Chapter 5: An Incubus Is an Incubus After All
Maybe it was the five thousand-plus experience he'd gotten for free, but Zhu Rong thought about it for a long time.
He held the little night light out a bit further and said:
"Here, take it. I made this little night light."
"You can... mm, decorate your house with it, or there's a blessing event in a few days—you could put the little lamp in the river, that'd be nice too. You can get a little bit of experience from it."
Jingzhe's face was expressionless.
He lowered his eyes and looked at the pale, tender palm of the incubus before him.
Cupped in it was a lamp about the size of his own hand.
Normally after finishing the arena, Jingzhe would just log off, or find some random spot to AFK and sleep. He'd turn off sensory sync anyway—neither rain nor sunlight would affect his sleep.
Ever since the cabin feature unlocked at level six, his place was still a default wooden plank house.
As for that blessing event—any event that couldn't add win points or boost panel stats, Jingzhe treated as a fart the officials dropped into his mailbox.
Seeing him go without reacting for so long, Zhu Rong pulled his hand back a little, awkward:
"Okay... it really is a pretty ordinary little lamp. If you don't want it I'll just take—"
"Give it here."
"Eh?"
Jingzhe lifted the lamp's hanging charm from his palm and toyed with it like a plaything.
It was pretty delicately made, even if it was mostly little girls who made this kind of thing in this game.
Zhu Rong stood beside him nervously, seeming to expect something.
Jingzhe tucked the little lamp into his inventory and said without much emotion:
"It's pretty nice."
It was the first time Zhu Rong had been praised in-game. His ears went red.
"Also." Jingzhe glanced at him. "Don't leave your tail out like that. People will think you're an incubus without an owner."
"Oh..."
Zhu Rong searched for ages before he finally found the hide-incubus-tail function in the settings.
His lower back was empty now, and the hole the bunny tail originally used was exposed again.
Zhu Rong pulled out the rabbit tail from earlier and fumbled at it with his hands for ages, but couldn't get it fastened properly.
The pure white fluff ball swayed in front of his eyes for the longest time, those slender white fingers clumsy as if working together for the first time.
Ever since meeting this stupid incubus, Jingzhe felt like he'd sighed away a lifetime's worth of breath.
He snatched the fluff ball from Zhu Rong's hands.
His palm was suddenly empty.
Zhu Rong's whole body jolted.
Right after, a large hand gripped his side waist, pinning the whole person in place.
"Stand still."
Fine rabbit fur brushed against the skin of his lower back, and soon the tail was fastened to the button.
The waist was released, and Zhu Rong swayed unnaturally.
The tail was fixed quite well—it only swayed slightly with his movements, with no sign of falling off.
Zhu Rong's face grew even hotter. He mumbled:
"Thank you."
Jingzhe stared deeply at that tail for a long while, then looked away.
An incubus really is an incubus.
Even wearing a pure white rabbit tail, he still... ends up like this.
He didn't say anything more to Zhu Rong, just teleported off somewhere else alone.
The space before him suddenly emptied. Zhu Rong opened his profile page.
A pink system notification popped up.
"Jingzhe and player Rongrong have been contracted master and servant for 2 days. Incubus contract intimacy points: 5."
"Today's interaction: Jingzhe and player Rongrong jointly defeated the Kedeta Forest beginner dungeon boss. Your contract is truly indestructible!"
"Please thank your master with love and make the contract even sweeter ⌯ᐢᗜᐢ⌯ಣ!"
Zhu Rong: "..."
What a shameless game!
Face burning, he logged off at light speed.
-
Having gone to bed early for once, Zhu Rong actually had a rare easy time getting up the next day.
After two morning classes, Zhu Rong skillfully pretended to be air, planning to slip back to the dorm during some unnoticed gap to play games.
Before his front foot even left the classroom door, Shen Zichen grabbed him by the hood and hauled him back.
"Going back to the dorm to be a rat again?" Shen Zichen asked.
His trick seen through, Zhu Rong laughed sheepishly. "No, no, I'm just a bit hungry, thought I'd go grab something to eat..."
Shen Zichen: "The cafeteria doesn't start serving lunch until ten-thirty. What are you going to eat now, air?"
Zhu Rong: "..."
The hood was released. Zhu Rong slowly straightened himself out while listening to Shen Zichen nag in his ear:
"Department recruitment's already started these past few days. Our major's end-of-term comprehensive assessment requires academics and competitions-student work to be split fifty-fifty. You can't just coast on your study talent for good grades anymore."
"You need to pick a few suitable departments to rack up some credits before other people's first interviews are even over."
Zhu Rong felt a little guilty. "Yeah, actually my GPA is also—"
Under Shen Zichen's murderous gaze, Zhu Rong didn't dare finish the sentence.
Shen Zichen was his childhood friend, and also his classmate from elementary through middle through high school through university.
Zhu Rong's parents divorced early and dumped little Zhu Rong on his grandparents far away in the Lower District. The elderly had a hard time looking after him, so starting from middle school Zhu Rong began living at school.
Every parent-teacher meeting, Zhu Rong would squat in the hallway, silently playing on his phone, or sit out of place among a crowd of adults, face blank as he listened to all the praise about him.
Zhu Rong was very unfortunate, but also very fortunate.
He had talent—he didn't need to put in much effort studying to get returns.
He wasn't sensitive to emotions. For example, in that Lower District full of complicated people, when many parents whispered in the hallway about the background of this year's top student, Zhu Rong would only laugh it off.
His father had cheated and been abusive, but had so far more or less come to his senses and become a person again, sending a not-insignificant sum of living expenses to his card every month.
Zhu Rong just lived like that, living very calmly, without any waves.
Maybe his pitiful background gave Shen Zichen a special filter when it came to Zhu Rong. Before, Zhu Rong didn't know how to describe it, but now after playing games, he roughly understood.
Just like a favorite character, Shen Zichen was his meta-supporter and mom-fan combined.
Normally he spoiled and indulged him.
But seeing him stay up late gaming made him want to strangle him, and hearing him want to lie flat made him want to punch him into a wall.
So Zhu Rong cooperatively put on a curious look:
"Are there any departments that suit me?"
Lu Huan beside them said, "There are! Little Rong, you're so good-looking, you'd be perfect for External Relations. I hear it's all handsome guys and pretty girls—just being there is easy on the eyes."
Xu Fan said, "External Relations has so much stuff to do though. I don't think Little Rong would like it."
The moment he heard "lots of stuff," Zhu Rong cooperatively nodded and stated his demand: "Something easy. I just want to casually rack up some credits."
"Then Supervision and Coordination?" Lu Huan said. "Seems like you only need to inspect dorms once every half month, write some reports, and mediate when disputes come up now and then."
"Though... it can be pretty troublesome sometimes."
The words weren't spelled out, but the listeners all understood.
After all, even before enrollment, it had spread all over the forums—the current Supervision and Coordination is the core academy's running dog, becoming a convenience for the Upper District's young masters and misses at school.
Even so, plenty of people still fought tooth and nail to get in.
Zhu Rong wasn't interested. He shook his head.
"Eh."
Xu Fan suddenly seemed to remember something.
He held up one finger, smiling. "I know a department that'd definitely suit our Little Rong."
Zhu Rong was half-skeptical. "Really? What department?"
Xu Fan said mysteriously:
"Student Council President's Assistant. This is the position closest to shooting straight to the top. And the current president is still Chu Huaiyu."
"He seems to have a really good personality. The forums even say what he likes most is cute, well-behaved little boys like our Little Rong."
Shen Zichen: "..."
Shen Zichen: "He can't even take care of himself. You expect him to take care of those young masters?"
Xu Fan declared confidently:
"One look and I can tell you've never read any novels! Young masters love this kind of innocent little pure thing."
"I'm planning to go too. I'll bring you along when the time comes, Little Rong."
Zhu Rong's mouth twitched. "That's not a good idea, is it? That position sounds super competitive."
Xu Fan: "But if you win that position, you don't have to take PE and you still get credits!"
Zhu Rong's eyes lit up in a second. "How do I sign up?"
Shen Zichen: "..."
Whatever.
He waved his hand. As long as they could trick Zhu Rong into getting out and joining some activities, instead of being cooped up in the dorm playing games all day, that was fine.
"Then you take him. If he doesn't get selected, we'll figure it out then."