When Yun Ruifeng reported to Marshal Shen on the status of his mission and (more importantly) confessed his feelings for Shen Zhiwei, he told Marshal Shen that he and Doctor Shen had already decided in the game to spend their lives together; they had to be together.

Marshal Shen looked at the request Yun Ruifeng had submitted and didn’t know what to say. Shen Zhiwei was his child, and that child was too smart. He’d only wanted him to be a scholar and conduct studies in peace, but instead, while helping Marshal Shen in a collaboration with the company to create the game, he had created a holographic game and made the Department of Defense see its value. Shen Zhiwei had already agreed with the Department of Defense that when the company’s studies of the game were complete and his contract ran out, he would sign an agreement with the Department of Defense to work for them.

But when a verbal agreement had just been reached, Dr. Shen’s mind had become trapped in the game. At the same time, the game company had already signed agreements with the beta players and given helmets to the first batch. Then the Department of Defense had decided to send Yun Ruifeng, disguised as a player, to rescue Dr. Shen.

When Shen Zhiwei went to work for the Department of Defense, he would be in far more danger than he had been making games for this company. It was a good thing that someone was willing to protect him. Yun Ruifeng was the empire’s youngest major general and had carried out many dangerous assignments. His abilities were first rate. But if he became the captain of Shen Zhiwei’s guards now, it would mean that Yun Ruifeng’s future career…

Marshal Shen sighed and asked, “Are you sure?”

Yun Ruifeng saluted Marshal Shen. “Yes, sir!”

“Everyone is free to choose their marriage partners now. If Zhiwei agrees, I have no objections to raise.” Marshal Shen nodded as he spoke. Yun Ruifeng was his direct subordinate and the person he had highest expectations of. If a person like this was his son’s partner, he would have nothing to worry about.

All that was between the young people. Leave it to them to decide.

“Thank you, sir!”

Once Yun Ruifeng had reported on his work, Marshal Shen talked to him some more about the game. When he heard that Shen Zhiwei had guessed in the game that he was an NPC, he sighed in spite of himself and said, “That child is always so serious, no matter what he’s doing. Wouldn’t it be nice if he could loosen up for once?”

Yun Ruifeng nodded. When he bent his head, the personal terminal on his wrist flashed with a notification. His expression changed. He swiftly pressed a few keys on the terminal, apparently talking to someone.

After a while of this, Yun Ruifeng leapt to his feet and said coldly, “Sir, I have something to attend to.”

There was a chill in his eyes and an intensity to him. Marshal Shen stared at him. Before he could nod, Yun Ruifeng had vanished.

As he went, Yun Ruifeng kneaded his chest; just now, he had nearly said something like, “I will be interested to see whether Yan Xu dares to try anything.” It was a good thing he had caught himself in time.

It seemed that the young doctor wasn’t the only one who needed to readjust to the modern world; he was having some trouble as well.

When he came to Dr. Shen’s office, he saw Shen Zhiwei still working.

Shen Zhiwei’s door was open. He saw Yun Ruifeng standing at the door out of his peripheral vision, so he put down what he was working on. “What is it?”

“Nothing.” Yun Ruifeng shook his head, struggling to calm himself little by little. “I just thought the scene was very familiar. It seems as if you’re always working. You never rested in the game either.”

“It’s not the same thing.” Shen Zhiwei leaned back easily in his chair. “When I’m done with this project, I’ll take a break for a while. When I was emperor, I really didn’t have any time to rest.”

Rarely was he so relaxed. Yun Ruifeng walked up behind him and put his hands on Shen Zhiwei’s shoulders. Softly, he said, “Shall I massage your shoulders? I often get bumps and bruises when I’m training, so I give myself a lot of massages. My technique isn’t bad.”

Shen Zhiwei tipped his head back and looked at Yun Ruifeng for a while. Suddenly, he said, “Petition granted.”

Yun Ruifeng laughed. He knew that Shen Zhiwei had said the wrong thing on purpose.

His hands pressed gently on Shen Zhiwei’s shoulders, producing a feeling of languor that spread throughout his body. Shen Zhiwei had spent all morning working and was in fact a little fatigued. Now, he closed his eyes to enjoy the massage in peace.

The person behind him was someone he could trust absolutely, whether they were in the game or in this still somewhat unfamiliar reality. With this person, he could always close his eyes peacefully.

When the hands massaging his shoulders moved down to his waist, soft lips gently touched Shen Zhiwei’s face.

Shen Zhiwei didn’t open his eyes, so this person became increasingly impudent, reaching into his clothes, pressing his lips to Shen Zhiwei’s lips.

“Your Majesty,” Yun Ruifeng whispered against Shen Zhiwei’s lips, “I know that you’ve made an agreement with the Department of Defense, but you ought to rest when it’s time for it. When the company’s project ends, let’s go on a wedding trip. No one can keep you from going on leave for your wedding.”

Shen Zhiwei opened his eyes. The empress’s always calm eyes were filled with expectation. He so rarely asked for anything.

Yun Ruifeng’s face, which had always been the same, in the game and in reality, reminded Shen Zhiwei of their previous argument, so he nodded and said, “It’s wonderful not to have to worry about heirs. We can remain with the empress.”

Yun Ruifeng’s eyes lit up, and he lifted him out of his chair and headed toward the lounge inside the office. “Stop thinking about work, Doctor,” he said. “I’m planning to befuddle Your Majesty, make sure you never get up for morning court again.”

Then he closed the door. It was only five minutes before the arranged meeting with Player 9 that afternoon that the door to Dr. Shen’s lounge opened.

Shen Zhiwei’s expression was unchanged. His clothes were neat, his hair was slightly damp, and a red flush lingered at the corners of his eyes.

Yun Ruifeng’s hair was also damp. He stood stern-faced behind Dr. Shen. Without having formally commenced his new role, he was already doing the work of a guard.

Player 9 was punctually brought to Dr. Shen’s office by the assistant. A seat was prepared for him across from Dr. Shen. Before he could sit down, his eye fell at once on the tall and broad Yun Ruifeng. He froze, then plopped down on the floor.

“E-E-Empress!” Player 9 stammered, pointing at Yun Ruifeng. “Wh-what are you doing here?”

Yun Ruifeng’s expression remained unchanged. He was Dr. Shen’s personal bodyguard now, and not permitted to say or do anything extreme in the presence of players. Dr. Shen had given him these instructions, red-faced, when Yun Ruifeng had been licking…

“Mr. Yun was part of the company’s beta test. Did you meet in the game?” Shen Zhiwei asked imperturbably.

Player 9 gulped, awkwardly got up, and took his seat. With an effort, he said, “W-we’re not acquainted.”

“Then his presence should have no impact on our conversation.” Shen Zhiwei very naturally forestalled any attempts Player 9 might have made to ask for Yun Ruifeng to leave. Then he got right to the point. “In your commentary on the test, you said you wanted all sensation to be blocked while being tortured?”

“Yes!” Player 9’s attention was distracted at once. He couldn’t help recalling his experiences in the game. Ashen-faced, he said, “It’s too horrible right now!”

“We can take your opinion into consideration. Meanwhile, please answer a question for me. Under the circumstances at the time… I mean, when you had a close encounter with the seduction target—at the time, you used the provided item. Supposing no one had stopped you, would you really have done something to the seduction target? Please answer this question honestly. This is important for the future of the game’s development,” Dr. Shen said sternly.

“Well…” Player 9 very uncomfortably bowed his head.

“Fine, I understand.” Dr. Shen nodded.

“What?” Player 9 stared at him. What had he understood?

Dr. Shen said, “You didn’t answer the question directly, which means that you were holding something back. In other words, you did in fact have unlawful intentions toward the seduction target at the time, but you yourself think that was wrong. Correct?”

“Uh…” Player 9 nodded. “I only did what I did because I realized I had no hope and was even about to lose my position, so I decided to go all out. I hadn’t meant for anything to happen between me and an NPC. Using incense was just fine. But then… That young emperor really was just my type. I just wanted to take advantage a little… But when I got back to the modern world, I felt that my thoughts at the time were pretty disturbing.”

“That’s right,” Dr. Shen picked up. “When I first designed the dream incense as an item in the game, I had two goals in mind, the first of which was to preserve the players’ mortal bottom line. The holographic game is hyperrealistic. If you do something in a game that you wouldn’t dare to do in real life, it may cause you to have trouble separating the game from reality later.”

“Y-yes.” Player 9 looked rather alarmed by this possibility.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” said Shen Zhiwei with a smile. “Your feedback has provided valuable material for our study. We will make changes to the game. When there is a full release in the future, I hope you will not give up on this game.”

“Of course I won’t give up on it!” Player 9 said. “I’ve never seen such a fun game. It was just at the end, when I was being tortured… Well, actually, that was also pretty stimulating, haha…”

Smiling, Shen Zhiwei invited Player 9 to leave the office.

Yun Ruifeng shut the door at once and said, “What the hell did you want to talk to him for, anyway?”

“To determine whether he really is the sort of person to violate his own moral bottom line,” said Shen Zhiwei. “Now I’m certain that he isn’t. When he returned to modern society, he was disturbed by what he had nearly done. That means he understood that it was wrong. I…we only wanted an answer.”

Yun Ruifeng understood. While struggling to adjust to Emperor Jingren’s memories, Shen Zhiwei had in fact not chosen to give those memories up altogether, but rather to absorb them entirely.

He wasn’t planning to renounce his past in the game world. Though he knew it had been an illusion, he viewed it as a life he had truly lived.

When he used the imperial “we” sometimes, it wasn’t because he was having trouble adjusting to this world, but to keep himself from forgetting another world.

He had turned everything he had experienced there into a part of himself—memories, feelings, and time. He was Emperor Jingren, and also Shen Zhiwei.

“Actually, we can do it like this.” Yun Ruifeng bent his head and kissed Shen Zhiwei’s cheek. “When we’re in private, you are still my emperor, and I am still your empress. All right?”