Comments kept streaming across the livestream.
[...That question...was prepared specifically for him, wasn't it?]
[Production team, you...I'm about to start swearing.]
[These are all randomly drawn. It's just a question. Why are the comments making such a fuss?]
[Wen Yanyu's suicide caused such a huge stir before. How could the production team not know? Random, my ass.]
[Stop bullying my baby!! Aaaaah, you damned production team! I'm calling the police! I'm calling the police! This is the second time! The second time! Why do you keep picking on my baby! Why doesn't anyone else get this treatment! Damn you! I'm calling the police!]
[He brought it on himself, but this still feels a bit too far. You can't make a game out of something like this.]
Wen Yanyu barely reacted.
He had prepared himself before coming on the show. The production team wasn't running a charity, and there were only so many topics surrounding him.
The production team wanted traffic and buzz, and he wanted money. An equal exchange.
It was just that...
Wen Yanyu lowered his eyes and thought for a moment.
"It's freedom."
The moment those words landed, the entire place fell silent.
The host awkwardly rubbed his nose and repeated the question.
"The question asks you to describe how death feels. You can imagine it in advance, simulate the feeling, in a little more detail."
Duan Mufeng's expression immediately darkened.
"Isn't this a game? Why are you asking about dying? Are you sick in the head?"
Duan Mufeng sneered, his jaw tight, intense irritation churning in his dark eyes. "With a question like that, are we playing a game, or are you targeting someone?"
He pressed relentlessly, his tone thoroughly hostile.
Jiang Keyan propped her chin on her hand and cast the host a "puzzled" look.
Lu Mingxu watched him in silence.
Jiang Wanrou also stopped smiling and said gently, "That sort of question isn't suitable for a game."
The host's smile stiffened, and he hurriedly waved his hands. "No, no, all our challenges are randomly drawn from an online database."
"Huh?" Duan Mufeng leaned forward, about to challenge him again.
Wen Yanyu gave his arm a gentle tug.
Duan Mufeng paused and turned his head.
Wen Yanyu wasn't looking at him.
"If you want the detailed experience, you've asked the right person." Wen Yanyu's lips lifted in a soft laugh. "If you want details, it's roughly like this."
He raised his eyes and recalled it for a moment.
"If it's an external injury, pain comes first. If it isn't, fear comes first. Your will to survive peaks in that first moment. You instantly feel as though time has stopped flowing, and your mind goes blank."
"Then everything in front of you seems to blur, but that feeling passes very quickly. It seems like only a few seconds, yet also like a long time has passed. During this stage, there's a very loud ringing in your ears."
Wen Yanyu released his hold on Duan Mufeng's arm, his expression calm and natural, as though he were discussing the pleasant weather tonight, something utterly ordinary to him.
He continued, "Then comes calm. You can hear your own breathing and heartbeat. At this point, you can't feel pain. You just feel as though time has paused. If there are sounds around you then, you can still vaguely hear a little."
"But they're very muffled, impossible to make out, as though the sounds around your ears and all your senses have been blurred by a veil."
"Time stretches on and on. You'll remember many things, very quickly, yet very slowly. You'll remember the loved ones you care about, but it won't be very painful. Then you lose consciousness."
His words fell silent.
Wen Yanyu raised his eyes to the stunned host.
"But that's the more common, general experience."
"If you're in water, you can open your eyes. Your eyes won't hurt. Only your throat feels uncomfortable at first, but afterward, it's very peaceful. You can even see the light on the surface."
"If it's a car, you'll freeze the moment you're thrown out. After an instant of pain, your ears start ringing. It hurts for a while. I actually don't know exactly how long, but it feels like only a few seconds. Then you can't feel anything. Your body feels lighter, and you're dazed."
"If you want to know other specific experiences, like suffocation, swallowing gold, burning to death, explosions, blood loss, starvation, being buried alive, gunshots, death by a thousand cuts, freezing to death, car crashes, being crushed, or simply dying from sheer pain, I know hundreds, if not thousands. If you want to know, keep asking."
Wen Yanyu paused, then gave a casual laugh. "I might just know."
Moonlight spilled down from above. The black in those alluring eyes seemed to fade a little under its light, turning a translucent silver-gray, steeped in a deathly stillness beyond words.
Within that slender, frail body was a deathly aura, distilled from endless suffering through hundreds and thousands of cycles and deaths, so thick it was almost tangible.
It seemed ready to drag even the onlookers into the mire.
Wen Yanyu habitually curved his lips, without the slightest trace of a smile in his eyes, making those watching shudder.
The host hurriedly waved his hands.
The others around them said nothing either.
[Baby...hugs for baby.]
[That's a little scary, sob sob sob.]
[Wait, why does he make it sound so convincing? Anyone who's died want to tell us whether it's true?]
[Um...as someone who fell into water and nearly had to start a new life, it's honestly pretty close.]
[Off topic, but I feel like ever since Wen Yanyu left the hospital last time and started appearing on the show, he's been so lifeless. Listless, or what people usually call soft. He used to be listless too, but he still looked like a living person.]
[Agreed. I don't think his personality is soft. It's more a listlessness where he can't be bothered to move. He's a lot like my old gran before she passed away. Anyway, it's a subtle feeling, and watching him makes my heart clench.]
[Right, he's been zoning out a lot these past few days. He'll be playing with the kids and suddenly freeze as though he's disconnected. And yesterday morning, when Lu went to wake him up, he seemed to have had a nightmare. He was so frightened he shrank straight back into the bed. I feel like his mental state might be a bit worrying.]
Heavy rain began falling in the mountains again that night.
He hadn't eaten dinner and was a little hungry. The medicine had already kicked in, and he could no longer feel either his wound or his stomach.
The person on the bed huddled in the corner against the wall, looking tiny curled up beneath the covers. His hair drooped beside his ears, and the corners of his eyes were flushed red for some unknown reason.
His phone sat in front of him, playing a movie recap.
Wen Yanyu casually picked up a chocolate stick and unwrapped it. Holding a hand beneath it to catch the crumbs, he took a gentle bite, his cheeks puffing slightly as he ate one chocolate stick after another.
That was the scene Duan Mufeng saw when he came in from outside.
His heart melted.
His feet unconsciously stopped by the door.
Walking behind him, Lu Mingxu failed to notice that the person ahead had stopped and nearly ran into him.
"Tsk, Duan Mufeng, why are you blocking the way?" Lu Mingxu followed his gaze inside and instantly understood.
The corner of his eye twitched.
This pervert.
[Baby's lips! Who dares kiss them!]
[Move! Move! Move! I'm a college student, I get to kiss him first!]
[Aah, baby's so cute. Is baby watching cartoons? So cute. Kisses for baby's little face. Baby looks like a little bunny. Mommy kisses! Mommy kisses! Mommy will kiss you to death! Keh-heh-heh! Keh-heh-heh!]
[I just noticed, why does Wen Yanyu always curl into a ball to sleep? It's cute, sure, but isn't he uncomfortable?]
[Now I know why that guy from the Fu family still hasn't done anything to him after he clung to him for so long. Even if he doesn't like him, this guy really is pretty cute sometimes.]
[I've already watched my second bro come to laugh at someone and end up falling for him himself. I'm laughing so hard I want to die.]
[So can someone dig into what happened between Wen and Fu? What's actually going on with them? That phone call just now left me confused. Did they date?]
[They never dated. They were friends, really close. Wen saved Fu's life. A friend's friend's friend of Fu's said he dragged him out of a car and gave him first aid, keeping him conscious the whole time. Otherwise, Fu might've died, or at least been left disabled. That's why the guy from the Fu family never had the heart to really do anything to him. But he really does hate him now, hahaha.]
[? Person above, please spill.]
[I'm dying. I feel like the most interesting part of this variety show is actually the comments. Seems like a lot of insiders have slipped in over the past two days.]
[Of course. Everyone's here to see what kind of person could make a big shot unable to bring himself to blacklist him, and even abandon his business and rush back from abroad to pick him up. (Laughs.) Besides, that guy from the Fu family has plenty of gossip around him too.]
Before you continue