Ji Ning got ready quickly, then went downstairs with Qin Ruwang. It was just past seven in the morning. Because it was the weekend, there weren’t many people on campus and even the cafeteria seemed a little deserted.
Ji Ning grabbed breakfast and sat across from Qin Ruwang on their small table. He ate a mouthful of porridge then asked Qin Ruwang casually, “Wouldn’t it have been easier to go home last night instead of getting up so early today?”
“I was thinking about something last night.” Qin Ruwang smiled lightly at Ji Ning, “I’ve finally figured it out, so now I’m going back.”
“Ah…” Ji Ning responded, without asking what the matter was about. The fact that he was going home meant that it was probably family matters. He didn’t want to force Qin Ruwang to speak about his private business, so out of consideration he kept silent.
Ji Ning was very grateful that neither Qin Ruwang nor Ying Qianqiu asked for details about Jiang Che, so he would give Qin Ruwang the same kindness.
Thinking about Jiang Che made Ji Ning remember the dream he’d had about him. Distracted, he picked up the boiled egg on his plate and cracked it open. The scalding egg landed in the palm of his hand.
“Hot!”
He dropped the egg back onto his plate, blowing on his reddened fingertips to get rid of the heat. Qin Ruwang put down his chopsticks and said, “Go and run it under cold water.”
“It’s fine…” Ji Ning wanted to refuse. He would have to go downstairs to use the outdoor taps, so he would rather stay on the second floor and buy a pastry. Anyway, he felt too lazy to move and the burn wasn’t too serious.
“We should cool it down.”
Qin Ruwang insisted. He grabbed Ji Ning’s wrist and led him downstairs to the taps, helping him run water over his scalded fingers.
The water that flowed from the tap was cold, but the places where his fingers touched Qin Ruwang’s still felt heated. Ji Ning felt a little dazed, and by the time he came back to his senses, Qin Ruwang had already pulled out a tissue to dry their hands. He’d rolled Ji Ning’s sleeves up to stop his clothes from getting wet.
“Does it still hurt?” Qin Ruwang asked.
Ji Ning shook his head and pulled down his sleeves, “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Qin Ruwang smiled, and Ji Ning said again, “Thank you Ruwang.”
“You’re welcome.” Qin Ruwang’s tone was casual. He seemed to think he’d done a very ordinary thing.
“It’s not just for this.” Ji Ning said, thinking about it, “For all the times before, thank you for taking care of me so much.”
As a roommate and friend, Qin Ruwang was really perfect. Whether it was bringing him breakfast and dinner, comforting him, or worrying about his injuries, every action made him feel warm and grateful.
“You don’t have to act so politely.” Qin Ruwang said, “It’s the same for you, isn’t it?”
“That’s true,” Ji Ning laughed. Of course he looked after Qin Ruwang in the same way, and tried to help him as much as he could.
Qin Ruwang nodded slightly, and the two of them went back to the second floor to finish their breakfast. After this, Qin Ruwang planned to take a bus from the university gate. Ji Ning accompanied him out of the university, and as it was early, they still didn’t come across many people.
This was friendship.
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.
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Jiang Che and Ji Ning had known each other for as long as they could remember. They had spent more time together in a closer, and more intimate relationship.
Even though there were many pains in life, this kind of friendship carried a powerful warmth.
He hoped they could still be like this together in the future.
The bus he’d been waiting for appeared in the distance. He was the only person waiting at the stop. Ji Ning stood next to him on the curb and said with a smile, “See you next week.”
“…”
Qin Ruwang’s figure froze and he stood silent for a few seconds. He turned around suddenly and looked at Ji Ning with a deep gaze, before leaning down and lightly kissing his forehead.
“See you next week.”
He stepped onto the bus, the doors closing behind him. Just like that, he was gone.
Traffic flowed like water on the streets, coming and going, seemingly never stopping.
Ji Ning stood on the side of the road with a stunned expression. The kiss didn’t surprise or panic him, he just felt a strong, sudden sense of loss.
He hurriedly took out his phone and sent Qin Ruwang a message, repeating it again.
[See you next Monday.]
[Good.]
After receiving Qin Ruwang’s reply, the inexplicable feeling in Ji Ning’s heart gradually subsided and he returned to the dormitory alone.
Huo Wuling had woken up by this point. He walked around in his pyjamas, a box of chocolate milk in his mouth. He glanced at Ji Ning, and the corners of his lips twitched into a smile, “They’re all gone.”
As he said this, he laughed softly, without explaining why. It didn’t sound like a happy laugh. Ji Ning didn’t speak to him, leaving him to himself, he was busy enough with the theatre group and preparing for Lai’s afternoon tutoring session.
In the afternoon, Ji Ning went to Lai’s house.
The door was opened almost immediately after he rang the doorbell. The handsome and sunny boy smiled brightly and greeted Ji Ning.
“Good afternoon teacher.”
“Good afternoon.”
Ji Nig returned his greeting with a smile and walked inside Lai’s house. Lai’s house was in a prime location in the city centre. It was a high end apartment in a place where every inch of space was expensive, but Lai’s house was still very large, which made it obvious that his family was doing well.
“Aunt and uncle aren’t here today?” Ji Ning hadn’t seen Lai’s parents when he came in.
“They’re working overtime today so they’ll be back late.” A sly smile crossed Lai’s face, “So could teacher play games with me after class? We haven’t played together for a long time.”
“Okay, but we have to finish today’s lesson first.”
Ji Ning had to hide how excited he was by Lai’s offer. Lai loved to play games and had two top of the range VR devices in his house. They weren’t even on the market yet, he’d got them through an internal relationship inside a gaming company. Even if he wanted to buy one, he couldn’t, so Ji Ning could only watch in envy.
But, even though he was only a few years older than him, he was Lai’s tutor, so he had to remain serious in front of Lai’s parents and had hardly ever touched Lai’s gaming equipment. They’d only played together once before.
They started their tutoring class. Lai was smart to begin with, but to free up more time for playing games, he’d greatly improved his efficiency today. He completed the tasks Ji Ning had set for him quickly, then whined at Ji Ning to open the VR devices.
One of the studies in Lai’s house had been transformed into a gaming room. The VR equipment took up a third of the space, because not only did he have a headset, there were also specially configured treadmills and various simulation devices in order to have the most authentic experience when gaming.
The two of them stood on the specialised treadmill, put on their headsets, grabbed the weighted ‘weapons’, and officially started the game. A welcome screen appeared in front of Ji Ning’s eyes.
The game they were playing was called ‘Dark Kingdom of Heaven’. He played a Necromancer, while Lai was a knight of the Temple of Light. What was interesting was that these two characters had a master and disciple relationship.
Ji Ning found it funny that he was Lai’s teacher both inside and outside of the game. He didn’t know how Lai felt about it, but he was quite satisfied with the situation.
Of course, as far as their levels were concerned, even ten of him couldn’t compare with Lai. During battles, Lai basically won them singlehandedly, Ji Ning just stood there and fired off random spells.
It had been a long time since the last time they’d played and it took Ji Ning some time to remember the plot of the story. At this point, the Necromancer had forced the young knight to become his disciple and had successfully trained the knight in dark magic. Last time they played, they’d travelled around the mainland in order to find materials for the knight’s staff.
The so-called staff making involved a lot of mini quests that raised their spell and skill proficiencies. Last time they played, Ji Ning and Lai had completed most of the mini tasks and only had the succubus’ territory quest left for the final missing material.
They chose the dungeon location on the map and their characters were immediately transported to the succubus’ castle. The game’s prompt told them that Ji Ning the Necromancer had sent the succubus Queen a message before their arrival, so when they entered the territory, they were warmly welcomed by the succubus.
“Welcome my dear Eidolon.”
The succubus Queen reclined on her throne, surrounded by male servants who tended to her needs. She called out the Necromancer’s name with a smile.
The Queen’s voice was extremely charming. She’d been carefully designed to fit the image of a demonic beauty, with a seductive face and body. Even though she was just a virtual character, she had an endless charisma.
The line that Ji Ning was supposed to say appeared on the game’s prompt. He read it out word for word, so the VR system could trigger the start of the plot point. “There’s no need for pleasantries, I’ve come for a succubus tailbone. Have you prepared it?”
“Of course I have it prepared, but I did tell you I wanted to exchange it for something of equal value.” The Queen said.
“Yet you never told me what you wanted.” Ji Ning said, “I don’t have any treasures with me.”
“That doesn’t matter.” Said the Queen, “I just want you and your student to do something for me. It shouldn’t be difficult, and once you’ve done it, you can take the tailbone.”
“What do you want us to do?”
“En…”
The Queen hummed. She shifted her position on the throne and said with an amused smile, “When your student began learning summoning magic, he summoned one of my people and was infected with succubus poison. I don’t know if you still remember?”
Ji Ning remembered that something like that had happened. When Lai’s knight first learned the summoning technique, he made a mistake and summoned a female succubus, who ended up poisoning him. This poison debuff reduced Lai’s combat power by 70%, which made it a very tricky fight to win.
Could it be that the Queen wanted justice for that female succubus and would have them fight against a group of succubi?
Ji Ning gripped the ‘staff’ in his hands tighter as the Queen continued to speak.
“My people are very unhappy. Not only did she fail to charm you, but you managed to hurt her as well. She was very angry about the fact that there were two men who weren’t captivated by her.”
“I dote on her very much and wanted to take revenge for her, but when I watched you through a charmed mirror, I saw some very interesting images.”
The Queen pointed to a large mirror hanging on the wall behind her and gave them a wicked smile.
“I found that the two of you were very close…it turns out you were a couple! That’s why you rejected her seductive charm, because your hearts already belonged to each other.”
Ji Ning paused, “…?” Was there such a setting in the game?
“Then please kiss in front of me.” The Queen smiled manically and said, “The more passionately you kiss, the higher the quality of the tailbone I’ll give you and I’ll also forgive you on behalf of my people.”
“Make your choice, the decision is in your hands Eidolon.”
Two options appeared in front of Ji Ning.
【Option 1: Kiss your knight student.】
【Option 2: Fight the Queen (insufficient level, can’t choose option).】
“Ah, I’m sorry teacher…”
Lai’s game avatar turned to him with a guilty look on his face.
“I didn’t think it would matter, but this is a game for couples.”
The author has something to say: Lai is still Lai
He’s got even more shameless!!
I just know Huo Wuling is going to break my heart…
Biting my sleeve for what’s to come for Huo Wuling! 🤧
Unrelated, but that’s a mighty fine looking pastry!
I feel like it’s going to be big…
Absolutely – I got hungry just trying to find the right picture!
Lai is defenitly one of my favorites, so shameless. I love him
He’s so shameless, but so cute – I like his indirect style of attack~
Your pfp is so adorable – why’s the baby crying?
A typo in the chapter
“Ji Ning went to Ark’s house.” Should be Lai’s house!
Thank you! I was missing our sweet little angel~
So, Lai is JC’s part that want to act teacher-student role play that bad huh.
Lai – teacher-student role play
Ozer – unresolved brother kink
Huo Wuling – little black room play??
This comment really made my laugh – Jiang Che is a good, upstanding ml who just wants to love Ji Ning in /every/ way possible~
At this point, I really wished this novel to be a harem instead. It’s getting a bit too much hard to hold back my tears….Lai’s gonna go too right😩😭
This novel is both harem and 1v1 all at once – I just have to remind myself that they won’t really be gone (╥﹏╥)
I’m reading through these last chapters so slowly this is all breaking my heart 😭😭 the Huo Wuling chapter is gonna break me for real ☹️
+1…. I feel like I’m going to cry (and that’s hard to do)
in the endless tears that poured out of my eyes, Lai’s shamelessness made me choked lmao
What does Qin Ruwang represent? I don’t sknow if I missed it ….