Chapter 161 A Matter of Coexistence

Dong, dong, dong—

A series of muffled knocks woke Feng Bujue from his slumber.

He opened his eyes and saw a familiar face through the glass window of the game pod.

"What the hell?" Feng Bujue muttered before unlocking the game pod from the inside.

He opened the hatch, sat up, and stared at Ruo Yu with a puzzled expression. "What do you want?"

Ruo Yu looked back at him, her expression subtle. "I'd say… a normal person would ask, 'What time is it?' or 'How did you get in here?' wouldn't they?"

"It's three-thirty in the morning, and you definitely have a spare key to my place," Feng Bujue said, answering both questions directly, and added, "I usually don't ask questions that can be figured out in two seconds…"

"For someone who just woke up, you're thinking a little too clearly…" Ruo Yu's attitude was indeed a bit strange; she looked like she was sulking, but not really angry.

"Not really… haa…" Jue Ge yawned, then blurted out a boast, "If you compare the human brain to a computer…" He tapped his temple lightly with his finger. "Then my model's startup speed is definitely faster than most." He paused, tilting his head to look at Ruo Yu. "So, again… what are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

Ruo Yu hesitated, as if contemplating something. A few seconds later, she looked troubled and gave an answer that even she found a bit inexplicable: "Um… it seems… there's nothing really."

"Huh?" Jue Ge raised an eyebrow. He didn't think much of it, just waved his hand, signaling her to step back so he could climb out of the game pod.

"Heh…" After getting out of the game pod, Feng Bujue pondered Ruo Yu's words and actions, and seemed to understand something. He immediately grinned and joked, "You came even if there's nothing to do… that means you miss me, right?"

"So that's it… you missed me." Unexpectedly, Ruo Yu nodded in realization, as if accepting this explanation.

"Hey, hey…" This time, Feng Bujue's smile vanished. He squinted and said with a doubtful expression, "Are you okay? I felt like something was off with you even when we were in the game."

"You noticed too?" Ruo Yu replied, "I only felt something was wrong after leaving the script…" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, frowned, and muttered thoughtfully, "So I didn't wait for you, I just quit the game and meditated for a while…"

"So… the result?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Although I can't be completely sure, I roughly know…" Ruo Yu replied, "There's something wrong with the 'seal'."

"Oh?" Hearing this, countless thoughts flashed through Feng Bujue's mind. "Could it be… your seal has been broken?"

"Not quite." Ruo Yu shook her head. "I know whether the seal has disappeared or not, but… in some ways, I feel different from before." She paused for half a second, thoughtfully, "I guess… maybe excessive mental strain caused cracks in the seal."

"I see…" Jue Ge seemed to become interested and smiled again. "Hey, do you have any special feelings for me now?"

"It's hard to say," Ruo Yu replied. "I just suddenly wanted to see you, preferably talk to you, but what we talk about doesn't really matter."

There was nothing wrong with her words themselves. Whether romantic or mushy, that was the content, but the tone in which she said them was still like a killer interrogating a victim, which felt very discordant.

"Ho~" But these words falling into Jue Ge's ears undoubtedly unleashed his inner cheapness, and he spoke without thinking. "Not bad~" His expression was as if he had discovered a new toy, and he immediately took Ruo Yu's hand. "Come, come… let's go to the bedroom and chat slowly."

Unexpectedly, just as Jue Ge's hand touched Ruo Yu's hand, a sudden change occurred!

"What are you doing, getting all touchy-feely!" Ruo Yu seemed to suddenly enter a berserk state, yelling in a voice that a martial artist would only use when delivering a fatal blow to an opponent. At the same instant, with a strange strength that Jue Ge couldn't match, she twisted his arm back and threw him onto the ground with an over-the-shoulder throw.

Thud—

A moment later, Feng Bujue was lying on his back on the ground, his expression like Loki after being beaten up by the Hulk, groaning, "Ugh—"

"Ah! I didn't mean to…" After throwing Jue Ge out, Ruo Yu returned to her usual calm state. She looked down at her hands and muttered, "As I thought… something's really wrong with me…"

"This incident has reminded me once again…" Feng Bujue stared blankly at the ceiling, the pain in his back and wrist couldn't suppress his desire to complain, "Women, what they say, what they think, and what they actually do… are usually inconsistent…"

"Um… sorry…" Ruo Yu also looked very embarrassed, and immediately squatted down, wanting to help Jue Ge up.

Feng Bujue naturally reached out, hooking his arm around Ruo Yu's shoulder, and then…

"Ah—" Jue Ge's scream announced that he had been thrown again with an even more ferocious move.

"Eh?" This time, even Ruo Yu herself was a little scared. "Why…" Her face was now filled with a few traces of fear in addition to confusion. "I didn't want to…"

As she spoke, she wanted to go up and help Jue Ge: "Are you okay?"

"Don't come over!" Seeing this, Feng Bujue scurried away in a panic, "rolling" two meters away, and said to Ruo Yu while lying down, "Sis! I'm begging you, spare me…"

"It's not… I…" Ruo Yu wanted to explain.

But Feng Bujue interrupted her: "I know you didn't mean to, I'll go with you to the Ninth Division to find your grandpa and the others for help later." He quickly finished saying this, and only after seeing Ruo Yu no longer approaching did he lie down and breathe a sigh of relief. "Phew… but now you have to let me rest for a bit…"

…………

Forty minutes later, Ninth Division, the director's office.

"It's no use asking me…" Gu Chen yawned, looking at Feng Bujue and Li Ruo Yu across the desk, "This kind of seal isn't just generated by the power of Vincent or Woody, as something related to the 'Candidate Game', your seal is most likely based on the 'Council's' magic system… This is obviously beyond the scope of observation and intervention of our human world's ability users; in fact, if Woody and the others hadn't revealed this information to Feng Bujue, even I… wouldn't have known about the existence of the seal."

"No way… even you can't do anything?" Feng Bujue asked.

"That's right," Gu Chen said, "If there was a way, how could we elders just ignore it? Even if I don't care, Ruo Yu's grandparents wouldn't just ignore it, right?"

"Grandpa, is there really no other way?" Ruo Yu asked, "I'm like this now… not to mention work, even daily life is a problem. What if I accidentally hurt my parents or Xiao Ling…"

"It's very simple." Gu Chen was a very reliable person, he could always give people a feeling of "there's a way", even if it was a last resort, he could say it as if it made a lot of sense, "You two just live together again."

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

Feng Bujue and Li Ruo Yu's reactions at this moment were exactly the same, whether it was the timing of their opening their mouths, the length of the trailing sound of that "huh", or even the pitch of their voices.

"Ruo Yu, you should put aside the work at the gallery for now." A second later, Gu Chen looked at Ruo Yu as if nothing had happened, and continued, "Anyway, there wasn't much work to begin with, just let your dad manage it alone, if it really doesn't work, just let him hire a female secretary." He paused, then looked at Feng Bujue again, a malicious glint in his eyes, "...let a boyfriend who can freely allocate his work time and is basically on call 24/7 take care of you, isn't that just right?"

"I feel like the 'take care of' in your sentence means something closer to 'get beaten up'," Feng Bujue said, "So hurting me… doesn't count as a problem, right?"

"It wasn't a problem to begin with." Gu Chen replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "You don't sleep together at night anyway, just try to avoid physical contact when you're awake, right? With the alertness of a great writer like you, and being on guard, unless you're just asking for it, how easy is it to get beaten up?"

Feng Bujue couldn't refute him after hearing this, because what he said made sense…

"This…" Ruo Yu muttered, "...it can be done." She thought for a while, "But this is just a temporary measure, it doesn't solve the problem at its root."

"Hey~ It's only temporary to begin with." Gu Chen said, "You also said that this should be caused by cracks in the seal; I estimate… this is a normal reaction when years of suppressed emotions are suddenly released. Any emotion has two sides, positive and negative. In your case… those two sides are 'a strong desire to spend more time with Feng Bujue', and 'a strong resistance to physical contact and an instinctive rejection reaction'." He spread out his hands, "You don't have to worry too much, humans are very adaptable creatures, if nothing unexpected happens, both of these symptoms will slowly weaken over time, and eventually reach a level similar to that of a normal person."

At this point, Gu Chen leaned back in his chair and muttered, "In a sense, this accident may still be a good thing… because judging from your performance, if your seal had really shattered directly, your reaction might have been even greater."

"Um… that 'greater reaction' sounds quite exciting." Feng Bujue seized the opportunity to make a sarcastic remark again.

Gu Chen continued to ignore him and continued, "Of course, I'm also just speculating based on the existing information combined with my personal thoughts. If your situation still doesn't improve after a period of time… um… we'll talk about it then."

"Are you going to say then… 'You two might as well just get married'?" Even Ruo Yu couldn't help but squint at her grandpa and complain.

"Haha…" Gu Chen rarely laughed so openly, "You child, you're smart, but what you said is a bit lacking in tact." He glanced at Jue Ge, "Look at Feng Bujue's longing expression after hearing that."

At this moment, Feng Bujue's face actually had a "are you kidding me" expression.

"Hey, hey… Where's the longing in a marriage life that directly enters MMA (mixed_martial_arts, mixed martial arts) mode upon physical contact?" Jue Ge replied with a twitching mouth.

Unexpectedly, Gu Chen looked at Jue Ge in the next second and burst out with even more shocking remarks: "You can tie her up."

Just as the two people across the desk were stunned, he looked at Ruo Yu again and said: "You can also train him to become the kind of physique that feels happy after being beaten."

After the words fell, all that remained in the room… was silence.

As a man who was known as the "Winter Name Mountain God of Cars" half a century ago, the Old Driver never drove fast easily, but as long as he drifted a little, those young people couldn't even see the taillights of his car.

"Alright, I'm going back to sleep, you guys should go back if you have nothing else to do." Gu Chen didn't have time to explain, so he got on the GTR… oh no… so he walked out of the office, leaving two young men and women who didn't even have time to call the police, sitting there dumbfounded… unable to say a word for a long time.