Are We Closer Yet?

Su Yan waited for his boyfriend to take out his phone or his notebook or something to do what he had promised but nothing happened. He couldn't help but frown. "What is it? Why aren't you doing anything? Don't tell me you already got cold feet! You just promised!"

Nie Chang hurriedly patted his back. "Don't worry, darling. I'll definitely get back at him for you. It's just that I'm still thinking about how to do it in the most effective way. After all, you certainly don't want him to get off lightly, do you?"

Su Yan shook his head and a special kind of determination showed on his face. "Of course not! That guy shamelessly tried to seduce me and even drugged me even though I have a boyfriend! How vicious can you get?"

"Mn." Nie Chang nodded along even though he was fully aware that they hadn't been a couple back then. "So I can't take revenge for you right now, darling. I still have to contemplate this for a while. How about we go eat something first?"

"Alright." Su Yan got up and waited for Nie Chang who went to get the tandem. "We could search for ideas while we eat."

"Ideas? What for?"

Su Yan frowned at him. "How to get back at that guy, of course! How come you already forgot about this?" He continued to frown for a moment before his expression turned to worry. "Don't tell me this is because of earlier. Do you really have a concussion? Then is it bad that you read that story to me? Will that have any negative side effects? You had to concentrate so much."

Nie Chang sighed and put an arm around Su Yan's shoulders. "No, that's not it. I just thought that we wouldn't talk about him any longer so I guessed you were talking about something different."

"Why wouldn't we talk about him? We still haven't gotten revenge for me."

"Mn, that's precisely it." Nie Chang leaned down and kissed his temple. "Look. You've already suffered so much because of him. I don't want you to expend any energy on this matter. Just leave it to me. I'm your capable boyfriend, after all."

"But you'll show me when you've come up with something, won't you?"

"Of course. But now, let's forget about him and just go eat."

"Mn." Su Yan nodded happily. Ah, he would get his revenge and didn't even need to do anything for it. It was so great to have a boyfriend like Nie Chang! He could really depend on him when it counted. Mn, moving in together with him was really the right choice. Eh? Come to think of it …

Su Yan turned to face Nie Chang. "By the way, did you have a look if we're closer to our house already?"

"Huh?" Nie Chang stopped walking. Closer to their house? Maybe he really had a concussion? Why didn't he remember that they already had a house?

"The system! We've read that story so I should have finished that part of the task. I should have gotten experience for that, right? So I should be a lot closer to the next level. And when I reach it, the system will probably tell me how to earn money with my work. Then we'll get rich pretty soon and can buy our house. So how much closer did we get?"

Nie Chang reached over and wriggled the phone out of Su Yan's pocket. It seemed his little darling was especially lazy right now if he didn't even want to check the system himself. Or, well, maybe he just couldn't bear the thought that he might not have made as much progress as he had hoped and thus wanted someone else to bear the brunt of the shock. Well, he didn't mind. After all, he knew that they didn't have to worry about money.

He went to the page with the description of the level and had a look at the numbers below the graph. It seemed … "Well, you've certainly made some progress."

"How much?!"

Nie Chang licked his lips. "Well, if there are another two or three tasks of this scope, you might be able to reach the next level."

"Ah? Two or three more?!" Su Yan stopped walking. His expression looked very much like he had just heard that there was no way for them to ever buy a house together. "How is that even possible? It already took us so long to read this story! And the one with the birds was even longer. What if the system wants me to read a whole series next because of some bullshit distinction between one-shots and a series?"

Nie Chang tightened his lips. Considering that Su Yan had read neither story completely, this seemed like a pretty good bargain to him. He couldn't say that though. "Uh … Maybe there's another task you could do?"

"What task could there be? You already said that the main task is the one that gives the most experience points!" Su Yan pouted. This was so unfair! He had finally thought of a way to raise enough money to pay for half the house but the system just didn't want to explain to him how exactly he was supposed to do that. Could it be the system just wanted him to write and not be in a relationship at all?!

Nie Chang navigated back to the main page and had a look at Su Yan's tasks. He didn't dare to open the taskline but he did raise his brows at another one. "Ah Yan, what about this one? The ten reasons to break up. You still didn't finish it, right? That seems pretty similar to the main task so maybe you'll get a lot of points for that too?"

Su Yan looked up at his boyfriend with worshipful eyes. Nie Chang was really too great! How had he come up with this instantly when even he himself didn't think of it?!

He cupped his cheeks, tiptoed and pressed his lips onto Nie Chang's. Ah, he really, really deserved this kiss! He was such a perfect boyfriend, actually doing so much for their future house. Mn, as a show of gratitude for what he did today, he should let Nie Chang decide what to call their dog when they moved in. Mn, he would certainly be moved when he told him of this decision.