[God, is this the Qi Yu I know? Is he acting cute? My whole worldview is falling apart!]
[Don't fall apart. Guys, doesn't everything make sense now?]
[Exactly! I was wondering how this show could possibly have managed to get Qi Yu to participate. But now it's clear! He's just an actor! And a seriously out-of-character one at that!]
[@Qi Yu! God of Slaughter Qi! Someone's infringing on your rights! Where's the cease-and-desist letter? Hurry up and serve it to the production team!]
[I'm seriously going to puke. I could accept an actor, since getting to see Qi Yu is so hard. But I can't accept an actor like this. Who does he think he's insulting?]
[So much for Qi Yu's natural personality! So much for Qi Yu's unrivaled icy expression! He would never smile like some lovesick fool!]
[Is it possible... that this is what Qi Yu is like when he's in love?]
[Qi Yu? In love? With Bai Luochuan? I'll say it again: Bai Luochuan's looks fans need to hurry up and leave the industry with their idol!]
The live comments were full of abuse.
The production crew looked uncertain, too.
The assistant director nervously asked the director, "Director Liu, are you sure this is really Qi Yu...?"
Director Liu: ...
He had been pretty sure before.
Now he didn't dare be sure.
Wiping the cold sweat seeping from his forehead, Director Liu thought for a moment and said, "Surely... no one would pretend to be Qi Yu and contact the production team, right?"
The assistant director didn't answer.
No one around him offered an answer.
From their looks, Director Liu saw their answer, too: what if this guy really was that unhinged?
Honestly.
It really was hard to say!?
The directors hurriedly began contacting the liaison on Qi Yu's side.
Meanwhile, looking at Qi Yu before him, Bai Luochuan nearly had tears running from the corners of his mouth again.
So accurate.
Insanely accurate!
This was exactly how Qi Yu should be!
Maybe this was what it meant to be bewitched.
Bai Luochuan nodded dazedly, then turned around, intending to lead the way out of the haunted hospital.
When he reached the door, the motion sensor was triggered again.
The projector inside the room once again displayed the illusion of a ghost lunging at them.
Bai Luochuan caught it out of the corner of his eye.
He didn't think it was any big deal.
His hand was on the doorknob, but before he could do anything, Qi Yu reached out beside him and swept him into his arms.
Bai Luochuan was 180 centimeters tall.
No different from before he transmigrated.
When he played the game, he had known that Qi Yu's listed height was 195 centimeters.
But there had been a screen between them, after all.
The difference between virtual and real still made it hard to truly feel that fifteen-centimeter gap.
In Bai Luochuan's eyes, his husband had always been a big, fluffy, soft fox he could hold in his arms and squish.
But only now did he realize.
Some things looked small.
In reality, they were big enough to envelop him completely.
Warmth enveloped his whole body, accompanied by a faint scent of vetiver.
That was Qi Yu's favorite perfume scent.
It was also one of the essential gifts Bai Luochuan bought for him in batches of ninety-nine every time.
His heart sped up again.
It was like a fox's soft, big tail sweeping over his heart.
It made Bai Luochuan shiver involuntarily for a moment.
His body stiffened briefly, too.
But he soon pulled away from the other man.
He pushed Qi Yu, making him move farther away.
Bai Luochuan averted his gaze and said, "Sir, I know you're true to the character, but there's no need for physical contact."
Qi Yu: ...?
Sir?
True to the character?
He noted down another set of keywords.
Once he had some free time, he would definitely look up exactly what his wife kept muttering about!
But before that, Qi Yu put on a serious expression. Shamelessly, he said, "But I'm scared."
Bai Luochuan fell silent.
Qi Yu continued, "My legs are weak with fear. If you get too far away, I'll be too scared to walk."
Bai Luochuan said, "You can ask the production team. They..."
"No, you just need to hold my hand," Qi Yu answered.
His golden eyes gazed into Bai Luochuan's.
The pleading in them vaguely reminded Bai Luochuan of the way Qi Yu looked every time he asked him for a kiss.
Qi Yu acted cute.
He pretended to be weak.
But the words he never said aloud were always written in his eyes, waiting for Bai Luochuan to notice.
He had always been begging him to love him.
Bai Luochuan couldn't bear to refuse that request.
But he truly didn't want such intimate contact with anyone else, either.
As he wavered, Qi Yu seemed to notice something. He undid the tie around his neck, wrapped it once around his own hand, and offered the other end to Bai Luochuan.
Smiling, he said, "Let's do this. We can count it as holding hands."
Bai Luochuan could no longer remember how he had led Qi Yu out of the building.
He simply clutched the tie in his hand.
His mind was full of their past in the game.
A game wasn't reality, after all.
No matter how immersive it was, that screen stood between him and Qi Yu, leaving them forever unable to truly touch each other.
So he still remembered how, after one of their dates.
Qi Yu had asked if they could hold hands.
Back then, he had wanted to say yes, but that screen kept him from actually taking the other man's hand.
Qi Yu had undone his tie.
He had wound one end around his own hand.
Then he had told Bai Luochuan on the other side of the screen.
To copy him and wind the tie around his hand, too.
With both of them doing the same thing, even if they weren't really touching, the tie would serve as a link between them, conveying those feelings brimming with love.
Bai Luochuan remembered every word Qi Yu had said with perfect clarity.
When he stepped out of the hospital.
The midday sunlight fell on his face.
The dazzling warmth lit up his whole body, but it didn't illuminate the darkness in his heart.
Standing somewhere warm.
Only made him feel the cold loneliness in his soul more deeply.
Bai Luochuan realized that he seemed to miss his Qi Yu even more.
Not this cosplayer beside him.
But the lover inside his phone.
That scumbag game company.
If he still couldn't log in today, he really would find a way to file a complaint!
Love turned into anger.
Bai Luochuan let go of the tie without hesitation.
Qi Yu, who had still been immersed in that warm, intimate atmosphere, looked bewildered again when he saw the other end of the tie fall.
He was increasingly starting to feel.
That his wife was a scumbag who loved him and left him!
Was he really the only one caught up in their past?
Hadn't he thought of nothing but him just before he died?
He had believed it so completely.
Had even that call before his death been a lie?
He had only ever heard of bad Alphas loving people and leaving them, and bad Omegas toying with people's hearts.
So when a Beta turned bad, he could toy with someone's heart and love them and leave them at the same time?
Before you continue