin Qin was already nodding nonchalantly, until the unexpected addendum from Wu Jian makes him speechless and even, inexplicably, nervous.
He is hesitant but still resolves himself to ask, “you feel like… he is someone I liked?”
Wu Jian completely sold out the rest of the Missiontakers on the bottom floor of the Tower with, “oh man, dalao, with how obvious you’ve been going at it? Everyone knows already.”
Lin Qin widens his eyes to ask, “everyone knows?” Then after the surprise faded a little, he asks another question, “was it really obvious? How I liked him?”
Wu Jian nods, replying, “dalao, to me, it looks like you’re seriously…” He mulls over his words a little, and goes with, “infatuated with him.”
Lin Qin nods, seemingly falling into thought.
Xü Beijin “…”
Why, why in the world did he decide to connect the audio, to Lin Qin and Wu Jian?
Why?!
“hahaha the little apple is infatuated with Beibei! for real! i saw it myself!”
“mommy doesn’t approve your marriage! date for three years longer at least!”
“eh eh eh? Beibei! why did you move the audio away! no, Beibei!”
“Beibei, youre just mad weve got the truth”
Xü Beijin “…”
Mad with whose what truth now?!
XĂź Beijin gives an exasperated glare at these ruckus-loving viewers in his stream, before grinding his teeth at the sight of Wu Jian.
… You, you are the one who has lethally backstabed him, right!
XĂź Beijin is wholly aware that what Lin Qin asked and what Wu Jian answered are on completely wrong channels.
Lin Qin has zero idea what romance or love really is about. Put simply, he doesn’t even know whether he actually liked Xü Beijin or not. Instead, he has merely adopted the word as an overarching label for what he has done after comparing it step-by-step with what other people told him ‘love’ is.
When it matched, he goes ‘oh’ and concludes he likes Xü Beijin.
When it didn’t… well, the awkward thing is that, since he’s been ingratiating himself to Xü Beijin for the brawl thing, and having done things like asking for his preferences, visiting him… The misunderstanding is too deep to clear up by then.
If Lin Qin were someone experienced with the social facts of life, someone like Mu Jiashi, then he would have had no trouble over knowing to back it off once he learned that this is simply normal, unremarkable courtesy.
However, Lin Qin is not. He is effectively a blank canvas, clean and immaculate. While someone, presumably stemming from a real understanding, or possibly just wanting to see the world burn, has misled him.
Truly, XĂź Beijin is unwilling to see Lin Qin being led astray like so.
Even if Lin Qin really is to like him, or anybody else, it should have been from Lin Qin’s own will. Why would he have to line up his intentions with what the worldly values dictate it to be, and if it fits with what society labels ‘like,’ then he would also just identify it as like?
Therefore, XĂź Beijin is certain that Lin Qin has simply been misled. This is a complete and utter misunderstanding.
Even though it seems XĂź Beijin is going up against the whole world here.
Lin Qin is also a stubborn person at heart, so, in his troubled, anxious mind, when someone inserts into him this concept – ‘yeah, what you’re doing is definitely like. Everybody knows.’
Lin Qin would have an epiphany. Ah, so he liked XĂź Beijin after all.
Xü Beijin “…”
‘Like’?! Like Hell he does!
… Um, no, he is not referring to himself as 'Hell' there.
XĂź Beijin is now instead pondering, with how straightforward, simplistic, and honest-to-a-fault Lin Qin is, how he actually managed to survive somewhere like the Tower, and not only that, but become the crownless King of the bottom floor?
Was it simply the law of the jungle, and King of the Hill?
XĂź Beijin rubs his brows in frustration, as he grabs a can of drink to dump it down his throat, hoping to calm himself down.
Lin Qin and Wu Jian, meanwhile, are slowly making their way back up to the 16th floor; ascension is always more tiring than descent, not to mention they just climbed down stairs for how ever long it was. Even if Lin Qin is still completely fine, Wu Jian is seriously drained. Lin Qin, impatient as he was, had no solution but to slow himself down for him.
Xü Beijin, deciding to simply go with the principle of ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ checks on the other Missiontakers instead.
Suits, Teen and Mystic have already found the source of the strange sobbing on the 31st floor.
It’s a little girl crouched under one office desk.
She is wearing a little dress, and her little face is pretty messy. She is shaking, and there are some emptied bags of food surrounding her.
The three adults took some time to finally isolate where the weak sobbing voice was coming from. They also basically explored the entire floor in the meantime, but found no other clues.
Now they are looking at each other, nonplussed.
“Why would there be a little girl here in the office?” Suits is completely ignoring the fact that the teenage girl can technically hear them, and is simply working out cause and effect without the slightest shred of sympathy, “could it be… that before whatever disaster happened, her parents brought her here?”
Teen says, “and then just forgot her here?”
“Possibly.”
Then Suits and Teen attempts to communicate with her, but the little girl instead tries to cower herself further into the corners under the office desk.
The appearance of strangers has made her stop crying. Instead, she is showing merely her scared eyes, her scared, but still clean and pretty eyes, staring at the three people outside fearfully.
Finally, Mystic went to communicate with the little girl instead, spending some effort to soothe her. The little girl then crawls out from under the office desk.
They can all hear the loud rumbling from the little girl’s stomach then.
She looks down at her tummy but doesn’t dare to speak. She then merely looks up at the Missiontakers with widened eyes.
The little girl appears to be around seven or eight years old. She is stuttering, and given how spooked she seems and who-knows-how-long she’s spent curled up down there, she still looks largely tranced and isn’t able to express herself well.