TYMIMA Chapter 66

The two-week internship officially ended. Team Sky Blue packed their luggage, preparing to take the bus back to Star University.

 

As the Dawn Day holiday wrapped up, the entire restricted zone had quieted down, and no one offered to arrange a car to send them back.

 

During work handover, Robert’s cloudy eyes stared fixedly at Zhan Pingchuan. His rough palms gripped the narrow ink pen, viciously signing his name on documents. With each signature, he’d grunt, venting his dissatisfaction.

 

Tang Li and Liu Bo didn’t dare make a sound. Though they hadn’t helped much these past days, they’d worked hard enough. Getting such treatment from Robert was entirely thanks to Zhan Pingchuan.

 

“Teacher White, you seem to have some opinion about us.” Zhan Pingchuan met Robert’s gaze with a lazy smile, completely shameless.

 

Tang Li thought: grammatical error—remove the “us.”

 

Robert snorted coldly, speaking sarcastically: “Didn’t notice you actually had some self-awareness.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised: “No wonder all your comments about me are negative reviews. Turns out you didn’t dig deep enough into my strengths.”

 

“…Bullshit! You’re the worst batch I’ve ever supervised!” Robert angrily threw four internship certificates at Zhan Pingchuan’s shameless face.

 

Zhan Pingchuan reacted quickly, tilting his head and precisely catching all four certificates with one hand.

 

“Tsk, teachers really love saying that line. It’s becoming a stereotype.”

 

Robert roared: “This is my first time saying it!”

 

He’d never encountered such outrageous interns before—not only treating tardiness and early departure as routine, but also relying on good looks and physique to seduce a pretty little Omega and do it everywhere!

 

Zhan Pingchuan looked skeptical: “Really? I don’t believe it.”

 

Robert pointed toward the door with trembling fingers: “Get out!”

 

“Alrighty.” Worried about actually angering Robert to death, Zhan Pingchuan mercifully left.

 

Walking out of Blue Pivot building, Zhan Pingchuan brazenly took Lance’s hand, strolling while playing with his soft palm.

 

Omega body temperature was generally three to four degrees higher than Alphas, most obvious in the mouth and reproductive cavity, but surface differences were smaller due to air circulation.

 

Even so, Zhan Pingchuan could still feel Lance’s palm warmth exceeding his own.

 

After walking a while, Lance turned his head: “What comments did he write about you?”

 

“Baby, don’t look—it’s negative.” Zhan Pingchuan’s expression was slightly unnatural. He’d already crumpled that review into a waste paper ball, planning to find a trash can to throw it away.

 

“Curious.” Lance lightly tugged Zhan Pingchuan’s hand.

 

It’s not my negative review anyway.

 

Zhan Pingchuan really had no defense against Lance’s pure, coquettish appearance. He enjoyed being tugged by the fingers a few times before pulling out the crumpled paper from his pocket and handing it to Lance.

 

Lance unfolded the paper ball, reading carefully by noon sunlight.

 

“Strongly DO NOT recommend this student!!!”

 

“This student is chronically undisciplined, glib-tongued, tardy and leaves early, never learns from mistakes, and slacks off at work, lingering in restrooms for extended periods!”

 

“During internship, this student entangled unclearly with Second District intern Lance, daily ‘laboring,’ completely carried away, satisfied to the end, simply full of lewd thoughts, unsightly to behold!”

 

Lance: “…” There really was his negative review. Should have known not to look.

 

Zhan Pingchuan shrugged helplessly: “Tell me, who’s really full of lewd thoughts? He actually put ‘laboring’ in quotes—took me two seconds to figure out what he meant.”

 

Lance figured it out in one second. He calmly crumpled the review back up: “Mm, he’s bad.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan observed Lance’s expression from the corner of his eye, teasing: “Why are your ears red?”

 

Lance instinctively covered his ear tips, preventing them from revealing his secret of understanding in one second.

 

“Oh, so you really do understand.” Zhan Pingchuan couldn’t help laughing, pulling his hand down. “I looked wrong just now—they’re not red at all.”

 

Only then did Lance realize he’d been tricked. He was shocked.

 

White Pharaoh had actually been deceived by someone else!

 

Zhan Pingchuan found his stunned expression so adorable he couldn’t help kissing the pale ear tip: “How are you so cute?”

 

Tang Li and Liu Bo ten meters away: …I’m blind I’m blind I’m blind.

 

Now Lance’s ear tips were truly red. He shook his hair, letting the reddish-brown locks completely cover his ears: “You’ll definitely never be able to get a job at Blue Pivot now.”

 

You can only come back to High Tower Guild with me and be little idiot beloved by White Pharaoh.

 

Zhan Pingchuan feigned regret: “Yeah, my career path is getting narrower. Good thing Desert City still has a blue ocean for me.”

 

Lance: “…” Are bicycles really that profitable there?

 

The group returned to the dormitory, collected their luggage, closed the doors, and dragged their suitcases toward the restricted zone shuttle bus.

 

Zhan Pingchuan suddenly realized—wait, little fox knows he meant Ghost Eye Guild and not inheriting the family bicycle theft business, right?

 

The black shuttle bus just arrived at the platform, the driver honking at them frantically.

 

“Coming, coming!” Tang Li responded, first to jump on the bus.

 

Once everyone was seated, the bus turned and drove along the smooth asphalt road toward the restricted zone gate.

 

Lance took one last look at the Blue Pivot and Hong Suo buildings, and the towering Qian Yun in the center reaching into the clouds.

 

Barring accidents, he probably wouldn’t come to this place again.

 

But just as he thought this, the Outer God suddenly awakened from slumber, looking coldly through his eyes at Qian Yun, at the deeper places above the clouds.

 

Lance frowned. The damn thing was coming out to join the excitement again.

 

He took out his glasses and put them on his nose bridge, withdrawing his gaze.

 

–

 

The Lotasi Ice Field was ravaged by blizzards year-round. The only path to AGW Special Dangerous Death Row Prison deep in the ice field was a chain bridge spanning ice crevasse cliffs.

 

Si Hongche’s regulation leather jacket flapped in the wind and snow, fine lines on his skin quickly carved deeper by the cold wind.

 

He climbed the spiral ladder and stepped into the suspended cable car.

 

The cable car swayed forward along the chain through wind and snow, traveling toward the cliff’s other end.

 

After about half an hour, the cable car stopped. Even more bitter wind and snow made it nearly impossible to see ahead.

 

In such harsh conditions, prisoners had absolutely no possibility of escape. Once sent here, they could only despairingly wait in the ice field depths for death or mental breakdown.

 

“Director, please take cover. The elevator will come soon.” The aide wanted to use an umbrella to shield Si Hongche.

 

Frost and snow hung on Si Hongche’s eyelashes, but he raised his hand to brush away the aide’s arm.

 

It was here, back then, that Oliver had run toward him sadly and grievously, wanting to embrace him, wanting to seek a bit of comfort.

 

And he had pushed him away.

 

Wind and snow remained the same; people were no longer as before.

 

The underground elevator emerged from the ground, reinforced glass doors slowly opening. Warden Asmodeus stepped out, a team of prison guards lined up behind him with stern expressions.

 

Asmodeus stared at Si Hongche with his brown left eyeball, the missing eye adding a fierce cast to his features.

 

He actively extended his hand: “Director Si.”

 

By rank, AGW Special Dangerous Death Row Prison warden and Blue Pivot Second District director should be equal, but Si Hongche’s position in the restricted zone invisibly elevated him one level.

 

Si Hongche’s eyes were dark and heavy, his voice as if frozen: “I want everyone who touched Oliver back then.”

 

Asmodeus withdrew his hand without embarrassment, grinning knowingly: “Alright.”

 

AGW Special Dangerous Death Row Prison was littered with corpses and rivers of blood, while Oliver at High Tower Guild knew nothing of this.

 

He had already taken off his prison uniform and changed into a soft, warm sweater.

 

A fireplace burned in the room, warm flickering light dancing in his emerald eyes. His eyes, along with the clean window, were covered with a thin layer of mist.

 

“Choose… A.” Oliver spoke softly.

 

Lily crouched restlessly on her chair, poking her blue pigtails with her pen. She scrunched up her face, her eyes nearly touching the practice problems: “Choose A? How could it be A?”

 

Oliver moistened his dry throat, struggling to explain: “First law of thermodynamics, and… changes in internal energy.”

 

Perhaps because he’d been speaking more these days, he felt his stutter had improved somewhat. He no longer pronounced words strangely and could speak more words continuously without interruption.

 

“Oh right, right, right!” Lily slapped her forehead. “First law of thermodynamics—how did I forget!”

 

She quickly filled in A in the brackets, then turned to the next problem. Unsurprisingly, she got stuck again.

 

Lily simply pushed the workbook to Oliver, looking at him expectantly: “Do you know this one?”

 

Oliver nodded: “Gas… state equation PV/T = constant.”

 

“Holy shit!” Lily was shocked. “You really haven’t studied for eighteen years? Why do you know more than Lukas?”

 

Oliver: “…”

 

He felt somewhat at a loss. Admitting he knew more than others seemed inappropriate, but denying it would seem false.

 

He did have some talent for learning, and over these years, he often escaped into the Spirit Realm system, sustained by those few sweet memories.

 

Staying up late studying was good, being criticized by his brother was good, even spraining his ankle going downstairs was good. Compared to his days at Blue Pivot, these had all become beautiful dreams.

 

Oliver: “Some things… practiced for a long time, are hard to forget.”

 

Lily said excitedly: “Why don’t you just pretend to be my physics teacher from now on? That way I can sneak out to kill people more enjoyably! Mad Clown doesn’t look like a teacher at all—my mom always thinks he looks like a nightclub DJ.”

 

“I…” Oliver paused. He found he didn’t really want to refuse.

 

He desperately craved being needed, because it made him feel he was building new connections with this world.

 

The Black Lantern Society had given him a fulcrum, given him the possibility of carrying unknown fate with his broken body and spirit. He wanted to try to grasp it.

 

“Pretty please?” Lily gently touched Oliver’s hand with her fingertip. She didn’t dare use much force, because they said this person’s body was too weak, his bones fragile and easily broken—more delicate than that frail butterfly orchid on the balcony.

 

Oliver looked down at his hand. It had only been touched very lightly, yet he clearly saw a connection signal spark a weak point of light at that moment.

 

“Alright.”

 

“Yay, mom will never have to worry about my studies again.” Lily happily swished her long braids, making the chair creak.

 

Duma, who was seriously assembling a Lego battleship by the fireplace, inadvertently heard this answer and stopped his work.

 

The battleship was only partially assembled into steps, with many mistakes. He couldn’t understand the instructions.

 

Duma’s expressionless little face slowly turned, puffing up.

 

Lance said he brought him here to help me build Lego.

 

To help me build Lego.

 

 

##

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T/N: End of Vol 2 ꉂ(˵˃ ᗜ ˂˵)

 (advanced chapters available on kofi)