Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-Pierce, Proofreader-adjective
Ji Dong and Ren Jianmo brought over the food and water that they had received from the old priest and returned to Mo Tiangen.
Teacher Dagen, after a long day of hard work and mental tension, was too tired to stand. When Ji Dong and Ren Jianmo returned, he was sitting against the wall, completely in a daze. He was half asleep, half awake, his eyelids could no longer be opened.
Ji Dong kicked Mo Tiangen’s calf twice with his toes, “Teacher Dagen, get up and have something to eat.”
Mo Tiangen vaguely groaned and turned his face to the side, “Don’t touch me. Not eating, not eating.”
“Tsk.”
Ji Dong proceeded to wake him. He nonchalantly grabbed his shoulders and shook it for a while, finally sobering up the man.
The three stayed in a corner near the cellar and ate their food.
“Ugh, I want to go back to the [Peach Blossom Spring] soon.”
Teacher Dagen chewed on the musty bread while nostalgically thinking about the magical cooking cabinet in his room that automatically provided him with three meals a day. He gritted his teeth as he realized he had set himself a FLAG, “I haven’t had a chance to try the steamed sea bass and Fó Tiào Qiáng yet! Without tasting them, I absolutely can’t die here!”
Ji Dong also felt that the dry biscuits in his mouth were really hard to swallow. The survivors in the town were running out of water and food yet they still gave a portion of their ration. It would be shameless of them if they were to nitpicked on the food.
After eating, the trio wrapped themselves in a blanket and lied down against the wall to rest.
Teacher Dagen has always been a big-hearted teacher with excellent sleep quality. As soon as the upper eyelid met the lower eyelid, he was swiftly conquered by the allure of sleep and soon went to meet the Duke of Zhou.
Although the cellar under the church was very spacious, its size could also be compared to a small-scaled civil air defensive fortress.
But now, fifteen people were crowded in one spot. Although it couldn’t be described as “crowded”, it was not very spacious.
In addition, the survivors have lived in this place for half a month. The ventilation in the cellar was mediocre. It was inevitably wet and damp. Usually, the villagers didn’t dare to go out. They ate, drank, and shit here. Over time, the place, undoubtedly, stunk and became more turbid.
Ji Dong wrapped himself in a thin blanket, which he scavenged from a dilapidated household in the town, and laid on the hard, damp concrete floor.
Not far from him were the two ladies, Rose and Annie, sound asleep. Two meters away were the two soldiers who hadn’t had their turn to watch for the night, and a few surviving villagers were facing the direction of their heels.
In the darkness, the sound of snoring and grinding teeth rose and fell, like a symphony of chaotic lullabies, making the people upset by the noise.
Ji Dong bitterly recalled an old incident from his high school days.
At that time, he was, for the first time, shortlisted for the youth division. He participated in a training camp, together with twenty to thirty other players selected from various provinces and cities. Just like now, more than a dozen people slept in a shared room.
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.
The younger players were ecstatic on the first night. No one was feeling drowsy once the lights were turned off. More than a dozen kids came to create a racket, chattering and boasting till after two o’clock in the morning. They eventually calmed down and fell asleep one by one.
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It was the same back then as it was now. He could hear other people’s breathing, their snores, the grinding of teeth, and their murmurs when they dream. Even the chokeful cries of the young children who had a nightmare because they had left home…
When he recalled his past, Ji Dong forced himself to close his eyes and pretended that he was just participating in a rigorous training with arduous conditions.
A minute later.
Five minutes later.
Ten minutes later.
With a “huh”, Ji Dong held the thin blanket and sat up straight.
——God, I can’t sleep!
He stood up, lit his flashlight and swept it around the pitch-dark, narrowed passage to have a look.
Mo Tiangen was on his left-hand side, sleeping like a dead pig. It was hard to wake him up unless he was punched and kicked.
While Ren Jianmo was sleeping on his right-hand side, sideways and facing the wall. He had a dirty blue-grey blanket wrapped around himself, quietly motionless; it was hard to tell whether he was asleep or awake.
A little farther, which Ji Dong’s flashlight could not reach, he could only barely distinguish some shadowed outlines that let him know that the others were within his vicinity.
Ji Dong stood up and tiptoed forward, stepping over Teacher Dagen. With his flashlight, like a nimble fish, he passed through the sleeping people sprawled all over the place. He went toward the standing cabinet in the corner of the cellar and found the small door hidden behind it.
He wanted to observe from the bell tower’s viewpoint.
The stairs to the top of the bell tower were narrow and steep, barely enough for one person to pass.
With a flashlight in his left hand, Ji Dong held the patchy stone wall with his right hand and climbed up the spiral staircase.
He felt he had gone up four or five stories before he finally reached the top.
Ji Dong had previously competed in international tournaments and had visited various local churches. He had never seen a small bell tower as tall and narrow as this one, with such an antique build, before.
A bronze bell, the size of a water tank, hung from the top of the bell tower, while the walls had circular windows about half a meter wide in diameter in all four directions.
The bell tower’s spire was built so high that the lowermost edge of the window just reached his chin. Ji Dong stood on his tiptoes, stretched his neck, and poked his head out of the window to look down.
As far as the eyes could see, you could only see a small section of gray-white wall below the window edge and the dark night that almost wanted to devour people.
Ji Dong was not yet familiar with the layout of Sunset Town. The surrounding area was nearly covered in darkness. Even with his enhanced eyesight and under the starless, pitch black sky, it was challenging to pinpoint the direction he was facing.
He was on his toes for a while when he found a building with lights on among the trees.
That was the clinic where they had stayed earlier, and the lights were turned on by them.
Now those few lighted rooms have become the only remaining source of light in the entire town, as well as the only signpost that could give him direction.
Ji Dong could not help but shiver.
According to what the soldiers told him about the characteristics of those Skeleton Monsters, the monsters wandering in the darkness didn’t have the ability to see them. However, they could both smell and hear their prey. With his position at the bell tower, he believed they wouldn’t be able to sense him.
So if he stays here, he should be very safe.
But it was psychologically inconceivable, when someone was placed in a dark and dangerous situation, they would subconsciously think that only a confined space with high walls would be their best bet for refuge.
However, Ji Xiao’niao, felt his terror mounting as he stood alone in the freezing tower. The airflow was omnipresent.
So, Ji Dong thought that he should end this meaningless adventure and quietly go back to sleep.
However, the moment he was about to turn around, a hand was placed on his shoulder without warning.
Ji Dong felt that even if his mental tolerance was awfully vulnerable to horrifying assaults, he wouldn’t black out. In this case, unfortunately, he was about to have a heart attack, leave this “exhilarating adventure world”, and submit to eternal sleep.
His scalp was numb, his mind was blank, and a series of screams were about to instinctively burst out.
But the person behind him was faster than him. When his first word nearly slipped from his throat, a hand covered his mouth.
“Don’t scream.”
Ji Dong heard a familiar voice whispering close to his ear, “It’s me.”
Poor Ji Xiao’niao. His heart heavily fell back into its cavity. His whole body trembled from the heat and prickling sensation behind his ear. His face was flushed from his forehead to the base of his neck.
——It’s Ren Jianmo!
“Mmmhmm!”
He nodded repeatedly, indicating that he would not shout, and that the other party could release him.
As expected, Ren Jianmo removed the hand that was covering Ji Dong’s mouth.
“What? Did I scare you?”
His words had a playful tone, as if he was smirking when he asked him.
Ji Dong’s heart was still thumping, and even his speech had a slight stutter, “You… How did you… Why did you come up here?”
“To find you ah.”
Ren Jianmo answered faintly, as if it were a matter of fact, “I was afraid you’ll get lost.”
Ji Dong hastily retorted.
“I… I’m not going out. How could I get lost?!”
But then, seeing the taunting look in Ren Jianmo’s eyes, he understood he’d been tricked by the other person. He couldn’t help but feel a flush of embarrassment.
Ji Xiao’niao thought he was really stupid. He was like a smitten young boy in front of Ren Jianmo. His heart was beating fast, like he was stirred by the words of his dream lover, whether intentional or unintentional.
——Wait!
Ji Dong was startled by the metaphor in his mind.
——What smitten young boy?!
——What dream lover?!
——You are so hopeless. As long as you are in front of this beauty, you just bend and bend regardless of gender?!
Ji Xiao’niao underwent significant self-reflection in his heart, severely admonishing himself that this was only a socialist brotherhood. He shouldn’t ponder too much!
He’d never even held a girl’s hand, which was similar to never having played the novice tutorial. Where did he get such confidence? He dared to believe that in this high-level difficulty instance, which was above his abilities, he could strive to win an enigmatic beauty of the same gender!
——No! No! No! What the hell am I thinking?!
If Ren Jianmo was not around, he would have slapped himself.
——I wasn’t thinking about him! I’m not trying to win him over!
Ji Dong shook his head, maintained his remaining tenacious belief as a straight man in the past nineteen years, and tried to get rid of those messy thoughts in his mind.
Ren Jianmo: “…”
He thought the child was really entertaining. His inner drama was also exceedingly rich, wasn’t it?
Ren Jianmo turned to watch Ji Xiao’niao. He was flushed at first because of his words. He then lowered his head to his chest. His look changed three times in a minute: vacant for a moment, dazed afterwards, and startled later. He was now feeling a bit self-conscious at this point. How could he not think that it’s not adorable?
“What about you?”
Ren Jianmo pursed his lips, lowered his voice, and asked, “Why are you not asleep? Why are you here sneaking up to the bell tower?”
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Proofreader’s corner
*checks genre* straight… we’ll see how long it takes >:3C
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Hahahahaha ji dong is truly adorable
PFFftt millions of thoughts per sec as long as Ren Jianmo is there
Thank you for the chapter！