It rained harder and harder, and there were fewer and fewer customers at the mall. 

Zhen Li changed outfits three times while performing, doing his best to attract the customers’ notice, but in the end he still lost to the weather and the working day. 

When a mall with a movie theater that’s being renovated puts on a lottery drawing event on a working day, in an afternoon of pouring rain, and invites a minor internet celebrity to carry it out; when the biggest prizes are cell phones that run out between 10 AM and 11 AM, and the remaining hourly prizes are exercises bracelets or mall gift certificates, who’s going to stick around waiting for the results of the lottery drawing? 

At 7 PM, President Zhen concluded a full day’s activity and returned to the studio on his own, carrying his luggage. 

He needed to put his makeup box back into its original place, write today’s program and earnings on the records form, and eat a bowl of the instant noodles Director Yu had used company funds to purchases. He hadn’t eaten anything today. He was ravenous. 

These instant noodles had always been in Yuan Luori’s sole possession. He lived in the studio and had no money. At night, he relied entirely on instant noodles for survival. Ordinarily, he didn’t let anyone touch these nearly expired noodles (the supermarket gave a discount on goods about to expire). Zhen Li had always wanted to stealthily eat a bowl. 

Today, Yuan Luori had been taken to the base. The location of the Protection Organization’s base was a secret. It wasn’t easy to get in and out. Each time they went to the base, Zhen Li and Yuan Luori were knocked unconscious or drugged to sleep on the way, and when they left, it had to be along with the Protectors, too. It wasn’t like they could go report and then leave. Yuan Luori would probably be staying at the Protection Organization’s base tonight. 

Thinking about that bowl of instant noodles, Zhen Li got out of his taxi and quickly ran to the office building through the rain. His running steps were particularly quick. He hardly got dripped on. 

He took the elevator to the twenty-first floor. The lights were off in the studio. Zhen Li got out his keys to open the door but found that the door was unlocked. Could Yuan Luori have gotten back early? Then had his plan to secretly eat instant noodles fallen through? 

It was already 8 PM when Zhen Li arrived at the studio. Because of the rain, the sky was entirely dark. It was pitch black inside. When he was just about to turn on the lights, a streak of lightning flashed by outside, lighting the room through the window. 

Under the window was the little bench they rested on when they were tired from dance practice. It was about sixty centimeters high, a long bench arranged against the wall. Yu Hua had said that this way they could economize on space in the dance practice room. Lian Yufan had said that he was stingy. He had personally made the wooden bench from building materials left over from decorating. There wasn’t even a proper lounge chair!

In the illumination from the lightning, Zhen Li saw someone sitting next to the window. This man’s long legs were slightly apart, his elbows on his thighs, all ten fingers laced together in front of his nose, revealing a sinister pair of eyes. 

“Ka-boom!” The huge clap of thunder and the man suddenly appearing in the quiet room scared Zhen Li. His knees went weak, and he slid down a wall and sat. Trembling, he said, “Who, who are you? A new leveler?” 

“Zhen Li, are you as blind as Yuan Luori?” the man said somberly. 

Another flash of lightning. This time, Zhen Li clearly saw that the man sitting under the window was Yu Hua, who never stayed at work past 6 PM! 

Yu Hua was soaked through with rain. His suit jacket had been carelessly tossed on the bench. His white shirt stuck tightly to his body, outlining the muscles of his chest and abdomen. His hair was plastered to his ears, water dripping off of it drip by drip. The dripping rainwater was soaking into the cheap material of the bench. 

“What, what did you come here for?” Zhen Li asked, shaking in the dark. He didn’t dare to turn on the lights.

“I wanted to be alone to consider some things,” Yu Hua said. 

The reason he didn’t want to work late was that he wanted to hurry home to make dinner for Xiao You. Tonight, Xiao You had sent a message saying he was out of town on a mission and would stay the night and only come home tomorrow. Yu Hua didn’t especially want to stay alone in his deserted house tonight, so he had come to the studio. 

“Alone… Then I’ll put down my box and make myself scarce,” Zhen Li said obligingly. 

Zhen Li quietly went to the small storage cubicle, put down his box, then stealthily took a bowl of instant noodles from a cardboard box. He silently hugged the wall, preparing to leave the studio. 

During this process, Zhen Li was so scared he didn’t dare to breathe, afraid that the great master would hear his breathing, get annoyed, and do away with him so he could be “alone.” 

Holding his breath, he finally found the doorknob. The light of success was ahead of him; go on! 

Zhen Li cheered himself on, took a step forward, and suddenly stepped on something fluffy and furry. At the same time, he heard a delicate cry of “awoo.” 

“Ka-boom!” Another flash of lightning. Zhen Li focused and found that he had stepped on a tiny husky. It was curled up licking its own tail. 

Like Yu Hua, the little husky was dripping wet. The man and the dog must have been out in the rain a long time to get like this. 

“Sorry, it’s too dark in here, I didn’t see.” Zhen Li thought that the little husky was a pet the great master had bought as a gift for his husband, so its position would be higher than his, so he spoke respectfully. 

“No need to apologize. Go ahead and step on him a couple more times,” Yu Hua said. “He’s Destroyer 192.” 

Zhen Li: “…” 

He thought that he and Yuan Luori had it bad enough. One had nearly been disfigured, and the other had become half-blind. He had never thought that there was no such thing as the most miserable; there was only more miserable. Destroyer 192 hadn’t even gotten to keep his identity as a human being. 

Zhen Li was a tactful person. Even though he had a bellyful of questions, he didn’t dare to ask them when the great master was clearly in a bad mood. He once again put his hand on the doorknob and prepared to run away. 

“Wait,” Yu Hua said suddenly. 

“Yes.” Looking woebegone, Zhen Li stopped. In the end, he hadn’t been able to escape. 

Yu Hua remained in his thoughtful pose. He considered, then asked, “How does it feel when you’re working with the Protection Organization?” 

“In what sense?” Zhen Li asked. 

“Just tell me about it,” Yu Hua said. 

Zhen Li struggled to remember his impressions of the times he had worked with the Protection Organization. He thoughtfully said, “All those young men I can barely tell apart feel very easy to get along with. There’s something about them that’s the same as me. They’re also kind of…” 

“Naïve?” Yu Hua said.

“Right, they’re kind of naïve. I know very well that my IQ isn’t high. These young Protectors clearly have high IQs, but they give off an unworldly feeling. Lian Yufan is an exception. I think he has a story,” Zhen Li said. “As for the older-looking Protectors, there’s a strong whiff of blood about them, and their expressions are pessimistic. They also have a touch of detachment from seeing too much of life and death.” 

“Concretely?” Yu Hua said. 

Zhen Li thought about it. “For example, that very ordinary-looking fire-using Protector. I think he’s very easy to get along with, and he’s concerned about me. Today when I was eating the cardboard box, he was afraid I would choke and kept tearing the box into smaller pieces and soaking them in water to get them soft.” 

Fire-using… Zhen Li must have been talking about Cen Xiao. Having gone through the affair of the pants, while Yu Hua hadn’t awakened his “eyes of truth,” he could tell which familiar person was behind which mask. 

“Then there’s that handsome uncle. His face looks very old, but from his hands and his body, he actually seems very young. I think he must be young under his mask,” Zhen Li said. “He’s a gentle person. At the arcade, he was always very concerned about protecting the audience. He waited until we got to the restroom to capture me.” 

That was Xiao You. Hearing Zhen Li praising Xiao You, Yu Hua’s expression softened a little. 

“But the real older Protectors are like that director. I’m a little scared of him.” Zhen Li shrank back. “Not just because he’s very powerful, but also because he’s always looking at me with a questioning and faintly hostile expression. No matter how much I cooperate with them, he still doesn’t like me.” 

“The older generation of Protectors fought with the levelers from fifteen years ago. It’s a blood feud for them,” Yu Hua said. 

Zhen Li nodded. “Right, right! Sometimes I think that if there weren’t the System’s mission target, if the Clearing League weren’t constantly coming to this world, that director and the older protectors would have made the decision to kill me and Yuan Luori. Now, they’re acting like they trust us, they’re using us, but in reality they’re always on their guards against us.” 

“You’re actually quite discerning in this aspect,” Yu Hua said. 

Zhen Li laughed. “It must be the alertness of a prey animal.” 

“If…” Yu Hua only said one word and didn’t continue his question. He didn’t need Zhen Li to answer; he knew the answer already. 

If he used the black-cloaked man identity to work with the Protectors, would the Protection Organization agree? The answer was that they would, but they would inevitably shadow him, observe him, and thus discover his true identity. However powerful he was, he still couldn’t cover up seamlessly. The smallest leak would reveal him. 

Then if his identity were revealed, would the Protection Organization still allow him and Xiao You to be together? The answer was no. 

Even if Xiao You were willing, even if he still loved him, the Protection Organization still wouldn’t tolerate a person who attracted Destroyers to attack this world to be with their elite soldier. 

He was very powerful. He could take Xiao You away from this nation, run away with him to another country, but the Protection Organization was global. No matter where he went, he would be found by the Protection Organization. Even if he took Xiao You away from this world, Xiao You would be unhappy. There would be no way to live their life. 

Moreover, what he wanted was a peaceful life. Was taking an unhappy person on the run through the whole world, the whole cosmos, really the peace he wanted? 

When Yu Hua had arrived on the roof today and seen Xiao You riddled with injuries and turned into a living bomb, he had suddenly felt a trace of doubt about his own dreams and his own persistence. 

Why had Xiao You been so seriously injured? Because he hadn’t been able to come in time. 

Why hadn’t he been able to come in time? Because he had to hide his identity. He had to arrange everything. He had to leave the scene at an opportune moment. He had to make it look like he was somewhere else. He had to change clothes. He had to…

There were too many things he had to do. For the sake of concealing his identity, he had to attend to this, attend to that. He couldn’t freely protect Xiao You. 

Yu Hua had wanted to spend a peaceful lifetime, live quietly and die quietly in a peaceful world, a peaceful era, and before dying request that his ashes be scattered over the vast earth, drawing a perfect period at the end of his tediously long life. 

But the peace he wanted had been created through the protection of countless people using their flesh and blood to build a wall; it was preserved by his husband risking his life. 

The always resolute Yu Hua was in a daze. Was the ordinary life he aspired to really something he could achieve? 

“I only want to sleep easily until daybreak.” Yu Hua turned his face away, looking at the lightning and rain outside the window. 

Blocking the elements was a fragile window that he could shatter with a touch of his hand. It was that window that was sparing him from being buffeted by the wind and rain. 

Since he couldn’t leave anyway, Zhen Li simply used the lightning to grope around and turn on the water heater and make himself a bowl of noodles. The seasonings in the instant noodles were released. The smells of the artificial flavorings spread through the steam, irritating the sense of smell. 

Zhen Li swallowed. He hadn’t eaten all day. He was really hungry. He wasn’t planning on using the alternate dimension stomach for this bowl of noodles. He was going to use his own stomach to properly digest it. 

“Awoo…” the little husky, which hadn’t eaten all day, called weakly. It was also very hungry. Its fur was all wet, and it couldn’t lick it dry no matter what. It felt cold and unpleasant. Was it running a fever? 

“When you were hurting people, using the weak as hostages, did you think about how bad they felt?” Yu Hua said to the little husky. 

The little husky instantly stopped calling. It thought that starving to death would be all right. If it lived, it would suffer. 

“Live,” Yu Hua said coldly. “Have a taste of being weak.” 

Slurp, slurp. Zhen Li began to eat the instant noodles with a fork. As he ate, he said, “Great master, when I do things, I don’t think much about the future. It must be because my IQ isn’t high enough to predict very far ahead. I take it a step at a time. I think living that way is pretty good.” 

“How can you be sure?” Yu Hua asked. 

Zhen Li happily ate the instant noodles, feeling the satisfaction of his stomach filling up. He continued, “In my original world, I inexplicably died. After death, I entered the System and was forced to carry out missions. I had to struggle to the utmost and trick my teammates to survive.   Me, I’m like the cannon fodder in a horror movie who dies at the very beginning. I have abilities, and I’m very vain.” 

Yu Hua said, “You do understand yourself.” 

Zhen Li said, “I couldn’t foresee a way to pass a level, so I went one step at a time, and I encountered lower difficulty levels and luckily muddled through the first four levels. 

“I was captured by the Clearing League’s people and forced to come to an unopened world to test the waters. Isn’t that a suicide mission? And I had no way to resist. I was forced to come here. As soon as I gathered up my courage to go outdoors, I was captured by the Protection Organization. I didn’t know what to do then, but luckily, I met you, and you removed my System’s energy. 

“You made me launder a hundred million. I couldn’t make that much money. I just had to brace myself and go forward. Now Yuan Luori and I have quite a few fans, the mall invited me to conduct an event, and the event fee is six digits, you know. I’m getting closer to a hundred million, and I can do what I like. Things have changed for the better. 

“Also, you told me to disfigure my face. I felt awful, but I didn’t dare to say anything. I had to obediently carry it out. Then I was kidnapped by Yuan Luori and tied up on the toilet for a night. It was as miserable as you could ask for.  But afterwards, Yuan Luori joined the studio, and I protected my face by being shipped with him. The trouble was easily solved again.” 

Zhen Li had eaten up the noodles. He drank a mouthful of warm broth and said in contentment, “When you don’t know what to do, hold out for a while longer. Maybe things will take a turn for the better.” 

“The philosophy of the mediocre,” Yu Hua appraised dully. 

“But, great master, mediocre is just what you want to be. This is how mediocre people live.” Zhen Li burped. “Ordinary people’s lives are full of all kinds of trifles, countless unsolvable troubles one after another. Life is made up of these irritations. If you don’t want to worry about next month’s mortgage, then you have to worry about whether you can pay it as an ordinary person.” 

The rain had gradually stopped. Yu Hua stood up and looked out the window. After thinking for a while, he said, “Are you advising me to take it a step at time?” 

“That’s about what I mean,” Zhen Li said. “You’re a master planner, but when you meet something you really can’t resolve, it’s better to let things take their course. You don’t have to insist too hard on being mediocre, but you also don’t need to voluntarily tear your mask away and do everything perfectly. If you’re discovered, you can think of something else.” 

Yu Hua didn’t speak. He picked up his suit jacket and opened the studio’s door. “The dog will stay in the office from now on. Use it to make some money on the livestreams. When it grows up, we’ll breed it or sterilize it.” 

After laying down the little husky’s future fate with a few sentences, Yu Hua left the studio. 

He walked alone through streets that were quiet after the rain. The streetlights shone on Yu Hua’s face. 

Zhen Li’s words had shown him the reasoning of a mediocre person. He relaxed slightly in his insistence. 

The thing was already past. He would leave it as it was for now. Next time, his plans would be more thorough. He would do his best not to involve the people around him, not to let Xiao You be hurt. 

He would consider what came later when it came. 

Having learned something about being an ordinary person, Yu Hua returned home. He washed and ironed his clothes, brushed the mud off his shoes, and swept away all the traces. 

When he was finishing sweeping, he summoned the black cloak and the mask, which had been stored in Zhen Li’s wardrobe. He looked at them, then put them in a twenty-inch code-locked suitcase he usually used for business trips.He put the suitcase on top of the wardrobe. 

The code was the date that he and You Zhengping had gotten their marriage certificate. Xiao You knew the code. If one day, You Zhengping, who never did housework, opened that suitcase, that would be the moment he would be found out. 

Since being chosen by the System and becoming a leveler, Yu Hua had never trusted fate. He had firmly believed that he controlled his own fate. And he had at last succeeded in defeating the System and clearing. He had even personally determined which world he would die in, when he would return to peace. These things weren’t fate; they were his plans. 

But now, Yu Hua put the evidence that could easily reveal his identity in an obvious place, leaving everything up to fate to determine. 

That night, Yu Hua went to sleep hugging Xiao You’s clothes. His sleep was unusually easy. 

At daybreak, Yu Hua for once got up late. He was only awoken by the sound of the door opening at 8 AM. 

He got up and looked towards the door. The travel-worn You Zhengping had hurried home. Without even taking off his shoes, he charged into the bedroom. Seeing Yu Hua’s calming face, he instantly felt at ease and leapt into Yu Hua’s arms, rubbing his lips against Yu Hua’s pajamas. He seemed to have been tremendously wronged. 

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Author's Note

Yu Hua’s worries: When my identity is revealed, would it be better to run away to a world that’s easier to control? Or to take over the Protection Organization and become their leader? If I become their leader, Xiao You will be my subordinate, he would be respectful towards me. How could we maintain our conjugal relationship? Would he eat the food I cooked? 

Yu Hua: Frustrating…