When they got off the bus, Tong Qiu felt like his whole body was on fire. He was already in his thirties and yet he shrank into Huo Zhixing’s arms like a slime. Call him shameful but nothing beats comfort.
“It’s quite hot today.” Huo Zhixing was the face of calm, looking unfazed by what happened to them much like Liu Xiahui, and calmly got off the bus and patted his wrinkled clothes straight. When he was done, he pulled Tong Qiu next to him like it had been natural. “Where are we going next?”
Tong Qiu motioned ahead and followed after Huo Zhixing, face blushing red.
He scolded himself in his heart: He was already this old, and yet he was still acting like a shy 20 year old man, really no shame ah!
From the bus station to the park, there were considerably more people. Because of the May Day holiday, parents had taken advantage of this day to take their children out to play. Tong Qiu and Huo Zhixing followed along the crowd and queued at the ticket office. It was half an hour later that they were able to get their hands on a pair of tickets.
“When I last came here, there wasn’t such a long line.” Tong Qiu looked at the ticket. “And the ticket price was only 50 cents then.”
Huo Zhixing laughed: “How long ago was that?”
“… More than 20 years ago.”
How time flies. When Tong Qiu and Huo Zhixing walked inside the park hand in hand, Tong Qiu felt that the park was completely different from the one he remembered when he was young.
It had been expanded, and a lot more facilities have been added, and even the ones he remembered that were still under construction then had been completed now.
The two of them walked around the park looking at all the game booths for children. The two men who were in their thirties, who were not and would never have children, were not interested. Tong Qiu simply took Huo Zhixing to the legendary haunted house.
“Hey, it’s amazing,” Tong Qiu exclaimed, looking up at the three story ghost house. “I came here when I was a child, back then only these tents were set up. I finished the whole journey in five minutes. Now it’s so large scale.”
Huo Zhixing’s arm was resting on Tong Qiu’s shoulder. In the crowed they looked very intimate.
“Not afraid?” Huo Zhixing asked.
“What am I afraid of?” Tong Qiu smirked and raised an eyebrow. “Tong-laoshi is fearless. When the time comes, those little ones should instead be scared of me.”
Huo Zhixing looked at him and deliberately laughed: “Okay, then Tong-laoshi do be merciful, don’t make trouble much. We’re both from the working class, we can’t afford to pay anything we break.”
Before entering the haunted house, one of the staff operators took a look at them: Two big men who were over 1.8 meters in height. The staff looked worried and constantly reminded them again and again: “You two, be aware that some of the NPC inside is part of our staff. No matter what happens, it is forbidden to beat up the NPC operators.”
Tong Qiu was amused by his warning and leaned into Huo Zhixing’s arms: “Rest assured we won’t make trouble.”
The two were led inside the house and were told several more precautions. Finally, the operator locked the door and left, leaving the both of them standing in the dark corridor faintly lit by a green light. In the background, with them not knowing where it came from, screams of children could be heard.
Tong Qiu thought, overall, the screams were much more terrifying than the haunted house.
Tong Qiu was not afraid of ghosts, and Huo Zhixing was not afraid either. However, Officer Huo was very resourceful. As soon as the operator left, he embraced Tong Qiu from behind and whispered, “It’s a bit dark.”
Tong Qiu didn’t know that Huo Zhixing was pretending, and secretly felt pleased about it. He thought that being able to watch such a dignified police officer being weak in the knees out of fright was a wonderful thing. Later, when he has nothing else to do, he’ll bring up this moment again and tease the other.
“Officer Huo is afraid of the dark?” Tong Qiu deliberately teased him, “But if we don’t proceed forward, it’ll get darker here.”
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.
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Tong Qiu’s hand was gripped, the person who was embraced tightly lowered his head and hid a smile. “Okay, since this is Tong-laoshi’s fault, I will take you to the exit.”
For more than 30 years, the last thing Huo Zhixing wanted to do was admit to a weakness. He believed that there would be nothing that could make him bow his head. Maybe it was because of his occupation that he always felt like he needed to stand in front of others to protect them, but at this moment, as he hid behind Tong Qiu pretending to be weak and being protected, he found it to be quite a novel feeling.
Tong Qiu squeezed Huo Zhixing’s hand and said softly: “Usually it’s you who protect others. This time, it’s my turn to protect you.”
Huo Zhixing felt his heart being moved by those words, and couldn’t help but to pull up Tong Qiu’s hand and laid a gentle kiss at the back of it.
“Then thank you, Tong-laoshi.”
Tong Qiu and Huo Zhixing slowly walked forward. According to the instructions, they have to follow this road from the first floor to the third floor, and finally exit through the back door of the third floor. Along the way, various strange people would be seen hanging around.
For example, the Hanging Ghost who has a long tongue lolling out of its mouth.
For example, butchers who have no heads but were still grinding knives.
For example, Mr. Accountant who had no eyes and yet was still fiddling with an abacus.
Huo Zhixing whispered in Tong Qiu’s ear: “People with heart problems aren’t allowed to enter, right? If it’s this terrifying…”
As soon as he finished speaking, a hand suddenly took hold of his ankle. A beat of moment passed before he could react, grasping tightly unto Tong Qui and shouting: “Tong Qiu!”
He was putting on a show, but Tong Qiu really thought he was scared. He looked down and saw a hand being reflected by the green light. The hand was holding unto Huo Zhixing’s ankle.
“Everything’s alright.” Tong Qiu seemed to be possessed by a warrior saint at the moment, as he patted Huo Zhixing’s back to appease him. “Any man who dares frighten laozi has no need for his hands.”
Tong Qiu occasionally makes a few remarks that should not be said as a teacher. Although most of the time he could control himself, but at this moment he was brimming with so much heroism he felt like he had to protect Huo Zhixing. His “heroic spirit” overflowed from his pores and it couldn’t be suppressed.
He squatted down and patted the hand, sneering: “Brother, do you know who you are touching?”
The owner of the hand was obviously stunned, and took it back.
“Isn’t this ghost a little bit too embarrassing? I haven’t said anything yet.”
Tong Qiu was unwilling to let it go, but he was pulled up by Huo Zhixing who had been suppressing his laughter enough he felt like he was getting an internal injury.
“Come on, let’s go.”
They continued to move forward, passing through some terrifying scenes. Huo Zhixing was still clinging to Tong Qiu and asked him, “What did you want to say to the ghost just now?”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Tong Qiu slowed down his pace and wanted to study the guillotine. “This one looks cool. Is it the same as the one Bao Zheng used?”
Huo Zhixing could feel his eyelid twitch. He wasn’t afraid of these, but he did not expect that it would be the same for his family’s teacher – instead it turned out he was quite interested with the subject.
“You asked the hand earlier who it touched.” Huo Zhixing seized all opportunities to flirt with Tong-laoshi, “Who was it touching?”
Tong Qiu was about to get a closer look at the “dog head guillotine.” After hearing what the other said, he panicked and became shy, hurriedly running away in embarrassment.
“Oh, why are you running away?” Huo Zhixing followed closely, smiling in appreciation as he stared at the sight of Tong-laoshi’s panicked form.
Before he could run farther, he ran into a doll hanging upside down above his head. He was caught off guard when the thing suddenly fell down.
He wasn’t afraid of ghosts, but with such stimulus, no one would be unaffected. It didn’t help that such eerie music was still being played at the background, completely setting up the mood. Letting out a litany of expletives, Tong Qiu unconsciously took a step back and bumped into Huo Zhixing.
Feeling the warmth of another one, Tong Qiu immediately felt relieved.
“I thought I was going to die…” Tong Qiu still haven’t gotten over his shock, and while still being encased in Huo Zhixing’s arms, they both approached the fallen doll slowly. When they were near enough, Tong Qiu reached out and fiddled with it, saying: “If I had some heart problems I would’ve ascended to heaven by now.”
“I thought you weren’t afraid of anything.”
“Officer Huo thinks too much.” Tong Qiu said, “Although I’m brave, I can’t stand this kind of inhumane torture.”
“Just like now?” Huo Zhixing smiled and teased him, “and last night.”
Remembering what they did covertly last night, Tong Qiu became shy again and pinched Huo Zhixing in the chest.
Incidentally, he wondered in his heart: Could what happened last be called as “Inhumane torture”? It was a “Fight between Gods”!
“Tong-laoshi, this is harassment.” Huo Zhixing grinned and rubbed the place that was pinched, “Pinching people’s chest.”
Tong Qiu felt that recently Huo Zhixing has taken the wrong medicine, and often the other would act more naughtily than him. Had he gone crazy? Was such behaviour really appropriate for a righteous police officer?
Tong Qiu, who had gone silent, pushed Huo Zhixing away and sauntered ahead – but his mind was filled with what happened between them last night.
He thought, sure enough, between mature men only a pleasure-filled love is eternal.
After thinking about this, he felt disgusted with himself for a while, then looked back and found that Huo Zhixing had disappeared.
Too preoccupied because of his musings, he didn’t notice that a door suddenly appeared behind him, separating him from Huo Zhixing. When he finally turned around to call upon the other, only the fallen doll was staring at him.
Tong Qiu made a great mistake. He underestimated the current innovation of the amusement park. Back during his childhood, the haunted house was made in a ridiculously crude way. At that time, a ticket cost ten yuan, but now it has become a hundred per person. The haunted house has also evolved into a three-floored building, with countless of secret passages hidden inside.
“… Huo Zhixing!” Tong Qiu became a little anxious, and turned to knock on the door. However, no one responded to him and the only noise that could be heard was from the eerie background music and the roars of the ghosts that sounded from time to time.
He pulled out his phone quickly, but found there was no signal on it.
Tong Qiu became quickly flustered, and regretted separating from Huo Zhixing.
He quickly walked forward. When he turned around a corner, he met with a staff member who was pretending to be a ghost and was trying to scare him. The person’s face was painted in a grotesque way. At first glance he looked like a zombie with fangs. If it had been anyone else, they would’ve started running away screaming at the sight, but Tong Qiu was different. Instead, he rushed towards the zombie and asked, “Hello, excuse me, have you seen a tall man wearing a grey t-shirt?”
The zombie was taken aback by him and let out an “Ah.”
Tong Qiu was anxious: “Dude, have you seen him? We got separated.”
Huo Zhixing was afraid of ghosts. Tong Qiu did not want to leave him alone in this place. Although it was clear that everything here was fake, that doesn’t mean those who were afraid would be unaffected.
“Oh sorry, I didn’t see anyone like that.” Due to being surprised, the zombie obediently replied.
“Thank you.” Tong Qiu continued to run ahead in a hurry. He had no idea which way would lead him upstairs. He figured the best way to find Huo Zhixing was to head to the third floor first then go down from there.
He met several NPC’s along the way, but no one saw Huo Zhixing. When he arrived on the second floor, his phone finally received some signal. When he looked for Huo Zhixing’s name on the address book, he found that his hands were shaking.
He never thought that a day would come where he would get this worried over that man. Tong Qiu himself knew he was overacting – obviously this was merely a booth full of props and NPCs, but still he couldn’t help it.
But when he thought about Huo Zhixing, who was afraid of ghosts and the dark, standing alone and all pitiful on some corner, he couldn’t help but hate himself a little.
He wanted to tell Huo Zhixing that he didn’t leave him on purpose.
As the reception was truly poor, it took three calls before he got through. The two of them talked intermittently, which made Tong Qiu even more restless.
“It’s okay,” Huo Zhixing reassured, “I’m almost on the third floor. Let’s meet at the exit.”
Tong Qiu listened to his voice and was not convinced, “You stay right where you are, I’ll find you instead.”
“No, there are too many possible pathways here. Let’s not go around in circles.” Huo Zhixing smiled and said comfortingly, “I’m alright, though I almost tore a kid’s hand just now.”
Tong Qiu truly did not believe it. He thought Huo Zhixing must’ve definitely been wronged and bullied by the ghosts.
“Be good,” Huo Zhixing said, “Wait for me at the exit. But today you heartlessly left me, I won’t easily let this go. You better think in advance how to compensate me, I will go over your apology later.”
The author has something to say:
Tong Qiu: Compensation is impossible.
Nell’s Corner:
Sorry for the delay and hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Ufff… for a moment I thought that there would be a situation much more serious than just being separated at the hounted house. But, fortunately, that’s not the case. Yeah, I too want to know how Tong-laoshi is going to compansate his officer Huo. Thank you for the chapter!!!
They’re really cute together and… Lewd
Lmao
Thank you for the chapter, I’m glad I found this story
Haha flirting in a haunted house! I want to see the haunted house’s employees’ pov.
Thanks for the chapter!
If this book is supernatural type. …there’ll be illusion ability user ( one second I thought it’d be like that) but I remember that this one is slice of life simple modern romance bl book😂
I thought something bad is gonna happen thankfully nahh
thank u so much for the update </3
TQ is too gullible lmao. But i think him forcing staff out of character is hilarious
Thank You for the chapter ლ(´ ❥ `ლ)