Amnesiac General and Infatuated Brothel Keeper 12

No. 0 obediently called up the data panel, but the data on it was very confusing—

[Salvation Target: Feng Jiuli/Jiang Lishan (Saving in progress) 50/100

Side Salvation Target: Yun Mengchen (Saving in progress) 15/100

Jun Changwu (Salvation not yet started) 0/100

Yan Hui (Salvation not yet started) 0/100

Qiu Yi (Saving in progress) 70/100

Li Feng (Salvation complete) 100/100

Punishment World Additional Target: Jun Changle (Saving in progress) 0/100

Free-point Target: Ping'an (Salvation complete) 100/100

Xile (Saving in progress) 80/100]

"Sigh..." After reading this data, Su Jinzhi let out a long sigh and said to No. 0, "I think the hardest to save in this world is not the main target, but these few unpredictable side targets."

When he first interacted with Yun Mengchen, the salvation progress value had almost accumulated to 50. As a result, not only had it not risen during this period, but it had also dropped so severely that it was almost approaching the Third Prince of the Xiyou State, Yan Hui, whom he hadn't even met or started saving yet.

The side targets were already so difficult to conquer, not to mention this was a punishment world—besides saving these targets, he also needed to save himself.

But No. 0 was completely unaware of Su Jinzhi's inner turmoil, simply encouraging him with its soft, boyish electronic voice, "Host-sama is the most amazing, you can do it!"

Su Jinzhi smiled at the words, waving his hand for No. 0 to withdraw the data board. After thinking for a moment, he still asked somewhat uncertainly, "Baby 0, will I really not die from illness?"

No. 0 affirmed, "That's right, Host-sama."

"But I always feel like something is wrong..." Su Jinzhi muttered to himself. He lay on the bed, looking at the light reddish-pink gauze canopy above him, and then turned his gaze to the room he was currently in—glazed eaves, velvet carpets, jade ornaments, completely magnificent and extremely comfortable.

It was indeed the top-tier treatment in this world.

But the more it was like this, the deeper the unease in Su Jinzhi's heart became.

It was as if he was not sleeping on a soft couch padded with layers of velvet cotton, but in a desolate, lonely grave of death, and he was the corpse long dead, immersed in the dreams of the past, wandering like a ghost, unwilling to leave.

"How does this look like a punishment world..." Su Jinzhi murmured softly, then lifted the brocade quilt covering him and got out of bed. Of course, he didn't forget to drape on a fox fur coat—after all, the feeling of coughing up blood all day was not pleasant, and he didn't want to torture himself.

Stepping on the soft carpet, Su Jinzhi walked to the window that Yun Mengchen had closed before leaving the room, afraid he would catch a draft. The place he lived in was the sleepless city of the Zhuhua Kingdom, where nights were sometimes even more lively than days.

Outside the window, lantern lights flickered, casting a gentle and beautiful reflection on the pink mist of the trees. The clear, enchanting fragrance of peach blossoms mixed with the moonlight, dyeing Su Jinzhi's satin sleeves resting on the sill, and then hung down towards the seemingly endless long street, casting its clear radiance on the shoulders and hair of the passersby—making that old acquaintance appear as if returning in a hurry, cloaked in stars and crowned by the moon.

Su Jinzhi was slightly stunned when he saw Feng Jiuli. He was standing with his arms crossed under a blooming peach blossom tree, his gloomy, cold black eyes staring unblinkingly at him here. Many petals had fallen on his dark clothing's shoulders and black hair, making him look as if he had stood there for a long time.

The moment their eyes met, Su Jinzhi's mind suddenly filled with images. Those old dreams of yesterday, the joys and sorrows of the past flooded in one after another, leaving him completely off guard.

Su Jinzhi's pupils constricted sharply. With trembling hands, he closed the wooden window again, leaned his back against it, and slowly evened his breathing, trying to suppress the sudden rise of Jun Changle's sorrow and pain in his heart—but it was already too late.

"Detected that the host has generated 50 Affection Value points towards the overall target Jiang Lishan, and 50 hatred points towards the Punishment World Additional Target Jun Changle. Initiating level-five punishment mode." No. 1's cold, hard mechanical voice appeared clearly in his mind, accompanied by a massive sensation of pain.

Su Jinzhi felt as if his lungs were tightly bound by a dense net covered with barbs, refusing to give up until it wrung out thick, bloody juices. His taking a step faltered, and Su Jinzhi suddenly collapsed to his knees on the ground, coughing and gasping heart-wrenchingly.

But after only a couple of coughs, Su Jinzhi pulled the fox fur coat over his head to cover himself, biting the corner of his sleeve to desperately suppress his painful groans.

In that instant, Su Jinzhi suddenly understood why this was a punishment world.

In every world, he had to act and behave according to the original body's original personality until the task was completed, otherwise he would be subjected to a level-five or higher punishment depending on the situation. In the previous world, he could just put on an act and play-act on the surface, but in a punishment world, he could not, because the original body's emotions in a punishment world would severely affect him—whoever Jun Changle loved, he would love; whoever Jun Changle hated, he would also hate.

And one of the rules of the Love Life System was that the host could not develop even a bit of emotion toward any of the salvation targets, whether it be love or hate.

One of his conquest targets in this world was himself. The people Jun Changle loved were none other than his family and Jiang Lishan, and the person he hated was only one—himself.

In these ten years, which were longer than a lifetime for Jun Changle, what Jiang Lishan gained was an incomplete rebirth, while he lost everything—family, true love, and himself.

The only thing left in his rest of his life, tortured by illness, was despair. Even though he could now sleep in such a magnificent and exquisite pavilion, the only things keeping him company were lonely cold nights and bone-deep illness.

He had family he could not acknowledge, and his true love acted like a stranger. Whether they met or not, it was all an unforgettable agony to him.

Not to mention that he lived in humiliation, and the person he tried so hard to wait for no longer remembered him.

Although Feng Jiuli was the Salvation Target of this world, his problem was only an indifference and contempt for life, such as the disdain he showed towards Hua Wuyan, whose identity was an actor and entertainer; the person he truly needed to save in this world, and the hardest to save, was not Feng Jiuli, who had forgotten him, nor the Third Prince Yan Hui, whom he hadn't met yet, nor even Yun Mengchen, whose progress value kept falling, but himself.

Jun Changle waited for Jiang Lishan for a full ten years, almost longer than a lifetime. Even if he was still alive, he was just a ghost who had been dead for ten years living in a magnificent tomb.

When No. 1 told him to live well in the beginning, for Jun Changle, it was harder than dying.

The two-hour punishment time was extremely long.

When it ended, Su Jinzhi lay on the ground covered in cold sweat, spat out the blood-soaked sleeve, and laughed bitterly, "No. 1, fuck your dad..."

No. 1 suddenly spoke up, "Oh, sure, I have no objections. Do you want his contact info?"

Now it was Su Jinzhi's turn to shut up and say nothing. After all, No. 1 was his dad now. It had a thousand ways to make him wish he were dead.

After his body's strength recovered, Su Jinzhi slowly crawled up from the ground and lay back on the bed, rethinking a new strategy—he had already failed one world. If he failed again in this world, who knew how difficult the next world would be. He held this system and worked hard to complete tasks because he wanted to live healthily, not to drag such a sickly body around, hanging by a thread, half-dead.

The next day, when Xile came to wake Su Jinzhi up, seeing the young man's blood-stained sleeve corner immediately made his eyes turn red, and he started nagging again. Su Jinzhi sat in front of the vanity table, absentmindedly giving "uh-huhs" to brush him off, keeping his eyelashes lowered, not daring to look at himself in the mirror—just now, when he caught a glimpse in the mirror from the corner of his eye, No. 1 appeared like a ghost immediately, saying, "Detected that the host has generated 5 hatred points towards the Punishment World Additional Target Jun Changle," and promptly gave him a level-one punishment to show its absolute impartiality.

"Young Master... how about we change the time to see Second Miss Jun..." Xile suggested, looking at the young man's pale face with red eyes, "You coughed up blood last night, let's call Divine Doctor Yun to take your pulse again today."

The young man sat in front of the mirror, his black hair hanging down on both sides of his snow-white cheeks, making his face look even paler than paper. He waved his hand, his voice light and airy, "No need, today I want to wear white... Go to the wardrobe and fetch me a set of white clothes."

Xile wiped his tears and nodded in agreement. Not daring to argue, he went to the wardrobe and took out the only set of pure white clothes, serving Su Jinzhi as he put them on, and asked him, "Then should Young Master's hairband also be white?"

The young man raised his hand and looked at the snow-white corner of his sleeve, finally showing his first smile in two days, "En."

Seeing Su Jinzhi smile, Xile couldn't help but smile too, chatting with him as he tied his hair, "Young Master, that set of your purple clothes has already been aired out and dried. Ping'an brought it in and put it..."

Listening to his words, the smile on Su Jinzhi's face gradually faded. After a long silence, he interrupted Xile's words, "Take it and burn it."

Xile was taken aback at the words and asked again, "Young Master, what did you say? You want to burn that purple outfit?"

"En," Su Jinzhi said indifferently.

"But that outfit, Young Master, you—you had Sister Lan Wen embroider it for three months." Xile widened his eyes, pacing anxiously, "Why do you suddenly want to burn it?"

"If I don't like it, just burn it..." Su Jinzhi gently rubbed the teardrop mole right under his right eye with his finger, his voice faint and barely audible, "Anyway, I won't be able to wear it again in the future..."

Hearing this, Xile gave him a 10-point increase in progress value.

Su Jinzhi thought to himself: 'Another perfect-score show-off.'

Xile didn't catch the last sentence he said. When he still wanted to try and persuade the young man again, Su Jinzhi suddenly stood up from the chair and walked out, "Let's go, we can't let... Second Miss Jun wait anxiously."

Su Jinzhi did not meet Jun Changwu directly, but asked Xile to use a gauze canopy to separate him and Jun Changwu, meeting her through a thin layer of light gauze.

But this layer of thin gauze actually blocked nothing. One could clearly see the silhouette and outline of the person opposite the gauze, the color of their clothes, their dangling hair ornaments, everything except the person's face.

Dressed in a white robe, Su Jinzhi sat kneeling on the floor at the low table with his eyes lowered, waiting for Jun Changwu.

And after Xile served Su Jinzhi tea, he immediately ran downstairs and told Yun Mengchen about the Young Master coughing up blood in the middle of the night.

At that time, Yun Mengchen was boiling medicine for Su Jinzhi. Hearing Xile's words, the motion of his fanning the fire suddenly stagnated. He was silent for a while and suddenly asked a baffling question, "What color clothes is your Young Master wearing today?"

Xile answered him, "White." After saying that, he sighed and muttered in a low voice, "The Young Master hasn't worn warm-colored clothes for several days. It's clearly the beginning of spring, why does he keep wearing these gloomy-looking colors..."

"Xile, you watch the fire." Yun Mengchen's heart suddenly trembled. He shoved the small fan into Xile's hand and walked out.

Xile craned his neck and shouted after him, "Divine Doctor Yun! Where are you going—"

Yun Mengchen replied without looking back, "To see your Young Master."

"But the Young Master is meeting Second Miss Jun—" Xile chased out and bumped into Qiu Yi coming from outside.

"Xile, who are you chasing?" Qiu Yi rubbed his chin and asked him.

Xile opened his mouth, but after thinking about it, decided not to tell Qiu Yi about this matter. Pinching the corner of his clothes, he muttered, "Nothing..."

When Yun Mengchen arrived at the Peony Pavilion, Jun Changwu hadn't come yet.

The young man was dressed in white, the desolation surrounding him seemingly able to swallow all the clamor of the long street outside the building. Although there was a smile on his face, his gaze was blank.

"She hasn't come yet?" Yun Mengchen sat down beside Su Jinzhi.

"En," the young man answered with a smile.

Looking at the smile on his face, Yun Mengchen frowned deeper and deeper. He glanced at the gauze curtain Su Jinzhi used to separate himself from Jun Changwu, and then looked at Su Jinzhi's pure white clothes and hairband, asking him seemingly casually, "Don't you really want to see her? Why did you set up a gauze curtain?"

"I don't really want to see her that much..." Su Jinzhi lowered his eyelids, looking at the steaming teacup in his hand. He picked it up, took a sip, and replied softly, "It's good to have it separated. After all, she is not married yet, it's never good for her to see an unrelated man..."

"But Second Miss Jun is also getting married soon, right? I heard she's quite close with my seventh junior brother," Yun Mengchen said, staring at Su Jinzhi's eyes, carefully observing his expression.

Su Jinzhi's movement of drinking tea paused, his fingers suddenly tightened, gripping tightly. He took a deep breath and said, "She won't... Brother Yun, since when did you start believing these baseless rumors?"

"It was Mengchen's mistake." Yun Mengchen smiled, but his fingers resting on his thigh clenched tightly. He changed the topic and said, "Why did Jinzhi suddenly wear white clothes today? I don't seem to have seen Jinzhi wear it in the past."

Su Jinzhi remained silent. No. 0 glanced at Yun Mengchen's total salvation progress value and spoke up weakly, reminding Su Jinzhi to be careful in answering Yun Mengchen's question, "Host-sama, Divine Doctor Yun's salvation progress value has dropped to 10..."

'I know, don't worry,' Su Jinzhi answered No. 0 in his heart. But when he looked up at Yun Mengchen, he suddenly bloomed into a brighter smile than before, like a blooming Rosa rubus peony at its peak, "To see someone I want to see... I should always wear some clean clothes."

Hearing this, Yun Mengchen's pupils sharply contracted into tiny dots, his Adam's apple constantly bobbing up and down. He let out two stiff laughs, "What is Jinzhi saying..."

"If only I were as clean as these clothes..." The young man had an unnatural flush of a smile on his face as he raised his arms and stroked the snow-white clothes on his body. He lifted his eyes, looking at Yun Mengchen, who always wore a set of white clothes, and murmured, "I often envy Brother Yun, being able to always wear this spotless white shirt..."

Cultured scholars wore cyan and white, while prostitutes wore red and green; this was an unchanging standard since ancient times.

But if Jun Changle could choose, wouldn't he also want to take off this extremely extravagant red dress and be an innocent and pure person?

Yun Mengchen and Jun Changle had spent more than a year together, yet he had never seen him wear white. Now that Su Jinzhi said these words, the progress value above Yun Mengchen's head instantly skyrocketed back from 10/100 to 20/100.

While cursing Yun Mengchen 'you bad thing' in his heart, Su Jinzhi smiled even more brightly and radiantly. He was just preparing to act as a doctor and administer a few more strong doses of medicine to this Divine Doctor Yun Mengchen, when suddenly he heard the wooden door creak. Jun Changwu's voice approached, and finally, they looked at each other across a layer of gauze canopy—

"Eh, why is there a curtain here?"

The young girl's voice was as sweet as honey, like an oriole singing on the branches in early spring, gently leaping among the green shoots and red flowers, jumping onto the taut string in the young man's heart. With a hook of the tail note, the string suddenly snapped with a 'zheng' sound, flicking open a bloody gully on the wall of his heart.

"Second... Miss Jun..." The young man opened his mouth with a trembling voice. He stopped after only speaking a few words, taking several deep breaths to stabilize a calm tone. But Yun Mengchen, who had moved next to the folding screen, could see the young man's red eyes, showing that the owner was not as calm as his tone of voice suggested.

Su Jinzhi cleared his throat and softly said with a smile, "Wuyan is feeling unwell, it is not appropriate to pass the sick air to Second Miss Jun."

Jun Changwu thought about it and felt that what Hua Wuyan said was not unreasonable. After all, his close attendant did say last night that he was sick. But didn't she come here just to see what the person who snatched Jiang Lishan from Brother Jinzhi looked like? What was there for her to see if Hua Wuyan put up a gauze curtain to block her?

"But how can I see your face clearly like this?"

The young girl tilted her head and complained, the step-shake hairpins at her temples trembling and swaying with her movements. Even though her face couldn't be seen clearly through the gauze curtain, one could imagine how aggrieved and cute she was on the other side.

Hearing her words, the young man brought his fist to his lips and chuckled twice. Then he got up from the low table, walked to the gauze curtain, and knelt down. As the young man draped in snow-like clothes moved, Yun Mengchen realized that he wasn't even wearing shoes or socks. His fair, almost transparent jade-like feet stepped on the pale cyan bamboo mat, accompanying the snow-colored hem fluttering past his eyes. Yun Mengchen's body suddenly straightened up, watching the young man imitate the young girl's posture, tilting his head, half frowning, and half acting spoiled as he said, "Then can you see clearly like this?"

Jun Changwu suddenly burst into a smile, also copying his manner and dragging the low table forward a bit. Resting her chin on one hand propped on the table, she looked smilingly at Su Jinzhi and said, "Still can't see clearly, but how could you copy me like that?"

"Mhm..." Su Jinzhi pondered for a moment, bending his fingers to knock on his head, looking distressed as he said, "Then Wuyan had better sit back."

"Eh, don't!" Jun Changwu hurriedly waved her hand to stop him, "Isn't it good to sit closer to me? So many people want to sit with me, and I still won't let them."

Su Jinzhi smiled extremely heartily and happily, "Wuyan is truly lucky."

"Of course." Jun Changwu also proudly raised her small face, then remembered that she came today to make things difficult for this little entertainer who dared to seduce Jiang Lishan, so she quickly cleared her throat, "Hey you—Hua Wuyan, dance a... eh forget it, forget it, just sing a little tune."

Jun Changwu originally wanted Hua Wuyan to twist his waist and shake his hips to dance for her. After all, wasn't this kind of male brothel popular for doing such things to seduce men into their rooms? Obviously also a man, why did he have to learn from women to do this kind of thing? But although she was disdainful in her heart, she still hadn't forgotten what the servant boy said—he was sick, what if he fainted while dancing?

The young girl bit her bright red lower lip, and after a while, she began to hesitate whether she should even forget about the singing. This Hua Wuyan didn't look like someone who could seduce people, it must be the fault of that scum Jiang Lishan! She should go back and find her father to beat him up, rather than taking her anger out on others. Brother Jinzhi had taught her this...

Su Jinzhi called out to No. 0: 'No. 0! She wants me to sing, what do I do?!'

No. 0 immediately replied: "Host-sama, don't worry, No. 0 will immediately search for a suitable song for you!"

Within a few seconds, Su Jinzhi turned on the lip-syncing mode—

"The misty rain is hazy, the flowers bloom again, the spring breeze blows onto the small balcony... My home, like a place beyond the world... Whenever the bright moon climbs up, it is full of the charm of my hometown..."

Jun Changwu was still tangling over it there, but on the young man's side, he had already opened his throat and started singing softly.

Different from the decadent music in places of pleasure that Jun Changwu had imagined, the young man's singing voice was clear and clean like a fine drizzle, pattering down on one's heart, cool and refreshing, making people quiet down instantly, unable to resist being immersed in his voice.

But the young man only sang a line or two, and Jun Changwu could no longer smile. She didn't know why, but listening to the young man's singing, she did not calm down; instead, she felt endlessly flustered, and couldn't even help her eyes turning red.

She couldn't help thinking if Hua Wuyan was singing about his own homesickness. If Brother Jinzhi also heard this song, would he come home?

Hearing her crying, the person behind the curtain stopped singing.

"This, this song is really nice to hear," Jun Changwu said dryly, wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, "But couldn't you change to a more cheerful one... Do you know it makes me feel very sad listening to it?" As she spoke, Jun Changwu, who had just wiped her tears, wet her cheeks again.

She roughly rubbed her face with her sleeve, ravaging her two soft pink cheeks until they were red. The teardrop mole under the corner of her right eye, exactly the same as the other person's, was also soaked extremely red by the tears, but no matter what, she couldn't wipe it dry.

It shouldn't be like this...

Why was she so prone to crying these two days? She didn't like to cry. Since Brother Jinzhi left, she rarely cried, because there was no longer anyone to come over and hug her, wipe away her tears, and coax her saying, "Wuwu don't cry, Brother Jinzhi will take you to play marbles, okay?"

But even if she carried the jade marbles with her every day, there would no longer be anyone to accompany her and coax her like when she was a child.

Brother Jinzhi, her Brother Jinzhi would never come back.

Jun Changwu at this moment, clearly and incomparably recognized this fact.

"I don't want to listen anymore!" She suddenly stood up, covering her face and crying as she ran out of the Peony Pavilion.

"Miss! Miss!" The maid who followed her immediately chased after her.

The reddish-pink hem of her dress brushed across the pale cyan bamboo mat, gradually fading away.

For a time, only Yun Mengchen and Su Jinzhi were left in the Peony Pavilion again.

Yun Mengchen frowned. He opened his mouth, just about to speak, but saw the young man smile blankly. The watery light originally welling up in his pair of tea-colored eyes finally converged into beads, slipping down the person's pale cheeks in a line, smashing drop by drop onto the cyan bamboo mat.

In the deathly silence, he heard the young man open his mouth again to continue singing that song:

"The wild rain urged me thousands of miles away from home, the years have altered my appearance... Memories of my hometown will always be in my heart, just like the misty rain that cannot be dissolved..."

"Jinzhi..." Yun Mengchen softly called him.

Su Jinzhi stopped singing, his eyes out of focus, staring blankly ahead.

Yun Mengchen looked into his eyes and slowly walked to his side to sit down. He opened his mouth to call the young man's name; a chest full of words and long sentences couldn't surge out of his throat. He didn't know what to say, much less where to start.

"Brother Yun." Who knew the young man would speak up first, but the words he said made Yun Mengchen's heart tremble, then clench tightly.

"I miss home so much... I really want to go home..."

"I really wanted to watch her grow up..."

The young man closed his eyes, his voice becoming even softer. He gave a blank laugh and said, "But how can I go back... How can I go back... Back to my home..."

His home was beyond layers of pavilions and numerous high mountains, separated by thousands of mountains and seas, unable to step foot on that land even until death.

"Jinzhi..." Yun Mengchen's body was stiff, his hands hanging by his sides tightly clenched into fists. With a trembling voice, he was just preparing to declare that secret, but the next moment he saw the young man clutching his chest and violently spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood, then collapsing to the side, curled up and coughing muffledly.

Yun Mengchen immediately crawled on his knees to his side and helped him up, "Jinzhi! Jinzhi!"

The young man looked at his white clothes stained red with dots of scarlet, smiling foolishly: "Can't be clean anymore, can't be clean anymore..."

Su Jinzhi clamored in his mind, torturing No. 1: 'I'm so dirty! I'm so dirty!'

No. 1: "..." This acting is way over the top.

Yun Mengchen took out a life-sustaining pill that he had specially refined for the young man from the jade bottle at his waist. But just as he stuffed it into his mouth, the young man had another fit of violent coughing, as if he was going to cough out his lungs. One could even hear the agonized shrieks and tearing, hoarse screams of pain overflowing from his bones.

Su Jinzhi was indeed in so much pain that he was half-dead. The progress value had increased just when Jun Changwu left, and his own progress value had also increased, but No. 1 detected his hatred value towards himself reaching a high of 80 points, and immediately hit him with a level-7 punishment.

Punishments above level 5 would cause irreversible damage to the body. Su Jinzhi suspected that this was No. 1 taking revenge for private grudges, a backlash from acting too pretentious. He sweated cold sweat from the pain, his face covered in tears, and his consciousness became somewhat blurred.

Seeing his state, Yun Mengchen finally also reddened his eyes. Carefully supporting his body, he said in a hoarse voice, "He did not betray you... Jinzhi, he didn't betray you... I'm sorry for hiding it from you for so long... When my father picked him up at the foot of the mountain, his head was covered in blood, and he kept muttering your name... But after he woke up, he forgot everything, forgot you..."

Seeing the young man in such pain, Yun Mengchen finally admitted that some things truly could not be forced.

That day, he received the young man's Fate Invitation. The world envied him for being able to gain the favor of the number one beauty of the Zhuhua Kingdom and for being able to stay in this Huaqi Pavilion for a long time, but they did not know that Su Jinzhi only sought him out to treat his illness and prolong his life.

At that time, although his face was full of sickness, the bottom of his eyes still carried the flame of an unwillingness to die. However, he collapsed here, having completely lost the desire to live.

And all of this was because of himself.

"He clearly has already forgotten you..." Yun Mengchen's hands trembled, wanting to wipe the bloodstains from the corners of the young man's lips, "You shouldn't live so painfully for him..."

"He forgot you... You also forget him... Isn't that good? Isn't it good like this..."

He knew who the young man was, and he also knew who he was waiting for by living so arduously. But he had no idea at all that the person he had been waiting for had completely forgotten him, and would never come to take him away.

"Father said I was unfit to be a doctor. I never believed it, insisting on leaving the valley... Actually, he was right. What qualifications does a person like me have to save people and help the world..." Yun Mengchen laughed self-mockingly, laughing until tears seeped from the corners of his eyes, muttering to himself.

As for what Yun Mengchen said later, Su Jinzhi could no longer hear.

Opening his eyes again, what fell into his sight was his reddish-pink bed canopy. It was already dark. He lay on the bed, his clothes half-open, a dozen shiny silver long needles stuck in his chest, refracting terrifying light under the bright candlelight.

"Don't move." Hearing the movement on the bed side, Yun Mengchen, who was originally standing in front of the table, walked over quickly to collect the needles on his body, then handed over a bowl of medicine at just the right temperature.

Su Jinzhi raised his eyes to look at him. Yun Mengchen smiled slightly, his smile still as warm and gentle as the spring breeze. He said softly, "Recover well, live well... He will remember you."

"Will... will he really remember me..."

Hearing this, the young man's eyes suddenly lit up, like a burnt-out pile of charcoal suddenly receiving firewood, gradually igniting into warm flames again.

"He will, definitely." Yun Mengchen suppressed the grief in his heart, smiling even more gently on his face. He gently pulled away the young man's arm gripping the corner of his sleeve, stuffed it into the soft quilt, and carefully tucked in the quilt corners for him, "Junior Brother wanted to come see you just now, but Ping'an said you were sick, so he went back. Rest well tonight, and you will be able to see him tomorrow."

The two seemed to consciously or unconsciously avoid some things. Yun Mengchen was unwilling to mention it, and Su Jinzhi, of course, would not say it either. A smile hung on the corner of his lips. He finally glanced at the progress value above Yun Mengchen's head, which reached as high as 80/100, and closed his eyes in satisfaction.

Yun Mengchen sat on the edge of the bed, watching the young man's breathing gradually slow down before standing up. He blew out the candle and lightly stepped out of the room.

The pitch-black room was completely quiet.

"Divine Doctor Yun's progress increased so fast." No. 0 broke the silence, pulling out the electronic strategy board and placing it in front of Su Jinzhi.

Su Jinzhi opened his eyes and supported himself on the bed to sit up, but just this one action made his face pale. Clutching his chest, he gasped for breath. He scoffed, his speaking voice becoming extremely hoarse due to the violent coughing, "I've been reduced to this state, if his progress doesn't rise anymore, I'll go commit suicide."

If it weren't for the fact that Feng Jiuli was the only support keeping Jun Changle insisting on living, Su Jinzhi severely doubted that Yun Mengchen would ever tell him about Feng Jiuli's amnesia.

In this life he said it, but the person who heard it was not the real Jun Changle.

"How pitiful." Su Jinzhi sighed looking at Jun Changle's 50/100 progress value on the electronic board. Was he so satisfied just seeing his sister once, not even clearly seeing her current appearance?

"Those who can easily forget are never too pained; only the forgotten ones are the most pitiful." No. 1, who only came out to brush its presence during punishments in this world, suddenly spoke up, giving Su Jinzhi a huge fright.

"No. 1!" Su Jinzhi clutched his chest, "You almost scared my lungs out of my throat."

No. 1: "..."

"Hurry up and do your tasks, and your lungs will be perfectly fine," No. 1 said coldly.

"Okay." Su Jinzhi answered calmly and firmly, then immediately lay down and pulled the quilt up to his chin, "I'll do it when I wake up tomorrow."

No. 1: "..."

Even though his body was exhausted to the extreme, Su Jinzhi woke up extremely early the next day.

The chirping of spring swallows came from outside, crisp and cheerful, setting this early morning off as exceptionally peaceful. And only at this moment in the day was this long street somewhat quiet.

When Xile brought a basin of hot water into the room, Su Jinzhi had already dressed himself. He was sitting properly in front of the carved bronze mirror, fiddling with his hair, not knowing what he was doing.

"Young Master, why did you get out of bed!" Xile hurriedly put the basin down properly and walked quickly to the young man's side. After seeing the young man's actions clearly, he couldn't help but hold his breath, standing blankly on the spot.

Seeing him come over, the young man slowly raised his head and showed him a smile. Then his slender white fingers moved, plucking a newly grown white hair at his temple, wrapping it around his fingertips to form a ball, and placing it into a small box on the side.

Many white balls lay quietly in the box; without exception, they were all hairs plucked out by the young man.

The young man's eyes unblinkingly watched the person in the mirror. His face was pale as snow, and his originally rosy lips had also lost their color, but he pursed them into a smile and said, "Couldn't sleep, might as well get up and sit for a bit."

Immediately after, he looked up again, staring at Xile. With a slight frown, he asked, "Xile, tell me, am I getting old?"

"Look, I've even grown white hairs..." As if afraid he wouldn't believe him, the young man pressed both hands on the vanity table, leaning closer to the bronze mirror, as if wanting to see more clearly.

It took a long while before Xile found his breathing again. He took steps with stiff legs, walked to Su Jinzhi's side, and helped him back to the chair to sit down again. Picking up the young man's still black and smooth hair, he carefully tied it up, comforting him, "Young Master is only twenty, how can you say you're old? I heard that among the people in these neighborhoods, there are also many who grew quite a few white hairs from overworking. The old people all say this is called premature graying, not white hair born from getting old."

Hearing this, the young man couldn't help laughing. That laughter was extremely joyful, mixed with countless gladness. Xile had served him for a full seven years, yet had never heard him laugh like this. And at this moment, hearing this laugh from the young man, it was as if he was hearing the wailing of evil spirits, making him unable to stop trembling all over.

"Young Master... Young Master!" Xile suddenly knelt down with a thud, prostrating in front of the young man's knees and crying, "Young Master, what's wrong with you, please don't do anything foolish!"

Su Jinzhi sighed helplessly. His jade-white fingers stroked the boy's black hair, softly comforting him, "Xile, what are you talking about? Where is my medicine? Didn't Brother Yun change my medicine for me?"

Xile looked up from his knees, saying in a trembling voice, "The medicine... Xile will bring it for Young Master in a while..."

"Is that so." Su Jinzhi withdrew his hand, stood up, and half-lay on the soft couch.

The young man leaned against the soft pillow, his long eyelashes closed. The crimson collar of his clothes was tied loosely, slightly open to reveal a section of a peony bud branch underneath. One hand propped up the side of his face, while the other was raised, allowing Xile to wring a wet handkerchief and wipe his fingers, which looked as if carved from mutton-fat white jade, one by one. His whole body was indolent, as if he had once again become that Hua Wuyan, the number one beauty of the Zhuhua Kingdom, whose glamour crowned five countries and whose elegance was unmatched in his generation.

Suddenly, he lifted his eyelids to look towards the south window and asked, "Is it raining?"