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A cool wind blew in from the window, and the milk-white curtains moved with it, dots of orange and yellow imprinted on them. As sunlight shone in, the dots of orange and yellow melted into each other, turning into golden rays.
Chu Feng woke up in the arms of two Xie Shiyus.
The Xiao Xie on his right had already woken up. 19-year-old Xie Shiyu leaned against the bed frame, memorizing phrases. When he saw Chu Feng open his eyes, he lowered his head and kissed him on the cheek.
“Morning.”
—He kept his movement light, not wanting to be found out by the other Xiao Xie.
Chu Feng blinked his eyes, a hand pressed against his waist from the left, a line was tattooed on his wrist. Tyrant Xie Shiyu was still in deep slumber, holding him tightly as if a koala were hugging a tree.
“I put some clothes on the chair for you, remember to wear them when you get up later. I’ll go to the library.”
It wasn’t even 6 in the morning, and yet Chu Feng’s eyes were heavy with sleep. He watched as 19-year-old Xie Shiyu skillfully got out of bed and put on a t-shirt, covering his immaculate physique.
When Xie Shiyu felt Chu Feng’s gaze on him, he turned back around and smirked, “What? It wasn’t enough to see it the whole of last night? You wanna go again? Xiao Shiyu is always up for it in the morning.”
Chu Feng silently shrank into the blanket, wrapping himself into a cocoon. His voice, muffled by the blanket, sounded inexplicably cute.
“Go study.”
Xie Shiyu slung his backpack on and couldn’t resist the temptation, kneeling down beside Chu Feng’s side of the bed.
“I study so hard for you, won’t you give me a goodbye kiss?”
Chu Feng reached his head out of the cocoon, quietly reaching his hands out to hold him. He stretched his neck, lips puckered up—
“Do the two of you think I’m dead?”
Tyrant Xie Shiyu pressed Chu Feng’s neck and dragged him back into the cocoon, hiding him and cursing out 19-year-old Xie Shiyu.
“Waking us up at the break of dawn, go away!”
Repeat student Xie Shiyu pointed the middle finger at him, his expression was calm. “If you weren’t so bad at studying, would I be studying so early in the morning?”
“Alright, alright.” Chu Feng kissed both of them, stopping them in their tracks. “Now it’s fine, right?”
The Xie Shiyu with the backpack stared defiantly at Tyrant Xie before walking away.
Tyrant Xie Shiyu wrapped his arms around Chu Feng and held him under the blanket, saying, “Let’s sleep a little longer. That bastard’s always so loud in the morning.”
Chu Feng closed his eyes and sighed. “He has it pretty hard in his senior year.”
The only year that he hadn’t been with Xie Shiyu was when he was 19 years old. He had been repeating his year while Chu Feng was at the University. The two of them were in different places, they couldn’t meet much at all. Not only that, but Chu Feng also didn’t dare disturb Xie Shiyu, so they never really exchanged texts either. He would just scroll on QQ and WeChat, reading back on the texts they used to exchange.
“He has it hard and I don’t? Am I not in senior year too?” 18-year-old Xie Shiyu was annoyed. “If I hadn’t started working hard in the second part of my senior year, how could he have been able to get into your University in just one year?”
Chu Feng had always been good at studying since he was young. Not only had he managed to get into one of the top 20 high schools in the country, but he had also studied the most insane major in the entire school. Xie Shiyu was studying his life away just to catch up to him.
“Why did you have to get into my University?” Chu Feng touched Xie Shiyu, feeling his heart aching for him. He only knew afterward how Xie Shiyu had studied till 2 in the morning and woke up before it was even 6. He didn’t even rest on holidays, only studying and studying and studying himself to death. Chu Feng was genuinely afraid he’d die from overworking.
“It would’ve been fine if you got into another school too, you didn’t need to work so hard.”
“Don’t wanna.” Xie Shiyu tightened his hold on Chu Feng. “I’ll get anxious if I can’t see you. I’m scared someone will steal you away.”
“There’s no way that could ever happen.”
Chu Feng closed his eyes, leaning into the embrace of Xie Shiyu, holding him tightly. He stayed within the game, hugging a fake version of Xie Shiyu.
“I will stay with you forever and ever.”
、
Grumble

A soft sound.
Chu Feng blinked.
Xie Shiyu lowered his head and stared at Chu Feng’s grumbling stomach.
“You’re hungry?”
“
Yeah.”
“I’ll make you breakfast. What do you want to eat?”
“Anything is fine.”
Chu Feng wrapped the blanket around him, squinting his eyes in satisfaction, when all of a sudden, he felt a hot breath on his nose. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Xie Shiyu had gotten closer to him, an evil smirk on his face.
“Do you want to eat some deoxyribonucleotide?”
Chu Feng stared in surprise for a second before reaching out to pat him on the shoulder, laughing.
“I’ll eat it if you get 600 points.”
“
”
The idiot Xie Shiyu could only get out of bed and make breakfast.
But he was still a little worried, so he turned his head back and said, “You better not say that kind of stuff in front of that bastard!”
—Repeat student Xie Shiyu was actually capable of getting 600 points.
“I know, I know.”
、
Sizzle—
Hot oil sizzled in the pot. He was frying eggs.
Chu Feng was wearing a brand new white button-up and black suit pants. The four Xie Shiyus had been far too intense last night, and it ended with his clothes being torn into pieces. As Chu Feng walked into the kitchen, he was engulfed in the aroma of breakfast.
Xie Shiyu was currently making his favorite dish, runny eggs.
—Chu Feng has always been a picky eater. There were a dozen ways to make eggs, but only the runny eggs that Xie Shiyu made suited his taste.
The yolks of boiled eggs always made Chu Feng feel like vomiting. Same goes for sunny side-ups. It was disgusting whenever he tried it, with the entire bottom part of it cooked and the half-cooked egg yolk on top.
On the other hand, fried eggs that were completely cooked on both sides only felt like eating dead skin, there was no freshness to them. Even the breakfast hamburgers from Mcdonald’s and KFC with onsen tamago were too fresh and lost the feeling of crispiness.
“It’ll be done soon, eat some candy first.”
Xie Shiyu raised his hand and passed Chu Feng a Da Bai Tu Nai Tang.1Da Bai Tu means White Rabbit, it’s a relatively well-known candy (I think??)
Chu Feng popped the candy into his mouth and stood behind Xie Shiyu. He studied the way his sleeves were rolled up and watched as his sculpted fingers held the egg, knocking it gently on the side of the pan and then splitting it over, letting the insides ooze out. It felt as if a small sun was being born into the oiled pan, sizzling and smoking.
When the transparent egg white turned white, the bottom had already been cooked. Xie Shiyu lifted the pan and flipped it. The fried egg obediently flipped onto the other side, and two seconds later, he turned the fire off and transferred it to the plate.
—Frying the egg like this would give you an egg with one side golden and white side, completely cooked, while the other side would be 70 percent cooked. A thick orange egg yolk will flow out when you bite down, almost like the center of a salted egg yolk—aromatic and hot. It was different from sunny side-ups, which basically had raw egg yolk in the middle, and it also wasn’t like fried eggs, which were completely cooked. One side was thick but flowing, while the other maintained the crispiness of being fried in oil.
This was his favorite breakfast dish, the runny eggs. Chu Feng sat at the dining table and waited to be fed like a kitten.
The most important part of making runny eggs was being able to flip it. If you use a little too much strength, the egg yolk would break. If the fire was too big, then it would just be a fried egg.
The only person capable of making runny eggs every time, without failing, was Xie Shiyu.
“Here.”
His breakfast was still steaming. Seeing the bright golden runny egg placed in front of him, he felt his appetite growing more than it had in a very long time.
Sunlight shone in through the windows, engulfing the living room with warmth and particles.
After eating breakfast, Xie Shiyu went back to his room and started doing worksheets while Chu Feng opened the door and walked out.
It should be about time now.
It’s time for him to return to reality.
、
Beep—
The connection on the blue brain waves was broken off, and Chu Feng returned to his king-sized bed in reality.
Turning to his side, he was about to get off the bed when

Crash!
He couldn’t keep his balance and fell straight to the floor.
His body could no longer keep up with his activities.
Chu Feng hissed softly. Luckily, his waist didn’t hurt as much in reality, or he would have ended up twisting it in that fall.
[Dream City] was a game that was directly linked to your brain waves. While your waist wouldn’t get injured in reality if it hurt in the game, you will die if you die in the game.
If you stay in the game for too long periods of time, your body in reality would end up dying due to the lack of food and water.
Chu Feng laid down on the cold floor, unable to get up. His head was spinning, and there was an incessant ringing in his ear.
He hasn’t eaten or drunk anything for an entire day and night already.
He’s turning 29 this year, and his body could no longer handle what it used to be able to handle.
His stomach has already started hurting.
Chu Feng pressed his hand against his stomach, curling in on himself like a shrimp.
When Xie Shiyu was around, he would eat all three meals on time, especially breakfast. Not a single day would’ve been missed.
—Xie Shiyu’s mother had passed away from gastric cancer, so no matter how busy Xie Shiyu was, he would always wake up and make breakfast, forcing Chu Feng to finish it.
Chu Feng’s stomach, which had gotten used to Xie Shiyu’s worry, would constantly cause trouble for him whenever he didn’t eat on time.
Chu Feng laid on the same spot, not moving as he waited for his stomach to stop hurting and the ringing in his ears to stop ringing. When it finally ceased, he held the edge of the bed and slowly got up, taking candy from the living room when he walked past it.
Unwrapping it, he found that it was devoid of candy.
—This was the candy wrapper he had left there and forgot to throw last time.
He has already finished all his candy.
There wasn’t anyone who would remember to buy him new candy anymore.
Chu Feng threw the candy wrapper in his hand away and moved towards the kitchen.
Opening the fridge, he realized that he was right—there was nothing inside.
He opened every container inside it and found two eggs that he couldn’t remember when he bought them, only hoping that they hadn’t expired already.
Turning on the stove, he took out a pan and poured some oil into it.
When the oil was sufficiently hot, Chu Feng imitated Xie Shiyu’s actions, holding the egg with sculpted hands and knocking it against the edge of the pan

It didn’t crack.
He had to crack the egg a few times before the egg oozed out, coating his hands and dripping into the pan.
Sizzle!
The oil from the pan flew up and scalded Chu Feng’s hand. He quickly pulled his hand away, dropping the eggshell into the pan together with the egg yolk and egg white, mixing together as it slowly cooked.
Chu Feng couldn’t be bothered to care, turning back and turning on the tap, running his hand—red from the scald—under cold water.
When he finished doing that, the egg had already been charred. The pan looked like a volcano erupted, charred earth mixed together with red eggshells.
Chu Feng turned off the stove, poured the charred earth-like egg into a bowl, and sat himself down at the dining table, pouring himself a cup of water.
This was his breakfast.
He picked up the charred egg with his chopsticks and shoved it into his mouth.
Chu Feng raised his head and stared at the wall opposite him. There was a map hung on it, and the location where Xie Shiyu’s plane had crashed was circled in red pencil.
Every time he ate, he would stare at it again and again, as if blaming himself.
Pick up, chew, swallow, and repeat.
He used the chopsticks and picked up a small bit of egg from the bowl.
He heard that eating charred food would increase your chances of getting cancer.
—Well, not like it matters.
He picked up the last bits of egg and shoved it into his mouth. Pick up, chew, and swallow. It felt like he was chewing on candle wax.
、
At the same time, on a random island in the Pacific Ocean.
It was the peak of summer, and the sunlight was as glaring as it was bright.
In the Guardian Center

X sat in his wheelchair, frying an egg with only one hand on the pan.
A, who had just woken up, yawned and walked past him from behind.
“Morning, X!”
“Mhm.”
X’s hand quickly moved, and the egg within the pan obediently flipped onto the other side. The way he utilized his strength was something only someone who had practiced a million times could do. Two seconds later, he placed it on the plate and put it on the dining table.
“Woah!” A said, “Why are you making this weird egg again? I thought I had taught you how to do it already! You have to make sure both sides are completely cooked.”
“Don’t listen to him, X.” B cut in, “Frying eggs removes 97% of their nutritional value. Next time, you should just boil it as I do.”
“Do you like this kind of egg or something?” C asked.
“Not really.”
“Then why do you keep making a half cooked half raw kind of egg?!” A, B, and C asked at the same time.
X picked up the runny eggs with his chopsticks, watching as the egg yolk flowed a lovely orange color. It felt a lot like it was something that someone loved eating.
—”I don’t know.”