Chapter 34
Note from author: This chapter has been rewritten. To those who have read it, please have a look at it again. Smooches!
Please refer to author’s note in the end of the chapter for more details regarding this matter.
Translator: tiredpotats
Editor: Amaris
There was no doubt that he would certainly have died if he was run over by a car like this. No matter how you looked at it, Ye Chen should have his head bashed and battered by now, dead with grievances remaining.
But nothing had happened to him. He was standing steadily in the hotel's lobby, as if the scene that had just happened was just a dream. He didn't get out of the hotel, didn't see the car, didn't get hit and wasn't sent flying.
But his life points had been deducted!
Ye Chen stood still for a long time before he said in a surprised yet calm voice, "I did four random missions in total; one was when I asked Ren Jing for a good night kiss, the reward was one life point; the other was to embrace and sleep with Ren Jing for two hours and the reward was two life points; the third was to wear the clothes Ren Jing bought for me and the reward was one life point; the fourth one was to let Ren Jing sleep on my lap for one hour, the reward was one life point. Added up with the weekly mission, I obviously had six life points with me. Why was there only one life point left after you deducted four life points?"
Death system, "……"
Is now the right time to be concerned about such things!?
Ye Chen's voice was steady when he asked the death system, "I didn't miscalculate, right?"
Death system, "………………"
Ye Chen raised his eyebrows.
The death system finally said, "You truly didn't……"
Ye Chen added, "That's a relief. That means I have two life points left, right?"
Death system responded, "Yes."
After a long pause, Ye Chen said under his breath, "Thank you."
Death system, "!!!"
Why is it that it somehow couldn't see that sweet and naive person anymore!?
Ye Chen just stayed standing in the hotel (lobby) for awhile. The air-conditioner was blowing strongly into him, but he felt as if he was standing on top of a raging fire, his feet burning.
"Bang!" A loud sound could be heard from outside. Everyone in the hotel suddenly went into a state of shock. The security guards rushed out to check the peculiar noise.
Ye Chen didn't move at all. He had already known what was going on even without going out.
The death system had saved him, but what should have happened had happened.
The car accelerated quickly like how it was supposed to.
This was originally planned to be a 'very unexpected' murder.
It was probably because the driver had mistaken the brake for accelerator. The moment he stepped on the 'brake', the car hit Ye Chen and killed him. The driver himself would not have been able to stop the car and hit the door. If that was how it had happened, the dead could not bear witness, so things would be settled cleanly just like that.
It wasn't surprising that noises came from people around.
"Is that person crazy? He drove straight ahead."
"Did he perhaps confuse the accelerator with the brake?"
"It's too tragic that the speed of the car killed him on the spot."
The thin voices of people whispering were exactly the same with what Ye Chen had guessed.
Ye Chen took a deep breath. All that he could feel was a chill from his heart. He felt a fire burning outside, yet it was freezing cold inside. They collided together, but it calmed him down instead.
The death system knew what was in his mind, so it simply sighed and didn't say anything.
Around that time, Xiao Liu came. He parked his car outside and ran inside first. The moment he saw that Ye Chen was safe, he let out a relieved sigh.
Ye Chen said, "I'd like to return to my room first."
Xiao Liu immediately followed him.
When they returned to the hotel room, Xiao Liu asked nervously, "Brother Chen, do you want to drink some water?"
Ye Chen, "Yes."
Xiao Liu poured warm water to a glass and handed it to Ye Chen.
Ye Chen drank the water, but it wasn't really useful. The ice in his heart still wouldn't melt, and the fire from outside wasn't extinguished yet.
Xiao Liu still had a lingering fear inside his heart as he said, "Fortunately you were vigilant and didn't step outside."
Ye Chen's lips moved a little, but he didn't say anything in the end.
If he went out, he would have died then.
Xiao Liu carefully looked at him and said, "Do you need me to investigate?"
Ye Chen put down the glass, his palms on his forehead as he said gloomily, "Even if you investigate, nothing would come up."
It could be no one but Ye Lan who did this.
Since Ye Lan dared to do it, he wouldn't leave any trace behind.
Xiao Liu didn't dare to say anything more. It could be said that he was the first person to know about this. No one knew about this, but he had known from the start.
Because Ye Chen was the one who asked him to check on that incident.
Half a month ago, his Lamborghini was tampered with. Ye Chen hadn't driven it since then, he didn’t even use his driver anymore. Xiao Liu had to do everything on his own. Whenever Xiao Liu drove his car, he would lock it in the garage upon using it. Not even his girlfriend was allowed to touch it. This was to prevent the same thing from happening again.
From that day on, Ye Chen never acted by himself anymore. He wouldn't even go out to eat and drink with his disreputable friends (alone).
Occasionally, he would bring a bodyguard with him when he went out by himself. Ye Chen was very cautious and solemn. He feared that because he didn't die once, the other party might try to kill him again.
But he was carried away today. After all, nothing had happened for so many days, and it was quite improbable to have another 'clueless accident'.
In addition, thinking about how he would be going to the southern part with Ren Jing and the wonderful journey later, he couldn't wait to get out of the hotel and unexpectedly put himself in danger.
If it was not for the death system, he would have died.
Xiao Liu said, "Brother Chen, this matter… Don't you think it's time to talk about this with your grandfather?"
Ye Chen suddenly turned around to look at him, then he said in an exceptionally serious voice, "You mustn't!"
Xiao Liu seemed to have startled him a fair amount, but this time his heart was thumping as he said, "This was already the second time……"
Ye Chen wriggled his brows and said, "This matter shouldn't be bluntly spoken."
Ye Lan wanted him to die. Of course Ye Chen wouldn't just sit passively on his end, but he would need to at least wait until his grandpa's body condition had become stable first.
The death system said, "But hiding it like this won't solve the problem."
How would Ye Chen not know about that?
Ye Lan was bold but cautious when he did something, and was absolutely resolute when he decided on something. Even from these two 'accidents', there was absolutely no evidence that they could be related to him. Although Ye Chen clearly knew that it was Ye Lan who did them, Ye Chen couldn't point his finger at Ye Lan.
Ye Chen could have told his grandpa and his parents about this matter, but he definitely should not do so, at least for now.
If he said it now, it wouldn't solve the problem, it would just make things worse.
His grandpa would definitely believe him, but at the same time, it was just going to break his grandpa's heart.
Ye Chen was his grandpa's grandson, and so was Ye Lan.
The two grandsons causing so much fuss to the point of death, the old man wouldn't be able to stand seeing them like that.
Especially since Ye Chen's uncle, Ye Qing Nian, had passed away, Ye Lan was his only relative by blood. Even though he was an illegitimate child, he was still a child of the Ye Family and his grandpa's grandson.
Furthermore, Grandpa Ye owed Ye Lan something in the depth of his heart.
At that time, the old man wouldn't acknowledge Ye Lan's mother no matter what, even to the extent of not wanting to see her face.
Ye Lan's mother made a lot of fuss about this. Ye Qing Nian was so credulous and pliable that she could even incite him to make Ye Chen's aunt infertile.
After knowing what had happened, the old man was really mad and cruelly punished Ye Qing Nian. He cut off his income and expelled him out of the house.
The three of them had a hard time for several years. Later, Ye Lan's mother commited suicide. Ye Qing Nian brought Ye Lan back to Ye Family's house. The old man let them stayed there, but he was still filled with anger and wouldn't look at them at all.
A few years later, Ye Qing Nian had lung cancer. He passed away even before he reached forty. Old man Ye aged in the blink of an eye, his health declined rapidly.
He had always disliked Ye Lan, but later felt that this child was really pitiful. He also thought that it was his fault for not settling Ye Lan down properly, so he subconsciously hoped that Ye Lan could grow up well.
In this state of mind, if Ye Chen let the old man knew that Ye Lan was actually rotten deep into his bones that he was insane enough to deliberately murder Ye Chen…… The old man wouldn't be able to stand it.
He could bear this burden himself.
If his grandpa was still healthy like before, then Ye Chen wouldn't have worried and would just tell him directly. Or it was better to say that if grandpa was still the same as before, Ye Lan wouldn't have gone crazy until this point.
But grandpa was already old, he had aged, he wasn't who he was anymore.
With grandpa's physical condition right now, there were some truths which he should not know.
Ye Chen took a deep breath. He couldn't tell his parents about this, either.
His parents loved him so much that they would shed all pretense of cordiality for his safety, regardless of what the consequences might be. Ye Lan was only aiming at him now and wasn't capable to do more.
But if his parents knew about this, they would persistently protect him. When that happened, the situation could be more out of control than ever.
When there is nothing to lose, there is nothing to fear.
Ye Lan had nothing left to lose, but Ye Chen had them.
He was afraid that his grandpa's condition would become worse, afraid that his parents would face dangers. They were much more important to him than his own life.
Death system stated, "Killing Ye Lan would be the most straightforward method."
Ye Chen said, "I'm not him."
Actually, what the death system said was the big truth. It couldn't be more true anymore.
The current Ye Lan would fight 'till his last breath, normal legal action wouldn't work on him. If Ye Chen was ruthless enough, he could also have Ye Lan experience 'accidental death'. That way, he wouldn't need to fear any future dangers at all.
But Ye Chen couldn't do it. If he did that, he wouldn't be who he was anymore.
The death system was about to say something, but it faltered.
Ye Chen said vigilantly, "What I want to say is, you wouldn't give me a mission to 'tell Ren Jing about this problem', right?"
Death system answered, "You need to save more life points as soon as possible, right? If I really gave you that mission, you wouldn't do it anyway."
Ye Chen blinked his eyes. "You sounded like you won't give that mission to me……"
The death system gave him a supercilious look.
The two of them couldn't reach a tacit understanding, thus they dropped the subject.
What Ye Chen had in mind was simple, he didn't want to tell Ren Jing about this matter. No one would be willing to let someone they liked know about such a dirty matter, it would affect their mood too much.
The death system's opinion was more violent: If Ren Jing knew, then someone could do what Ye Chen couldn't do.
This was a lawful society, it was better not to touch some bottom lines.
The death system asked, "Why does Ye Lan want to kill you that much?"
Ye Chen kept quiet.
Death system asked, "Was it simply because of envy? Would he go so far as to kill you (because of that)?" Moreover, if it was just envy, why would he only want to murder him recently?
Ye Chen said, "Half a month ago, it was the day of remembrance of my uncle. We met back then."
Ye Chen paused for a moment before he continued, "That time… He probably thought I knew about something."
Death system asked, "What did you know?"
Ye Chen was in a trance for a while before he spoke slowly, "For instance, the cause of his mother's death."
The death system was startled, "You……"
Ye Chen, "Actually, I didn't know at first, but now I do." It could be considered that Ye Lan's act made him confirm about this.
Death system finally understood, then it said, "No wonder he wanted to murder you."
Ye Chen breathed in deeply and said, "I should save ten life points first, then I should recover grandpa's physical condition as quickly as possible."
If it was not for death system, he would have fallen into the road of disaster. No matter what he did, it would have gone wrong. Wrong…… If death system didn't exist, he would have died half a month ago.
But fortunately he had the death system, so he had the choice to keep on living.
He had to stay calm. This problem could be solved properly. There was no need to let things get out of hand just because of panic and fear.
Right at that moment, the doorbell rang. Ye Chen snapped out of his thoughts. Xiao Liu said first, "I'll open the door."
Xiao Liu was still afraid. He feared that something would happen to Ye Chen again.
Ye Chen smiled and said, "It's alright already, things were not that severe."
Xiao Liu had seen who it was from the peephole, "It's Movie King Ren."
Ye Chen said, "Let me open it."
The moment he opened the door, Ren Jing immediately embraced him.
Ye Chen was startled.
Ren Jing embraced him for a long time. Ye Chen would like to say something at first, but he ended up not being able to say anything in the end. He had been very calm since the accident that not even a tiny bit of fear could be seen in his face.
But now, upon being embraced tightly like this, he suddenly felt his hands and feet were cold. It was the accumulation of chilliness and coldness deep down in his heart that spread around, which wasn't a bad thing.
Ren Jing's voice trembled as he said, "Chen Chen."
Ye Chen's nose was sore and his eyes were burning hot.
Ren Jing didn't say anything else, only whispering his name.
Xiao Liu who stood on the other side wished that he was an invisible person…… Well, even though he wasn't invisible, he seemed to be regarded as an invisible person already.
But he was puzzled. How was it that Movie King Ren seemed like he knew something?
In fact, Ren Jing didn't know anything at all. If he knew, things might have run wildly into an uncontrollable direction.
Ren Jing was about to come back (to the hotel) to pick Ye Chen up. On his way back, his heart suddenly jumped, an unspeakable fear rushed up from behind like a poisonous snake, seizing his whole nerves in an instant.
He could see Ye Chen, soaked in a pool of blood, his fair skin lost its color, his beautiful eyes now filled with helplessness, his feeble chest stopped breathing, and what was more, he saw his rosy lips were no longer red in color and were turning purple……
It was just a flash, but it felt like a nightmare wrapping around his head.
Ren Jing asked the driver to stop at the roadside, then he sat at the driver's seat and rushed back to the hotel in an unimaginable speed.
The accident downstairs made him frown and he walked faster. He rushed upstairs and pressed the doorbell. The moment he saw Ye Chen, he felt as if his fear of gangrene vanished in a split second.
Ren Jing embraced Ye Chen in his arms, unable to put his emotions into words. He could only call out his name in a soft voice.
Ye Chen asked the death system, "What happened to Ren Jing?"
Death system answered, "It was probably a psychological link between lovers. He saw the moment of your 'death'."
Ye Chen opened his eyes wide and said, "How could that be?"
Death system responded, "Even I exist. What would be impossible?"
Ye Chen, "……"
He was unable to refute anymore.
Soon, Ye Chen's heart which had been cold and quiet because of the gloom now warmed up again, then he thought: Are lovers with telepathic connections considered rare in this world?
The death system rolled its eyes as it thought: He believed it!
Ren Jing let go of Ye Chen, then he asked under his breath, "Did I scare you?"
Ye Chen asked him instead, "What happened to you?"
The moment Ren Jing was about to say something, the death system's sound could be heard in Ye Chen's head, "Random mission: Continue having physical contact with Ren Jing, reward will be generated according to the duration: three hours for one life point and so on, up to a maximum of nine hours."
Author’s Note
The author has something to say:
After thinking about it all night, I still don't think it was right.
The plot didn't change, but the way I described things was very problematic.
In fact, there are different opinions about writing, but I've always believed the writer's style is extremely important. If their style wasn't well thought out, even reasonable things would become unreasonable, even if it was logical, it would become illogical.
Even though I wrote that Ye Chen was "sweet and naive", I have no intention of treating him unfairly. Upon writing him, I hoped that he would be well. The characters that I loved also loved you, so I hoped that all of us could be happy.
It's impossible for me to change things up without changing the settings, but some of them will be explained later in the next chapters. I'll talk about them in advance, consider the readers' perspective, and let everyone know more. With this, I hope everyone could make a more appropriate judgement.
Please don't fight, I really loved all of you, I hope that everyone is well so that you could read joyfully and be happy everyday. That way, I would feel very content. Smooches!
Translator’s Note
potats here! Good to see you again this week, hope everyone has been doing well!
There is a ‘special’ author’s note for this chapter, and the author deleted the title (it was written as ‘rewritten chapter’). That was probably because of people’s comments in JJWXC I think (I barely check comments there because of this, too). I’ll also voice a bit of my opinion about this in the spoiler tag below.
Back to the chapter~ Hhnnngggg, their hugs are so cute and painful at the same time cries;; o(〒﹏〒)o They’re truly in love with each other I could confirm it already (ಥ﹏ಥ). Also, Ye Chen is such a gud boi I wanna hug and pet him and tell him he’s been doing a good job… ( ; ω ; )
Welp, that’s it for this week. See you guys next week, take care!
Rants (kinda?)
While I know that everyone has the right to say their opinions, I think it’s still not a good idea to just blurt everything out, especially ‘negative’ ones. I’ve bumped into someone who disagree with me regarding this matter, saying that I was a terrible person because I’m ‘limiting’ people, and that everyone has the right to voice their opinions out. But here’s a thing: I think it’s better for someone to restrain themselves than to voice their ‘negative’ opinions that could made people feel uncomfortable. I know, you have the right, I have the right, everyone have their rights to do whatever they want, but I think there should be a ‘limit’ on the ‘rights’ we own. So someone who prefer to stay quiet and not causing any fuss is worse than someone who voices their ‘negative’ opinions, just because ‘eveRyOnE haS tHeiR riGHt tO sAY whAt tHEy wAnT’? Man, I’ve never heard such BS before.
…Sorry, I ended up being OOT and even swear in the end orz. But really, please, please, think carefully before you’re about to do something, especially commenting. I’m not telling anyone to agree nor doing things according to whatever I’ve mentioned here, because I’d be ‘confining’ people’s so-called rights, right? Well, do consider the creators’ feelings when you’re about to complain and whine about whatever they did (here comes about critique, but I don’t want to continue this further because I’d stray too far away) in the future, though. Many authors, translators, and creators alike quit what they’re doing because of people’s horseback opinions, y’know. Just sayin’.