Ling Xian rarely showed his emotions as clearly as he did the morning after the dream. His whole face was black and he refused to answer even his parents, only sending a dark look towards his little brother who submissively looked away.
Tian Zhu didn’t feel well upon waking up. He only grabbed the Gamblers’ phone and confirmed with Aspen that he was still alive, then went back to sleep.
No matter what he did, his mind kept on returning to the game. How could he have done better? What should he have done?
Tian Zhu covered his face with his hands and tried breathing slowly.
Compared to the previous two games he had actively participated in, this one had been a larger area. Aspen and him had to split up to monitor two important people at the same time.
It was almost like… the game was designed in a way that you needed several people to work together.
And really, there wasn’t anything speaking against that possibility.
Aspen and him had both won the last game, and the Gamblers acknowledged that. That meant that it was fine for people to group together and work on the games…
There was a lot he didn’t know about the rules.
Right now, all he could guess was that they were just pawns placed by the Gamblers. A Gambler would participate in the game and decide on a proxy to play the game… Something like that, probably.
He didn’t know what exactly the Gamblers won from this, or when the dreams would stop.
But it was in everyone’s best interest to win the games – good for the players, and good for the winning Gamblers.
It wouldn’t be easy if they really needed several people to work together. Aspen would obviously play along, but anyone else?
He’d have to try. He didn’t want to, but if this was necessary to solve the puzzles, he was willing to do it. He just hoped Aspen wouldn’t mind trying.
With sluggish thoughts, Tian Zhu rolled up in his blankets. He could hear Ling Xian outside in the hallway, scolding one of the maids over something. Of course he was annoyed about having gotten killed, so he was going to let out his anger on other people.
But Tian Zhu would just try to stay out of his way.
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.
He had enough issues on his own.
Lf vlv cba kjca ab ojii ecvfg atja vgeu jvvlmalbc bo tlr. Lf vlvc’a xcbk ktfgf atf vfrlgf ab gfrlra rafwwfv ogbw ja jii, ktfc rlwqis ublcu jibcu klat Olcu Wljc’r klrtfr kbeiv yf fjrlfg, yea la kjr ibvufv lcrlvf tlr tfjga. Snfc lo gfrlralcu kbeiv yf tjgv, tf vlv cba kjca ab ulnf eq sfa.
He needed to live and be conscious to be able to participate in the games. Maybe that was all it was.
The withdrawal symptoms returned as heavily as they had been before. Food became disgusting, like rocks stuck in his throat, and he struggled to drink.
Lying in his bed, Tian Zhu’s chest moved up and down in a deep sigh. Since his body was demanding an abnormal amount of sleep, he didn’t use a lot of energy at least. That allowed him to eat less than usual.
But he persisted. ShuShu squeaked tensely whenever he started her up in the short times that he was awake, and her worry was soothing.
As for Aspen, Tian Zhu directly avoided contact unless it was one of his better moments. Texting was fine – and Aspen did text the very moment Tian Zhu started responding – but calls were too much.
His parents never once asked what happened to him. Why he could hardly eat, why he slept all day. And that told him all he needed to know – they did not care whether he was sick or drug addicted, they wouldn’t do anything against it. He was on his own with this.
Logic told Tian Zhu that everything about the situation was utter nonsense. There was no need to destroy him like this and in the first place, he’d be a better pawn helping his older brother if they absolutely had to keep the less intelligent one as the heir.
Logic also told him that this was of no concern.
Discrimination due to skin colour, due to birthplace, parents, sexuality… Where exactly did those things make sense? Something you were born with and can’t change, why did people need to be scorned for that?
But it happened, and so he accepted his own situation in the same way. His family line stubbornly insisted that the heir was the oldest son and any other son was a danger.
He didn’t need to think about why it was that way, only how he could deal with it.
Anyway, his situation would have been worse a couple dozen years ago. Nowadays, and with his status, he hardly needed to go outside.
No one would notice him staying at home or cause trouble about it. No one except one, that is.
Once Ling Xian’s irritation about Aspen lowered, he began to notice his little brother’s behavior again. That Tian Zhu was fighting against the addiction, not succumbing to it.
And that did not please him at all.
“Yes, he’s my little brother”, Ling Xian introduced him heartily with a pat on his shoulder. The secretary scrutinized him curiously, taking in every detail of his boss’ brother.
Tian Zhu felt the weakness in his limbs and looked at everything through a slightly blurred filter, but he was lucky to be in one of the more comfortable moments of withdrawal. He was awake, at least.
Ling Xian’s mood was joyful with glee at dragging his tired little brother to his company and forcing him to stay awake.
In a fit of childish superiority, he made the two of them walk all the stairs rather than use the elevator. Tian Zhu felt his strength drain quickly – he hadn’t slept much all these days and the same went for eating.
When Ling Xian was called out by someone for a minute, the secretary pulled something out of a small pocket in her skirt and held it out to Tian Zhu with a smile.
“Here. You might need it more than me.” On her palm was a tiny blue pill engraved with a capital L.
Tian Zhu blinked in confusion for a moment, then reached an unsteady hand out. “Thank you.”
The pill dissolved immediately in his mouth. A sugar and caffeine bomb for those that had to work too much and lost both sleep and calories. He wasn’t surprised that a secretary would carry those.
He didn’t doubt that it was something else. Ling Xian had much easier ways of slipping him more drugs than going through the trouble of imitating the well-known caffeine pills.
“Sit down until it works. The boss might need another while to come back”, she said gently.
Tian Zhu nodded and let himself sink into a soft chair.
This was his older brother’s office, and people weren’t going to enter randomly. It was quiet in here, and the expensive furniture said a lot about the owner’s status. With how neat and tidy everything was, either the secretary or some other assistant was helping Ling Xian keep it clean.
Now that he had a free minute, he pulled out the Gamblers’ phone. It had vibrated before, but he hadn’t wanted to pull it out, just in case Ling Xian would notice something was off.
Contrary to his thoughts, it wasn’t Aspen who had sent him a message, but an empty name.
Tian Zhu opened the chat with a deep frown and ended up finding messages that made his thoughts go blank. Every single one was sent in the same minute, as if the other person had not needed to type them out.
【 】
–Hello.
–Do not worry.
–This is the one who gave you this phone.
–We hereby inform you that you will not participate in this week’s game.
–We will continue next week.
–We look forward to playing again.
–Goodbye.
–With best wishes,
The whole chat was awkwardly written, as if someone wasn’t sure how to converse via message.
Finally, the name that should finish the message was changed to a blank icon. Whatever they had written there, the phone was not able to display.
For some reason, Tian Zhu imagined the two paper cut-outs leaning over a phone and excitedly writing a message but then ending up with the stiff chat he was seeing. They felt so much like children, but they were powerful.
They were both incredibly creepy and oddly harmless.
At some point, Aspen had also sent him a message. He glanced at it.
【Aspen】
–Am I the only one thinking that its adorable they inform us of that
Tian Zhu’s expression softened a bit. Aspen liked writing him random messages and it felt nice. It wasn’t as desolate with someone who regularly talked to you around.
Tian Zhu placed the phone back into his pocket and leaned back in the chair. Caffeine and sugar were beginning to work, so he felt better.
Aaaw~, kinda
I’m worried,,, was that pill really only caffeine,,