Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-adjective
Ren Jianmo watched Ji Dong finish eating chocolate. Seeing that there were only four hours left before dawn, he suggested that they not blow the cold wind on the bell tower and just go back to sleep.
But Ji Xiao’niao didn’t know what was wrong with him and was hesitant to go downstairs.
Ren Jianmo did not urge him and simply asked, “Why?”
“Why…”
Ji Dong himself didn’t understand why and was speechless for a moment.
In his heart, he urged himself to quickly think of an excuse, his eyes anxiously darted around, and sweat began gathering on his forehead.
Ji Dong usually thought of himself as a resourceful person—one with a big heart. Even in the finals of the world championships, when he lagged behind the jedi counterattack by a large margin, he was calm, focused, and his mental strength was so stable that no one could refute he wasn’t a reliable captain.
However, when confronted with Ren Jianmo, it would always be extremely easy to make a fool of himself, and if he was too nervous, he could even blow up his hair and spark electricity. What a pity, what a pity!
Ji Dong turned his head to look out the round window of the clock tower, blurting out, “You look so beautiful tonight!”
Ren Jianmo: “…”
“No, no, no!”
Ji Dong suddenly realized that he had said something wrong. He felt he should just bite off and swallow his tongue. Even his explanation became incoherent, “No, no, no, I didn’t mean that I like you! Ah! No, no, I don’t dislike you either!”
He scratched his head of woolen curls with anxiety.
“What I meant to say was, the moon is very beautiful because it’s bright, I, I mean…”
Ji Dong saw a few scattered lights in the distance, and in a panic, scrambled to say:
“I, I mean, it’s too dark here. I just want to see the lights!”
He pointed away and said pitifully, “You see, you can see lights from the bell tower…”
Ren Jianmo’s eyes flickered, “So you’re afraid of the dark?”
Ji Dong wasn’t actually afraid of the dark but now it seemed that there was no other way to fix his blunders but to borrow the slope down the donkey, follow Ren Jianmo’s lead and just pretend to agree to be “afraid of the dark”.
So he could only nod, “Yes, a little.”
“Oh.”
Ren Jianmo didn’t mention going back to bed after that.
They stood side by side in front of the hanging window, silently watching the dim lights in the night.
Ji Dong glanced to his side discreetly.
His movements were so subtle because he didn’t dare to raise his face and look blatantly. In his field of vision, he could only see Ren Jianmo’s straight shoulders wrapped in white overalls and the smooth, beautiful lines from his jaw to his neck.
He was more than half a head shorter than Ren Jianmo. When standing side by side, he could rest his head on the shoulders of the other if he tilted his head.
Ji Dong couldn’t help but make a mental adjustment. He leaned against Ren Jianmo’s shoulder like a little bird. The image in his heart made him tremble. The image where he would look up and find himself standing taller than those in the military positions.
At this time, a hand came quietly and touched his shoulder.
Ji Dong looked up at Ren Jianmo.
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.
He didn’t know when Ren Jianmo had turned on the flashlight and lit it under his chin—showing the classic lighting effect of a horror film.
Al Gbcu: “…!”
Lf jiwbra rmgfjwfv bea bo ogluta.
Dea atf wbwfca atf rbecv kjr jybea ab ifjnf tlr atgbja, tf gfujlcfv tlr rfcrfr jcv mbnfgfv tlr wbeat klat tlr tjcvr lc mjrf atf rmgfjw kjr abb ibev jcv rajgaifv wbcrafgr bearlvf.
“Tbe, ktja jgf sbe vblcu?”
Al Gbcu qgfrrfv tlr mtfra jcv kjr rb jcugs ja Efc Aljcwb’r qgjcx atja tf vlvc’a xcbk lo tf rtbeiv ijeut bg mgs, “Qtja lo P rmgfjwfv lc ofjg!”
“No.”
Ren Jianmo turned off his flashlight and smiled at his victim, “If you really wanted to shout, I’d seal your lips before you could make any noise.”
Ji Dong: “…”
——Fuck!
He thought, ‘Why does this sound so strange!’
——Couldn’t he just act like a normal straight male and cover his mouth with his hand or something?!
Looking at Ji Dong’s big puppy dog eyes and his shocked and wronged expression, Ren Jianmo happily smiled, “Didn’t you just say you were afraid of the dark?”
He pointed to the flashlight in his hand. “Look, isn’t this light?”
Ji Dong: “…”
——Fuck! It really makes sense, how can I deny it?!
At this time, Ren Jianmo threw another heavy hammer, “Moreover, you said I looked beautiful, right? Then what are you afraid of?”
Ji Dong: “!!!”
His face turned red in a swish.
Initially, he had gotten the impression that Ren Jianmo should be a cold, reticent male god, and this was generally true… when this guy was in front of other people.
But Ren Jianmo was clearly teasing him right now. The indifference from before had completely faded when they were alone. That attitude can be called familiarity and intimacy…
——All right.
Ji Dong could only comfort himself.
Therefore, he and Ren Jianmo could be regarded as… Friends with a good relationship, right?
“Actually, I think…”
Ji Dong averted his gaze and looked towards the vastness of the night sky. “These [Films] we’re experiencing aren’t really like games or virtual reality right?”
He touched the hard stone of the bell tower with his palm, “They are too real.”
Ren Jianmo: “…”
He didn’t speak but turned to look at Ji Dong.
Ji Xiao’niao was a little embarrassed. It was really difficult for a sports student to explain these advanced conjectures, “I once heard the theory of dimensional space… Now that I think about it, could we be ‘outsiders’ who were arranged to come to a different dimension by the [Peach Blossom Spring]..?”
“Oh?”
Ren Jianmo asked after his words, “Come to do what?”
Ji Dong shook his head, “I don’t know.”
He tried to think, “A test? A trial? I can’t say.”
Looking back at Ren Jianmo’s different colored pupils, Ji Xiao’niao said, “What do you think?”
Ren Jianmo’s lips curved upwards, showing an expression that was self-deprecating and cold, “I don’t know.”
His fingers also rubbed twice on the rough stone wall of the bell tower, “However, I agree with you. This is not just illusory data, but a real ‘world’.”
There were some guesses Ren Jianmo had that he refrained from sharing.
In fact, he did not think that someone could fabricate such realistic worlds one after another through any virtual carrier.
The [Peach Blossom Spring] never made the nature of the “world” clear to the participants and only encouraged them to treat themselves as players and treat the “world” as a false space that could be kneaded at will—a “virtual reality” of sorts.
All of this was to chip away at their compassion and empathy quickly and more thoroughly, so that they could become a simple resource to the [Peach Blossom Spring] for as long as they chose to struggle for survival.
The two stayed on the clock tower for a full half-hour before they finally decided to go back to the cellar to sleep.
Ji Dong and Ren Jianmo walked down the winding stairs one after another.
The hallway was cramped and narrow and carried a fishy smell of dust and mold that was common in older buildings.
Originally, Ji Dong walked in front with a flashlight, but when he was about to reach the exit, he was grabbed by the person behind him.
Ji Dong looked back in doubt.
“Shh.”
Ren Jianmo stretched out his index finger and put it on his lips. He made a gesture to be quiet. At the same time, he leaned close to Ji Dong’s ear and said two words in a whisper: “There’s someone.”
Ji Dong trembled all over and the hair in his body stood up—what little drowsiness that had been clinging onto him was also washed away with the cold sweat accumulating on his back.
Under Ren Jianmo’s instruction, he turned off the flashlight.
Then they held hands, holding each other’s hand and tugging, walking through the last section of steps in the dark, and quietly leaned against the door behind the cabinet.
Sure enough, Ji Dong heard someone talking in a hushed voice.
The corner where the door to the bell tower was located was used by the survivors of the town to pile up supplies and address their physical needs, and it was across the area where they slept.
Therefore, it was not difficult for Ji Dong to guess that there should be someone who stayed awake in the middle of the night and chose a corner away from the crowd to mutter some whispers.
After listening for a while, he quickly identified the two people outside the door.
Because their voices were so distinctive.
Although the volume of the two people was very low, one of the voices was hoarse and old, it sounded like the old priest.
The other was a young female voice—of the fifteen people in the cellar, in addition to participant Rose, there was only one woman left, Annie, and since it was not the familiar Rose’s voice, it could only be the other one.
The two seemed to be arguing about what was going on.
At first, Ji Dong could only distinguish a few words, but it was difficult to string them together into a coherent statement.
Then the argument between the priest and Annie escalated into a quarrel, and the voices increased in volume enough for Ji Xiao’niao to make out what they were saying.
“No, you can’t just think about yourself!”
The old priest said to Annie.
“I could care less at my age, but there are others here! You can’t just….”
“Haha, don’t sound so noble!”
Annie shot back.
“To put it bluntly, you’re just scared to death of being scared to death!”
Her tone was acerbic, “Otherwise, why don’t you take ‘that’ out?”
“Annie!”
The priest interrupted her eagerly, “We agreed long ago never to mention ‘that’ again!”
He paused, sounding a little embarrassed, “Besides, only… it’s not enough to share!”
There were a few words in the middle that were too incomprehensible, and Ji Dong couldn’t hear them even though he pressed his ear directly on the door panel.
“Heh!”
Hearing the old man’s reply, Annie sneered, “In that case, then you can’t bother me either!”
Her words increased in frequency, “Besides, I’ll go look for the ‘Moon God Stone’! As soon as I find it, I will definitely come back to pick you guys up, all right!”
“No… Why are you being so stubborn!”
He was obviously annoyed by Annie, his voice shaking with anger. “Besides, that son of a bitch, Su Lin, is simply…..”
“Shut up!”
Annie didn’t give the old priest a chance to finish his sentence.
Although she still remembered to control her volume, Ji Dong could hear the anger in the young woman’s words through the door.
He had no idea who “Su Lin” was—whether it was one of the survivors in the cellar or one of the participants, but none of them had that name.
He couldn’t tell if the old priest was frightened by Annie’s tone or whether the other party made some threat with actions, but he stopped talking.
He changed his attitude and gently persuaded her with a few words. He didn’t know whether Annie listened or not. He just perfunctorily said two words in an impatient tone and didn’t bother to talk again.
After the two stopped arguing, their voices lowered in volume again. Ji Dong could only hear the old man muttering again. Annie occasionally answered him with a few short syllables, but he couldn’t hear what the old priest said clearly.
About five minutes later, they seemed to have nothing left to say, and there were slight and rhythmic footsteps outside the door as the old priest and Annie left.
Ji Dong and Ren Jianmo huddled in the dark hallway and waited a while until the outside was completely silent, before carefully pushing open the door and slipping out in the dark.
Ji Dong’s eyesight had been strengthened by the [Peach Blossom Spring], so even in the dark cellar, he could still distinguish objects with the singular light source of a candlestick in the corner.
He took the initiative to take Ren Jianmo’s hand and led him around the miscellaneous items stacked in the corner before quietly returning to their original sleeping places without alerting anyone.
“There’s no need to rush.”
Ren Jianmo discreetly put his mouth near Ji Dong’s ear and said, “If you have anything to say, let’s talk about it tomorrow.”
Then he wrapped himself in a blanket and lay down facing the wall.
Ji Dong followed, grabbed his blanket and closed his eyes as he tried his best to force himself not to think about anything else until he drifted off.
—————————
The author has something to say:
I’d like to say in advance that this is a growth story.
Readers should also see that the difficulty of the protagonist now is actually manipulated. Generally speaking, it is far beyond their current level as newcomers. Therefore, the protagonist will not be super powerful at the beginning. There will certainly be the deficiency and naiveness of a newcomer, but he will try his best within his own ability~
Thank you for the chapter!
Me likey Ren Jianmo, he’s far too funny and cute!