Xü Beijin takes a deep breath as he places the apple juice on the counter, and then replies very politely, “I like none of those,” and adds before Lin Qin could tell him anything else infuriating, “at least, not right now.”
Lin Qin is giving him an odd look. From his perspective, the conversation that took place just now was earnest and frank from his side. He is unable to understand why Xü Beijin appears so angry and irritated.
What does he even mean by ‘not right now’? Would he suddenly like them in the future? Should he even prepare them, then?
Why is it so hard to appeal to someone?
That said, he still nods with a serious expression. His instincts tell him, it would be better to go along with it and not talk to Xü Beijin for now.
Xü Beijin gives him this resigned look, while wondering why there could be such a monster of instinct in the world.
… Really, he’s completely got him examined like the back of his hand.
He watches Lin Qin just sitting at the bookstore entrance, already having retrieved a book and reading at his own pace. Quite the accustomed customer he is, surely.
How did they even end up so familiar in the first place?
Xü Beijin stares at him for a while and concludes it was probably since… he learned Lin Qin was disinterested in his Nightmare, and the fact that there was something wrong with Lin Qin’s memories?
When someone shares a personal secret with someone else, a level of trust, and familiarity, for that matter. Shared secrets are always the key to quickly growing intimate with each other.
Most importantly, Lin Qin is not interested in his Nightmare.
Instead, he is caring about the tiredness brought on by his never sleeping, like asking if he was tired just now. He has accepted the fact that Xü Beijin never sleeps, and that it does not matter in the context of their relationship.
… Yes, they are already friends.
Xü Beijin is hesitant for a bit before asking, “what you told me earlier, the two people snooping around in front of my store…”
Lin Qin looks up and gives him a ‘go on’ look.
Xü Beijin stares into the young man’s eyes, and finally chooses to tell him honestly, “do you think that, it might be because they learned that you collected drinks and gave them to me…”
He grows pretty awkward in tone as he says it out loud himself.
Lin Qin seems to be confused for a moment before suddenly getting it, reassuring him, “I understand.”
Then he lowers his head to continue reading his book.
Xü Beijin is nonplussed, asking, “… what, did you understand?”
Lin Qin answers, “I’ll deal with it. Don’t worry about it.”
Xü Beijin “…”
That’s exactly why he is worrying right now!
Xü Beijin is getting restless wondering how Lin Qin would ‘deal with’ it, and decides to try asking, “so, how are you going to ‘deal with it’ exactly?”
Lin Qin answers without hesitation, “warn them not to disturb you or snoop in on us.”
Xü Beijin still doesn’t understand exactly what course of action Lin Qin would take by ‘warning’… that answer was as vague as they come.
He feels like asking a bit more, but, Lin Qin is an adult, right, and, should he really intervene in his personal and interpersonal interactions?
Xü Beijin knows, though, that Lin Qin has no memories of Earth. Would he be employing overly simplistic and straightforward means to deal with this? Like telling them exactly word for word…?
… Wasn’t this trouble brought here by Lin Qin in the first place? Why is he the one having a headache over it, again?
Shortly after, Lin Qin has probably realised the inconvenience he is causing Xü Beijin, and immediately says, “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect such a problem to crop up. Please don’t be angry.”
Xü Beijin opens his mouth but no words come out, as he does not know what to say, in the end, he just replies, “I… I’m not angry at you?”
So Lin Qin smiles at him, seemingly in relief, before turning back to his book again.
He somehow feels that, his previous attitude for dealing with Lin Qin – the cautiousness, wariness, humility, indirectness… were all fucking wrong! The guy, Lin Qin, accepts nothing short of direct, straightforward hits!
Just like how he asked Lin Qin not to agree to others readily just because of him… and Lin Qin promised him, nice and simple.
So Xü Beijin just says directly, “you should tell them clearly, but do not try to force them to listen by beating them up. That is bad, understand?”
Lin Qin raises his head again and furrows his brows to think for a moment before nodding to say, “I understand.”
Xü Beijin asks again, “really?”
“Do I look that dumb to you?” Lin Qin answers, clearly annoyed, “do you really think I’m just a little apple or something?”
Xü Beijin “…”
When, sometimes, the name just pops in naturally in his mind, he would…
He’s sorry.
With all that said, Xü Beijin can only leave Lin Qin to deal with this however he sees fit.
Well, this is how it can only be anyway. Xü Beijin is an Actor. He has no way of directly interacting with the Missiontakers anyway. Many an Actor have been troubled to no end by the Missiontakers already, but have no way out of it but to keep enduring.
Therefore, Xü Beijin doesn’t exactly look too irritated at a mere two Missiontakers snooping behind his back. It is even better now that Lin Qin can deal with this himself.
Though… He’s still curious about how Lin Qin is actually going to handle it.
Xü Beijin bitterly smiles thinking about it.
How did he even end up living as casually as he is now… So lazily he can’t even be bothered to be lazy? Why is he even here thinking about all these practical questions?
So Xü Beijin gives up on thinking altogether, blanking out both his brain and his mind, when he suddenly recalls something and checks out the stream.
Muscular is still looking for the utility card like mad in Room 807, while the rest of the Missiontakers… Xü Beijin checks out their view, to find that they have all arrived at the commercial complex already!
The five of them are moving together.
In the second run, some of them have come to the commercial area as well, but they did not have time to explore thanks to various circumstances. So they’re here again.
Jiang Shuangmei is still dumbly asking, “are you guys not trying to get furniture to kill you first? Maybe you might not even have to actually die…?”
The rest of the Missiontakers ignore her.
Jiang Shuangjie looks rather resigned and amused at the same time, and just simply tells her indirectly, “Shuangshuang, it’s more important for us to try and resolve this Nightmare right now.”
“Ok…” Jiang Shuangmei murmurs.
She looks somewhat unhappy, probably because she thinks she discovered this big loophole in the Nightmare, but the Missiontakers do not value it, not even her own older sister.
But these sentient furniture will never go after you again after you die once!
Though… to tell them all to die once? They can’t possibly synchronise their deaths that precisely, so they can only do it one by one.
This is already the third run of the Nightmare. Another restart and who knows what changes and risks the crumbling Nightmare will introduce? They do not know. So, instead of gambling, they should dive head-first.
Get this Nightmare done with as soon as possible and leave. Quit thinking about death and whatnot.
Thinking so, the Missiontakers split into three groups to explore the whole area.
The Jiang sisters explore from the top floor down. Thin and the teenage girl will check out the ground and second floors, while Shen Yünjü, having checked out the first floor underground already, will head for the bottom floor this time.
Even if he knows now that the sentient facilities probably won’t go after him anymore, Shen Yünjü still chooses to walk the stairs for safety.
The escalators are to Shen Yünjü what bathtubs are to Jiang Shuangmei, and toilets are to Thin now. They all have traumatic experiences with them already.