[Warning: Code Bing-mei will expire within 365 days. Only attainable until then.]

"Huh?" Bingge looked at his Shizun to explain.

"What the System is saying is that we only have one year to resurrect Luo Binghe." Shen Qingqiu furrowed his eyebrows. "Uggh, even character souls have time limits? This is so frustrating."

[You can You Up No BB]

"Yeah, yeah." Shen Qingqiu rolled his eyes and saw that Bingge is still giving him a confused look. He put his arms around his shoulders and the stallion protagonist almost pushed his Shizun into the cold river.

"Wha-Hey! We have to act like a couple, remember?" Shen Qingqiu calmed him down.

"Oh, sorry." Bingge looked down on the ground and cautiously move closer. "Put your arm around me then, Shizun."

"Hehe, that's the spirit. Just think of this as acting in some play. You'll get used to it." Shen Qingqiu get that it must be awkward for Bing-gege here because of his feelings for him, but the two have no choice.

Maybe it would take long to convince Bingge that this is necessary. The stallion novel protagonist looks pretty dense when it comes to stuff like this. He'd have to take the first move all the time.

"Let's head back to Cang Qiong, Binghe." He said.

"Oh, right. You must be hungry and tired already. I don't have Xin Mo with me though, we only have your sword.. System sir, what happened to my Xin Mo?"

[You lost it many chapters back when you agreed to learn Bingmei's memory through the dreamscape.]

"But why?" Bingge asked. "Xin Mo is my sword, isn't that unfair?"

[Too overpowered. It's also a server connector so it might bring complications.]

"Uhhhhh...." The protagonist scratched his head and looked at his Shizun.

Ah, look at this poor, innocent stallion protagonist. He doesn't know anything that's going on. Shen Qingqiu thought.

"I'll explain later, hop on in!" His Shizun expanded the sword and offered the disciple to stand on it.

Bingge took his hand, get on the sword....

... and wrapped his arms around his Shizun's waist.

"Wh-What are you doing?!"

Bingge gave an innocent look that resembles Bingmei's. "The sword is too narrow, Shizun, I might fall off."

"But is this... really necessary?" Shen Qingqiu can feel Bingge's breath tickle his skin.

Is he really that scared he might fall off?

"It is. Look." Bingge pointed out to something with his finger.

[+100 Cool points ~

Dense my ass. This kid knew exactly how to provide fanservice!

****

"Shizun say 'ah'!"

"Ahh..." Shen Qingqiu bit the dumpling from the chopstick Bingge was holding. He pinched his disciple's cheek. "You really are so cute, Binghe! You don't have to feed this old man, cooking breakfast is enough."

"Hehehe..." He forced a laugh. "How many cool points was that?"

[+5 cool points]

"Just 5!? Oi, System! Are you a merchant or something? You're driving a hard bargain!" Shen Qingqiu complained. "Forget it, Bing-ge, let's just eat."

"Well we have to earn more for Luo Binghe to be back soon, right?" He grumbled before picking another dumpling in his chopstick to feed his master. "I don't like this either, Shizun, but we have no choice. You don't have to dote on me, I know it's not your style either. Just accept what I'm giving you."

"Fine, fine." He munched on it. "Here, I'll feed you too so you don't do all the work."

[+100 cool points ]

"100!? Whoop! Whoop!" Shen Qingqiu raised his fist to the air. "The female mind is really weird, but to hell with it! Let's do this!"

[-50 for speaking in modern slang and acting OOC]

"Ah, have this then, Mr. System!" He raised two middle fingers.

Bingge guessed it probably meant something vulgar.

Since he knows the truth, Shen Qingqiu acts more like his Shen Yuan inner self when he's just with Bingge. Bingge liked this side of him too, he thought he couldn't like Shen Qingqiu more until he learned how expressive and overreactive he really is. It's funny, and sometimes he can't take it seriously when Shen Qingqiu appeared like a reserved, Zen Master in front of everyone else then yells a string of curses when he stubs his toe on the bedpost.

He felt a little special, since even 'Bingmei' didn't see this side of him. Just a little bit to make his heart warm and put a smile on his face.

"What?" Shen Qingqiu raised an eyebrow when he noticed his staring.

"Nothing." He grinned. "Here comes another one, Shizun!"

*****

"Should we do it like this or like this?" Bingge asked.

"If you cover my hand, it will look like you're holding as small child. If I cover your hand, it'll look like I'm reprimanding you for something and dragging you back to the bamboo house." Shen Qingqiu whispered back.

"I don't think I'll be comfortable with interlacing our fingers though. My palms are sweaty, wait a minute, Shizun." Bingge rubbed his hands on his robes.

Shen Qingqiu gave a sidelong glance and saw a disciple staring, and he fakely smiled and bowed his head. "Don't be so nervous, I'm not used to PDA too. Just hold my hand however you want."

"What's PDA?"

"It's..."

Shen Qingqiu suddenly noticed Shang Qinghua and Mobei-Jun approaching, and so he whispered back with a fan covering his face. "I'll tell you later."

He gave a salute to the two. "Good day! Wonderful weather for a stroll, isn't it?"

Shang Qinghua saluted back. "Yes, yes, brother Shen... umm..." He looked back at his companion with a sweat going down from his forehead down to his cheek, and then to Bingge. "Can we talk for a moment? Alone?"

"What is there to talk about alone?" Mobei-Jun asked sternly.

"Yes, why would you need to take my Shizun away by yourself? Can you not talk about it in our presence?" Bingge gave his signature devilish sneer.

"It's nothing big, nothing to worry about!" Shang Qinghua waved his hand back and forth. "I just wanted to talk to Shen Qingqiu privately, that's all."

"Alright, let's not argue!" Shen Qingqiu closed his fan and pointed it to one of the buildings. "It won't be long, so just wait for us."

And so, they left their two, scary, jealous companions in the dust to have a talk.

"Hah, finally!" Shang Qinghua sighed in relief. "That guy creeped the hell out of me!"

Shen Qingqiu: "Who?"

"Luo Binghe, of course!" Shang Qinghua looked around nervously. "Listen, Cucumber bro, your life is in danger---"

Shen Qingqiu sighed. "Always has been ever since I got here."

"No, this is different! That Binghe with you is a fraud! I figured it out. The sudden appearance... the scattered soul... the weird attitude... He's the original Binghe from Proud Immortal Demon Way!"

He outstretched his arms, waiting for Shen Qingqiu to make a dramatic reaction.

"Oh." Shen Qingqiu just said.

"Trust me on this, I'm the logistics here! He really is, and I have proof. So I talked to my system about story shifting cliches and..." Shang Qinghua continued to babble with extreme hand gestures and emotions.

"So you figured it out." Shen Qingqiu just smiled while he was talking. "Good, good. Maybe we can have some of your advice."

"---And I knew you'd never figure it out yourself, so I came to tell you... WHAT!?" He stopped with his monologue. "YOU ALREADY KNEW?!"

"Yes." He fanned himself.

Shang Qinghua: "But what are you doing, staying by his side! That man will kill you! He'll be the end of all of us!"

Shen Qingqiu just shook his head. "Oh, Airplane-juju. He may have wanted to kill me before, but I assure you, I am 100% safe. And it's all thanks to the System. Let me explain what's been happening on the past few days."

So he told him everything about the story shift and the mission to bring back Bingmei.

"Ohhhh so that explains the PDA. Lately, Liu Qingge and Qi Qingqiu told me how weird you're acting, they both looked like they want to barf haha. " Shang Qinghua slapped his knee. 'Why didn't you say so sooner? Leave it to the master of overused romantic plots, I already used all of them for Bingge'sn hundreds of wives!"

Shen Qingqiu clapped and put a hand on his shoulder. "Awesome! I knew I could count on you, Airplane-bro! So where do we start? How can we get more cool points faster? We've been trying anything but all we get are scraps and pooh-pooh."

"Well, it's probably because there's no thrill and character development." Shang Qinghua said. "If you just act all cute without context, the readers might not bite it. You need to get to know each other better, have a more interesting dynamic. How about..."

He paced back and forth, then came up with an idea.

"You go on dates!"

"Isn't what we're doing counted as dating?" Shen Qingqiu raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but you guys need build up! Visit the places that has memories in it, try to become closer slowly and surely! Who knows, there might be encounters that'll interest the readers."

"But those are Bingmei's memories, not his..."

Shang Qinghua put an arm around his shoulder. "That's better! Readers will want to know Bingge's reaction to everything that happened between you and Bingmei. It's like a trip down memory lane, he must be pretty curious to know these things himself even if you already told him about it. It'll work, trust me haha!"

"What'll work?"

A cold voice suddenly came behind them.

"Your Majesty!" Shang Qinghua pulled back. "I said it'll only take a few minutes, what are you doing here?"

"Does a few minutes means two hours?" He said.

"Yes, aren't you two getting a bit too chummy in here?" Bingge also came with a plastered sweet and deadly smile. "Shizun, what did you talk about that required an An Ding Peak Lord to put his arm around your shoulder?"

Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua looked at each other with the same thought, These vinegar -drinking bastards!

"Aiyah, calm down, we just had to talk longer than we expected." The tired-of-this-shit Shizun patted his vinegar drunk disciple on the back. "Let's go, let's go."

Shang Qinghua looked at Mobei-Jun and knew he's in for another beating. He prepared to prostate on the ground. "Your Majesty, please spare me!"

As ruffles and loud booms are heard in the building, Shen Qingqiu and Bingge practiced holding hands again.

"What did you talk about, Shizun?" Bingge asked. "I still can't believe that lap-dog is the author of my world.

"Oh, give Airplane-bro some respect! He's like your god creator, you know?" Shen Qingqiu chuckled. "And he gave me some advice. Let's go on a date tomorrow!"

Bingge titled his head to the side. "A date?"