Our Reality

Chapter 76

“Haa, then you’re definitely mistaken.” Tang Le was very confident with his understanding of the situation. He continued, “Advisor Ji has a boyfriend and it was even love at first sight. How could he casually say something like that?”

In the transfer station, in Song Qinglan’s illusory realm, he had personally talked to Ji Yushi about this matter.

In addition to Tang Le, Tang Qi and Song Qinglan were also present.

Duan Wen was someone who wasn’t there. He was a little surprised, “Advisor Ji has a boyfriend?”

Tang Qi testified, “Yes. I also heard him talk about it.”

Li Chun was even more embarrassed when he heard this. He wished that he could take back what he said just now, “Ah, then I definitely made a mistake! Please don’t let Advisor Ji find out about this or he will definitely hold a grudge against me!”

Tang Le: “And you wanted to use this to flirt with chicks?”

Everyone ridiculed Li Chun, making Li Chun put on a bitter expression. He however had no way of clearing his name.

This study slag had no confidence in his learning abilities and after all that questioning and doubt, he became even more certain that he was the one who had made a mistake.

Probably because Ji Yushi was the only person in the squad with a different sexual orientation, the conversation changed into a discussion about whether or not he had a boyfriend.

Who said straight men didn’t gossip? The straight old man Duan Wen commented, “How strange. I’ve always thought that Advisor Ji was single. When we were in Chaos, I even asked him what type he likes.”

“I also thought Advisor Ji was single. If I knew, I wouldn’t have joked with him so casually.” Zhou Mingxuan had a look of amusement in his eyes, “Back at the transfer station, Advisor Ji even taught me a few things.”

At that time, while Li Chun was busy preparing an outdoor party, Zhou Mingxuan and Ji Yushi had indeed disappeared for a while. Song Qinglan later found out that they had gone for a walk along the beach but no one knew what they had talked about.

Zhou Mingxuan continued, “After Advisor Ji convinced me to leave the bubble world, we had a chat. I asked him if there were any changes around him and he said that except for his three cats changing into one, everything was the same with his family and he still didn’t have close friends. It seemed like there was nothing to feel an attachment to. He didn’t seem like someone with a partner at all.”

Song Qinglan’s expression sank. His hand which was clenched into a fist knocked onto the table next to him.

The training ground quietened down considerably because of this action of his. Song Qinglan proceeded to turn around and leave.

The teammates were surprised, “Cap Song, where are you going?”

“Finding someone.”

Song Qinglan’s tone was very cold. He walked out the training ground without looking back.

Song Qinglan walked very quickly. It was even several times faster than when he came to the training ground.

He had withheld information from the higher ups because he trusted in Ji Yushi’s ability to hold himself back and wanted to give Ji Yushi some time. Ji Yushi had already completed 89 B-level missions and that time in the bubble world where he lost control was because he was too impatient so even if Ji Yushi didn’t listen to him and didn’t wait for him to return to that day together, he felt that Ji Yushi needed some time alone. Thinking this, he had pushed back the negative feeling of being left behind. In any case, he was in no position to demand that from him.

But right now, Song Qinglan’s heart was filled with rage.

What time alone? This was basically Ji Yushi’s way of saying goodbye to him.

What “I hope everything goes well for you in the B-level mission”? That was all a lie.

Ji Yushi’s expression when lying wasn’t something Song Qinglan saw for the first time, but he just happened to have missed it this time. Was it because he had been seen through too many times and even his lying abilities had evolved? With Ji Yushi’s learning ability, this was a piece a cake.

Unable to read, unable to warm up and unable to control.

Ji Yushi may seem harmless outwardly, but he was in fact extremely unpredictable.

He had never truly lowered his guard around anyone or anything, nor had he ever formed a true bond or attachment with anyone or anything. Just as he had told Song Qinglan, he had joined Tianqiong as a Recorder solely because of his desire to return to that fateful day.

He had never promised Song Qinglan that he would wait for him.

Because no matter how many B-level tasks he had completed, he had no confidence on whether he could just stand by and watch when he returns to that day.

So he had said, “….I don’t know where I will be then.”

The more he thought about it, the angrier Song Qinglan became.

This kind of anger made his brain swell up but for some reason, he felt a coldness on his back and his chest felt like a part of it was dug out. It hurt so much, it was hard to breathe.

He strode into the chief’s office and pushed the door open with a loud ‘bang’.

Chief Wang who was still on the phone was taken aback by this loud noise. She looked up and asked, “Why did you suddenly burst in?”

It was unknown how many times he had heard this accusatory and helpless tone. Song Qinglan didn’t even bother apologising.

“Chief Wang.” Song Qinglan placed both hands on the desk, “I would like to apply for time and space traversing!”

Chief Wang said to the party on the other side of the phone, “Wait a second.”

She then pressed mute and asked, “You only just returned. What are you on about?”

Song Qinglan clearly didn’t look like he came to put in an application and instead looked like he was here to wreck the place up. It was as if as long as Chief Wang refused, he would resort to force.

The last time Chief Wang saw Song Qinglan like this was when he first left the special forces. At that time, he was still stubborn as a bull and his entire being gave off the air of a thug, making it easy for one to forget about his handsome appearance.

“The time coordinate is April 6, 1439.” Song Qinglan said, “I would like to redeem my reward for this or you can even use my points. If I don’t go now, I’m afraid that Ji Yushi would do something wrong. You should know, he——–”Chief Wang interrupted, “I was just about to tell you this. Xiao Ji is back!”

Song Qinglan was shocked. He thought he had heard wrong.

“I told you not to be so prejudiced against others. Why can’t you change that part of you?!” As Chief Wang muttered this complaint, she turned around and turned on the holographic projection, “See? He just returned. He’s currently getting examined.”

The projection was of the third command centre.

A single capsule sat quietly on the transmission platform.

There was a man standing in front of the platform wearing a familiar looking black combat uniform.

The figure was tall and slender, and his pale face carried a hint of coldness. He was surrounded by five or six staff and he had cooperatively stretched his arms out for them to better examine his physical condition.

*

Ji Yushi returned about four or five hours after the other six members of the seventh squad.

The system detected that his capsule had traversed to another time and space, so he wasn’t sent back to the training ground like the others after completing the necessary procedures and was instead sent to the Inspectors like his captain Song Qinglan.

The Time Management Alliance had always been very strict about these matters. Even the slightest change could result in time and space becoming chaotic.

An Inspector had a chat with Ji Yushi for about an hour. No one knew what they talked about.

When Ji Yushi left the office, he was given permission to return to the seventh squad’s training ground and wait together with the others for their psychological assessment.

After being escorted back, as soon as he opened the door to the training ground, he was surrounded by his excited teammates.

“Advisor Ji!”

“Advisor Ji, you scared me to death!”

“Where did you go?”

“You’re finally back!!”

Hearing those words which carried some blame but mostly concern, Ji Yushi’s ears couldn’t help but turn hot.

He knew that his wilfulness would make his teammates worried and he also had never been very good at dealing with situations like this, but his teammates concern warmed his heart greatly. This feeling of being cared for and valued was more precious to him than he had ever imagined.

“Damn!” Tang Le cursed, “We all agreed to return but you suddenly went and disappeared!!”

Duan Wen cursed at Tianqiong, “Is it that damned Tianqiong? Did it made you do another mission?”

Tang Qi and Zhou Mingxuan who stood a little further away also said, “Alright, alright. With Advisor Ji back, our squad is complete now.”

“It feels like it has been forever since I last saw you!” Li Chun cried, “Advisor Ji, I haven’t seen you for so many days and when I got back, they said something about the possibility of you not returning. Where on earth did you go?”

Ji Yushi who was surrounded by the others spoke in his usual tone, “You didn’t redeem your reward?”

Everyone: “…..”

“Fuck! How could we have known that we could redeem it on the spot?!”

“I never took it seriously. I thought we had to come back and get everything settled before we could think about it!”

“Fuck that Tianqiong. It never told us anything!”

Amidst the commotion, someone pushed open the door.

Ji Yushi stood there without moving. His heart trembled slightly, but he didn’t look back.

“Everyone go back to your room and rest. Take a shower and clean yourself up. After all these days, you aren’t tired?” Song Qinglan’s voice sounded from behind, “Since we’re all back, we will write our reports and complete the assessments tomorrow. Once that’s all done, you can go home.”

Everyone had already gone through this process once in the bubble world. Just the thought of them needing to do it again made their heads hurt.

As they complained, Song Qinglan continued, “Advisor Ji, come with me.”

Song Qinglan’s expression probably wasn’t very good. Ji Yushi noticed that everyone had suddenly quietened down.

He answered, “Okay.”

Song Qinglan left first. His tall back figure passed by Ji Yushi and entered his private training room.

Li Chun shrank back, “I have a bad feeling.”

Tang Le: “Advisor Ji, good luck.”

Everyone watched Ji Yushi follow after Song Qinglan. Recalling their terrible experiences being reprimanded by their captain in his private training room after they made a mistake, they all lit a candle in their hearts for Ji Yushi.

Ji Yushi entered Song Qinglan’s private training room.

The door closed automatically behind him.

Despite not seeing him for a few hours, Song Qinglan looked no different from when they separated in the centre block.

But Ji Yushi knew that Song Qinglan had completed a B-level mission together with Zhou Mingxuan and Li Chun. Just as he had said before, he returned soon after the other teammates returned.

In a space that wasn’t too cramped, Song Qinglan’s presence was very strong.

His handsome eyes were very attractive, but it was obvious that he was in a bad mood. He however just asked, “Saw what you wanted to see?”

Ji Yushi said, “I didn’t go upstairs.”Like an Inspector, Song Qinglan asked his second question, “You went back to that day but didn’t go upstairs. So what did you do during those few hours?”

Ji Yushi’s mental state seemed to be pretty good.

His thoughts were clear and he also didn’t hide anything, “In daze.”

Song Qinglan, “In daze?”

Ji Yushi answered calmly, “Yes.”

Song Qinglan, “Why?”

Ji Yushi was silent for a long time. When he finally spoke, he said, “I didn’t have confidence in myself.”

Song Qinglan didn’t speak.

Ji Yushi had his head lowered so he couldn’t see his expression. He just continued, “I thought I could do it. In fact, I was prepared to interfere, but in the end I realised…..I couldn’t do it. So I didn’t go upstairs.”

“Prepared to interfere.”

His low voice rolled out from the depths of his throat. He approached him step by step and seemed to be holding back anger, “So you didn’t plan on returning?”

Ji Yushi, “Mhn.”

Song Qinglan was right in front of him now. He stared fixatedly at the other person’s cold expression and asked hoarsely, “Then why did you come back?”

Ji Yushi’s eyelashes trembled slightly. His lips moved, “Suddenly didn’t want to go alone.”

He seemed to have some difficulty speaking but he eventually managed to utter his next words, “Wanted to try what it feels like going with someone.”

It was unknown if Song Qinglan understood. He didn’t give any response.

Ji Yushi suspected that this steel straight man before him might not understand what he meant even if he spent his entire lifetime thinking about it. Fortunately, he had never expected a response from him anyway. In the end he added, “The feeling of having a friend accompany me. Didn’t you say that you would go with me?”

Song Qinglan still didn’t speak. Only his chest rose and fell.

With him not speaking, the atmosphere in the training room became somewhat strange.

“Cap Song, are you taking it back now?” Ji Yushi asked. “If this is over, I would like to go and rest.”

He turned and walked towards the door.

A strong force came. He was unceremoniously grabbed by the wrist and his entire person was pulled back a step.

Song Qinglan almost enveloped him. With his expression deep, his deep black eyes seemed like it could drown the other person. Ji Yushi didn’t dare look straight at him.

“Advisor Ji.” Song Qinglan spoke, “Before we returned, I mentioned that there was something important that I would like you to consider seriously.”

Ji Yushi could only look into his eyes, “What is it?”

This kind of proximity between them made his heart race crazily. He just wanted to quickly leave this place.

Song Qinglan’s next words however left Ji Yushi speechless.

He was stunned in place and for the first time in his life, his mind was blank.

“No one can be committed having three relationships at the same time. I originally wanted to ask if you could seriously consider the possibility of leaving such a situation and starting a new, one to one relationship where you only have each other?”

Ji Yushi’s beautiful cat-like eyes widened.

Coupled with his indifferent expression, it made one understand what it meant by contrasting cuteness.

Song Qinglan’s throat bobbed. His cheeks became uncontrollably hot.

He had thought about this for a long time. Morality, bottom line…..He had thought about all the reasons why he shouldn’t say something like this, but all those scruples were cast away as soon as he saw Ji Yushi walk through those coloured rooms again and again.

He even thought that if Ji Yushi was unable to give it up, he would be willing to wait until he could.

What Song Qinglan didn’t expect was that those thoughts that had been swirling around inside him all this time would actually be spoken in a situation like this.

He wasn’t afraid, and he didn’t step back. He just said, “Perhaps you don’t need to do this anymore. I only just found out that although your ‘three boyfriends’ are clingy and would press you down at night making it difficult for you to breathe, they can fortunately change from three to one from time to time. I think it’s something you can handle.”

Ji Yushi: “……”

Song Qinglan however wasn’t saying this to settle accounts with him, let alone hold a grudge.

“I just wanted to ask…..”

Song Qinglan’s voice was lowered. The low male voice that resembled the voice that travelled through the public channel for the first time made Ji Yushi’s ears itch.

At this moment, the door to the private training room was knocked open with a bang.

The teammates who were listening outside because they were worried about Ji Yushi being reprimanded too harshly but were instead unexpectedly subjected to hearing a conversation that seemed to be sounding more and more gay felt like their worldviews had completely shattered.

Due to too much excitement, someone accidently slipped.

And they all exposed themselves.

“Please continue!”

“We’ll leave at once!”

“Continue, continue!!”

Facing their captain’s dark expression, the five lightbulbs covered their heads and didn’t dare make a sound.

KK has something to say:

Yasss Cap Song! Tell him how you feel!!!