Ch 102: TGCIR

Tang Lu had just left, and Li Weilan was about to go out when Fu Yanzhou walked in.

His fingers were clenched tightly, and his lips were pressed until they turned white.

However, when he looked up at Li Weilan, his eyes were bright, his gaze firm, evidently having made up his mind. “Brother Li, I’m going to find my senior brother. I’ll go back with him.”

Fu Yanzhou requests your return to the research institute. Do you agree? (Y/N)

This mission surprised Shen Cheng. Fu Yanzhou’s efforts alone had almost accelerated the research progress of the base by 100%. Although he now had a few cooperating researchers under him, they all followed his guidance and command. Currently, most of the tech tree in the game had been unlocked, but Fu Yanzhou remained the head of the base’s research.

She glanced at Fu Yanzhou’s attributes and saw that his loyalty to the base was close to maximum. It wasn’t because he missed the research institute.

With Fu Yanzhou being like this, why would he consider going back?

After saying this, Fu Yanzhou looked down at his own toes in silence, waiting for his response.

Li Weilan’s brow furrowed slightly.

Although there were indeed several considerations for sending Fu Yanzhou to convey Bai Su’s situation to the research institute, such as repairing his relationship with the Academy, utilizing his trusted status in the Academy to expedite matters, and hoping to divert trouble away from Noah’s side so the Institute wouldn’t pay attention to Noah’s abnormalities, Li Weilan understood something when Fu Yanzhou mentioned going back to the research institute.

He suddenly understood something and frowned. “Not necessary.”

He didn’t say he disagreed, but that it wasn’t necessary.

Fu Yanzhou was surprised. He looked up at him somewhat anxiously, then lowered his head again. “But apart from me, no one else can—”

“Fu Yanzhou,” Li Weilan said somewhat impatiently, “what do you think your senior brother is like?”

“Senior brother,” Fu Yanzhou hesitated for a moment, “is someone who will do anything to achieve his goals.”

“Yes,” Li Weilan nodded. He sighed softly, but a smile slowly appeared at the corner of his lips. Although he was talking to Fu Yanzhou, Shen Cheng felt that these words were meant for her before the screen. “Perhaps I had the opportunity to become like him, but I’m not. Your senior brother has no concerns, no scruples, and no beliefs.”

“Do you have that?” Fu Yanzhou blurted out. When Li Weilan mentioned “belief,” he paused for a moment, and even his smile seemed to contain a hint of sweetness, looking more like he was talking about a lover.

Who would show such an expression when talking about their god?

“I do,” Li Weilan affirmed without hesitation the absurd statement. “When I’m in dire straits, there’s always a hand to save me, always eyes watching over me. Whenever I need her, she’s there, anytime, anywhere.”

Fu Yanzhou shuddered, and a sarcastic comment slipped out before he could stop it. “Are you talking about a stalker?”

Both Li Weilan and Shen Cheng paused for a moment, then chimed in together, “Only those without feelings are stalkers.”

But regardless, Fu Yanzhou felt disheartened for a moment. “You think my going back means resorting to any means necessary, but…” Perhaps it’s the only solution.

He fell silent for a moment, glanced at Li Weilan, furrowed his brow slightly, and said nothing.

Shen Cheng now understood why Fu Yanzhou suddenly mentioned going back to the research institute.

He felt that by being there, they wouldn’t have an informant and wouldn’t know the current situation of the Academy’s development. He still felt indebted to Li Weilan and believed that he hadn’t repaid that debt, so he was willing to go back to the institute as an informant, thinking of gathering more intelligence for Noah.

In theory, it was feasible, but seeing Fu Yanzhou’s pale face after just a few words, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but look at the small figure of Fu Yanzhou on the screen, neat and snow-white in his shirt, with a slightly affectionate look in his eyes. Fu Yanzhou, you really aren’t suited to be a spy. With your social anxiety like this, can you lie? Can you deceive your senior brother?

Her thoughts aligned with Li Weilan’s, so when Li Weilan persuaded Fu Yanzhou that the base didn’t need a spy, Shen Cheng also decisively clicked “no” on this task.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Fu Yanzhou’s gaze blurred for a moment.

His lips moved, but in the end, he didn’t say anything, just nodded despondently.

Shortly after Shen Cheng’s refusal, the system suddenly flashed a notification.

Fu Yanzhou had left the base. The current research speed is 50. Please reset the director of research and research direction.

This was the first time Chen Cheng encountered a situation where a character didn’t follow her choice after she selected a storyline.

Fu Yanzhou had left the team.

Even when Shen Cheng clicked on the map, she couldn’t find the small figure with slight OCD, cleanliness, and occasional blushing that she had seen before.

Fu Yanzhou seemed to have melted into the vast ocean. Shen Cheng speculated that this character, who had single-handedly advanced the research progress of the base due to his OCD, had followed Tang Lu’s team back to the research institute.

This was something neither she nor Li Weilan had expected.

Li Weilan was very irritable.

Shen Cheng could see dark clouds over the character’s head, indicating that Li Weilan wasn’t over this matter.

“Lanlan,” Shen Cheng looked at him, feeling sorry for him and not knowing how to comfort him.

Li Weilan sighed deeply. “Regarding the research, I know I can’t completely blame him. But over the past year, although I knew he often felt guilty towards me, I’ve never discussed this matter openly with him. Although it was Fu Yanzhou who suggested using people for experiments, he wasn’t the one pushing for it. And regardless of whether he was involved or not, Xia Jinshi would have made the same decision in the end.” But he had never said these words to Fu Yanzhou.

He had indeed harbored resentment over what had happened to him.

But regarding Fu Yanzhou, and the contributions and achievements he had made in research over the past year, Li Weilan understood. He knew that his resentment was slowly dissipating.

However, Fu Yanzhou didn’t apologize, and he didn’t have the chance to forgive him either.

But this time, Fu Yanzhou left as he said he would. To put it nicely, it was for the sake of the base, but to put it bluntly, perhaps it was because of the lingering guilt in his heart, forcing him to go back as an undercover agent.

This departure was unpredictable.

Fu Yanzhou had said Xia Jinshi was his senior brother, but given Xia Jinshi’s character, if there was something he was interested in, would he let a minor brotherly relationship stand in his way?

Would he show mercy just because of their brotherly relationship?

Even Shen Cheng, for the first time, felt as if this wasn’t just a game, but the real world.

For the first time, she felt that the people and events happening here had free will.

That night, Shen Cheng couldn’t sleep.

She looked at the sky outside the window, filled with stars tainted by light pollution, thinking about Lanlan in the game and the many players she had seen die repeatedly.

She might not be the best, but she was already the most suitable for them.

Shen Cheng didn’t know who made this game or what its purpose was, but she was sure that if this game fell into the wrong hands, neither Zai Zai nor Noah would have ended up where they were today.

This incident sounded an alarm for her. This time, Fu Yanzhou wasn’t constrained by the game because he had unresolved issues in his heart.

This indicated that blindly following tasks to make choices for them wasn’t foolproof anymore.

So in the future, if some options conflicted with the controlled person’s own will and that person’s will was strong enough, those options might fail.

So, as for Lanlan,

What’s most important to Lanlan? Is it revenge?

If revenge is all that’s on his mind, then he wouldn’t have tried to stop Fu Yanzhou today, because having an informant in the research institute would clearly be more beneficial than harmful to him.

But there was only one thing she couldn’t help with now.

Shen Cheng vaguely guessed what he wanted. She didn’t dare to think deeply, but even just thinking about it made her feel suffocated and anxious in her throat.

She really wanted to be by his side.

She really hoped to fulfill his wish.

But through the phone screen, it seemed safest for him.

After arranging things at the base, Li Weilan and Tang Lu went to the base in J City together.

The estimated arrival time was 5 days. Shen Cheng estimated that they definitely couldn’t catch up with the frantic researchers returning to the Institute.

But even if they couldn’t catch up, Tang Lu brought along many bodyguards and ability users for safety on the road, so there shouldn’t be any problems.

However, from what Tang Lu and Li Weilan said, it seemed that there had been long-standing grievances between the leader of the J City base and the Institute. They seemed dissatisfied with the Institute, which held a position similar to that of an emperor, and Xia Jinshi. Now that the Institute had forcefully taken away their only healing ability user for human experimentation, this matter was unlikely to be dropped.

During the day they found an abandoned old house to stay in, the bodyguards went to clean up the garbage and potential dangers in the house. The two men stood at the door, Tang Lu glanced at the map, sighed, and said, “I wonder if Susu is being tortured by the people from the Institute.”

His face showed clear worry.

In Li Weilan’s view, Tang Lu’s affection for Bai Su was actually quite superficial.

He would spend money on Bai Su, and he would be almost completely obedient to her. He even frequently expressed longing for her. But this longing was just superficial; Tang Lu didn’t actually care that much about Bai Su. Otherwise, he would have found various ways to ensure her safety long ago.

Could Tang Lu really not come up with 8,000 points?

Impossible.

So, in reality, Tang Lu should bear most of the responsibility for Bai Su’s disappearance.

But Li Weilan naturally wouldn’t say this out loud. He knew that beneath Tang Lu’s sighs, there were other implications.

“The people from the Institute took Miss Bai away for research, not just to trouble her. We’ll just get Miss Bai out once we arrive at the base,” Li Weilan said.

Tang Lu paused for a moment, then suddenly said, “Mr. Li is young and talented, probably still single, right? I have a sister.”

Before he could finish speaking, he met Li Weilan’s strange gaze.

Tang Lu saw the handsome man pointing to the sky with a dreamy, sleepwalking-like tone, saying, “But I have a girlfriend, and she’s watching us.”

For some reason, Tang Lu shivered.

Shen Cheng looked at these lines and felt speechless. What was Tang Lu trying to do, arranging a marriage?

She thought for a moment, then gently pulled Li Weilan’s sleeve. But he was even worse. He deliberately raised his hand, and Tang Lu saw that his sleeve was indeed moving without any wind.

His eyes widened.

His first reaction was to look around in all directions, but there were no ghosts or strange things.

Li Weilan smiled faintly. “It’s a pity you can’t see my girlfriend. She’s really here, always by my side.”

Looking at Li Weilan, being so powerful yet single without any messy relationships or affairs, Tang Lu just wanted to introduce his sister to the man. If he wanted to refuse, he could refuse. There was no need to say such eerie words.

Tang Lu felt his hair stand on end all over his body. He sighed, feeling disheartened. “Well, that’s a shame. My sister is a great beauty.”

“But no one is more beautiful to me than her.” Li Weilan smiled lightly, keeping others at arm’s length.

Alright, the lunatic is for real. I’m backing off, Tang Lu decisively thought.

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