Help! I Do Not Want to Guide a Disaster

Chapter 140: This Is Fun

"Which is precisely why they intend to put a bullet in my head. We already know that much," Wenzhi said smoothly.

The exact second the words left his mouth, Wenzhi felt Xinyuan’s entire body lock up against his lap. An icy tremor rippled through the Esper’s frame.

Wenzhi hated that reaction... he hated the panic it induced in him but within a few agonizing seconds, Xinyuan forced his muscles to relax again. He remained dead silent, keeping his face buried deeply against Wenzhi’s stomach.

"Yes," Pei Luo said, his voice softening with a look of genuine, heavy concern for Wenzhi. "And since you are the only true anchor he has, the only one capable of safely handling his energy and corruption, killing you is the equivalent of cutting the leash off a monster."

Wenzhi let out a low groan, dropping his hand from Xinyuan’s hair to press his palm firmly against his own forehead, massaging his temples.

"You know, they literally slapped a built-in kill switch restraint on me to force me to guide Xinyuan in the first place, and now those brilliant bastards want to slaughter me to intentionally break him..." Wenzhi pulled the lollipop from his teeth, a dark, thoroughly cynical laugh escaping his throat. "Wow. This is fun."

The dry sarcasm made Kaiwen let out a sharp chuckle, shaking his head.

"The Old Blood and the CEA have always been partners behind closed doors, but the line has completely blurred now," Pei Luo said, taking another breath and glancing toward Su Zheng. "They probably came to this conclusion together, but that’s not even the main thing I wanted to address. It’s..."

"You two are not just bound by a standard Guide-Esper imprint," Su Zheng spoke up for him, her purple eyes locking onto Wenzhi. "Your compatibility is so unprecedentedly high that Wenzhi seems to actively harness your abilities from afar. Just like you did at the park."

"What?" Kaiwen’s head snapped over, his gaze darting between Wenzhi and Xinyuan. "You can actually harness Xinyuan’s abilities?"

"It’s more like Xinyuan using his abilities through me," Wenzhi clarified, his voice flat, treating it like it was the most casual thing in the world.

Kaiwen and Duan Ze stared at him in shock. "That... is that even theoretically possible?" Duan Ze asked, his eyes wide.

Wenzhi pressed his lips together, looking down at his lap. "It’s not supposed to be?"

"I have never heard of anything like it in my entire life until I saw it." Su Zheng admitted. She leaned forward, setting the blue bottle down on the table. "But... the real reason we brought you two here is because we want your help to destroy the Capital, the Old Blood, and the CEA once and for all. They are causing far more harm than good at this point. They’re capturing Rift monsters and injecting them into people, turning them into mindless, mutated weapons. They are going too far. We need to put a permanent stop to them so they can never rise up again and we want to officially join Sovereign."

A small spark of genuine excitement lit up Su Zheng’s voice as she made the offer.

"Oh," Wenzhi murmured. He honestly hadn’t expected that.

"And about the world turning into a Red Zone in two years..." Xinyuan’s voice suddenly cut in. It was slightly muffled, his face still pressed firmly against Wenzhi’s stomach, but the weight behind his words was undeniable.

"Those corruption filter domes you guys have been setting up, they’ll work," Su Zheng reasoned, a sudden lightbulb practically appearing over her white hair. "You could scale that technology, spread the knowledge to infinity and beyond... or, we could just move to another..." She paused, her eyes widening. "...planet."

Everyone in the room froze, staring at her in surprise. Even Pei Luo looked caught off guard.

"That’s... actually a really good idea," Duan Ze was the first to speak up, a thoughtful look crossing his face.

Wenzhi nodded slowly, processing the grand scale of it. "But... about the CEA and the Old Blood. They currently have a massive piece of leverage to use against Xinyuan."

"Yeah. Your extracted guiding energy," Pei Luo said grimly.

Wenzhi was seriously starting to get creeped out by the volume of high-level intelligence these two had managed to dig up in the shadows.

"That’s exactly why we want to help," Su Zheng said, pacing back toward the hallway. "We all stand to gain from this. It’s time they stop existing entirely. And you guys seriously need to put a bullet in Jiang Zhaohe. We’ve been systematically killing off any of her eyes on the grid, but she’s basically the boss of spies."

Wenzhi looked at the hallway, then down at the exhausted Esper in his lap, and finally back at Su Zheng. "Let’s have that sleepover."

Pei Luo gave him a quiet, understanding look. With the tension finally broken, the group retired to the separate bedrooms for the night.

Wenzhi and Xinyuan locked themselves in their designated room, stepping into the cramped bathroom to wash off the grime of the park ambush. They showered under the steaming, heated water together, the heavy silence between them comfortable and grounding, before finally crawling into the bed.

Lying in the dark, Wenzhi stared up at the ceiling. He thought about trying to reach out to Chenxi down in the underground city, but he quickly dismissed the idea. It was too sloppy.

If Zhaohe was still there, and if she had obviously caught on to what was happening, why the hell was she stupid enough to just stay put and act like everything was fine? What kind of game was this?

Beside him, Xinyuan had completely buried himself under the heavy blankets. His head was tucked securely under Wenzhi’s shirt, his hand gripping the Guide’s waist in a tight, possessive hold as he slept soundly, completely at peace.

"Do you trust them?" Wenzhi whispered into the dark room, not really expecting an answer.

But Xinyuan did answer. His voice was rough, thick with sleep, vibrating low against Wenzhi’s skin. "No. But we will gain from it. They are protecting their own, and we protect our own. You and I. Everyone is protecting each other."

Wenzhi tossed his phone aside onto the mattress. "Hmm."

"That doesn’t sound good," Xinyuan murmured.

He shifted under the blankets, pulling his head out from under Wenzhi’s shirt. Pushing himself up, he hovered over Wenzhi, tilting his head to the side as he brought his face close in the dim light."What’s wrong, Freckles?"