Song Liang’s kick came so quickly that Xiao Ji had no time to react. He simply stood there in shock.
Only when Xiao Wenyu hit the floor with a heavy thud, making the elevator shudder, did Xiao Ji snap out of it and turn sharply toward Song Liang.
Song Liang was looking at him too.
He seemed to be studying something particularly entertaining. The look sent a chill down Xiao Ji’s spine.
What he didn’t know was that the system inside Song Liang’s head was screaming desperately.
【Don’t kick him! You absolutely cannot kick this one!】
Just then, the elevator opposite chimed and opened.
Song Liang gave Xiao Ji one last reluctant glance before slipping into the other elevator.
Xiao Ji immediately moved to follow, but Xiao Wenyu’s pained groans stopped him.
He was still a member of the Xiao family. If he died here, Xiao Ji would have trouble of his own.
So he turned back and asked how he was doing.
Xiao Wenyu was in too much pain to speak clearly. After listening to his groaning for a while, Xiao Ji finally crouched down and barely made out the words.
“Kicked me again…again…he kicked me…”
“…”
Assuming the blow had knocked him senseless, Xiao Ji immediately called Xiao Wenyu’s bodyguards. He also contacted Songlan Mansion’s security department, ordering them to seal every exit on the first floor and bring a doctor.
Meanwhile, Song Liang had anticipated Xiao Ji’s next move. Rather than heading downstairs, he pressed the button for the highest floor.
3085 was baffled.
【Why are you going to the top floor?】
Song Liang: 【Xiao Ji will have every first-floor exit sealed. If I go down, I’ll be caught.】
【So why are you going to the top floor?】
Song Liang: 【No idea. I’ll work it out when I get there.】
【…】
Song Liang: 【Can you cut the elevator camera? Talking to you inside my head makes me feel like I’m losing my mind.】
【…】
It quickly disabled the camera, then returned to its earlier question.
【Do you never plan anything? What are you going to do upstairs—fly away?】
Song Liang answered calmly, “No plan could’ve told me that two sworn enemies like Xiao Ji and Xiao Wenyu would stand together like best friends in the same elevator and stop right in front of me.”
Fair enough. But 3085 was still upset, so it began assigning blame.
【This is all because you turned a perfectly ordinary beginner tutorial into an A-level instance! It was supposed to be a romance scenario: a scummy top, forced love, and a simp who eventually gets everything he wants. Even if you never won Xiao Ji over, you could’ve cleared it safely and earned plenty of points just by staying alive. Instead, every day is a race against death! I’m not a system from the survival-game division. Why am I here suffering through this with you?】
Song Liang seized on that.
“There are other divisions?”
【Of course. You’re in the dual-male-lead division. There are female-centered divisions, male-centered divisions, male-and-female-lead divisions, and so on.】
“Who decided I belonged here?”
【The main system assigns transmigration divisions according to each host’s deepest desires. Hosts in female- or male-centered divisions, for example, are usually people who crave success and make reaching the top their life’s ambition.】
“What about a dual-male-lead division like mine?”
【Starved for affection. Desperate to fall in love.】
Song Liang’s expression turned peculiar.
“Are you sure?”
【…】
Sure, its ass.
It knew perfectly well that Song Liang wasn’t starved for affection and had no burning desire for romance. But that was because it had smuggled him in itself. It hadn’t dared let the main system assign him.
How could it have known it was smuggling in a lunatic?
Fortunately, Song Liang didn’t pursue the question.
“Do the other hosts want to come back to life too?”
【Some do. Quite a few choose to stay in their instances.】
“Why?”
【Because they fall in love with the NPCs.】
“Really?”
Watching the floor numbers change, Song Liang asked casually, “What happens to them?”
【They’re gradually assimilated by the consciousness of the instance’s small world and become NPCs themselves.】
The elevator reached the eighth floor just as it finished speaking.
Song Liang stepped out and instinctively started forward, but 3085 stopped him.
【Turn left.】
He raised an eyebrow.
“Mm?”
【I found an elevator with an independent power supply. It goes straight to the rear entrance on the first floor. Probably for wealthy guests sneaking off to affairs. Hurry, before they catch up!】
“Nice.”
On the second floor, security panicked upon learning that an intruder had entered the mansion and injured the Xiao family’s third young master.
They rushed to seal every exit while someone went to inform Xiao Yuanchun.
Xiao Wenyu’s bodyguards arrived even faster. Xiao Ji had barely ended the call before they appeared.
The whole group nearly charged into the elevator. Fortunately, Xiao Ji stopped them, and only Xiao Wenyu’s head bodyguard entered.
Even he didn’t dare move Xiao Wenyu.
The man was delirious with pain, clutching his abdomen and unable to form a sentence. He couldn’t even answer when asked who had attacked him.
Xiao Ji knew who had done it. But he had seen Song Liang jump into the sea himself, and the encounter just now had been so sudden that he couldn’t quite be certain it really was him.
While he hesitated, the head bodyguard lifted Xiao Wenyu’s shirt.
Xiao Ji was about to tell him not to disturb the injured man when the bodyguard stared at the marks in fury and exclaimed, “Song Liang again!”
Xiao Ji’s gaze sharpened.
So those two really were connected.
Keeping his expression neutral, he asked, “How do you know it was Song Liang?”
“The foot!”
The bodyguard pointed at the injury on Xiao Wenyu’s stomach and said through clenched teeth, “Same size as the one that kicked him last time. Even the angle’s identical!”
Xiao Ji: “…”
Something wasn’t right.
“Last time? What last time?”
“Last time on the cruise—”
Halfway through, the bodyguard remembered who was beside him. His expression faltered.
“Last time…he fell on the cruise ship. It hurt like this too. Nearly ruptured his spleen.”
Xiao Ji didn’t believe him, of course.
Before he could press further, security called. The person on the other end nervously informed him that the man in Elevator Three hadn’t gone to the first floor.
He had gone to the eighth.
Xiao Ji froze.
The eighth floor consisted entirely of business suites occupied by VIP members. Today, however, Xiao Yuanchun had specially cleared it for his uncle’s visit.
Although the rooms had electronic locks and bodyguards were stationed on that floor, the recent incident at Yalong Bay was still fresh in his mind. He immediately called them and ordered them to reach Xiao Yi’s room as quickly as possible.
Having only recently lived through the Yalong Bay incident, the Xiao family bodyguards rushed from their lounge the moment they received Xiao Ji’s call.
More than a dozen large men thundered down the corridor, terrified of arriving too late.
The commotion was so loud that Song Liang, around the corner, wondered whether the mansion kept a herd of stampeding African buffalo.
Only 3085, which had taken control of the corridor cameras, cried in alarm.
【They’re coming! Run!】
Run?
Where?
The elevator behind him had been stopped. The route to the one ahead was occupied by the African buffalo. Where was he supposed to go?
Song Liang simply stopped trying. Pointing at the door beside him, he asked, “Can you open this?”
He had barely finished when the lock beeped and released.
【Get in!】
Someone inside the room heard the beep too.
One hand swiftly closed every blackout curtain. The other retrieved a handgun from a concealed space in the sofa and aimed it at the door.
The moment Song Liang pushed it open, darkness filled his vision.
Only a sliver of sunlight behind him entered through the doorway, revealing the armed figure on the sofa.
3085 shouted in terror.
【Host!】
A bullet shot from the suppressed barrel.
Song Liang immediately dived forward onto the floor, kicking the door shut behind him as he fell.
The bullet struck the door with a metallic clang. Darkness swallowed the room again.
Song Liang: 【System.】
【Eleven o’clock ahead! Take him down!】
Song Liang lunged in that direction.
The other man clearly hadn’t expected him to locate his position so quickly and precisely in the dark. The impact knocked him back onto the sofa, and the gun fell from his hand.
They reached for it almost simultaneously.
Song Liang was faster. Grabbing something hard, he immediately aimed it at the man before him.
At the same time, another hard object pressed against his chest.
With no time to wonder why there was a second gun, Song Liang pressed the object in his hand.
The curtains slowly opened.
Light flooded the room.
Song Liang: “…”
He looked down at the long, rectangular black object he was holding, utterly puzzled.
“…What is this?”
“The curtain remote.”
The voice was low and icy.
The man before him raised the dark muzzle of his gun and pressed it between Song Liang’s brows.
Song Liang paused.
That voice sounded familiar.
He looked up from beneath his cap.
“It’s you?”
“…”
The familiar voice stirred a sense of impending trouble in Xiao Yi—a feeling he vaguely remembered.
A moment later, the man pinning him down removed his cap, revealing a radiant smile.
An unblemished face, handsome, sharply defined features, and a pair of alluring eyes that looked as though their owner might get up to mischief at any moment.
When Xiao Yi remained silent, Song Liang simply leaned closer.
“I’m the one who stripped you. Remember?”
Xiao Yi: “…”
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