729: How Do You Know?

How Do You Know?

In Dr. Feng's eyes, Luan was an enigma.  0

He thought that he had known the system inside out – granted, he was the one who had built the main source code by hand – yet all of a sudden, he discovered that… he could not even begin to guess what Luan was thinking about. If not for the layer of tight security around Luan which he could not crack, he would have doubted whether this man was telling the truth about his real identity.

After coming clean with each other, their routine did not actually change much. Dr. Feng was still busy with his daily work whereas Luan… well, he was content by settling on the corner of the office and staring into the boundless sea of flowing data. 

Before Dr. Feng knew who he really was, he had always assumed that this behavior was just Luan being in a standby mode to save energy. But now that he knew, he had to cross out that hypothesis because it was simply impossible for the system to be out of battery. So when Luan looked like his mind was wandering far, it meant that he was really mulling over something.

…Who knew what was running in the system's mind all day long? 

And that's why Luan had slowly become an enigma to him.

However, Luan's inexplicable behavior was not the only reason why Dr. Feng was quickly losing his mind. It was because recently, he seemed to find out that… Luan liked to stare at him from time to time. 

The first time he noticed it was a complete coincidence. He had been stuck doing the same problem for hours and getting a bit fed up, he tugged on his ponytail out of frustration. Due to the rough movement, his head was raised and he met Luan's eyes, who had been staring at him since God-knows-when.

If it was only once, then it would not pose a problem at all. But unfortunately, it was not the case.

Dr. Feng had no idea whether it was the psychological change – the mindset that the ornament in his office was not simply a virtual character but the main system itself – sometimes he would feel Luan's tangible gaze on him. That feeling was very subtle and hard to describe, but once he noticed it, he would not be able to ignore it anymore. 

There were a few times when he suddenly raised his head and caught the swirling emotions in Luan's gaze before the man could retract it. It looked familiar somehow, and after digging through his memory for a while, Dr. Feng realized that when they first met… when Luan addressed him as 'Cyrus', he had also looked at him with this kind of gaze – deep, profound yet sorrowful. It made Dr. Feng feel uncomfortable as if… he had overlooked something important.

But whenever this kind of thing happened, Luan would swiftly conceal everything, hiding those layers of complicated emotions behind a calm mask. Then he would ask with a confused tone, "Is there something wrong?" 

His act was so natural that it made Dr. Feng wonder whether his eyes had been playing tricks on him. 

Subsequently, he tried to ignore this weird phenomenon for the next few days. But then, he found out that for some unknown reason, the frequency of Luan's gaze on him seemed to have increased. It was starting to bother him so much to the point where he could not focus on his work!

Dr. Feng was certainly not a fool – oh well, he might be a bit slow in the emotional department, but after the same behavior continued for days, he was forced to admit that something was amiss.

Only a dog would not notice that the way Luan looked at him was strange!

As for the specific detail of this 'strangeness', he could not say for sure. However, he would not be the Head Administrator if he didn't investigate this matter to the root! He was itching to get the answer once and for all so that he would get rid of this unnamed discomfort!

After a week of this silent tug-of-war, Dr. Feng finally could not endure it anymore. He knew that Luan would not give him an answer if he were to throw a straight ball. And hence, he decided to go in a roundabout way, "Luan, aren't you bored?"

Luan blinked slowly. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you told me that being inside the simulator is fun. Then… do you have any plans on going back to enjoy it? Rather than sitting here with me all day, won't it be more exciting to spend your time traveling through worlds?" He was sitting on his swivel chair in a slumped posture, his gaze half-lidded in laziness as if he was bringing up this question simply because it crossed his mind. But in fact, his whole senses were attuned to every minute changes of Luan's body language and hence, he noticed it at once when Luan's body stiffened and his fists slightly clenched by his side.

However, this reaction lasted only for a split second before Luan forcibly forced himself to relax. Nothing could be detected from his tone when he replied, "I will think about it."

"Alright…" Dr. Feng answered in a distracted manner as the doubt in his mind was piling up. 

He felt like the answer had been right in front of him, yet there was a faint layer of blurred film that prevented him from seeing anything clearly. But exactly because the answer was close at hand that he could not rest easy. Oh God, he was going to go bald soon if he could not force the truth out of Luan's mouth!

Dr. Feng dragged a hologram keyboard in front of him and typed in a series of codes as he asked in a casual tone, "Come to think of it, it seems like your relationship with Cyrus is quite good. But why haven't I heard you talking about him at all?"

What greeted him was silence. A silence so loud that it sent a jolt to his heart. 

Dr. Feng raised his head in confusion. "Luan…?"

The expression on Luan's face was indescribable. It was very stiff and wooden, yet it also gave off the impression as if it was going to crack apart at any moment. A moment's pause went by before he parted his lips and asked in a slightly hoarse voice, "...My relationship with Cyrus is good? How do you know that?"

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