Chapter 98

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“You came, why, you’re resting today?” Dr. Lu opened the door and saw the sullen Qi Leren, and quickly let him in, “You’re here at the right time, I bought a freshly baked small cake for an afternoon tea, haha.”

“I took a half-day leave and came. Didn’t you say that the store closes very early in the evening? Moreover, I can’t find any other time, every night I spend time with Ning Zhou.” Qi Leren said. He honestly told Chen Baiqi that he was going to buy an engagement ring for Ning Zhou and told her to hide it from Ning Zhou.

“Understood, you don’t want to be separated for even a minute, so you’d rather ask for leave to escape training, right?” Dr. Lu rubbed his arms, looking like a single dog who got hurt by the couple.

Qi Leren snorted: “That’s right, you jealous?”

Dr. Lu fell onto the sofa clutching his chest and said reluctantly, “Out of the group (1) dog (2), you’re not allowed to eat my small cake!!!”

“Are we still going?” Qi Leren urged.

“Eat first and then we’ll go, no need to hurry.” Dr. Lu said.

Qi Leren was also a little hungry since high-intensity training always exhausted his physical energy quickly. For the past few days the training content was about sneaking in and assasinating. Chen Baiqi didn’t know why the illusionist was invited, so the illusionist generously used his skill card. That skill card can easily transform the surrounding environment into a completely different scene, simulating different scenarios. Like a mouse bullied by a cat, Qi Leren were dying under the joint training of the two.

He can’t think about training anymore, he needs a break, Qi Leren thought.

While eating cake and drinking tea, Qi Leren sorted out his mood.

“I remember you have a PhD (3), have you studied psychology?” Qi Leren asked Dr. Lu.

“Ah, I’ve taken some elective courses, but they weren’t anything special. Why do you ask?” Dr. Lu replied.

“Actually, I’m a little worried about Ning Zhou’s mental state. He grew up in a very different environment from ours. His beliefs and the teachings he received caused him to ignore himself, therefore making him think that sacrifice and devotion are what he should do, because everyone bears the original sin (4) and is born to atone for it. Except for falling in love with someone he shouldn’t have, he has never done anything against his beliefs.” Qi Leren leaned on the sofa, took a sip of black tea, and said slowly to Dr. Lu.

He couldn’t talk to anyone else about the things related to Ning Zhou that had been suppressed in his heart for a long time, and since he didn’t know how to help Ning Zhou, he had to ask Dr. Lu for help.

“The theory of original sin, I’m aware of it. However, Ning Zhou was affected much more deeply than the average person, so the self-condemnation he had to endure when he chose to leave the Holy See was very strong,” said Dr. Lu.

“That’s right, but his departure from the Holy See doesn’t mean that he has abandoned his beliefs. He still believes in it. He only did it after careful consideration. Therefore, he believes that he’ll fall into hell after death and he’ll be tortured in the lake of fire for eternity. To us this may just be an illusory afterlife world, but to him, it’s real. It’s only because of love that he’s willing.” Qi Leren choked and took a deep breath to recover, “He couldn’t get rid of this sense of hopelessness, it was too painful. Even if I accompany him, this pain will always be following him, yet I don’t know how to help him, so I’m sad.”

For Ning Zhou, this isn’t a love that brings happiness. It can be said that it brings ten millions of times more suffering than sweetness.

But it has already been born, and he can no longer let it go.

It’s already a part of his soul.

“Now that I’m back from the dead, it’s a good thing, but…. there’s honestly too many problems. There are many things we haven’t dared to talk about, even though we all know that this was bound to happen, Ning Zhou has his own thoughts on this, and I also have my own choices, once we let it out, there…. there won’t be such a happy and sweet time like now.” Qi Leren said.

If the day comes where Ning Zhou, who is out of control, commits an unforgivable crime, will he choose to kill Ning Zhou to protect this world that Ning Zhou loves, or will he choose to let it go, watch him go beyond recognition and destroy this world?

In the dead of the night, whenever he thinks of this question, he can no longer sleep.

He secretly prayed that this day would not come, or that before it came, they would leave this place and go somewhere quiet, such as his half-field after solidification, and spend the rest of their life in a garden full of white roses without any concern for the world.

Dr. Lu looked at him in confusion. He was ignorant about fields and the source of power. This was not a level he could reach, so he didn’t know what Qi Leren was struggling with at the moment.

Facing Dr. Lu’s doubtful eyes, Qi Leren said, “I’m still a little worried. Ning Zhou has become so attached to me now, to the point that he can’t even accept my injury, let alone death. So now I’m very afraid of death, if I die, what will Ning Zhou do?”

This obsession supported him to endure so many difficult tasks, even in the Devil of Slaughter’s field projection, he survived, and even condensed a half-field. A person’s will and belief can’t go against absolute power. If the Devil of Daughter at that time was not a small puppet clone, he might have died forever before he could even break through.

“The two of you…. well, you think about each other too much. He’s just a quiet warm guy type who does everything for the sake of others without expecting anything in return. Fortunately he’s gay, otherwise he’d be the second choice for as long as he lives (5).” Dr. Lu sighed without thinking, “If everyone who are in love are like you guys who are always thinking about the other after your downfall (6), who’d dare to fall in love and get married so easily? If it’s you guys, pulling out the certificate (7) means you’re ‘married’ for the rest of your life, unless if you became a ‘widow’, but ‘divorce’ is definitely impossible.”

“….Can’t you say something nicer?” Qi Leren was speechless.

“Ah, ah, ah, I was wrong, I was wrong! Becoming a widow is impossible! You two will be together for a hundred years!” Dr. Lu responded and covered his mouth immediately, “Look here, I’ll teach you how to fold paper roses, just don’t hit me!”

“You can teach me that next time, let’s go buy a ring first” Qi Leren was still anxious about the ring.

“I’m finished, let’s go!” Dr. Lu jumped up from the sofa and ran out of the door in a hurry——tripping over his shoe and falling at the gate. It seems that his self-training didn’t help him to stop falling on flat ground.

Qi Leren usually complained at his dearest friend for this, but seeing Dr. Lu’s aggrieved expression, he swallowed the words and helped him up: “Be careful.”

“Dude, I can’t do anything about it, I was born like this.” Dr. Lu touched the back of his head and said regretfully, “Maybe God weakened my reflexes so it’s balanced with my IQ.”

“You sure it’s not to balance your luck?” Qi Leren asked back.

Dr. Lu touched his chin: “Make sense.”

“Don’t rely too much on luck, luck is useless if against absolute strength.” Qi Leren advised.

“I know…. I know.” Dr. Lu lowered his head and murmured, “I also feel like I’m useless, I’m always holding you back….”

Qi Leren comforted: “Everyone is good at different things. If you can carry, fight and milk (8), what would your partner need to do? No one is perfect, even someone like me who has terrible luck could reach a certain level, and you also agreed to do the copy with me, so I’m grateful for you too. Since we’re good pals, we must tolerate each other’s shortcomings. I can see that you’re training hard and making progress now, so I’m really happy.”

Dr. Lu’s eyes were red when he heard this, and he quickly changed the subject while covering his face: “Ah jeez, let’s not talk about that. The jewelry store is near the steel bridge. It’s a famous old store in the Village of Dusk. Uh, although it’s only been open for 20 years, I found out from Xue Yingying that women likes this kind of store. “

“Is it expensive? My budget is limited.” Qi Leren was worried.

“That depends on what kind of ring you want.”

The two chatted as they walked towards the direction of the steel bridge.

Passing by a small town and across the steel bridge where people come and go, the two came to a nearby shopping district and found the jewelry store located deep in an alley.

The old shop owner used a small brush to gently brush off the fine dust on the jewelries. When he learned about their intention of coming there, he took out a large glass box from the counter and displayed more than a dozen delicate rings.

Qi Leren chatted with Dr. Lu and pulled him to help choose which one.

“It seems that the norm here is the bigger the ring, the better the proposal. You should choose the biggest one,” said Dr. Lu.

“Actually, I already have two rings.” Qi Leren said.

“Ah? For real? Let me see.” Dr. Lu asked curiously.

Qi Leren took out two rings from his inventory, one was an exquisite sapphire ring——Ning Zhou put it in front of his tombstone, ending the erroneous love that can’t go on. The other was a grass woven ring, rough and ordinary——Ning Zhou put it on the hand of his dead body, determined to continue the love that was destined to bring him countless sufferings.

“Young man, let me see that sapphire ring.” The old shop owner suddenly said.

Qi Leren was stunned and handed the ring to him.

The old man raised the ring, observed it carefully under the light, and said faintly, “Yes, this one is indeed from my shop.”

“What a coincidence?” Dr. Lu said, wowed.

“Although I am old and my memory is not good, I can never forget such a beautiful ring.” The owner reluctantly handed the ring back to Qi Leren, “That day, there was a man in the uniform of the Holy See. The young man came to my store in a hurry, I asked him what he needed, and he only said two words, a ring.”

Qi Leren’s mind couldn’t help but think of such a scene.

Ning Zhou, who returned to the Village of Dusk after the Witch Sacrifice quest, was anxious about going to the steel bridge and meeting him, but before going to the steel bridge, he came here first to buy a marriage proposal ring.

“I showed him a lot of rings, and in the end he chose the most expensive one. At that time I told him that any girl who saw such a beautiful and expensive ring would definitely say yes to his proposal.” The owner stared at Qi Leren and sighed lightly.

“After a lot of things happened, this ring finally came to my hands, but…. it wasn’t a marriage proposal, he gave it to bid me farewell at that time.” Qi Leren said softly.

The owner smiled, and the wrinkles on his face deepened because of this smile, like his pair of murky but transparent eyes: “I’m afraid there is another story for that grass ring, right?”

Qi Leren felt his blood surging and couldn’t help but look down at the rough ring. It looked so inconspicuous next to the sapphire ring, even pitiful.

But he loves this ring deeply, because its rough appearance hides a person’s sincere love for the soul, so solemn that he dare not betray it.

“Later he proposed to me with this ring, but I couldn’t answer him. This time, I will take the initiative to ask him if he is willing to make a lifetime promise with me.” The corners of Qi Leren’s mouth raised, forming a sweet smile

“I originally had a very good ring to introduce to you, but unfortunately it was already sold.” When he said this, the owner paused, as if thinking about something, before continuing, “You don’t need to buy anything. The ring is ready, take this sapphire ring and go propose to your lover. To create the future that you couldn’t achieve before, this is the best ring.”

“Right, you already got a ring, so what are you buying a ring for?!” Dr. Lu said stunned.

“My bad, I originally thought that I should buy a ring for Ning Zhou….” Qi Leren murmured.

But perhaps, this ring is the most suitable.

Originally, their fate was destined to end there, but it seemed that there was a pair of invisible hands that brought them together again in the dark.

Ning Zhou didn’t even know that the ring was in his hands.

Qi Leren chuckled and said to the owner, “Thank you, I saved a lot of money.”

“You’re welcome.” The owner smiled kindly and watched Qi Leren and Dr. Lu leave.

As soon as they walked out of the jewelry store, there was a cat meowing from the roof.

Qi Leren raised his head in response, a fat calico cat was fiddling with a black card. Qi Leren raised his hand subconsciously, and the card was caught by him. The first thing he noticed was the silver spade symbol on the upper right corner of the card.

【Player Qi Leren has triggered the mission: Gangster Empire. Please bring the invitation letter and a teammate to start the mission at the bar in Willow Alley No. 13. Failure to arrive within the time limit will be regarded as mission failure, and 300 survival days will be deducted.】

Translator’s Notes:

The ‘group’ in Out of the group (脱团) here is referring to ‘情侣去死去死团’ which can translate to ‘couples can go die group’ that originated from a Japanese manga. In China, people on the internet would say they’re apart of this group, implying that they’re single and hates couples. As long as you don’t have a lover, you can say that you’re apart of this group, and as long as you’re dating someone, you can say that you’re out of the group.Dog (狗) can be used as an insult in China.PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) is a degree awarded to people who have done advanced research into a particular subject.Original sin is a Christian theory that says all humans are born with the tendency to sin.I tried my best to make this makes sense. I don’t really understand what he actually mean. The ‘gay’ here (搞基) is referring to gay relationships (MLM), so he’s saying that NZ is in a gay relationship and not just, gay. I’m guessing he means that if NZ wasn’t in a gay relationship (emphasizing on the relationship part) then people (most likely women) would be chasing after him.If you don’t get it, here he’s just talking about how ZhouRen always wonder about what would happen to the other if something bad was to happen to one of them.He’s referring to certificate of marriage here.Milk (奶) he used here is a term people use in online games that refers to healing roles, so he’s talking about the fact that Dr. Lu can heal people.

Sorry about the long translator notes, you don’t have to read all of them, just wanted to explain some parts especially in LuRen’s convo because they like to use slangs and talk casually which makes it hard to translate if you don’t actually speak Chinese. I also apologize if there’s some sentences that didn’t really make sense or bad grammar, English isn’t my first language either. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter [smiley face].