#also lost an audio recording of an interesting conference like fuck my life

[did-we-imagine]

Hi never “both sides” a genocide again please and thank you

I'm not sure what you mean to say, but I feel compelled to show empathy to all civilian victims in general because all lives are equal, and it is not to whitewash Israel or to minimize their war crimes (aka actual genocide/ethnic cleansing to further their colonial agenda).

One can feel bad for all civilian victims without buying into the criminal doctrine of zionism or being an israel/IDF apologist.

Dehumanizing civilians on either side is never good as it allows for racist/fanatic/murderous/extremist ideas to fester, which can lead to terrible tragedies. (This is exactly what is happening to the Palestinians in particular right now, they are being vilified through malicious propaganda. Jewish people went through the same during WWII with the nazis. It also happened to the Germans after during the final parts of WWII. Many women were raped by the Allies' soldiers...) . Here is an example of a mixed family.

I believe that the previous point is very important because there have been various extremists thinking that they were avenging the wronged party in their eyes through hate crimes against muslims / jews (the american 71 years old dude who killed that poor palestinian child and severely attacked his mother, and many others, which you can read about in this link).

I do not believe one bit that Israel's repeated attacks on hapless civilians in churches/hospitals are justifiable or defendable at all.

In conclusion, I would like to add a few very important points, especially for the people who defend Israel & think that pro-palestine people are antisemitic/racists/whatever:

-> This is not a religious war between jews and muslims. This is a colonizer entity attacking/exiling the colonized party. There is no reason to hate followers of either religion. In fact, palestine is a multi-religious country. There are muslim, christian and even jewish palestinians.

-> The palestinians are also semitic.

-> Right now, Israel is using Hamas' action as a justification to dish out full on genocide. However, as per international law, collective punishment of a people can never be justified by any means. Friendly reminder that Hamas =/= Palestinians and Zionism =/= Judaism:

https://www.aaiusa.org/library/debunking-all-palestinians-are-hamas

-> There are much more complex politics at play( FYI, other countries are using this conflict as a proxy war, esp USA/Iran ), considering that Hamas was financed by Iran, Hezbollah, and even Netanyahou/far right politicians from Israel who want to implement a one-state (Israel only) solution. The last category wanted to destabilize the Palestinian Authority & avoid the formation of a palestinian state through this.

Sources :

https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/netanyahou-a-t-il-dit-que-transferer-de-largent-au-hamas-etait-la-bonne-strategie-pour-contrecarrer-la-creation-dun-etat-palestinien-20231011_F5AKUAMMNVENDLJ6WBXLFPJETE/%3foutputType=amp

It's all the more jarring that this is french media saying this since the majority of their media is pro-israel.

https://archive.ph/H8LSL

-> Last but not least, this is not an equal war (for those who think that Israel is in their right). The infamous statistics of casualties. Pre-7th october 2023 :

https://www.statista.com/chart/16516/israeli-palestinian-casualties-by-in-gaza-and-the-west-bank/

Yeah, more people are dying on the Palestinian side...Because the genocide/colonization project has been ongoing for 75 years. This is proof on its own that Israel is a criminal state. Who woulda thunk?

Current stats:

Http://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker

->Israel is using this attack as an excuse to further its expansionist agenda, it's not quite bothered by the hostages' actual fates 🤡 :

[curiousview-blog]

In spite of, not because of: the myth of the ‘high functioning alcoholic’

For 18 weeks now, I have been sharing my writing: ‘How to stop drinking: A guide for normal people’. It’s a series in which I am sharing my reflections on living, and staying sober, in a fun, honest, down-to-earth way to show that an alcohol-free life is possible. Previous chapters can be found below on www.samwarren.net

For a long time I wore my ‘high functioning alcoholic’ badge with pride. It’s a term used in psychology and addiction sciences to refer to heavy drinkers who – as the name suggests – by and large, have functioning lives, and may even be over-achievers. I’d fall into that category for sure. My friends and I romped through our 20s and 30s being very successful, while lurching from drunken adventure to drunken dramas. During my most chaotic drinking years, I raised two teenage boys, achieved a PhD, a string of academic publications, teaching awards and research grants, which culminated in securing a tenured Professorship within five years of graduating from my doctoral studies. Finally, aged 40, I moved to a different part of the country for the first time in my life. No-one could ever accuse me of fitting the pattern of ‘the typical alcoholic’ down-and-out – crashing cars, losing jobs, shoplifting, being homeless and all the other wildly inaccurate assumptions we make about alcoholism.

The new Dr. Warren throwing her hat at graduation (2006)

Lots of my academic friends were/are heavy drinking high achievers, and if you’re reading this as someone who’s questioning their drinking choices, I have no doubt that you’ve also stacked up successes in your life while spending half your life (or more) drunk – career, family, even sports? And this is what stops us from stopping because nothing has got so bad that it gives us a sobering slap in the face. Never mind that all these achievements are marked by extreme pressure, chaos, remedial work, lies and the need to push through debilitating hangovers with violently shaking hands, and heads down toilets… We’re the high functioning gang, right? Hell, we NEED this mess to do our best!

I once got ‘accidentally’ paralytic the night before flying to Dublin to do a research interview. On the audio recording you hear me excuse myself to go to the bathroom to be sick. Later, the taxi had to pull over so I could dry retch into the gutter. High functioning? High functioning shame, more like. Another time, on the night before the first day of term, we had a lock-in at our local pub. It was a Tuesday night. I went out at 10:30pm ‘for one’ with the pool team to share their post-match sandwiches and don’t remember getting home. Somehow I managed to pour myself onto the train after 4 hours sleep max, still drunk, and take my opening class. I was more worried about the fact that I had hairy legs and was wearing a summer dress than I was about the fact that I was about to teach a class whilst intoxicated. I have SO MANY stories of conference benders, two hours sleep and throwing up minutes before I presented important work… crawling into work almost on my hands and knees to teach, or pulling all nighters to make up lost drunk time in the days and weeks before to meet my deadlines. It was addictively exciting. I told myself I loved it.

Art of Management Conference (2004) The night culminated in a tequila bar at 6am. I missed the whole of the next day’s sessions as I was so violently ill. I probably earned kudos for it.

I’m not telling you this to show off my stripes. I’m not recounting these tales as part of the glorification of getting pissed in our society. I’m telling them to myself (as well as you) because I need to remember how unbelievably shit it was. I’m telling them to counter the rosy memories I also carry with me, that in a funny old way I miss those days. It’s what I used to believe made me interesting. Wild and funny. As you’ll read in various ways in these posts, I am a person who enjoys intensity – the rush you get when you pull something off against the odds is incredibly seductive for me. Rather than standing as a clear lesson not to ever do that IDIOTIC thing again, instead my adrenalin pumps and I think FUCK YEAH!!, high five-ing myself and anyone in reaching distance. All I ever remember from that experience is ‘Ha! I can do this, no sweat… Now quick, get the beers in, my hangover is thundering in’…

I still have the same patterns in my life now I’m sober. I’m an accomplished procrastinator and replicating the same kind of frenzied deadline pushing. So its slowly dawned on me that maybe my achievements were in spite of the drink, not because of it. I need the excitement and pressure of having too much to do in a short space of time, and a big lesson from my sobriety has been to see that drink was just a tool of these behavioural traits and not the root cause. If you are the kind of person who puts everything off until it’s almost too late, taking on so much that its humanly impossible to get through your to-do list, or someone who works in erratic bursts of energy interspersed with long naps and faffing time, then you’ll still be this person when you’re not drinking too.

It’s been a while since I wrote these words and my reflex is to feel more than a little sad that over three years later this kind of procrastinating pattern is still happening in my life. Not least because I boldly wrote a post on this blog a few years ago declaring my procrastination habits were gone for good!! But maybe it’s just something about me I need to accept. I am a ‘just in time’ person, and actually I do some fucking brilliant work against the odds. And it was not alcohol that drove the great work, but me. Elizabeth Gilbert talks at length about how much she detests the ‘tortured artist’ stereotype in her book Big Magic – that somehow we have to be anguished, or behave like an utter c*nt to those around us in order for our creativity to fly. I think the idea of the high-functioning alcoholic is very similar and it’s yet another myth that ensures we continue to drink. I did great work, even though I continually put the most debilitating blocks in my own path to see how badly I could trip myself up. And what that taught me was to hurdle and swerve extremely well, I won gold in that race and it’s still paying dividends. This post is a day late because I left it to the last minute to edit. What beautiful synergy.

[writer-rochelle]

Statesman:Ablaze Ch.1: Rules

(a/n: i’m not sure what happened to my original post, so here it is again. i’m having to use my phone’s hotspot and it’s not the most reliable thing so i apologize for all the mixups) ft ocs by: @sunshinepascal @harrytags @pomelloe-me & myself

“Huh, what’d you say?” 

“Have you seriously not heard a word I just said, Pomegranate?” Alicia King said, sighing. Stakeouts were the worst, and usually being paired up with her good friend Pom Graham, they could be a lot of fun. But it seemed that the young southern woman’s mind wasn’t in the mint green bug they had been in for the past 5 hours. 

“I said I haven’t heard you talk about Whiskey lately...everything okay with y’all?” Alicia asked her friend. Pom had until very recently jabbered on and on about the older Agent Whiskey taking her under his wing. It wasn’t often that the veteran agents took much interest in the new recruits, but Pom was a family friend and as he affectionately called her, “his little pomegranate”.

“No, the stupid cunt has been too fuckin’ busy doing shit in New York to reply to my messages,” Pom said, scrolling through her phone. She didn’t want to admit the sense of abandonment she was starting to feel. She was 24 years old, for fuck's sake, not 4.  She was usually one to share anything that was bothering her, and she knew Alicia would understand, but this was something that she wanted to keep reserved. Maybe she was just overthinking.

“Absinthe! Come in Agent Absinthe!”

Alicia reached up and lightly placed a finger on the left leg of her green aviators. Instantly she could see into the Statesman meeting room. A quick glance showed that Champagne was seated at the head of the table, and from where she (or rather her hologram) sat she could tell she was at the opposite end. Next to him was Agent Cognac and across from her was Agent Whiskey’s hologram. It still never ceased to amaze her how incredibly talented Ginger Ale was. Every weapon, every piece of equipment, hell even every fiber of clothing the agents were given all had Ginger's magic touch. 

“Is Agent Rum still there with you?” Champagne asked, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with the cloth square in the front pocket of his jacket, before placing them back onto his face. He gestured towards Ginger, who walked forward from where she had been standing off to the side with her clipboard. As soon as the other Agent was present they could continue their debrief. 

“The old man is asking for you” Alicia laughed, nudging Pom who had once again turned her attention to the view out her window. Pom rolled her eyes, pushing her tortoise framed glasses onto the bridge of her nose. 

“You rang?” she said, making her voice deep and gravelly like Lurch, the Franken-butler from the Addams Family. The girls erupted into a fit of giggles, as Champagne shook his head in disappointment.

 “She gets that tomfoolery from watching you!” He said, pointing an accusatory finger at Agent Whiskey’s hologram, the man in question shrugging with a smirk on his face. Champagne turned his attention back to the girls. 

“  When y’all are finished, I’d like to carry on with this debrief  .” Alicia silently shook with the aftermath of the giggle fit she and Pom had pitched themselves into, but quickly grew serious. If Agent Whiskey was on the call it had to be of grave importance.

“Well I’ve got some good news, and some bad news,” Champagne said, regarding the two holograms at the end of the table. Agent Cognac shifted in her seat next to her boss and grandfather, she was familiar with the temperament of her two friends and braced herself for the fit they were about to throw.      

“Well, the good news is we found out where those rascals are keeping the Senator's daughter hostage. The bad news is that it's not in that warehouse y’all have been staking out all evenin’.” He pulled a fat cigar out of his jacket pocket, passing it under his nose, sucking the smell of it into his nostrils.  

“What the fuck, Champ?!!! You could have told us sooner!!” Pom shouted, she was seething. The color of her face turned red from anger. Not only had she already missed the weekly update of the Mandalorian on Disney+, but she had been stuck in a cramped car with a mix of Alicia’s perfume, her own deodorant, and the leftover stench of the KFC they had eaten. She was on the verge of a headache, and more importantly on the verge of beating the old man with her bat. 

“I told you she was gonna be pissed.” Whiskey muttered. Champ glared at his hologram before continuing his spiel.  

“As I was sayin’, Tequila was wrong; it turns out she's being held in the basement of her own house. Ginger Ale, if you’ll please?” Champ said, watching as the resident tech wiz pulled up security footage on a screen on the wall of the conference room. The Agents watched as Molly Dubois was dragged out of her house and shoved into an unmarked car, only to be returned hours later (still bound with her head in a sack) back to the mansion. 

“As it turns out, with the elections coming up soon, the Senator is looking to boost his image with the voters to ensure he’s re-elected. We were able to intercept some phone calls, I’ll be sending you all the audio recordings to listen to on your own time.” Ginger said, tapping around on her clipboard. Alicia looked over at Pom, the two agents seemingly on the same brain wave. They both knew that Senator Xavier Dubois was a ruthless, greasy, piece of crap. He would do anything to keep the state of Kentucky under his control. 

“What do you need us to do, Champ?” Alicia said, revving her green bug to life and buckling her seat belt. No need for discretion when it wasn’t the right location. “Pom, I know your ass is not wearing a seatbelt, bitch,” Alicia said quietly, stepping on the brake, cackling when Pom lurched forward in her seat colliding with the dashboard. 

“AAARGH! Fuck you!! You didn’t have to fucking brake check me!” Pom yelled, hitting Alicia’s arm before buckling her seatbelt and crossing her arms over her chest.  

“Alright kids, that’s enough! Y’all should know better than to be acting a fool and havin' an attitude during debriefs and y’all are just goofing off, actin’ like y’all ain’t got no good sense.” Champagne said harshly, watching as their holograms faded out. “Whiskey, I want you flying out to HQ asap!” 

“Sure thing boss, I’m on my way.” Whiskey said, winking at Agent Cognac before his hologram also faded out. 

Other agents sitting at the table began to remove their glasses, mirroring the actions of Whiskey, their respective holograms also disappearing. Champ and Agent Cognac were the only ones remaining in the room. Ginger, having slipped out quietly to return to her lab. Cognac turned, realizing her grandpa was staring at her closely. She blushed as she slipped her glasses into the pocket of her jacket.

“What?” She said, sheepishly pouring herself a glass of water. Champagne glared knowingly at her, putting an end to any other words about to come out of her cherry-red lips. After the tragic death of her parents (both statesman alum), he made it a point to take her in and continue to raise her as his own. He'd be damned if he let his granddaughter fall off onto the wrong side of the law. 

“Don’t think you can pull the wool over my eyes, young lady. I may be old, but I haven’t lost my sight yet!” The elder agent said with great discipline, shaking his finger at her like she was five again. He rose from his seat, moving to stand in front of the window with his hands clasped behind his back. 

“Why are you doing this to me, Carey? You know the rules! No-“

“No fraternizing with fellow Agents! I know, Grandpa,” she said, moving to stand next to him. She felt guilty; Champ had put his neck out for her countless times, hell, he was the sole reason she was still alive. The same people who had killed her parents were set out to kill her too. If he hadn't stepped in when he had….the thought of it made her shudder. 

“First of all, don’t interrupt your old man, Carey Ann. Secondly, if you know you shouldn’t, why do it?! Whiskey is a highly skilled agent; but when he’s off the clock? Jack Daniels is not the kind of man I’d want dating my granddaughter.” Champagne said. Carey sighed, knowing that he was only looking out for her. But if he knew the true extent of the relationship she had with Whiskey, he would grow even more furious.  

“It’s nothing, I promise! I just assist him with things around the New York offices from time to time...” She said innocently, turning to grab her jacket and head for the door.

“Well those ‘things’,” Champagne made air quotes around the words ‘things’, following the young woman with his cold gaze, “Those things better not be in his pants, missy! I’ll tan both of your hides; I don’t give a rat’s ass if you’re 30 years old, damn it!” His words falling on deaf ears, his granddaughter having already disappeared out the door. He sighed in defeat. Wrangling these kids was starting to get harder and harder. 

“Lord help me.”

a/n: i’m real upset, i have no clue what happened to the original post. I apologize for the mess. Thanks for reading <3 roach

Statesman: Ablaze is a multi-part fic that is a collaboration between myself and the ladies tagged. After throwing our ideas around late one night, this baby was born. We are very excited to share this with y’all, and hope you like reading it as much as @pomelloe-me and I do writing it. 

[embhm]

Chapter 190: GU HAI successfully ESCAPES

NOTE: Do you ever sometimes feel like you’re the only one who likes BL? Ever feel like sometimes you want to discuss the chapter(s) in a more active and dynamic environment? If so, please join us on the “Addicted” chat channel on the LINE app. Also, don’t mind the chattering that tends to happen sometimes, just jump in there and introduce yourself, say hello. If they want to “interrogate” you, feel free to decline if you don’t want to. If you have the LINE app, message Sae (Line ID: duyihan79) or myself (Line ID: alecvise) if you’re interested for a chat invite. Hope to see and talk with more of you guys there.

Once again, I would like to thank Sae for the translation. She and the other translators are working hard to get the translation to us in their free time. I <3 you all. Also once again, please be advised that the “Addicted: The Novel” blog will always update the chapters earlier than on Tumblr. Visit https://addictedthenovel.wordpress.com for up to date postings. <Alec>

NO SPOILERS PLEASE!!!, in the comments or anywhere on this account. We have not finished reading the novel. No copy/paste and all that other shenanigans either. Votes/likes/comments are highly appreciated.

While reading, if available, please read the footnotes at the end of the chapter for clarification.

Translator: Sae            Editor: Alec

As always, THANK YOU for reading and enjoying the journey with our INTREPID boys:

GU HAI & BAI LUO YIN

《你丫上瘾了》

Chapter 190: GU HAI successfully ESCAPES

Acting as if he did not hear anything, Bai Luo Yin remained to the side and continued to speak garrulously without getting to the point. “Before he died, his face was completely purple. His lips were so parched like that of an old dried up tree bark. He kept on crying out miserably: Brother ah, brother ah, I’m really thirsty. My fingers are all broken from being chewed on. I drank my blood dry already...brother ah, brother ah. I’m really hungry. My stomach is stuffed with tree roots and insects from the soil that was dug up. Brother ah, brother ah, I’m really cold. All my toes are all split open, mutilated and bloody……”

Hearing Bai Luo Yin’s dreadful voice, Gu Yang shouted coldly at him to stop, “Don’t take me as Gu Hai. I am not that easily swayed.”

“AHHH!!!”

Bai Luo Yin suddenly screamed without any warning sign at all. His voice was so loud and crisp, that it provoked Gu Yang’s pupils to widen.

“I see Da Hai. I can really see Da Hai. He’s under your bed……”

After saying that, he immediately leaned down at the side of the bed; his upper body scuttled beneath, while his legs and feet remained on top. By then his head had already reached the floor. There was an obvious sound of excitement in his voice that he could not suppress once he spoke again.

“Da Hai, say whatever it is you want to say. I’m listening.”

Suddenly, the veins on Gu Yang’s temple jumped; unable to bear the thought of it, he kicked Bai Luo Yin off the bed.

Even then, Bai Luo Yin continued to speak to the air beneath the bed although no one else was present in the room. The way he spoke was clear, precise and orderly, to the point that it seemed like he actually did hear something. Many of the words used were very sensational, all said for Gu Yang to hear. But, Gu Yang pretended to be deaf. Bai Luo Yin was like an audio recording device, patiently and painstakingly saying those words over and over again.

At long last, Bai Luo Yin successfully tugged at Gu Yang’s supposedly impenetrable nerves and annoyed him. Unable to continue bearing with this tedious behavior, Gu Yang quickly and violently got up and grabbed Bai Luo Yin’s belt, with the intention of hauling him back up onto the bed. But, Bai Luo Yin’s belt loosened and gravity took control by dragging his legs and feet off the bed. Gu Yang’s eyes merely widened as he watched the boy’s entire body slip to the ground, leaving only the belt in his hand.

“Da Hai……I’m here to accompany you. I’ll go with you…” whispered Bai Luo Yin listlessly, his strength dwindling along with his breath.

Looking morose, Gu Yang lugged his body off the bed. He wanted to pull The foolish boy up, however, he quickly noticed that Bai Luo Yin’s body was really stiff. Within seconds, anxiety overflowed his face as he made haste and switched the lamp on. What he saw then was Bai Luo Yin’s sickly countenance, depleted of all colors. His eyes were opened wider than usual while his lips trembled as if wanting to say something but was unable to.

Gu Yang carried Bai Luo Yin onto the bed and quickly called for a doctor to come over. By the time he hung up the call, Bai Luo Yin had already lost consciousness.

“Fuck! I’ve lost to you. You didn’t use this method to keep a hold on Gu Hai, did you?”

Gu Yang stood at the side of the bed at a loss for words, with a dumbstruck expression trickling from the side of his face. Even the wrinkles between his brows seemed to have tightened tremendously. Since the moment Bai Luo Yin requested help from him, he had already decided he would help. As for his unreasonable demands, it was purely out of evil delight.

First of all, he wanted to tease Bai Luo Yin and secondly, he wanted to make him give up and back out of this difficult situation. Only then could he have a smooth and peaceful night of sleep so that he could be energetic enough to go to the military base the next day.

Who would have guessed that in the end, he himself was unexpectedly extorted and wronged by Bai Luo Yin instead!!

=====

Early in the morning, Gu Wei Ting received a call from Gu Yang.

“Uncle, are you at the military base?”

Finding it rather peculiar to hear his nephew’s voice so early, Gu Wei Ting quickly constructed a defensible wall in his mind to guard against any sudden attacks. “I’m here. What’s going on?”

“Oh. I have something I wanted to ask you for help with. What do you think, is it more convenient to meet face to face outside, or should I go to the base?”

“You can come over here.”

After hanging up Gu Yang’s call for just a moment, Sun Jingwei knocked on the door and entered to remind Gu Wei Ting that he has a conference to participate in. He was in the middle of getting ready when the call came through. Now, the car for the conference needed to set off at once.

“Oh, there’s a conference today……” Gu Wei Ting’s fingers tapped the desk, “I’ve forgotten about this matter already.”

Having said that he got up and tidied his things while incessantly massaging his temple with his hand. From the looks of it, his mental state did not seem to be well either.

Sun Jingwei stood at the door, his eyes stared straight ahead on the floor at the center of the room the entire time. When Gu Wei Ting shifted his gaze over, Sun Jingwei turns his head around and feigned a calm expression as if he was aloof.  

For the past two days, Sun Jingwei had been quite obedient and guileless. If there were no urgent tasks, he barely entered Gu Wei Ting’s room. And always upon entering, he only spoke a few words before taking his leave. With each time, never once did he mentioned Gu Hai’s situation.

Just as Gu Wei Ting was about to leave, Gu Yang’s call came through once again.

“Uncle, I’m already at the entrance.”

“I have a conference to attend now. You can stay in the guest room and wait for me for a while. Or, you can go directly to my place and wait there.”

Even after he put his phone away, Gu Wei Ting felt a strange aura hovering over him which left him feeling insecure. So as to give himself a slight peace of mind, he dispatched two more soldiers to guard the door. Then, with a stern and powerful glare, he intentionally exhorted to them a few words using a life-threatening tone.

“He can freely enter or exit, but he cannot leave with anyone. Remember, guard the two rooms on either side well. If something happens, I’ll be looking for you two directly.”

“Understood sir!!!” The two soldiers shouted uniformly.

Gu Yang emerged from a luxurious car, wearing an extremely flashy outfit. He had on a sleek black suit that outlined his slim figure, a hat--definitely an expensive one--an oversized pair of sunglasses and a stern and dignified expression to match his overall appearance…...he leisurely walked over from the distance with much grandeur that the four soldiers on duty thought that he was a famous movie star once they saw him.

After he showed his identification card the four soldiers conceded and allowed him to enter, their eyes brimming with envy and respect.

“Did you see? The General’s nephew is really handsome.”

“His nephew huh? I thought it was his son!” The soldier sighed, “He really looks like him.”

“His son is still studying. When have you seen him dressed like this?”

“That’s true.”

Once he entered the room, Gu Yang did not say anything further. The first thing he did was to immediately tear off this ridiculous looking outfit.

So stupid.

He really wanted to look in the mirror and slap himself hard in the face.

After changing out of his clothes, Gu Yang began to walk about until he finally found a small crack on the floor of the living room. He then carefully and cautiously moved it to the side. He took in a deep breathe and made his way down.

At this point, Gu Hai was already the same color as the earth he lay on. This made it hard to distinguish where his body was which caused Gu Yang to nearly stumble over him.

“Gu Hai……” Gu Yang tried to call out, “Is that you?”

Gu Hai cracked his eyes open and tried his best to focus. After a few seconds, he was finally able to make out who the person was in front of him.

“Why are you here?”

His voice sounds broken when he spoke. Just hearing it nearly made Gu Yang think that he had entered the wrong tunnel.

“Don’t say anything. Come out with me first.”

Gu Hai had been hunger stricken for nearly five days now, but even then, he still has the strength to shove Gu Yang to the side. “Go away, I would rather die than submit.”

This stubbornness, even when in the face of adversity, brought a sense of annoyance into Gu Yang’s already roughed up nerves. He shifted closer again. Although he couldn’t see too clearly in this dark and cramped tunnel, Gu Yang narrowed his eyes, just enough to display his displeasure. His eyes began to well with anger then without warning, he slapped Gu Hai in the face.

“You better fucking behave. Bai Luo Yin made me come.”

A dirty and messed up monkey emerged from the tunnel. It was already impossible to see what his clothes had looked like originally and his face--his defined and well sculpted face--was caked in dirt to the point where it was hard to see his facial features. This kind of appearance would make anyone think of an image of a miner in the aftermath of a mining disaster. The miserable condition of those miners who had suffered for a few days until they were rescued by being lifted out of the debris and into the open air was a great portrayal of Gu Hai at this moment.

“Water,” said Gu Hai as he waved his hand in front of Gu Yang.

Gu Yang quickly brought over a cup of water. He propped Gu Hai up with his arm then fed him several big mouthfuls.

After he finished the water, Gu Hai lay back down on the floor again. His eyes were bloodshot, the surface of his lips was covered entirely with frostbite that refused to leave. Unsurprisingly, it was a ghastly sight for anyone to take in.

Yet, even under this circumstance he nevertheless seized Gu Yang’s hand and incessantly asked, “Where’s Yin Zi? How is he?”

Gu Yang yanked the front of Gu Hai clothes forward as he stared at his cousin, eyes brimming rage.

“Look at the state you’re in and you still have the audacity to think about someone else?”

Gu Hai continued to ask, “Yin Zi sent you with a message for me, right?”

Anger rose from Gu Yang’s stomach and traveled all the way to the sensitive skin at the top of his temple. He fiercely grabbed Gu Hai’s head with his hands and smashed it against the floor. “Is there something wrong with your fucking head? Didn’t I tell you that it’s enough to just play around? Didn’t I warn you not to be so serious? Why didn’t you listen to my words? Why?......” Gu Yang’s yelling immediately stopped. He found no other words to speak.

Upon seeing Gu Hai’s head, that was smashed heavily on the floor earlier, had already started to bleed out, Gu Yang stopped his savage actions. He pulled Hai up and held him tightly against his chest. Never once had a complete sense of fear and heartache appeared so impressively on Gu Yang’s face until now.

“Ge, you’ve said it too late.” Gu Hai calmly started to speak, “You should have said that before I changed schools.”

Gu Yang randomly found some food for Gu Hai to eat so that his stomach was well fed for the time being, then he took him into the bathroom. After taking a bath, all of Gu Hai’s limbs cramped up, leaving him sore and even more tired than he was previously. While putting on the change of clothes, he grimaced in pain from each movement.

“Hurry up and stop wasting time.” Gu Yang urged him repeatedly.

Gu Hai grumbled bitterly, “I also want to be faster, but my arms and legs won’t listen to me at all!”

With a cold face, Gu Yang stepped forward and helped Gu Hai into the entire set of clothes that he had worn previously. Normally, Gu Hai is just a bit more robust than Gu Yang even though their statures were about the same. But, after being tormented for several days, his body had lost several kilograms of muscle. Once he was able to get into the clothes, they fit him perfectly.

Gu Yang passed his hat and sunglasses over to Gu Hai. Looking at it, Gu Hai hesitated for a moment.

“Isn’t it too stupid looking? I’m not wearing it.”

Gritting his teeth, Gu Yang fastened the hat on the stubborn fool’s head.

I’m letting you off easy by not wearing women’s clothes here! I’m not making you lose face yet you still want to be picky!

After changing into the clothes, Gu Hai put the sunglasses on and stood in front of the mirror. He looked almost like Gu Yang when he first entered the base.

“Good enough?” Gu Hai asked.

Gu Yang nodded his head in approval.

Just as Gu Hai was about to open the door, Gu Yang suddenly stopped him. “When you’re walking, keep your pace a bit more steady. Here’s the car key, it’s parked at the side of the street.”

Gu Hai remained silent for quite a while before he suddenly asked, “If I go, what’s going to happen to you? What if my dad asks?”

Little bastard, good thing you still have your conscience. Even at this point, you can still think of me.

”Just go your way, don’t worry about me. I have my own way.”

Finally, Gu Hai gave Gu Yang a grateful look before pushing the door open to leave.

Gu Yang quietly stood waiting at the door for a moment, listening to the movements outside.

As he had anticipated, after Gu Hai walked out, those four soldiers did not have any reaction since the similarity was very high. Even if there was an area that was not quite similar, the sunglasses concealed it. Also, coupled with this overwhelmingly flashy get up, it would make it difficult to doubt this person’s identity.  

Gu Hai then escaped in Gu Yang’s car without a hitch.

After some time, Gu Yang sent Gu Wei Ting a text message: “Uncle, I have something to attend to, I’ll head out first. I’ll come and look for you again when I have time.”

Then he changed into Gu Hai’s clothes. He looked around in the room for a while until he finally found a bundle of rope. Once he completely cleared up the crime scene, he takes a bottle of water and the rope and made his way into the tunnel.

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Are you addicted?

The original novel is written by Chai Jidan.

We do not own any of its content, we are translators and editors.

[writer-rochelle]

Statesman: Ablaze  Ch.1: Rules