I Can’t Keep Being a Scumbag Anymore—What Should I Do? [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 14

The girls stared at him for a few seconds as if he were a mental patient before running off.

What a waste of a handsome guy; it’s a shame he’s got a screw loose.

Feng Qin headed up the mountain and found the area around the campsite pitch black; most people had already retreated to their tents. He wandered for a while, eventually finding only “Slim Monkey,” who had just emerged from the trees after relieving himself.

Seeing him, Slim Monkey’s eyes darted around guiltily. He tried to turn and bolt, but Feng Qin barked at him to stop.

“Where is he?”

“Who?” Slim Monkey played dumb.

“Don’t play games with me,” Feng Qin growled, his brows furrowing.

Slim Monkey stammered, unable to form a sentence. Losing his patience, Feng Qin turned to leave.

Slim Monkey hurriedly grabbed him.

“Brother Wei got wasted again tonight and ran his mouth—said some things he shouldn’t have. Brother Qiu apparently overheard and was pretty pissed.” Slim Monkey scratched his head anxiously, struggling to find the words. “Brother Wei was going to go over there and slap himself as an apology, but then he saw, he saw.”

Feng Qin’s gaze turned icy. He shoved the boy aside and strode toward the tent halfway up the mountain.

He had spent hours at the foot of the mountain, and he’d long forgotten where his own tent was. But Ran Muqiu and Li Zhu’s tent? He remembered its location better than the way to his own front door.

His heart was racing, a sharp anxiety gnawing at him, as if he were terrified of seeing a repeat of the scene in the alleyway.

As he neared the tent, he heard a familiar sound—lower than usual, but just as soft, like a suppressed, muffled sob.

Feng Qin froze instantly, his feet feeling as if they were rooted to the spot.

Yet, his eyes couldn’t help but search for the source.

Feng Qin knew that Qin Wei hadn’t actually been that drunk; he had just used the alcohol as an excuse to act out. Even if he hadn’t realized it at the time, Qin Wei had approached him later, hesitantly asking him not to tell Ran Muqiu about that day. Feng Qin knew exactly what was going on.

Ran Muqiu was beautiful. Even if it was just for those looks alone, Qin Wei was far from the only person who wanted to pamper and follow him.

And Feng Qin wasn’t the only one whose jealousy toward Li Zhu and Ran Muqiu’s relationship cut to the bone.

Earlier, at the base of the mountain, Feng Qin had tried to tell himself that Li Zhu was probably just the luckiest of the many people trying to court the boy—the one who got the closest. He tried to convince himself it was just one-sided wishful thinking, much like his own, and that Li Zhu hadn’t actually gained any real ground.

He had used that possibility to comfort himself.

But now, through a narrow gap in the tent flap, he first saw a patch of snow-white neck and shoulders, followed by a pair of slender, fair arms draped loosely around the tall, lean boy’s neck.

The boy’s eyes were closed, his cherry-colored lips parted. The other’s kisses were urgent and crude, yet the boy didn’t seem to resist. A soft, red tongue peeked out, meeting the other half-way in a posture of complete, yielding tolerance.

His waist was thin; because it was so slender, there wasn’t much flesh there, making it an unlikely place for idle handling.

Yet, the other boy’s hands roved over it, and as Ran Muqiu’s eyelashes fluttered, he actually allowed the touch. His arms tightened around the other’s neck, as if trying to pull him even closer.

It wasn’t a “sponsorship.” It wasn’t a one-sided enjoyment of being pursued. It wasn’t any of the malicious possibilities others had speculated.

It was mutual.

After the camping trip, Ran Muqiu took two days of leave to stay home.

The primary reason, of course, was that he had been frightened by the Protagonist Shou.

A drunk Li Zhu was nothing like his usual good-tempered, easy-to-handle self. Ran Muqiu had tried to placate him, but Li Zhu had become increasingly excessive, showing a clear tendency to push for more.

Ran Muqiu was a boy himself. Although he lacked actual experience, he wasn’t unfamiliar with the “situations” that could arise beneath thin layers of clothing.

But he was supposed to be the Gong! What did it mean to be handled like that by the Protagonist Shou?

He had tried to put up a final, dying struggle, but Li Zhu had surprisingly stopped himself right at the brink. He spent the next fifteen minutes tenderly kissing Ran Muqiu’s earlobes, relying on himself to let the undeniable tension subside.

Well, not entirely on himself.

Ran Muqiu had been scared stiff, his body frozen and unable to move. It wasn’t until his toes were covered in a messy substance that he couldn’t hold back his tears anymore.

It was too shameful, far beyond what he could accept. Ran Muqiu’s face was flushed with embarrassment, yet he couldn’t find the words to scold him. He cried until his head felt fuzzy, nearly hiccupping, and it wasn’t until Li Zhu stroked his back like he was comforting a cat that he finally managed to stop sobbing.

In a single night, his persona had shattered into a million pieces. His nerves had been frayed for so long that once he relaxed, he felt twice as tired.

Once he was finally let go, Ran Muqiu didn’t care if the blankets were clean or not; he immediately curled into a ball and fell asleep.

The system, detecting the host’s mental exhaustion, had thoughtfully muted the notification sounds.

Consequently, when Ran Muqiu woke up the next morning—still reeling from the shame of the previous night—he was stunned into silence by the mountain of accumulated notifications.

【Ding-dong.】

【Target [Feng Qin]: Heartbreak Value +5!】

【Ding-dong, Ding-dong.】

【Target [Feng Qin]: Heartbreak Value +10!】

【As of now, Target [Feng Qin]’s Heartbreak Value has reached 50! Keep it up, Host!】

Ran Muqiu stared at the wall of messages on the system panel, his messy bedhead hair sticking up in every direction. His mouth hung open in shock.

Ran Muqiu: ???

It jumped to fifty in one night?

【Is the Protagonist Gong insane?】 Ran Muqiu murmured to the system.

233 performed a diligent check: 【The world is operating normally. None of the targets show signs of character collapse.】

Ran Muqiu: 【?】

He had already figured out the reason for Feng Qin’s heartbreak: it was jealousy. After recovering from the initial shock, his mind flashed back to the events of the previous night, and he suddenly sat bolt upright in terror.

Could it be that the tent wasn’t closed tightly, and Feng Qin saw me and Li Zhu doing that?

Then, then, then he should be going crazy!

Ran Muqiu hit his head in distress, his face turning a powdery pink.

【233, what do I do?】 he asked helplessly. 【Is Feng Qin going to be so mad he tries to kill me to keep me quiet?】

Even though he was playing the role of a “Scum Gong” and was supposed to do these things, Ran Muqiu was thin-skinned and lacked real experience. He didn’t know how to face a pathologically jealous Feng Qin.

And he certainly didn’t know how to face Li Zhu once he woke up.

Ran Muqiu pulled the blanket up to hide most of his face, peeking out at the still-sleeping boy.

Li Zhu looked peaceful now, a far cry from the person he was last night—if one ignored the fact that he was tightly hugging Ran Muqiu’s calf, burying his face in the crook of the boy’s knee, and rubbing his high nose bridge against the soft flesh of his leg.

He looked like he was clinging to something that brought him peace and longing.

Even though the Protagonist Shou was asleep, Ran Muqiu didn’t dare look at him for long. Every time he saw his face, he remembered last night, and every time he remembered last night, his skin crawled.

A-after all, even when Li Zhu was in that state, he still hadn’t agreed to help him. He had only hesitated for a very, very long time before reluctantly, tentatively lending him his foot.

With red ears, Ran Muqiu wondered: Does this count as neglect play (P.L.A.Y)?

Even though he’d never looked closely at the explicit scenes in the original novel, he knew this was one of the more extreme “kinks”!

I really am a Scum Gong, uuu!

233 comforted him: 【It won’t happen. Even in the original script, the Protagonist Gong didn’t use illegal methods to suppress his rival. You don’t need to worry about your physical safety.】

Ran Muqiu, who felt he had reached his absolute limit of “scumminess,” wasn’t particularly comforted. He sniffled, gave a distracted reply, and messaged his family driver to come pick him up.

Putting down the phone, he began to carefully wiggle his leg out.

Last night had been too chaotic. Li Zhu was shirtless, his long, lean arm draped loosely around Ran Muqiu’s waist and the other pinning his calf. He couldn’t move.

Afraid of waking him, Ran Muqiu worked for a long time before he finally managed to escape. He scrambled to grab his backpack and bolted outside. Even when he nearly tripped over something hard, he didn’t dare look back; he just rushed down the mountain in a blur of shame.

A few seconds later.

The person he had accidentally stepped on moved. An arm propped up his body, and amber eyes—showing no trace of sleepiness—watched the direction Ran Muqiu had fled.

A moment later, the boy slumped back down, covering his eyes with his hand. The corners of his mouth curled up, even as his Adam’s apple bobbed.

It was the gesture of someone savoring a memory—hungry for more, yet not quite satiated.