They hadn’t waited too long before Xie Ying returned alone. Her scarlet nails brushed through her graceful hair as she walked up towards them, saying with a voice tinged with a mix of reproach and deep exhaustion, “They wanted to drive off, I couldn’t stop them.” She spoke very loudly, so everyone upstairs naturally heard her.
“Nie Shi, it would be best for you to explain where you went last night.” She and Gao Cheng stood together, looking up at them from below. “Otherwise, no one will dare to group and proceed with you.”
Nie Shi furrowed his brows slightly and faintly uttered two words, “The restroom.”
Who would believe that?
Even Fang Chen found it unbelievable. But if so, why did he defend Nie Shi from the accusation early on? Clearly, he was fully aware of Nie Shi’s peculiarities. Fang Chen bowed his head, fixating on the porcelain tiles beneath his feet, his mind consumed by thoughts, unaware that Qiao Ran was discreetly observing him.
A blanket of silence settled.
Nie Shi also seemed to realize that his excuse wasn’t holding water, slowly changing his tune as he said, “There was something outside the window, so I went out.”
Xie Ying: “What was it?”
Nie Shi’s frown deepened, as if questioning the IQ of the person asking. “Malevolence.”
Suppressing her anger, Xie Ying pressed on, “So you’re saying there were malevolences lurking outside last night, and you went out to deal with them?”
Once again, Nie Shi spat out a single word with profound reluctance, “Mm.”
This explanation barely sufficed. Xie Ying half-squinted her eyes at Nie Shi, seeming unafraid of him. “I’ll straighten things out for them when they return. Don’t act alone next time; just look at the huge misunderstanding that’s caused…” She paused halfway, then turned her head and let out a sigh before turning back to Fang Chen. “Fang Chen, you alright?”
“What?” Fang Chen quickly gazed up, his expression morphing into one of confusion.
“Are you alright? You were scared witless by the sight of the corpse a moment ago.”
“I wasn’t…” Fang Chen subconsciously responded, then he felt something was amiss again.
Suddenly, a surge of surprise gripped him.
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.
He wasn’t terrified?
Why?
No, he… indeed was terrified.
In that instant, Fang Chen seemed to have abruptly grasped this realization. His feet started to tremble, his gaze weakening. The sudden surge of fear left him with a sense of strangeness arising from somewhere as he tightly gripped his collar and furrowed his brow.
Nie Shi reached out, wanting to support Fang Chen, but was evaded by the latter. His hand lingered suspended in the air for a fleeting moment and slowly retracted. He stared at his palm for quite a while before clenching it into a loose fist, then letting it fall to his side.
Seemed like he was unhappy again.
Fang Chen darted a glance at Nie Shi before shifting his gaze to Qiao Ran, who was huddling in the corner. “Can you still get up?”
Qiao Ran moved slightly and rose up, his body hunched as if he would never be able to stand upright again. Coincidentally, Fang Chen glanced over, and Qiao Ran, in a show of vulnerability, said, “Fang Chen-ge.”
Upon seeing Qiao Ran with his head bowed, Fang Chen felt a sense of familiarity, but later dismissed it as his imagination and turned his head back.
Each person harboured different thoughts. While none fully accepted Nie Shi’s explanation, they also couldn’t believe he was the perpetrator behind Fan Yingying’s death. How Fan Yingying died was too strange, and it didn’t seem plausible to be the work of human hands.
No one knew when nightfall would come again. Despite the clear anomalies surrounding Nie Shi, they had no other choice but to rely on him to survive the malevolences. For now, the only thing they could do was maintain a state of constant vigilance and readiness.
“What do we do next?” Gao Cheng asked. “How about we get in the car and leave while it’s still daytime?”
Xie Ying shook her head with a graved expression. “Where can we escape to? Right now, we don’t even know what’s trying to kill us.”
“Well, we can’t just keep staying here, keeping watch over the corpse, can we?” Beads of sweat started forming on Gao Cheng’s forehead once again. He took out the pink handkerchief and wiped away his sweat. “I say we tough it out and leave, even if we don’t know when night will fall. If we continue to stay in this cursed place, who knows? We might end up with more deaths.”
“You seem to be mistaken,” Xie Ying said, continuing her ascent towards the flight of stairs Fang Chen was on. “It’s not this place that kills people; it’s something here that wants to kill us, like those malevolences… Whether it’s in the residential building complex or this hotel, they’ll find us wherever we escape to.” As she spoke, she analyzed the situation with a cool-headedness. “If we don’t figure out why, it won’t matter where we escape to… there’ll still be another person dead.”
Fang Chen turned his body slightly to the side to make room, and Xie Ying walked straight towards the corpse without the slightest hesitation. She wore a plain and simple attire of a half-sleeve shirt with denim jeans. Yet somehow, Fang Chen seemed to hallucinate her wearing a red dress, blazing like a rose, dazzlingly blossoming to full bloom as if it were consuming her very existence.
Gao Cheng stood downstairs and gulped. He had acually wanted to leave with the couple earlier, but unfortunately, he didn’t get along well with them. Yet he was also afraid of being left behind by the group, so he could only stand there awkwardly, repeatedly wiping his sweat with the handkerchief until it was halfway soaked.
“I can’t take it anymore…” Qiao Ran abruptly murmured, shaking his head as he took two steps forward. Drawing closer to Fang Chen, it was only at such proximity that one would notice he was actually slightly taller than Fang Chen, not petite at all.
Qiao Ran pushed Fang Chen aside and sprinted downstairs, startling Gao Cheng, who agilely moved to the side and avoided a clash with Qiao Ran.
Fang Chen stumbled as he was pushed, losing his balance and falling, only to be caught by Nie Shi, who pulled him close against his chest. This sensation made him feel as if he had fallen into the refreshing embrace of clear, cool spring water. Enveloped in Nie Shi’s breath, he was rendered immobilized and unable to move.
He raised his arms, struggling futilely like a small insect stuck to a glue board. Just as he was about to make skin contact with Nie Shi, he dropped his arms, simply abandoning all hope of survival.
Eventually, Nie Shi was the one to release his grip first, and the icy chill also faded away subsequently. Fang Chen wanted to turn back, yet he also dared not to do so; two conflicting emotions repeatedly clashed within him.
Qiao Ran’s sudden escape left everyone present stunned.
Gao Cheng stared wide-eyed. “What’s up with him? What do we do now?”
“Fang Chen, why don’t you and Nie Shi go find Qiao Ran?” Xie Ying tentatively asked. “He’s just a child…” She paused, then continued, “It’s rather worrying.”
Seriously? Him and Nie Shi?
Fang Chen turned his head and glanced around, then said, “How about Gao Cheng and I go…”
Nie Shi: “Alright.”
Fang Chen swallowed half of his words, glanced at Gao Cheng, who wore a pleading expression as if to say, “Please don’t drag me into this.” With a forced smile, Gao Cheng said, “Xie Ying and I will stay here. You two don’t worry and go. Your phones are charged, right? Let’s contact each other using them later.”
Fang Chen hesitated as he descended two steps, then turned back to Xie Ying, asking with concern. “Are you sure with that? You’re just a girl…”
Xie Ying rolled her eyes, casually tapping a pair of chopsticks on the table. “Come on, give it a rest. You’re not any braver than me. Hurry up and go on; Qiao Ran’s already disappeared into the distance.”
Gao Cheng also chimed in, “Yeah, you’ve got me here anyway. I’ll protect Xie-meizi; it won’t be a problem. You two go find him quickly.” He patted his chest, and the flesh on his stomach trembled along with it.
The hotel was so vast. Where should they even begin their search?
Fang Chen didn’t know, but being alone with Nie Shi somewhat reminded him of the night before…
When they reached the ninth floor, Fang Chen couldn’t contain himself any longer. He stopped and asked, “What exactly are you trying to do?”
Nie Shi turned around, reaching out to hold Fang Chen’s hand, but the latter avoided his touch yet again. His gaze slightly darkened as he shook his head and said, “Following you.”
“Why?” Fang Chen seemed agitated.
At that juncture, the reason he wasn’t afraid of Nie Shi was perhaps because of the previous dream he had, or maybe because Nie Shi had never shown a terrifying side in front of him.
He had let his guard down around him.
“Were we acquianted with each other? Me and you… What’s our relationship?” Nie Shi and him had known each other for a long time, ever since those bright, sunny days when they still wore school uniforms.
But how did Nie Shi come to be in the state he was in now?
“Do you know you’re rotting?”
Nie Shi’s pupils shrank as he looked at his own fingers, and Fang Chen’s gaze followed suit. What met their sight were Nie Shi’s long and slender fingers, devoid of any indication of festering. Fang Chen’s surprise was palpable as he then shifted his gaze to Nie Shi’s face.
“Don’t be afraid of me,” Nie Shi said. “If you’re not afraid of me, then what you see wouldn’t be that rotting appearance.” He lowered his eyes with a somewhat disheartened and dejected expression, lips pursed. “You’re afraid of me right now.”
Almost as if compelled by a mysterious force, Fang Chen raised his hand; this time, he didn’t stop himself, and his fingers caressed Nie Shi’s cheek. The rotting was gradually disappearing, and even the terrifying veins on his neck vanished. Fang Chen realized he wasn’t as afraid of Nie Shi as he had imagined.
Most of the time, his fear was more like a strong psychological suggestion. Because everyone else was afraid, so he should be too.
Nie Shi obediently lowered his head, his hand covering the back of Fang Chen’s hand, gently nuzzling against it like a certain large canine breed, harmless and fond of being affectionate towards humans.
However, Fang Chen knew Nie Shi wasn’t like that. When Nie Shi looked at those corpses, there was no emotion in his eyes, his feelings detached, as if he were looking at an insignificant object. While others might feel a range of emotions when watching TV shows or reading novels, Nie Shi wouldn’t. He followed Fang Chen, seemingly to protect him, but it was also to satisfy his own selfish desires. Regardless of whether Fang Chen was afraid of him or not, Nie Shi just wanted to keep watching over him at all times.
Yet again, Fang Chen was overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness. Despite everything, because of his absurd thoughts, he didn’t find Nie Shi frightening at all.
As a kiss met his lips, an ice-cold sensation penetrated into his mouth, while frosty fingertips sent a chill coursing through his entire body.
In that moment, he thought about how he, too, was probably cold to touch as well.
They here to give everyone a dog food
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