Supernatural World Chapter 30: Acting Prowess

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

Cesar lowered his head and kissed those soft lips.

The instant their lips touched, some kind of softness was transferred instantly to the bottom of his heart, practically melting away his cold exterior and all of the firmness in his heart so that he no longer cared about anything. After two years, he had once again encountered Finch and kissed him, yet it was because of such a ridiculous excuse…

To conceal the longing in his heart for Finch.

Because just then, Cesar had seen Finch become dazed when he saw the paper man, and Cesar had, ridiculously, felt jealous, jealous of an NPC that wasn’t even conscious.

You think that that paper man’s good-looking so you just look at him without a care in the world. You think that Xie Yan is your idol, so you express your fondness for him so unscrupulously. It’s so easy, so simple for you to like a person, just like when you liked me at the time.

But you don’t know that I didn’t appear in front of you by accident. I’ve known you longer than you’ve known me.

As Cesar thought about these things, he couldn’t help but deepen the kiss, wanting to press Finch closer to himself so that he couldn’t escape, and so those eyes couldn’t look at another man in a daze!

At this moment, Cesar didn’t hesitate to think about this.

However, he saw Finch’s pained expression and heard his soft grunt.

The sound was like a switch that instantly extinguished the longing and jealousy that was suppressed in Cesar’s heart. His gaze became a little cold as he slowly let go.

Finch could hardly breathe when he was kissed, and he instinctively reached out to push Cesar away. Unexpectedly, he had pushed Cesar away very easily… When he had kissed Finch just then, Cesar had been so fierce and forceful that Finch somehow felt that he wouldn’t be able to push him away.

Finch looked away and lightly bit his lower lip, his heart racing. In reality, Finch had felt something stir in his heart from Cesar’s kiss, but fortunately… fortunately they were just acting.

The paper prime minister was looking at them and had remained silent the entire time.

Cesar looked at him and said lazily and impatiently, “What were you saying?”

Gongsun Jin lowered his gaze and said, “I have already prepared adequately for the Autumn Hunt, Your Majesty. Do you have any other orders?”

Cesar said dully, “You can arrange it.”

Gongsun Jin didn’t say anything else and left, and when he did, he glanced at Finch with faintly concealed sadness. However, the angle wasn’t too three-dimensional anymore, and Finch was still immersed in thinking about Cesar’s kiss, so he merely gave Gongsun Jin a perfunctory glance before looking away.

In the blink of an eye, only Finch and Cesar were left.

They returned to the bedroom, and Finch felt that the atmosphere was a little awkward. He wanted to say something to lighten it, and speaking of it… he hadn’t expected Cesar to be so good at acting and improvise so perfectly. He had perfectly captured the emperor’s anger and faintly concealed jealousy! Cesar really did seem to be jealous.

Thus, Finch lamented, “I didn’t expect for you to be so good at acting, it’s a pity you’re not in the entertainment industry.”

Cesar paused and looked back to see Finch’s admiring gaze. Suddenly, Cesar got a lump in his throat and felt a little hurt. Originally, he had been very uneasy and even considered confronting Finch now… but Finch only thought that he was good at acting and hadn’t thought too much about it.

This realization was like a bucket of cold water being poured on him, and Cesar smiled wanly, saying coldly, “Is that so? You’re also quite good at acting, do you like acting?”

Finch instinctively felt that Cesar wasn’t too happy. Could it be because he had been forced to ‘flirt’ with Finch? Finch quickly changed the topic. “I’m not that good, um, aren’t we just buying time so we can find the book?”

Compared to acting, of course their lives were more important!

Finch was scared of the sudden awkward silence.

After encountering Cesar again, they would always fall into a sudden silence…

In order to avoid this scary awkwardness, Finch continued flipping through books, not letting go of any clues. The paper servants in the palace dutifully brought them meals, and fortunately, the meals weren’t made out of paper. Otherwise, Finch felt that he would have starved to death before finding the book.

In the blink of an eye, night had fallen, and the two of them were staying in the same room again.

Finch cautiously laid down on one side of the bed, trying to occupy as little space as he could. Actually, he didn’t mind laying a little closer to Cesar, but Cesar’s aura was so scary…

Cesar was laying with his arms crossed and eyes closed, pretending that he didn’t notice Finch’s small, cautious movements.

Cesar felt angry and amused, and he wondered what Finch was scared of. Could it be that he was scared Cesar would beat him up?

If he wanted to, he would’ve done so a long time ago!

Cesar inexplicably recalled what happened two years ago.

Actually, meeting Finch was accidental.

At the time, he had been in City G to carry out a mission and had accidentally discovered that Finch had been involved in a plane collision event. However, Finch hadn’t been aware of it, and the event wasn’t too serious, so Cesar had resolved it easily. However, the significance of it wasn’t simple, because it was the first time they had discovered that a person could affect a plane collision event.

Because of Finch, the projection field had gotten stronger. In other words, Finch had caused the event. Everything was still uncertain and unknown, and the only thing they were sure of was that Finch had something to do with that event.

From that moment on, the Foundation had kept an eye on Finch, and Cesar was the one who had gone to meet him.

The meeting wasn’t accidental, but falling in love was.

Sometimes, after meeting a person, they would inadvertently enter your world and into your line of sight. Then, they would take root in your life, and it would be very difficult to erase them from it. There was no reason to like them, but sometimes, you do.

And after?

Cesar opened his eyes and glanced at Finch, who was lying beside him.

He had already fallen asleep.

The chairman had been dissatisfied with Cesar’s actions and believed that he wouldn’t be able to get any information from Finch, so the chairman had given him more radical orders.

Sometimes, for success and for the world, some sacrifices must be made. But that day, Cesar thought that if the sacrifice was Finch, then he wasn’t willing to. Besides, he believed that things hadn’t gotten to that point yet, and everything was simply groundless speculation. There was not enough proof of Finch’s influence, because no matter how one looked at it, Finch was just an ordinary person, so Cesar thought that they still had time.

But sometimes, maintaining things and protecting someone wasn’t that simple.

In the end, in order to obtain more decision-making power in the Foundation, Cesar had chosen to take on even more responsibilities and give more things to it.

At the time, had Cesar ever thought about giving Finch up?

Probably not.

Until that day he returned to Finch’s house, when Finch had suggested breaking up without hesitation, telling Cesar to leave… At the time, Cesar was finally forced to realize that him doing whatever it took to protect Finch was simply wishful thinking.

For Finch, their relationship hadn’t been worth it anymore. He just hadn’t invested deeply enough in it. 

Thus, Cesar didn’t seem to have an excuse to stay.

There was no need to drag things out.

If, at the time, Finch hadn’t happened to break up with him, then perhaps they would be in a different situation right now? Sometimes, things only ended up the way they did because of a coincidental combination of circumstances.

Letting something slip by was simply letting something slip by.

Cesar parted his lips in the hint of a self-ridiculing smile.

But at the time, when you appeared in front of me again, I knew that everything was still unavoidable. The chairman wants to know your secrets, and just like two years ago… we don’t have that much time to wait slowly.

In that case, deliberately estranging you is ridiculous and meaningless. It’s not that I don’t know this, it’s just that… I probably still have some ridiculous hopes.

I wish you can live just as you did before.

There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with living carefreely and in ignorance.

Cesar rolled to his side and raised his hand, wanting to touch the person beside him. In the tranquil night, his every breath and heartbeat was magnified and impossible to conceal.

Just when Cesar’s hand was about to touch Finch’s face, a commotion sounded from outside.

Cesar frowned slightly and sat up.

Finch had been sleeping lightly, so he was also startled awake by the commotion. He rubbed his eyes blearily and looked at Cesar.

Cesar asked, “What’s happening?”

Finch thought for a moment facepalmed, saying, “I remember!” Then, he hesitated, but when he heard rapid footsteps from outside, he knew that he couldn’t delay things, so he said in one go, “Because of what you… did to me during the day, the empress heard about it and didn’t like how the emperor was favoring a hostage. She thought that Young Lord Xiao was trying to seduce the emperor, so she furiously came to, um, catch them red-handed…”

Cesar gritted his teeth and said one word at a time, “I… have an empress?”

Finch looked down.

Cesar thought, This is such an important matter and plot point, yet you didn’t even think to mention it before? And you can still fall asleep?!

Finch seemed to sense Cesar’s practically murderous gaze and he flinched, saying in embarrassment, “When the empress comes in, she’ll request to take me away. Don’t worry, nothing will really happen. You just need to express your indifference towards me and then hand me over to the empress!”

There was no reply for a while, so Finch cautiously looked up.

Cesar’s gaze was cold and ridiculing as he scoffed, “Who’s worried about you?” Do I even need to act like I’m indifferent towards you?!

At this time, the eunuch knocked on the door, scared. “Your Majesty, the empress requests to see you.”

From his trembling voice, Finch could tell that being stuck between two powerful people who might kill him at any time was very miserable for the eunuch… It seemed that living as a paper person wasn’t easy either.

Cesar stood up and said coldly, “Come in.”

As soon as he said this, the door was pushed open, and the empress walked in mightily with two maids behind her. She was wearing luxurious clothes, and her appearance was beautiful and dazzling. First, she bowed to Cesar, and then, her cold gaze landed on Finch, who hadn’t had enough time to get out of the bed!

Finch was silent.

The empress laughed coldly. “Your Majesty, Young Lord Xiao is a man and a hostage, yet he’s so shameless as to try to use his looks to win over others. You would be laughed upon for having such a lowly person stay near you.”

Cesar’s expression was unwavering as he said indifferently, “Then what do you suggest I do?” 

The empress said, “Please hand him over for me to deal with.”

As she said this, she looked nervously at Cesar, because she had heard that the emperor liked Young Lord Xiao a lot, and it was also because of this that she had come here so hastily.

Unexpectedly, Cesar didn’t seem to have any intention of refusing as he said curtly, “Then bring him away, it happens that he’s lonely and tired.”

The empress was stunned, as she hadn’t expected it would go this smoothly. She smiled gently. “Then I won’t bother you any longer. Right… why don’t I leave my maids here to serve you?”

The maids behind the empress were beautiful and stunning, and they were a pair of twins.

Finch was amazed, and his heart nearly fluttered despite being homosexual. However, he remembered that they were only made out of paper, so Finch was sure that Cesar wouldn’t be swayed. He relaxed at once.

Cesar glanced at Finch’s expression and immediately guessed what he was thinking. He felt even angrier as he looked away and said coldly to the empress, “No need, you can leave.”

When the empress saw Cesar’s displeased expression, she didn’t dare to stay and motioned for the guards to bring Finch away. The guards immediately dragged Finch off the bed and brought him away from Cesar’s bedroom.

Finch didn’t dare to resist as he obediently followed them out.

Although he had read the book before and thus knew that nothing should happen here, when  Finch saw the door close behind him he felt a little scared about being alone without Cesar and instead with a group of murderous paper people.

Finch seemed to have made Cesar angry again, and he wasn’t sure if Cesar would help him if something went wrong. Just then, Cesar had acted so cold and heartless…

His acting really was realistic.

Fortunately, these paper people followed the plot rigidly and didn’t do anything to Finch. They only coldly ridiculed him and then threw him into a woodshed before locking the door.

When the door closed, Finch sighed in relief.

He just had to get through tonight.

The woodshed was quite nice in that no one would mistreat him, and the only bad thing was that it was chilly. There weren’t any blankets on the ground, and Finch tried a lot of sleeping positions but still couldn’t get comfortable.

Finch took off his jacket and folded it into a pillow, but now, his body was cold. Thus, he put his jacket back on and curled up in the flattest part of the ground he could find. However, he tossed and turned for a while and still wasn’t able to sleep… The ground was too hard.

Finch, who had always been quite spoiled, couldn’t fall asleep.

After a while, Finch abruptly sat bolt upright, his face pale.

Shit! Just then, he had only been talking about this part of the plot and had forgotten to tell Cesar what would happen next. He had also forgotten to tell Cesar when he was supposed to come to pick Finch up, and Cesar didn’t even know that he was supposed to come tomorrow!

Finch finally got a little anxious, and he quietly looked out through the slit of the door. However, the two paper guards were standing tall outside the door, and by the looks of it, hoping that they would fall asleep was pretty much impossible…

Finch wanted to cry.

He really was screwed this time. Suddenly, a gust of wind caused the shabby window that had just opened to bang on the wall. Then, a person landed in front of Finch!

Finch was speechless.

Was he hallucinating?

The two of them looked at each other.

Finch was dumbfounded.

Cesar frowned. Originally, he hadn’t planned to come over; after all, Finch had said that there wouldn’t be any danger, but Cesar was worried and had come to check on him.

Cesar said indifferently, “Were you trying to find me just then?”

Finch nodded. “But you…”

Although Finch had hoped that Cesar would come… Cesar coming here wasn’t part of the plot! Finch hastily looked out the slit in the door and saw that the paper guards that had been standing upright just then were now just two piles of paper shreds on the floor…

Finch couldn’t help but shiver.

Cesar crossed his arms, his expression indifferent. “Just now, I tried something out. As long as I kill them before they can react, or before the other NPCs find them, it won’t cause a chain reaction. In other words, the NPCs aren’t monitoring our current actions, so as long as we aren’t discovered, then nothing will happen.”

Killing them before they could react, how fast must Cesar be… Finch had some mixed feelings.

When he looked at Cesar’s cold expression again, his entire body emanating an unapproachable murderous aura, he really did look scary——Logically, Finch should be scared of Cesar, yet Finch also couldn’t be scared of him because Cesar had never harmed him before.

Even though he had given Finch the cold shoulder earlier, he still came, regardless of the risks. Although Cesar made it sound easy, coming here was still risky. After all, before they tried, no one knew what would trigger the NPCs’ aggression, and avoiding every paper person on the way here wasn’t that simple.

Finch suddenly looked up at Cesar.

Cesar saw that Finch seemed to want to say something, so Cesar raised an eyebrow. “What do you want to say?”

Finch was silent for a moment before saying, “Could it be that you were worried about me?”

Cesar froze at once.