The Cannon Fodder 'Seme' is the Center of Attention Again (Quick Transmigration) - Chapter 34

[No, is there something wrong with the protagonist? Didn’t we agree back then that you wouldn’t choose anyone and we wouldn’t disturb each other? Why has he suddenly gone crazy again? One minute you’re enjoying a sunbath, and the next you’re in a dark room! Is this even a low-level world anymore?]

Inside Li Qingran’s mind, 888 had transformed into a frantic messenger once again.

Perhaps because it had entered “dark rooms” too often, as it looked around the room where Li Qingran was confined, it had the fleeting hallucination that the Main System had finally lost its mind and thrown both the system and the host into confinement together.

“Why are there so many mosaics that need to be censored!” 888 grumbled on behalf of the Main System.

It was so anxious that little bolts of lightning were sparking inside Li Qingran’s mind, yet the actually captured Li Qingran remained remarkably calm.

He didn’t seem surprised by this turn of events at all.

In fact, this was to be expected. From the day he chose not to pick anyone, Li Qingran had prepared himself for the possibility that one of the lead characters would eventually lose their patience and come looking for him.

He had also imagined that the way they came for him might not be entirely sane.

After all, none of those lead characters were normal people.

Li Qingran reached out to fiddle with the silver handcuffs on his wrists, then looked up to inspect the room.

The room was large, but the furnishings were minimal. There was only a bed, a sofa, and a small table next to the sofa with a decorative lamp on it. Aside from those, there were no other items in the room.

It was very clean.

Especially combined with the iron bed beneath him, it was so clean it looked like a certain type of film set.

Li Qingran blinked a few times, then looked up at the only window in the room, which was built high up on the wall.

Through the glass, he could see the sun shining brightly outside. However, only a few stray golden rays managed to fall into the room.

Specks of dust floated in the golden light. Every breath felt heavy, carrying a suffocating sense of oppression.

It was so quiet.

Li Qingran sat on the large black bed and glanced at the door, which hadn’t made a sound since he woke up. He raised his hand and tugged at the handcuffs.

The next second, the chain connected to the handcuffs clattered against the iron post of the headboard. Amidst the loud rattling and banging, Su Jingyi still did not open the door to come in.

Is he planning to lock me up until I start going crazy like him before he enters?

Li Qingran propped himself up with his hands behind him on the bed. His gray eyes remained fixed on the heavy door, which shared a similar design to the ones in the Jiang family manor. He wondered if, at this very moment, Su Jingyi simply didn’t want to come in or if he didn’t dare to.

He even had the leisure to start a bet with 888, wagering on when Su Jingyi would finally show himself.

888 guessed it would be at dinner time. He couldn’t let his host starve, right? Even an imprisoned Alpha had human rights!

888 thought that if Su Jingyi didn’t show up by dinner, it would apply to the Main System for an immediate withdrawal from the world.

[If he doesn’t even let you eat, we definitely can’t stay in this world anymore!] 888 said indignantly.

Aside from that, it was still curious about when Li Qingran thought Su Jingyi would come to face him.

Li Qingran swung his feet, looking up at the equally minimalist chandelier on the ceiling. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke calmly.

[Five minutes.]

[Five minutes?!] 888 was suspicious. [For real? Can he appear that fast?]

[Want to bet something on it?] Li Qingran arched an eyebrow.

[If he comes in within five minutes, you help me apply for one extra mission item after this world ends.]

888: […And if he only shows up at dinner?]

[Then after this world ends, I’ll give you half of my points directly.] Li Qingran said lightheartedly.

[…Deal!] After a moment of thought, 888 gritted its teeth and accepted the bet.

Applying for a mission item was a hassle, but 888 could manage it with some effort.

Points, however, were a different story.

Since it was only an auxiliary system that mostly provided guidance and monitoring, the host completed the plot points alone. Therefore, the points earned were usually split 90/10 between the host and the system.

System gets one, host gets nine.

This meant that if 888 won this bet, it could skip at least four mission worlds!

For a “salted fish” system that loved doing nothing, this was an irresistible temptation.

It couldn’t hold back. It simply couldn’t. Bet!

[Alright, then it’s settled.] Li Qingran said as he leaned back onto the large bed. The soft quilt immediately enveloped him. The quilt seemed to have been recently sun-dried, carrying the scent of sunlight. It felt warm against his face, giving him the urge to curl up and fall asleep immediately.

[Host, aren’t you a bit too comfortable?] 888 felt a lack of balance.

They were in the middle of a bet!

It was so nervous that lightning was flashing everywhere, yet its host was so relaxed. Looking at him, he seemed ready to take a nap.

Could he take this more seriously?

It was only five minutes!

[Host, if the protagonist doesn’t come in within five minutes, you’ll lo—]

Creak.

Before 888 could finish the word “lose,” the door that it thought would take a long time to open was suddenly pushed wide.

The Alpha lying on the bed opened his eyes. Standing in the doorway was a thin, frail figure.

Outside, the sun was bright, but the room remained cool and shaded. Su Jingyi stood at the intersection of light and shadow, staring at him with amber eyes. His face held a mixture of joy and inner struggle.

Perhaps it was because it had been too long and Li Qingran felt like a stranger, or perhaps in this situation, he didn’t know how to face the Alpha in the room. He stood at the door, hesitating.

He looked nervous.

On the contrary, Li Qingran, who was locked to the bed, looked much more relaxed. Under Su Jingyi’s gaze, he sat up while holding the quilt. His black hair was messy due to static, making it look fluffy and giving him a softer, gentler aura.

Su Jingyi watched as the handcuffed Alpha crinkled his eyes in a smile, then parted his lips to speak softly.

“Long time no see, Jingyi.”

He still called him Jingyi, just like every time he had seen him before. Even the expression on his face hadn’t changed much.

Su Jingyi’s eyes instantly turned red.

In Li Qingran’s mind, 888 was also about to cry. [No way, why did he come in so fast?!]

For the two hours Li Qingran was unconscious, the man hadn’t entered. After Li Qingran woke up, there hadn’t been a sound from outside. He had acted as if he never intended to come in for the rest of his life.

Yet, just as the bet was settled, the Omega pushed the door open.

Forget five minutes; 888 looked at the timer. Not even one full minute had passed.

If mission participants weren’t forbidden from revealing anything about the system, 888 would have suspected that Li Qingran had conspired with Su Jingyi beforehand to scam it.

Seeing the points for four worlds fly away, 888 was consumed by tearless grief. On top of that, it now had to work hard to apply for Li Qingran’s next mission item.

Life was hard.

It was just too hard.

Unable to take the loss, 888 went offline to sulk in silence.

On the other side, Li Qingran looked at the Omega standing silently by the door and found it somewhat amusing. “Are you planning to stand there and play a statue?”

The expression on Su Jingyi’s face was so pitiful that someone unaware would think it was Li Qingran who was bullying and imprisoning him.

Li Qingran looked down at the cuffs on his wrists and couldn’t help but chuckle.

Seeing him so nonchalant, the Omega found it even harder to speak.

The more normally Li Qingran acted, the less he knew how to face him.

Before opening the door, Su Jingyi had rehearsed Li Qingran’s potential reactions several times in his head.

If the Alpha questioned him loudly, he would explain quietly, soothing his emotions before telling him why he did this.

If the Alpha acted like he didn’t exist, he would accept his fate. After all, he had made this decision unilaterally without consulting the Alpha, so it was his fault.

But he never expected that after opening the door, the Alpha would greet him with a smile, using the same tone from back when they were still happily in love before all the messy people and events interfered.

He looked perfectly calm, his expression gentle and his gaze indifferent. It was as if he hadn’t been drugged and locked in this dark room without a word. It was as if they had simply bumped into each other by chance on the street, and the Alpha had greeted him with pleasant surprise.

It was friendly and normal.

But that wasn’t the reality.

Su Jingyi gripped the doorknob tightly and bit his lower lip. He wanted to say something, but his throat felt as if it were stuffed with cotton, unable to produce a sound.

“What’s wrong?”

Finally, Li Qingran spoke again. “It couldn’t be that we haven’t met for so long that I’ve become a stranger, and you don’t want to talk to me anymore, right?”

“How could that be!”

Faced with the Alpha’s sighing tone and his suddenly dimmed expression, Su Jingyi immediately became flustered. “How could I have nothing to say to you, brother? I just… I just…”

As Su Jingyi spoke, his voice stalled again.

But Li Qingran’s face showed no sign of impatience. In fact, a hint of interest flashed in the Alpha’s beautiful gray eyes.

In the dim room, the Alpha bent his right knee and rested his elbow on it. He tilted his body slightly, resting his chin on his fingers, watching with smiling eyes as the Omega at the door became so flustered that his hands and feet stopped listening to him.

The entire scene was surreal. Though he was the one locked up, at this very moment, he remained the one in control of the two people in the room.

The silver chains slithered across the large bed like serpents as the Alpha lightly lifted his arm.

 

Li Qingran turned his palm upward, his long, slender fingers curling slightly in a beckoning motion. Amidst the clattering sound of colliding chains, the Alpha’s gentle voice rang out again.

 

“Come here.”

 

“Brother…” Su Jingyi’s eyes grew even redder. He instinctively took a step into the room, his body leaning forward as if he couldn’t wait to throw himself into Li Qingran’s embrace.

 

Just like when they were dating.

 

However, after over half a year of waiting, Su Jingyi finally had the chance to be alone with Li Qingran. Before he could even touch the Alpha’s outstretched left hand, a series of crashing sounds erupted from the living room outside, accompanied by a haughty, pampered voice.

 

“Why waste your breath on them? Tie them all up and throw them in the kitchen!”

 

Su Jingyi’s body stiffened instantly. He looked at Li Qingran, who simply blinked at him innocently.

 

“What’s wrong? Did someone arrive?”

 

As he spoke, Li Qingran leaned toward the door, appearing quite curious about the commotion in the living room.

 

Su Jingyi hurriedly held him back. “No, it’s nothing! It must be the neighbors or something. Brother, you rest for a bit. I’ll come back to find you after I deal with the matters outside.”

 

Su Jingyi pulled out a massive box of snacks from under the bed. “Brother, if you’re hungry, have some snacks first. I’ll cook something delicious for you tonight.”

 

[Whoa, this service is quite thorough. He even knows that watching a movie or a scene is better with snacks,] 888 suddenly chimed in.

 

Li Qingran watched Su Jingyi leave in a hurry. He waited until he heard the door click shut with several consecutive locks before turning his gaze to the snack box by the bed.

 

[So, you’re done having your breakdown?]

 

[You bet. I’m a good sport; I’ve already written the application report for your mission item!] 888 said proudly.

 

It was just one small lost bet; 888 could handle it!

 

Having accepted the loss, 888 didn’t bother dwelling on how Li Qingran had predicted exactly when Su Jingyi would walk in. It was far more interested in the drama unfolding outside.

 

Looking for excitement, 888 asked, [Host, care to guess who’s in the living room right now?]

 

Li Qingran fiddled with the handcuffs on his wrist, not even looking up.

 

[What, do you want to bet again?]

 

[Can’t bet on this one. I have the “God’s eye” view; I can see outside and I already know who’s there.]

 

[Is that so? Then 888 is a very honest system,] Li Qingran said, giving 888 a mental thumbs-up. While the little system was busy sparking with shy lightning bolts, he pondered for a few seconds and continued.

 

[I assume… everyone is here.]

 

888 was still blushing from the compliment when it suddenly froze, its lightning bolts stopping mid-air.

 

[No way, Host! How did you know?!]

 

Was its host really just an NPC from a game? How did he calculate things so accurately every time? Was the game Li Qingran came from involved in metaphysics or something?

 

888 was utterly shocked.

 

Li Qingran, however, didn’t think it was a difficult guess. [Is it really that hard to know?]

 

He shook the cuffs on his wrist. [Do you think Su Jingyi was the only one who thought of sending people to monitor me from the day we left South City?]

 

Back then, not a single one of them showed any intention of giving up. Even Jiang Siran, who left early, forced a ring into his hand to “keep safe” for the time being.

 

That “for the time being” meant they would surely meet again.

 

Li Qingran lay back down on the bed, curling onto his side and nuzzling the quilt. Then, he closed his eyes and remained still.

 

888 was confused. [Host, are you… going to sleep?]

 

Li Qingran gave a soft “Mm.”

 

888 was even more bewildered. [Are you serious? All four of them are outside right now. Host, you… you’re really going to sleep?]

 

[I can’t see them anyway. Waiting around is boring. I might as well catch up on some sleep.]

 

Besides, the sedative Su Jingyi used was very effective; his head still felt a bit foggy.

 

Having said that, Li Qingran buried his head in the covers, looking exactly like a “salted fish” who wanted nothing to do with the outside world.

 

888 tried and failed to pull him up. It decided to focus on the scene in the living room instead, planning to recount everything to Li Qingran when he woke up so he could judge their performances.

 

At that moment, in the living room, four people occupied the four cardinal directions.

 

Su Jingyi looked at the three uninvited guests with a dark glint in his eyes. His expression turned icy.

 

“What are you doing here? This is breaking and entering. Believe it or not, I’ll call the police right now!”

 

“Go ahead,” Jiang Siran said, leaning back on the sofa with his legs crossed, looking completely unbothered. “Let the police come and see that someone is illegally imprisoning an innocent person. I don’t know the local laws well, but compared to trespassing, the former should carry a much heavier sentence, don’t you think?”

 

Gu Shiyu added, “In that case, we wouldn’t be villains trespassing. We would be righteous citizens who came to rescue a victim from a predator.”

 

“You? A righteous citizen?!”

 

Su Jingyi nearly laughed out loud. “Gu Shiyu, can you stop flattering yourself? If you were ‘righteous,’ then there wouldn’t be a single despicable person left in this world!”

 

“So what? At the very least, I wouldn’t unilaterally break a contract and take someone away in secret.”

 

Gu Shiyu’s lips curled. His cold eyes glared intensely at the Omega in front of him. “I remember we had an agreement. Respect his choice. We could watch from afar, but we were absolutely forbidden from interfering.”

 

“And so?”

 

Faced with Gu Shiyu’s accusation, Su Jingyi felt no guilt whatsoever. “What of the agreement?”

 

“If I had the power back then, I never would have signed that non-interference agreement with you all. Besides, stop acting in front of me. You all broke the agreement quite happily before, and now you want to talk about ‘contractual integrity’? Isn’t that hilarious?”

 

Su Jingyi snorted. Then, as if remembering something, a sweet smile touched his lips.

 

“Besides, Brother isn’t even angry with me. What right do you have to judge me? While I’m in a good mood, get out of my house. Otherwise, don’t blame me for being impolite!”

 

“Everyone brought a similar amount of manpower. You don’t need to use that to threaten us.”

 

Qi Ziyan frowned. “Explain yourself. What do you mean ‘Brother isn’t angry with you’?”

 

“He is my brother!” Su Jingyi immediately glared at Qi Ziyan with fierce eyes.

 

“…” Qi Ziyan rolled his eyes.

 

He really wanted to snap back at Su Jingyi, but to prevent the Omega from going crazy and delaying him from seeing Li Qingran, Qi Ziyan bit his tongue. He held back the remark: He stopped being related to you long ago, and it’s not certain whose brother he’ll end up being!

 

The other two Alphas also had no intention of provoking Su Jingyi further.

 

Gu Shiyu massaged his temples and said simply, “You know we won’t leave easily. Why not let Qingran come out so we can sit down and discuss this properly?”

 

“Discuss what?” Su Jingyi sneered. “Discuss until he chooses no one again? Would you be satisfied then?!”

 

In Su Jingyi’s mind, there was nothing to discuss. These three “damned people” just needed to vanish.

 

From his perspective, Li Qingran didn’t reject him when they were alone and was quite willing to be intimate. But whenever these others appeared, the Alpha would adopt an indifferent attitude as if none of it concerned him, quietly watching them argue. Finally, when the situation hit a stalemate, he would say: I don’t like any of you.

 

He couldn’t possibly not like him!

 

He was just tired of the version of Su Jingyi that fought with others.

 

That was the conclusion Su Jingyi had reached after half a year of thinking.

 

Therefore—

 

“Can you all just get lost?! The person in that room is my boyfriend. Can you all stop being so shameless and barging in as third parties?!”

 

“You two broke up ages ago, okay?! Qingran doesn’t like you at all. You’re the only one who thinks you’re still in a relationship!”

 

Qi Ziyan couldn’t help but speak up. “Besides, even though your engagement with Gu Shiyu fell through, hasn’t Father Su already found a new marriage partner for you? Just give up on being with Qingran!”

 

As Qi Ziyan spoke, he suddenly laughed. “If you’re really worried about the other two Alphas, why not hand Qingran over to me? We’ve been friends for so many years; you know my personality. I’ll definitely treat him better than you do.”

 

“We’ve been close since we were kids, always sharing everything. He’s just one boyfriend; what’s the harm in sharing him with me?”

 

“Qi Ziyan, have you lost your mind?!” Su Jingyi said in disbelief.

 

“Is anyone here sane?” Jiang Siran interjected.

 

“However, I don’t agree with Su Jingyi handing Qingran over to you. He is a living person, not an object you can pass back and forth.”

 

“Furthermore…” The Alpha lightly stroked his left index finger. On it, a light gray gemstone shimmered in the sunlight.

 

“Haven’t you seen it yet? Qingran doesn’t have those kinds of impulses toward you two Omegas. Compared to Omegas, he prefers a more intimate relationship with an Alpha like me.”

 

“AO is outdated. AA is the way to go!”

 

“Then…”

 

Gu Shiyu couldn’t help but cut in the moment Jiang Siran finished.

 

“I am also an Alpha.”

 

And so…

 

The four pairs of eyes simultaneously locked onto the tightly shut bedroom door. Their burning gazes seemed ready to pierce through the wood to reach the Alpha locked inside.

 

So, Li Qingran, if you had to do it one more time, who would you choose?