Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-CherryApple, Proofreader-adjective
He ignored the new chapter that appeared in his book and turned to the first two chapters and counted the number of pages.
There were a total of sixteen pages.
Nan Zhou focused on counting the seconds in his heart as his surroundings blurred and spun around.
The book regained its missing pages and returned to its original state after roughly 77 seconds.
Using the recovery time of a single ripped page as reference, it could be inferred that when the book was damaged, it took approximately 5 seconds for each page to be restored.
Nan Zhou closed the book in his hand.
So far, he had collected enough information.
And now, all he needed to do was wait.
When the time was right, Jiang Fang would naturally send out a signal.
Looking at Nan Zhou’s recent actions, as well as the two bigshots’ incomprehensible conversation earlier, Li Yinhang roughly pieced together their plan in her head.
——So, that’s how it was.
No wonder Jiang Fang chose to stay outside.
No wonder Nan Zhou had said to Jiang Fang, “I can do it, but you may not be able to.”
This was clearly a plan that only a madman would come up with, but it was hammered out by these two without any doubt.
It was the fastest, easiest, most effective and also the most insane way to clear this instance.
She pursed her lips and didn’t try to interfere with their plan by saying things like “seek stability” or “to not act rashly”.
Instead, she just stayed beside Nan Zhou, who was slightly panting. She responded seriously to the homework assigned to her by Teacher Nan, “By the way, I found something, I don’t know if it is useful–”
Nan Zhou looked at her, there was a hint of encouragement in his cold eyes.
Li Yinhang, “I found out that–”
……
Half an hour passed by in a flash.
The motionless tin soldiers against the wall moved again in groups of twos and threes, steadily walking forward, into the maze of bookshelves for the next round of patrol.
Jiang Fang’s eyes were locked on the chessboard, closely observing the movements of the black and white pieces.
The black army had been disarmed and killed off for three whole games.
The white army continued to ride around, slaughtering to their hearts’ content.
The white army was at the edge of the city, and the song of triumph could be heard.
The black kingdom was in danger, with eight pieces immobile, and the pawns defending the city’s border dwindling, to the point of collapse, yet again.
With victory within sights, the white army started to become increasingly haughty.
The white king walked arrogantly out of the protective circle and inadvertently encroached into the black territory.
Jiang Fang was calculating the moves in his mind step by step.
His eyes were on the game ongoing before him.
But in his mind, there was another game of chess, five moves ahead of the one before him .
He had a hunch.
This game would lead to the ideal conclusion he had envisioned.
Sure enough, the ghost-like opponent moved the white king forward recklessly, stopping at the position that Jiang Fang had been eyeing for a long time.
With the snap of the piece landing on the square, Jiang Fang’s mind was cleared and his heartstrings were instantly tensed.
He finally got the chance he had been waiting for.
But it was at the time when the tin soldiers started patrolling and Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang had to hide—
But Jiang Fang did not hesitate even for a second.
He said that he trusted Nan Zhou.
As soon as the white piece landed, Jiang Fang rushed straight towards the direction of the maze of bookshelves.
Without making any detours, he kicked down the bookcase at the exit.
The bookcases were placed closely to each other
With just a kick, Jiang Fang created a domino effect, one bookshelf toppling the next and then the next.
His book, empty from not violating any rules so far, was suddenly treated to a sumptuous feast of memories, all fed from the backlash due to the chain reaction of toppling bookshelves.
The pages of the book brushed and rattled at his fingertips.
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.
As if chewing, tasting, and reminiscing his story, wolfing it down, hungry for more.
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Jiang Fang sprinted toward the inside of the bookshelf that had been rammed through a gaping hole!
The noises he made caught the ears of the nearest group of tin soldiers on patrol, they put up their bayonets and muskets about to turn around when he suddenly sprinted towards them.
Jiang Fang stepped on the head of a tin soldier who was about to turn back, pressed the bookshelf on the side with one hand, and leapt up with all his strength. He hopped over it and pushed the bookshelf over with his entire body.
The entire bookshelf collapsed, burying a team of tin soldiers under it.
……
Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang did not disappoint Jiang Fang’s trust.
When the tin soldiers started patrolling, Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang had already moved to the bookshelf near the periphery of the exit.
Despite being prepared, the sudden booming sound that echoed through the library startled Li Yinhang, “Wha–”
Before she could finish talking, Nan Zhou’s figure moved like a cat, he jumped over the nearest bookcase, easily locating the place where the bookshelves were overturned, pointed in that direction, and rushed into the chaos.
Li Yinhang stopped her train of thoughts and followed behind closely.
…
On the way to rendezvous with Nan Zhou, Jiang Fang’s memories were rapidly draining from his body.
In contrast, the book in his arms was becoming increasingly heavier as it absorbed all of his memories rapidly.
Soon, the book devoured his memories up to eighteen years old.
In Jiang Fang’s eighteen-year-old memory, there were contents related to chess.
In it, there were bishops, chariots, knights, and pawns, a complete memory of chess.
There couldn’t be a better story for the souls of the chess pieces who were always looking for new stories about themselves.
In an instant, eight transparent souls scattered around the maze rushed greedily out of the maze and towards the book in Jiang Fang’s arms!
This was Nan Zhou and Jiang Fang’s plan.
Set the bait and let the pieces come find them instead!
However, as soon as the pieces were gathered, the events deviated from the plan!
Jiang Fang had just collected the eight souls when a team of tin soldiers patrolling nearby came sprinting at the sound.
Jiang Fang, who had nowhere to hide was exposed to the eyes of five tin soldiers at once!
Five more years of memories were forcibly stripped from his mind again.
It contained all the memories of his happiness and pain.
It contained everything that made him who he was.
Because of the sudden massive loss of memories, Jiang Fang became slightly confused and agitated.
He was forgetting who he really was.
——Why was he here?
——Why…?
He scrambled away and hid behind the nearest bookshelf.
His breathing was unstable and erratic.
Out of instinct, he protected the book in his hand.
He couldn’t run deeper into the maze to escape the tin soldiers.
He had to circle around and in the shortest time possible, hand over the book to…
——To…
—— … Hand over to… whom?
The loss of his memories earlier had caused a significant break in his chain of logic.
This sense of “confusion” interfered with his judgment.
Amidst the fierce tinnitus, he heard a clear female voice from afar, perhaps more than ten meters away, “Here I am! Come after me if you have the guts!”
Three of the five tin soldiers were attracted by this voice and rushed there with their muskets.
The next second, light and inaudible footsteps approached Jiang Fang from above.
Jiang Fang had a vague feeling and raised his head sharply, but the lithe figure escaped his vision.
The figure dropped down from the other side of the bookshelf, grabbed the remaining two tin soldiers’ heads and brought them violently towards each other.
The two heads were instantly smashed into a pile of crushed scrap metal.
Nan Zhou threw down the heads of two broken tin soldiers, enduring the strong discomfort caused by breaking the rules. He rushed to Jiang Fang’s side, stretching out his hand, reaching for the book in his hand with an unquestionable familiarity.
There was less than thirty seconds between the time when Jiang Fang started the commotion to the time it took Nan Zhou to reach his side.
However, Jiang Fang was caught in the confusion brought by rapid memory loss and couldn’t extricate himself.
When he saw Nan Zhou, who was about to “attack” him, Jiang Fang’s first reaction was to fight back.
He grabbed Nan Zhou’s hand that was reaching for the book and flipped his wrist, thwarting Nan Zhou’s arm with a bone-crunching sound.
Nan Zhou quickly sensed that something was off about Jiang Fang and didn’t want to hurt him. As soon as he touched the ground, he jumped back up lightly onto a nearby bookshelf, and clamped his legs around Jiang Fang’s arm and shoulder, exerting strength and flipping him towards the mess of books on the ground.
He stretched out his hand and tried to snatch the book from Jiang Fang again.
Surprisingly, Jiang Fang’s reflexes were exceptional even after the attack.
He rolled and broke away from Nan Zhou’s control, the other arm coming up to grab Nan Zhou’s throat laterally.
At the same time, he used the back of his foot to hook onto Nan Zhou’s knees, forcing him down to kneel on one knee.
Looking at Nan Zhou’s face, his originally cold and vigilant expression loosened a little, revealing a slightly arrogant smile.
——… Such a scene… Gave him a sense of deja vu.
Nan Zhou’s breathing was very unstable.
His spirit had been repeatedly struck from testing and violating the rules, so his strength was very weak.
But he must make a quick decision.
Seizing the moment when Jiang Fang was in a momentary daze, Nan Zhou grabbed the slightly messy silver hair at the back of his head and tugged him down hard.
The tips of the noses were almost against each other.
The two people’s warm breaths entangled and intersected, penetrating each other’s bodies, sharing a breath.
Nan Zhou gritted his teeth and asked, “Do you… Trust me?”
Jiang Fang stared at him, fixated.
A few moments later, his hand, which had been holding on to the book, gently let go of it.
Nan Zhou didn’t hesitate, he grabbed the book, and dashed towards the exit along the road opened up by Jiang Fang.
Simultaneously, Li Yinhang, who attracted the attention of the tin soldiers, was running for her life.
Listening to the chaotic sound of footsteps, Jiang Fang stood up straight and wanted to follow Nan Zhou out.
At this moment, the fingers of a crippled tin soldier, without warning, latched on to his shoe.
From its broken lips, a vague and indistinct bass sounded.
“Book. Book. I caught it. Book.”
Jiang Fang’s eyes, which were already misty and clouded by confusion, suddenly stagnated.
A little metallic silvery white tint dripped into his pupils like water, and gradually spread outward.
However, before Jiang Fang’s eyes went dead and he was reduced into a mindless tin man, Nan Zhou, who was running, tore away the first sixteen pages and returned the scattered memories to him.
Sixteen pages, 80 seconds.
Nan Zhou, who had already experimented with rules to figure out this information, assisted Jiang Fang in regaining consciousness for more than a minute.
The progress of conversion into a tin soldier was forcibly repressed by him.
With great difficulty, he resisted against the backlash of the darkness of the sky and the darkness of the earth, Nan Zhou rushed out of the entrance of the labyrinth, which was collapsing. The black mist in front of Nan Zhou’s eyes gradually dissipated and he could see clearly…
Looking at the dried corpse raising its wrist to move the decisive piece on the chessboard, Nan Zhou accelerated his pace.
He threw Jiang Fang’s book onto the edge of the chessboard, nearly knocking over a piece in the corner.
The black pieces on the board, which were half dead, were immediately rejuvenated by the eight returning spirits.
The dead black army was resurrected in one breath.
The corpse obviously didn’t expect such a situation, and its hand, which was about to make a last-ditch effort, paused.
In the moment when it paused, Nan Zhou stretched his hand and picked up a black piece on its behalf.
He panted, looking at the entire chessboard, recalling the two most important rules of winning that Jiang Fang had taught him prior.
First, the opponent’s “King”, no matter which grid he went to next, would be checkmated.
Secondly, the opponent’s other pieces could neither take down the pieces that checkmated the King, nor could they shield the King against its inescapable situation.
The white army’s aggressive tactics drove its king out of its protective circle and into a perilous situation from which there was no escape.
Jiang Fang had been waiting for the game to reach this critical point.
After one side made a move, the other side had a full minute to think about their strategy, before making their next move, and Jiang Fang needed to utilize this one minute.
In this short minute, the corpse will not make a move.
In such a favorable situation, he would wantonly destroy the bookshelves, violate the prohibition, luring the souls of the chess pieces to focus on the book containing his memories, and then hand over the book to Nan Zhou, so that Nan Zhou could bring the souls to the chessboard to help the corpse win the game.
Nan Zhou didn’t know how to play chess. He only knew what Jiang Fang taught him in the first few minutes.
If he could, Jiang Fang would have actively chosen to put himself in that situation where he would go crazy with the possibility of being stuck in the library for the rest of his life.
He had thought long and hard about the sense of dislocation and unease that would result from the significant loss of his memories.
When he was in this crazed and confused mood, only Nan Zhou could subdue and stop him.
If it was the other way around, he couldn’t do anything to stop Nan Zhou.
That’s why Nan Zhou said, “I can do it, but you may not be able to.”
——Jiang Fang had even calculated his madness clearly.
……
About their plan, Li Yinhang, who had lured away the tin soldiers through the maze of bookshelves, had already figured out most of it, and also voiced it out and got confirmation from Nan Zhou .
But she was a bit perplexed about the words that Nan Zhou had said to her after hearing her speculation.
“It’s not helping the corpse win.” Nan Zhou corrected her, “It’s letting ourselves win.”
……
After the black chess pieces regained their souls, Nan Zhou seized the moment and, instead of the corpse, placed that crucial decisive piece.
Checkmate.
The white king had nowhere to hide.
Overturn against the wind.
Only after the white chess piece paused and took the initiative to push down its white king, silently declaring its defeat, did Nan Zhou face the one-legged tin soldier on the side.
The one-legged tin soldier looked down and seemed a little unhappy.
It said, “Wrong. You should let my friend win.”
Nan Zhou pressed his hand on Jiang Fang’s book and quietly announced, “No, we should let ourselves win.”
He looked into the one-legged tin soldier’s dark, abyss-like eyes and asked rhetorically, “If we let your dried friend win, where will it go? And who is going to occupy this opposing position?”
The one-legged tin soldier had dug a very subtle verbal trap for them.
If the players passed, the door would open for them to get out.
Then, if the corpse won, would there still be a reward?
Nan Zhou wasn’t under the impression that the corpse liked to play chess, so he sat down and became a corpse.
He guessed that the one sitting here was most likely the last player who lost.
Because they couldn’t find all eight pieces and couldn’t win anyway, they had to sit here for eternity, or until the next unlucky player replaced them.
If Nan Zhou truly was obedient and only responsible for recalling the souls of the chess pieces, and to “help” the corpse win, the corpse would be freed, consequently the three of them might be forced to leave behind one to play against the door and become the next corpse.
Even if they were overthinking, and it wasn’t a trap, it was still better to hold the initiative in their own hands.
Their caution proved to be worthwhile.
The door to the outside world opened a gap wide enough for one person to pass through, and a ray of light came through from the other side.
The corpse’s dark eyes were focused on the door to freedom, and a sad and low sob came from its throat.
Nan Zhou looked at it, lowered his eyes, and picked up the book containing Jiang Fang’s memories.
After the game, the pages inside had stopped growing.
The content torn off by Nan Zhou had been automatically filled in.
The text on the last page had been filled halfway down.
Only half a page was blank.
Just a little more, and Jiang Fang would have become a story, stuck here forever.
Nan Zhou embraced the book, and his heart was finally relaxed.
After his tense nerves finally relaxed, the overwhelming feeling of fatigue flooded his mind and body.
Since the game was over, naturally, the tin soldiers in pursuit of Li Yinhang also stopped.
There was silence.
Nan Zhou sat down on the ground and said to the one-legged tin soldier, “The game is over.. Please bring my teammates out.”
The one-legged tin soldier sighed with resignation. Using his bayonet as a crutch, he jumped into the depths of the bookshelf.
Nan Zhou guarded the open door alone, waiting for the one-legged tin soldier to return.
He laid Jiang Fang’s book on his knees and rubbed the cover curiously.
The shoulder twisted by Jiang Fang still hurts.
But Nan Zhou didn’t pay any mind to it.
His index finger moved gently over the cover, and there was a strange feeling in his heart.
——… Want to see it.
…Romantic?
Thank you for new chapter
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Thank you for the chapter!
Can you read it? Haven’t the words became strange symbols once the memories are inside the book?
Thanks for the chapter