CH 124

Translated by Dust Bunny

Edited by Crooked 

Gu Xizhou’s head was spinning. Ma Qi had just finished speaking when someone knocked on Gu Xizhou’s office door unexpectedly. Gu Xizhou turned around to see Xiang Yuan sticking his head out from behind the door looking pleased with himself.

“Yi, Ma Ge is here too, ah…” Xiang Yuan scratched his head. He didn’t expect to find Ma Qi in Gu Xizhou’s office. He looked confused. Although Ma Qi had been transferred a while ago, they didn’t have much contact outside of work and Ma Qi was almost always on the front line by two o’clock. He arrived at the police station and then went home as soon as he got off of work.

Gu Xizhou glanced at him and said, “Just say what you have to say, ba, it’s fine.”

Ma Qi pretended that nothing had happened, putting the information into the document file. He nodded to Xiang Yuan and said, “Yes, ah. Xiao Xiang, don’t let me inconvenience you. Xiao Gu and I have already finished our conversation.” 

When he finished speaking, Ma Qi got up to leave and Xiang Yuan looked towards his team leader.

Xiang Yuan thought for a moment and said, “I just asked Lao Gu out for drinks tonight. Ma Ge should come this evening, ah. My treat, lots of people will be there.”

The day before yesterday, Xiang Yuan’s wife gave birth to their second child, a daughter. She was so happy Xiang Yuan promised to invite everyone out for a meal and drinks the very same day.

Ma Qi hesitated before nodding and said, “Okay. Call me when I get off work.”

“Great!”

Seeing Ma Qi off, Xiang Yuan plopped his butt down on Gu Xizhou’s desk. He glanced at the door and sighed, “Ma Ge is really easy to get along with. I can’t even tell that he used to work in the narcotics department.”

“Whenever I see the narcotics police I feel a surge in killing intent. I’ve heard that many drug dealers have died under his gun, but I can’t tell at all that he has lives on his hands.”

“A narcotics police officer’s gun isn’t just for show,” Gu Xizhou said without concern, glancing at the documents on the table. They were from the online fraud case they had accepted recently. The perpetrator had already been arrested. With their recent efforts the chain of evidence had been strengthened and the case had already been transferred to the judicial side. 

“It’s not surprising that there are one or two lives on his hands,” Gu Xizhou said mildly.

Xiang Yuan ‘en’ed, glancing down at his watch to check the time. “Well, I won’t keep you. There’s still work to be done. Try to finish it before you get off work.”

“Oh, and Lao Gu, don’t drive tonight. Leave your car at the station, ba! Otherwise you’ll have to find a substitute driver to drive you back after drinking.”

Gu Xizhou’s mouth twitched as he said, “Actually, I can’t drink.” 

Xiang Yuan made a fist and pounded Gu Xizhou’s chest playfully. “That won’t do, you have to drink with me! I haven’t drunk with you in a long time.”

“Drinking jujubes and goji berries everyday and then turning around to smoke and drink, how can you stay healthy like this?” Gu Xizhou said disdainfully, raising his eyebrows and looking at Xiang Yuan.

Xiang Yuan laughed, “You don’t understand, I’m not trying to take care of my body but raise my spirits. I’m looking for psychological comfort.”

Gu Xizhou: “…” 

Xiang Yuan said a few more words before leaving Gu Xizhou’s office.

Gu Xizhou watched his retreating back and shook his head helplessly. He lowered his head and took out a key, opening a drawer under his desk and taking out the document file that was inside.

The document file held the information Ma Qi had given him on Ye Shu last time. He drew in a deep breath. Combined with this matter, Gu Xizhou had a new understanding of the task world. The props from the task world could influence reality.

Moreover, each mission world was like a microcosm of human civilization. Would the stories inside the mission world also happen in the real one? 

Gu Xizhou thought for a moment. Maybe he could ask Ma Qi to help him investigate his experience from the mission world that were relevant. If he could find corresponding events in reality he could confirm his theory which would help him discover the real reason for his resurrection.

Xiang Yuan caught Gu Xizhou as soon as he was off of work and dragged him along with several other people to a hot pot restaurant.

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“Cut the lies. Didn’t you buy your dog an automatic feeder? Are you scared it will be hungry? By this time your dog will have already eaten.” Xiang Yuan mercilessly exposed Gu Xizhou’s excuse and said again, “You, ah, don’t even think about running. Continue drinking with me!”

“Right, ah! Team Leader Gu has come out and there’s no work tomorrow!”

“Yes, yes, yes! Come on Team Leader Gu, ah!”

“When I woke up at three am I wanted to lose you. I once said that we would be together forever but now we’re no longer in touch…” One of his colleagues held the karaoke microphone. “When it’s late at night I’m the real me covered in hurt. You hurt so dearly…” 

After talking to several people Xiang Yuan turned to Gu Xizhou who was sitting off to the side texting.

Gu Xizhou was texting Si Yu the information that Ma Qi had told him that afternoon——

Gu Xizhou: You remember me telling you I used the missing person poster, right?

Si Yu: I remember. 

Gu Xizhou: Ma Qi found a real person, not just a ghost. This time it was an ordinary person. That person said that they were just passing by a telephone booth when he suddenly felt compelled to make a phone call. After that he casually dialed a number and called my cell phone. It feels a little… strange.

Si Yu: En.

Si Yu: Let’s not talk about this. Tomorrow you have the day off, right?

Seeing Si Yu send a message that had nothing to do with what they were talking about Gu Xizhou was stunned and replied: En? Why? 

Si Yu: I want to see you.

Gu Xizhou was shocked when he saw Si Yu’s message. Actually these four words were very common but his heart beat sped up unnaturally, and he didn’t know why. He felt that Si Yu didn’t mean he ‘wanted to see him’ in the usual sense.

How did this happen?

Gu Xizhou’s hand was tangled up holding his phone when suddenly someone leaned towards him. Instinctively he hid his phone before realizing it was Xiang Yuan. Before Gu Xizhou could say a word Xiang Yuan gained the initiative by striking first, “Who is Lao Gu chatting with?” 

Gu Xizhou: “…”

Seeing Gu Xizhou roll his eyes at him, Xiang Yuan laughed mischievously, leaning over to whisper in his ear, “Just now I caught sight of the contact name, ‘Si Yu.’ What are you hiding?”

Gu Xizhou shot him a look, speechless, “You saw everything and are still asking me who I’m texting?”

Xiang Yuan’s smile was a little obscene, “Lao Gu, someone said they want to see you. You and him can’t really be that, right?” 

Gu Xizhou raised his eyebrows at him, seeing that he was drunk and unable to walk straight he shook his head, not planning on getting into a fight with a drunkard.

He couldn’t explain the situation between him and Si Yu clearly in a short amount of time. Gu Xizhou’s head couldn’t help but hurt.

His feelings towards Si Yu were complicated. On the one hand he really needed Si Yu to take him into the mission world with him to avoid the death rules, but on the other he knew Si Yu was also special to him.

Gu Xizhou couldn’t help but remember waking up in the snowman world. Si Yu’s flushed face was filled with exhaustion and worry. Who could bear to see someone look at them with such an expression, ah! 

The reason he asked Gu Ji Ji about ‘marriage’ and ‘love’ was because he knew that he was also interested.

Off to the side Xiang Yuan shook his head grabbing Gu Xizhou’s wrist as he changed the topic of conversation, “Come, come, come, drink with me. I want to find you a partner soon. I already have two children and you’re still a single dog.

“Don’t you want to experience the feeling of coming home to a meal everyday?”

Xiang Yuan was in a nagging mood and started going on and on. 

There were twenty-five beer cups arranged on the table in five by five rows to form a square, and each one was filled with wine. Xiang Yuan hiccuped and pointed to the table with the wine explaining, “Lao Gu, let’s roll the dice and compare our numbers!”

Xiang Yuan slapped Gu Xizhou on the shoulder with his bear paws. “If you lose, you drink. If you win, you don’t drink. How about it?”

Gu Xizhou glanced at Xiang Yuan, standing with his hands shoved into his pockets, lips pursed into a thin line. Now he really wanted to put this drunkard into a detention room and let Xiang Yuan sober up.

“You don’t dare, ba?” Xiang Yuan said with a smile. 

“There’s no point.”

Xiang Yuan took out two dice. He gave one to Gu Xizhou and kept one of them for himself. “Come on, ba!”

The drunkard Xiang Yuan shook the dice. When he lifted the cup and saw the numbers ‘3’ and ‘2’ he was greatly disappointed. “These lost.”

“Not necessarily. What if Team Leader Gu throws two ones?” Someone from the crowd said. 

Gu Xizhou: “Pei, I have more points than Xiang Yuan.”

As he spoke, Gu Xizhou shook the dice. After he revealed the dice he lifted his chin. “How about ‘6’ and ‘6’? I’m not a black devil like Xiang Yuan!”

Xiang Yuan downed his wine cup and said, “go on!”

“‘5’ and ‘6’, I should definitely win this time, right? I don’t believe you can get another double ‘6’.” Xiang Yuan smiled in satisfaction when he lifted the cup and saw the numbers. 

However when Gu Xizhou rolled the dice, everyone was stunned.

“WTF.”

“Damn, Team Leader Gu has double sixes. Xiang Ge, your luck is really bad, ah.”

“Hahahaha, Team Leader Gu is formidable!” 

Even Gu Xizhou was stunned and hesitated. Gu Xizhou closed his eyes slightly, and picked up the two dice on the table, throwing them out at random.

Gu Xizhou thought, watching the dice fall onto the table, double ‘6’!

Xiang Yuan stared at Gu Xizhou, utter confusion written across his face, and said, “Lao Gu, you’ve learned a skill. You roll double sixes every time. You really want to kill me today, don’t you?”

“Gu Xizhou: “…Aren’t you the one who pulled me to drink?” 

“Forget it, forget it. I won’t play with you.”

Xiang Yuan was making trouble, but it was boring. Originally he just wanted to pull Gu Xizhou to drink, but it would be boring if he didn’t lose. It was just like playing Mahjong. If there are wins and loses, then everyone can play. But if there’s one person who always wins and never loses, who would want to play with them?

Abandoned by everyone else, Gu Xizhou took a pair of dice over to a nearby table. His brow knit slightly as he stared at the dice in a trance thinking: Was he thinking too much? The note Fu Yiran gave him said ‘6’ means life and ‘1’ means death. It couldn’t be related to the dice, right?

Gu Xizhou rolled the dice. As he watched them fall onto the tabletop, he was deeply shaken. It was a double six again. 

Gu Xizhou rolled the dice several times in quick succession before he suddenly stood up abruptly and said in a low voice, “I’m gonna go get some fresh air.”

Xiang Yuan waved his hand absentmindedly and teased, “Go, ba. Just don’t leave.”

Ma Qi didn’t drink much and his companions didn’t dare to persuade him. Ma Qi observed Gu Xizhou’s odd behavior and looked over at the table he’d been throwing the dice. Both of the numbers facing up on the dice were sixes. His lips curled and he got up to follow him out.

Leaving the noisy private box and walking down the hallway Gu Xizhou’s heart beat rapidly. He had just sat off to the side by himself and rolled the dice several times and each time he’d rolled two sixes. His adam’s apple bobbed and there was an indescribable sense of impatience and irritability in his heart. 

Dice were numbered 1-6. On a die there was a ‘6’ and a ‘1’. Did “6 means life 1 means death” refer to the dice?

Gu Xizhou’s brain was full of questions. For him…the good news was he’d rolled a ‘6’ not a ‘1’, and ‘life’ instead of ‘death’. Gu Xizhou massaged his temples.

Usually he didn’t gamble. He hardly ever touched dice. If Xiang Yuan hadn’t pulled him along today, he would have gone home…

Dice, the note is about numbers on a die. 

Rolling a ‘6’ meant life and rolling a ‘1’ meant death.

After following him out, Ma Qi saw Gu Xizhou hiding in the smoking area with his brows tightly knit. He walked over unhurried, taking out a cigarette and lighting it as he did so. He leaned against the wall and asked quietly, “I feel like somethings wrong with you, what’s going on?”

Gu Xizhou pinched his brows and hesitated before shaking his head and saying mildly, “It’s too stuffy inside, I came out to get some air.”

“Oh, that’s good. I thought maybe you’d received some news that something had happened to one of your friends.” Ma Qi gave Gu Xizhou a small nod and put away his worried expression, saying, “It’s okay then.” 

Ma Qi was about to walk away when Gu Xuzhou called out to him, “Ma Ge, wait a minute. I want to ask for your help.”

“What?” Ma Qi asked, his footsteps coming to a halt as he cocked his head slightly, looking at Gu Xizhou.

“You used to be a narcotics officer and know a lot of powerful people. I want to find someone. There are several cases…” Gu Xizhou explained his theory to Ma Qi in detail.

Ma Qi shook his head, “You said you wanted to try and find someone, and I could help you, but people in the mission world can change their appearance and we also don’t know if this ‘Fu Yiran’ uses a real name or a fake one. I’m not very optimistic.” 

“As for whether or not the worlds correspond to real events, I can answer you directly.”

Gu Xizhou looked at Ma Qi a little perplexed, and asked, “You already researched it?”

Ma Qi nodded and ‘en’-ed, “I had the same idea you do, so I researched it. The number of cases wasn’t significant.”

Hearing what Ma Qi said, Gu Xizhou felt a little disappointed and he nodded faintly. He thanked him and took a deep breath before going back to the private room, however his brain was full of dice. 

After drinking some wine, Gu Xizhou separated from the crowd and took a taxi home.

“Weng—”

His cell phone buzzed. Gu Xizhou dug it out and saw that he had six consecutive WeChat messages from Si Yu.

His heart was thrown into so much turmoil over the dice that he totally forgot to check his phone. 

For a split second Gu Xizhou felt guilty. He opened his phone. These messages where clearly sent intermittently and not all at once——

Si Yu: I’ll treat you to dinner.

Su Yu: En?

Ten minutes—— 

Si Yu: Do you really only think of me when you have to enter the mission world????

One hour later——

Si Yu: ……

Si Yu: I take back what I said just now. Don’t be angry. 

Si Yu: Get back to me when you see this. Waiting for you.