The junior student was stunned on the spot.
She looked at Yan Qiu, then at Lu Qiao behind Yan Qiu, then back at Yan Qiu, and then at Lu Qiao behind him.
The two of them were pressed tightly together.
The time… She glanced at her terminal. Exactly seven o’clock.
At exactly seven o’clock, the unparalleled First Marshal had barged into her confession scene and was clinging to the person she had been confessing to.
The junior student swayed, shocked, and took a step back.
Lu Qiao felt that something was wrong. He reached out and tugged at Yan Qiu, wanting to squeeze in front of him.
Yan Qiu caught his hand, firmly blocking him behind his own body, while his cold gaze swept toward the junior student again and again.
The two began a stalemate right there, staring wide-eyed at each other, while the junior student was simply: “…”
How should she put it? She suddenly had no desire to speak at all. She even suddenly recalled how, at noon just now at the competition venue, when she had awakened from the dizziness caused by the mental-force attack, she had seen the two of them standing together…
At the time, she had thought they were rivals who appreciated each other, which was why they had remained good brothers after all these years.
So she had simply been too innocent?
Ha… Hahaha…
Lu Qiao actually could not squeeze his way in front of Yan Qiu no matter how hard he tried, so he could only stand behind Yan Qiu with a flushed face and say to the junior student, “Um… I’m sorry. I-I don’t have any plans to date right now, so I’m, I’m sorry…”
Actually, he often encountered confessions back when he was at school, but he genuinely had no intention of dating. And now that Yan Qiu had crashed into this scene, it was way too embarrassing. Lu Qiao felt as though he was about to explode.
The junior student gave an awkward laugh. What else could she do besides laugh awkwardly? She could not see Senior Lu Qiao standing behind Marshal Yan, but Marshal Yan’s gaze was practically freezing her to death…
Thus, the junior student forced out an awkward laugh. “It’s okay, it’s okay. So you two have been locked together…”
“Yeah,” Lu Qiao said awkwardly. “Please don’t tell anyone…”
“I know, I know.” The junior student looked like she was about to cry. “I’m sorry for disturbing you two… I wish you happiness!!”
After saying that, she bowed ninety degrees again, her ponytail swinging all the way to the front. Once she finished bowing, the junior student turned around and ran off in tears!
“Wait, we’re not that kind of—” Lu Qiao took a step forward and reached out to stop her, only to be caught again.
Yan Qiu said coolly, “I disturbed you two?”
“…” Lu Qiao emphasized, “No, you have to let me explain properly, otherwise it’ll be so awkward for the girl!”
Yan Qiu’s gaze toward Lu Qiao grew even colder.
Lu Qiao helplessly said, “All right, all right. I know you didn’t come here on purpose, but really, next time you run into something like this, let me finish what I’m saying!”
“Next time?” Yan Qiu said coldly.
“Yeah, of course there could be a next time.” Lu Qiao rolled his eyes around and whispered, “You’re not the only popular one.”
Hmph!
Yan Qiu paused. His grip on Lu Qiao’s hand tightened slightly, and his voice sank. “I’ve never encountered anything like this.”
Lu Qiao froze. “What?”
Yan Qiu slowly said, “I mean, I’ve never been confessed to.”
“…” Lu Qiao looked at him strangely. “Impossible.”
Yan Qiu narrowed his eyes slightly. “Do you think I need to lie to you?”
Lu Qiao: “…”
Seriously?
He looked Yan Qiu up and down. From a man’s perspective, Yan Qiu was flawless in both handsomeness and heroic bearing. His strength was top-tier, and his family background was even more perfect. Besides, weren’t Yan Qiu’s female fans spread throughout the entire Universal Alliance? How could it be possible that he had never been confessed to?
Lu Qiao’s mind turned, and he suddenly realized!
“It must be because you’re too cold,” Lu Qiao said. “Yeah, it has to be that. You’re too aloof. Girls don’t even dare approach you when they see you, so of course they wouldn’t be able to confess to you face-to-face! But there are tons of girls confessing to you through the internet!”
What was this called again? Something that could only be admired from afar but not approached?
A flower on a high mountain?
Yan Qiu released his hand and said淡ly, “You’re rather easy to approach.”
“I don’t put on airs.” Having figured this out, Lu Qiao found it somewhat amusing. He moved closer to take a look at Yan Qiu and smiled. “Actually, you’re pretty gentle. They just don’t understand you.”
After saying that, Lu Qiao’s face reddened, and he felt somewhat embarrassed.
Yan Qiu’s gaze fell on Lu Qiao again.
Lu Qiao remembered what the curator had said and lowered his head. “Um… I know now. I know… that you and the curator know each other.”
Yan Qiu was slightly stunned. After a moment of silence, he asked, “He told you?”
“Yeah! The curator didn’t deliberately tell me without your permission. He just accidentally let it slip.” Lu Qiao nodded and whispered, “Yan Qiu, you’ve done too much for me. I really…”
He slowly raised his head and looked at Yan Qiu, his voice hoarse. “I really don’t even know how to thank you anymore.”
Yan Qiu also lowered his eyes to look at him, his voice gentle and unhurried. “Lu Qiao, live happily and work hard. Cast aside all your reservations and live as the person you most want to be. As long as you can do that, consider it repayment to me.”
Lu Qiao’s eyes widened slightly, and it felt as though his heart had been fiercely squeezed.
What kind of person would have such expectations of him?
His mother, who had died giving birth to him? His father, who had fallen on the battlefield? Or his grandmother, who had cared for him for many years before eventually passing away from illness?
And Yan Qiu? What identity did he have to do all these things for him? What identity did he have to hold such expectations for him?
At that instant, Lu Qiao fell into confusion. His mind buzzed, and he could not figure anything out. Yet his gaze had become entangled with Yan Qiu’s, unable to separate.
For a moment, there was silence.
Suddenly, a faint sound rang out, interrupting their conversation and breaking the atmosphere.
The two came back to their senses and looked away from each other.
Yan Qiu lowered his head. His terminal had received a message from Luo Ye:
“Where are you two?”
Yan Qiu said to Lu Qiao, “Let’s go upstairs first.”
Lu Qiao: “…Okay.”
As they walked up the stairs, Lu Qiao always felt that he still had something he wanted to say, but he did not know what. Yan Qiu did not take the initiative to speak either. In the end, he could not help asking, “Why did you have the curator keep it from me?”
Yan Qiu did not look at him. He only said, “If it were you, would you choose to let me know? If you wouldn’t, then why?”
Lu Qiao froze.
“And also…” Yan Qiu held his hand tightly and asked, “Lu Qiao, that night five years ago, what exactly were you crying about?”
At the thought of that night, Lu Qiao’s entire body tensed.
The two arrived upstairs, where Luo Ye was already beside the nurses’ station, waving at them.
“Your cousin has already woken up. After waking up, he found out that no matter what, he would be entering the frontline army, so he said he wants to undergo the genetic closure surgery.” Luo Ye shrugged.
Lu Qiao looked down the corridor and saw Yu Liang poking his head out of the hospital room.
The moment Yu Liang met his gaze, he instantly pulled his head back.
Inside the hospital room, Yu Liang said incredulously to his mother, “Mom, Lu Qiao and Marshal Yan are holding hands! Could the two of them have been locked together?”
Yu Liang’s mother trembled. “They definitely have. Before leaving, the Third Prince even warned me not to say anything carelessly.”
Although he had been smiling, somehow that smiling expression looked terrifying no matter how she looked at it.
Yu Liang grabbed his head in despair. “Lu Qiao isn’t going to tell Marshal Yan about how I bullied him back then, is he?! Do I even still want to join the military?! And, and when he lived at our house back then—”
His mother hurriedly said, “Stop talking!”
Yu Liang trembled. “What exactly is going on with him? How did he end up having that kind of relationship with Marshal Yan?!”
He had thought that he could still have the upper hand over Lu Qiao now. He had never expected that not only would Lu Qiao beat him senseless, but Lu Qiao seemed to be on his way to soaring into the heavens?!
Beside the nurses’ station, Luo Ye smiled.
He and Yan Qiu had not been trying to scare anyone in the hospital room earlier. The current situation of mental-force manipulators was simply like this: if one wanted to enter the military smoothly as a mental-force manipulator, one had to face the frontline head-on.
Luo Ye continued, “Oh, right. I called you two over because I received some news. The C1 Starfield Administration has already deciphered this world’s virus. They’re about to hold a press conference.”
As he spoke, a holographic screen popped up above the nurses’ station. It displayed the news channel, and the press conference had officially begun. The director of the C1 Starfield Administration was currently announcing the deciphering report to the media.
Lu Qiao was somewhat nervous. Like everyone else on this floor, he looked up and quietly watched the press conference.
As the press conference proceeded, everyone’s expressions became increasingly astonished.
After this world’s virus attacked the world’s core system, the rules governing the world’s operation had changed.
Every night from seven o’clock until six o’clock the following morning, countless life forms throughout the universe would be locked together in pairs.
All of the locked life forms were over eighteen years old. It was inexplicable, yet strangely harmonious…
When teleporting, which one of the two would be transferred to the other’s side was something that changed randomly.
The rules came with their own unlocking mechanism. Once the requirements were fulfilled, the two would automatically unlock.
And the requirement was—
The two people who had been locked together needed to be infinitely intimate.
Immediately, the press conference erupted into an uproar, and the entire floor erupted into an uproar as well.
The director of the C1 Starfield Administration calmly spoke words that left everyone utterly confused, while Lu Qiao was already dumbfounded.
Infinite what? What kind of intimacy?
What the hell was this???
“Ah, infinitely intimate,” Luo Ye leaned against the nurses’ station. After watching the report, he turned back to look at the two of them and said with a grin, “Otherwise, why don’t you two kiss? No, it should be—”
“—a French kiss?”
Lu Qiao: “…????”
One second ago, Lu Qiao had still been immersed in the touching atmosphere created by Yan Qiu. The next moment, he had been thoroughly traumatized by the C1 Starfield Administration.
After getting onto the aircraft, he curled up in a corner and frantically browsed the internet.
The internet had already gone crazy. The Starblog hot searches were completely dominated by the world’s virus.
“They didn’t say under what conditions people get locked together. So does that mean they’re secretly in love with each other?!”
“They’re making you be infinitely intimate and you still don’t get it?! The virus is telling you two to get together!!!!”
“Fuck, that’s way too dirty! The dirtiest virus in history?!”
“Dirty is dirty, but strictly enforcing the eighteen-year-old age limit and all that—the virus’s survival instincts are pretty strong too, hahaha!”
“Where did this stupid virus come from? Which stupid parallel world’s setting is this??? Are the residents of that world okay?”
“By the way, has anyone actually done it? Please tell me, is eighteen centimeters deep enough? Is it enough for ‘infinite intimacy’?”
“Does infinite intimacy have anything to do with length? What are people born short supposed to do?”
“What’s wrong with being short!! Being locked together with the person you love for your entire life isn’t pretty good?”
“…”
Lu Qiao’s fingers trembled as he scrolled.
What? How was he supposed to do this? How could they unlock themselves? Someone, please tell him! What were he and Yan Qiu supposed to do…
Beside him, the man sat there with one hand propping up his chin, watching him the entire time.
Lu Qiao curled up in the corner, scrolling and scrolling, when he suddenly heard the man ask, “Want to unlock?”
Lu Qiao stiffened and slowly turned his head, silently looking at him.
The man’s eyes were full of teasing.
Lu Qiao: “…”
Lu Qiao: “…Why are you so relaxed?! You’re locked too, you know!!”
Lu Qiao continued scrolling in despair. He kept scrolling until he came across a post and timidly said, “Look, the netizens said that a… a French kiss doesn’t work!”
After saying that, he sneakily glanced at Yan Qiu. Yan Qiu also glanced at him.
Lu Qiao’s face turned completely red, and he continued scrolling.
No way, right? They really had to do it…?
Netizens, mighty netizens, had anyone already done it…? Could someone please give them some feedback…
Suddenly, a warm breath approached his ear.
The man said in a low voice, “Even if we really have to try, it’s a matter of two or three hours. Why are you so nervous?”
Lu Qiao’s entire body trembled. “…Two or three hours? Can’t we solve it in ten minutes?”
Yan Qiu was stunned and glanced at Lu Qiao’s lower body. “You…”
Lu Qiao clamped his legs together and shouted in embarrassment and annoyance, “I’m not impotent! It’s not like I’m enjoying it. Ten minutes to solve the problem!”
Yan Qiu laughed. He leaned back, fixedly looking at him, a fragment of starlight shattered across his eyes.
“Lu Qiao, I would only do this for enjoyment.”
Lu Qiao’s face turned so red it seemed as though blood could drip from it.
The temperature was too high, and even his breathing became hurried.
What was this… Why was he telling him about this kind of thing?!
…
One minute later.
Lu Qiao asked quietly, “…So have you ever enjoyed it?”
Yan Qiu’s face was expressionless. “No.”
Lu Qiao breathed a sigh of relief.
Good. They were still evenly matched.