He looked up at Lu Qingyuan and said, "Just like you said, there's only a fine line between genius and madness. It's the same principle as becoming a Buddha or a demon in a single thought."
"Human nature is inherently complex; there is no absolute evil, nor is there absolute good."
"You said you wanted to see the wickedness of human nature through these escape games."
But at least in the first test, not one of them backed down when it came to choosing themselves.
Even though later, when faced with life and death, they still revealed cowardice and rage, that's only human nature, it's instinct.
He said, "So I think there aren't any completely bad people among them."
Especially Chen Shu, I think he should understand the bottom line of being a decent human being better than most people.
Lu Qingyuan narrowed his eyes slightly after hearing Yu Tang's words.
There was a moment of silence.
After a long while, he rubbed the knuckle of his index finger with his thumb and chuckled twice.
"Old angel, aren't you afraid I'll get jealous and kill Chen Shu right now, speaking so highly of another man in front of me?"
“You wouldn’t…” Yu Tang looked at him seriously: “I believe you wouldn’t kill someone without a reason.”
Lu Qingyuan was silenced and pursed his lips.
After a long pause, he said, "You're too self-important."
A look of bewilderment flashed across the demon's eyes, but then slowly returned to calm. He said, "Human nature is inherently evil; that's the only thing I believe in. Since you insist on lecturing me, then let's continue and see who is right."
When Yu Tang and Lu Qingyuan walked up to Chen Shu, Chen Shu had already defused the fifteenth bomb.
The parts were sorted and set aside. The young man wiped the sweat from his brow, lowered his arms, and saw Yu Tang sit down next to him.
"You've worked hard," Yu Tang said. "Why don't we stop dismantling it for now? You should take a shower and rest."
"I'm not tired..." Chen Shu said, "I've loved tinkering with these things since I was a child. The sooner we finish dismantling them, the sooner we can renovate the elevator, and then everyone can escape."
"From childhood?" Yu Tang asked in surprise, "You liked disarming explosives when you were little?"
"Hmm..." Chen Shu didn't mince words and spoke frankly: "I should say that I just really enjoy making explosives. When I was a kid, I would make them, then take them apart, and then make them again. Over time, I figured these things out."
Yu Tang suddenly felt like he was about to be proven wrong.
Would a normal person enjoy making explosives?
Yu Tang couldn't help but ask, "By the way, when you first came to the game, weren't you very afraid of explosives and seemed quite panicked?"
“I wasn’t scared,” Chen Shu said. “I just didn’t realize what was happening. I thought it was someone’s prank, that it was all fake.”
"But now it seems that everything was true..."
“When the room caught fire before, I realized that the flames were real and could easily kill a person.”
He patted the still-running explosives and said, "I've seen the components of these explosives before, so I can judge their power. If all eighteen explosives detonate at the same time, all seven of us will be reduced to ashes."
At this point, he suddenly smiled and said to Yu Tang, "In other words, if you die here, you're truly dead..."
Chapter 31
Died for the fifth time for the villain (31)
"So, you want to kill everyone here?" Lu Qingyuan interrupted Chen Shu, asking him, "You could easily kill everyone here using your methods, right?"
"Are you crazy?" Lu Qingyuan continued, ignoring Yu Tang's attempts to pull him away. "You want to test the power of explosives, you want to destroy everything."
It's only because of the constraints of the real world that I've endured this long.
“Now that you’ve come to this game, you’ve discovered that everything is real. There are six people here besides you whom you can manipulate at will. Whether they live or die is entirely up to you. That’s why you’ve become so proactive and excited.” Lu Qingyuan’s words seemed to have a guiding power, causing Chen Shu to lose his composure for a moment.
But soon, Chen Shu couldn't help but laugh.
"Do you think this is a TV drama?" He glanced at Yu Tang and complained to Yu Tang about Lu Qingyuan: "I didn't believe you before when you said your younger brother was a chuunibyou, but now I do."
“I admit that I do have some quirks,” Chen Shu said. “But not the quirk of killing, but the quirk of getting more excited when things are dangerous.”
“I sometimes participate in extreme sports, but none of them are as exciting as this game.”
“Especially since there’s my favorite bomb here.” He stroked the surface of the bomb and said, “These beautiful and dangerous things are both cruel and fascinating tests for me.”
Yu Tang suddenly didn't know whether she should be happy that Chen Shu wasn't a bad person, or alarmed by his dangerous fetish.
Although Lu Qingyuan's question to Chen Shu was somewhat childish, it must be said that Chen Shu's quirks would be quite unusual in the real world.
If not properly controlled, he could be an extremely dangerous individual.
Or the kind that can destroy an entire building with the flick of a finger.
He couldn't help but ask, "May I ask what your family members do for a living?"
As soon as Yu Tang asked the question, Chen Shu froze.
His fingers paused, and after a long while, he suddenly raised his hand to wipe his reddened eyes.
He didn't speak, but instead stretched out his finger and drew a simple national flag on the soft soil, then wrote two words in pinyin below: 奸die (jian die).
Just as Yu Tang could see it clearly, he wiped the writing away with his hand.
"Perhaps few people in reality know about their achievements. But in my heart, they are heroes."
“I was eight years old when they died.” Chen Shu exhaled and said to Yu Tang, “The unfamiliar uncle and aunt came back with the things my parents left me and told me that the two people who were closest to me in this world died together in that dangerous mission.”
"Because the mission was carried out overseas, even their remains could not be brought back. All that was left for me were the wills they had written before their deaths."
Chen Shu's eyes reddened even more, but he didn't cry. Instead, he chuckled softly: "The suicide note contained all the things they wanted to tell me."
"My dad told me to control my temper and stop causing trouble like a jerk. He also told me to respect women and grow into a real man."
My mom also told me that I must be careful when choosing a girlfriend when I grow up.
If you can't offer someone a future, don't hold them back.
"They also said I shouldn't mess around with those messy things anymore, and I shouldn't even think about avenging them. Their only wish is for me to grow up healthy and happy..."
Yu Tang listened quietly, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
He never imagined that Chen Shu would be born into such a family.
He knew that espionage was a highly secretive profession, and that few people might know their real names or the contributions they made to the country until they died.
Moreover, the risks of this profession are so great that they are hard to estimate; a moment's carelessness can lead to death.
Yu Tang suddenly regretted his previous malicious assumptions about Chen Shu.
A genius, a family of spies, and parents who sacrificed their lives for the country—all these factors are enough to explain why Chen Shu developed his current personality.
“But I don’t intend to listen to them.” Chen Shu lowered his eyes, looking down at the red timer on the bomb, and said, “I still want to avenge them.”
"Moreover, after this experience, I am now completely certain that my fetish is incurable, and I absolutely love this kind of extremely dangerous environment."
“The closer it gets to this, the happier I become.” His smile widened. “If I make it out alive this time, I’ll choose to do what Mom and Dad do. But…”
Chen Shu put his finger to his lips and gestured for Yu Tang to be quiet: "Please keep this a secret for me, Mr. Yu."
"Hmm..." Yu Tang nodded: "Don't worry, I won't tell."
Before he could finish speaking, Lu Qingyuan hugged him from behind, rested his chin on his shoulder, and looked at Chen Shu: "I'm very curious, are you really able to control yourself from going astray?"
Yu Tang tried to push Lu Qingyuan away, but failed.
Looking at Chen Shu again, he saw that the young man was stunned for a moment when asked the question, and then continued to take the tools to dismantle the bomb, replying, "I don't know either."
After unscrewing a screw, he added, "But I can guarantee that I will never embarrass my parents."
Lu Qingyuan pulled Yu Tang back to the other side of the mattress, away from everyone's sight.
“I know the theme of your game this time.” Yu Tang, who had been silent all along, finally spoke.
A smile spread across his lips as he said, "Of the five people you chose, one is a private business owner who cares about his wife and children but cheats on them."
One is a young woman who is blinded by material desires and deceived by a man;
One is a genius bomb disposal expert born into a family of spies and orphaned;
The other two were gay couples who had never dared to confess their feelings, fearing that society would not accept them.
"These people may seem to have nothing in common on the surface, but upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that they all harbor hidden 'bombs' within them."
"A 'bomb' that could explode at any moment."
"You brought them here for this game just to watch these 'bombs' explode one after another, right?"
Yu Tang narrowed his eyes, poked Lu Qingyuan's chest with his finger, and said, "But you didn't expect that although their 'bomb' did explode, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could possibly be."
"On the contrary, these life-and-death ordeals forced them to see their own hearts clearly."
“I think you’re probably going to lose again this time,” Yu Tang concluded. “Next, all I need to do is adjust their relationship, and I’ll be able to get these players to escape on their own.”
Looking at Yu Tang's confident face, Lu Qingyuan felt a slight stirring in his heart.
Actually, winning or losing the game is no longer that important to him.
If he had to say something, he just wanted to see more of the angel's different expressions.
In retrospect, that was the right choice.
Lu Qingyuan didn't answer Yu Tang's question. Instead, he lay down on the soft cushion, reached out and pulled Yu Tang into his arms, kissing his forehead: "Okay, okay, good luck. But now it's bedtime..."
"Your dear brother is sleepy. As the older brother, shouldn't you do your duty and keep me company while I sleep?"
Chapter 32
Died for the fifth time for the villain (32)
Yu Tang pushed the clingy devil away a little, rested her head on it, and then saw that Lu Qingyuan had already closed his eyes.
Her raven-feather-like eyelashes trembled slightly.
Yu Tang couldn't help but flick it with his finger, but the young man grabbed his finger.
The next moment, he was sent into the devil's mouth.
The sharp teeth slowly rubbed against the skin of his fingers. Lu Qingyuan opened his dark eyes, which were filled with Yu Tang's image.
"Brother Yu, are you not sleeping because you want me to eat you up?"