Death Progress Bar

set at the moment.
Not asking anything, he hugged him in return, soothingly stroking his back.
“If you’re tired, just rest for a while.
I’m here.”

Shi Jin nodded, then relaxed against him, breathing in the light scent of the shower gel on his body.

By the time they arrived at the club, Shi Jin had already been revitalized. As he pushed Lian Jun’s wheelchair inside, he complained dramatically, “The meal on the plane was so bad that I couldn’t even eat a few bites.
I’m about to starve to death.”

Lian Jun looked over his shoulder at him with a smile.
“The kitchen has prepared lunch for you.
May I accompany you to eat it?”

Happy, Shi Jin pushed him into the elevator, then leaned down to kiss him.
“You may, you can accompany me to drink soup.”

Lian Jun reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

After lunch, they retired to take a nap.
Because there were things on his mind, Shi Jin wasn’t able to sleep peacefully.
Lian Jun noticed, and once he’d decided the teenager had rested enough, he woke him up to play mahjong together.

Shi Jin knew his lover was busy, so he only played a few hands and stopped, with the excuse of wanting to continue watching a movie he hadn’t finished earlier.
He pushed Lian Jun to the study so that he could  continue dealing with his documents, then dropped down on the sofa, plugged some earphones into the tablet, and turned on the movie.

Lian Jun made sure that the teenager had settled in comfortably, then picked up a file to read.

Outwardly, Shi Jin was watching a movie, but in actuality, he was talking with Xiao Si.

“Xu Jie is definitely a lethal factor, and accounts for a large part of my progress bar,” he said with a tone of certainty.

Worried, Xiao Si asked, < JinJin, are you okay? >

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Shi Jin turned his head slightly to glance at Lian Jun behind the desk, focused on the documents.
“Lian Jun’s progress bar is stuck at 500, but the treatment has already begun, so it’s only a matter of time before it starts to go down.
Although my progress bar rose to 850, it should drop a lot after Xu Jie is dealt with, or maybe even disappear completely.
In short, things are going in the right direction, so everything is fine.”

For some reason, listening to him saying so, Xiao Si felt a little sympathetic all of a sudden.
However, it knew Shi Jin didn’t want to hear some useless comforting words, so it asked instead, < How are you going to deal with Xu Jie, JinJin? She’s always been hiding behind the scenes, and there’s still Shi Weichong… >

At Shi Weichong’s name, Shi Jin frowned.
“First, let’s see if we can find evidence that Xu Jie had been looking for someone to kill Yun Jin and the original ‘Shi Jin’.
Also, let’s get Xu Chuan to retract his testimony about Xu Tianhua and denounce Xu Jie instead—though I doubt he has any evidence that would be enough to take her down or he wouldn’t have been so passive.
As for Shi Weichong… He has the right to know the truth.
If he chooses to help his mother even after he knows everything, then we can only become enemies.”

< JinJin… >

“I’m fine.” Shi Jin shook his head and glanced at the progress bar in his mind, a rare cold look appearing in his eyes.
“If I can’t find any evidence that Xu Jie is the real culprit behind everything, then I’ll bait her to make a move again and catch her in the act.
No matter what, I won’t let her continue lurking in the shadows and making trouble!”

It was the first time that Xiao Si had seen such an expression on Shi Jin’s face.
Knowing that he was really angry, it said promptly, < Okay, then I’ll do my best to help you! >

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After they left M Province, Gua Two arranged for someone to interrogate Xu Chuan again, hoping to find out more useful information, but the lawyer refused to cooperate and just clamored to see Shi Jin.
In view of Xu Chuan’s emotional instability and occasional acts of madness, the prison authorities isolated him.

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Upon learning this, Shi Jin thought for some time, then called the prison and talked with Xu Chuan for a while.
After the conversation, Shi Jin determined that the man indeed had no evidence to convict Xu Jie, but did have a way to contact her.

“I refuse to give you the picture,” Shi Jin said at the end of the phone call, ruthless.
“But there’s one thing I need you to do.”

Xu Chuan almost hated him.
He wanted to slam the receiver down but endured, reluctant to give up his last glimmer of hope.
{If you give me the picture, I’ll help you.}

“If you don’t help me, I’ll tell Jian Chenghua everything you have done,” Shi Jin countered.

Xu Chuan’s breathing became heavy.
Obviously losing his temper, he growled, {Shi Jin, don’t think I’m afraid of your threats!}

“If you aren’t, then just hang up.” Shi Jin put the phone on speaker, put it aside, picked up the tablet, and began playing mahjong.

After more than ten minutes had passed, Xu Chuan’s voice sounded again.
{What is it that you want me to do?} he asked, compromising.

Shi Jin switched out the tablet for his phone once more.
“I want a list of people who helped Xu Jie harm my mother.
I also need you to contact Xu Jie and tell her that I’ve visited you.”

Xu Chuan’s voice dropped: {What are you planning?}

“What you most want to see: I’m going to let Xu Jie kill me,” Shi Jin replied.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Lian Jun raised his head and looked over with a frown, and quickly mimed that he’d spoken wrong and pleaded for mercy.

Lian Jun’s frown loosened a little; he gave Shi Jin a last warning look, then busied himself with the documents again.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Shi Jin turned his attention back to the conversation with Xu Chuan.

The phone was quiet for a while; when Xu Chuan finally spoke, he was calm again.
{Interesting.
I think I know what you want to do.
Alright, I’ll help you—let’s treat it as the last thing I can do for Jinwen.} With these words, he hung up.

Shi Jin lowered the phone.
He kept silent for a while, then asked, “Am I inciting her to commit a crime?”

Lian Jun was aware of Shi Jin’s plan.
He looked up at him, put the file down, and wheeled himself out from behind the desk.
Once he came to Shi Jin’s side, he took his hand, pulled the phone out of it, and kissed the younger man’s fingers.
“No, you aren’t.
Even if you don’t use Xu Chuan to stimulate Xu Jie, she’ll strike at you sooner or later.
I’ve sent people to keep an eye on her movements—they found that she’s covertly contacting underworld organizations, both in China and abroad.”

Underworld organizations?

Shi Jin frowned.
“Does she want to hire someone to kidnap me again?”

“Probably, but this time she’s not likely to get anywhere.
Hardly any organization in China would dare to provoke Annihilation by aiming at you, and while there are organizations abroad that can compete with us, she could never afford their price,” Lian Jun said, squeezing his hand.
“Are you afraid?”

Shi Jin smiled and replied, “I’m not—my boyfriend is so powerful that Xu Jie couldn’t hurt me even if she hired a group of immortals.” And with the progress bar, he would know as soon as danger was near, so he was doubly safe.

Lian Jun kissed the back of Shi Jin’s hand again, then returned to his desk.
After taking a look at the teenager who was sprawled on the sofa anew, he took out his phone and sent a message to Lu Shan.

That evening, Shi Jin’s progress bar rose to 900.
Shi Jin, brushing his teeth at the time, guessed that Xu Chuan must have contacted Xu Jie.
He bent down to spit out the foam, rinsed his mouth and washed his face, then walked out of the bathroom and flung himself on the bed.
Once there, his hand sneaked to the side and stealthily pulled the belt of Lian Jun’s night robe loose.

Lian Jun was leaning against the headboard reading a file.
The  corners of his mouth pulled up at Shi Jin’s action; putting the documents on the bedside table, he turned off the lamp, then twisted and pressed Shi Jin down on the mattress.

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Shi Jin didn’t mean to resist—on the contrary, he hugged his lover, using the opportunity to touch his chest and torso all over, pretending to salivate: “All this exercising really didn’t go to waste, just look at these lean little muscles…”

Lian Jun chuckled at this play-pretend rogue, and bowed his head to block that naughty mouth.

When he woke up, Shi Jin found that his progress bar had risen again, to 920.
However, he was very calm; as he sent a message to his five brothers inviting them to dinner, his mood could even be called good.

Shi Weichong answered first, saying that he was available at any time, and also actively asked Shi Jin what kind of food he wanted to eat, proposing to locate a good restaurant; Fei Yujing, who had already returned to L country, seemed to be very busy as he only replied after 10 p.m.—unfortunately, he wouldn’t have time to come back to China within the next month, and as an apology, he ordered Shi Jin a super-fancy seafood takeout for lunch the next day; while Rong Zhouzhong’s reply came very quickly, he said that he would only be available after two weeks because his schedule was packed and he couldn’t get away; Xiang Aoting’s message was quite concise—he was doing a task and should be free about a week later; Li Jiuzheng only returned one word: OK.

After analyzing the information, Shi Jin set the time for the dinner to a week later, giving up on Fei Yujing and Rong Zhouzhong.

Fei Yujing would be busy for a long time, so he didn’t mind.
Rong Zhouzhong, however, threw a fit—after asking in the brothers’ small chat group, he found he was the only one that Shi Jin had directly abandoned, and straight away he sent countless ‘You little bastard’ messages to Shi Jin.

Shi Jin only replied with ‘Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha’, almost succeeding in making Rong Zhouzhong faint from anger, then picked up his tablet and continued to play mahjong.

Lian Jun kept a weather eye on him; seeing the unhappy expression on his face, he moved the wheelchair to his side and stroked his hair.

Shi Jin stopped arranging the tiles on the tablet and looked up at his lover.

“Do you want me to go with you?” Lian Jun asked.

Shi Jin shook his head.
He turned his gaze back to the tablet and tapped a tile, replying, “This time, I’m mostly meeting with them to stimulate Xu Jie, so there’s no need for you to come.
Your health is the most important—the food outside certainly wouldn’t be as good for you as what’s here in the club.”

Lian Jun didn’t insist, only stroked his head again.
“Then I’ll ask Gua One and Gua Two to accompany you,” he said.

This time, Shi Jin didn’t refuse, but smiled and nodded.

However, before the date of the dinner arrived, the reply from the school Shi Jin had applied to arrived first.

Yet again, everyone gathered in the small living room to watch Shi Jin open it.

“How come I feel as if my daughter is suddenly all grown-up and about to get married?” Gua Two exclaimed, sighing theatrically.

Shi Jin gave him the middle finger.
He took the admission letter out of the envelope, glanced at it, and handed it to Lian Jun.

Lian Jun took it and read it carefully, then touched Shi Jin’s name on the letter.
“Let’s ask the kitchen to prepare you something delicious for dinner,” he said, a hint of pride visible in his smile.

“Then I’d like roasted lamb chops,” Shi Jin placed an order with cheer, not bothering to be polite.
In addition to the acceptance letter, there were several other papers in the envelope; Shi Jin checked them, but put them back once he found they were nothing special, then shooed away the busybodies.

Reluctant to be driven away, Gua Two gave a cold snort and said, “The military training in police academies is carried out in accordance with military standards.
Right, Gua One?”

Gua One threw him a slightly exasperated glance, but still cooperated: “Shi Jin, it’s time to pick up your physical training—you’ve abandoned it for too long.”

Shi Jin’s expression stiffened.
He pinched the muscles on his arm, which were ever-so-slightly too soft, thought of Lian Jun’s figure that no longer looked almost gaunt, and nodded guiltily—indeed, he seemed to have been a little too indolent recently.
Lian Jun was diligently exercising every day, so he had to work harder as well.

Translator: Eques
Editor: Con