Why So Formal?

As soon as Zhang Qiling came out, he saw the bed piled high with things. Yu Zhi pulled out the clothes he had bought for him and told him to change, putting away the bed that was in the way as he did so. He thought he would have to experiment later. Bringing a bed out every time someone went in or out was getting a little ridiculous.

Zhang Qiling looked at the black short-sleeved shirt, black sweatpants, black hoodie, and pair of shoes being handed to him. "Slippers?" He looked at Yu Zhi somewhat helplessly, as if to say, You ended up getting me a pair of slippers? How was he supposed to run away in slippers?

"Yeah, I bought the same clothes in my size. We're about the same size, so they should fit you too. But the shoes-I forgot to ask your size. We'll clean up a little and go out to eat, and then I'll buy you a pair that fits. It's really not that I didn't want to buy you any. Believe me!"

Yu Zhi turned and headed for the bathroom. He had checked when they first came in, and the little inn was reasonably well equipped. At the very least, it had a showerhead, so he could take a quick shower. After so many days deep in the mountains and forests, and in summer at that, he was already pretty ripe.

Zhang Qiling watched him go in to shower and was just about to change into his new clothes when he heard the bathroom door open. He turned and could vaguely make out Yu Zhi, bare-chested, sticking his head out. "Hey, hey, hey, don't change yet. Shower first, then change. You're already sour."

"Mm," Zhang Qiling said, then sat on the bed and stared blankly out the window.

Yu Zhi came out after a lightning-fast shower and saw the scene before him: Zhang Qiling gazing melancholically out the window, utterly motionless. His heart took another critical hit. What am I going to do, taking critical hits from this gorgeous man every day? This really is too much of a test. He'd beat me up if I got handsy, wouldn't he? As things stand, I can't beat him in close combat. At best, I'm a mage who can take a beating.

"Zhang Qiling, hurry up and go." Yu Zhi came out with a bath towel wrapped around him. In the novel, Zhang Qiling was straight, so since they were both men, Yu Zhi came out just like that, without a care.

Zhang Qiling glanced at Yu Zhi, then took his clothes and went into the bathroom.

"Damn, Zhang Qiling, you... why are you being so formal with me? You could've changed out here." Yu Zhi kept rubbing his hair dry, his mouth running all the while.

The only answer was the sound of the door closing, followed by running water.

"Tch, stingy," Yu Zhi muttered. He put on his newly bought clothes and felt that he had finally become a normal person again. He sat on the edge of the bed and waited for Zhang Qiling to come out.

As he waited, he found himself looking out the window too, all sorts of random thoughts running through his head. Yu Zhi thought that this might count as time he had stolen. After all, back in 2030, he had been an ordinary person who had stood up for what was right once, only to be stabbed to death.

Later, the first Cannon Fodder System had bound him and sent him to do all sorts of random tasks. Across more than a dozen worlds, he had gone offline after as little as a month or two, or as long as a dozen years.

The cultivation world was the one where he had stayed longer, spending eighteen years there. Damn it, during those eighteen years, his cultivation had shot up like a rocket to the Nascent Soul, with no bottlenecks, no tempering, and no hardships. And it had all been so he could deliver equipment and his innate constitution to the protagonist-and his body, too. The Cannon Fodder System truly lived up to its name; that was cannon fodder all right.

When Zhang Qiling came out, he saw Yu Zhi sitting where he had sat earlier, looking out the window. At that moment, it was as though Yu Zhi had a barrier around him; his whole being seemed so indistinct that it was as if he didn't exist.

"Yu Zhi, I'm done washing." Zhang Qiling simply wanted to speak up and interrupt the state the man was in.

"Oh. Oh? Oh! Good, then let's go out." Yu Zhi stood up and pulled up the hood of his jacket. He was about to pull Zhang Qiling's hood up too when he noticed that he hadn't dried his hair.

"Why didn't you dry your hair?" Without waiting for an answer, Yu Zhi used the Water Control Art on him. It worked wonderfully; his hair dried in an instant.

Zhang Qiling paused, then raised a hand and touched his dry hair. It really did work wonderfully-an immortal's method.

"Hey, something just occurred to me. My Water Control Art can control water, so wouldn't blood count as a kind of water too? If there's a wound, could I control the blood and pull it out of a person's body?"

Yu Zhi spoke excitedly. This gave him another method, one that could make up for the shortfall in his wood-element spiritual power's offensive strength early on.

After all, during those eighteen years in the cultivation world, he really hadn't been exposed to many offensive spells. Every day, he had either been made to raise his cultivation by that damned protagonist under one pretext or another, or forcibly infused with spiritual power by the system. That damned protagonist was, after all, a Mahayana Stage cultivator who needed a body, not experience. Sigh, he would still have to figure it all out for himself.

"It should work, but aren't you..." Zhang Qiling trailed off, somewhat unsure how to put it. His understanding of this man had been somewhat turned on its head; the man didn't seem as innocent as he had thought.

"Aren't I what? Innocent?" Seeing him like this, Yu Zhi was instantly reminded of Tianzhen Wuxie. So this guy had obediently followed him because he thought Yu Zhi was the innocent type? He really wanted to give him two big slaps across the face to knock some sense into him. No wonder there was a Pingxie CP-so he liked the innocent type?

"All right, first we'll buy you a pair of shoes, then go eat, and then buy some supplies. We have a lot to do." Yu Zhi walked ahead without waiting for Zhang Qiling. He was a little angry.

Zhang Qiling could sense the change in the mood of the person beside him, but he wasn't quite sure why. He simply said nothing, put on his hood, and followed.

The two bought another large batch of food, drinks, and other necessities, and asked around for the location of the station. This was a pretty good time to be in: they didn't need identity cards, or else two people with no registered identities really wouldn't have been able to take a single step. (This is an alternate setting, not the real 1970s.)

Back at the inn, Yu Zhi sorted everything into categories and stored it in his space. He patted the stool beside him and said to Zhang Qiling, "Let's experiment and see if things other than a bed work."

Zhang Qiling sat down on the stool and looked straight at him. Although he had already gone in and out of the space many times, he couldn't deny that he still found such an immortal's method wondrous.

Looking at Zhang Qiling like this, Yu Zhi felt that he was much more vivid than he had been in the book. He wasn't the Menyouping from the book, uninterested in everything. At the same time, he was very upright: though he had seen these secrets, he hadn't tried to investigate them or claim them for himself, and had even warned Yu Zhi not to let anyone discover them. Yu Zhi thought they had now been through life and death together.

After more than an hour of fiddling around, they finally figured out how to exploit this bug. As long as his feet were off the ground, he could enter while standing or sitting on the object, or even while doing a one-finger handstand on it. Not bad, not bad. At least he wouldn't have to carry a bed everywhere anymore. If he suddenly conjured a bed while raiding a tomb, just thinking about it was creepy.

"How much do you remember now? Where should we go next? Any ideas?" Yu Zhi fiddled with his fingers.

"Not much. Nowhere to go. I'll follow you."

Zhang Qiling actually did have memories of being studied over the past few years. Now he had only remembered who he really was, and not just his name. As for the rest, it was as though a membrane lay over it; he couldn't pierce it or remember.

"Sigh, what am I supposed to do now? Forget it, let me think about this. We'll talk in a bit."

Yu Zhi was a little at a loss. On one side was the person who made his heart race like crazy; on the other was a peaceful life of watching the show. How was he supposed to choose? When it came to changing someone else's mind, Yu Zhi had no drive to act at all, but at the same time he was very possessive.

"We should be in Qinghai Province right now. There are three options: Changbai Mountain, Beijing, and Guangzhou. Where do you want to go?" Yu Zhi asked.

"Anywhere." Zhang Qiling looked as though he would go wherever Yu Zhi went.

Yu Zhi held his forehead and thought for a moment. At this point, if things followed the plot, it hadn't started yet. Zhang Qiling was originally supposed to spend twenty years in the sanatorium, but Yu Zhi had gotten him out fifteen years early. Did that mean he had no plot to follow for those fifteen years, making him a free man? The thought made Yu Zhi very happy. It looked like his Zhang Qiling-brand little sprite could stay with him for more than ten years. How wonderful.

Zhang Qiling watched the man deep in thought suddenly laugh out loud and was very puzzled. Although he was good at observing details, he wasn't good at reading people's hearts. (Otherwise, he wouldn't have been schemed against by the Nine Gates, wave after wave.)

"Then let's go to Beijing." After saying that, Yu Zhi lay down on one of the beds and prepared to sleep. Honestly, lying in a bed for the first time in so many days felt wonderful.

"Get to bed early. We still need to buy a few things tomorrow, then get ready to leave."

Zhang Qiling watched Yu Zhi fall asleep in an instant, then closed his eyes.

The night passed without incident.