Death Progress Bar

to harm me while I’m on the government ship? Looks like he has no respect for the officials.
Besides, there isn’t necessarily something wrong with the card, this is all just in case.”

Though he said that, he still ordered every person who had been anywhere near the card to carefully wash their hands and faces, and Shi Jin was no exception.

In the bathroom, Shi Jin nudged Xiao Si in his mind: “Can you help me locate Long Shi? I’d like to confirm if he really is on Nine Eagles’ ship.”

Xiao Si said, somewhat sheepish,

Shi Jin frowned.
He thought for a moment, then said, “Okay, I’ll try to do something about the medium.
Can you at least scan the inside of Nine Eagles’ ship? Like the distribution of people and so on.”

Xiao Si replied brightly, glad it was able to help.

Happy, Shi Jin praised the system generously, then began to ponder where could he get something belonging to Long Shi.

Finally, he chose to start with Gua Two.

He took the game of Monopoly and snuck off to Gua Two’s cabin, pretending he really, really wanted to play with him.
Then, he brought the conversation to the topic of Long Shi—surreptitiously, he thought.

Gua Two picked up his token with disgust.
At Shi Jin’s question, he looked at him and answered directly: “It’s not that we intentionally let Long Shi go that year, he was just too cunning.
After betraying Jun-shao, he burned all his research and belongings and disappeared like a ghost, leaving absolutely no traces of himself behind.
At the time, everyone was busy trying to save Jun-shao’s life.
He managed to run away, taking advantage of the chaos.
We’ve never actually given up on searching for him, but we haven’t found any clues—Long Shi is too familiar with Annihilation’s means and the way it operates, so he was able to easily evade our pursuit.”

Shi Jin didn’t give up hope, “He really didn’t leave anything behind?”

“Really—he even found the adoption certificate Unce Long kept and burned it, the heartless, ungrateful son of a bitch.
In fact, I want to thank Nine Eagles for catching him—that fucking traitor should’ve been killed long ago,” Gua Two spit out.
In the end, he couldn’t force himself to play such a childish game, and pushed the board towards Shi Jin, waving him away.
“It’s too late to play games, I want to sleep.”

Shi Jin protested that the hour wasn’t late at all but gathered the game and stood up.

Gua Two called him back before he opened the door, warning, “Don’t ask Uncle Long about this—he may look stern, but in fact, he’s the most soft-hearted out of us all.
Long Shi’s betrayal was a knife in his heart.
Every time he hears somebody mention Long Shi, he’ll be depressed for a long time.
We’ll get Long Shi back, and Jun-shao’s body will get better, so calm down and stop worrying.”

Shi Jin paused and looked back at him.
He took a lollipop out of his pocket, threw it in his direction, opened the door, and left.

Once in the passage, he found Lian Jun was waiting outside the door of his cabin.
He blinked, stunned, then hurried over.
“Why aren’t you resting yet, Jun-shao? Did you need me for something?”

Lian Jun glanced at the game of Monopoly he held, then at the door to Gua Two’s cabin.
“No, it’s nothing important.
You were with Gua Two?”

“Yes.
I wanted to play with him, but he wanted to sleep and threw me out.”

“Why didn’t you just find me for that?”

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“Uh…” Shi Jin was stumped for a moment.
He thought frantically to find a reasonable excuse.
“A round of Monopoly is rather long, I was afraid I’d keep you up too late.”

Lian Jun gave him a deep look then reached for the game box and set it on his lap.
He turned the wheelchair around, saying, “My body isn’t this useless—I can sleep late from time to time.
Come on, I’ll play with you.”

Shi Jin glanced at his empty hand and Lian Jun’s back that seemed to say he wasn’t allowed to refuse.
He found that apparently, he dug a hole for himself, so he sighed resignedly and followed Lian Jun.

After they began, Shi Jin, who was intending to play casually, found that tonight’s game was strangely slow—not exciting at all and almost hypnotic.
Halfway through, he yawned, and his head began to droop.

“Sleepy?” Lian Jun asked in a low voice, putting down the dice.

Shi Jin rubbed his face hard and said, “I’m fine.
Let’s finish the game.”

“No.” Lian Jun swept the buildings and tokens off the board, directly disrupting the game, then moved his wheelchair to Shi Jin’s side.
He stroked the teenager’s hair.
“Shi Jin, is life on this ship boring?”

The hand touching his hair felt particularly comfortable, and Shi Jin lazily leaned back on the sofa chair.
Seeing that the game board was completely messed up, the remaining tension drained out of him.
He yawned again then shook his head to wake himself up.
“No, it’s actually pretty interesting.
I learned many things I didn’t know.”

Lian Jun didn’t speak, only helped him wipe the corners of his eyes, teary from yawning.

This made Shi Jin itchy, and he turned his head, avoiding his hand.
Perhaps affected by the warm atmosphere of the moment, or maybe sleepy enough that the worry overcame his self-control, he suddenly grabbed the other man’s hand and said, “I want to save you, Lian Jun.
I want to catch Long Shi and get the poison formula from him and make you healthy again.”

“I know.” Lian Jun didn’t free his hand but tightened his grip on Shi Jin’s hand instead.
He looked at the young man’s face and repeated, “I know… I deeply treasure your feelings.”

Shi Jin became a bit flustered, though he had no idea why.
“Do you have a plan for getting Long Shi back?” He asked.

Lian Jun moved closer to him.
“Yes.
Nine Eagles could grow to this point only because of my and government’s tacit permission and support, and I have my people inside.
However, Zuo Yang must’ve been exceptionally cautious about Long Shi’s matter, since they never found a clue.”

“He’s a valuable chip, after all,” Shi Jin said.
He looked at Lian Jun’s face, his gaze settling on the other man’s luminous eyes.
Half-consciously, he thought they seemed to contain some kind of magic power—just looking into them was enough to make him feel at ease.
He continued, “Today, you didn’t give Zuo Yang the response he wanted, who knows what he’ll do next…”

“Most probably, he’ll either leak some information or give me some kind of evidence to convince me Long Shi really is in his hands.
Then, when I’m thrown out of balance, he’ll start to make demands,” Lian Jun replied.
He looked at Shi Jin, who gazed at him as if spellbound, and his pupils dilated.
He entwined his fingers with Shi Jin’s and asked, his voice softening to a whisper, “Shi Jin, you’re watching me like this… Do you like looking at me?”

Shi Jin didn’t answer.
Abruptly, his body slid to the side, his eyes closing—he fell asleep.

Lian Jun: “……”

Xiao Si:

Shi Jin slept the night away and woke in his own bed to sunshine illuminating the cabin.
He couldn’t help but sigh with contentment.
“Oh wow, I slept so well, and I seem to have had a wonderful dream.
In this dream, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen entwined her hand with mine and looked at me tenderly.
Then, she even covered me with a quilt—it was so considerate of her.”

Xiao Si’s voice was robotic and monotone.

Shi Jin got out of bed.
He opened his mouth, about to say yes, but stopped and asked instead, “Will I get a fever like last time?” He couldn’t get sick at such a critical time.

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The system was silent for a while then replied,

“Come on then.” Satisfied, Shi Jin climbed back into bed and closed his eyes.

Ten minutes later, he staggered into the bathroom, the world spinning.
He washed his face with cold water, which helped a little, then supported himself against the wall and uttered weakly, “This isn’t ‘just a little dizzy,’ you know…”

Xiao Si’s voice was still robotic.

Shi Jin finally noticed something was not right and asked, puzzled, “What’s wrong with you? You’re acting a bit weird.”

For a moment, the system was quiet.
Then, without warning, it burst into tears, and its crying was exceptionally heartbreaking.

Shi Jin was both shocked and worried.
“Xiao Si?”

Xiao Si began to hiccup.
Its misery was obvious, but it still said determinedly,

Shi Jin: “……”

At breakfast, Shi Jin found that Lian Jun’s appetite didn’t seem good and he ate much less than usual.
It worried him.

Lian Jun claimed it was nothing, that the food on the ship was monotonous, and he was a bit tired of it.

Shi Jin didn’t say anything, just looked at the ten-pages-long menu, feeling that Lian Jun’s old problem of being a picky eater seemed to rear its head again.

The morning meeting began at 9 a.m., one hour earlier than yesterday.

Today’s meetings would focus on illegal criminal organizations.
They would have no direct impact on the participants, so the underworld bosses were much more relaxed than yesterday.

Zuo Yang swaggered to the government ship exactly the same as the previous day.
However, this time, he didn’t try to provoke Lian Jun.
He just took a look at Shi Jin, who stood in his usual position some distance away, and entered the conference room, a strange smile on his face.

Shi Jin blinked, baffled by his bizarre behavior, then secretly gave him the middle finger.

The meeting ended smoothly.
After it broke up, Zuo Yang, who was well-behaved the whole morning, approached Lian Jun.
He glanced at Shi Jin, who pushed the wheelchair, and said, “Lian Jun, Long Shi told me that he was nineteen when he gave you physical examination for the first time.
From then on, he was always by your side… Now you have another young subordinate—aren’t you afraid of repeating the same mistake? He’s about the same age, isn’t he? Young people’s love tends to breed hate—you should already know how scary that is.”

Gua One’s face darkened.
He whipped out his gun and aimed it at Zuo Yang’s heart.

Zuo Yang’s subordinates took out their guns and aimed at Lian Jun.

Shi Jin frowned.
He stepped in front of Lian Jun, glaring at Zuo Yang menacingly.

Zuo Yang raised an eyebrow.
He wore a ‘so it’s like this, after all’ expression on his face and said insincerely, “Wow, it seems I asked a stupid question—you’ve already made the same mistake.
I advise you quickly drive this kid away, Lian Jun, or he’ll become the second Long Shi.”