DTTM 50

Chapter 50: Return

I returned to Zong Yanlei’s side six years later for two purposes: to win the GTC championship as a Wo and to find the key to control the metaverse.

Whether Zong Yanlei knew that Wei Jiarui was my son or not would have a negligible impact on the outcome of these two matters. Since there was no benefit to be gained from the truth, why should I let him know?

I didn’t need his guilt, compensation, or soft heart. I wanted him to be cold, to misunderstand, or even resentful, so that I could continue on my path with my head held high.

Even though this road was desolate and lonely, with no end in sight, I knew very well that from the moment I took my first step, there was no turning back. Whether it led to an abyss or a dead end, I could only keep walking until I could no longer go on.

Zong Yanlei, however, had his own path to follow. We had long since embarked on completely different life trajectories, and even if we briefly intersected along the way, our final destinations were destined to be far apart.

This was what I thought for a long time. At least a month ago, that was what I thought.

I strived to avoid becoming a “utilitarian” individual who deprived a minority of their rights in the name of “the happiness of the majority,” and I tried to minimize the “variables” involved.

Unfortunately, as time became increasingly pressing, I found myself no longer qualified to maintain that false sense of nobility.

When a raging wildfire sweeps in, to protect the entire forest, one has to sacrifice some trees to create a barren firebreak.

Even if among those trees are ones you planted with your own hands and cared for day and night until they grew into their current upright form, you must destroy them with your own hands on that open space before disaster engulfs everything.

This is cruel.

I know very well that this is cruel.

Therefore, it was only natural that it would be met with resistance and revenge.

I slowly released my hands and saw that Zong Yanlei seemed to be gradually calming down. The kiss, which was meant to calm, was coming to an end. But just as our lips were about to part, he caught up, grabbed the back of my head, and clutched my hair with his fingers, taking the initiative and probing his entire tongue into my mouth.

Unlike my attempts to deceive him, his kiss was aggressive, as if he wanted to demonstrate to me what a real, soul-stirring “passionate kiss” was.

He greedily rolled, sucked, and nibbled. The unpleasant sounds of our saliva mingling filled my ears. I felt dizzy and reflexively backed away, then turned around and fell onto the bed behind me.

“Mmm…”

Even so, Zong Yanlei still didn’t let go. He was kissing me so hard I couldn’t breathe. No matter how I turned my head to avoid him, he could always pinpoint my location in the next instant. Our hot breaths mingled, and his soft, wet tongue forcefully pried open my teeth, conquering and plundering everything he wanted.

When still, he was like an indestructible block of ice, but as soon as he moved, he transformed into a raging fire.

The air in my lungs grew thinner and thinner, rendering my nasal cavity useless. Suddenly, his canine teeth bit down on the tip of my tongue, the pain causing me to instinctively let out a moan, which he then muffled back into my throat.

The taste of blood filled my mouth, and he kept licking the wound apologetically, trying to make up for his mistake. But as he licked, his movements became increasingly rough, and his breathing grew heavier and more disordered.

I was really struggling to cope, so I found a gap, pressed one hand against his firm chest, and slipped the other hand between us to cover his mouth in a panic.

“Wait… I’ll explain after the match is over. Get up first.”

Zong Yanlei paused, slightly raised his upper body, grasped my wrist, and instead of pulling away, opened his mouth and bit the base of my ring finger. A near-mad, consuming fire burned in his deep eyes; his sharp canines dug slightly into my skin, leaving a sting on the sensitive nerves of my finger. The pain, mixed with the warm, moist breath he exhaled, made me tremble.

I frowned and tried to pull my hand away, but couldn’t. The dampness spread from the base of my fingers to my palm, and then to my wrist.

“…Young…Young Master?”

I called him several times, but he pretended not to hear. I didn’t care about Wei Bao for the time being; the two children were next door and could wake up at any moment, and I really didn’t want them to see such an inappropriate scene.

“No, don’t… Zong Yanlei? Did you even hear me?” I called his full name and pushed him, using my waist and legs to twist and lift him off me, when suddenly he wedged a knee between my legs.

Like being electrocuted, all my strength vanished instantly. I went limp, exhaled a trembling breath, and remained motionless.

“Yes, I heard you.” Zong Yanlei gently bit my wrist and replied, “You need to explain, I’m listening…”

After saying that, he grabbed my hand to the side, covered me completely with his body, and pressed down on me again.

What kind of “listening” is this?

The scorching heat returned: “I told you… wait!”

I gritted my teeth, and suddenly mustered up my remaining strength. I twisted my waist and abdomen, and pushed upwards with the hand that was pressed against Zong Yanlei’s chest. Taking advantage of his moment of relaxation, I finally succeeded in throwing him aside.

The weight pressing down on me suddenly lifted, and without lingering, I jumped off the bed, opened the hidden door without looking back, and ran back to the other side.

“Kids, get up! The sun’s already high in the sky!” I took a deep breath and pulled back the curtains, letting the sunlight stream into the room.

I gripped the curtains tightly with my fingers, then slowly loosened them, until I was sure he wouldn’t do anything inappropriate before turning around.

On the spacious bed, the two children slept sprawled out, bathed in sunlight, like two little earthworms wriggling in the soil, yearning to return to the comfort of darkness.

“Hurry up, wake up and have breakfast.” I pulled the blanket off Wei Jiarui’s head and dragged him out of bed.

I glanced toward the hidden door and, seeing that no one was chasing after me, I breathed a sigh of relief.

‎

‎

While eating breakfast in the room with the two children, Aunt Chun came over from next door carrying a set of Zong Yinzhuo’s clothes.

“Is Mr. Zong awake?” I inquired about Zong Yanlei’s situation.

“He got up a long time ago, and he’s in a meeting right now,” Aunt Chun said. “He’s very busy.”

Zong Yanlei was so busy that he was nowhere to be seen all day. He even styled his own hair alone.

As night fell and the Zengcheng leg of the competition began, he finally appeared before everyone. His expression and actions were just as they always were. He was neither cold nor overly enthusiastic towards me, as if that suffocating entanglement that morning was nothing but a vivid dream I had.

But every now and then, I would feel a gaze, like sparks, licking my skin.

“The portal is open. Navigators, please enter in turn…”

The track survey began, and the cold, mechanical sound of electronic machinery echoed in the waiting room. Almost simultaneously, the space seemed to be sliced open, and a gray-black metal door appeared out of thin air. The door was embossed with staggered city outlines, and under the cold light, it had a unique sense of historical weight.

“Be careful on the road.”

I gripped the cold doorknob, about to open the door, when a deep male voice suddenly came from behind me.

Yi You and I both turned around in surprise.

Zong Yanlei sat upright in a deep red high-backed chair, his long legs crossed, his posture relaxed yet not lazy. In his hand he held an exquisite white porcelain teacup, its rim thin and its glaze warm and lustrous, perfectly complementing his hair and eyes.

Looking at me, he smiled slightly, raised the glass in his hand to me, and added, “See you later.”

“See you…see you later?” Yi You had never seen Zong Yanlei so amiable before. Rather than being flattered, he felt as if he had seen a ghost.

I glanced at him with amusement, pushed open the door, and waved behind me in the dazzling white light: “See you later.”

After the white light faded, a familiar cityscape appeared before my eyes.

The direction of the streets, the height of the buildings, and even the slightly messy skyline of the old town in the distance were all exactly the same as Zengcheng in my memory.

For a moment, I couldn’t help but feel a little dazed.

“Haha, this year’s theme is city. How about it, isn’t it realistic?” The staff member who was in charge of showing me around the track explained with a smile when she saw me standing there.

“Yes, it’s so realistic,” I said.

She gestured for me to get in the car, then started the hover jeep and slowly moved forward from the starting line. If it weren’t for the occasional abrupt trap signs on the track, the journey would have resembled a city sightseeing tour.

City mode is actually not uncommon in GTC competitions, but…

“What’s going on with those pedestrians?” I asked, pointing to the various expressions on the street, some of whom were even walking back and forth on the zebra crossing.

They looked exactly like real people, perfectly mimicking even the folds in their clothes and the flicker in their eyes.

“Oh, those are AIs,” the staff member said casually. “During the competition, they will completely simulate the behavior logic of real people and move around irregularly. If you accidentally bump into one, there will be a corresponding penalty.”

I wasn’t surprised and asked, “What punishment?”

“The navigator’s eyesight will be ‘taken away’.”

“All at once if you hit one?”

“Of course not.” She shook her head with a smile, held up her index finger and thumb, and gestured a short distance. “If you bump into one, you’ll probably lose about 10% of your vision.”

I pursed my lips and didn’t ask any more questions.

Zengcheng was where I grew up. For the past six years, I’d driven a truck from the seedling nursery, delivering goods countless times through this city. I didn’t need a map; I knew the length of every road and the time it took to turn at every traffic light.

Without a doubt, this was my home turf. However, this kind of punishment mechanism was the issue.

The pedestrian density was too high. Race cars on city straights can reach speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour, making it impossible to easily avoid pedestrians who might suddenly appear.

This is a simple choice: to avoid it, you have to slow down; to go full speed ahead, you have to sacrifice the navigator’s vision.

Most teams would probably choose the former, since a navigator without vision was like a race car with its steering wheel removed, the power was still there, but it could no longer guide the way forward.

Unless……

I gently bit the fresh wound on the tip of my tongue. Despite the pain, I slowly looked away and turned to the road book in my hand.

Unless the navigator can memorize the entire route book, the driver must not only trust the navigator’s instructions 100%, but also accurately describe the current position in the simplest language when the navigator loses their bearings, helping them to “align” their memory again.

To put it simply, this is a test of the navigator’s memory.

***

Author’s Note

After Jiang Man escaped, the young master felt that he was ridiculous and went to the toilet to cool off for a long time.