Her boyfriend

"Get away from me..." Gu Yue spoke lowly, her words slightly muffled due to having her head buried in Tang Ziran's chest. But despite her words, she made no effort to push Tang Ziran off her, just staying still with her arms on her sides.

As for Tang Ziran, he blatantly acted like he didn't hear Gu Yue's order, making her open her mouth again.

"Who gave you the right to touch me...? Go away. Now. I don't want your stupid help." Gu Yue failed to bring even an ounce of fear to Tang Ziran. His dedication was already loud and clear.

"You may not want help. But it sure does seem like you need it." He finally decided to reply to the woman, his tone filled with kindness.

At this moment, he wasn't seeing a prodigal Soul Master who may or may not have control of every single element. No. He was just looking at a little kid with her fair share of issues and problems.

When he didn't hear a response from Gu Yue, he assumed she gave up and accepted him. Nevertheless, her arms stayed limp on her sides, refusing to hug him back. But that didn't bother him too much. He never expected a woman like Gu Yue would open up to someone so easily.

It made him wonder just who was capable of getting Gu Yue to love them.

Eventually, after a couple of seconds of silence, Gu Yue began to try and dislodge herself from Tang Ziran once more.

"If you really want to help me so much. Get off and help me get back to level 27." She said blankly, and to no one's surprise, she easily managed to push Tang Ziran off her.

Their strength difference is just as big as their age difference.

Tang Ziran watched Gu Yue dust herself off as she walked backward, clearly trying to gain some distance from him. Her eyes held emotions that Tang Ziran just couldn't figure out with the short time he's known her.

He was broken out of his train of thought as Gu Yue summoned up a ball of fire. Not a blue one like the one she was using earlier, but a regular red one. Its bright light shined on the small space they were in, the temperature rising just enough to warm Tang Ziran but not make him uncomfortable.

"Break the floor right?" Gu Yue recalled as she pointed her palm holding the fire at the carpet she was standing on.

Tang Ziran nodded, and Gu Yue wasted no time in throwing the attack. But before the fireball could hit the ground, he suddenly realized something.

Wait-

"Maybe it isn't a good idea to-" Unfortunately, Tang Ziran was too late to tell Gu Yue to stop.

A fire immediately started once Gu Yue's blast hit the ground, spreading everywhere he can see. The floor (obviously), the walls, and it was even reaching the ceiling.

Tang Ziran tried to avoid the fire to the best of his abilities, barely managing to scrape by. He managed to go to the very corner of the room where the fire hadn't reached yet. However, from the corner of his eyes, he saw Gu Yue was having a much easier time than him.

This whole place was flammable! What were they thinking?!

Just as Tang Ziran was berating himself, a sudden gust of wind came out of nowhere, clearing some of the fire in front of him, although not all of it.

Now he could see more than just flames. He coughed from the smoke as he looked around, noticing a hole on the ground where Gu Yue threw her fire, and the woman herself jumping down on said hole.

She just casually jumps down after committing arson?!

"I'm not going to wait for you for more than five seconds." Gu Yue announced from below, her voice holding its usual coldness.

This woman. Sighing, Tang Ziran ran towards the massive hole in the ground, quite eager to get out before the fire spread throughout all of level zero.

Actually. That probably wasn't going to happen.

He jumped forward, landing on a place with a different floor, a solid one this time, wooden walls structured similarly to level zero, but it felt a lot more cramped. He took a good look around his surroundings.

This was level 27, huh? He hadn't been to this level before. It wasn't like he's been in the backrooms for years or anything. In fact, it was barely even a month. He just looked like an expert because he was next to Gu Yue, a kid who's been here for a measly three days.

Speaking of Gu Yue, he saw her walk to a door in the corner of the small room they were in, completely ignoring his presence.

Temporarily ignoring the pain in his legs from his earlier chase, Tang Ziran ran toward Gu Yue, getting next to her side.

"Are we just not going to acknowledge the fact you started a fire on level zero and didn't even care to put it out?" He asked her, quite annoyed. Gu Yue was acting like there were no consequences to burning down level zero. But what irked him the most was that, with her wind element, she had the literal easiest way of putting it out.

"That's the point." Was Gu Yue's simple and short reply.

"What?!" Tang Ziran asked in exasperation and shock.

"That can go burn in hell for all I care." She added, walking over to another door in the distance and pulling it open.

"You don't understand-" Tang Ziran ran to catch up with Gu Yue again, his legs really staThere areo betray him. "-There's people who fall down here everyday!"

Gu Yue temporarily paused in her march toward the next door. But she caught herself quickly, continuing to walk like she didn't care.

"They can go burn in hell for all I care."

Here she goes again with all of this out-of-nowhere resentment against everyone.

"Why?" He asked. "Why are you trying so hard to convince yourself that you want to kill everybody?"

Gu Yue wasn't that type of person, and he knew that very well. So he just wanted to know why. Why does she act like this all the time?

"I'm not trying to convince myself...!" Gu Yue turned and responded, and Tang Ziran noticed she was slightly losing her cool, hands clenched and teeth slightly gritted. She turned back around to the next door, this time opening it with a new method. Burning it.

Tang Ziran sighed as he and Gu Yue passed through the charred remains of the door. Asking questions doesn't seem to be working out for him. Gu Yue was just too closed off from everything. And she wasn't very easy to read like Tang Wulin and Na'er were. Maybe he just needs to give her time to reflect.

With that thought, Tang Ziran stopped trying to talk to Gu Yue, and he visibly saw the kid deflate and relax, appreciating the silence. She definitely needs space.

Since he had never been here before, he didn't really know where to go or what to do. The only course of action available to him was to follow Gu Yue as she traversed every door, seemingly randomly.

However. Although hard to tell, he had a suspicion that Gu Yue also had no idea where she was going.

"Are you just walking around randomly?" Tang Ziran spoke for the first time since earlier, voicing his suspicions.

Instead of getting a response, however, Gu Yue's eyes widened like she just saw something, even though she was just looking at a door the exact same as the rest.

"I found him!" Gu Yue stated loudly, and for the first time, Tang Ziran heard emotions in her voice that weren't coldness or annoyance. Excitement.

"What?" Tang Ziran replied in utter cluelessness, although he was happy Gu Yue's mood seemed to be getting better.

Sensing his confusion, Gu Yue turned to him and elaborated. "You were right. I didn't know where I was going. I was just spreading my Soul Power out and walking in every direction, trying to sense Wulin's Soul Power so I could teleport to him. And now I found him." She explained in a hurry, a silver light filling her body just like earlier.

But Tang Ziran didn't care about that right now. Actually, he temporarily forgot about everything on his mind, with the only thing he could think about being the name Gu Yue just uttered.

Wulin?!

Before he could begin to fire rapid questions at Gu Yue, she grabbed him by the back of his neck. A second later, he was experiencing that same feeling he had earlier when they were running from the Partygoers.

However, even this weird feeling wasn't enough to stop the barrage of thoughts going through Tang Ziran's mind right now.

No way. It had to be just a name coincidence... Right? What were even the chances he encountered the girlfriend of his son that he hadn't seen for more than a decade? In the godamn backrooms of all places!

Well, he was about to get his answer because the light filling his vision dissipated, allowing Tang Ziran to see again.

He dislodged himself from Gu Yue's hold and immediately took a look around his new surroundings. The walls, floor, and ceiling were still exact and didn't have much difference from where he last was. But with a closer look, he noticed there were cracks on the ground, holes on the walls, and blood sprawled in some places.

A fight clearly happened here.

The second thing he noticed was the people. There were eight of them occupying the room, each one looking at him and Gu Yue in shock. A girl with long brown hair, a man with yellow hair tied into a ponytail, another man with long black hair sitting on the ground-

Before he could finish that thought, he saw him stand up from his spot on the ground, lunging toward him and Gu Yue at speeds he could barely even comprehend.

His instincts suddenly flared up, worried that they were about to get attacked. But he soon realized that the man never had his eyes on him. But on the woman next to him.

Tang Ziran turned around as fast as he could, heavily concerned for Gu Yue. However, he saw something completely different than what he was expecting.

Gu Yue, the same woman who threatened murder every time he tried to touch her, was lying on the ground, being kissed (and it seemed very passionate) by the man above her. He and seemingly everyone else were stunned and speechless at the display.

"I- What-" So many thoughts passed through Tang Ziran's mind that he just wanted to pass out from being overwhelmed. What was he even supposed to think right now?

"In front of this many people... I can't believe him." A feminine voice spoke in exasperation behind him, and he also heard more people saying something along the same lines, but Tang Ziran had a hard time taking his focus off Gu Yue.

Finally, after a good five seconds, it seemed Gu Yue was finally out of the euphoria that kiss looked like it was giving her. She pushed the black-haired man off her, although Tang Ziran noticed that she had a hard time doing so.

He was forced to land on the ground next to Gu Yue, and now Tang Ziran could finally get a good look at his face.

That...! He almost didn't recognize it, but a father always knew the face of his son, even if they were separated for years. His eyes widened to saucers, his body going completely still as he silently stared at his long-lost son that was looking at Gu Yue with a pout.

He doesn't know if he wants to cry, go over and hug him, or just sit still like an idiot. Does he even recognize his father?

"Gu Yue..." His baby boy (he couldn't call him that now, could he?) spoke pleadingly to Gu Yue, his voice obviously much deeper and mature than Tang Ziran remembered it being.

The sheer voice change made him want to cry for multiple reasons.

"I missed you too, Wulin. But there are so many people here..." Gu Yue whispered low enough so that only Tang Ziran and Tang Wulin could hear her.

Wulin. That destroyed any doubts he had left about this man being his son.

"You two done eating each other's faces?" The same female voice he heard earlier spoke up again, the black-haired woman appearing in his vision soon after.

"Yes."

"No." Tang Wulin responded in shameless honesty, contradicting Gu Yue. All the while Tang Ziran watched, unable to think of anything besides his son who was right in front of him again.

Why wasn't he looking at him?

"Well, you better be! I'm still not done talking to you!" The other woman replied angrily to his son.

"Fine..." He heard Wulin sigh in disappointment, probably because he couldn't kiss Gu Yue more. "Keep me away from Gu Yue some more, why don't you?"

Why wasn't he acknowledging his existence?

"Just get the fuck up." The brown-haired girl said irritably, crossing her arms to her chest.

Tang Wulin stood up, grabbing Gu Yue's hand and taking her with him. She accepted his touch way easier than with Tang Ziran, and it was quite obvious. It was like Gu Yue had become a completely different person now. She looked so relaxed and soft and happy, and all because of one person.

When Tang Wulin stood up, that seemed to be when he finally noticed that there were others near him, but that revelation didn't seem to bring him any embarrassment for his earlier action.

He looked around, and that's when his black orbs finally met Tang Ziran's, who was still wide-eyed and still. However, their eye contact broke him from his stupor, and now his heart was suddenly beating a billion times faster.

Tang Ziran prayed to every god in existence that Tang Wulin would recognize him. Because if he didn't, that means he either forgot about him, or he grew to hate him. And if that was the case...

When he saw a flash of recognition flash through Tang Wulin's eyes, hope and happiness filled him.

But, unfortunately for him, that recognition was gone as soon as it came, and all positive emotions he felt were drained instantly.

"Hi." Tang Wulin greeted sweetly, completely oblivious to Tang Ziran's suffering. "You came here with Gu Yue, didn't you? So I assume you were the one keeping her in line when I couldn't."

There were absolutely no traces of familiarity in the way he spoke to him.

Tang Wulin approached the father he didn't even recognize, coming until he was right in front of Tang Ziran.

He raised his hand to him, motioning for a handshake.

"Tang Wulin of the Shrek Seven Monsters would like to offer his sincerest gratitude for keeping his troublesome girl safe in his absence."