Countdown 168:00:00.
Inside a small guesthouse on Laojun Mountain, Qing Chen opened his eyes.
For the past seven days, he had seen so much scenery and met so many people that when he returned this time, he felt as if a lifetime had passed.
All of a sudden, he was pulled out of that bizarre and variegated world.
However, before he could mull over everything, an onslaught of frantic texts bombarded his WeChat.
He checked his phone and saw that all the messages came from Nan Gengchen.
‘Bro, r u there? U there u there u there?'
‘Bro, listen to my explanation!'
‘Bro, do you believe that I have a twin brother over on that side? The one you met was actually him, not me!'
Qing Chen helplessly sighed — using a string of terrible nonsensical lies to deceive his own self was probably Nan Gengchen's expertise.
Anyone else wouldn't have been fooled.
Qing Chen ignored the texts and went out to borrow the cabin's landline phone, planning on giving Nan Gengchen a call.
But halfway there, he turned back to his room.
He then used his WeChat to send a message, ‘You've worked hard.'
On the other side, Nan Gengchen's face crumbled. ‘What do you mean by working hard? I don't understand what you're saying.'
Qing Chen asked, ‘So, last time, did you say the pimp who introduced guys to rich ladies was legit because he introduced you to Li Yinuo?'
‘There's no such thing, me and Li Yinuo are just ordinary friends!' Nan Gengchen tried with all his might to defend himself.
But Qing Chen no longer lingered on this argument and instead lightly said, ‘These seven days, make sure to nourish yourself well.'
By this point, Nan Gengchen knew any further explanation would be futile.
Qing Chen already saw Li Yinuo pulling him into the tent, he also saw…
Nan Gengchen feebly asked, ‘Bro, why did you show up at that place?'
Before the previous transmigration, both of them went through the incident at Laojun Mountain.
Qing Chen had even saved him.
From then on, Nan Gengchen had a premonition he was heading towards his social death. After all, he said he wasn't a time traveler with his own mouth, and he even kept yapping about how ‘only exceptionally gifted people could become time travelers'.
After he returned to Luo City, he didn't dare to say a word to Qing Chen, as though he could pretend nothing ever happened if he didn't talk about it.
Nan Gengchen thought perhaps as the ruckus eventually died down, Qing Chen would forget about this matter.
He would've never imagined they would actually meet each other in the wilderness.
A complete and utter death.
But it was fine, Qing Chen was the only one who knew!
Qing Chen answered him, ‘I'm a hunter in the wilderness, it's normal for me to be there. Our hunting team took on a job to catch some Sparrowhawk and Golden-Haired Monkey, but we didn't find any in the north, so we had to go south to try our luck.'
Nan Gengchen didn't know the person beside him was Li Shutong, and he didn't know Qing Chen had only just joined the hunting team.
So he didn't doubt and didn't try to verify the validity of Qing Chen's statement.
He forged this identity not to deceive Nan Gengchen; he did it in case someone suspected him and monitored his or Nan Gengchen's WeChat account.
By looking at their chat record, that person would discover that Qing Chen didn't reside in City 18, and nor was he an inmate of Prison 18. He was just a normal hunter in the wilderness.
It was good enough.
As the number of transmigrators increased, the investigation and anti-reconnaissance skills of subsequent organizations would only get better and better.
At that time, it would be very hard for Qing Chen to keep pretending to be an uninvolved ordinary person.
Hiding in plain sight was better than complete concealment.
Should there come a day when he had to expose the fact that he was a time traveler, the identity of a hunter he created today could serve as the second layer of his firewall.
At least, an ordinary hunter of the wilderness wasn't worth much scrutiny.
Nan Gengchen asked, ‘You looked like you were having it hard, your face was dusty and your clothes were full of holes. I heard them say it's very hard to live in the wilderness, and it'll get even more dangerous towards the south, so how about you follow me back to City 18 later? You won't die of hunger if you're with me.'
Qing Chen replied, ‘No need, I still prefer to support myself, the food I eat by earning my own living tastes better…'
‘Bro, you're breaking my heart,' Nan Gengchen painfully said. ‘But it'll be really dangerous in the wilderness this time, the members of your hunting team are too weak, you really have to be careful, don't get dragged into the mess.'
In Nan Gengchen's eyes, a small hunting team was too powerless to be involved in a clash between the Kamidai and Li Families. They would probably become cannon fodders before the two sides began to fight.
Admittedly, Qing Chen and the Qin family appeared very poor. They were dressed so badly to the point they looked like refugees. It was normal for Nan Gengchen to think that way.
Qing Chen asked again, ‘You've met a lot of big figures, I want to know what the Kamidai Family and the autumn hunting team plan on doing, did Li Yinuo tell you anything about it?'
Currently, Li Yinuo should be the leader of the autumn hunting team, and as her bed companion, Nan Gengchen should also know quite a lot of stuff…
Nan Gengchen answered, ‘At first, Li Yinuo didn't want to participate in the autumn hunting at all. Using her own words, with her position in the Family, it was a waste of time to mingle with a bunch of hopeless good-for-nothings.'
‘Then why did she end up joining?' Qing Chen was curious.
‘Seems like it's because she received some intel about the Kamidai Family, she wants to secretly break off their political marriages. She even intends to join forces with Qing Huai from the fourth house of the Qing Family to kill the people of the Kamidai Family in the wilderness. The Kamidai Family has arranged marriages with both the Qing and Chen Families and only excluded the Li Family. Li Yinuo wants to drag the pro-war faction of the Qing Family's younger generation into the water,' explained Nan Gengchen.
Qing Chen let out his breath, this guy really knew a lot of details.
If it wasn't for him being Li Yinuo's bed companion, it was impossible for him to know this much.
Nan Gengchen continued, ‘But Qing Huai doesn't seem willing to join forces with her. He's a Shadow candidate, at the moment, he only wants to go to Forbidden Land 002 to complete his task. Li Yinuo said that for Qing Huai, it's definitely far more beneficial to prioritize becoming the Shadow, so he wouldn't want to get tangled in any side issues. But Li Yinuo plans on renegotiating with Qing Huai with an additional condition of supporting him in the Fight for the Shadow.'
Qing Chen fell into thought. ‘Does the Li Family know about this?'
‘They probably don't, she's doing it secretly. She wants to spill the milk before they can stop her,' replied Nan Gengchen.
He felt Li Yinuo was moving very rashly — it didn't seem like an action instigated by the Li Family.
A top corporation wouldn't have schemed such a crude plan.
Nan Gengchen once again asked, ‘Bro, do you really not want to go with me to City 18? It's definitely better than staying in the wilderness.'
Qing Chen said, ‘If one day I can no longer survive in the wilderness, I'll come to you to seek out shelter. I know you still have a lot of questions, but let's wait until we meet to talk about it.'
Nan Gengchen replied, ‘Alright.'
Translator: Zee
