The red, rolling hills were spacious and empty and cold beneath the night sky. Without the mill of tourists from daytime, Zhenbeitai, having weathered through four centuries of existence, stood at the very peak against the bitter winds, still and silent like a warrior watching over his land.
Suddenly, a purple light appeared in the middle of the air. It got bigger and bigger, an in the blink of an eye, it’d become a swirling vortex. Four live humans fell out of it, plopping right on top of Zhenbeitai.
There was an aiyou as someone landed, instantly splitting through the blanket of serenity at the top of the mountain.
If someone were to look towards the top of Zhenbeitai then, they would see four large humans lying faced to the sky, either panting heavily or breathing deeply in a manner that was simultaneously riddled with exhaustion and elation at having survived from the brink of death.
Qian Ai: “I feel like I got thrown out by someone…”
Xu Wang: “We’re lucky enough that we got out alive, were you expecting to be carried home?”
Kuang Jinxing: “It’s only 4:20 AM…”
Qian Ai: “4:20? I feel like it’s been four days…”
Wu Sheng: “Let’s rest for two minutes and then get out of here. The wind’s rough up here.”
After two minutes had passed, the fatigue from having successfully “passed” the stage began to transform into excitement.
“The fact that we came out alive is definitely thanks to you,” said Qian Ai, who’d suddenly flopped up like a carp out of water and was peering down seriously at Wu Sheng. “If you hadn’t grabbed onto the bathroom frame, we’d all have been blown out!”
“It’s not that big of a deal.” Wu Sheng stood up, dusting the dirt off his clothing. “In those kinds of situations, trying to find something to grab onto is just reflex. I just moved and reacted slightly faster.”
Xu Wang lay there and through his peripheral vision, caught the smugness that graced Wu Sheng’s lips. He had half a mind to advise Qian Ai: Stop praising him, you’ll send him to the moon.
Whether it was because Qian Ai read his mind or not, his praises stopped and he suddenly changed the topic, “But I was shocked that you held all three of us by yourself. What kinds of workouts have you been doing these years that your physicality suddenly became so strong?”
“When has my physicality ever been lackluster?” Wu Sheng demanded, disgruntled.
“High school,” Qian Ai said. “Remember one time, Xu Wang and that psycho from Class 7 were fighting in the halls and none of us joined in because we were afraid of being caught by the teacher? Only you went to help him, and that dude from Class 7 knocked you out with one hit.”
Wu Sheng: “…”
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.
“I remember even if he doesn’t,” Xu Wang suddenly perked up and crawled up to his feet. Continuing the story, he said, “And then when the teacher came, he didn’t even pay attention to us two, he had to send Wu Sheng to the infirmary first. The precious number one in the class! What else could he do?”
“Right,” Qian Ai nodded, “and then remember the guy from Class 7, he wanted to get you to lie with him and say you were both just kidding around and weren’t fighting for real?”
“Tch,” Xu Wang pressed his lips together. “At first I didn’t even mind him, I mean who cares about getting punished? I’d have done anything for that guy to suffer.” Here, he shot a look at Wu Sheng, “But who knew, after this one woke up, he kept saying we were just playing around.”
“He was helping you,” Qian Ai said, unwilling to let this unjust accusation lie. “If he hadn’t said that, you two would’ve been roast.”
“Why do you keep saying that?” Xu Wang was over this. “And you said he got into the fight to help me, he was just trying to pull us apart, he was on neutral ground!”
“Both of you hold up.” Wu Sheng interjected, having had enough. For the sake of his childhood self, he first turned to Xu Wang. “First, I was trying to help you, even Old Qian could tell. Are you perception skills in the negatives? Otherwise how do you think you got away with only a reprimand?” Then he swept a glance over Qian Ai. “Second, don’t tell me after all these years, both of you still think I passed out for real?”
Xu Wang was still caught up in the ‘Wu Sheng being neutral versus Wu Sheng helping’ matter, so when this new piece of info was revealed, his brain didn’t click. “Huh?”
This time, Qian Ai was surprised too. “You weren’t really knocked out?”
“Obviously it was fake,” Wu Sheng said matter-of-factly. “If I didn’t do that, wouldn’t it just have become a three-person fight? Would that other kid have believed me if I said I was just trying to pull them apart? So I faked passing out, and as soon as I passed he’d get scared. As long as he was scared, everything that followed would play out smoothly.”
“I get it!” Kuang Jinxin suddenly leaped up. In the first stage when they’d run into Xu Wang but Xu Wang had only seen Wu Sheng and totally overlooked himself and Qian Ai’s existence, Xu Wang and Wu Sheng had brought up a past incident of Wu Sheng calling the teacher over when Xu Wang had been getting kicked into the goal on the ball field by three hooligans. Wu Sheng had said it then: “It’s called outwitting your enemies!”
Qian Ai: “…”
Xu Wang: “…”
Wu Sheng was suddenly extraordinarily pleased that he’d been blessed with a supporter in the form of Kuang Jinxin.
As they talked, they suddenly realised that they weren’t in some random place, but were exactly on top of the coordinates of task 2/23—Zhenbeitai. In Owl, these exact coordinates had been the boarding area of the flight, and so as soon as they’d walked from the check-in area to the boarding gate, in the real world they’d traveled from the hotel to Zhenbeitai. There was nothing strange about that, but the problem was after flying for so long, they were still right where they’d been. Had they taken off and landed in the exact same place? Had they been flying around in circles for fun? Or was it that any travel they experienced after the flight took off didn’t count?
These questions befuddled them and when, after much discussion, they couldn’t come up with any answers, the little bit of excitement they’d felt at having completed the task disappeared and weariness returned. They snuck out of the scenic area in the blanket of darkness like a group of thieves, called a cab, and in less than fifteen minutes, were back at the hotel.
Outside the hotel, they suddenly remembered another critical problem—When they’d been sucked into Owl at midnight, they’d been in the middle of communicating with the hotel lady outside the door. After they’d disappeared, how had the lady reacted? Did she leave with suspicion? Or did she charge into the room to discover that they were all gone? Or did she just straight up call the cops?
Whatever happened, it was necessary to give the lady some form of a sensible explanation.
In that very moment, they could see the lady dozing off at her desk through the glass windows.
“What do we do?” Qian Ai scratched his head anxiously.
“Go in,” Xu Wang replied firmly. “What comes will come, let’s just improvise.”
After he spoke, he made the first move and walked inside. Wu Sheng followed, and then Kuang Jinxin and Qian Ai exchanged a glance before stepping inside as well.
As if she sensed their presence, the lady coincidentally opened her eyes the second they walked in. She’d meant to yawn, except all she’d done was open her mouth wide when the four of them charged in. Her yawn was suspended and forgotten as her eyes widened larger than her mouth.
The four of them stood where they were, not moving forward and not stepping back. They just stared at her, the two parties engaging in an unplanned stare-off.
“Y’all…” When the lady spoke finally, there wasn’t any suspicion in her voice; she seemed merely questioning and genuinely confused. “When’d y’all leave? How come I ain’t seen any of ya goin’ out?”
Her questions stumped them and they stared at each other at a loss. Eventually, Xu Wang said, “Er, we just, left earlier. Went to go have a midnight snack, you were probably asleep and didn’t notice.”
“Oh.” The lady appeared to accept this explanation without any difficulty. Afterwards, she added in concern, “It’s cold out there at night, you boys bundle up.”
Her demeanor was beyond normal. After she spoke, she yawned and stuck her arms back on the front desk, readying to get back to her nap.
Even the stupidest person would know that something was up. Xu Wang asked, “Ma’am, back when you went knocking on our door…” He trailed off then, a) because he wanted to be careful and not turn this into a huge thing, b) because he really had no idea how to complete that sentence anyhow. It wasn’t as if he could ask, So, how did you feel when you barged into our room and found we’d all disappeared?
But who knew, the lady only paid attention to the first half of his statement. “Wha? When’d I go lookin’ for you guys?”
The air suddenly went still.
“You know, at midnight…” Xu Wang reminded her, unwilling to believe this.
“What’re you goin’ on about, lad?” The lady laughed and studied them like they were a group of prankster kids. “I was here all night last night, when’d I ever go upstairs?”
The air went completely still.
They stared at the lady, who stared them back in confusion.
A few seconds of staring passed, and the four of them came to a solid conclusion: She’d lost her memories.
At that point, this conversation where neither party seemed to be on the same page ended with the lady’s confusion and their hearts beating in their chests.
They were shocked by the “amnesia,” but even more so by Owl’s power. But then again, Owl could drag entire humans into its world from reality, could even make their injuries from its world pass on to the real world, so what was a little bit of memory loss?
Except it was still too horrifying. This omnipotent power blurred the boundaries with Owl and the real world; it terrified them, for they had simply drawn a solid line between nighttime and daytime and treated Owl as a dream or test they had to pass.
Back in their room, the four of them sat in chairs or at the edge of the bed in silence. They did not speak for a long time.
“I mean, if you think about it from another perspective, it’s a good thing. At least we won’t be treated like lunatics and we won’t have to lie to cover our tracks,” Kuang Jinxin said at last. He slapped himself on the cheeks and revitalised the optimism and magnetism in his eyes. “Let’s go to sleep, tomorrow is a new day.”
Xu Wang let out a breath. It was true they wouldn’t be treated like lunatics, but it also meant they lost any chance of receiving outside help.
But it was better not to discuss such a heavy topic when they’d just survived a harrowing night. “I agree,” he said, slapping his thighs and getting up. He repeated Kuang Jinxin’s suggestion. “Off to bed!”
“I’m not going back to my room,” Qian Ai said with a raised hand. “I have absolutely no sense of security right now, I want to sleep with you three!”
“Old Qian,” Wu Sheng corrected sternly, “we’re sleeping in one room, but that doesn’t mean we’re sleeping together.”
Qian Ai blinked, then retorted, “That wasn’t what I meant, why be so persnickety?”
“No no,” Wu Sheng shook his head resolutely, “there’s a very big difference…”
“Can you get back on topic?!” Xu Wang cut in, trying to be efficient. “Let’s put the three beds together and all four of us can sleep on it.”
“Forget it, it’s not comfortable sleeping in the cracks between mattresses.” Then, in a display of courage, Kuang Jinxin said, “Old Qian, I’ll go to your room and stay with you.”
“That works.” Xu Wang found this plan feasible and went to go pat Qian Ai on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, no matter what happens, Xiao Kuang can protect you.”
Qian Ai looked at Xu Wang’s serious face, then looked at Kuang Jinxin’s cordial face, and lastly turned to the completely oblivious Wu Sheng who was in his own world. He felt like he was being mocked for his lack of strength, but…
“That works.”
And with the exit of Qian Ai and Kuang Jinxin, only Xu Wang and Wu Sheng were left in the room.
My small hope for WS and XW to share a bed came and went fast xDDD
Thx for the ch ٩( >ヮ<)۶
“It was just instinct” oh funny his instinct was to grab the guy first and then grab the door 👀
Thanks for the chapter! <3
I binge read this instead of working…still worth it. =)