Can You Hold Me? Addicted to Gaming

Eccentric Song and the other two heard every word of the conversation between Fatty and me.

I said to them, "Brothers, I'm sorry."

But they said there was nothing to apologize for. Perhaps this was a good thing for me too. They were only worried about whether I would be able to handle danger in the future. Even I wasn't sure about that.

It was Eccentric Song who said, "It's fine. Think of it as us still being by your side. Didn't that fat bastard say so? Our abilities were actually bestowed by you. You possess all the strength of the three of us, don't you?"

Did I?

I asked myself inwardly.

"It's about time. Since you've already made your decision, let's begin." Fatty said with a grin plastered across his face.

Xu Qiuyan nodded. "All right."

I nodded as well.

For some reason, I felt a little lost inside, as though I were facing a life-and-death farewell.

I suddenly called out, "Fatty!"

"Call me Buddha Lord. My name is Baozhengfo, and I hate it most when people call me Fatty." Fatty shot me a glare.

"Okay, Fatty." I nodded earnestly.

Fatty rolled his eyes. "What the hell do you want to say?"

"You said that once I truly possessed all their abilities, they would disappear. I don't want them to disappear." I was telling the truth. I had already grown accustomed to their presence. In my heart, every one of them was family—my brothers.

Fatty frowned. "That's hard to say. It depends on you."

I was a little confused.

Fatty said flatly, "They were born because of you, and they may perish because of you. Whether they disappear or not depends on a single thought of yours. Understand?"

Xu Qiuyan held my hand and gently squeezed it, then looked at me and nodded.

She was telling me that whether Eccentric Song and the others could continue existing truly depended on me alone.

I smiled and said to Fatty, "Fine. Then let's begin."

Fatty placed his hands on the tops of Xu Qiuyan's and my heads. I felt a powerful warm current surge from his palms. At first, it felt like a spring breeze. Then it became like the height of summer, and eventually, it was as though I had been thrown into a furnace.

The heat was almost unbearable.

Suddenly, my mind went boom, as if I had seen a flash of lightning. Then I seemed to fall into an ice cave and shuddered. My eyes, which had been closed, flew open.

Fatty had already withdrawn his hands.

That was it?

I glanced at Xu Qiuyan. She said softly, "I can't feel their presence anymore."

I tried to sense them too, but I could no longer feel the presence of those three either.

Xie Xiaotang's side had finished as well.

She walked up to Fatty. "Buddha Lord, send me on my way!"

"Xiao Tang!" Gu Song called out tearfully.

Xie Xiaotang turned back and smiled faintly at him. "Live well. Take good care of Xiao Tian. We'll meet again in the next life."

Gu Song tried to rush over and grab her, but I pulled him back. "Perhaps this is the best ending for her."

Fatty said to Xie Xiaotang, "Sister Xie, let's go."

With that, he turned and left first, with Xie Xiaotang following behind him.

Gu Song sobbed uncontrollably. I gently patted him on the shoulder. "The dead can't come back to life. Besides, can you really bear to watch her suffer in this mortal world? Do you know that if it hadn't been for Fatty this time, her soul would sooner or later have scattered into nothingness? At least now she has a chance to be reborn. You aren't really that selfish, are you?"

Gu Song finally calmed down.

"You've already made one mistake." Xu Qiuyan said.

Gu Song looked at her, and she continued, "You turned your own child into a Kuman Thong. In truth, you imprisoned his soul forever and kept him from entering reincarnation. Have you ever considered that while you were alive, he still had someone to rely on—but what about after you were both gone? What would happen to him? At that point, he would no longer have any restraints. He might very well bring harm upon the world, and in the end, he would likely be reduced to ashes. To be honest, your selfishness robbed him of his chance to be reborn."

Gu Song's face was filled with shock.

Clearly, neither he nor Xie Xiaotang had considered this before.

"Then what do we do?" He finally couldn't stay calm any longer.

I sighed. "We can only talk about it when the time comes."

Xu Qiuyan said, "Let's head back."

The three of us got into the car. Yin Wuyu had been sitting in the back seat the whole time, holding a phone and playing a game.

"Is it fun?" I asked him.

I glanced at his screen. The guy was playing Honor of Kings. He was completely absorbed and in high spirits, utterly ignoring me.

Xu Qiuyan drove on the way back, while I sat in the passenger seat.

It was already past two in the morning. Old Du had booked us a flight for eleven at noon, and we had to leave for the airport at nine. If we went back now, we could still get a little sleep.

But when I lay in bed, I couldn't fall asleep. My heart felt empty.

Knock, knock!

I heard someone knocking on the door.

When I opened it, Xu Qiuyan was standing outside.

She came in and shut the door behind her. "I can't sleep."

Looking at her, I said, "Me neither."

She pulled me over to the bed. "Then let's lie down and talk for a while."

I nodded, and so we lay down on the bed. We were pressed closely together, and I could smell the jasmine-like fragrance of her body.

She wore only a thin nightgown, and I could even see her skin, white as snow.

We were so close that we could hear each other's heartbeats.

"Can you hold me?" she said softly. Her voice trembled slightly, and I could tell she was nervous.

I was nervous too. Deep down, I felt a faint sense of anticipation. It would have been a lie to say I didn't want anything to happen in a situation like this.

"I miss Sister Hong and the others."

Just as my thoughts were running wild, she suddenly said that.

Actually, I missed those three guys too.

My greatest daily pleasure had been listening to them bicker.

My mood instantly sank, and all my romantic thoughts vanished.

"Do you think that without them, I'll become the way I used to be? I'm scared. I'm really scared."

Xu Qiuyan buried her head in my chest, and I gently patted her back.

How could I not be afraid too?

All along the way, those three guys had given me confidence. No matter what danger I faced, I could handle it calmly because I knew I had a trump card. But now, that trump card had been taken away.

"It's okay. You still have me, don't you?"

Hearing that, Xu Qiuyan forced a smile. "Yeah. As long as you're here, I feel at ease."

I didn't know when we finally fell asleep. In any case, we talked about many things from the past. Some things I mentioned, she couldn't remember clearly anymore, while some things she mentioned, I had no impression of at all.

The next morning, Gu Song's knocking woke us up. It was already eight thirty.

Our phone alarms had gone off, but neither of us had heard them.

Xu Qiuyan and I woke up and looked at each other. A trace of shyness appeared on her face. She hurriedly jumped out of bed, opened the door, and ran toward her own room, forgetting that Gu Song was still standing outside.

Xu Qiuyan bumped into Gu Song. He froze at first, then looked at me with a strange expression.

I said awkwardly, "It's not what you think!"

Gu Song smiled. "What did I think? I didn't think anything. You two are lovers. Sleeping together is perfectly normal. But you need to hurry up, wash up, and get going, or you'll miss the plane."

"Where's Mute?" I asked.

He had shared a room with Mute the night before.

"That kid played games all night and is still playing now. I have no idea where he gets the energy."

My eyes widened. I regretted giving him that phone.

Once we were ready, we headed for the airport.

This time, we didn't drive. Old Du took us there.

"They've already arranged everything over there. Someone will pick you up when you arrive. The person meeting you is called Wu Lun, nicknamed Half-Immortal Wu," Old Du said.

I asked, "He's from Unit Nine too?"

"Yes. Like me, he only handles logistics on the outskirts and won't be involved in your actual operations."

As Old Du drove, he glanced at me through the rearview mirror. "Why do I feel like you're a little different from before?"

I said, "How am I different?"

"I can't put it into words. It's just a feeling."

Not long after the plane took off, Xu Qiuyan, who was sitting beside me, fell asleep first. I looked toward Gu Song and Yin Wuyu in the back row. Gu Song was holding a book and reading it with great interest, while Yin Wuyu had fallen asleep too.

If the flight attendant hadn't said phones had to be turned off, that kid would probably have kept playing.

That gave me a headache. He seemed completely addicted to gaming. When I spoke to him, he barely responded, if at all.