Lavender Scent Fills the Rest

The last 250 favorability points did not come as harsh, overwhelming plunders, but were filled little by little in the trivial daily life of sharing the same roof.

Lei Shi would wait for An Mi Xiu at the stairwell every morning, with a warm sandwich wrapped in oil paper in his schoolbag, which was baked with the crispy cheese edge that An Mi Xiu liked most. He would sit by the desk and watch An Mi Xiu correct the discipline violation forms for the student union, and when the other person was too focused to notice, he would quietly reach out and tuck the broken strand of hair on his forehead behind his ear. He even learned to make lavender-flavored milk tea according to the recipe he secretly saved on his phone, even though the first three cups were all burnt and the whole kitchen was filled with sweet, burnt smoke.

An Mi Xiu never mentioned the main competition world again. The system's alarms became fewer and fewer, and the cold mechanical voice gradually became soft, as if it was also being soaked by the trivial warmth of this world. One night when it rained heavily again, An Mi Xiu was lying on the sofa watching a star documentary. Lei Shi sat beside him, wrapping his cold fingers around An Mi Xiu's wrist, and carefully traced the faint old scar on his wrist that was left in the main world. "Tell me what that world was like." Lei Shi's voice was very soft, no longer the paranoid aggression he had at the beginning, only a faint, careful uneasiness remained, "Was the me over there as unruly as you said? Would he also hold an umbrella for you, and wait for you to finish class at the school gate?"

An Mi Xiu turned his head and looked at him. The warm yellow floor lamp fell on Lei Shi's purple eyes, and the cold frost that had frozen for many years had long since melted, leaving only gentle starlight. He leaned over, kissed the corner of Lei Shi's lips lightly, and smiled: "He is very unruly, but he will also secretly leave me the last can of iced sparkling water, and he will also block the bicycle that is about to hit me without hesitation. But he never waited for me to move into his opposite door."

Lei Shi's eyes lit up instantly. He leaned over and hugged An Mi Xiu tightly, his chin buried in the crook of his neck, and the warm breath brushed against the skin of his neck. [Ding! Target Favorability +100. Current Favorability: 350]

The last 150 points were all filled on the night of the school's annual campus singer competition. Lei Shi stood on the stage with a guitar in his hand, and the noisy auditorium instantly fell silent. He didn't look at the cheering crowd below the stage, his eyes only locked on An Mi Xiu who was sitting in the first row. The strings plucked by his fingertips sounded, and it was a slow, hoarse love song that no one had ever heard before. It was the song he wrote for An Mi Xiu alone. Every line of the lyrics was filled with the secret love he had hidden in the sketchbook for three months, the paranoia that he dared not say out loud, and the eager expectation that he wanted to trap this person by his side forever.

When the last note fell, the whole auditorium burst into thunderous cheers. Lei Shi didn't step off the stage immediately. He held the microphone, and his voice spread through every corner of the auditorium: "An Mi Xiu, come up here."

All eyes in the audience turned to the boy in the first row. An Mi Xiu stood up, walked onto the stage under the gaze of everyone, and stood still in front of Lei Shi. The latter took out a silver necklace from his pocket, and the pendant was a tiny, delicate knight pattern. He put the necklace on An Mi Xiu's neck personally, his fingertips brushing the skin at the back of his neck, with a slight trembling that he could not hide. "I don't care where you came from, and I don't care what so-called 500-point mission you have to complete." Lei Shi's voice was clear, and every word fell firmly in An Mi Xiu's ears, "From the first day you appeared, I have already prepared a home for you. You don't need to go anywhere else. Stay here, stay with me for the rest of your life."

[Ding! Target Favorability +150. Current Favorability: 500] [Mission completed. Return channel unlocking...] The system's voice suddenly stopped at this moment. All the light screens that had never appeared in front of outsiders completely shattered in the next second. All the plot lines related to "returning to the main world" were completely erased at this moment, and there was no possibility of recovery. The last line of text that flashed in An Mi Xiu's mind was no longer a cold warning, but a gentle, relieved prompt: [The world retention mechanism is officially activated. I wish you two a happy rest of your life.]

Lei Shi held his hand, walked off the stage side by side under the eyes of the whole school. The heavy rain outside the auditorium had stopped, and a faint rainbow hung in the sky. The black umbrella that had carried them through many rainy days was held in An Mi Xiu's hand, and the line of silver words on the inner side of the umbrella had long been wiped off by the wind and rain, replaced by the faint, warm mark of two fingers holding each other tightly.

An Mi Xiu raised his head and looked at the person beside him. The favorability value that had been hanging over his head for so long was no longer a cold mission indicator. What he got in the end was not a so-called "return permission", but a whole world that was completely modified for him, and a person who had hidden his love for him for three full years, waiting for him to step into this gentle trap that was woven full of love step by step.

On the way back, Lei Shi stopped by the street milk tea shop, bought two cups of lavender milk tea, and stuffed the sweeter one into An Mi Xiu's hand. The street lamp pulled their shadows very long, and they stuck together tightly, never separating again. There is no so-called "other world" anymore. From the moment the 500th favorability point lit up, their story will never have an end.