You moved on from me

Oh.

So that was it then.

Tang Ziran tried to open his mouth and respond to his son (he probably shouldn't call him that anymore.), but even that proved to be a difficult task. For the life of him, he couldn't manage to do anything but stare at Tang Wulin blankly.

What else could he do?

His mind briefly registered Tang Wulin asking him if he was okay, but Tang Ziran was still unable to get a word out.

It seemed like Tang Wulin was completely content with his life now, even without his parents. And that cold, harsh truth brought him more pain than anything else the backrooms could ever give.

Yet, could he blame Tang Wulin? Of course not. This was purely the result of Tang Ziran's stupid decisions coming back to haunt him. A punishment reserved only for him.

Tang Ziran managed to move his body, although it was just a tilt of his head toward Gu Yue, the girl he suddenly held so much appreciation for.

She was the one. She was the one who kept Tang Wulin happy and always stayed by his side. The one who gave him love and appreciation when his father, the one who was supposed to do that from the beginning, was missing. He had no doubt that was the case. Tang Wulin wouldn't have kissed her so obsessively earlier if it wasn't.

This must be what bittersweet felt like. Every wish he had for his son had been granted. He had a wonderful, if not slightly problematic girlfriend. He seemed to be powerful now (judging from the fact Gu Yue had an extremely difficult time pushing him off), and he seemed really content.

But all of that came at the cost of him forgetting his own father.

Well, he guessed he couldn't have everything in the world.

His original purpose for leaving in the first place was because he wanted to see his son happy. And now he was finally seeing that wish come to fruition.

So what if his heart was ripped into a million pieces in the process?

With that depressing thought, Tang Ziran finally managed to bring himself back to reality. From the corner of his vision, he caught Gu Yue giving him a look. As if asking what the hell he was doing.

Right.

Tang Ziran closed his eyes and took a deep breath, preparing himself. He opened them back up and forced himself to look Tang Wulin directly in the eye, giving him a smile.

A smile he knew must've looked completely dead and empty.

You must hate me now. Well, either that, or you've forgotten about me completely.

With that thought in mind, he decided his son would be better off not knowing who he was. That would only destroy the newfound happiness given to him by Gu Yue.

"I'm Tang Jiayi." He spoke the first name that came to his mind, the name of an old friend he was close with back when he was young.

"And no problems about Gu Yue. I actually thought she was fun and enjoyable to be around." He said, trying to bring back at least a little bit of the positive emotions he lost.

Tang Wulin gave him a look of slight concern. He obviously wanted to ask about why he spaced out for so long. But, fortunately, he seemed to get Tang Ziran's silent request of changing the subject and obliged.

A small chuckle came from his mouth. It sounded so different, yet so similar, to his little baby's joy-filled laugh.

"Really now?" He asked sarcastically, turning to Gu Yue with a light smirk. "I love Gu Yue and all. But 'fun' and 'enjoyable' aren't exactly what most people would describe Gu Yue's company. In fact, its quite the opposite." He teased lightly, ending his sentence with another chuckle.

This time, Tang Ziran laughed with him. Although it wasn't for the same reason as Tang Wulin. It was a laugh full of pain and misery hid behind a mask of happiness.

He wished his son would say he loved him as well...

"Well... I can understand why they would think that." He responded, joining in on teasing Gu Yue. Maybe that would help in lightening his mood. After all, he wasn't completely lying when he said Gu Yue was fun to be with.

"Alright." Seeming like she had enough. Gu Yue spoke up amidst their conversation, her eyebrows twitching in annoyance.

"You two better shut up before I kick both of you in that little space between your crotches." Gu Yue threatened with her arms crossed, her eyes lowering dangerously.

Instead of being afraid, Tang Wulin gave an even more amused chuckle at that, raising his arms in mock surrender.

"Just an hour ago, you were screaming about how you loved-" Tang Ziran started, meaning to bring up the time Gu Yue declared that she had a boyfriend she loved very much. But he was cut off by the woman before he could finish.

"Anyways!" Gu Yue interrupted with a growl, glaring at Tang Ziran with barely restrained rage.

Unfortunately for her, however, Tang Wulin had heard enough and managed to piece Tang Ziran's sentence together. Evident by how he gave her the happiest and goofiest grin Tang Ziran had ever seen on his face.

Gu Yue stared at Tang Wulin in exasperation before ignoring his son and turning to the brown-haired woman silently standing slightly farther away. "They're both hopeless, Long Bing." She said blankly, getting a nod from 'Long Bing'.

"At last. Someone who understands." Long Bing announced with a sigh, closing her eyes.

"Now can we finally get to more important matters?" She continued, turning to both Tang Ziran and Tang Wulin with a glare, although she was noticeably more aggressive toward Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin nodded obediently at her, his face finally going serious and losing its lightheartedness.

"Finally." Long Bing said in relief before turning toward the other people in the room Tang Ziran accidentally forgot. "Drop your guards everyone. There's no need to worry about Tang Wulin. Gu Yue's here now to keep him in line."

What?

He turned his head, seeing Gu Yue look just as confused as him.

"How are we so sure one girl will be able to stop him? Even with nine of us, we barely managed to succeed." Someone from far away voiced concern, garnering even more confusion from Tang Ziran.

What?

Tang Ziran turned to the man in question, seeing Tang Wulin flinch and hunch in on himself. His posture lost some of its confidence, his body subtlety moving toward Gu Yue.

"Trust me. Love can do a lot of things pure strength can't." Long Bing responded in reassurance to the other guy, sounding as if she had a lot of experience in the subject.

"What the hell are you all on about?" Gu Yue voiced, seeming like she had enough of not knowing what they were talking about.

"We'll talk about that later." Tang Wulin spoke up from behind Gu Yue. He had no idea how and when he got there.

"I want to hear what happened to you first." He continued, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Long Bing turned to him, eyes filled with accusation. "Are you stalling?" She questioned, getting straight to the point.

Tang Wulin shook his head at that. "Is it wrong for me to want to know what happened to my girl when-"

"Are you serious?"

"Okay, stop. Stop!" Gu Yue interrupted loudly, her cheeks dusted with light pink as she tried to drown Tang Wulin's words with her own.

Tang Ziran assumed her embarrassment stemmed from the way Tang Wulin shamelessly and casually called her his girl. And he could definitely understand why. Even he wouldn't call Lang Yue that in front of this many people.

Of all the things he expected Tang Wulin to become, he never once thought he would grow up to be like this... amorous.

"I'll start with my point of view first. Then you can explain what's happened here. Okay?!" Gu Yue said in exasperation.

After getting a nod in response, she continued. "So come over here-" She dropped down to the ground, sitting down cross-legged and patting the empty space next to her. "-Shut your mouth, and listen." She ended with a demanding tone, her fiery purple orbs glaring at Tang Wulin.

Tang Ziran, and everyone else it seemed, watched in stunned silence as Tang Wulin obeyed Gu Yue's every word, dropping to the spot she was patting and turning to her with a look of silent anticipation.

Another man suddenly entered his vision. The guy with light yellow hair he was looking at earlier.

"Come on, Long Bing. You can go at him as much as you want after you let him have this." He turned to Long Bing and motioned for her to join him as he plopped down on the ground, although he sat a fair distance away from Tang Wulin.

Long Bing sighed, eventually following the other man and sitting down next to him.

Tang Ziran looked around at the rest of the people watching silently, only to see them staying in the corner of the room, their attention fully on them. Some of them had listened to Long Bing and relaxed a bit, but most still had their Soul Rings out.

He had no clue what their deal was, but he guessed he would get his answer soon enough. With that thought, Tang Ziran went over to Tang Wulin, sitting down next to him.

It was a decision he regretted almost instantly.

It already tore him to pieces when Tang Wulin didn't recognize him earlier. But now he had to watch as his son blatantly ignored his presence in favor of looking straight at Gu Yue. Because she was the one he cared about now. Not him.

But of course, he couldn't hold any ill will against either of them. Gu Yue was around. Tang Ziran wasn't. This was all his fault. And that's why he needed to stop being selfish for once and just let Tang Wulin live his happy life without his failure of a father.

Tang Ziran gave the smallest of sighs. He could try moving to where that Long Bing woman was. But that would make it obvious that Tang Ziran was trying to avoid Tang Wulin and things would get awkward very quickly.

With no option available to him, Tang Ziran got comfortable in his spot, resisting the insanely tempting urge to go over and give Tang Wulin a hug.

He doesn't deserve that luxury anymore.

"After me, Long Bing, and Yao Yang finished dealing with a bunch of entities..." Gu Yue started, and everyone's attention was immediately on her.

Even Tang Ziran was brought out of his depressive thoughts. Deciding to shelf everything on his mind, he forced his attention on Gu Yue and her story.

He never did find out how Gu Yue got into such a dangerous level such as level fun.

"I took two steps forward, and I suddenly fell through the floor. As if it just disappeared beneath my feet."

"No-clipping. That's what its called." Long Bing interrupted informatively.

Tang Ziran nodded at that. This woman seemed to be a lot more experienced in the backrooms than Gu Yue was.

Gu Yue nodded at that, her eyes turning to the ground. "Anyways. After that was done, I landed in this very long hallway." She said, and after getting more confused stares, she elaborated.

"It almost looked like a hospital. Even had the furniture of one. Hospital beds were clattered around everywhere. Countless doors on each side of the hallway. And the whole place was illuminated by a red light, a loud, never-ending siren to go along with it."

Wait. That description sounds eerily familiar...

Tang Ziran's eyes widened in realization, his brain suddenly reminded of the terrifying level he read about in M.E.G's database.

"Are you serious?!" Long Bing asked in shock and with wide eyes, the other yellow-haired man asking the same thing after her.

Gu Yue, and by extension, Tang Wulin turned to them in cluelessness. It seems they were the only ones who didn't know about level !. Considering everyone, even the ones from far away was looking at Gu Yue with shock.

"Was the level she landed in supposed to be some popular level?" Tang Wulin asked, his tone revealing some worry.

"That doesn't make any sense. M.E.G stated that the chances of someone landing in that level were less than one percent...!" Tang Ziran spoke up in surprise, getting everyone's attention for the first time.

"How unlucky do you have to be to land in level run for your life on your first no-clipping?" He turned to Gu Yue and asked, feeling bad for the kid.

He remembered complaining about being unlucky enough to fall here. But what he experienced obviously paled in comparison to what Gu Yue suffered in her first three days in the backrooms.

"Level what...?"

"Level run for your life? Fitting." Gu Yue scoffed at the name, but Tang Wulin looked completely horrified. And for good reason. No one would like to hear that their lover had been thrown to some place called 'Run for your life.'

The yellow-haired man nodded at Tang Ziran's words.

"Exactly. I'm surprised you survived that with your inexperience. It's in the top ten most dangerous levels in the backrooms for a reason. Wanderers, whether they've been here for years or days, always fall to that level, leading to it getting a 75% death ratio." He said although Tang Ziran didn't appreciate it.

Did he not realize what his words were doing to Tang Wulin? His poor son looked like he wanted to cry from frustration and helplessness.

And fortunately, Gu Yue noticed his discomfort and acted immediately.

"I get it. It's dangerous. Of course, I know that. Now shut up and let me continue." She ordered, her other hand sneakily going over to Tang Wulin's back and rubbing it comfortingly. It wasn't an instant effect, but Tang Wulin seemed to slowly relax.

Tang Ziran melted in relief and gratitude at the sight. God bless that girl.

"Anyways." Gu Yue continued after she noticed Tang Wulin was okay enough. "After running for an entire fucking hour, I finally found the exit to that hell."

Just as she was speaking, Tang Ziran suddenly formed the situation in his head.

No way...

"And you landed in level fun...?!" He asked in even more shock.

Like how?! Run for your life after just three days. Then immediately go to the one level with a hundred thousand entities?! What kind of bad luck was that?!

Everyone else in the room, save for Tang Wulin and Gu Yue, replicated his shock.

"After Run for your life... She was in that hell hole...?!" Long Bing asked, her calm demeanor completely gone.

"Yes, yes. I have terrible luck. Pity me as much as you want." Gu Yue said dismissively and hurriedly, presumably because of Tang Wulin's reaction.

"But after I got there, I walked around until I found this idiot-" She paused and pointed at Tang Ziran. "And he led me back to level zero, the yellow place. And then we broke the floor and landed back here. End of story." The pace she was going at was so fast no one had the time to interrupt. In fact, they could barely even keep up with what she was saying.

"Now. What happened to you lot?" Gu Yue asked, ignoring their surprise and getting straight to the point.

"But-" The yellow-haired man tried to interrupt, but Gu Yue spoke faster.

"What happened to you lot?" She asked again.

"Gu Yue..." This time it was Tang Wulin who tried to interrupt, his expression filled with sadness, likely due to having heard what Gu Yue's been through.

Tang Ziran tried his best to ignore that. Even though it was met with little success.

"What happened to you lot?"

Tang Wulin sighed after hearing Gu Yue repeat the same question for the third time. So even he wasn't immune to Gu Yue's insane stubbornness.

"Fine." He said in acceptance. "I guess you should hear this from me..."