Don't deceive me, Qi Wu

The way Chu Qingjiu and Qi Wu got along had not changed much, because all Chu Qingjiu had done back then was give Qi Wu a chance.

Every morning, Qi Wu went next door to wake him up, and afterward they got along as normally as could be. Occasionally, Qi Wu acted spoiled or made unreasonable demands, and Chu Qingjiu generally indulged him.

After all, Chu Qingjiu was four years older than Qi Wu. Most of the time, he actually saw Qi Wu as a mischievous child who needed to be doted on.

After spending half a month in the organization, Chu Qingjiu had learned the basics and gotten acquainted with everyone there.

All the players had been selected by the instances just before they died. As long as they cleared a hundred instances, they could gain a new life and leave.

For example, even if Chu Qingjiu had not killed himself back then, there was still a very good chance he would have been selected. After clearing a hundred instances, his lung cancer would disappear completely.

Qi Wu had been entering instances for a year. He had entered his first instance at eighteen, just before he was nearly hit by a car.

After he cleared his first instance, he had gone straight from the intersection where the accident was about to happen to the other side, avoiding the collision.

As for Chu Qingjiu, clearing one instance might cause his late-stage lung cancer to recede, but a single clear was still not enough.

Once he had cleared half the instances, it would probably regress to mid-stage lung cancer, as though time had been reversed.

The organization was called the "Mutual Aid Society." As its name suggested, its members helped one another, and occasionally took on protection jobs to earn money.

The building had been provided by one of the previous presidents. That president seemed to have been the CEO of some company; in any case, he had no shortage of money. Qi Wu did not know exactly when the organization had been founded, only that it had been around for over ten years.

Chu Qingjiu simply listened quietly, amazed that the instances had existed for so long. Few people had truly left over all those years, because once players had completed a certain number of instances, restrictions were imposed on the difficulty levels they could enter.

Qi Wu could now only enter instances rated four stars or higher, which was why he had created the alias "Wu Qi" specifically to enter low-star instances.

A warning appeared whenever the next instance drew near. Bloody lettering would appear somewhere the player could see it, providing only the instance name and its general themes, leaving the player one day to find others to enter with and research it.

That morning, Chu Qingjiu had just gotten up to wash when a line of bloody lettering appeared on the mirror in front of him:

[Instance name: Xiangxi: Heart-Losing Gu]

[Difficulty: Two stars]

[Themes: Miao gu, love]

Chu Qingjiu lowered his eyes to read it, then continued brushing his teeth without any change in expression, waiting for the bloody lettering to disappear.

He had only heard a little about gu poison and did not know much about it. However, this was probably an original instance, meaning it was not under the jurisdiction of the four bosses and had its own rules and laws.

The previous instance had also seemed rather like an original instance, though it had apparently borne traces of the Ghost Tamer as well. Chu Qingjiu had never interacted with the Ghost Tamer, so he did not know how the man controlled ghosts.

"Are you up, big brother?"

Qi Wu's voice came from outside the door. Chu Qingjiu opened it to find him standing there in a black tracksuit.

Qi Wu flashed a warm, radiant smile and said with boundless energy, "Good morning, big brother!"

"Morning."

Chu Qingjiu responded coolly, then turned and went back inside.

Qi Wu followed him in and shut the door. He had just approached Chu Qingjiu when the latter said indifferently, "My next instance is tomorrow. It involves gu poison and love. It's called Mind-Losing Gu."

Qi Wu hugged Chu Qingjiu from behind and rested his head on his shoulder. After thinking it over carefully, he said, "There's someone here who knows about Miao gu. Should we ask her to join us for the next instance?"

"No need to go to all that trouble. It's only a two-star instance. Just go ask her what Mind-Losing Gu is."

Qi Wu kissed Chu Qingjiu on the cheek and said with a grin, "My reward."

Chu Qingjiu was already used to Qi Wu acting first and asking permission afterward, so he offered no objection. In truth, once the haze of passion in the car that day had passed, his reason had returned.

He felt that agreeing to give Qi Wu a chance had been far too rash. They had not spent much time together, and he did not know whether any part of Qi Wu's behavior that day had been an act.

So afterward, he had deliberately treated Qi Wu with a degree of coldness. But no matter how chilly his reactions were, that clingy pest still eagerly came running over.

"Big brother, I'll go ask now. I'll come find you in a bit."

Qi Wu spoke reluctantly, unwilling to leave.

But Chu Qingjiu merely gave a cool, indifferent "Mm," without even turning to look at him.

Only after he heard the door close did Chu Qingjiu walk to the bedside, pull open the nightstand's top drawer, and take out a palm-sized wooden doll.

Qi Wu's Birth Eight Characters were written on the back of the doll.

Chu Qingjiu had not spent these past days doing nothing to prepare. He had asked Qi Wu for his Eight Characters and secretly made a wooden doll.

He did not know whether Qi Wu had been putting on an act to deceive him these past days, because he could not see his affection score. Moreover, Qi Wu's affection score had stopped changing toward the end of the instance, making it hard for him to trust what Qi Wu said.

He intended to take the wooden doll into the next instance. If Qi Wu's affection score was normal, he would not turn him into his Empathic Puppet. But if Qi Wu was deceiving him...

Once Qi Wu became a puppet, he would never have another chance to deceive him.

He had already been feeding Qi Wu his blood for half a month. All he needed to do was drip a drop of blood from his heart onto the wooden doll's chest, and he would be able to feel everything Qi Wu felt.

Moreover, the wooden doll could ensure that Qi Wu retained his sanity. If Qi Wu ever came close to dying in an instance, he would not die as long as the puppet in Chu Qingjiu's possession remained intact.

Chu Qingjiu gently stroked the wooden doll's featureless face. His long, raven-black lashes lowered slightly, and with his long hair hanging loose, he looked somewhat forlorn.

Don't deceive me, Qi Wu.

He tucked the wooden doll into the innermost compartment of his backpack, then packed some changes of clothes, along with compressed biscuits, water, and similar supplies.

Once he finished packing, he walked to the window, drew back the curtains, and looked outside.

He was dressed simply, wearing a black high-necked thermal shirt, his long, thick black hair falling loosely down his back. Although the symptoms of his late-stage cancer were still there, they were less frequent, and he was doing a little better than before.

Besides, whenever he felt unwell, Qi Wu gave him yang energy. His condition was much better than it had been.

He quietly gazed at the view outside for a while. Before long, Qi Wu returned.

As soon as Qi Wu entered the room, he saw Chu Qingjiu leaning by the window, looking outside. He seemed to be lost in thought, or perhaps merely admiring the view. Either way, Qi Wu felt that he was in a poor mood.

"Big brother, what are you thinking about?"

Chu Qingjiu withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Qi Wu, saying indifferently, "Nothing. What did you find out?"

Seeing that Chu Qingjiu did not want to talk, Qi Wu could only let it go and tell him about Mind-Losing Gu instead.