"Fine. Since you're so convenient, I'll forgive you."
"But!" Fang Wen sternly warned the system, this thief of privacy.
"You know… there are certain times…"
[Rest assured, Host. When the system determines that the situation has reached a 'deeply intimate stage,' it will automatically power down.]
What the hell does 'deeply intimate stage' mean?
System, explain yourself!
Two angry vein-marks practically popped onto Fang Wen's forehead.
Seeing the system play dead, Fang Wen could only glare at it before skipping over the damned topic.
There were obviously more important things worth analyzing right now.
Judging from the rewards he'd received after completing his first commission, the Denny reward was transferred directly into his salary card. He couldn't actually see affection points, but the two experiences of drawing skills had been pretty novel.
"And there's no guarantee I'll get a useful skill every time, either."
That made sense. After all, if he completed all the daily commissions, he could pull six skills in a single day. If every one of them were useful, wouldn't he become a superhuman almost immediately?
That wouldn't be much fun, would it?
You were supposed to enjoy the process of growth.
Yeah right—of course getting stronger as early as possible was better!
Fang Wen felt that he had probably developed a condition called insufficient firepower anxiety syndrome.
How had his past self dared to be so lazy?
Looks like from now on, he needed to ask himself every day:
Did I get stronger today? How much stronger? Can I beat a Void Hunter yet?
…On second thought, maybe he should save the last question for later.
Still, the cooking skill wasn't entirely useless.
Fang Wen pinched his chin.
At the very least, even if he and Zhu Yuan ended up parting ways someday, he wouldn't have to live on instant noodles and takeout anymore.
It was only a possibility, not something guaranteed to happen—but even so, the thought still left Fang Wen feeling strangely lonely.
After all, if you had a choice, who would want to be alone?
"Hiss—ow, ow, ow."
Zhu Yuan viciously pinched this absent-minded fool.
"I've got a feeling you're thinking about things that are never going to happen."
"Alright, alright. Then I won't think about them anymore."
"Mm. Put the tape on."
Rubbing his arm, Fang Wen casually picked up one of the old videotapes, turned it over for a quick look, then slotted it into the player.
After a series of rhythmic clacking noises, the machine suddenly projected a beam of light, casting an image full of grain onto the white wall—in plain terms, the picture quality was rough as hell.
Was this really something from this era?
The two of them exchanged a glance and saw the same confusion in each other's eyes.
By tacit agreement, neither said a word.
As the film began to play, Fang Wen increasingly felt that the atmosphere was like the two of them were in a movie theater watching a film together—except they even had the whole place to themselves.
For both of them, it was a strangely new experience.
After all, their lives had already been so completely stuffed with work that there was no room left for even a drop of sweetness.
"By the way, Zhu Yuan, is this your first time watching a movie?"
"Mm. When I was little, I went a few times with my parents. But after I grew up and started working, I never went again."
"…"
Fang Wen suddenly froze.
"Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to bring that up." Forcing herself through the discomfort in her body, Zhu Yuan waved a hand at him.
"No, it's fine. I was just thinking… you really should go visit your parents sometime. How about this weekend?"
Fang Wen said it with a smile.
Then he turned his head away, not letting Zhu Yuan see that the corners of his eyes had already reddened.
The loss of loved ones was like a torrential rainstorm. Even if one day the rain finally stopped, it still left behind a lifetime of mud.
So…
How could he allow himself to fall in love?
The film started properly soon enough.
Several large words filled the screen.
"Fang Wen, what does this opening line mean—'Dramatized reconstruction, for reference only'?"
"Hmm… I guess it means what's inside is only acted out, so you shouldn't take it as real," Fang Wen said, stroking his chin.
Strange. Why did this opening warning feel a little familiar?
Not sure. Better keep watching.
The opening scene showed the daily life of a married couple.
The husband returned home from work looking utterly dejected, saying he had lost his job. His glamorous wife suppressed the sadness on her face and comforted her husband after his long day.
The husband said he was no longer qualified to protect his wife—
Hold on?
This plot…
Why does it feel like I've seen this somewhere before?!
Cold sweat began to bead on Fang Wen's back.
He discreetly glanced at Zhu Yuan and found that she was watching with utmost seriousness. She even had a notebook in hand, ready to jot down details from the tape at any moment.
Fang Wen swallowed.
"Zhu Yuan… where exactly did this batch of videotapes come from?"
"Hmm?"
Zhu Yuan thought for a moment before answering.
"They were confiscated during the raid on a Red Fang Gang hideout in Fourteenth Street last month."
"According to the testimony provided during interrogation, this batch of tapes was intended to be sold on the black market as trade goods."
Fang Wen tilted his head and thought about it.
"That was the big Fourteenth Street operation supervised by Chief Bringer, right?"
"That's right. It was also the same day you got hit by that meteor." As she spoke, Zhu Yuan lowered her brows slightly, guilt flickering across her face.
"Oh, that's fine. I'd almost forgotten about it anyway." Fang Wen nodded. With Zhu Yuan's reminder, he remembered it now.
That large-scale operation had run into a sudden secondary Hollow disaster.
At the time, he and Zhu Yuan had split into two separate teams.
Originally, Fang Wen's team had only been handling the outer cordon, but when the Hollow incident erupted, they had no choice but to temporarily act as the official force maintaining order around Fourteenth Street until the Hollow Investigation Association arrived.
Meanwhile, Zhu Yuan's arrest team lost contact almost the moment the disaster began.
They had been too close to the epicenter of the Hollow outbreak; before they could even react, they had already fallen inside.
Thankfully, in the end, nearly the entire team made it out more or less unharmed.
That sudden Hollow had swallowed up nearly half a street in Fourteenth Street in barely over ten minutes. Civilians who had narrowly escaped were fleeing in panic. Not far away, a speeding motorcycle, wild with fear, charged onto a crosswalk right in front of Fang Wen. Before he could react, it slammed into several fleeing people and killed them on the spot.
Children separated from their parents were crying everywhere by the roadside. Their sobs and the screams around them rose and fell without end.
In the face of crisis, the ugliness of human nature revealed itself in full.
"You have no idea how scared I was back then." Fang Wen licked his dry lips.
"What was there to be afraid of? It's not like you've never seen a Hollow before."
"Yeah. But I was afraid I'd never see you again. Just like back then with my mom—she disappeared without a word."
Zhu Yuan fell silent at once.
Fang Wen continued.
"You don't know this, but at the time I could barely even move. Not until I noticed that the young Thiren officer next to me—the one who had just graduated—was trembling just as hard as I was." Fang Wen spoke with a trace of emotion, his gaze drifting into the distance as his thoughts returned to that moment.
"Scared?" Fang Wen had asked.
"Captain Fang…"
"N-no." The young Thiren officer clenched his teeth. Staring at the Hollow drawing closer and closer, he forced the words out through the gaps between them.
He gripped the sidearm he had only recently been issued, even though he knew full well that, at this moment, the gun would be useless.
"You don't need to feel ashamed of it. To be honest with you—I'm scared too." Fang Wen had placed a hand on his shoulder.
The young Thiren could clearly feel his superior's hand trembling.
"But we cannot retreat."
"Because we are the people's police. Our duty is to protect the people."
"So now—go maintain order."
Fang Wen smiled as he recounted the story to Zhu Yuan like it had been some amusing anecdote from the past.
"Strangely enough, after I finished saying all that grandstanding stuff, I felt a lot less scared."
"And if I remember correctly, those were all things you taught me."
Zhu Yuan's face reddened, but she said nothing.
A moment later, she suddenly turned to him.
"The one you're talking about… that wasn't Seth, was it?"
"Mm."
"He's actually a lynx Thiren."
?
"Ahem. Is that so?" Fang Wen's old face flushed red. There was no way he was going to admit it was because he'd never been any good at biology.
But Zhu Yuan didn't seem particularly bothered by it, and so the subject passed just like that.
"…So in other words, this batch of videotapes was actually gang merchandise."
"Mm. Unfortunately, the small number of people who actually knew the details—including the Red Fang Gang boss, Old White Miguel, and his core men—basically all died in that secondary Hollow," Zhu Yuan said, nodding lightly.
"Figures. Otherwise we wouldn't have to go through the trouble of watching them all ourselves…" Fang Wen shook his head and sighed helplessly.
"You can't put it that way. If something needs investigating, then we still have to investigate it."
"Haha. Zhu Yuan, you really are serious about this stuff."
"We're the people's police."
"Hah. Yeah. That's true."
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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