Role-Playing a Dual Personality as a Background Character in a Manga

Chapter 113 : Chapter 113

Chapter 113

"Wait, Ji Qing?!"

Ji Qing had just arrived at the station and was preparing to depart for Huangtie City when he suddenly heard a startled shout from behind him.

Instinctively, he stopped and turned around.

There stood Zhou Que alone in the station concourse, staring at him in shock, his outstretched hand not yet withdrawn. Ji Qing quickly swept his gaze across the hall, but found no sign of any other classmates. As a result, he tilted his head slightly in puzzlement.

"So it really is Ji Qing."

Zhou Que strode forward and excitedly hooked one arm around Ji Qing's neck.

That only deepened Ji Qing's confusion.

Were he and Zhou Que close enough for this sort of pose that only sworn brothers would strike? But before he could continue that expressionless line of thought, Zhou Que had already patted him on the shoulder and exclaimed excitedly, "You're just as expressionless in public as ever. This really takes me back!"

Ji Qing fell silent. "..."

With crisp efficiency, Ji Qing shoved Zhou Que away, who had already nearly rubbed against his face, then complained with open distaste, "Do you smile all day when you're outside? Please. People only smile more when they're in an environment where they feel comfortable."

Upon hearing that, Zhou Que cried out excitedly, "Of course I know that!"

Far from being annoyed by Ji Qing's criticism, he merely pressed on and asked, "So where are you going, Ji Qing? Tell me, tell me. I was just worrying about how I couldn't find a companion lately!"

A question mark slowly rose in Ji Qing's heart.

The instant he heard those words from Zhou Que, his gaze turned guarded. Based on Zhou Que's behavior alone, Ji Qing could already pick out several points that felt wrong: the constant excitement, the strange content of his words, and the fact that he had appeared all alone...

Oh no. Was he about to get stuck with him?

Ji Qing inwardly went gray with despair.

If this had been an ordinary Hunter commission, he would naturally have been happy to have Zhou Que join in. But what Ji Qing needed to investigate right now had been assigned by the Dawn Society's second-in-command, and it was a revenge investigation tied to Licheng's fall.

Please, not this. In this kind of situation, the last thing he wanted was to run into someone he knew.

Ji Qing began regretting why he had turned around at all—more than that, why he had not bothered to disguise himself before coming out.

Zhou Que bounced on his heels. "Where are you going now?"

"Well..." Ji Qing's face showed a trace of difficulty.

But before he could say anything else, Zhou Que had already pulled Ji Qing's ticket from his coat pocket. Holding the ticket in both hands, he spun around in delight. "Wow, it's exactly the town I'm going to too. Let's go together!"

"Don't you think your behavior right now is highly abnormal?" Ji Qing could not help saying.

At this point, Ji Qing had moved beyond suspicion. He was now seriously considering the possibility that someone had taken over Zhou Que's body. Other than his appearance and manner of speaking, what part of this person was still the Zhou Que he knew?

At that, Zhou Que quietly looked at Ji Qing.

Then his arms suddenly dropped, and he revealed a dispirited expression, like a vampire victim drained of all vitality. Looking dead inside, Zhou Que said in a hollow voice, "When you've been forced to stay in a Danger Zone for a month and a half straight, with no one but yourself the entire time, and not a single companion at your side, you'll start acting like this too. Heh..."

"Hahaha..."

As he spoke, Zhou Que suddenly broke into manic laughter.

The passengers in the station hall immediately turned to look at the two of them, perhaps marveling at how unusually deranged young people had become lately. Seeing that Zhou Que would be mistaken for an Infected and hauled away if he kept laughing, Ji Qing moved with lightning speed and smacked him on the head.

Against the background music of Zhou Que crying out, "Ow, ow, ow," Ji Qing put on a perfect fake smile, pressed one hand against the back of Zhou Que's head, and bowed forty-five degrees toward the people around them in apology. "He isn't Infected, and he isn't mentally ill. He just hasn't seen anyone he knows in a very long time, that's all."

The crowd, which had momentarily stalled, gradually resumed moving after that explanation.

For passengers rushing to catch their trains, nothing mattered more than boarding on time. Although the two young men did look rather entertaining, the important thing was that there was no Infected here and that they could still board punctually.

Train tickets across the wasteland were extremely expensive.

If it were not for urgent business, ordinary people would never go out of their way to leave the city.

Seeing that the situation had eased, Ji Qing lifted his head expressionlessly. One hand covered his face in resignation, while the other dragged the still-confused Zhou Que straight toward the ticket counter.

Zhou Que stared blankly. "Huh? Huh? Huh? What are we going to do?"

"Didn't you say you wanted to travel with me?" Ji Qing turned back and looked at him darkly. "We're going to the ticket counter so the train staff can move our seats into the same carriage. Do you have a better idea? Train seats all require Real-Name Verification."

"And while we're on the way, you can tell me what happened to you."

At the end of that sentence, Ji Qing added the last line expressionlessly. Zhou Que's condition was blatantly abnormal. Ji Qing could not just ignore it. If he were truly capable of leaving without the slightest concern, then he would never have let a classmate hinder his departure in the first place.

Zhou Que's eyes lit up. "Oho~"

So even after Ji Qing had let go of his hand, Zhou Que still trotted after him happily.

***

Aboard the train from Haiding City to Huangtie City.

Leaning halfway back in his seat, Ji Qing asked calmly, "So, what exactly happened to you?"

"Don't even mention it."

Zhou Que awkwardly covered his face.

After many days of rushing about in the wilderness, his crimson short hair had turned somewhat dry and yellowed, his red eyes had dimmed considerably, his dark circles were especially obvious, and even his skin had darkened by an entire shade compared to before. If the old Zhou Que had been an arrogant and willful young master from a Noble House, then the current Zhou Que looked like a fallen young master whose family fortunes had collapsed.

Now that he had finally broken free of that earlier bizarre state, Zhou Que gritted his teeth and said, "I just... went too long without anyone to talk to. Damn it!"

"Oh."

Ji Qing answered with a cold little sound.

Zhou Que really was quite prideful. Ji Qing complained inwardly. Who was it that had been so eagerly looking forward to the future at the start of the semester, only to come down with a desperate craving for human company in less than three months? He must have gone through quite a bit.

But to avoid provoking Zhou Que into exploding from embarrassment on the spot, Ji Qing changed the subject. "Did no one else go with you?"

The moment he heard that question, the corners of Zhou Que's mouth drooped. Pulling a long face, he replied coldly, "Brother Huayu had family matters to deal with. You Xingluo said he got dragged off to take part in some sort of ritual. And then Liu Mu... heh, he went to help Brother Huayu."

Ji Qing blinked in surprise.

He had not expected the schedules of those two family heirs to be so busy. So had Zhou Que slipped out because the others were too busy to pay attention to him? And after successfully sneaking out, had he then accepted a fatal commission that required him to stay outside the city for a month and a half?

The way Ji Qing looked at Zhou Que suddenly gained a few traces of sympathy.

That really was not something an ordinary person could endure. When Ji Qing felt irritated or lonely, he could still chat with the system, read the comic, and browse the forum analyses. More importantly, Ji Qing himself was the sort who could tolerate solitude fairly well. But Zhou Que clearly was not...

"So did you take the wrong commission by mistake?" Ji Qing asked gently.

The instant he heard that, Zhou Que's expression turned as awful as though he had swallowed a fly. He averted his eyes gloomily and answered with visible reluctance, "No. I took it myself. I just misjudged my own strength."

That was it, then. Completely hopeless. Ji Qing sighed inwardly.

Now he understood the heart of the problem.

Zhou Que had always been very confident in his own strength, but surviving outside the city did not depend solely on combat skill. It depended on comprehensive strength, a combination of many dimensions layered together—state of mind, willpower, and more. Zhou Que had very clearly lost on the mental side of things.

Still, this was not the time to laugh at him.

Ji Qing responded mildly, "That probably had little to do with strength. It was more a test of one's state of mind. But what kind of commission required you to remain outside the city alone for that long?"

Having received an evaluation even gentler than he expected, Zhou Que scratched his head awkwardly.

"An A-Rank Commission. Tracking a Mutated Yak Herd." Zhou Que lowered his voice. "It was issued by those old men at the Federation Academy of Sciences. They said they wanted to study the activity patterns of Aberrants in the wild. The commission was originally meant for a team, but I was a little too full of myself back then..."

The more Zhou Que spoke, the more it sounded to him like he was trying to patch over his own mistake, so in the end he simply shut his mouth.

Ji Qing could not help laughing. "You... really are quite bold."

No wonder he had needed to stay outside the city for a month and a half. No wonder he had been excited beyond reason when he saw him. If anyone spent forty-five days alone in a Danger Zone, then faced Aberrants and more Aberrants every single day, they would be bursting with agitation by the time the commission ended.

Ji Qing asked again, "Did you get the commission reward?"

"I did."

At once, Ji Qing praised him sincerely. "Then you're pretty impressive. But next time, you'd better not take a commission like that again."

"Don't even mention it." Zhou Que waved his hand irritably. "Even though I got the reward, I regret it so badly now. For this little bit of money, I suffered that much. I wanted to stab my arrogant past self on the spot. Why did I insist on challenging myself? Challenge my ass."

...That sounded like an enormous grudge. Ji Qing offered a smile in response.

Still, that round of hardships had thoroughly worn down some of Zhou Que's earlier arrogance. Zhou Que had previously been quite haughty and openly looked down on ordinary people, but now both his tone and wording had softened considerably.

Ji Qing thought: if Shao Huayu heard about this, he would probably feel gratified.

Zhou Que suddenly asked curiously, "What are you going to Huangtie City for?"

This was awkward. Ji Qing inwardly broke out in a cold sweat.

But very quickly, he adopted a casual tone and replied, "I'm just going there to take a look. Aren't Huangtie City's iron mines quite famous? Maybe I'll come across some unexpected surprise."

"Oho~"

Zhou Que's eyes immediately began to shine.

Seeing that, Ji Qing blinked and sensed something was wrong. Recalling Zhou Que's earlier words, he thought grimly to himself: damn it, I said the wrong thing.

Now Zhou Que was definitely going to cling to him.

But on second thought, Ji Qing felt his road had not yet reached a dead end. So what if he had to find a chance to fob Zhou Que off and slip away quickly afterward? He had successfully bluffed Xie Chang’an before. He could certainly bluff Zhou Que into a daze too.

But speak of the devil.

Just as Zhou Que was about to say something, a very familiar cry suddenly came from behind them. "Damn, it really is the Valedictorian!"

Ji Qing and Zhou Que both froze.

Ji Qing hurriedly turned around, only to see Jiang Cuo at the far end of their carriage—a figure he had not seen in quite some time.

Jiang Cuo waved enthusiastically in their direction, trotted over quickly, and exclaimed in excitement, "I just heard passengers in the same carriage talking about what happened at the station, and I didn't dare believe it. Who would've thought it was really this much of a coincidence!"

"Long time no see, Valedictorian!"

As he spoke, Jiang Cuo attempted to give Ji Qing a huge bear hug. Ji Qing expressionlessly blocked him with his Ability. He had already suffered once at Zhou Que's hands. There was absolutely no way he would suffer a second time here with Jiang Cuo.

Seeing that his scheme had failed, Jiang Cuo rubbed his nose sheepishly.

At the side, Zhou Que, who had been waiting for Jiang Cuo to bear-hug him next, tilted his head blankly. Huh? Why had it ended with Ji Qing? Shouldn't he have been next? Was Ji Qing really that popular?

The next second, another familiar male voice appeared.

"Long time no see, Ji Qing."

Under the probing gazes of the other two, Xie Chang’an made his entrance at the far end of the same carriage in exactly the same manner as Jiang Cuo. But when he finally reached Ji Qing, he still scratched his head awkwardly, just as he had at the beginning.

For a moment, Ji Qing's gaze went back and forth between Jiang Cuo and Xie Chang’an several times.

He raised a brow. "You two are together?"

In his usual carefree manner, Jiang Cuo replied, "We happened to run into each other a few days ago. Since then, I've been begging him to take me along on commissions. The difficulty of commissions above B-rank jumps way too much. If I do them alone, I get flustered far too easily."

"Oh?" Upon hearing that, Zhou Que immediately revealed a provocative smile, as though delighted to watch the show. In a languid tone, he teased, "And who was it back then who was so confident that he could do everything by himself? Tsk, tsk, tsk. So in the end, you still need someone else's help after all."

You have no right whatsoever to say that. Ji Qing's brows twitched violently when he heard it.

Just moments ago, Zhou Que had delivered such classic lines as "I regret it so badly," "I wanted to stab my arrogant past self on the spot," and "Why did I insist on challenging myself? Challenge my ass." Yet the moment he met a classmate, his confidence had immediately surged again?

Leaning half against the seat, Jiang Cuo let out a melancholy sigh. "Sigh, that really is my fault."

"I didn't expect the jump in difficulty from B-rank to A-rank commissions to be so steep." Jiang Cuo explained with a headache. "I can definitely do them alone, but the time and energy they take are just too much. It's better to team up with other Hunters."

"I agree," Zhou Que immediately declared from the bottom of his heart, raising his hand.

Seeing how aligned the two of them were in this, Ji Qing found it both amusing and not amusing at all. He hesitated inwardly: had these two perhaps run into the exact same predicament?

With friendly patience, Ji Qing suggested, "Why don't you sit down first? You can change seats later."

But the instant those words left his mouth, a thread of foreboding suddenly flashed through Ji Qing's mind. At once, he swept his gaze warily across the three people chatting so harmoniously around him, and then his eyes fixed on his own reflection in the train window.

The main character of the comic. Four people. A chance meeting. A sudden gathering. Each of them having gone through many things beforehand...

The instant all of those classic elements stacked together, alarm bells exploded in Ji Qing's mind.

Wait. They were not about to team up after this, were they?