Editor: Xinghe
Proofreader: UM3
Translator: YuQiChen/Churen
Fu Yichen was lifted up by Su Zhan from the ground and pulled into his arms. Although it was painful, he couldn’t help but feel incredibly sweet inside as a smile unconsciously appeared on his face.
Even after a while, the person embracing him showed no intention of letting go. Fu Yichen raised his hand and patted Su Zhan’s arm, playfully grinning and saying, “Alright, alright, it’s only been a day, why are you acting like this?”
Upon hearing this, Su Zhan immediately let go of his hand, his face flushing. He realized that his emotions had become a bit too overwhelmed and felt a bit embarrassed. “I thought you were dead,” he said awkwardly.
While speaking, Su Zhan accidentally let go of his hand, causing Fu Yichen to fall back to the ground with a painful expression on his face.
“What’s wrong?” Su Zhan panicked and rushed over without caring about anything else. “Where are you hurt?”
“Internal injuries, heart, lungs…” Fu Yichen grimaced in pain for a while before finally recovering. Suddenly, he felt a nostalgic longing for the ignorant and oblivious punishments of the previous world. Even if he was severely injured, at least he couldn’t feel the pain. Unlike now, it was really painful. After a while, Fu Yichen jokingly raised his head and said, “I’ll rely on you from now on.”
Unexpectedly, when Fu Yichen looked up, he saw tears in the corners of Su Zhan’s eyes. He immediately felt a stir in his heart and suddenly reached out without warning, pulling Su Zhan, who was kneeling beside him, into his arms.
Su Zhan was startled and, being pulled by him, fell directly onto Fu Yichen. He quickly got up, saying, “Your injury!”
“Mmm~ It’s fine,” Fu Yichen let out a muffled groan and stubbornly held him, not allowing him to get up. “Don’t move, just lie down for a while.”
Afraid of aggravating his wounds and unable to resist him, Su Zhan ultimately gave up struggling and climbed onto him, resting his head directly on Fu Yichen’s chest.
So the two extremely dishevelled men lay on the grass in the deep forest, looking miserable yet strangely satisfied.
After a while, Fu Yichen playfully broke the silence of the woods and said, “You cried just now?” There was a teasing tone mixed with a sense of accomplishment in his voice.
Su Zhan’s face stiffened and he closed his eyes in a direction where Fu Yichen couldn’t see, pretending to be nonchalant. “That’s just how my character is. What can I do?”
Fu Yichen raised his hand and poked Su Zhan’s downcast cheek. The corners of his mouth couldn’t help but curl up into a smile, but in the end, he didn’t say anything.
On the other hand, as if suddenly remembering something, Su Zhan sat up straight and took out something that Fu Yichen had given him, saying, “Let me bandage your wounds.”
Fu Yichen remained silent, allowing him to bandage the various wounds on his arm. After finishing, he asked, “How did you get in?”
Su Zhan then recounted the events after Fu Yichen left, briefly mentioning the hardships and fears, but blaming himself for recklessly going back after escaping.
“It’s my fault for not thinking clearly.” Su Zhan indeed felt a bit dejected. It seemed that besides acting, he didn’t really pay attention to anything else. Of course, given his previous circumstances, he didn’t need to worry about anything.
In the world of the novel, it seemed that Fu Yichen was always by his side in times of trouble. He had become accustomed to relying on this person, to the point where he didn’t even need to use his brain and could rely on him completely. So, he not only blamed himself for this incident but also felt a bit down.
Fu Yichen raised his hand and poked Su Zhan’s cheek, which was clearly showing his dejected expression. “It’s not your fault. No matter what you do, you will eventually end up here.”
Su Zhan was momentarily stunned, then realized the strangeness of this storyline. He couldn’t ask directly, but after being together for so long, they could understand each other with just a glance.
“Now what should we do?” Su Zhan looked at Fu Yichen with complete trust.
“Go with the flow.” Even if there was no clear direction, they could still follow the storyline and eventually find a way out, even if it meant enduring some hardships.
Trapped in the misty forest on this night, Fu Yichen actually thought about this question repeatedly. Especially now that he and Su Zhan were both trapped in the forest, just like the tyrant and the protagonist in the original story.
Looking back at the whole process, things had become clearer.
The cause was that Fu Yichen accelerated the progress and skipped over some trivial plot points. Because based on his previous analysis, as long as he didn’t violate the plot or completely disregard it, skipping ahead wouldn’t result in time reversal or punishment.
Now it seemed that his speculation was correct, although there were some unexpected occurrences along the way. But regardless of how the plot developed, in the end, they both ended up in the same situation, just like Su Zhan and the plot.
The entire process was like a condensed version of the original story, but not just a simplification.
When they were in the Mary Sue world before, Fu Yichen felt that he and Su Zhan were like chess pieces being manipulated on a chessboard. The whole Mary Sue world, including the system, was a chessboard and a tool for the game respectively, and the players were the Mary Sue enthusiasts and the Anti-Mary Sue Alliance.
Everything was unfolding just as that post in the Anti-Mary Sue community described, but starting from the previous Mary Sue world, it seems that the situation had changed.
Their goals were no longer opposing each other, and the players were no longer Mary Sue supporters and opponents, or rather, there was no longer any game at all. It was just a process of development. Now, looking back, Fu Yichen realized that he didn’t even read half of that post at the time, which meant that he had no idea what changes occurred later.
He had doubted his speculation about the timeline of the post before, considering that the novel world underwent significant changes. But now, upon careful consideration, his speculation might not be wrong.
Furthermore, based on the current rules and system development in this world, Fu Yichen increasingly felt that he and Su Zhan were not merely chess pieces, but rather two actors. More precisely, they were like puppets being manipulated, forced to perform specific plots. But this manipulation was a higher-level, invisible control, and the ones who dictated the rules and plots were the so-called manipulators, their audience.
In other words, the power that maintained control over the plot in the novel world, including laji and Su Zhan’s system, stemed from the group of people related to that post, which was not specific to any particular person.
So, the system was merely a virtual bridge connecting the real world and the novel world. In other words, the system was also the bridge between the mysterious power in the post and Fu Yichen and Su Zhan.
Since that side used the system to control the fictional world and indirectly controlled him and Su Zhan, could they turn the tables and use it in return?
This idea suddenly emerged in Fu Yichen’s mind, perhaps just a rough concept, but it kept growing uncontrollably.
Repeatedly, whether out of anger or unwillingness, Fu Yichen seemed to have finally found a breakthrough. Most importantly, the length of that post made him worry about the length of the timeline. He couldn’t determine where they were in the timeline now or how far they were from the endpoint. Furthermore, he couldn’t be sure if reaching the endpoint of the timeline will guarantee their return.
Therefore, Fu Yichen had to find another way out.
In fact, after the two characters were trapped in the misty forest in the plot, the tyrant was severely injured, and it was the “frail body” of the Male Lead who took care of him throughout the journey.
So now, faced with the immobile Fu Yichen, Su Zhan without hesitation grabbed his arm and supported it on his shoulder.
“I’ll carry you.” Su Zhan lifted Fu Yichen without any doubt. After all, although he carried tools like knives necessary for wilderness survival, the main issue was that they had no food or water, and the surroundings were shrouded in a dense fog, devoid of any signs of life. So, they had to walk.
But the Male Lead was “physically weak,” and coupled with Fu Yichen’s naturally strong and large build, when this sudden weight was pressed onto him, Su Zhan stumbled and almost fell.
“Don’t push yourself.” Fu Yichen felt aching all over his body but still smiled uncontrollably. At this moment, he had the heart to tease others.
“Enough with the nonsense.” Su Zhan’s temper got ignited.
In the end, Fu Yichen was still carried on Su Zhan’s back, half carried and half dragged, for one or two kilometers.
Fu Yichen lied on Su Zhan’s somewhat slender back, feeling his occasional swaying. Especially when he saw Su Zhan’s tense face gradually turning red, veins popping up behind his ears, he couldn’t help but crack a carefree smile.
This world was fake, their bodies were fake, everything was fake, even the plot was predetermined, but they couldn’t help but go through hardships together. At least, this warm feeling was real.
Fu Yichen suddenly became cheerful and couldn’t help but joke, “If you can’t carry me, just put me down.”
Su Zhan remained silent, perhaps afraid of disappointing him? After all, he had been struggling to carry him for half the time, and the other half of that time was spent dragging him along, only to walk less than two kilometers.
Fu Yichen continued, “If your small frame can’t handle it, who will take care of me?”
Finally, Su Zhan couldn’t bear it any longer and let go of his hand. Fu Yichen immediately sat on the ground, grimacing in pain.
“Are you trying to murder your husband!?”
Su Zhan gasped for breath and turned around, giving him a sharp look. “Do you know how heavy you are?”
He was at least 150 pounds, okay? The Male Lead’s body was already weak, and he felt like he was carrying a small mountain on his back, each step feeling like a thousand pounds. Yet this guy was still finding joy in his suffering?
“Alright, let’s take a break.” Fu Yichen pulled him down and sat him beside himself.
“Don’t worry, okay?” He also knew that Su Zhan was worried about their situation. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Trust me.”
“But you’re injured like this, we have no food or water, we’re starving.” And most importantly, in the plot, the Male Lead, in such difficult circumstances, managed to find a water source while carrying the tyrant on his back, and then discovered fish in the river, thus avoiding starving to death in the mountains.
Su Zhan didn’t know the direction, but this was what he had to do. He couldn’t just lie there and wait for a river to magically appear in front of him. That was obviously unrealistic. What’s more, it was getting dark in the blink of an eye, so how could he not be anxious?
“Rest for a while,” Fu Yichen insisted, “I’m sure we’ll find a water source before it gets dark.” Because that’s how the plot develops.
The most important thing was that they couldn’t starve to death. That little river would appear in front of them like a plot that changes randomly.
Sure enough, just before the forest gradually darkened, after Su Zhan struggled to carry Fu Yichen up a small hill with one arm, they heard the sound of water.
Fu Yichen raised an eyebrow at Su Zhan, looking smug. “How about that? Isn’t your husband amazing?”
Although they were an old married couple, Su Zhan was still thin-skinned, especially when this person deliberately teased him. Well, he couldn’t control his blush, so Su Zhan accidentally let go of his hand.
As expected, Fu Yichen fell to the ground again, grimacing in pain.
Perhaps the movement was a bit exaggerated, or Fu Yichen was deliberately teasing him to lighten the mood. In any case, Su Zhan couldn’t help but laugh when he saw Fu Yichen like this.
“Serves you right.” Su Zhan laughed and went to help Fu Yichen, but silently added in his heart, his husband was indeed impressive. Well, as an old married couple, it was too pathetic for him to still be infatuated with this person.
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