I picked up a boyfriend in the infinite game

When I opened it, I saw only a few words:

“Annual rings are the wounds of the tree, and they are the evidence of the harm done to the tree by the world.”

No date, no weather, just a simple sentence.

...Song Guicheng repeated this sentence over and over again in his mind. His thumb slowly stroked the scabbed wound on his wrist. It was rough there, like the rotating rings on a tree stump, layer upon layer, densely packed.

He flipped through several sheets of paper one after another, and they were all blank, as if all that was left of him in this world was silence.

It was not until the very end that new handwriting appeared again, but it was blurry and unclear. Song Guicheng and Pei Shuangjin struggled to decipher it:

"Trees will eventually die, but their growth rings remain. At this time, the growth rings become the testimony of the trees' existence in this world."

The handwriting became fainter and fainter, and the last word was almost completely invisible.

It is as if a person came into this world silently, lived an ordinary life, and left quietly.

Song Guicheng was stunned after reading the last word. At a certain moment, through these ink-stained words, he saw a boy wearing an ill-fitting school uniform, with the light above barely illuminating the tip of his pen. He was hunched over, holding a cheap black pen, and calmly questioning his fate on a cheap notebook bought on the roadside.

So plain, yet so desperate.

A feeling of sourness and sadness slowly emerged and spread in Song Guicheng's heart along with the ink marks on the paper.

"Everyone knows that tree rings can be used to determine the age of a tree and count how many years it has lived. But another function of tree rings is often overlooked," Song Guicheng paused. As he stroked the scar on his wrist, he felt an itch that cut into his bones, which made him frown. "Through the width and density of the tree rings, we can understand what kind of solar terms it was in."

Song Guicheng moved his gaze away from the notebook and looked at the short old desk close to the corner. The corner of the desk scraped off a layer of paint on the wall, forming brown spots.

These marks exposed outside allow people to see at a glance how dilapidated the house is, but the growth rings are hidden beneath the whitewashed surface and cannot be seen unless they are broken or cut off, so all the pain is concealed.

Song Guicheng lowered his head, imitating the shape of tree rings, and slowly drew a circle on the notebook with his fingers: "In a season with pleasant climate, abundant rainfall and sufficient sunlight, trees will grow rapidly because of comfort and peace of mind, and the tree rings will become wider."

"If it is extremely cold and dry, or if there is bitter wind and rain, or if the environment is bad..." The circle in Song Guicheng's hand gradually shrank, "it will be extremely difficult for the trees to grow, and their growth rings will become narrower."

Pei Shuangjin listened quietly to Song Guicheng's story. Whether it was trees or people, very few of them were blessed by God.

He is one of the few favored by God. He has lived a peaceful and smooth life. He has never had to endure the wind and rain, or walk with difficulty. He has never experienced stormy waves, tsunamis or landslides.

He could not comment on the pain he had never experienced, so he could only raise his hand to cover Song Guicheng's cold fingertips, wanting to give him some warmth, but found that his palms were not very warm.

Song Guicheng didn't mind at all. He looked up at him, then interlocked his fingers with his and held them tightly. His light brown eyes were like the sun after the rain, slightly curved in a smile, and then clear and bright:

"Fortunately, humans are not trees. Trees live and die where they take root. But I will go to a place where the sun shines and the breeze is gentle. I will not seek the sky or the earth. I will climb on my own and eventually I will reach the top."

His words indeed had a bit of youthful spirit, but there was no frivolity in them. Instead, they sounded firm and resolute, which made people involuntarily believe him.

Pei Shuangjin held his hand and pecked it gently: "Then I will be a small stone."

Song Guicheng was puzzled: "Stone?"

Pei Shuangjin stared at him for a moment, his eyes carrying the silent night seemed to be swirling, ready to draw people in. He spoke calmly: "If you were a tree, I would lie beside the roots and feel the same sunshine, rain, heat, and cold as you. I would let the scorching sun burn me, the wind and rain erode me, and let me empathize with your pain."

Pei Shuangjin stretched out his hand, and his cool fingertips gently stroked Song Guicheng's thin cheek: "If you want to climb the mountain, let me bury myself under the soil and pave the way for you to the top."

He spoke calmly, without being passionate or serious.

If others heard such words, they would probably think that Pei Shuang was just a smooth talker and flatterer, who always relied on sweet words to deceive other people's sincerity.

Only Song Guicheng knew how sincere his words were, because he had already done so long before he said so.

Song Guicheng looked at him silently, describing his cold and handsome facial features with his eyes. Pei Shuangjin was more immature than Wu Zhi, and the expression of his emotions was more straightforward and passionate, burning people with both heat and pain.

He suddenly laughed, followed Pei Shuangjin's arm, leaned on his shoulder, and asked, "Aren't you afraid that I might kick your rock to the foot of the mountain if I'm not paying attention?"

How ridiculous this sounds, a cold and aloof god saying that he wants to be a stone that is stepped on by thousands of people.

Pei Shuangjin also smiled. He reached out to hold Song Guicheng's frail arm, buried his head in his neck, and pressed his cold nose against his warm blood vessels.

Pei Shuangjin could smell the faint scent of rain-beaten bamboo on Song Guicheng, which overwhelmed the rotten smell in the room. He said with a smile, "It depends on whether your soles are harder or my stone is harder."

Hearing this, Song Guicheng laughed even harder, and his thin back trembled like a fallen leaf in the wind.

This is just hilarious.

But as he smiled, the curve of his mouth became subtly sad, and even his breathing trembled with an indescribable feeling.

He remembered a story he had read about a nightingale who used his heart and all his blood to dye a rose red.

To exchange one's life for a blood-red rose is so unreasonable and absurd.

The thorn of the rose pierced the nightingale's chest, bringing him terrible pain. Red blood oozed from the tip of his heart and flowed towards the rose along with his life.

The nightingale is about to die, and he knows it, yet he has no regrets. He sings his last song loudly, his voice trembling, and the rose is fervent.

As the sun rose at dawn and the sky was about to brighten, he fell deeply into the abyss of death, and a blood-red rose bloomed in his chest.

The bright red roses were like a raging fire, warming him and burning him at the same time; love was like heaven and also like purgatory, his soul fell into it, sincere and painful.

This story is so absurd and ridiculous.

Who will be the nightingale, who will dye the roses red with blood, who will exchange love for death.

Love to people should be like an unfading light, always shining forever and leading people towards spring.

However, love is like a bottomless abyss to people. The more you move towards it, the more you fall down, making you as humble as gravel.

Even God is no exception.

"What a... horrible thing." Song Guicheng murmured. He buried his eyes in Pei Shuangjin's arms. A drop of transparent tear overflowed from the corner of his eye and sank silently into his black sweater, without leaving any trace.

"Hmm?" Pei Shuangjin tilted his ear to listen, "What did you just say?"

Song Guicheng looked up and said, "It's okay. I thought the sentence in the book looked scary. Let's take it back and study it slowly. What do the tree and annual rings refer to? There should be other meanings."

There is still a lot of information that can be explored from "Song Guicheng". If it is an ordinary tasker, the first thing he will dig up should be clues about himself.

It's just that Song Guicheng took an unconventional approach. He hasn't returned to his home in the two days since he came to this world, which means there are still many clues to be discovered.

"He only wrote this one diary?" Song Guicheng looked around and cast his eyes towards the half-boarded wall. "Is there something hidden behind that?"

The closed windows and blood-stained curtains clearly indicate its unusualness, tempting people to explore.

The more obvious the clues were, the more cautious Song Guicheng became, because it usually meant imminent danger.

The rain from the eaves dripped continuously along the roof ridge, making the air humid. Gradually, the rain seeped from the ceiling and slowly flowed down the wall, dyed light red by the blood stains on the curtains, and flowed on the ground.

The two were hesitating whether to find something to pry the wooden board open. Song Guicheng glanced down and saw a light red stream of water about to flow to their feet. He subconsciously pulled Pei Shuangjin away from it.

"It's so dirty." He pulled Pei Shuangjin's arm and took several steps back. The two of them sat down directly on the bed, and the blood quickly flooded the place where they had just stood.

"The rain is getting heavier."

Pei Shuangjin could only hear the crackling sound of rain outside, which was like dense drumbeats or surging sea water bursting its dam. The wind was howling and the branches were swaying.

The fierce wind and rapid rain are like the foreshadowing of the arrival of danger, which can easily arouse the fear in people's hearts. This is an instinct engraved in human genes.

Song Guicheng was not afraid, but the rapidly spreading blood under his feet made him frown instinctively. He looked at his watch and it was almost 11 o'clock.

"Let's go back first." He made a prompt decision and took out the apple pendant he got in the "Happy Hotel" copy from his backpack.

[Before her death, the mother gave this pendant to her child, hoping that the pendant could protect her child.

Wearing this pendant will grant you a powerful blessing that lasts for 5 minutes and can be used once in each instance.

Remaining times 0/1 (resetting)]

The dim light came on and the five-minute countdown began.