ARIPOEC Chapter 5

The autumn night breeze carried a hint of coolness, and Lin Jun sat by the dormitory window, the autumn wind chilling him to the bone.

From Meng Yi’s description, Lin Jun pieced together a rough outline of the events.

Lin Jun met Ye Mingyuan on the Star Network, where they dueled daily in a simulated mech combat game, eventually becoming good friends. Upon learning that Ye Mingyuan was the same age as him, Lin Jun enthusiastically invited Ye Mingyuan to apply to the Royal Military Academy with him.

They became the first and second place in the entrance examination of their year and were assigned to the same dormitory.

“Back then, Uncle Ye even wanted to arrange for you to live with me, but you refused,” Meng Yi said, looking at Lin Jun with some resentment.

“…” Lin Jun wished he could travel back in time and bury his own idiotic self: “You’re saying I pursued Ye Mingyuan first? What’s the evidence?”

He still refused to believe that he and Ye Mingyuan were in a romantic relationship, let alone believe that he had actively pursued Ye Mingyuan.

Meng Yi was stunned by the question. He touched his chin and thought for a moment: “I’m not particularly sure, but you did confess to Ye Mingyuan.”

Lin Jun: “How do you know?”

Shouldn’t such things be very private?

“Because you confessed to Ye Mingyuan in front of a lot of people, below the teaching building.”

Lin Jun: “…”

“Oh, right, I have a video here, do you want to see it?” Meng Yi pulled out his personal terminal.

“…” Lin Jun was silent.

He was curious about the contents of the video, but at the same time, he couldn’t accept it. What was the difference between this and a public execution!

Before he could decide whether or not to watch it, Meng Yi had already retrieved the video from his terminal.

A semi-transparent screen floated in mid-air, showing the tall back of a boy standing under the teaching building of the Mech Academy, looking up.

Lin Jun had a bad feeling.

Sure enough, the next second, a familiar voice came out: “Ye Mingyuan! Get out here!”

It was his own voice!

“…” Lin Jun’s scalp tingled. He lunged forward, his fingertip poking at the semi-transparent screen.

The boy’s voice stopped abruptly.

The two beside him were stunned, and they looked over in unison.

Lin Jun’s ears turned red little by little, and he pretended to be calm, putting on a straight face: “I don’t want to watch it.”

“Ah…” Meng Yi didn’t suspect anything. He scratched his head: “If you don’t want to watch the video, how can you remember? Should I describe it for you?”

“No need!!” The redness on Lin Jun’s ears was gradually spreading to his face: “You… you send me a copy of the video, I’ll watch it myself when I get back.”

“Oh,” Meng Yi nodded, looking down and fiddling with his terminal.

Yu Chenhong saw something, he pushed up his glasses and couldn’t help but lower his head and smile.

—

A few minutes later, Lin Jun walked out of dormitory 608, holding the terminal that had been sent the video.

Yu Chenhong avoided Meng Yi and escorted Lin Jun to the door of his dormitory alone.

Lin Jun knew he had something to say, so he deliberately walked two steps away and stood by the railing in the corridor.

Yu Chenhong closed the door behind him and walked to Lin Jun’s side: “Why don’t you stay with us tonight and sleep in our dormitory?”

Lin Jun was slightly stunned.

Yu Chenhong looked up at him, his eyes behind his glasses were bright and clear: “I can squeeze in with Meng Yi, and you can sleep in my bed.”

“…” Lin Jun quickly understood what he meant.

Yu Chenhong was perceptive, and he naturally saw that Lin Jun’s words were wary of Ye Mingyuan.

Yu Chenhong was worried that Lin Jun would be embarrassed to be in the same room as Ye Mingyuan, so he took the initiative to invite him to stay.

Lin Jun’s heart warmed. Although the academy dormitories were luxurious two-person rooms, the beds in the rooms were not very big. It would be quite crowded for two men to sleep together.

But Yu Chenhong took the initiative to offer to squeeze in with Meng Yi, making room for him.

Lin Jun looked at his friend’s concerned expression and shook his head: “Don’t worry, Ye Mingyuan was taken to the Academy Inspection Office, so there’s only me in the dormitory tonight.”

“?” Yu Chenhong didn’t expect this. He and Meng Yi were in class when the Inspector Team came to arrest people: “What did Ye Mingyuan do?”

Lin Jun recalled the charges that the Inspector Team had said: “It seems like… he used a combat mech in the living area.”

Yu Chenhong’s eyes widened: “Is he crazy? What did he use the combat mech for?”

Such behavior could lead to imprisonment!

Lin Jun shrugged.

Yu Chenhong knew that he had made up his mind, so he didn’t force him. He nodded, hesitated, and said again: “I’m not busy these days, if there’s anything, remember to call me. That guy Meng Yi is a bit slow, I’m not too comfortable leaving it to him.”

Lin Jun nodded knowingly. Meng Yi was a natural optimist who didn’t think too much, so he was often unreliable. But Lin Jun couldn’t help but remember his previous life…

Meng Yi used to be this kind of person, but on the night Yu Chenhong was killed by the insectoids, this person who always seemed like a big boy seemed to grow up overnight. He became more and more silent and more and more reliable.

Lin Jun suppressed the sadness in his eyes and smiled naturally: “Then don’t DislikeI’m annoying at that time.”

Yu Chenhong chuckled: “How could I…”

“Right.” Lin Jun took two steps out, then suddenly turned around and called out to Yu Chenhong: “I remember you’ve been researching the combat performance of mech cores, right?”

Yu Chenhong nodded. He looked over with some confusion. Lin Jun had never been interested in mech core matters before.

“You can try connecting the mech’s IA intelligent system, maybe it can optimize the calculation method of the combat mode?”

Yu Chenhong’s eyes lit up: “That’s right, why didn’t I think of that before! If I connect to IA, then I can also simplify the mech operation…”

Yu Chenhong muttered to himself, his eyes full of excitement.

Watching his friend quickly immerse himself in research, Lin Jun couldn’t help but smile. He turned around gracefully: “I’m going back first, bye~”

In his previous life, Yu Chenhong didn’t think of this direction until he had studied the core for ten years. This also greatly changed the existing mech operation mode, lowering the mech operation threshold and greatly improving the Empire’s combat power.

Now his reminder should be able to advance this progress again, so that the Empire should be better prepared before the war.

In this life, he will definitely protect the people he cares about and never let them be trapped in the flames of war again.

—

Lin Jun swiped his access card and walked into the room, and the room’s intelligent system automatically turned on the lights.

He walked to the bed and sat down, taking out his terminal.

The video interface popped up, and Lin Jun’s fingertips hesitated in mid-air for a long time before finally clicking on it.

The video continued from where it had been interrupted.

“Ye Mingyuan! Get out here!”

A row of heads poked out from the corridors of the teaching building, all curiously looking down.

After a while, Ye Mingyuan appeared on the second-floor corridor, looking down at Lin Jun from above.

Lin Jun’s face was full of a flying smile: “Ye Mingyuan, I never realized you were such a coward.”

He hooked his fingers towards the floor above: “Come down, let’s go to the training room.”

Ye Mingyuan raised his eyebrows and turned around.

Suddenly, Meng Yi’s mutter came from the video: “Are they going to fight again…”

Lin Jun: “…” So his image of fighting at the drop of a hat has already become so deeply ingrained.

As he thought this, a new change appeared in the video.

Ye Mingyuan, who had disappeared on the second-floor corridor, walked out of the building. He strode with long legs, walking step by step to Lin Jun: “What do you want to bet?”

“If I win, you’ll be my boyfriend.”

“What if I win?”

The Lin Jun in the video smiled brightly, his eyes filled with slyness: “If you win, then I’ll be your boyfriend.”

The surrounding onlookers cheered in unison. The video ended with a freeze-frame of the two people looking at each other, Ye Mingyuan’s icy blue eyes gradually filled with a smile, and he nodded slightly: “Okay.”

For a long time after the video ended, Lin Jun was still in shock and hadn’t recovered. His inexperienced ears were already red.

This is… truly a hardcore confession.

So it was really him who actively pursued Ye Mingyuan.

With all the facts in front of him, Lin Jun had no choice but to believe it.

He thought that his rebirth meant that he possessed the script for the world ahead, but Ye Mingyuan’s existence was telling him that this was not the world he had experienced.

Fortunately, apart from Ye Mingyuan, Lin Jun hadn’t found anything else that was different from his previous life for the time being.

Lin Jun rubbed his temples with a headache. If Ye Mingyuan had been a minor character in his previous life, it would have been fine, but he happened to have a pivotal position in the future direction.

Ten years later, the great war between the Empire and the insectoids was initiated by the Ye family, and Ye Mingyuan was the Ye family’s heir. If he could take this opportunity to win over Ye Mingyuan and make him stand on his side, it would definitely increase his chances of winning.

But… if that was the case, it would mean that he would have to accept being in a relationship with Ye Mingyuan.

For some reason, the kiss in the corridor of the school hospital during the day popped into Lin Jun’s mind.

Gentle eyes, soft lips…

“Ahhhhh!” Lin Jun hugged his head and buried his entire face in the pillow.

Lin Jun overestimated his ability to accept it. He and Ye Mingyuan suddenly changed from rivals to lovers, and to be in a relationship with someone he had fought for more than ten years in his previous life, the psychological barriers to overcome were more than just a few.

A moment later, Lin Jun raised his head from the pillow with a head full of messy hair.

Forget it, take it one step at a time.