The little one seemed lively, which made Levi feel an intense mix of elation, thankfulness, and relief. His baby’s body was warm, moving, and breathing! How would he not feel euphoric?

Yet, even though he was clearly very, very happy, his heart couldn’t help but feel a sharp stab.

A day before, he had been full of beautiful, extravagant hopes for the future. Yet now that his baby was awake, he could no longer immerse himself in his own idyllic fantasy. Everything was a beautiful but fleeting pipe dream. And it was now time to wake up and face the harsh reality.

He had nearly broken his own beloved treasure.

Destroyed with his own two hands what was the most precious to him.

He could no longer keep him. He didn’t deserve to keep him. Not in his arms, not at his side.

Nothing spoke of this fact more clearly than the struggling body in his arms. It frantically tried to get out of his hold as if his touch was corrosive. Get away from him as soon as possible, as far as possible.

Hah, it was to be expected. After what happened, their relationship would never again be the same. How would it be possible for it to remain the same after experiencing something so painful, so horrifying, so traumatic? To feel yourself suffocate, feel your body getting crushed, yet to be unable to do a thing. So small, so helpless.

Even he, Levi, wanted nothing to do with himself. Wishing he could escape from his skin.

Wishing he could be someone deserving of his baby.

His treasure deserved someone who’d make him happy and never hurt him. His treasure deserved a safe and blissful life.

Even… even if no one else will be able to love him as much as he, Levi, did… love wasn’t something that could be quantified in the first place. What use is there to love someone dearly, if all you do is hurt them? Isn’t this so-called great love too cheap?

He could grasp at straws, blame it all on the terrorists. But that would be nothing but lying to himself. Didn’t he destroy half of his mansion last night even without the terrorists? What if at that time, his baby had been lying by his side?

He was a ticking time bomb, and the best thing he could do for his baby was to just… to just let go.

But even though he knew that, he… he just couldn’t bring himself to let go! How could he let go of this person that meant everything to him? He had never been that selfless and noble, nor that self-destructive. Letting go might be the best for his baby, but to him, the act was no different from suicide.

He knew what should be done, but he just couldn’t jump off the edge himself.

He needed a push.

Thus, he could only stand there frozen, waiting for the guillotine suspended over his head to finally drop down and take away his life.

But as he waited for it, this guillotine known as Noah, abruptly ceased its movements.

Noah was, of course, completely unaware that he had woken up his pillow, for he was currently preoccupied with thoughts of how pitiful his brother-in-law was.

So pitiful, ah! In such a desperate time all alone and uncared for!

Finally, feeling like he’d explode if he didn’t voice out his inner outrage, Noah stopped trying to get out of Levi’s arms and started to tap on the light screen of his communicator writing a long, long message to his disappointing sister.

The disappointing sister who still didn’t even know her fiancé was the cause of her overtime: QAQ

Levi was dying to know what the little one was typing. Was he calling for help? Sending an SOS? He wanted to know but didn’t dare peek lest the other realized he was awake. He couldn’t face Noah, he didn’t dare face him. He didn’t even dare look at him. The only thing he could do was to pretend he wasn’t conscious.

Noah took a long time to word his official letter of admonishment which could basically be summed up as “Hurry back home and comfort your hubby!”

Blackie stared at the paragraphs of passive-aggressive text at a loss. Not only was his host encouraging his love rival to comfort and pamper his hubby, but he even managed to word it in such a persuasive and guilt-inducing way. Such a talent, ah!

After pressing the send button, Noah finally felt as if he’d gotten that stuffy feeling off his chest. He ignored the countless notifications and messages he’d received from his worried friends and colleagues and returned back to what he was previously doing – trying to wiggle out of Levi’s embrace.

Levi gritted his teeth. Sure enough, what was coming would eventually come.

He inhaled the lovely scent of his darling’s hair for one last time, and then, with a demeanor of a man that had nothing left to live for, he weakly released his grip on the other.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he had resolved himself to let him go, the other’s struggle abruptly ceased once again.

However, this time there were no tapping or any other movements. The two of them both just laid there in silence, for several long moments.

And then, something soft and warm, yet incomparably ticklish entered Levi’s ear, “Brother? Are you awake?”

Levi naturally continued to play dead.

However, the way his body reflexively stiffened was all the response Noah needed.

“Sorry for waking you up… I-I needed to go to the toilet… don’t mind me, just continue sleeping. I’ll… I’ll be right back!” Noah jumped off the bed with flushed cheeks. He couldn’t straight out say that he had been relentlessly fighting to get out of bed because he was dying out of embarrassment! Thus, toilet excuse it is!

Noah faced the door to the bathroom, but in the end, didn’t take a single step forwards. Instead, he glanced back at Levi.

Levi looked much better than he did this morning, but these few hours of sleep were nowhere near enough to make up for what happened in the last 24 hours. While this morning Levi looked like a zombie, right now he looked like a vampire. Still undead, but less... dead.

“Brother?” Noah tentatively called out.

He again received no response. However, now that Noah was paying attention, he wouldn’t miss any of the little telltale signs. Levi’s mental power was now clearly much more active than previously when he had been asleep. It was alert and attentive, thus he was clearly not just awake but very aware of his surroundings.

And judging by the increasingly chaotic movements of his mental power, Levi was distressed and getting more upset by the second.