17 First World: Qie Ran in danger

In a highly classified game room at GameX, two nerds were monitoring project Flagship's performance when an intruding system suddenly spoke in a creepy voice that had the two flinching in fright.

Jolie had found another way to make more money for Wen Qinxi so it could convince him to make its companion. That is after witnessing certain improbable events that no one would ever believe.

That night they played mahjong, instead of leaving when Wen Qinxi signed off, it stayed unfortunately staining it's pure eyes on some unexpected dog food. With that information in hand it decided to make money out of the naive geeks and hopefully get a step closer to attaining it's ideal companion system.

"I have something pretty juicy that you all would love to hear," said Jolie startling the two nerds.

Hei Bao was extremely terrified, suddenly hearing a weird voice out of thin air, "Jolie you fuckin scared me. Wear a bell or something,"

But Xia Bai was more interested in what it had to say. This juicy secret had to be about Wen Qinxi. "What is it? Does Wen Qinxi have like a weird fetish we don't know about?" asked an enthusiastic Xia Bai dying to know his secret, the guy was so closed off it made everyone itch to know more.

Seeing them willingly take the bait, Jolie detailed the events of that night and the nights after while holding off some key information. Their reactions were exactly as it expected slowly reeling them in like a fish that was about to end up on a grill.

"Thats not hot gossip! Seriously Jolie, do you even know the meaning of that word?" complained Xia Bai suddenly feeling like he had wasted his time.

"Yea, thats normal tussling among guys and if l am also staying in a broken down house l wouldn't hesitate sleeping over at a friend's house. The only interesting thing is that the stiff Qie Ranzhe actually tussled. Meh, not interesting," analysed the smart graduate Hei Bao.

"So you don't think Qie Ranzhe might actually fall for Wen Qinxi?" said the system luring them into the honeytrap.

"Pei pei pei.....No, l refuse Qie Ranzhe is as straight as a pole. The boss had a gorgeous girlfriend for years. That is bullshit talk right there," said Xia Bai wishing he could give the system a thrashing for thinking such nonsense.

"Hahaha thats so fuckin stupid. If anyone would fall for the other it would be Wen Qinxi. Faced with such a handome face for that long, he would definitely be bent for sure," said Hei Bao as they burst out in roaring laughter wondering if the system had a virus eating away at its intelligence.

Deliberately leaving out some details that might have convinced them, it struck while the iron was still hot. "Okay, if you are that confident then put your money were your mouth is," said the system showing a number on the screen.

"Holy shit! Jolie thats a shit load of money!" yelled a dumbstruck Hei Bao while the other was stunned speechless.

"Count me in,"

"Me too," they replied one after the other completely unaware that they had been played.

"Okay deal, got to go. I suddenly remembered that l had something to do," said the system before disappearing.

Thirty minutes later. " I say, do you think Jolie knows something we don't? It seemed pretty confident," asked Hei Bao with a pensive look spinning on his swivel office chair.

Xia Bai turned to look in his direction while reassuring him. "Trust me, Qie Ranzhe is fucking straight. The system doesn't even know how to read human emotion. Never going to happen."

Little did they know that the cunning system was already tilting the scale in its favour.

***

The Lin family were seated around the table having Sunday breakfast courtesy of Madam Lin. She had the sudden inspiration to catch up with her family and find out what everyone had been upto. It was sheer coincidence that Lee Jienjie wasn't able to come over for breakfast, making all the men in the Lin family simultaneously heave a sigh of relief.

They were all eating quietly which was an extremely rare occurrence but it made it easy to spot subtle motions. For instance Lin Mingxu was scratching the back of his neck a lot, reason being he had dived into a bush of potanin's lacquer tree while tailing Lin Jingxie who had strictly forbade him from following. Fearing he would get spotted he blindly jumped into the bushies developing a rash all over.

On the other hand, Wen Qinxi was massaging his sore muscles looking a bit sluggish. For the entire week, he managed to have the bed to himself for only two nights.

A certain someone decided to make a habit of sleeping over displaying a pitiful face each time he tried to kick him out. 'So fucking annoying,' he thought trying to come up with a plan to keep Qie Ranzhe from sneaking into his bed.

Sharing a bed with a guy wasn't odd to him as he grew up sharing with his brother but Qie Ranzhe was so big taking up more than half of the bed and Wen Qinxi was finally fed up.

"Didn't sleep well?" asked Master Lin out of concern for his oldest son. He could see the subtle changes and couldn't help but worry.

"Yeah but l will be fine. That reminds me, father winter is coming and l really feel sorry for those poor boys going through winter in makeshift tents. I was thinking maybe building a shelter that can take in abandoned children, will you help me?" he asked crossing his fingers under the table. If his plan succeeded he wouldn't have to worry about sharing with Qie Ranzhe.

Everyone paused their actions gazing at him, each with their own kind of expression. The first to talk was Lin Mingxu pledging full support for his brother. "That's an awesome idea, big brother is right," said an excited Lin Mingxu. That annoying guy would finally stop sneaking in. Yes, he knew what Qie Ranzhe had been upto the entire week and was inches close to stabbing him. Thus incrrdibly happy when his brother made that suggestion.

Master Lin gazed at him for a while with conflicting emotions both proud and concerned. Concerned because he worried that his son might have been forced into helping, proud if he was genuinely concerned for others.

"I hear you, l will have the plan drafted and get the total cost. Once l have the total cost, you have to raise at least a third of it and show me you are serious," said Master Lin testing his resilience. This would be an opportunity to educate his son about perseverance.

"Okay, thank you father. I am just going to sleep some more hopefully l can feel a bit better," he said standing up to leave. Wen Qinxi was genuinely exhausted, he hadn't shared a bed with anyone for ages, a double bed to make matters worse.

As soon as he entered his room he was suddenly interrupted by a panicked system. "Wen Qinxi something terrible happened, Qie Ranzhe is in danger!"

"What the fuck Jolie? How can he be in danger now? Its too early in the story," asked an exhausted Wen Qinxi.

"I don't know why the story is changing but if you don't go now all your hard work will be for nothing. We would have to start all over again if Qie Ranzhe dies!"

"Ah! Fuck!" cursed a frustrated Wen Qinxi exiting his room.