Chapter 326: Like Hell

This really is a hell of a scene: Li Boyong is happily holding Natarle's hand, watching Wang Liumei happily waving at him, with Shihe following behind, her face as poker-faced as the Xia Sisters...

Afterwards, Natarle seems to understand everything; that look... that gaze filled with resentment mixed with sorrow yet feigning composure... and Li Boyong's slightly trembling body explain it all...

No words are needed, but a woman's intuition makes Natarle very clear that Li Boyong has a deep emotional entanglement with this chestnut-haired girl across from them.

She elegantly pulls her hand away from Li Boyong's; this isn't because she is feeling guilty, but because her self-respect does not allow her to continue being held by a Li Boyong who does not belong solely to her.

Wang Liumei's appearance had already sounded an alarm for Natarle, but she felt that the relationship between Wang Liumei and Li Boyong remained in the realm of ambiguity; however, the appearance of Shihe completely destroyed this last bit of composure...

And for Shihe, seeing with her own eyes Li Boyong sweetly holding another woman's hand, there is probably nothing more heart-wrenching than this...

Why? It was clearly me first. Why did I have to lose my memory when I returned to the CE Century, and then this woman appeared by Li Boyong's side?

Because Wang Liumei kept her mouth shut, Shihe is not clear about the specific emotional entanglement between Li Boyong and Natarle. In her impression, Natarle is just the woman who appeared by Li Boyong's side after she lost her memory.

System: Warning! Warning! Detected that the favorability of companions—Shihe Hafunisi and Natarle Badgiruel—is dropping rapidly. If the companions do not recover their healthy favorability levels before completing the main quest of this world, the companion relationship will be completely severed and they will no longer continue to follow the host...

Even this useless system had to come out and join the fun, damn it...

Li Boyong, with his scalp tingling, actually still has the mood to spare a glance at the system, discovering that the favorability of both has indeed dropped to sixty-one; no wonder the system issued a warning, and this consequence is clearly something he cannot accept.

But...

Why did your favorability go up so much, Wang Liumei?

Wang Liumei, you're quite happy plotting against me, aren't you?

Glaring fiercely at Wang Liumei, Li Boyong suddenly realizes that this scene has truly caught him off guard, without the slightest bit of preparation.

His head is buzzing, and he can only let this tragic Shura field maintain a bizarre calm...

At this moment, how he wishes a bunch of Void Messenger scouts would pop out to attack the Alpis; those pests are so adorable. That way, he could nimbly hide inside the Ransen and temporarily escape this cruel battlefield.

And finally, act with his life on the line, stage an injury where he almost kicks the bucket, and let Shihe and Natarle reconcile outside his ICU room...

Unfortunately, Li Boyong stares blankly up at the sky, but in the end, he does not wait for a savior—the Void Messengers...

Just as Li Boyong is at a loss and feigning composure, Wang Liumei sighs quietly upon seeing his spineless appearance, "This good-for-nothing..."

"Sister Shihe, let's go over and regroup; we still need to discuss how to act in the future," Wang Liumei says in a low voice.

Afterwards, she pulls Shihe toward Li Boyong with a smile on her face. Being pulled by Wang Liumei like this, Shihe, who has come back to her senses, is dragged along by the seemingly unbothered Wang Liumei. Looking at Li Boyong's pitiful appearance, she cannot help but soften a little.

The isolated island overseas, the streets of Orb, living and dying together in the Yakin sector, changing the world in the Celestial Being organization, spending days leisurely at Jindai High School, and the repeated clashes after losing her memory...

She can't bring herself to hate him...

Shihe maintains her poker face as she is led by Wang Liumei toward Li Boyong. Seeing Li Boyong cast his gaze over, she turns her face away directly, refusing to look at him.

Li Boyong has also mostly recovered his senses by now, knowing that this is not the best time for explanations. Fortunately, Shihe and Natarle are not the type of women to tear each other apart in public. Now he can only put on a facade of discussing serious business and bite the bullet to muddle through this Shura field.

But this is not the place to talk either; he casts his gaze toward Wang Liumei.

Wang Liumei follows his lead and says, "To celebrate our reunion, I have arranged a place nearby. Please follow me, everyone."

As she speaks, she waves her hand, and three sedans slowly drive up. Drivers in crisp suits jog over to open the doors for everyone.

Shihe and Natarle each choose a car, the Xia Sisters accompany them respectively, and finally, Li Boyong and Wang Liumei get into the last sedan.

"Look at the mess you've made!!!" As soon as he gets in the car, Li Boyong can't wait to take his frustration out on Wang Liumei.

"Ara ara, it was clearly your own philandering that caused the Shura field to erupt, so why are you blaming me now?" Wang Liumei still smiles so brightly, so brightly that she has to take out a folding fan to cover the corners of her mouth. "When you were flirting with the Earth Alliance's First Officer while getting tangled up with a ZAFT female pilot, you should have expected today, my sa~vior~"

"What savior, don't give me weird nicknames." Li Boyong suppresses the urge to pin Wang Liumei to the seat and give her a round of Ansai Waist Drum. He knows Wang Liumei is right; it is all the trouble he brought upon himself.

"Then tell me, what do we do now?" Li Boyong is choked with anger.

"I am still an innocent girl who has never known a man, how would I know how to teach a scumbag to survive a Shura field..." Wang Liumei puts on a wronged, pitiful expression.

"You..."

Li Boyong almost loses his breath. "I don't care, you caused this scene today, you must help me get through this crisis..."

"A man who only knows how to shirk responsibility will have his evaluation lowered, you know." Wang Liumei remains calm and unruffled, not panicking in the slightest. She opens her folding fan and fans Li Boyong a few times, saying playfully, "I don't even know what you're panicking about. Based on my understanding of your emotional entanglements with them, it's hard to imagine they would leave you. Especially now that we are a community of shared destiny, knowing that you have to go through world after world and face battle after battle, do you think they would abandon you and let you face it alone?"

Li Boyong is silent for a moment, then says in a low voice, "Actually, I know this to some extent, but isn't it too despicable to use their kindness like this?"

Wang Liumei closes her folding fan, and for the first time today, she says with some anger: "If you do nothing and let your boring sense of guilt take over, and it actually leads to them leaving you, that would be truly despicable!"

"Naive. You brought us away, and this is the only level of resolve you have?"

As the title says, writing this chapter really feels like being in hell.

Damn, as a single guy, I have no idea how to write a Shura field. I sat in silence for three hours, almost gave myself internal injuries, and only then managed to finish typing it out...

Come to think of it, between Shihe and Natarle, shouldn't it be Shihe first?