Chapter 106: Tranquility
Bai Zhouyun thought that probably would not happen. Because of his grandfather's earlier blunder, the incident had continued to escalate until it reached its current state. So not only had his accounts not been frozen, but his grandfather had even given him a large amount of credits to spend. Bai Zhouyun no longer had to worry about money.
Still, seeing how much Yun Feiyu cared about him made him genuinely happy.
As expected of someone who truly loved him. Even after he had made such a mistake, Yun Feiyu had never gotten angry with him.
Instead, he always put Bai Zhouyun first in everything.
Thinking that, Bai Zhouyun transferred another 300,000 credits to Yun Feiyu.
"Go spend it. If it's not enough, just tell me. I'm already a High-Tier Ability User now. I'll definitely be able to protect you even better in the future."
Yun Feiyu was somewhat flattered.
Accepting the money now was perfectly reasonable. After all, he couldn't go anywhere at the moment. Returning to school would only be asking for trouble.
With no source of income whatsoever, he accepted it. Besides, one of the reasons he had stayed with Bai Zhouyun in the first place had been because of his money.
Not to mention that his older brother, Yun Feiqiao, was still outside and needed money as well. Their family was so poor that these 600,000 credits were practically an enormous fortune to them.
Yun Feiyu quickly transferred 100,000 credits to his brother, then sent 50,000 credits each to his father and mother, making them quite happy.
After ending the call, Yun Feiyu contacted his older brother, Yun Feiqiao.
His brother was still at school, and he wondered how things had been going.
Because of the scandal involving his younger brother, Yun Feiqiao had been in a terrible mood lately. Countless people kept asking where Yun Feiyu was, saying things like how shameless he was and whether he wasn't embarrassed after doing something so disgraceful.
In short, it was incredibly irritating.
The constant questioning had left him distracted these past few days, making it impossible for him to study properly.
However, the moment he received the 100,000 credits, all his anger immediately disappeared.
After all, money talked.
Calming himself down, he accepted Yun Feiyu's call.
"Feiyu, how have you been lately? Are things alright? Have you run into any trouble at school?"
Yun Feiqiao replied, "Nothing serious. It's just that people keep asking questions and trying to find out where you are. I brushed them all off. By the way, where are you now?"
"I'm somewhere safe, so don't worry. About the credits I just transferred you... try to spend them carefully. It's become a bit difficult to ask him for money now. I only managed to get this much after a lot of effort."
It wasn't that Yun Feiyu didn't want to reveal how much money he actually had.
It was just that he had to start planning for himself now.
After sending out those transfers, he only had 400,000 credits left.
If... if he couldn't stay with Bai Zhouyun in the future, that amount probably wouldn't even be enough to support him for a few years.
So from now on, every time Bai Zhouyun gave him credits, he had to keep a portion for himself.
He couldn't continue giving everything to his parents and his brother like he had before.
Even someone as naive as he was had understood after all these years.
Although it had been his own choice to find a wealthy man and obtain money from him to support his family, that didn't mean he would always willingly remain the one being drained dry.
Yun Feiqiao frowned slightly.
"What's wrong? Has Bai Zhouyun started losing interest in you? Feiyu, don't take this the wrong way, but since you're already together, you should just go along with whatever he wants. Don't make him angry. I think things between the two of you are pretty good right now. I'm still in school, and I need a lot of credits just to keep going. You understand that, right?"
On the surface, Yun Feiyu nodded calmly out of habit.
But inside, he thought differently.
He had already warned him.
If Yun Feiqiao still didn't take it seriously and continued spending money so extravagantly, then once he ran out, getting more from Yun Feiyu would no longer be so easy.
Actually, it wasn't that he was unwilling.
Nor was he cold-hearted.
So much time had passed already. Even if he understood that his family had been powerless to change what had happened, couldn't they at least have found time to call and comfort him?
He had waited for so long.
The only person who had contacted him was Bai Zhouyun.
Bai Zhouyun had comforted him.
Bai Zhouyun had given him money.
But the family he had supported all this time had remained so indifferent.
They had always said that once his brother graduated and could support the family, he would no longer have to continue doing this sort of thing.
He had never really taken those words to heart.
But now it seemed...
Not only had he failed to take those promises seriously.
His family hadn't taken them seriously either.
"Don't worry, Brother. He's still keeping in touch with me. The place I'm living now was arranged by him. It's just that he's become much colder toward me recently. I don't know why. Maybe now that he's become a High-Tier Ability User, he wants to work even harder to change Nan Yu's opinion of him and win him back."
Yun Feiqiao thought about it for a moment.
That actually seemed quite possible.
The only problem was that the recent scandal on the StarNet had grown enormous.
No one knew when the Bai family would finally manage to suppress all those discussions.
The two brothers chatted about various trivial matters before ending the call.
Yun Feiyu slowly let the expression fade from his face before walking into the kitchen with an unhappy look to prepare something to eat.
As for Yun Feiqiao, now that he had just received a large sum of money, it was naturally time to go out with his friends to eat, drink, and have fun.
After all, this was his way of building closer relationships with his classmates.
Every one of those classmates came from influential and prestigious families.
The best thing he could do was work his way into their circles.
Since he wasn't acting as anyone's lackey or follower, he had always placed himself on equal footing with them as a fellow classmate.
Whenever they went out to eat or have fun together, he would sometimes rush to pay the bill.
As a result, although no one particularly liked him, they certainly didn't dislike him either.
Nan Yu, meanwhile, was idly staying at the hospital.
The Ability Beasts were currently in a lull period, so very few of them were causing trouble along the borders.
Many legions had begun rotating their soldiers on leave.
Naturally, the hospital became much quieter as well.
The number of newly admitted patients dropped sharply.
Everyone suddenly had a great deal of free time.
And those idle hours happened to be perfect for Nan Yu to teach classes.
The hospital director also felt that wasting all that spare time would be a pity.
So they simply cleared out a relatively large ward and had Nan Yu give a forty-minute lecture every day.
There was no need for it to last too long.
Many things could only truly be learned through hands-on practice.
Did anyone seriously think they could master everything simply by listening to him explain it once?
That was nothing but wishful thinking.
Nan Yu had just finished today's lecture.
He had no idea what to do next.
Before long, however, he found a way to pass the time.
He put on his gaming helmet and logged into the game.
His guild had already been upgraded to a Level 2 guild.
Its member limit had increased from ten to twelve.
The two new members had blended in very well.
The gold coins they earned every day, once converted into credits after cashing out at the end of the month, were enough to rival the salary of a department manager at a small company.
Nan Yu checked the guild treasury.
There were still plenty of gold coins left, so he decided not to recharge more.
Instead, he purchased gift packs from the guild shop.
Twelve gift packs in total.
Each guild member would receive one.
As for what each pack contained...
That depended entirely on luck.
Each gift pack cost 1,000 gold coins.
The contents varied.
The most common reward was 800 gold coins, which could also be exchanged for credits.
Of course, besides gold, there were many other possible rewards.
Random items.
Random costumes.
Useful weapons.
Buff items.
And various other things.
Nan Yu opened his own gift pack.
Great.
Eight hundred gold coins.
The guild chat immediately became lively as everyone thanked the guild leader.
Changfeng Futian: "Thank you, Guild Leader! Guild Leader, are you accepting leg accessories?"
Big Brother: "Damn, when did you become this shameless? Where's that cold and heartless boss from before?"
Second Brother: "He already ate him."
Fifth Brother: "Looks like even he got shocked by our guild's benefits."
After all, elite guilds were extremely rare.
The wealthy players who established guilds usually preferred creating massive guilds to satisfy themselves.
But those large guilds often had thousands of members.
Although completing guild missions produced a large total amount of rewards, once divided among everyone, each person's share became quite small.
Some players could complete guild contribution missions every single day for an entire month and still earn fewer gold coins than Nan Yu's guild distributed in a single day.
Those with higher positions might receive a bit more.
But only relatively speaking.
Although Nan Yu spent quite a lot, compared with the rich people funding certain massive guilds, his spending was actually still rather modest.
He even wondered whether he should increase the guild benefits a little more.
But after thinking about it, he decided against it.
Increasing them further would be excessive.
A favor measured by a bucket of rice brings gratitude.
A favor measured by a cartload breeds resentment.
Giving too much would only produce the opposite effect.
The current balance was already just right.
He only needed to maintain it.
Nan Yu took a deep breath.
After chatting with everyone for a while, the conversation in the guild shifted to those five players from before.
Nan Yu twitched the corner of his mouth.
They were the same five people he had placed bounties on, intending to force them to quit the server.
So much time had already passed that he had completely forgotten about them.
Unexpectedly, everyone else still remembered.
Big Brother said, "After all this time, we've been hunting those five nonstop. Three of them have already said they'll never play on this server again. Only two are left—Shui Zhongyou and Wuxing Feiwo."
Second Brother immediately chimed in.
"That's right! Those two... took advantage of us being busy and hid inside the main city. They spend all their time in towns now and never go into the wilderness. Since we can't attack them inside towns, it's incredibly frustrating."
From South to North (Guild Leader): "Are they still staying inside the safe zone all the time?"
Big Brother replied, "Yeah. I also heard Shui Zhongyou has been online practically day and night lately, spending huge amounts of time in the game every single day. No idea what he's doing."
Nan Yu immediately connected it with the recent events outside the game.
Since Yun Feiyu hadn't appeared anywhere for such a long time, Bai Zhouyun had probably hidden him away somewhere.
He couldn't go out freely.
So naturally, he was bored.
And when someone was bored...
They played games.
That explained why he was spending so much time online.
From South to North (Guild Leader): "What about Wuxing Feiwo? If he never leaves, he can't participate in many dungeons or events. He can't just stay in the safe zone forever."
Big Brother replied, "I heard he's been looking for a large guild willing to protect him from us, but he hasn't found one yet... I think..."
Second Brother interrupted.
"Big Brother, your information's outdated. He seems to have already found a guild!"
From South to North (Guild Leader): "So he'll be able to play normally from now on?"
After all, when entering certain dungeons, one team member could wait at the entrance first, then use the summoning skill to bring teammates over before instantly starting the dungeon.
That way, they could avoid many enemies.
Of course, the teammate summoning skill had a rather long cooldown.
That was its biggest drawback.
Big Brother said, "I haven't heard anything after that. I'll ask around over the next few days."
Nan Yu rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
If Wuxing Feiwo had really found a guild willing to shelter him...
That could actually become quite troublesome.
After all, although every member of their elite guild was highly skilled, two fists could never defeat four hands. No matter how strong they were individually, they would still be powerless against a massive guild with thousands of members.
On top of that, those players could simply keep resurrecting after being killed, which made things even more troublesome.
However, Nan Yu didn't believe Wuxing Feiwo was capable of convincing an entire guild to protect him. At most, only a small portion of its members would be willing to help him.
Besides, he had no idea whether Wuxing Feiwo insisted on staying on this server because he couldn't bear to abandon his current character or for some other reason.
Nan Yu followed everyone through several dungeons and completed all the daily tasks before logging off.
After removing the gaming helmet and opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was Yu Lanfeng sitting nearby.
"You're back?"
He tossed the helmet aside and looked at Yu Lanfeng.
Yu Lanfeng nodded.
"I just got back. Were you playing the game?"
Nan Yu nodded.
"Yeah, that game. By the way, didn't you say before that it would eventually have an entirely new gameplay mode for selecting talent? Have you finished developing it yet? When it's ready, I want to officially give it a try."
Yu Lanfeng shook his head.
"It's not that simple. A lot of the technology is being used for the first time, so everything has to be thoroughly tested first. Things happen to be fairly quiet right now, so I need your help."
"No problem. Just let me know whenever you need me."
After saying that, Nan Yu found himself wanting to ask how their plan was progressing.
But he couldn't quite bring himself to do it.
Judging from the current situation on the StarNet, the popularity of those news reports and discussions seemed to be gradually getting suppressed by Old Master Bai's methods.
Yu Lanfeng seemed to read his thoughts.
"Just wait a little longer. This is only the beginning. The real highlight is still to come."
Nan Yu blinked.
"What real highlight? Is it really that mysterious? Can't you tell me a little in advance?"
Yu Lanfeng narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment.
"You'll know when the time comes."
Alright.
Which meant he wasn't going to tell him.
Nan Yu felt a little dejected.
He stopped talking to Yu Lanfeng, picked up a change of clothes, and went to take a shower.
Watching his back, Yu Lanfeng frowned slightly.
Was he actually upset?
Even so, he still had no intention of telling him.
This matter was genuinely important.
Until everything was accomplished, it was better that no one besides themselves knew about it.
After all...
If anyone discovered that Nan Yu had also participated, it wouldn't be good for his reputation.
Moreover, starting now, Yu Lanfeng had to consciously avoid attracting attention.
Aside from the hospital's lounge, there couldn't be any situation where he and Nan Yu appeared together anywhere else.
After finishing his shower, Nan Yu climbed straight into bed, ready to sleep.
Yu Lanfeng went into the bathroom to wash up.
This had already become an unspoken habit between them.
Lying in bed, Nan Yu stared unhappily at the half-open bathroom door.
Half-open...
Half...
Ah!
That guy wasn't even closing the bathroom door while showering!!
Seriously...
Seriously...
Nan Yu listened to the crystal-clear sound of running water drifting through the crack in the door.
And the sound of the water striking Yu Lanfeng's body...
He slowly rolled from lying on his back onto his side, curling up beneath the blanket until half of his face was buried inside it.
His entire face had turned bright red.
He wasn't embarrassed.
He absolutely wasn't embarrassed.
The last time he had walked out naked and Yu Lanfeng had seen him, he hadn't reacted this strongly.
This time Yu Lanfeng had merely left the bathroom door open while showering.
He had only heard a few sounds of water.
Nothing more...
Nothing more...
When Yu Lanfeng finished showering and put on his bathrobe, he noticed that the bathroom door hadn't been fully closed, leaving a narrow gap.
He didn't pay much attention to it.
There were only the two of them in the room.
There was no need to be on guard.
However, when he walked out and saw the lump hidden beneath the blanket on the bed, a strange feeling arose in his heart.
There was no need to guess who was hiding under that blanket.
Nan Yu: "..."
Yu Lanfeng: "..."
Nan Yu pretended to be asleep.
But could Yu Lanfeng possibly fail to notice that he wasn't actually sleeping?
"Still awake?"
Nan Yu: "..."
He stubbornly refused to answer.
Let's see what Yu Lanfeng could do.
Who told him not to close the bathroom door while showering?
His face was still burning red because of it.
Besides...
He absolutely refused to admit he had been embarrassed.
He had simply buried his face under the blanket while sleeping, making it turn red from lack of air.
It had absolutely nothing to do with embarrassment.
Yu Lanfeng slowly walked over and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Asleep already?"
Nan Yu's entire body stiffened.
He still didn't react.
Yu Lanfeng became even bolder.
He placed a hand gently on Nan Yu's head and leaned close to his ear.
"Can I sleep beside you?"
Nan Yu's mind instantly turned to mush.
He had always thought someone as cold and detached as Yu Lanfeng probably had no interest whatsoever in this sort of thing.
Or perhaps someone like him would never say affectionate or teasing words in his entire life.
But reality proved...
It was nothing like that!
Yu Lanfeng was incredibly good at flirting!
It was simply that nobody else knew it...
Feeling Yu Lanfeng's warm breath brushing lightly against his ear, Nan Yu felt something inside him completely fall apart.
He suddenly shot upright and glared at Yu Lanfeng with a twisted expression.
"What are you doing?!"
Yu Lanfeng blinked innocently.
"So you weren't asleep?"
Nan Yu froze.
Who told him to pretend to be asleep just now?
"I just didn't feel like moving. I never said I was asleep. Why aren't you going to bed yet?"
"I still have a little work to deal with. Go ahead and sleep first. I'll sleep later."
They still hadn't officially gotten together.
Yu Lanfeng naturally wouldn't cross the line.
Everything he had said just now had merely been a joke.
And that was exactly what happened.
After watching Nan Yu lie back down and close his eyes, Yu Lanfeng left the room to continue handling the work that still needed to be done.
Actually...
Nan Yu felt slightly disappointed.
If they really could sleep together...
It seemed...
Maybe...
Perhaps...
That actually wouldn't be so bad?
Forget it.
Better not think about it anymore.
There would be opportunities in the future anyway.
When Yu Lanfeng finally finished everything and returned to the room, Nan Yu was already fast asleep.
This time, he was genuinely sleeping.
Yu Lanfeng's expression softened.
He walked to the bedside, looked quietly at Nan Yu's sleeping face, then slowly bent down and gently kissed his forehead.
Perhaps because the head was where a Mental Power User's mental power gathered, it was an exceptionally sensitive area.
Although the kiss was extremely light, it still disturbed Nan Yu.
Fortunately, Nan Yu merely turned over, rubbed his forehead, and continued sleeping without waking up.
Yu Lanfeng quietly relaxed.
It seemed Nan Yu's subconscious guard against him had already diminished considerably.
Just a little longer...
Just a little more time.
He didn't merely want Nan Yu to like him.
He also wanted Nan Yu to become completely defenseless toward him, even subconsciously.
Just like what had happened moments ago.
While Nan Yu had been asleep, Yu Lanfeng had touched the one place that should never be approached casually on a Mental Power User—the head, the most sensitive and vulnerable part of their body.
Yet Nan Yu hadn't even awakened.
That alone was tremendous progress.
It seemed that even if Nan Yu hadn't completely accepted him in his heart, he wasn't very far from doing so.
In an excellent mood, Yu Lanfeng lay down on the sofa nearby.
For now, they still couldn't sleep in the same bed.
It wasn't because of morality.
They had always shared this room.
Whether they slept together or separately, who would ever know?
Yu Lanfeng simply wanted to give both of them a transition period.
Until now, both of them had always slept alone.
If someone unfamiliar suddenly appeared beside them while they were asleep, neither of them would be able to rest properly for quite some time.
Not to mention Nan Yu.
If Yu Lanfeng himself suddenly sensed an unfamiliar presence during the night, his body would attack instinctively before his brain even had time to react.
He would be fine.
Nan Yu, however, would definitely suffer.
What Yu Lanfeng didn't know was that if Nan Yu really were to attack because an unfamiliar presence suddenly appeared beside him, he would instinctively release his mental power.
Half-asleep, if he accidentally used too much force...
He might directly turn the other person into an idiot.
Nan Yu slept exceptionally well that night.
Only when he woke up the next morning did he rub his forehead uncomfortably.
It felt a little strange.
Yet it also didn't seem strange at all.
Unable to find anything unusual, he simply stopped thinking about it.
Yu Lanfeng wasn't in the lounge today.
He had probably left early because of work.
However, breakfast had already been prepared.
As Nan Yu ate while wondering what kind of move Yu Lanfeng was planning to make next, he headed toward his classroom at school.
Along the way, he ran into Yang Zhou.
Yang Zhou walked over and patted him on the shoulder.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing."
Speaking of gossip...
Yang Zhou was always the first to know.
Nan Yu didn't need to think about it himself or pay attention to it.
He only needed to wait for Yang Zhou to tell him.
But this time, the wait seemed unusually long.
Not only had nothing changed on Yang Zhou's side for several consecutive days, but discussions related to Bai Zhouyun on the StarNet also declined rapidly.
Part of that was certainly Old Master Bai's handiwork.
The rest was simply the natural fading of public interest over time.
Still...
For some reason, Nan Yu kept feeling as though this was merely the calm before the storm.