Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-Pierce, Proofreader-adjective
Since the cellar could be seen from the outside, it was completely different from the previous doors, so Li Yinhang didn’t go in.
She asked Nan Zhou, “Is there anything in it?”
Nan Zhou frowned, “I…”
He took a step forward, looking eager to grab something.
Jiang Fang immediately understood, stretched out his hand, and took Nan Zhou’s hand that was reaching forward.
Nan Zhou’s knuckles bent slightly and caught his pinky finger; subconsciously, he affectionately confined it with his hand and caressed it softly, stirring a sudden surge of electrifying spark.
Jiang Fang was startled.
His body was absolutely private. Unless he took the initiative, he couldn’t tolerate anyone having physical contact with him.
Having this habit and instinct, he would immediately avoid such an intimate gesture.
However, with vehement willpower, he “forced” himself not to withdraw and took pleasure in the residual warmth from that rousing spark they created from their interlaced fingers, taking the time to appreciate it and endearingly stroking Nan Zhou’s fingertips.
The inexplicable emptiness in Nan Zhou’s heart was thus filled by this small action.
He calmed down and said to Jiang Fang, “…I found the bread we need.”
Li Yinhang became excited: “Then can we go to Inger right away—”
“Yes.” Nan Zhou said. “However, there is one more thing I want to do.”
Jiang Fang observed his expression, “Do you need our help?”
Nan Zhou, “Yes.”
As the sky turned dark, they bypassed the heavy maze of the forest and found the waiting bird, Inger, at the edge of the swamp as promised.
Nan Zhou handed it the half loaf of fresh bread he had found from the cellar.
Inger was very satisfied with the quality of the half-cut bread and was just about to accept the reward when Nan Zhou opened his mouth.
“Can you really take us to the door?”
“Yes,” Inger said, “You are not the first player I met. Now that you have found the secret past of the two siblings, and found bread for me in that past… in return I will take you back to the normal timeline and find the door you should go out.”
——That’s right.
Inger’s words verified Nan Zhou’s judgement of it.
While hiding in the woods and eavesdropping on the conversation between Inger and the brother and sister, Inger’s few words caught Nan Zhou’s attention.
“There is always a price to pay for your hearts’ desires.”
It knew the truth of this world.
It knew the past and future of the two siblings, and it knew what fate would befall the siblings who crossed the river.
It may even have carried the siblings of the third timeline countless times, running towards the fate of the second timeline of patricide.
Then, it may be the omniscient figure who existed in these multiple timelines.
According to what it just said, it could even take them through time and space.
But it was just a bird after all.
It was like a sensible bystander, knowing that it couldn’t undo the fate of the two siblings, and could only watch the two of them, like their original selves, gradually dive into the bottomless quagmire, paying the due price for their choices.
When this was determined, Nan Zhou’s thoughts became even more certain.
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.
“Ktfc, P tjnf j qfgrbcji gfdefra.” Rjc Itbe rjlv, “Jjc P jrx sbe ab vb wf j ojnbg?”
Ktf ilaaif ylgv mbmxfv lar tfjv lc mbcoerlbc, jcv lar qgfaas ilaaif yijmx yfjc fsfr oieaafgfv jcv yilcxfv.
Olxf atf akb ygbatfgr jcv rlrafgr ktb wjvf atf vfji ja atf yfulcclcu, Rjc Itbe, Aljcu Mjcu jcv Ol Tlctjcu wbecafv bc atf klcur bo atf ylgv ilxf j wjulm mjgqfa.
With a sharp chirp, it swept into the forest like a small plane, nimbly avoiding branches, leaves, and bushes, all the way to the middle of the forest where Nan Zhou and the others met the woodcutter who abandoned his children.
It plunged into a tiny void.
It carried the three people and broke into the third from the fourth timeline.
Its illusory figure emerged from the swamp’s sludge, gradually becoming more and more solid. With three people upon its back, it slipped back into the forest once more.
Shortly after Inger’s figure swept into the forest, it passed by the spot where Nan Zhou and Jiang Fang kissed.
After a while, it plunged into the void in the forest again.
They returned to the second timeline.
The hut was full of fresh flesh and blood.
The two little blood gourds that had just eaten up their father’s flesh and blood were sleeping on the sofa.
They hadn’t yet awakened from the dream after a full meal.
But when it came here, Inger stopped moving forward.
It silently folded its wings and regained its normal body shape. Standing on a part of the floor that had not been soaked in blood, it restrained its gray beak and groomed its feathers while using a pair of pea-eyes to signal Nan Zhou to move as quickly as possible.
Staring at the two sleepy children who didn’t know if they were really full, Li Yinhang’s back started sweating.
Her sweat glands seemed to be stabbed by someone with a capillary needle. Cold sweat slowly exuded from the depths of her body with a sense of numbness.
This tension felt terrible.
She still couldn’t fully comprehend why Nan Zhou asked Inger to stop in the second timeline.
Nan Zhou didn’t delay either.
He immediately moved, went into the Woodcutter’s room, opened the unlocked drawer, silently took out a dozen gold bars that belonged to the witch, and put them into his backpack.
When he returned to the living room, he felt as if he was being watched closely. The sister turned over and opened her eyes in a daze.
Li Yinhang was horrified. Just when she wanted to find Inger, Nan Zhou grabbed Jiang Fang and Li Yinhang’s hand.
Li Yinhang came back to her senses and grabbed Inger’s wings.
And Jiang Fang went forward, holding the door handle growing in the Woodcutter’s stomach, and quickly pressed down—
The sister opened her blood-battered eyes but only had time to see a small piece of snow-white bird feather that fell to the ground.
They jumped back to the third timeline.
That was the timeline in which the two siblings had just escaped the candy house and wanted to go home.
Along the way, Inger carried them, and they crossed the third timeline in very little time.
Inger, on the swamp, somewhat reluctantly shook a feather off her already balding wings and transformed it into a door.
They broke back into the fourth timeline.
Simultaneously, the time of several timelines advanced.
Therefore, when they returned to the second timeline, the two siblings were still taking a nap after eating.
And when they returned to the fourth timeline, it was already dark.
Nan Zhou climbed down from Inger’s back, signaling to Jiang Fang, Li Yinhang, and Inger to wait in place before walking alone deep into the dense forest.
Hunger was also ruthlessly eating away at his stomach, but Nan Zhou’s steps were steady.
His face was still cold and indifferent, and it was hard to see what he was running all this way for.
In the distance, he heard the fearful cries of the brother and sister.
He stopped.
The brother hugged the sister, curled up under a dead tree, and patted her back with fingers slightly trembling.
The massive shadow casted by a single tree seemed to be enough to swallow the two children whole.
The sister whimpered, “Brother, I’m afraid. I’m hungry.”
The brother kissed her cold sweat-stained forehead, “Gretel, don’t be afraid. We’ll find our way home.”
His sister choked, “But all the crumbs you scattered were eaten by the birds. We can’t go back…”
The elder brother, supported by the tree, supported the younger sister, and stood up staggeringly with her, “It doesn’t matter. There must be some leftovers. Let’s look for it again—”
With a glimmer of hope, they stumbled and bumbled into the depths of the dense forest.
In the darkness of the thin moonlight, no one expected that it was a scent that pointed the way for them.
It was the sweet aroma of fresh bread.
The brother and sister took a few steps, and with the slight moonlight, they could clearly see pieces of bread crumbs as white as fine sand appearing on the ground.
The brother was instantly lit up with hope, “Gretel! See! It’s our bread crumbs!”
The sister was overjoyed, but also a bit hesitant and doubtful, “Really? Is the bread we have left at home not that good?”
The brother didn’t have time to think deeply. He took his sister’s warm little hand, carefully searched for the crumbs on the ground, and walked all the way back.
Out of caution, the starving Nan Zhou didn’t take only half a loaf as Inger requested.
He took a whole one.
Half of it was given to Inger, and the other half was in his palm, which he rubbed into fine crumbs, sliding down like sand.
He scattered the bread along the way and guided the “lost” brother and sister to the right path.
To facilitate the action, he borrowed Li Yinhang’s cell phone and turned on the light.
An unusual group of luminosity floated up and down on Nan Zhou’s side.
This subtle light naturally attracted the attention of both brother and sister.
The younger sister asked curiously: “What is that?”
“Is it a firefly?”
“Is it a little bird that glows?”
The older brother suggested, “Let’s go up and take a look.”
However, if they were to speed up, that ball of light would speed up as well.
So they haven’t been able to see what was guiding them.
In this chase which had a bit of fun, the two brothers and sisters saw the familiar lights from a distance that belonged to their home.
The two stopped in unison, and a complex expression of joy and sorrow appeared on their faces.
They coincidentally thought about why they got lost in the dense forest in the first place.
This was the second time their father had tried to abandon them.
They came back this time.
So, wouldn’t there be a third time?
Could this home—without their mother—ever be returned?
The two siblings stood and held hands and hesitated for a long time when suddenly, a small stone fell.
The minuscule sound of a stone thrown caught the attention of the two.
They followed the sound, and through the light cast from the window of the house, they could clearly see a few dark golden lights gathered under the tree not far from their feet.
They took a closer look and were instantly dumbfounded.
It was gold!
So much gold!
The elder brother sat on the ground, looked at the younger sister, and whispered, “So many… Who lost it?”
The sister replied in the same nervous tone, whispering, “I don’t know…”
After gazing at each other, the cunning little wisdom of the brothers and sisters finally got on the line.
The older brother said, “We picked this up deep in the forest, didn’t we?”
The younger sister immediately took over, “Well! It was given to us by the witch of the forest, who is a good and kind person and will only give it to people she likes.”
The brother nodded, “We brought wealth to the family, father and that person. There is no reason to kick us out, is there?”
The sister blinked and let out a surprised snicker with her brother.
They wrapped their gold bars and stepped into the light, longing for home.
And a little bird which carried a lantern was sitting on a dark treetop.
Watching the two brothers and sisters step into the house, and after hearing the surprising ‘commotion’ coming from the door and the stepmother’s greedy question: “Where did you find it?” Nan Zhou jumped down lightly with his heel on the tree trunk.
But probably because he was too hungry, when Nan Zhou landed on his feet, his limbs trembled and feebly started to fall forward, but before he collapsed, slender arms reached out to catch him. One arm possessed him and had themselves encircled to his waist, while the other went around his knees. They tucked Nan Zhou into their arms and nestled him into their embrace so as not to let him fall.
Nan Zhou couldn’t see who the person at the end of the darkness was.
But he knew.
He examined himself, “I didn’t jump well.”
Jiang Fang hugged him firmly, “Next time, try harder.”
Nan Zhou struggled.
He knew that Jiang Fang didn’t have much stamina left now, “I can walk.”
Jiang Fang’s voice, both light and warm in the night, “I know.”
But he still held on.
Nan Zhou wasn’t embarrassed either. Seeing that he wouldn’t let go, he merely changed to a more comfortable position and snuggled in his arms, “Why didn’t you wait for me by the river?”
Jiang Fang, “I’m afraid you’ll get lost, so I came to your location and waited for you.”
Nan Zhou didn’t mention his plans to the two but only said he would jump back and forth in several timelines to do one thing.
Because this was his own idea, and it had little to do with the instance game itself.
Nan Zhou disapproved, “How did you know I would come here? What if I got lost?”
“It won’t happen.”
A small, heartfelt smile appeared on his face, “With how close we are to each other, as long as my thoughts are of you, I’ll be able to find you.”
“Every time, it would be like that.”
Nan Zhou, “?”
He couldn’t quite understand Jiang Fang’s logic.
He just felt that while lying on his back in the arms of Jiang Fang, the starry night sky appeared to be particularly beautiful tonight.
Aww, so sweet!!!!
Thank you for your translation 💙💙
I really love Jiang Fang and Nan Zhou’s dynamics. I kept on blushing while reading this. I love them sm ㅠ_ㅠ thank you for the chapter! Will wait for the next update 🙂
Oh my I’m sorry. I wasn’t supposed to reply to you ㅠㅠ
It’s okay, I like their dynamics too!
Thank you for the chapter!
❤️❤️❤️❤️ That’s such a beautiful ending!
Thank you for the update!
why does it feel like Brain Invasion is so long? QAQ
thanks for the chapters! <3
Thank you for the translation!! But has this been dropped?? It’s been like 5 months since the last update?
Thank you for the chapters!