DCHHLT Chapter 1

At seven in the morning, a misty drizzle began to fall over Nancheng.

Raindrops like fine mist swept in with the wind, clinging to the windowpane. As the breeze blew, they streaked into delicate, trailing threads across the glass.

Dressed in a white shirt, Jiang Chun walked in from outside, hurriedly flipping through a book with one hand. As he walked, he called out, “Chuchu, Chuchu—are you awake?”

Before the last word had even left his lips, his footsteps came to a sudden halt.

“I’m awake. Here to pick up the manuscript?”

Jiang Chun looked up, his gaze locking firmly onto a tall young man sitting on a tatami mat in the living room.

The man wore a pale cyan shirt and possessed a slender, graceful figure. Holding a pencil between his fingers, he was deftly sketching something on a graphics tablet.

When Jiang Chun had walked in, Chu Junshan was sitting angled slightly sideways. Daylight streaming through the bright window lit up his profile.

He had a straight, high-bridged nose. Even his slightly pursed lips carried a rare, soft plumpness. Every line of his face looked like a porcelain sculpture carved by the hands of a master.

Jiang Chun nodded blankly, pinching the bridge of his nose as his voice turned muddled. “Almost forgot…”

He had almost forgotten that the big shot sitting in front of him never slept in.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the room’s pitifully sparse decor. There were no dark corners in this apartment. Even the few display cabinets containing figurines were fully exposed under the lights, leaving darkness with nowhere to hide.

Jiang Chun handed over the manuscript for Chu Junshan to sign while pulling over a chair to sit down. He kept his eyes on him, waiting for the document to be handed back. After a moment, he let out a heavy sigh full of mixed emotions.

Three years ago, after they were dragged into the infinite flow game, eerie monsters, ubiquitous blood, and corpses filled that entire world. It was only after they finally emerged from the infinite realm that everyone realized merely a single day had passed in reality.

As normal life returned, many players gradually settled back into everyday routines and let those painful memories fade away.

Only Chu Junshan could not.

He still retained the acute sensitivity and deep-seated paranoia expected of a game player. Even though a long time had passed since that ordeal, whenever he walked down the street, he would instinctively analyze the tactical advantages of the terrain and assess the likelihood of being ambushed by a monster. When talking with others, he would subtly raise his guard, wary that the person might transform into a beast at any second. When dining in a restaurant, he would reflexively evaluate the material of the fork in his hand, weighing whether it was sturdy enough to pierce a monster’s bones…

Because of this, in Jiang Chun’s memory, Chu Junshan seemed practically omnipotent, moving through the infinite game as if walking through an unpeopled realm. That was the only reason he had been able to guide Jiang Chun and the vast majority of their fellow humans to clear the game and achieve ultimate victory.

Before long, Chu Junshan suddenly spoke up: “Signed.”

Without looking up, he handed the work documents back to Jiang Chun. “We won’t finish the rest of the handovers today. We’ll handle them tomorrow.”

Jiang Chun nodded reflexively, then paused as the words registered, looking a little dazed. “Huh? What are you going to do?”

While he hesitated, the “omnipotent” Chu Junshan had already stood up and walked over to the doorway. He turned back to cast a meaningful look at Jiang Chun.

The look made Jiang Chun’s scalp tingle. “Another blind date?”

“Mm,” Chu Junshan answered succinctly. “Number one hundred and one.”

Jiang Chun froze for a moment, then his eyes crinkled with amusement as he watched him leave. “Good luck~”

Chu Junshan went downstairs. The café was only a short distance away.

When he pushed open the door and stepped inside, there weren’t many people yet. The air was rich with the mellow aroma of coffee. Peaceful, gentle classical music drifted softly among the guests chatting in low voices, creating a deeply tranquil atmosphere.

He took a seat in his familiar spot, his gaze falling upon the silver fork gleaming before him. Suppressing the urge to pick it up and test its hardness and sharpness, he kept himself confined to that small seat.

These side effects had been a constant presence in Chu Junshan’s life for a long time.

He was like an organ that had been excised and then shoved back into the body called “society”, always experiencing a subtle, jarring rejection reaction.

As the years went by, like any conventional family, Chu Junshan’s parents began urging him to find a partner to spend the rest of his life with.

Countless times, he had sat in this very spot in this café with a similar cup of coffee in front of him, while seated across from him were all kinds of different people.

Chu Junshan himself wasn’t inherently against blind dates, yet all one hundred of his previous matches had been coolly rejected by him.

The reason he gave was simple. They weren’t his ideal type, so they weren’t a match.

There had been a few dates who refused to give up after being rejected, resorting to relentless persistence, only to be turned away all the same.

One could hardly blame them for their persistent pursuit.

Chu Junshan came from an impressive background and possessed top-tier looks, making him a highly sought-after choice in the matchmaking market. Ever since his school days, his pursuers could have lined up from one end of the street to the other. Yet according to matchmakers, Chu Junshan had never once set foot into the realm of romance.

Finally, on one occasion, a blind date plucked up the courage to ask him: “What exactly is your ideal type?”

Chu Junshan had merely shaken his head, leaving behind a brief apology.

As he answered, he was staring at the coffee growing cold in front of him, thinking aimlessly—

Even he didn’t know the answer to that question.

At that moment, the piano in the center of the café played a gently flowing melody. The waiter approached at just the right time, presenting the menu: “Mr. Chu, would you like to try our new dessert?”

Chu Junshan paused, his gaze locking onto a small black cake on the menu shaped like a tentacle. His brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

Perhaps because he was all too familiar with this image, a strange, faint prickle of displeasure and distaste stirred in his chest.

Ever since emerging from the infinite game, Chu Junshan had harbored one regret.

—He hadn’t managed to bring a tentacle monster back out with him.

Those were monsters unique to the infinite game. They possessed pitch-black tentacles and appendages covered in patterns that shimmered with an icy blue light. Even the way the slender tips of their tentacles coiled around prey to strangle them was strikingly elegant and beautiful.

Of course, that was only from Chu Junshan’s perspective.

Compared to them, the wide assortment of human blind dates couldn’t even match the cabinet of tentacle figurines he kept at home.

This world, and every person in it, was utterly boring and hypocritical.

—And naturally.

Today’s late human date was no exception.

Suddenly, a modest commotion came from outside the window. Chu Junshan looked up as sunlight broke through the sky where the rain had just cleared.

A tall man was crouching on the ground not far away, his head bowed as he gently comforted a little girl who had fallen and was crying.

Chu Junshan’s brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

Like his other lingering side effects, whenever he saw a scene like this, the only things that surfaced before his eyes were the scenarios he had witnessed countless times in the infinite game.

Chu Junshan had seen far too many players shove helpless children, or even their own flesh and blood, out to take the bullet for them.

Once back in normal, civilized society, people put on the cloak of propriety and morals, hiding those darkest sides of human nature beneath a sheep’s skin.

…Disgustingly hypocritical.

“Ah, that gentleman is so kind,” said the waiter, who had not yet left, clutching the menu with heart-eyes. “He’s tall and handsome, too. A really good soul with the looks to match.”

Chu Junshan paused briefly, his stiff expression immediately smoothing back to normal. He raised his eyes and let the corners of his lips curve up slightly at the waiter. “Indeed.”

Chu Junshan had no desire to dwell on the matter. He lowered his head, letting his thoughts drift away once more.

With his eyes lowered, he lost himself in memories of the tentacle monsters’ forms in the infinite game. His fair fingertips pinched a stir stick, mindlessly swirling apart the latte art floating on his coffee. An abstract octopus shape, formed from broken milk foam and dark liquid, slowly tore apart in the direction he stirred.

Until a warm, clear voice snapped him out of his reverie: “Sorry, I’m late. Are you Mr. Chu?”

Hearing the voice, Chu Junshan looked up, only then realizing that a faint shadow had fallen over him without him noticing.

This late blind date was quite tall. His shirt sleeves were rolled up. The profile he revealed as he bowed his head to set down his coat was striking, fitting squarely into society’s mainstream aesthetic standard.

Chu Junshan recognized him as the young man who had just taken the child’s hand outside and softly comforted her.

When the man raised his face to look at him, Chu Junshan realized that the lines around his eyes and brows were remarkably stern and cold. Yet the moment he smiled at him, all that coldness was completely washed away.

“Have you been waiting long?”

Chu Junshan shifted his gaze away, the corners of his lips curling into a polite arc. “Not at all.”

“There was a minor emergency on the way here. Two children fell down on the road, so I spent some time helping them find their parents. That’s why I was delayed… Anyway, I shouldn’t dwell on that.” The date across from him was visibly apologetic about arriving late. He reached out a hand, his pitch-black eyes brightened by the sunlight reflecting off the glass table. His movements carried a refined, scholarly grace, polite and gentlemanly. “Hello, Mr. Chu. My name is Liang Xingyuan. I’m twenty-eight years old, and I currently work at Xinghai Kindergarten as a tenured teacher.”

Even if he was just going through the motions, basic courtesy was still required.

Chu Junshan extended his hand as well, briefly holding the large, well-defined hand before letting go. “Mr. Liang, I’m Chu Junshan, twenty-six years old, currently unemployed.”

He recited the self-introduction like a well-rehearsed script, then began to zone out, his interest waning.

Having gone through this routine a hundred times already, Chu Junshan knew it inside out. All he needed to do now was endure another ten minutes or so, then find an excuse to leave.

With that thought, the fingertips lingering on the wall of his coffee cup unconsciously tightened. The soft pad of his finger expertly stroked the smooth porcelain, as though soothing a thick, curled tentacle.

This motion seemed ingrained in Chu Junshan’s very blood and bones. Whenever his mind wandered, he would reflexively stroke any cylindrical object as if it were a tentacle from his imagination.

Across the table, his blind date, Liang Xingyuan, kept the conversation flowing.

His manner of speaking was exceptionally skillful. Unlike other dates Chu Junshan had met before, who either rambled on endlessly or remained completely passive, he was adept at expressing himself while gently drawing Chu Junshan into the topic. In a typical blind date scenario, he would have been thoroughly charming.

Unfortunately, he was dealing with Chu Junshan.

Chu Junshan merely offered a brief reply every now and then. With his eyelids lowered, he stared at the octopus-shaped latte art slowly dissolving in his coffee, looking visibly absentminded.

“Mr. Chu, I believe our backgrounds match quite well, and in terms of personality, I feel we get along very comfortably. Perhaps we could be a great fit…”

“Apologies, but I’d like to interrupt you for a moment.” Chu Junshan raised an eyebrow and suddenly asked an entirely unrelated question. “Mr. Liang, someone with your qualifications has a lot going for them. Why did you choose blind dating over meeting someone naturally?”

In his memory, the Mr. Liang sitting in front of him was a cut above all his previous blind dates, both in terms of looks and overall profile.

For some reason, when asked this question, Liang Xingyuan suddenly raised his head, a lively spark dancing in his eyes. “Well, a family member of Professor Chu’s colleague happens to be a supervisor at my workplace, and they arranged this introduction. I value family deeply and truly long to experience the warmth of a home. Perhaps you might be able to offer me such an experience.”

Liang Xingyuan gazed intently into Chu Junshan’s eyes as a single thought crossed his mind.

In this entire world, he had never encountered a partner more fitting than Chu Junshan. He matched his vision of a future partner to perfection—handsome, reserved, and unflappable.

Just a single glance was enough to bring serenity to his inner self, allowing those restless, squirming tentacles to be deliberately set aside under such conditions.

Yet, he could sense that the human sitting across from him was not particularly taken with him.

“Perhaps you need someone with greater enthusiasm for family life, Mr. Liang,” Chu Junshan answered coolly.

Seeing that Chu Junshan had no interest, Liang Xingyuan could only wear a look of regret, standing up to settle the bill. “Apologies, I was overly forward.”

However, the moment he stood up, Chu Junshan’s eyes suddenly caught sight of something extraordinary.

Something churning like a rising tide coiled together, exposing soft inner membranes and snow-white patterns, with silver-blue rings of light flickering twice. Almost instantaneously, Chu Junshan recognized what it was—

It was a cluster of… tentacles?!

In that instant, a flash of light like lightning nearly seared Chu Junshan’s eyes, as a flood of surging desires struck him all at once.

Soft, icy cold, snake-like tentacles. They had appeared in his dreams countless times. In those dreams woven from sinister darkness and filth, the inhuman monster would coil tightly around his neck, his most fragile part as a human, dragging him down into the abyss of desire.

Chu Junshan had no idea why he was enamored with a monster born from infinite filth. But now, he had unexpectedly stumbled upon this chance.

He abruptly stood up and grabbed the wrist of Liang Xingyuan, who was about to leave. The sudden movement drew glances from patrons at nearby tables. “Apologies, please wait a moment.”

Liang Xingyuan froze and turned back in surprise, the lingering regret in his eyes not yet fully dissipated.

A faint smile curved upon Chu Junshan’s usually cool face. With his eyes slightly lowered, an infinitely strange gleam swirled within his clear, hazel eyes.

He extended a long, beautiful hand toward Liang Xingyuan.

“What I mean is—would you mind getting married right away?”

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