Edited by musk, Cherry, Chenqing
Warning: description of dead body, blood
Residential instance world
Luo Feihan sat on the side of his bed, laying the bathrobe he had just taken off onto the back of a chair carefully before taking off his glasses.
The light bulb that served as the only source of brightness in the room was turned off with a click, and the man laid down onto the narrow bed, sighing softly.
The small window high above the bed was slightly open, the frame letting out faint sounds from time to time as the breeze moved it. Fresh air and the sounds of the waking city permeated the small room. It was still dark, but for a lot of people, this hour already meant the beginning of the new day.
Luo Feihan turned his back towards the window, burying his face in his pillow, but he still couldn’t not take notice of the noise.
He shut his eyes, when he really couldn’t bear it anymore, he covered his ears with his pillow. Unfortunately, he could still hear the sounds, even if it was slightly more faint than before. After a couple of minutes spent trying not to focus on the noise, he finally sat up to close the window.
The sounds grew fainter in an instant, and he laid back with a tired hum. Just when his head hit the pillow, knocking sounded from the front door of the apartment.
Luo Feihan, ‘…………..’ Was it that players these days really didn’t know what counted as inappropriate?!
He muttered to himself as he got up, putting his robe back on, ‘Already been here twice and it’s only the second day. Asked after the disappearances like I’m actually some sort of fucking news paper. And I should still remember perfectly, ah? Then took my keys, can’t even break down a door without my help! I’d report them, I really would..’
He shuffled over to the door, turning the key and opening the door just wide enough to see outside in order to stop the knocking that was becoming more and more urgent.
The inner lock was still unhooked, so the maximum width the door could be opened to was reduced substantially. Luo Feihan squinted slightly, sizing up the people outside his door. In the end, he barked out in a rather unfriendly voice, ‘What?’
The group of three saw the dark bags under his eyes and were stunned for a while. Not having gotten a reply even after a long time, the landlord moved to shut the door again, but was stopped by Wei Cai’s hand that extended quickly.
‘We’re sorry to bother you at such a time, but we have something important to ask.. If you could let us in, only for a while.’
This was already the second time this morning that Luo Feihan felt that he was speechless. Showing up at his door before daybreak and even demanding to be let in and to interrogate him about who knows what kind of matters. He had no words except for one: shameless!
After a minute of silence, he resigned himself to his fate, taking a step back to open the door fully and let the three inside.
This time, he didn’t offer them seats, and he himself stayed standing on his feet, clearly signaling that he wanted to get the visit over with as soon as he could. The only thing keeping him from chasing the players out was the contract he had signed once a long time ago. ‘Ask.’
‘It’s like this. Amongst the people who went missing, do you remember who the first one was?’ Yu Qinyan took out his phone, ready to take notes at any moment.
Luo Feihan heaved out a sigh. So, this was what they found him for? Again? ‘Naturally I remember. It was He Siyun, a little girl who lived on the sixth floor. Any other questions?’
Yu Qinyan was silent for a moment, but still wrote the name down as well as the floor number. This girl.. There was no way that she could be the stalker they were looking for, eh? And even if the world suddenly became entirely unreasonable, and it just happened to be her.. She still lived on the sixth floor, nowhere near the apartment they found the pictures in.
That left only two possibilities. The little girl was either the murderer herself, – which, by the way, sounded just as ridiculous as the previous theory did – or she had absolutely nothing to do with the case.
‘Then.. Do you know who lives in 201?’ It was the first time that Zhai Xiaoyi had said anything since they left the flat, and his question was rather reasonable too. If it wasn’t the first person, then it would still be one of the later numbers. It was better to just ask about it straightforwardly.
Luo Feihan raised an eyebrow. So they figured out that too? Maybe he really had underestimated this relay. They really were without any shame, but at least they had the ability to counter for it.
‘Cao Zhilan.’ It was apparent that he didn’t plan to elaborate, saying instead, ‘It really is too late right now, or maybe early even. Please leave.’
‘Yeah, sorry about that. We’ll leave in just a moment, but,’ Wei Cai showed a rare, slightly pleading expression, ‘Could you tell us about that person before? I promise we won’t bother you after that.’
‘Mr Cao?’ Luo Feihan thought about it for a moment. ‘Fine. He’d lived here for about ten years. He bought one of the apartments after graduating from a college in G city and told me at the time that he got a job at a startup in the city. I don’t think he ever married. After all, he was quite young. He was brutally murdered towards the end of last autumn.’
Hearing this, the group of three were stunned. This.. Would it be inappropriate to yell ‘jackpot’ right there?
In the end, just as Luo Feihan shuffled his way over to the door to open it for them, Yu Qinyan stopped him again. ‘We really are sorry. I’d just like to ask you once more.. About his murder, where can we find out more?’ His face really wasn’t thick enough to just keep asking the man for details when the other was so obviously trying to get rid of them.
Luo Feihan squinted at him as he looked back. He remained silent for a while before the corner of his mouth tightened, and he left the door behind to walk back into the other room. After a couple of minutes, he returned with a piece of folded up newspaper and stuffed it into the youth’s hand.
He went to open the door again, and it was obvious that if the group did not leave now, he would personally push them outside one by one. Pointing to the newspaper, he said, ‘There was only one witness who went missing shortly afterwards. The statement is in there.’
Wei Cai thanked him again, and Yu Qinyan was just about to say something else when the door was shut right in front of their faces.
The faint shuffling of the landlord’s slippers could be heard from inside, then the stripe of light that came from through the slit under the door disappeared too, and the corridor became engulfed in silence and darkness again.
Yu Qinyan looked at the news article under the haze of the street lamps’ light, squinting to read the name under the small picture of a girl. He Siyun.
He walked over to the main doors of the building, looking for a place with better lighting to read the article. Zhai Xiaoyi and Wei Cai followed after him, leaning over the sheet of paper to read the report in the faint light from outside.
He Siyun(8) was last seen on the morning of last Thursday, when she left her home to go to school but never arrived there. Police ask anyone who might have information about her whereabouts to report it as soon as possible.
After this, the article went on to detail the little girl’s description, even mentioning a birthmark on her knee. This was followed by a brief interview with the parents, and finally another one with the local commissioner who was directing the police search. This part was what the three were looking for.
When we asked Ms He about the possible causes of Siyun’s disappearance, she said that the cause was obvious. She said, ‘[My daughter] saw the whole thing last month. She saw everything, but they didn’t believe [what she had told them], and they said that she was probably taken by traffickers. The city is well known for being the safest place in the province, that’s the only reason I let her go to school by herself in the first place.’’
‘There haven’t been news of human trafficking for years in the area! If she really was taken, I’m afraid it’s something even worse than those traffickers. But [the police] insist that the two cases have no connection to each other. It’s simply ridiculous.’’
We spoke to the representative of the police force about the case, and we asked him about his opinion on Ms He’s theory. He denied the claims, ‘The officers who talked to Ms He were speaking the truth.’’
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
‘The disappearance and the murder case have nothing in common other than the person of He Siyun. [What happened to her] is really unfortunate. The forces are working hard to solve both cases, and we encourage anyone who can help to come forward and do so.’’
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The only explanation he could think of was that they simply didn’t want to alert the killer by announcing that the two cases were connected. If the murderer fled before they could find more information about him, now that would have truly been tragic.
‘The man was killed; the girl saw the murder and then she went missing.’ Yu Qinyan was quick to sum the new information up. ‘Qi Cheng is the killer, and he had probably been seen by the little girl. The girl disappears suddenly, then another and another person follow her. That’s our pattern.’
Zhai Xiaoyi agreed, ‘The taboo is most likely to be seeing something you’re not supposed to.’
‘Right.’ Yu Qinyan nodded, already thinking about what to do next, ‘If it is only this one thing, then it’s probable that the girl was also seen by someone, who would therefore be the next person to disappear.’
‘Now, if this theory is right, we only need to confront the boy with it. If it works, we’re done, if it doesn’t, we’re dead.’
‘I should say that it definitely isn’t a good idea to go and talk to him together. We don’t know how strong he is, but what we do know is that first of all, he is a ghost, and secondly, he took care of both Yang Meili and Wei Cai with ease earlier. He also quite possibly murdered a bunch of people during the past half year.’
‘We can’t win against him in close combat because as I said, he’s a ghost. I’m not sure how most of that works, but I do think he shouldn’t be as easy to deal with as a normal human. By now, you two should have already guessed what I’m about to say.’
Zhai Xiaoyi nodded, and Wei Cai’s expression was equally as dark.
‘We don’t have any other choice but to sacrifice someone.’ He had thought about this for a long time and felt that it was the only plan that could work in their current situation.
If only one of them went to look for Qi Cheng, even if they failed, the other two would still live, and they would also get an answer as to whether their guess had been correct or not.
Seeing that the other two didn’t object, he continued, ‘So I’ll go by myself. If we’re not back to reality after an hour or two, you’ll know that I failed.’
In truth, although deciding which one of them to send seemed like a difficult decision, for Yu Qinyan, it wasn’t one at all.
In his mind, he either succeeded or he didn’t. If he failed, that would definitely be unfortunate, but at least it would be due to his own incapability. He felt that he would much rather do it by himself than to force someone else to go and give up their life for him. That would have been a debt he wouldn’t want to owe anyone in any case.
‘You..’ Zhai Xiaoyi was stunned speechless. He had thought that they would send him to deal with the ghost since he had contributed the least to the team’s work. But it turned out that Yu Qinyan had such a death wish.
‘You can’t go.’ Wei Cai declared. When the two looked at him, he explained in an almost gentle manner, ‘Based on everything so far, you’re the brain of the team. And I’m not saying this to be sentimental and praise you and all, but without you, we have less of a chance of survival.’
‘Now, if the theory is wrong, there’ll only be two people left. If Yang Meili is still alive, then three. The ending, we’ll still manage to figure out somehow, but it’s quite possible that there will be other casualties. Besides, based on my understanding of the DIR, this definitely doesn’t count as a necessary death. If you die now, you die for real.’
Zhai Xiaoyi watched the two of them trying to convince each other and felt cold on the inside. He knew very well that what Yu Qinyan had said was true, and that Wei Cai’s words were also true. There simply was no other way to progress than to take this risk.
But these two.. They really did too much for the sake of their team. Without them..
‘I’ll go.’
Zhai Xiaoyi’s words sounded with determination, interrupting the two that were still quarreling. They both looked back at him, sizing him up for a moment.
Wei Cai shook his head. ‘You’re too weak. At least, if it is one of the two of us, we can put on some sort of a resistance. With you.. What if he kills you before you could even finish what you want to say?’
‘I can do it. I’m a very fast.. talker. I can do it.’ Zhai Xiaoyi looked into his eyes resolutely. It looked like he had already decided, and there was no other way to convince him.
Yu Qinyan watched him wordlessly. If he really wanted to go, he wouldn’t stop him. He understood that the others might have had the same thoughts as him, and he didn’t want to force anyone to carry the weight of his own decisions either. After a long time, he looked away before saying, ‘Sleep on it before making a decision. Let’s go back and rest first, we can do this tomorrow too.’
It was true that it was already the morning of their second day in the instance, and they hadn’t slept at all yet if not for the few minutes before waking up. Keeping that up for too long, it would be very unhealthy.
Zhai Xiaoyi thought back and could barely remember the last time when he had slept well. He took a short nap in Lin Ran’s car, but the night before that he had also spent awake, and before that, his sleep in his first instance world could be called anything but comfortable.
Thinking about it, he really did feel tired. Maybe it was in fact a very good idea to sleep for a bit before making decisions about his own life and death.
It was unfortunate that fate didn’t have the same idea.
It was already daybreak by the time they arrived back at their apartment.
As they walked, all of them had different matters on their minds. Only one thing was forgotten by all three of them, that one thing precisely being Yang Meili’s whereabouts.
Fortunately, – or unfortunately, depending on one’s personal point of view – they didn’t have to worry about not finding out about her matters at all.
This time, the door was locked. On the entire second floor, this was the only apartment with a still locked door, courtesy of Wei Cai, who had locked it before the four of them left to have a look around the grocery store.
Now, he pulled the keys out from the pocket of his jeans, twisting one in the keyhole and pushing the door in with the same movement.
After the door was opened, the condition of the living room could be seen easily even from the outside. For a while, none of them moved.
The drapes were pulled together in front of the windows, leaving only a thin streak of light to fall into the room.
The light fell onto the messy newspapers and books they had left lying around, onto the old couch that seemed to have been pushed somewhat closer to the balcony’s door; it fell onto the dark parquet, and onto the pale and lifeless girl tied to the chair in the middle of the room.
Most of the furniture inside the room had all been pushed to the side, appearing like the garnish laid around the main dish, the dish of course being the body of Yang Meili.
For a long time, none of them said anything.
Zhai Xiaoyi broke the silence in the end, ‘It seems that maybe we won’t have the time to sleep after all.’
He glanced at Yu Qinyan, then Wei Cai. He told them, ‘You two should go somewhere else.’
‘If the death condition really is seeing too much, I’ll just look around in here. Inspect the situation and so on. It wouldn’t be good if the aggro was gotten by you two, so it’s best to just find some other place and wait it out. As Yu Qinyan said, if we don’t get pulled, and I do not return either, you’ll know that the theory was wrong. You guys.. Try your best then.’
Surprisingly, this was the time Yu Qinyan chose to object. ‘No, we’ll just stay here.’ Seeing Zhai Xiaoyi’s expression of incomprehension, he explained, ‘Don’t worry, we won’t bother you. It’s just in case you get into trouble before you can finish.’
‘Sorry for.. This might come across as me not believing in your capabilities, but you’ve got to understand that there are no other chances. If we don’t manage to find out but still lose a member, that would be disastrous regarding the future.’
Zhai Xiaoyi nodded, then shook his head. ‘No, I mean alright, but you can’t stay in here. The rooms are empty. The two of you guys can just come out if there’s anything. You don’t even have to close the door if you don’t want to.’
Wei Cai agreed, ‘That’ll be best.’ He went to check the door handles in both of the bedrooms, stating that strategically the smaller room was better. The door was closer to the entrance, and it would be easier to use if they had to trap the ghost inside and surround him.
After all, when Wei Cai was caught by Qi Cheng, he hadn’t been prepared for the possibility of being ambushed at all. He wanted to use the same method to catch the ghost, using the fact that he would come to deal with one person but be faced with three.
In the end, Qi Cheng had to have some sort of a physical body if he could attack them, and this, they did too. Maybe they could try beating the truth out of him if nothing else worked.
After a while, Zhai Xiaoyi remained the only person in the living room. He stood in one place for a while with an unnaturally pale expression on his face before slowly walking over to the dead body in the middle of the room.
He didn’t really know what would count as seeing ‘too much’, so he could only go by feeling. Eventually, Qi Cheng would show up too.. He hoped.
He didn’t want to touch the body. He used a coiled-up newspaper to push the woman’s head slightly, moving it to the side to reveal the bright red marks around her neck.
He swallowed uncomfortably before reluctantly leaning closer to inspect her face. It was evident that the cause of death could only have been strangulation. Great. He took a deep breath and stood up again.
Just now, he had felt those glassy, bulging eyes stare at himself, and he simply couldn’t bear to look anymore. He walked in a circle around the chair and looked at the various marks the ropes left before standing up again. What.. What else did he need to do?
Hadn’t he observed for long enough? Where was Qi Cheng when he really needed him?! Slacking off at work, huh?
It couldn’t be that a ghost’s schedule would be so full that he couldn’t even spare time for killing him.. Right?
In the end, it just happened that his worry was baseless.
Not even a full five minutes after he had stepped back from the body, he suddenly felt goosebumps travel up along his arms.
He shuddered. Had it always been this cold in the apartment?
From the corner of his eye, he just barely caught the movement of the drapes.. Strange. He remembered that the windows were shut tightly, and looking back, really, there was no breeze coming in from the outside. The drapes just.. Moved by themselves.
Zhai Xiaoyi couldn’t help but take another deep breath. This, he could feel, was the final moment before everything would be decided. Whether he would live or die after this, it only depended on himself.
There was a loud ‘bang’ from the direction of the front door, and it burst open just when the smaller bedroom’s door slammed shut. Inside, Wei Cai and Yu Qinyan were desperately pulling on the handle, trying to pry the door open again, but it simply couldn’t be done. They couldn’t get out anymore.
After the front door opened, the handle that seemed to have indestructible strength left a hole in the wall it had slammed into, getting stuck in it. The bloody orange of the sunshine drowned the inside of the room in its light, making Zhai Xiaoyi want to squint his eyes.
Because the light was coming from behind the person who stood at the entrance, it seemed difficult to identify him at first. Of course, Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t need to identify him; he knew the visitor’s identity very well, alright?!
He froze for a moment. After all, the ghost was here, he was here, he could just ask him straight ahead, but somehow, he just couldn’t get himself to. He felt as if there was something missing..
In the end, he raised his arms in an awkward ‘w’ shape, as if he was getting ready to greet one of the old aunts in his family he had never before met for some strange reason, not entirely sure if he should hug the old lady or just greet her, and then he gave a smile that appeared so fake even the ghost himself couldn’t look straight at it. ‘..Qi Cheng.’
Qi Cheng didn’t move, only looking back at him with pursed lips, glancing away from time to time before his gaze returned to the youth inside the room. He gave a small nod.
For some time, neither of them moved. Zhai Xiaoyi had no idea what to do, and Qi Cheng was waiting for him to start his explanation, the two engaging in some strange sort of mute warfare.
‘What’s going on? Why is it so silent?’ Wei Cai whispered to Yu Qinyan who was currently crouching in front of the keyhole, observing the situation outside. He thought to himself, could it be that the room was perfectly soundproof?
After almost a whole minute of silence, he got a whisper back. ‘I have no idea. They’re just staring at each other.’
Wei Cai, ‘……..’ Oh, so it could be done like this too? He was honestly surprised that Zhai Xiaoyi wasn’t dead yet after hearing that. What fast talker, fast talker your..!
In the end it was Qi Cheng who felt that his time wasn’t worth being wasted in such a way. Even though time was what he had the most of, he’d still rather spend it murdering people, okay? This staredown really wasn’t to his liking.
He took a step forward, walking into the apartment.
Zhai Xiaoyi took a step backwards immediately. He had to cough for his voice to not sound abnormally high, ‘Hey, hey, let’s talk it out, shall we? It.. It’s really not fair just coming for my head without even listening to me, is it now?’
‘What is he doing? Let me see!’ Wei Cai heard those words, and simply couldn’t bear to listen without seeing the situation himself. He kneeled down, wanting to have a look, but Yu Qinyan didn’t let him. He put a finger in front of his lips, his expression conflicted but gaze still glued onto the retreating figure outside the door.
‘Okay, fine! You don’t need to.. Don’t get closer, ah!’
On the other side, Zhai Xiaoyi was still retreating, his steps almost in sync with those of Qi Cheng. He almost tripped in a pile of newspapers, only managing to stay on his feet after wobbling for a couple minutes. It was quite a ridiculous sight.
His back almost touched the wall next to the bathroom door. He couldn’t even run anymore; he had been cornered!
The sight of the pure and clean-looking kid with a gloomy expression and a fruit knife chasing their teammate with such small steps and still managing to freak him out.. Yu Qinyan felt very conflicted. Could he laugh in such a situation? What if the other died in the next second, it would make him look like a total douchebag if he laughed. In the end, he managed to suppress himself.
‘You! I told you to stay back. I know that you’re the murderer!’
Qi Cheng’s steps halted for a moment. Then, he finally said, ‘I mean, I think that’s pretty obvious. You need to.. You kinda just.. Uh.’
When Wei Cai managed to push Yu Qinyan aside and finally occupied the best position in front of the keyhole, he also had to cover his mouth to keep himself from yelling out. He really wanted to grab Zhai Xiaoyi’s shoulders right there and just shake him until he understood. ‘He needs to fucking explain, what the hell is he doing?!’
Yu Qinyan had already given up on Zhai Xiaoyi’s survival in his heart, and only shrugged as he sat down with his back leaning on the door. ‘How am I supposed to know, you’re the one watching.’
Wei Cai couldn’t help asking, ‘Wasn’t he some sort of paranormal investigator? Is it that he’d never met a real ghost before?’
For this question, Yu Qinyan didn’t have an answer either.
In the meantime, Zhai Xiaoyi had also managed to remember what his original purpose was. He spoke hurriedly as he shuffled closer to the open bathroom door, ‘The flat next door, the man who owned it, you murdered him because he had intentions towards you!’
‘Then that girl saw you do it, and you killed her too, killing every witness until almost no one was left in the building, the landlord and your grandma are the only ones still remaining. Then you killed Yang Meili because she didn’t let you hurt me and now want to kill me too because I saw her body! Is that it?!’
By the time he finished, he was already short on breath. He shut his eyes as he waited for that nauseating feeling to wash over him, but even after minutes, it didn’t come. He opened an eye to look around, and inadvertently glanced at Qi Cheng.
Qi Cheng had both of his brows raised as he looked back at him. Oh, it appeared that the theory was wrong.
Qi Cheng raised the slender knife up, spinning it around once, twice between his fingers before using it to point at Zhai Xiaoyi’s nose from less than a few dozen centimetres away. He asked back, ‘Is that it?’
After what seemed like a long time of not getting any type of reply, he asked again, ‘Are you done?’
Zhai Xiaoyi could only see the cold glint of the knife in front of his face and had no time to think about anything to say.
The fact that he had fucked up, he knew very well. Since the theory was a failure, he could only wait for death now. Why on earth did he offer himself up, again?
There was no way for him to survive, and it had been him precisely who didn’t leave any way out for himself. No!
He couldn’t die there, not like that, not at that time. He could only thicken his skin and call out in a shaky voice, ‘Yu Qinyan? Wei Cai? I don’t know about you two, but in my opinion, this would be a very good time to intervene!’
Yu Qinyan’s muffled voice sounded rather helpless as he replied to him from inside the bedroom, ‘Bro, it’s not like we don’t want to help, but we can’t get out. The door locked itself when he came in.. You.. You do your best.’
Wei Cai sounded his agreement after him, ‘Jiayou, kid! Believe in yourself, you can do it!’
Zhai Xiaoyi was speechless. Even though he was aware that he couldn’t get out by himself, could he not be fed such bullshit even on the verge of death?!
He could only fumble around his pockets to take the sewing scissors out and hurl them one by one at his attacker with all the power in his body.
His decision was made in a split second, after all, if he still wanted to struggle, he couldn’t let Qi Cheng prepare for his attack, and therefore had to act as quickly as possible.
The varying sized scissors opened from the force of the hand and flew in the air like blunt throwing stars. By the time Qi Cheng saw the other’s movements, he already had no way to dodge all of them, resulting in a pair of small scissors directly embedding themselves into his neck.
His expression contained some surprise, but the gesture he used to pull them out of his skin was still rather nonchalant. He looked down at the scissors in his hand, then touched the wound with his fingertips.
Astoundingly, although the blood stained his fingers, by the time he pulled his hand back the wound had already disappeared. Seeing Zhai Xiaoyi’s expression of having eaten something sour, he explained, ‘I am a ghost after all. It’s not like I can die once more, is it now.’
Zhai Xiaoyi took another step backwards, retreating towards the bathroom. He didn’t have any more chances, except for one. ‘Someone.. Anyone.. Can anyone help me? Please!’
That’s right. His last method of survival was to actually yell out pathetically and hope for someone to take pity on him. It was a ridiculous plan, but it was better than nothing.
‘It doesn’t matter who it is, I can give you everything you want in return! I swear! Help me please, and you don’t have to worry about me repaying as long as I’m still alive! Hello? Anyone.. Please!’
It was a ridiculous plan that didn’t even seem better than simply accepting defeat with dignity anymore.. But miraculously, it worked.
Zhai Xiaoyi was still shuffling backwards like a cornered animal, yelling out whatever came to his mind when he suddenly heard a voice in his ears.
It was as if everything else in the world had dimmed around him, and only that resounding voice existed for a moment. It asked him, ‘You said you’d give everything, how much is your everything worth then?’
Zhai Xiaoyi was stunned for a moment. He couldn’t believe that there was actually someone willing to make an exchange with him. After coming back to himself suddenly, he yelled out, ‘It’s worth whatever you want it to be worth! As long as I can, I’ll get it for you!’
The voice was silent for a moment before it let out a chuckle. Its voice was quiet and loud, soft and strong at the same time. It said then, ‘What I want, it isn’t exactly easy to get, especially for someone as insignificant as you.. Are you sure you’ll be able to repay me?’
Zhai Xiaoyi had already reached the other wall of the bathroom and stood with the cold porcelain of the sink pressing into his lower back. His gaze was fixed on the approaching Qi Cheng, who now not only had a knife in his hand, but a pair of scissors too. He couldn’t wait any longer! ‘Can we negotiate later? I’m kind of in a hurry.. Please?’
The voice’s laughter grew stronger. Just when Zhai Xiaoyi was beginning to believe that it really wouldn’t save him if he didn’t promise him at once, and just as Qi Cheng was about to step inside the small bathroom, the voice sounded again. ‘Let it be as you wish then, just make sure you don’t regret it, hahaha..’
With that, the door actually slammed shut, leaving Qi Cheng dumbfounded on one side, and letting Zhai Xiaoyi take a few shaky breaths on the other.
It was real, he had actually managed to escape, he actually escaped, even he himself didn’t dare believe that. Then he heard the voice speak again.
‘I can help you leave this world, but in exchange, you have to promise me that when I find you in the future, if I find you, you’ll agree to whatever request I have without hesitation. It’s only this, you don’t need to worry after all, you’re not someone now, and you won’t be anyone then either.’
‘Now think, is it worth it? If we can make a deal here, I don’t mind staying for a while. But if you’ll say no anyway, say it now, after all, I’m also a businessman, I have places to be, things to do. In that case, I can only leave you to your fate. Without me holding it up, that door doesn’t have long to live, and without my help, neither do you. So I advise you to decide wisely..’
The author has something to say:
I would like to officially welcome chenqing and Cherry on the team, as well as thank musk for all the help with AAD. Again; it was a pleasure working together!
Then, what else is there. Right, I’m travelling this Saturday, so I’ll still have some time to figure things out before the next update. I hope you all are having a wonderful week.
Also, we hit 100k words like four or so chapters ago. I didn’t even notice. That’s like, a whole lot of words, man. We’re currently at 115k. Σ(O_O)
By the way, I’m considering making a pdf version of the text from ch1 to ch31, most likely to be avaialble after donating a small amount to my ko-fi. Can you guys tell that I am desperate(╥_╥)
Update: I made a pdf. I think it’s quite pretty. The drive link’s accessible through a single donation. So in case you want to have that, you know what to do~ And if you don’t, just listen to this song that’s been stuck in my head as compensation.
thanks for the chapter <3