The Popular/Charismatic Beta Always Thinks They Are Universally Disliked - Chapter 49

Chapter 49: The Encounter

There were still a few hours before the summit push at 3 a.m.

Lin Chang, who was accustomed to such battles, seemed quite relaxed. He simply dragged a stool to the side of Wen Zhiyi’s bed and, unable to sit still, alternated between kneading the other’s shoulders and massaging his legs. The others in the room, sore and aching after a full day of climbing, simply chatted amongst themselves, pretending not to notice.

An old house catching fire is normal.

Wen Zhiyi could feel the lactic acid buildup in his body strongly asserting its presence. He leaned against the bed, chatting sporadically with the others, curiously craning his neck to watch the few people playing Dou Dizhu (Fight the Landlord, a card game).

Given the unstable signal on the mountain, the group had brought a deck of poker cards in advance.

He appeared completely unconcerned with the messages on his phone, even having the leisure to jokingly advise the “Landlord” on which cards to play. The Omega girl, enlightened by Wen Zhiyi’s guidance, secretly continued to hint cards to him, attempting to prolong this shameful act of cheating.

Little Wen, who in his early years maintained a strong curiosity about all kinds of things, was an expert card player. He approached almost anything requiring thought with a meticulous, research-like attitude, and the universally popular entertainment activity of Dou Dizhu was no exception.

The side playing as “Farmers” naturally laughed and refused to concede, appealing to Lin Chang for help, shamelessly requesting outside assistance.

“It’s too unfair if only one side gets outside help! Mr. Lin, you have to help us.” The Beta, who was wearing the Asparagus setaceus wristband, smiled playfully at Lin Chang. “You can’t pretend not to notice just because Little Wen is cheating.”

Lin Chang pretended to be puzzled, spreading his hands and indicating he couldn’t help: “I don’t know how to play cards. How can I assist you?”

The member of the Jing City Bridge Association replied thus.

Wen Zhiyi laughed so hard he fell onto the bed while biting an energy bar. His calf, which was still twitching faintly despite Lin Chang’s massage, slowly began to feel better. He tried to slip on his shoes to get out of bed, indicating he needed to use the restroom. Lin Chang, sitting by the bed, hooked his hiking boots and placed them on his own lap, ready to help Wen Zhiyi put them on.

“…” Little Wen hadn’t worn the wristband Lin Chang wove, placing it under his pillow instead. Now, he also refused Lin Chang’s service, gesturing with a hook of his hand that he would put on his shoes himself.

Since he gained the ability to take care of himself, only three people had ever held his ankle to help him put on his shoes.

Lin Chang followed Wen Zhiyi out of the room. He was worried that the latter wouldn’t find the restroom, and outside, away from the indoors, there were rough stones everywhere. What if Little Wen, grimacing from his sore legs, lost his footing and sprained his ankle?

Facts proved his worries were correct.

Wen Zhiyi, who looked like a seasoned outdoor enthusiast in his well-tailored pants and cool shell jacket, circled a few times before failing to find the restroom.

Under Lin Chang’s guidance, he looked speechlessly at the “washroom” partitioned by a few wooden planks not far away.

It appeared there wasn’t even a distinction between genders.

Little Wen hesitated for a very brief moment, then gritted his teeth and ducked inside.

In that instant, he realized how important good cat litter was for a cat, resolving to upgrade Fat Mew’s litter to the best kind as soon as he got home!

He finished his business at the fastest speed possible while holding his breath, then quickly fastened the side buckles and belt of his pants. He scooped a basin of water from the outdoor water tank and diligently rubbed every single finger until his excessively fair fingers were faintly red from fingertip to knuckle.

The icy, hard water felt like a strangely textured silk, soft yet impenetrable, enveloping his hands, yet like dense, sharp small daggers due to the low temperature.

His gaze suddenly caught the edge of the water tank, and Wen Zhiyi saw a long, slender snake with a strange, yellow-and-black pattern!

He instinctively stumbled back several paces, completely ignoring the jagged, protruding stones underfoot. His first reaction was to distance himself from the snake in terror. Shouldn’t snakes be hibernating at this temperature?

The clear water he had just touched now felt like shed snake skin. Under Wen Zhiyi’s psychological influence, it felt sticky and cold. His face was truly pale from the shock, and even Lin Chang, standing a few meters away, sensed something and looked over.

“Don’t come near! There’s a snake!” Little Wen, noticing Lin Chang’s tendency to approach, sternly warned him.

If there’s a snake, shouldn’t I go over even more?

Lin Chang frowned, lowered his center of gravity, and slowly approached with extreme caution. He first locked onto the snake’s position, confirmed it was still safely coiled on the water tank’s edge, and then immediately shifted his gaze to Wen Zhiyi, scanning his exposed skin from top to bottom.

“Are you hurt?” he asked in a low voice.

Wen Zhiyi shook his head. His complexion still wasn’t great, but he had calmed down.

Lin Chang was now less than a meter away from Wen Zhiyi. He slowly extended his arms toward Wen Zhiyi, then abruptly pulled the person toward himself, retreating backward with extreme speed.

Little Wen, whose legs were still sore and weak, instinctively handed his arms to the ones reaching for him. He firmly gripped Lin Chang’s shoulders and back, cooperating with the other’s movement to extricate himself from the predicament.

Fingers clasped tightly, arms intertwined, even their chests were so close that Lin Chang could clearly feel how rapidly the heart beating beneath two layers of flesh was pounding. But he knew this rapid heartbeat wasn’t for him; it was merely due to excitement and shock.

The boundless, scattered clouds suddenly parted to the sides of the sky, allowing the crystal-clear moonlight to shine upon the ground. Lin Chang looked down at Wen Zhiyi’s lowered eyelashes. The two pairs of dense, trembling long lashes looked like two slender-winged, black butterflies poised to flutter in the silvery light.

Wen Zhiyi held onto Lin Chang’s arms and shoulders, struggling to regain his footing. He looked back at the snake, still somewhat shaken, when he heard Lin Chang suddenly lean close to his ear and whisper: “It looks like a King Rat Snake.”

Harmless.

Relieved, Wen Zhiyi internally decided to mention this to the guide later. Either quickly deal with it and release it, or warn everyone to be careful, lest someone get scared and sprain their ankle while running away on the mountain.

At an altitude of 4,000 meters, being startled and spraining an ankle wouldn’t be a good experience.

As he thought this, his gaze drifted a little carelessly toward the wooden walkway leading directly to the base camp.

In the dense, pitch-black night, an even darker, deeper shadow slowly appeared.

?

Wen Zhiyi stared in surprise at the figure gradually manifesting on the walkway. The tall figure walking toward the location suddenly stopped. That familiar, handsome face was now fully in Wen Zhiyi’s sight, looking as though it were immersed in cold, dark lake water, staring fixedly at him through a layer of cold medium.

This posture, being held around the waist and back, looked completely like an intimate embrace from a third-person perspective.

“Wei Xingjiang?” Little Wen tentatively called out. “You… you actually came?”

Young Master Wei, who had rushed non-stop from the moment he got off the plane to the high-altitude base camp, not resting for a single minute, leaving all the guides behind to insist on traveling through the night, slowly curved his lips into a cold smile. He said softly, “Yes. Or did you expect a ghost to appear before you?”

The sweat streaming down his forehead was carelessly wiped away. Wei Xingjiang slowly regulated his heavy, uneven breathing. The anticipation, excitement, and elation he felt along the way were completely ruined. He walked step by step toward Wen Zhiyi, unhesitatingly pulled the other’s arm, made Wen Zhiyi steady himself by holding his own shoulder, and then similarly reached out to tightly clasp the other’s waist.

Wei Xingjiang’s fingers and Lin Chang’s fingers briefly brushed against each other on Wen Zhiyi’s back.

Icy, hard, clearly boned, and thinly fleshed, like a skeletal model wrapped in a thin layer of flesh, the joints beneath the flesh still clearly visible.

Like two equally cold swords silently clashing.

But Wen Zhiyi was not the referee; he was the audience.

He deftly broke free from the two tall, long-legged men, tilting his head slightly to look at Wei Xingjiang, who was practically oozing the scent of a male ghost, thinking that the other’s intended persona should have been the unruly high school student.

Wei Xingjiang looked expressionlessly at Wen Zhiyi, who had pushed his arm away. He wanted to ask why the other was embracing someone else here late at night, but then tried to convince himself that the other man must have lured Wen Zhiyi out.

So, he slowly turned his head to look at Lin Chang, instinctively unwilling to direct the quarrel toward Wen Zhiyi.

He stared at Lin Chang, putting on a smile full of aggressive intent, and said nonchalantly, “Still liking to poach from others at your age?”

…

The tension is high! We have Wei Xingjiang’s jealous, exhausted, and aggressive arrival catching Wen Zhiyi and Lin Chang in a seemingly intimate moment.