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Chapter 43: You can take off my clothes, but I can’t button them for you?
This guy has changed again.
Seeing him like this, Shen Ti instantly understood. However, he seemed to have gotten used to this kind of change, probably because he, like the guy in front of him, was not quite normal.
So Shen Ti still lowered his eyes, pretending to smile brightly at the person in his arms.
“I not only hugged you but also planned to give you artificial respiration. Unfortunately, you woke up on your own.”
An Wujiu raised an eyebrow and closed his eyes. Then he tilted his head slightly, stretched his neck, and turned himself over from Shen Ti’s embrace, like a bird that could not be kept.
It was strange. When he was being held, An Wujiu smelled a hint of bitter almond fragrance on Shen Ti.
With his feet on the ground, An Wujiu smiled and raised his hand to push back his wet hair.
“Coming so late and still expecting artificial respiration to save my life?”
“If it were someone else here, they would have been cold long ago.”
At a certain moment, Shen Ti thought of what An Wujiu, who had escaped from the magma abyss, had said.
[Fortunately, it was me at the end; otherwise, it would have been troublesome.]
They were clearly the same words, but when said in good and bad states, they were completely different.
“You’re not cool enough yet.” Shen Ti looked at An Wujiu’s ivory-like upper body without any malice, making a new discovery.
After getting wet, An Wujiu looked even more beautiful, with a misty layer of water shimmering on him, like the moon’s halo that couldn’t be scooped out of a lake.
Upon hearing this, An Wujiu glanced at Shen Ti. He knew Shen Ti was referring to his body temperature.
So, he deliberately approached, lowered his head, grabbed Shen Ti’s wrist, pulled it closer, and pressed Shen Ti’s palm against his chest.
“Is it cold?”
His movements were slow, allowing Shen Ti’s fingertips to touch his skin first, followed by the knuckles, palm, and wrist. That slightly darker-toned palm pressed gently against his pale, moist chest, where intricate black lines of peony intertwined with the palm line, creating a subtle depression.
An Wujiu controlled Shen Ti’s hand, guiding it to explore his body, starting from the chest and gradually moving downward, brushing over smooth and uneven surfaces until the fingertips reached the waistband of his pants.
Then, he suddenly let go.
Allowing Shen Ti’s index finger to hook onto the edge, the bent knuckles pressed against his lower abdomen.
Then he raised his head, revealing an incredibly innocent smile to Shen Ti. Extending his hand, he flicked the earring hanging on the side of Shen Ti’s face.
“You don’t really like men, do you?”
The red coral emitted a faint glow in the dim light, swaying back and forth, restless.
Shen Ti also lifted his head, withdrew his hand, and locked eyes with him.
It was strange. An Wujiu actually sensed a trace of confusion in his gaze.
Clearly, he possessed a face that was adept in the realm of romance.
Like?
For a moment, Shen Ti found himself unable to answer this question.
Indeed, he had joked in front of Zhong Yirou before, saying he didn’t like women. But honestly, he didn’t seem to like men either, or people in general.
He knew that liking someone required having fondness, but he didn’t know to what extent fondness could be considered liking. He couldn’t clearly distinguish between liking a person and liking a bionic cat. Moreover, he didn’t understand that liking someone also came in many different forms.
So, for now, Shen Ti chose to remain silent.
Men or women, there was no difference for him.
Even An Wujiu in front of him was the same. Regardless of whether he was kind or evil, there was no sense of fragmentation in Shen Ti’s eyes; he was a complete person.
Because he resembled a bionic cat that Shen Ti had encountered in his distant memories. That cat was only set with two behavior modes: affection and aversion.
So when Shen Ti touched it in affection mode, it would affectionately rub its head against him. Shen Ti still remembered the tactile sensation of artificial fur rubbing against his skin. But sometimes, it would switch to the other mode. No matter how Shen Ti approached, it would avoid him, even biting him at times.
But Shen Ti didn’t dislike it at all; he even considered it cuter than a real cat.
Lost in vague memories, Shen Ti felt like a toy with its power cut off. He vaguely heard An Wujiu say, “It doesn’t seem to be the case,” but before he could react, when An Wujiu’s hands had already unbuttoned the last button of his shirt, he suddenly powered himself back up and woke up from his memories.
“What are you doing?” Shen Ti caught An Wujiu’s hand.
But An Wujiu didn’t care at all and shamelessly continued to peel off Shen Ti’s clothes. “Of course, I’m undressing you. Are your eyeballs only for admiration?”
Shen Ti experienced a complex emotion, finding it funny and a bit helpless. “Indeed, they’re only for admiration, so I didn’t expect you to be hands-on.” Despite saying so, he still let An Wujiu do as he pleased.
An Wujiu sneered, wearing the finally removed clothes on himself without buttoning them. He reached out and lightly patted Shen Ti’s cheek. “I’m not a good person, and I’m not interested in your sexual orientation. I was just cold and needed a piece of clothing.”
After self-righteously saying these words, he glanced down from his collarbone to the abdominal muscles.
“You’ve got a good figure. Don’t wear it; let everyone enjoy it together.”
As he spoke, his red lips moved, and Shen Ti could almost see his elusive tongue while he talked.
An Wujiu patted Shen Ti’s shoulders twice, then walked past him toward the exit, lazily stretching as he went.
“Come earlier next time to save me.”
Shen Ti turned around and said, “Hey, then what should I wear?”
Without looking back, An Wujiu shamelessly replied, “Buy fewer candies.”
Shen Ti rolled his eyes. Why should he buy fewer candies for a piece of clothing that originally belonged to him?
“Whether you eat candy or not is up to you. Get me another pair of pants,” An Wujiu continued.
Indeed, he had thought of An Wujiu as too kind…
With a swish, An Wujiu abruptly pulled open the curtains, squinting his eyes in the strong light, and when he had adjusted a bit, he walked out.
Wu You, worried about not finding Shen Ti and An Wujiu, had been sitting cross-legged on the stage, guarding the curtains.
Unexpectedly, not long after he sat down, An Wujiu pulled open the curtains and came out. However, his hair was completely wet, his shirt had turned from white to gray, still unbuttoned, and his expression had changed. When Wu You saw him, he tilted his head.
“Little brat.”
Unconsciously, Wu You stood up.
An Wujiu changed his state again, and for some reason he felt a bit nervous this time.
But An Wujiu was still the same, casually walking over. When passing by, he carelessly touched Wu You’s head, almost knocking off the duckbill hat on his head.
Wu You held onto his hat, turned around, and at this moment, An Wujiu sat down at the edge of the stage, both hands supporting the floor, stretching his neck, “I’m exhausted.”
The next moment, the sound of the curtains being pulled open was heard. Wu You turned back and saw Shen Ti walking out with his upper body bare.
“What have you guys been doing?” Wu You frowned.
As soon as he finished asking, Shen Ti slapped Wu You’s face, and the hat he had just put on was knocked off again.
“Before asking questions, ask yourself how old you are.”
Wu You took a deep breath, holding the hat, and walked off the stage.
He quickly walked to Nan Shan’s side. “Is there a spell that can calm people down?”
Nan Shan sat in a chair, feeling weak all over, his muscles stiff. Upon hearing Wu You’s words, he still opened his own panel. After a while, he said to Wu You, “Take a look at what I sent in the same-field player message box.”
Wu You sat next to him and opened the panel. A bunch of densely packed words appeared.
“This is the Meditation Mantra, as Laojun said: The Great Dao is formless, giving birth to heaven and earth…”
“So long? I’d rather stay angry.” Wu You closed the panel, crossing his arms.
“Don’t be angry, don’t be angry,” Nan Shan chuckled and patted his head.
Normally, Wu You would find head-patting annoying, but because Nan Shan didn’t knock off his hat, he wasn’t as annoyed.
Zhong Yirou, seeing An Wujiu coming out, expressed her concern. “Are you okay, Wujiu?” Her voice was still very weak, and her complexion was getting worse.
An Wujiu’s head was originally tilted backward, but when he heard her voice, he lowered his chin and adjusted his posture.
“Who am I? Can these tricks really trap me?” After saying this, he looked around. “Where’s the imposter? I haven’t seen him yet.”
Shen Ti walked over from behind and squatted next to An Wujiu, pretending to apologize. “Oh, by the way, I accidentally killed him.”
Accidentally?
Wu You continued to have no words.
“Dead?” An Wujiu turned his face and cruelly said with an innocent face, “Why didn’t you leave him alive for me to play with?”
On the stage below, the three people who did not participate in the last round of the game with them were all surprised. The An Wujiu in front of them now and the An Wujiu who entered the cage an hour ago were completely different.
Josh’s Adam’s apple rolled uneasily, glancing at the body of the fake An Wujiu still tied to the chair, then looking at the one at the edge of the stage.
“Did we… did we make a mistake?” He began to doubt himself, “Who is real, and who is fake?”
Shen Ti and An Wujiu looked at each other, then simultaneously burst into laughter.
Zhong Yirou had known it would be like this. She kindly explained, “There’s no mistake. The one you see now is the real An Wujiu. It’s just that his mind is a bit messed up, and his personality can be good or bad at times.”
Josh didn’t quite understand. “Is it a split personality?”
An Wujiu supported himself on the stage floor and jumped down. “Would I still remember you if it’s split personality, Josh?”
“It’s not a personality problem. Dissociative identity disorder is a specific mental illness where different personalities are completely different individuals. They differ in intelligence, life experiences, and even gender, and have no memory or social connections. It could be a highly intelligent child prodigy as one personality, a 70-year-old as another, or a middle-aged man with a temperamental personality as another. That’s multiple personality disorder.”
“Wujiu is different. He just occasionally shifts from the previous kind and reliable personality to what you see now, from good to evil…” Zhong Yirou spoke too much and couldn’t help coughing a few times. “Anyway, it’s similar to bipolar disorder. A person’s state can change, but it’s still the same person.”
Yang Erci frowned.
“Are you born like this?”
An Wujiu casually raised his eyebrows. “Who knows?”
Wu You explained for him, “He has amnesia and doesn’t remember many things.”
Nan Shan was also curious, despite his poor condition. He asked a few more questions, and a few people chatted. Shen Ti looked at An Wujiu standing there with his shirt open in front of everyone, feeling strange. So, he reached out and buttoned up his shirt.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m buttoning up, can’t you see?” Shen Ti mimicked him.
“I don’t care if you button or not.”
“You’re only allowed to unbutton and undress me for me to touch you, but I can’t dress you back up? That’s too unfair, isn’t it?”
Nan Shan: “They’re indeed some problems.”
Josh: “Touch…touch?”
Wu You lowered his hat, self-isolating manually.
“Amnesia… then it’s even less like something natural.” Yang Erci answered softly.
Zhong Yirou heard that and glanced at her. “You also think it’s artificial?”
Yang Erci nodded without saying anything else.
“I’ve suspected that he used a problematic prosthesis and got infected by a virus intrusion, leading to neurological disorders in the brain. But…” Zhong Yirou’s voice was very low, not just because of weakness but deliberately lowered. “The metal skeleton installed in his wrist doesn’t seem like something available on the market. The chances of this type of prosthesis having problems are very low, with self-defense mechanisms and auxiliary immune functions. I suspect someone tampered with his brain nerves.”
After Zhong Yirou finished speaking, she felt very tired and took a deep breath.
Yang Erci raised her eyes and looked in the direction of An Wujiu, deep in thought.
Shortly after, a door suddenly appeared in the hall of the circus theater, identical to the gate to heaven on the first floor. However, this time, the door did not have any additional puzzles or challenges but opened automatically.
Josh sighed in relief: “Can we finally go up to the third floor?”
They had been stuck on this floor for too long, and one-third of the allotted 72 hours had already passed.
An Wujiu stood in front of the door, his pitch-black pupils reflecting the familiar spiral staircase inside.
“Oh, by the way,” he said to everyone, “you’d better forget the nonsense I said before.”
Josh was puzzled, “What nonsense?”
An Wujiu turned his head and flashed a charming smile: “For example, I guarantee that everyone will definitely survive.”
Josh was stunned. The man in front of him was indeed different now. Previously, in the most uneasy moments, he had eased everyone’s anxiety and firmly assured them that they could make it.
But now, he was shattering that beautiful and fragile glass cover himself.
Attempting to break down the public trust he had built up with his own hands.
“People may die at any time, and I won’t disregard others’ lives like before. So…” An Wujiu shrugged, “Good luck to everyone.”
He thought that by saying the ugly words first, these people would immediately forget his previous appearance as a savior, understanding that he was now a thoroughly evil person.
“You’re right,” Josh spoke up. “We will protect ourselves.”
An Wujiu looked confused after hearing that.
“Don’t worry.” Josh patted his shoulder. “I know you mean well, but I’m not the same person I was at the beginning!”
Shen Ti burst into laughter, imitating him, “I know you mean well.”
The others laughed too.
“Fool,” An Wujiu said nothing and walked toward the stairs.
The others followed him, still maintaining the united group posture, as if they had completely forgotten that this was essentially an individual battle.
The Altar did not mention what the final point reward would be or what mode it would take. It might be a fixed amount of points to be evenly distributed among the survivors.
If that were the case, of course, the fewer survivors, the better.
Based on the mechanisms displayed in the game so far, the higher they went up the tower, the more restrictions and challenges they faced, and the worse their physical condition became. From this perspective, it aligned with his expectations of the settlement mechanism.
An Wujiu was calculating in his mind, disdainful of his previous heroics. It was like a person, in the midst of extreme emotions, couldn’t understand their restrained self from the past. So, he continued alone, leading the way. The spiral staircase led to another door, and just as An Wujiu placed his palm on it, the door opened, identical to when he entered the second floor.
This floor was quite cramped.
The door was still in the middle of the wall on one side of the corridor, but this time, both the left and right corridors were sealed off, leaving a very small space, like an elevator.
The left and right sides were steel walls. An Wujiu walked over, observed from top to bottom, and finally crouched down, examining the bottom of the steel wall and finding a thin gap.
It seemed to be a vertically opening sliding door.
Others also entered; the door closed, and it couldn’t be opened again.
“Weird, this time neither side is accessible.” Josh tried to push the steel wall on the right, but it didn’t budge.
Shen Ti thought An Wujiu looked good in his gray shirt, so he exchanged for a similar one when going upstairs. An Wujiu noticed, but his hem wasn’t properly tucked in, giving him the appearance of a debonair playboy who had hastily arranged himself after a secret rendezvous.
“Welcome to the third floor.”
A very obvious artificial intelligence voice emerged, full of mechanical sense.
Then, as expected, a robot appeared before them. It was designed very simply, without mimicking the human form, just a basic metal framework.
“After completing the challenge, each of you can choose your own direction, left or right.”
“What challenge?” asked Josh.
“It is currently being initialized…”
Soon, the robot replied, “Sorting challenge.”
“Each of you should have seen a number floating in your field of vision, an integer assigned to you. You cannot tell this number to anyone else; otherwise, it will be considered a violation, and you cannot continue the game. In this situation, you need to arrange the numbers in order, from smallest to largest.”
An Wujiu did see a number in his field of vision, hovering in the center—it was 5.
But this was also his only piece of information.
“How are we supposed to rank these? We can’t know each other’s numbers.”
The robot responded, “I can assist you, but you cannot ask me questions like ‘Whose number is the largest?’ or ‘Whose number is the smallest?’ or ‘What is someone’s number?’ You can only pair up and ask me questions, and I can only tell you who is larger or smaller. You cannot reveal specific numbers. If there are more than three people, I will refuse to answer.”
“Please prepare yourselves.”
The robot continued the game without considering whether they were ready or had thought of a strategy.
“Sorting Challenge, time limit: 5 minutes.”
“Now begin—”
The author has something to say:
I want to reiterate that Wujiu is just Wujiu, not defined as good or bad. His affection for Shen Ti is genuine, regardless of his temperament. People often love someone regardless of their mood or temperament; after all, it’s the same person. Moreover, as mentioned in the story, Shen Ti is somewhat unique, and An Wujiu’s personality doesn’t affect his feelings. He finds An Wujiu interesting, and he won’t compartmentalize An Wujiu’s character.
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