Mo Yi stretched out his palm and pulled the towel beside him. His stiff fingers trembled unconsciously, and they sank deeply into the snow-white fluff on the surface of the towel as he mechanically wiped his cold, sweaty forehead.
He was panting, his pale face smeared with abnormal flush. Even the corners of his eyes were reddened, making his eyes look as dark and cold as deep, still water.
His damp jet-black fringe was plastered on his cheeks. Mo Yi’s whole body appeared to have just been pulled out of water, looking in all ways, like a fish both out of strength and out of water.
Someone held out a bottle of water to him from the side. Mo Yi glanced at it, said his thanks hoarsely, then accepted the drink.
Shen Lei stared at Mo Yi solemnly. With his fingers on the equipment at the side, his expression was a bit gloomy.
As the fitness coach and nutritionist of these two people, he never gave them exercises which would overly exceeds the limit of their body. This is especially so for Mo Yi, who he focuses mainly on conditioning, then supplemented by training, and did his best to keep the intensity of fitness to a minimum, with the main aim set on enhancing physical fitness.
But it was not working.
He was not like Wang Zezhi, who constantly came up with new ways to be lazy and slip away. Mo Yi had always been very cooperative. He seldom complained about how hard and tiring the training was, and would strictly follow the recipes and schedules Shen Lei customised for him. He was the most cooperative student Shen Lei ever had, but there was just… no results.
Mo Yi’s weak physical physique seemed to be innate.
Shen Lei frowned. He stepped several steps forward and stretched out a hand to support Mo Yi who was shaking a little
The arm under his palm was practically skin and bones, and the skin was so cold that he was shocked. There was absolutely no heat on it even after the exercises, but instead, felt as though it was an ice cube coming out of an ice cellar.
Shen Lei’s fingertips trembled. He still remembered Mo Yi’s answer when he asked about this.
Mo Yi had just smiled slightly, and replied casually, “It’s just a congenital deficiency.”
At that time, Shen Lei was still worried, so he dragged Mo Yi to the hospital for a full body checkup—the results were that although it was not healthy, there were no serious problems. He was not much different from a frail modern person.
But… Why would his customised plan for Mo Yi be this useless?
Shen Lei couldn’t help but fall into deep doubts about the proficiency level of his skills.
Mo Yi had already regained his strength by then. He pulled his arm out of Shen Lei’s grip and smiled, but his face was still as pale as paper. “I’m much better.”
Shen Lei withdrew his palm. With a face still full of worry, he stood beside Mo Yi with folded arms.
“Tomorrow, we will go to a Chinese physician, maybe he can help you treat your constitution.”
Mo Yi’s whole body froze. His usual demeanour vanished completely.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
There was a forced smile on his face, and his voice was soft.
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“…Okay then.”
And so, this matter was decided just like that.
Mo Yi went to the bathroom for a quick shower. He wiped his body and changed his clothes, then when he came out, he happened to see a familiar car parked outside the villa.
His movements stalled with surprise. Next, he quickly packed up, said goodbye to Shen Lei, and left the room with dampness still clinging to him.
The early summer sun was scorching hot, hanging in the sky dazzlingly and brilliantly, and quickly evaporated the lingering moisture on Mo Yi’s body.
He opened the door, stretched his long legs, and slid into the car as usual.
There was a faint smell of tobacco in the car. The windows were wide open, the warm wind bringing in with it the clean scent of sunlight and green grass, mixing the three components into a complex but not entirely unpleasant smell.
Jiang Yuanrou tucked her wavy hair behind her ears. She looked at Mo Yi with a pair of light brown eyes, and smiled slightly. “I heard from Shen Lei that you were done. It was on the way, so I decided to give you a lift.”
Mo Yi nodded. His tone was gentle and concerned. “How did you rest last night? Would driving be too tiring?”
Jiang Yuanrou paused slightly when starting the car. Her drooping eyelashes trembled momentarily, before she raised his eyes as usual and looked at Mo Yi with a smile.
“It has gotten much better after that voice disappeared. It was the deepest sleep I’ve slept in these two days.”
Mo Yi turned to scrutinise Jiang Yuanrou. She was indeed more energetic and her dark eye circles have considerably lightened.
The car started slowly and the acceleration was smooth. Along with the early summer breeze and of the warm sun on his pale complexion, Mo Yi appeared to have a rare trace of lifeliness on his profile.
Jiang Yuanrou casted a sideglance at Mo Yi’s still-damp hair, and thoughtfully helped him roll up the car window halfway.
Mo Yi, whose eyelids were half closed, noticed Jiang Yuanrou’s movements, and opened his eyes to look over at Jiang Yuanrou.
Only to see that she was staring intently at the road ahead, her slender hands firmly holding the steering wheel.
Jiang Yuanrou seemed to have noticed Mo Yi’s gaze. She returned it with a quick glance, then suddenly asked, “Last night…why didn’t you let me open the copy of the membership test right away?”
After Mo Yi returned home last night, he promptly sent a message to Jiang Yuanrou, asking her to choose ‘do not open for now’. And just after she said her choice, the voice that had been tirelessly harassing her for several days disappeared immediately and finally gave her peace.
Mo Yi lowered his eyes again, focusing his attention on the sunny orange glare on his knees. His face was calm and unreadable as he explained.
“Yuanbai didn’t ask for your opinion back then, so it was very likely that he fell victim to the System’s confusing phrasing and decided not to open the test immediately…Since our intention here is to find him, the chances of meeting him will be higher if we made the same choice as he did.”
Jiang Yuanrou also thought of this. After all, she knew her brother very well and could guess the choice he made back then.
But… Their hope of finding Jiang Yuanbai was mainly pinned on the props exchanged from the store and not on the choice of opening the membership test copy.
And more importantly, last night, Mo Yi said that he had chosen to start the test immediately.
So it must be safer to make the same choice as Mo Yi had.
After all—he survived the last instance.
And the reason why Jiang Yuanrou was willing to pay such a high price to ask Mo Yi for help was because he was the only person she knew who survived the membership test instance.
Jiang Yuanrou turned the question round and round in his heart, but decided to swallow it back down into her stomach instead of voicing it out.
—Since she made a choice to work with him, she should naturally trust the other party’s judgement.
Furthermore…
Jiang Yuanrou subconsciously glanced at Mo Yi who was taking a nap on the passenger seat with his eyes closed.
The golden sunlight streaming in through the car window leaves a splatter of golden spots on his fair side face, which moved rapidly backwards along with the speed of the car, akin to a peaceful and harmonious stream of water.
Jiang Yuanrou withdrew her gaze and took a deep inhale.
With the keen sense she has developed over the years in business as well as a woman’s sixth sense, she can clearly feel it—that Mo Yi becomes a little more different each time he finishes an instance.
It was like looking directly at a cold blade being slowly pulled out from of its simple and ordinary scabbard. The sharp cold light left stinging marks on her retina, bringing physiological pain and stimulation to the nerves.
She felt that even Mo Yi himself was probably not aware of these changes.
She was a person who was very good at judging the situation, so she went with the flow and handed over the authority in her hands.
But only she herself knows how unfathomable and oppressive the current Mo Yi feels to her.
The vehicle gradually slowed down near the lobby of Mo Yi’s apartment, and Mo Yi opened his eyes almost at the same moment the vehicle came to a complete stop.
“We have arrived?”
Jiang Yuanrou nodded. Mo Yi opened the door and got out of the car. The sun was still shining brilliantly, forcing him to squint his eyes. The rays turned his black hair into a shade of light golden brown and casted a shine to his fair face.
Mo Yi smiled at Jiang Yuanrou. He waved his hand.
“Thank you, be careful on the road.”
He watched Jiang Yuanrou’s car slowly drive away before turning and walking into the building.
Mo Yi took out his key and unlocked the door, changing into slippers at the entranceway before walking further into the house.
He spotted Wen Chen sitting on the sofa, concentrating on the tablet in his hand—it was given to him by Mo Yi a few days ago because Mo Yi was worried that he would be bored. Wen Chen had a strong learning ability and quickly understood how to use it.
Curious, he walked over and sat nest to Wen Chen. He peered at the screen.
A drama series was being played on the tablet.
The heroine was standing in the rain, crying as prettily as pear blossoms in the rain. The camera cut to the male protagonist who had a similar devastated expression on. He stared at the photo of the heroine on the lit phone screen while weeping silently. A melancholic background music started playing too. This was truly a show that tugged at the heartstrings.
Mo Yi glanced at Wen Chen with a strange expression, and noticed that the latter’s face was calm and serious, as if he was studying some academic topic seriously.
So… he was using the few hours he could materialise daily to chase Korean dramas?
At this moment, he received an incoming email and the notification popped up out on the tablet—it was a reminder from Shen Lei about tomorrow’s schedule:
Visiting a Chinese medicine physician.
Mo Yi’s expression twisted instantly.
Wen Chen glanced over, raised his brows slightly. “What’s wrong?”
There were several degrees of pain and despair on Mo Yi’s face, and he spat out a few weak syllables one by one from between his teeth.
“—I hate traditional Chinese medicine.”
T/N: Buckle up! We’ll be entering another instance in the next chapter!
Thank you so much for translating! <3
Looking forward to the next instance. Hope they manage to save Jiang Yuanbai soon.
Thanks for the chapter
Me too! It’s so complicated and chaotic
Thank you for your translation 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
Wen Chen is such a mood please😭😭