Later, Chang Dou and his colleagues in the RZ Unit went through many experiences. The RZ Unit nearly broke up. They even became a group of unequipped wanted criminals engaged in guerrilla warfare. 

But…no matter what they were called, bad guys were still bad guys. 

Though good guys also jaywalked and littered, it wasn’t with the aim of hitting people or causing car crashes. Everyone was ordinary; they wouldn’t do frightening things. 

Chang Dou experienced losing his job for the first time and sat at home uneasily reading the newspapers, wanting to know news of everyone, especially wanting to know…news of a certain person. So when he got Su Qing’s call, he couldn’t hold out; he nearly cried and sniveled. 

He wanted to ask, Have you found Fang Xiu? Is everyone safe? Are you all right? Is he all right? Sadly, he was then scolded by Captain Hu and didn’t have time to ask. 

Captain Hu really was a scary fellow. 

Then came nonstop betrayal, probing, and flight. Unbelievable things came one after another—extracting the twenty-one grams of substance that was a human’s most fundamental energy, a C space that could block all attack, Utopia wanting to change all the extant rules of the world, the corpse that was a so-called spatial key, and countless people who united because of this war dying. 

But in the end, they still won. 

Chang Dou suddenly felt that he had been through major vicissitudes. As a human who lived in the 2.5th dimension, he had suddenly become a hanger-on in a story about saving the world. While he didn’t think he was a major character, he was still mixed up in it. 

And everyone finally accepted him. 

Except for…that person. 

Fang Xiu never seemed to display any praise or friendliness towards him, show any expression conveying any positive emotions. He was always pulling a long face, looking at him as he would look at an imbecile. 

But Chang Dou faintly remembered that when the bullets had been flying, a hand had grabbed his collar in the chaos and pulled him aside. The fingers were covered in cracks; blood and dirt had stuck to his collar. Only Chang Dou knew that when he was held down and curled into a ball, pressed against Fang Xiu, even hearing his heartbeat and smelling cigarettes and drying agent on him, in that moment, all of this came together into an uncontrollably racing heartbeat; as the human body’s motor sped up, it all transformed into smoke and floated up faintly from the subpar heat dissipator at the top of his head. 

Of course, he was quickly pushed away again, because he really was too much of a hindrance. 

The faint stubble on Fang Xiu’s chin, which he had neglected to shave because they were in a time of war, and his eyes, seeming to emit light when fixed on a certain point in the dark, later all transformed into the most discomforting charms in Chang Dou’s nightmares—so easily had Fang Xiu taken the place of Sora Aoi¹ in his heart! 

As a die-hard fan of Sora Aoi, when he got up the next morning, Chang Dou spent half an hour banging his head against the wall to express his grief and lamentation over his unsteady position and decisive betrayal. 

According to his constant one-track mind character, this thing…happened like this. 

He began trotting at Fang Xiu’s heels, awaiting the moment that his sincerity would work wonders. 

When he had wanted to join the RZ Unit, Chang Dou had applied three times and been eliminated from consideration each time for various reasons. But he hadn’t given up. He had kept thinking that even a loser would one day fly up. So finally, when he had applied for the fourth time, and the examiners had been starting to think that he looked a little familiar, by a fluke, he had passed and become a member of the technical department. 

So the slow long march began. 

One day after the war ended, when Fang Xiu got mad for no reason at all and rather guiltily apologized to him, faced with his for once softened expression and his unreserved approval for Chang Dou—er, for his work—Chang Dou had acted on impulse, shouting “Requesting to be kept! I can warm your bed!”, though later he had felt that his head must have been full of water. But Fang Xiu’s stunned, shocked expression at the time had at last succeeded in hanging the nerd Chang Dou’s maiden heart by a rope. 

Like a coward who didn’t dare to listen to the judge passing sentence, he avoided Fang Xiu for a whole week. At last he got up his courage. He thought, Might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb. He had already confessed, anyway. Whether Fang Xiu accepted or not, at any rate he had heard. But if he was refused, what would he do? 

Chang Dou thought that he would definitely be ten thousand times sadder than when he had been refused by the RZ Unit’s technical department. 

But that was all right!

He had applied four times, so he could confess four times! 

Classmate Chang Dou, full of fighting spirit, at last appeared once more in public view with the bearing of a rooster. When Fang Xiu’s gaze stopped on his face, he was conflicted for a moment, then at last, without even looking for an opportunity, took advantage of a field assignment to run off. 

Chang Dou assumed the post of tech support for the field agents. He could swear that the moment his voice came over the earpiece, Fang Xiu froze. 

Chang Dou pumped his fist encouragingly at the poster of some war movie stuck to the wall of his office, indicating that one day he would take this pillbox! 

A war with no guns fired began. 

Fang Xiu returned from his assignment. Probably he had decided at last to put a stop to this business, so he went to his office alone and knocked on the door. “Can I come in?” 

Chang Dou’s adrenaline secretions became excessive. 

Fang Xiu closed the door behind him. He was silent for a while, then quietly said, “I came to talk things over with you, concerning…” 

“Wait!” Chang Dou shouted. 

“Let me ask you a question first.” Chang Dou stood in front of him, serious and solemn. Seriously and solemnly, he asked, “Can I kiss you now?” 

Fang Xiu: “…” 

“You…you only have two options, you can nod or shake your head. You can’t say anything else.” 

Fang Xiu was blank for a while. Then he blankly shook his head. 

Chang Dou’s head drooped. A little disheartened, he falteringly said, “OK…I understand, you don’t like me.” 

Though Fang Xiu had in fact been planning to politely turn him down, he still hadn’t been planning to use such a novel means to do it. 

“But I won’t give up!” The next instant, Chang Dou raised his head, his eyes like two burning Cosmos about to burn through his lenses…but he didn’t seem ridiculous. In that instant, he didn’t seem like an underaged boy in a manga; he seemed to have walked out of the crudely made black and white page with the bearing of a grown man, standing upright in front of Fang Xiu. He sighed softly, raised a hand, considered, put it back down, then quietly repeated, “I won’t give up.” 

Chang Dou pulled the door open and said to Fang Xiu, “You don’t need to say anything. Leave now. I understand what you mean, but I don’t want to hear you say it.” 

“Chang Dou.” Fang Xiu sighed and leaned against the doorframe. “You’ve grown up a little.” 

Chang Dou suddenly smiled. He said, “In the Projector, I was trapped in an inescapable maze with you for twelve years. Even if I had only been six years old then, I would still be an adult by now.” 

Suddenly, Fang Xiu didn’t know what to say. He could only let Chang Dou close the door in front of him. He irritably leaned against the corridor wall and lit a cigarette. Just then, the door Chang Dou had closed opened a crack once again. Chang Dou looked at him and went back inside. Puffing and blowing, he pulled out a first-aid kit, walked up to him without a word, and rolled up Fang Xiu’s pant leg. 

Fang Xiu was startled and pulled his foot away, but Chang Dou held it firmly. 

He still couldn’t walk entirely easily. During the assignment, his ankle had been brushed by a bullet, leaving a shallow wound. 

Chang Dou knelt on one knee, carefully used a cotton swab to clean the wound, then applied medicine. 

The cigarette Fang Xiu had lit burned all the way down to the end; he had forgotten to put it in his mouth. 

Still later, Chang Dou’s life had only two centers of gravity—work, and making Fang Xiu look at him. What games, cartoons, Sora Aois, and all 2D means of messing around? He discarded them all without hesitation. He wanted to become a better person. Each time he thought he had become a bit better, he would attract Fang Xiu’s notice by every possible means for a chance to get one look. 

Then he confessed over and over. 

Every time, when Fang Xiu finished listening in silence, Chang Dou wouldn’t let him speak, only let him either nod or shake his head in response of the question “Can I kiss you?” 

The RZ Unit’s technical department had refused Chang Dou three times. Fang Xiu had refused Chang Dou seven times, or was it eight? 

But…there was no need to worry. 

Chang Dou said to himself, There’s no need to worry. 

There was a very dangerous field assignment. Even the technician was included. He was in the car controlling the equipment. When the arrest operation was coming to an end, the signal suddenly cut off. 

Chang Dou didn’t know whether it was his own communication signal that had cut off or whether everyone’s signals had been blocked. If it was the latter, that was a bigger problem. So he quickly began to inspect the link and activated the emergency system. Just then, there was an explosion nearby. Someone came towards his car. The car door on one side was pulled open. Someone pulled him out of the car. There was a rumble, and the car where he had been sitting blew up. 

Chang Dou saw clearly saw that, when it blew up, a string of blood droplets flew from Fang Xiu’s shoulder. 

Fang Xiu quickly took him to hide under a big tree. He lit a signal flare, and then confused fighting began. They seemed to have returned to World War II. Both sides’ tech support was gone. They fought with guns, relying on radio to contact their people. They fought for a whole day and night. By the time the battle finally ended, Fang Xiu was half-soaked in his own blood.

Chang Dou returned to headquarters following Fang Xiu’s ambulance the whole way, followed him to the hospital room, and firmly disobeyed orders, stubbornly insisting on staying to look after him. 

Fang Xiu was pretending to sleep, Chang Dou could see it. Each time it was only the two of them left, Fang Xiu pretended to sleep and ignored him in order to avoid awkwardness. 

Chang Dou carefully took Fang Xiu’s hand and looked. No reaction. Then he tentatively drew closer…hm? Still no reaction. 

His heart suddenly beat faster and faster. He slowly came closer and closer, until his breaths were clearly falling one by one on Fang Xiu’s skin. Fang Xiu’s eyelashes trembled, and he still…resisted and didn’t react. 

Truly a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!²

So Chang Dou became bold. He closed his eyes, almost piously leaned down, and gently kissed Fang Xiu’s dry lips, just a single touch. He felt that he was about to fly up. 

The whole time, Fang Xiu lay in bed playing dead. 

A big smile slowly appeared on Chang Dou’s face. He softly said, “I already told you the rules. This is tacit approval, isn’t it?” 

That had to be it. 

If you wanted a goal, a thing, or a person, however remote, however difficult, if you kept working hard and working hard, if you never gave up, you could make your wish come true. 

That was what Chang Dou thought. Then he happily lay down at the side of the bed and fell asleep, still with a suspicious smile at the corners of his lips. 

After a long time, Fang Xiu opened his eyes in his hospital bed, looked down at Chang Dou’s messy hair, then lightly raised his uninjured hand, took off his glasses, which had already fallen off his nose, and lightly put them aside. 

Little Chang Dou was a person who would bash his head against a wall without looking back. Anyway, all his life, experience had told him that if you kept bashing the wall, you would one day break through.