Chapter 28: CH 25

Bai Zhi’s hands were on his hips. He humphed, nose turned upwards as he confidently mentioned elopement.

Wen Zhuzhi wasn’t sure what to say: “….”

“Your Highness, don’t joke around.”

He sighed, rubbing Bai Zhi’s head: “Go back now. Be obedient.”

“I’m not joking around, I’m serious.” Bai Zhi’s face was solemn as he pointed to the system standing nearby: “Don’t pay attention to its ugliness, it’s actually really strong. It can help us escape.”

The system immediately nodded along: “That’s right, I’m super awesome.” A moment later, he found it fishy: “Wait, whose ugliness?”

Wen Zhuzhi who found the system more and more unreliable: “….”

“Your Highness, I -”

“If you’re going to say something about everything being for my own good, I’ll get mad,” Bai Zhi interrupted. “Wen Zhuzhi, I’m telling you the truth. Without you, for the rest of my life I’ll never be happy again.”

Bai Zhi bit his lip, slowly extending his hand: “Now that you know this, will you still insist on staying here?”

The person standing before his eyes stubbornly and resolutely held out his hand. After staring blankly for a moment, Wen Zhuzhi suddenly remembered Bai Zhi’s figure the day they were captured.

So obstinately, so determinedly gripping his knife and protectively standing in front of him, defending him unwaveringly to the death.

It seemed that he’d always been like this.

Whether it was risking his life to save him in the face of danger, or whether it was declaring his affections under the staring eyes of a crowd, or even now, unhurriedly reaching his hand out to him when they’re backed into a corner, it seemed that as long as he took his hand, he could leave everything behind for him.

Bai Zhi’s affections – it seemed that as long as he set his mind on someone, he would overcome any obstacle no matter how dangerous and difficult it was.

A strange thought surfaced in his mind. He took a deep breath before bursting into loud laughter.

Wonderful, wonderful. This world had this type of person, fated to come to his side.

His past experiences that once trapped him didn’t seem so scary anymore. His eyes stirred slightly as he suddenly thought of a possibility.

Perhaps the heavens knew that his lover was too good, so they set trials for himself to pass. Once he’d weathered those trials – when he was strong enough – the heavens sent him his lover, and for the rest of his life, he would only love and be loved.

Wen Zhuzhi reached out, tightly gripping Bai Zhi’s hand: “Really sorry…let’s leave.”

Bai Zhi immediately brightened, excitedly opening the system’s stomach. He curled up and pulled Wen Zhuzhi in.

“That’s what I’m talking about! Uncle, let’s go!”

“Okay,” the system answered, securing his stomach with his arm. “Destination: cosmos – random leap!”

“…Go to Hailun Star.” Wen Zhuzhi thought for a bit: “Be careful not to enter a black hole.”

Bai Zhi nodded in agreement, so the system immediately changed destinations and disappeared in place with a whoosh.

Wen Zhuzhi couldn’t resist asking: “Prince.”

“Mn?”

“This machine’s name is – Uncle?”

Bai Zhi only then noticed that he’d let it slip, so he quickly lowered his head and muddled along: “…Mn.”

“Then it really knows how to take advantage of people,” Wen Zhuzhi evaluated.

Bai Zhi pretended he couldn’t understand.

The system found a remote mountain village on Hailun Star to land. Wen Zhuzhi disguised himself as a human and looked for a residential area for lodging with Bai Zhi.

Bai Zhi looked at the small number of indigenous people, a bit nervous: “Are they reliable?”

“Hailun Star’s scenery is beautiful, but it’s completely inaccessible. Not only is this in Hailun Star’s remote parts, but they also don’t seem to communicate with the outside world. They shouldn’t recognize us,” Wen Zhuzhi responded, laughing. “Although if they do, we would really be unlucky….”

“Then we’ll run away once again,” Bai Zhi said unhesitatingly. “The world is so big – we’ll always find somewhere to take shelter.”

Afterwards, he turned towards Wen Zhuzhi and pumped his fist encouragingly before animatedly grabbing the room’s bucket and running downstairs.

Wen Zhuzhi saw him speeding down the stairs, the wooden steps thudding under his feet. He was silent for a moment before shaking his head to himself.

Somewhere to take shelter?

Wen Zhuzhi’s eyes swirled. His shelter, he’d found long ago.

As long as he’s by that person’s side, he could find shelter in any end of the world.

As he heard the sounds of Bai Zhi asking for directions, Wen Zhuzhi slowly stood up, supporting himself with the wall, and walked step by step to the balcony.

The streets were dyed gold under the setting sun. Gazing downwards, Wen Zhuzhi saw Bai Zhi, carrying a big bucket of water, surrounded by a flock of native children wanting to play.

The little prince didn’t seem to have encountered such enthusiastic residents before. He scratched his head, at a loss for quite a while, before he finally couldn’t resist. He tossed the bucket on the street before running off with the children.

Wen Zhuzhi couldn’t help but chuckle.

Everything felt like a dream.

Hiding away from the world with his beloved and living a simple life. He didn’t need to disguise himself under constant fear of exposure every day, nor did he need to jerk awake from nightmares in the dead of night. He and Shao Luo could live openly and carefreely —

— stay together.

This was what he’d longed for for years, a wish he thought to be too unreasonable to even dream of.

……………………….

Time passed quickly. The possibility Wen Zhuzhi mentioned in those days never happened.

Troops never came to capture them; perhaps Hailun Star truly was too remote, or perhaps the emperor was reluctant to order the huntdown of a runaway prince. In short, Bai Zhi and Wen Zhuzhi lived the life they wanted for the next few decades.

Detached from unrest and turmoil, only chatting about romance.

In 5100 CE, Wen Zhuzhi reached his life’s end.

Bai Zhi quietly accompanied him for a day, only moving on the dawn of the second day.

He removed the ring from his finger, softly placing it by Wen Zhuzhi’s pillow. His voice was soft but clear.

“I’ll wait for you to put it on for me again.”

When the sky became bright and their worried neighbors opened the door to console Bai Zhi a bit, the room was already completely empty, without a trace of anyone left behind.

……………………….

When Bai Zhi returned to his original world, the system angrily1 prodded his head: “I told you not to read those melodramatic2 novels! You even copied them and stupidly left your ring there! Do you know what ‘waste not, want not’ means! Do you know how big that gem was3!”

Bai Zhi aggrievedly cradled his head: “I didn’t know it was so expensive wahh.”

“Is that an excuse!” The system cursed: “It’s always people in relationships; they’re so bad at managing the household! You’ll eventually have to drink the northwest wind4!”

The little demon looked up: “I don’t wanna drink the northwest wind. I wanna eat spirit fruit!” Bai Zhi smiled brightly, holding his palm out grabbily: “Uncle, gimme spirit fruit.”

The system gave him a bonk instead: “How could I have such a dumb nephew….”

Bai Zhi rubbed his forehead, hand still stuck out.

“Hah…,” the system sighed. He dug out a few fruits and stuffed them into Bai Zhi’s hand: “Fortunately you met him, otherwise you would starve to death.”

Bai Zhi crunched on the fruits, blinking at the system: “Met him…Uncle, how were the villains’ lives before I met them?”

“How were their lives?” The system thought about it: “Fang Jingmo was an orphan; he was adopted once but brought back. Du Huai’an’s mother died early on, and his father became addicted to drugs and alcohol; he fell deep in debt, and without any alternatives Du Huai’an sought work at the clubhouse. As for Wen Zhuzhi, he was an…Alien, I guess, but both Aliens and humans wanted him dead.”

As the system spoke, he suddenly realized he could no longer hear the sound of eating. He looked over to see Bai Zhi staring dazedly at him, completely motionless.

The system patted him: “What’s wrong, nephew?”

Bai Zhi’s hands shook faintly, his voice quiet: “Why is it like this?”

The system understood what he meant and sighed: “Why is it so miserable? He isn’t the protagonist; villains are destined to end this way. If you never came, he would forever bear this fate.” The system spoke, “Nephew, you’ve already been doing well.”

Bai Zhi didn’t say a word. Much later, he finally said, “Transfer. Immediately.”

The system understood how he felt, so he patted Bai Zhi’s head before sticking him in his stomach.

It was noisy all around, giving Bai Zhi a headache. He was already in a bad mood, so he immediately exploded: “What’s all this racket for!”

The roaring hubbub instantly died down as a short guy ran up to Bai Zhi: “Everyone quiet!”

Afterwards, he turned to face Bai Zhi, solemnly bowing down: “Boss! We’ve blocked his way! Should we beat ‘m or run the procedure?”

Bai Zhi, who had yet to receive the storyline, was dumbfounded: “…Run-run through the procedure.”

“Yessir!”

The guy turned around and bellowed: “Boss said to run the procedure, let’s go, boys! Tear all his homework up!”

Bai Zhi: “…??”

The short guy seemed to hold high prestige; as soon as the order came, boys from all around rushed up and surrounded one person. Soon after, the sounds of paper tearing could be heard.

Bai Zhi was a little scared seeing this. Just as he wanted to sneak away, he heard the system’s voice: “Nephew, receive the plot.”

“Oh,” Bai Zhi responded, and immediately large amounts of information flooded his mind.

This world was from a fresh campus novel with a handsome male lead, a beautiful female lead, a fierce school bully, and a pitiful bullied student.

“The male lead Wen Feng and the female lead Chu Miaomiao met as a result of a transfer and became deskmates. From a bickering but loving couple, they gradually became harmonious, overcoming the malicious supporting female lead and the school bully’s obstruction and blissfully staying together.”

When the system finished, Bai Zhi asked: “The school bully is the villain?”

“Of course not, my dear.” The system suddenly became sickeningly sweet: “The school bully is you.”

Bai Zhi: “….”

“Then, there’s a character in this world who’s worse than me?” Bai Zhi was baffled.

“Of course. There was an isolated invisible person in the male lead’s class; one day he went crazy and stabbed the male lead with a knife. The system determined that out of all supporting leads he harmed the male lead the most, so he was classified as the villain.”

“Where is he!” Bai Zhi inquired.

The system sighed twice: “The guy who just got his homework torn up.”

Bai Zhi was suddenly petrified: “…Wha?”

The system piped up again: “You even ordered it. Congratulations, congratulations.”

Bai Zhi stood frozen in place for a couple seconds as the group of boys slowly scattered, and Bai Zhi finally saw the figure previously hidden by the crowd.

Wearing a loose school uniform, bang half-covering his eyes, backpack torn off, he hung his head without saying a word. Only when someone shouted did he turn to face Bai Zhi and unhurriedly lift his head.

The author has something to say:

Little Theater:

Bai Zhi: QAQ Darling, I truly love you!

Villain: Hehe.

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Translated by shakytofu. Edited by Oceana.

tofu notes: bai zhi did an oopsie! this next arc is much more lighthearted! the whole time bai zhi is like pwease fowgive me… and the villain is like r u crazy…

this chapter was thankfully the normal length  3k cn characters and 1.9k eng words. we get our first (? i cant really rmb tbh) little theater!

the author’s notes are usually thanking readers for donations and sometimes little notes about their day. i dont keep them in bc they arent related to the novel itself, but if u guys wanna see them anyway, lmk!

im going out of town his weekend but there wont be any delays bc i will force myself to stop procrastinating and start stocking up on chapters :’)

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1. 恨铁不成钢 – Lit. “to hate iron for not becoming steel;” fig. “to feel resentment towards a failure to meet expectations.” I just used an alternative to get the meaning across.

2. 狗血 – Lit. “dog blood.” It’s used to describe melodramatic stories with contrived plots and characters.

3. 鸽子蛋 – Lit. “pigeon egg.” Umm…I think it’s referring to 鸽子蛋戒指 (pigeon egg rings) which basically just have ginormous gems.

4. 喝西北风 – Lit. “to drink the northwest wind;” fig. “cold and hungry.” I left it as the literal translation just because the rest of the conversation is based off of the wording…