Bai Yi was like the mother of a girl going out on her first date. He anxiously paced back and forth at the doorway of Killer Sequence with his hands clasped behind his back.
"Why hasn't he come back yet…"
As Bai Jiamu watched, he became dizzy and impatiently said, "Can you calm down and just sit and wait?"
"Our guild's boss is going to become a substitute?!" Bai Yi turned around, held out both hands, and put on a comically exaggerated, enraged expression as if his entire worldview had just collapsed. "How do you expect me to stay calm?!"
"How could Spades be a substitute? He looks like he doesn't know anything, but he's still quite proud." Bai Jiamu made a firm conclusion. "Don't bother yourself with all that messy stuff. I reckon Bai Liu will come clean, Spades will fight him, and come back."
Bai Yi was left speechless by the rebuttal and decided to drag Reverse God in. "Reverse God, what do you think Spades will do?"
Reverse God squinted slightly, leaning against the balcony railing and enjoying the breeze. Upon hearing this, he turned his head in confusion and smiled as if he didn't understand anything. "Matters of feelings are something that really depend on the people involved."
Bai Yi could already see through Reverse God's evasive speech, and his eyes sharply narrowed. "I don't want to see the people involved right now. I just want to hear your outside opinion."
"My opinion…" Reverse God felt his chin. "I think the one Bai Liu wants isn't Spades, but it doesn't contradict that he already likes Spades."
Bai Yi was quickly confused by the twist. "Ha? What do you mean?"
Reverse God smiled with squinted eyes, as if he had just thought of something funny. "Just like how a certain 18-year-old's mouth said he was absolutely not giving the ice cream in his hand, yet still gave it in the end."
"It's just that he currently doesn't remember." Reverse God turned around, looking out the window, his eyes showing a glimpse of reminiscence. "But I think this time he will still make the same choice as in the past."
"Because the person who asked for Bai Liu's ice cream is the same."
Spades stared at Bai Liu and earnestly asked, "Because I'm a memento, you can't like me?"
Bai Liu fell silent for a moment, then quickly averted his gaze and calmly explained, "The feelings given to a memento are completely different from the normal feelings given to a person; they are of a lower kind."
"I probably don't count as a person." Spades logically accepted this reasoning. He stared intently at Bai Liu, stepped forward, and grabbed Bai Liu's wrist. "Now you can like me."
"In the same way you like mementos."
Bai Liu fell silent. He wanted to pull his hand out of Spades', but Spades gripped it tightly, looking like he wouldn't let go until he got an answer.
Bai Liu turned his face away, his tone growing increasingly cold. "You also don't count as a qualified memento."
"Then where am I not qualified?" Spades leaned in close, his head lowered, and pressed against Bai Liu's ear. "You praised my body and said it was pretty good, so where am I not qualified…"
"Enough." Bai Liu's chest heaved up and down as he interrupted Spades. "I don't want…"
"Is it my face?" Spades pressed on relentlessly, using his left hand to pull at his own face with some force, studying his features with slight confusion. "Am I not good-looking enough?"
"No," Bai Liu said. "You're not similar enough to him."
Spades fell silent, then stared at Bai Liu expressionlessly, looking like he would never back down. "Where is it not similar? Mouth, nose, or eyes?"
Bai Liu finally turned his head to look at Spades directly and spoke calmly, "Bone structure."
Spades paused slightly, and Bai Liu quietly breathed a faint sigh of relief in his heart.
Dealing with this guy was quite exhausting. He hoped even more that Spades would know when to back off.
"This?" Spades suddenly came to a realization. He pulled out his whip and lifted it up; he was ready to slash at the skin on his face and expose his own skull. "I can dig it out and fix it."
Bai Liu's pupils contracted sharply. With quick reflexes, he pressed down on Spades' whip, but the incredibly sharp whip lifted upward near Spades' face and almost immediately carved a deep gash on the left side of Spades' cheek—so deep the bone was visible.
Ice-cold blood dripped down from Spades' jaw, landing on the back of Bai Liu's hand.
Bai Liu's eyelids throbbed, his tone cold to the point of freezing. "What are you doing?"
Spades spoke in a natural tone, as if he didn't think he had done anything utterly shocking. "Adjusting the bone structure you don't like."
Bai Liu's chest rose and fell twice as he slowly took a deep breath. Spades' cold blood continued to drip onto his hand, and the chilling sensation made him involuntarily curl his fingers slightly.
"I don't accept artificially recrafted mementos." Bai Liu lifted his head, looking at the cut on Spades's face, his expression cooling a few degrees. "I also don't accept scarred, defective goods."
"I won't have a scar. I heal very fast," Spades emphasized.
Bai Liu slowly forced out a long breath and extended his hand. "Hand over a bandage."
Spades quickly placed the bandage he had been clutching the whole time into Bai Liu's palm.
Bai Liu glanced at the crumpled bandage in his hand and lowered his eyes. "Lower your head."
Spades obediently lowered his head. Bai Liu lifted his own, his eyes fixed straight ahead, and began wrapping the bandage around Spades' face to dress the wound, while Spades stared unwaveringly at Bai Liu.
When only Spades' eyes were left uncovered, Bai Liu's movements suddenly paused.
The sight of Spades' face wrapped in bandages made Bai Liu become dazed for a moment.
Back in the welfare home, Xie Ta had made a Slenderman doll, but because there weren't enough bandages, the doll had no face. Later, after Xie Ta had been subjected to continuous blood draws, his body was covered in puncture marks. Bai Liu would go to the infirmary to steal bandages to wrap his wounds.
Xie Ta would watch Bai Liu binding his wounds and quietly say, [Once these bandages are removed, your Slenderman doll will have a face.]
But in the end, Bai Liu never saw what Xie Ta looked like wearing that bandaged mask.
Spades' face was wrapped in bandages, leaving only his black eyes exposed. He looked at Bai Liu calmly and without blinking, as if he wanted to offer up every memento in the world that he loved to Bai Liu, not caring if he ended up covered in wounds.
Bai Liu's movement of wrapping the bandages paused.
Spades' mouth was wrapped in the bandages, too, but he still wouldn't stop. He kept mumbling in a low, muffled voice, "The way you look at me just now feels like you want to kiss me…"
Bai Liu yanked the bandage hard, pulling Spades—completely off guard—two steps toward him. Without changing his expression, Bai Liu tightened the bandage and pulled it upward, covering Spades' eyes.
A question mark slowly appeared over Spades' head. "My eyes weren't injured—no need to wrap…"
"If you say one more ridiculous thing," Bai Liu amicably said, "then there will be an injury to your eyes."
Although Spades didn't quite understand what he had said wrong, an inexplicable instinct told him it was best not to speak right now. So he let out a quiet "oh" and obediently fell silent.
The two people faced each other in silence for quite a long time; only their breathing could be heard.
Spades' eyes were covered, so he couldn't see Bai Liu's expression, but he felt Bai Liu suddenly step closer to him. His breathing quickened slightly for a moment, then it seemed he stood on tiptoe. Soon, Bai Liu's warm breath lightly fell on his face—
Bai Liu kissed him through the bandages, his tone very light:
"You're now a qualified memento. Giving you a reward."
Reverse God had logged out of the game for a moment. When he logged back in, he saw three people sitting solemnly with their hands clasped opposite each other by the coffee table in the Killer Sequence lounge, as if attending a life-or-death meeting. Meanwhile, on the sofa by the balcony, Spades lay motionless, face down, looking like a corpse.
This strange atmosphere felt as if they were holding a memorial service for Spades, who had died in the line of duty.
Reverse God stepped into the lounge cautiously, allowing his imagination to run wild for a moment. "What happened? Did Spades harass Bai Liu and get beaten to death?"
Bai Yi lifted his head heavily and looked at Reverse God. "It's much more serious than that."
"I don't know what Bai Liu said to Spades that caused him to develop a serious identity crisis." Liao Ke shook his head and sighed. "I gave Spades a round of psychological counseling, but he still hasn't improved."
Bai Jiamu clenched his fist, his face purple, and delivered his concluding statement: "Falling in love—how scary."
Upon hearing this, Reverse God no longer felt anxious. He sat down, took a sip of tea, and then continued asking, "What happened when Spades came back?"
Bai Yi's eyes grew heavy with sorrow as he began to recall: "As soon as Spades came back, I felt that something was wrong. His eyes were vacant, he was holding a bunch of bloody bandages, and there was a big cut on his face. I don't even know what that bastard Bai Liu did to him."
"Not only that, he came back covered in blood, staring straight at us and demanding to know what kind of thing would have their face wrapped entirely in bandages."
"I told Spades that someone whose face is completely wrapped in bandages should be a mummy." Bai Jiamu looked regretful. "I shouldn't have told him that."
Liao Ke looked at Reverse God, throwing up his hands in exasperation. "Then Spades said he didn't want to be a lizard anymore; he wanted to be a mummy. I told him that it was unlikely because the method is too cruel. But he insisted on becoming a mummy. We didn't want to tell him how to do it, so he sulked and has been lying there without moving. We really had no choice but to wait for you to come back and talk some sense into him."
Reverse God: "…"
Bai Liu, what kind of nonsense did you tell Spades?!!!
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Thoughts of Killer Sequence watching Bai Liu and Spades' romance today:
Bai Jiamu: Falling in love, how scary!
Bai Yi: Falling in love, how scary!!
Liao Ke: Ai, falling in love, how scary
Reverse God: …Falling in love, how scary
Spades: Falling in love, how great
Bai Liu: ...