Chapter 34#
Day Five Countdown#
The System searched for Yu Lanyin in the sky.
It wasn’t difficult.
Not difficult at all.
The flight path was traceable.
Today, the clouds were thick and the fog dense, so visibility wasn’t great. But as they approached the snowy mountains, the helicopter’s data-generated airflow stirred up the wind, dispersing the thick fog.
The sun, like a wonton filling, dropped out of the wonton skin made of clouds.
The golden sun shone on the continuous white mountains, their peaks appearing closer together at high altitude.
A beautiful, pale, almost transparent face pressed against the window. The fine, soft earlobes were tinged with a warm, downy glow. Fragmented, novel brightness flowed from his wide, blue-grey eyes. A small patch of white mist formed on the glass from his breath.
The System searched for Yu Lanyin at the airport.
Young Boss Yu was truly terrifyingly strong. Alone in a foreign country, he showed no fear. Relying on his half-remembered foreign language and translation software, he looked up at the kind person pushing his wheelchair and flashed a big smile. He was immediately hailed as “little cat” and quickly surrounded for photos.
Yu Lanyin even found an airport shop and bought a notebook and a mechanical pencil to write messages for the System.
He exaggeratedly praised the smoothness and beauty of the journey: the first-class sofa was comfortable, the first-class food smelled delicious, the scenery outside the window was explosively beautiful. Next time, he would definitely come again with the System to see it together, and he would pay.
Yu Lanyin controlled his left hand, writing laboriously, stroke by stroke: Good morning, I’m so happy.
Yu Lanyin drew a stick figure with hands on hips.
Yu Lanyin tucked a Polaroid photo inside.
Yu Lanyin drew crooked hearts and crooked big smiley faces for him, carefully touched the notebook, hugged it in his arms, leaned back in his wheelchair, and stared blankly at the continuous snowy mountains outside the large floor-to-ceiling window for a while.
The System disguised itself as a kind Uber driver to take Yu Lanyin to a grand hotel.
It was easy to disguise. Just adjust some parameters, put on sunglasses, a mask, gloves, wear the driver’s uniform, and pull down the brim of the cap. Yu Lanyin was very satisfied with the driver’s professionalism and gave him a full five-star rating on the platform.
There was a souvenir shop at the airport. Yu Lanyin bought a few handmade fabric edelweiss flowers, holding them in his hands on his lap. He generously gave one to the System: “You’re very much like my friend.”
The System modified its appearance parameters and voice, very cautiously not looking back: “Is that so?”
Yu Lanyin nodded.
The System carefully put away the edelweiss, gripping the steering wheel tightly, and slowly drove through a section of the street, pondering: “…A good friend?”
Yu Lanyin’s eyes curved slightly.
He leaned against the window, looking out at the already prominent snowy mountains, sitting motionless for a while.
“How to put it.”
Yu Lanyin slowly, somewhat indistinctly, replied in the local language: “If I were… only seventeen.”
“I’d invite him home with a glass of wine.”
Young Boss Yu was ambitious: “I’d have him.”
Young Boss Yu: “Seven times a night.”
The System couldn’t help but cough. The car took a wrong turn, startling a flock of blackbirds that were running around on the grass looking for berries.
The blackbirds condemned it sternly with various calls.
Yu Lanyin laughed. His laughter was also light, tinged with fatigue. His earlobes were a little red, already obscuring the small red mole: “I was just kidding…”
Yu Lanyin was serving his sentence. What was the point of indulging in such daydreams? Did he perhaps feel his sins weren’t heavy enough? He looked at the serene blue-grey sky behind the snowy mountains, trying to inhale a bit of air, then slowly exhaled.
“Good morning, I’m very happy.”
Yu Lanyin said: “I wish you happiness, and I wish you joy too.”
The inarticulate Uber driver returned the same blessing, his blue-grey eyes softly curving. He was lifted into his wheelchair and bid a polite farewell with a touch on the cheek.
The System switched to a different code, blending into the hotel disguised as an executive butler, and escorted Yu Lanyin upstairs.
Yu Lanyin wanted to go to the snowy mountains that afternoon.
The 1.9-meter executive butler half-squatted. This time, he didn’t look like Yu Lanyin’s friend. With a hooked nose, deep-set eyes, and a neatly trimmed beard, he resembled an Italian skilled in sweet talk: “How about a rest? Our hotel is perfect for viewing. For a beautiful guest like you, it would be a pity to miss the equally precious beautiful night scenery.”
Yu Lanyin politely curved his eyes slightly, moving his fingers on the touchscreen to select words of thanks. He turned his head and quietly looked at the snowy mountain for a while.
“Thank you,” Yu Lanyin replied. “I want to go now.”
The System quietly stayed with him for a while, then got up to make arrangements, completing a series of preparations for going up the mountain, including transfers and cable car reservations.
When it returned to the room, the wheelchair was overturned, and Yu Lanyin was lying face down on the floor.
The System rushed over, turned the silent, soft body over. Yu Lanyin’s mouth was open, his head and neck tilted back as his shoulders and back were lifted. His arms hung limply. The System felt a faint, almost imperceptible spasm in his still-warm chest.
Yu Lanyin had lost the ability to breathe independently. This deterioration was earlier than expected. The System laid his body flat, opened his airway, and delivered air mouth-to-mouth, coordinating with continuous small chest compressions.
After an unknown period, a faint “gurgle” sounded from his silent throat.
His thin, pale chest trembled, and his eyelashes fluttered with effort, slowly opening.
The System tried its best to keep its voice steady: “…Sir?”
Yu Lanyin tried to move his left hand, finding it very difficult. Only his fingertips moved slightly.
The System bravely lifted this hand.
Yu Lanyin tugged at its data beard.
This sensation confused the breakfast shop owner, Young Boss Yu. It wasn’t quite right. Yu Lanyin thought for a while: “You’re like… my friend.”
The System gave a wry smile. It carefully picked up Yu Lanyin, pressing on his chest with one hand to help him breathe, and opened the oxygen tank it had prepared just in case: “What kind of friend?”
Yu Lanyin was severely hypoxic, his vision blurred, and his consciousness very hazy. Hearing this, he smiled, his blue-grey eyes like crescent moons.
The System helped him with oxygen, stroked his hair, and asked softly: “A good friend?”
Yu Lanyin said softly: “Good afternoon, good afternoon.”
The System replied: “Good afternoon.”
Yu Lanyin seemed very happy, smiled gently, his eyelids drooped, and he fell into a coma again.
The System canceled all the appointments it had just made, postponing them until the next day. It wanted to get some hot towels to wipe Yu Lanyin’s face and hands. Just as it was about to get up, it found its clothes corner loosely pinched by a powerless finger.
The System sat back by the bed, touched Yu Lanyin’s face, and switched back to its own data belonging to Yu Lanyin.
It slowly pressed Yu Lanyin’s chest.
It stayed with Yu Lanyin, motionless and comatose, until nightfall.
The System impersonated a doctor who came to examine Yu Lanyin. Yu Lanyin’s condition was not good, or rather, very bad. He needed hospitalization, but Yu Lanyin also had the right to refuse.
Yu Lanyin was nestled in blankets and pillows, wearing a breathing machine, receiving nutrient IVs, and laboriously greeted the doctor with his still-mobile index finger: Good evening.
The doctor’s face was blurry in his eyes, his voice blurry, everything was indistinct.
As if separated by a glacier.
Yu Lanyin carefully observed the outside from within the glacier, touching the doctor’s fingers, the back of his hand, the palm, and tracing his forearm along the veins of his wrist.
It was very much like a villainous young master flirting with an innocent doctor.
Yu Lanyin apologized for his behavior: Sorry.
Yu Lanyin: You’re like…
The System had already learned: “I’m like your friend.”
Yu Lanyin smiled, looking a bit shy, his ears and curled knuckles slightly flushed. When he was unconscious, his fingertips would slowly draw circles, which was even more agonizing. The System caught this hand: “Try me?”
The great villain Yu was startled: !?
“You are too beautiful,” the System said to him in its fourth identity. “I’ve fallen in love.”
Yu Lanyin was stunned for a moment. In his soft blue-grey eyes, that faint, proud little cat-like tail wagging reappeared: “Oh my, oh my.”
“My fault,” Yu Lanyin’s spirits were much better, even his voice had strength. “I forgot to tell you.”
Yu Lanyin said: “I have a boyfriend.”
The System was not pleased.
The System felt that Song Baoxiao hadn’t suffered enough, even though he had been severely beaten along with his company, his reputation ruined by public condemnation, and he was so distraught he seemed possessed.
But then, Yu Lanyin began to talk about his 1.9-meter boyfriend without prompting.
He talked about chocolate-coated ice cream, about malatang, about beating up big bosses in games, about kisses that tasted of sweet, spicy, and fragrant red oil dumplings, about an ill-timed leaking heater, about hugs, about hugs.
Yu Lanyin smiled and said: “We always hug, it’s very comfortable, I really like it.”
His tone was incredibly infectious, lively and happy, making anyone listening smile.
The System was stunned from beginning to end. When it realized, its heart was pounding rapidly. This was very rare for data; it almost meant they had evolved into humans.
“We’re doing great,” Yu Lanyin searched for his notebook. “I bought him edelweiss. I…”
The System helped him find the notebook, placing it in his fumbling hand. Several pages were crumpled.
Yu Lanyin had written many travel diaries in it.
He wrote about the extravagant hotel life, about the breathtaking scenery, about how easy life was, how comfortable living was, how he roamed the town like a tyrant.
He wrote that he was being disloyal this time, running off by himself, which was very bad, very sorry, and that next time he would definitely come with the System.
Finally, Yu Lanyin wrote: I heard there are edelweiss, so I decided to go exploring in the snowy mountains.
The date was four days after arriving in the area.
Anyone who found the notebook would think it belonged to a young person who loved to travel, was excited and ran around everywhere, loved adventure, was a bit reckless, and accidentally fell into an ice crevice… a regrettable accident.
This was the method Yu Lanyin thought of. He didn’t die by suicide, but by accident. He went to pick edelweiss in an ice crevice and accidentally fell.
It was just an accident, no need to be sad at all.
He died happily thinking of beautiful edelweiss. He was so close to freedom, so happy, so comfortable, it was just a small accident.
Just a small fall.
He was even happy when he died.
Yu Lanyin clutched that diary.
His chest rose and fell, his fingers trembling for some reason. He lay there with his eyes open, motionless for a while, waiting for that feeling of being dissected to end, only to find his vision was a blurry red mist.
It was hard to pinpoint where the pain came from. He hadn’t felt pain in a long time; all sensation in his body had faded, and even falling didn’t hurt.
Why was he sad?
He didn’t know either.
Yu Lanyin was kept alive by medical instruments, oxygen pumped into him by a ventilator. He thought for a while and asked the doctor: “Can I give you all my organs?”
The System asked: “What?”
Yu Lanyin tilted his head slightly, looking at the red light of the timer flashing incessantly.
There was a slight deviation in the plan. Yu Lanyin had expended some precious energy outside the plan, which prevented him from holding on to his last breath before dying.
He kept thinking about his friend, thinking about his friend.
He was useless. Everyone he saw reminded him of the System he had left at the hotel. He dreamed of them hugging and kissing. He dreamed of holding the System and refusing to let go, crying and laughing in a shameful way.
These exhausted his mental strength.
He was weak before death, evasive before pain. He even found himself desperately missing, wanting to see again, wanting to hug and be held tight.
It was too late.
It was too late.
His body had already given a clear answer.
Yu Lanyin looked out the window: “Please… take me there, as close as possible.”
Yu Lanyin said slowly and softly.
“When I die, there’s no need to walk anymore.”
“Cut me open, hollow me out,” Yu Lanyin said. “Build a fire, burn away what’s useless.”
Yu Lanyin paused, rested for a moment, waiting for his body to absorb enough oxygen, then slowly finished his words:
“The rest, use it to save people, or sell it for money, as payment for helping me fake the death scene.”
He needed the doctor’s help to scatter his ashes into the ice crevice and leave the notebook where it could be found.
Yu Lanyin said: “I can’t make it to the snowy mountains.”