CH 130

Translated by Dust Bunny

Edited by Crooked 

Si Yu’s fists clenched when he heard what was said. He gently pressed it to his lips and coughed, giving Gu Xizhou an innocent expression. “Do you want to put this bastard in his place first, or try to find them.”

Si Yu’s lips curved into a smile, “I can do it.”

Rubbing his hands together, Gu Xizhou heard Si Yu and reached out his hand to take it back and said, “Forget it. We’d better try and find them first.”

“I knew you would want to take care of them, “ Si Yu said, “I just don’t know if they will appreciate it or not. They might still think we’re ghosts.” 

Gu Xizhou lowered his eyes and thought for a moment before saying, “We have to test it out. “I have to try, after all I was the one who picked up that little yellow card at home. Even though life and death are decided by heaven in the mission world, if they really die because of that little card, my conscience won’t be able to rest.”

Si Yu nodded apathetically and didn’t say anything else.

Gu Xizhou let out a breath of relief. The reason he wanted to stop the other party was mostly because of Ji Ji.

Si Yu said that these circumstances should be a rule, and that the rule was the same as Ji Ji’s. Gu Xizhou could only determine Gu Ji Ji’s location in the house when Gu Ji Ji touched things. If Gu Ji Ji ignored him, didn’t make a sound, and left the stuff in the house alone, he wouldn’t be able to find Ji Ji.

After experiencing so many worlds with Si Yu, Gu Xizhou felt like he understood him.

Si Yu appeared amicable, but in reality he didn’t have much love for other people. Whether other people lived or died, he didn’t care much. In the previous worlds, so long as someone was willing to take the lead, Si Yu wouldn’t say much and just participate silently.

“Then let’s go, “ Si Yu said mildly.

Gu Xizhou thought for a moment and said, “Wait a second, I have to grab something.” 

Gu Xizhou relied on his memory to find the room and went inside to grab a pen and paper, taking them with him.

If you wanted to communicate, only the things inside the room could be used. You couldn’t just always bang on the door in morse code could you? So you still needed a pen and paper.

If the others didn’t want to believe him, there was nothing he could do and couldn’t be blamed on him. The little card was taken by the others themselves, to do this kind of thing was already enough.

Gu Xizhou left the room and went straight to Building 2 Apartment 510. Gu Xizhou knocked first but no one answered. After thinking about it, he tore of a sheet of paper and wrote: 

Hello, you guys are also mission takers, right? We are mission takers living on the 6th floor in apartment 11. You took a small yellow card from our room that I found in the hallway. It shouldn’t have any effect. My teammate said it was best not to call, because we didn’t know what situation might emerge. We just wanted to remind you.

Gu Xizhou wrote a lot of the paper before squatting down and folding the note up, attempting to stuff it through a crack in the door only to discover that there was no crack under the door.

“Won’t we be unable to throw the paper inside if they don’t open the door?” After a moment Gu Xizhou frowned and asked Si Yu.

Si Yu: “No.” 

Hearing this, Gu Xizhou was a little annoyed. The people in the room couldn’t see them and mistakenly assumed they were ghosts and definitely wouldn’t open the door. It was impossible to communicate like this!

On the other side, Si Yu dug in pocket and pulled out a hair pin. With practiced movements, he inserted the hair pin into the keyhole.

Ka ka ka.

Ka Cha! 

The door immediately opened with a click!

“This works, “ Si Yu said lightly,  “Put the note in, ba. Whether or not they believe it is their business.”

Gu Xizhou: “Are you sure you haven’t already scared them away?”

Si Yu: “Shouldn’t have, ba.” 

“Bang Bang Bang!”

Inside room 510, the three big men heard the knock on the door and the muscles on their backs immediately tensed as they stared intently at the door.

The yellow-haired man asked, “Do you think it’s an NPC knocking?”

“I don’t know… Why don’t you go take a look?” 

“Then go look, ba.”

The yellow-haired man braced himself against the door, clearly anxious that the thing outside would come bursting in.

Gripping a kitchen knife, the yellow-haired man steeled himself, tightening his hold on the kitchen knife before pushing open the peephole, carefully peering out into the hallway. He expected something to jump out, but there was no one in the hallway, not a single person, and the voice controlled lights in the hallway didn’t turn on.

The yellow-haired man felt a chill crawl up his spine. If no one was outside, then it wasn’t a person knocking on their door! 

“Wu You, is it an NPC?” His teammate asked.

The yellow-haired man, Wu You, swallowed and spoke through gritted teeth. “No, there’s nothing outside. It’s not an NPC. It should be… something else.”

“Djcu yjcu yjcu!”

Lfjglcu atf sfiibk-tjlgfv wjc’r gfqis, ybat afjwwjafr remxfv lc j ygfjat. Ycf bo atfw gfwjlcfv mjiw, j wlvvif jufv wjc ktb ibkfgfv tlr nblmf jcv jrxfv, “Tbe vlvc’a rff jcsatlcu?” 

Ktf sfiibk-tjlgfv wjc rkjiibkfv jcv rtbbx tlr tfjv, rjslcu, “Sc, P mjc’a rff jcsatlcu. Gb sbe kjca ab mbwf ajxf j ibbx, Ljl Aec?”

“Bang Bang Bang.”

Before Wu Yu could finish speaking, the sound of banging came from the door again. For a moment his breath quickened, and he took a deep breath, not daring to open the door.

Drops of sweat as big as soybeans rolled down his cheek. The yellow-haired man held the knife and stared at the door as the strikes echoed. His hands were drenched in cold sweat. It couldn’t be coming so early, could it? 

The man named Hai Jun heard him, drew in a deep breath, and put his eye up to the peephole, closing his eyes subconsciously before cracking them open. There was still no one outside. He let out a long breath, but fortunately there was still nothing there. If an eye suddenly appeared, this old man really couldn’t bear it!

Apart from the few friends they teamed up with to enter the mission world, they didn’t see a fourth person. Everyone disappeared as soon as they entered. It was really weird.

He had never experienced such a strange world, but he had heard a friend of his mention a world like this before.

A long time ago, someone claimed that there was an unsolvable world, and he was fortunate enough to know the lucky man who had successfully left it. 

At the time, he’d asked the other about it, but he only told him vaguely that it was unlikely anyone would die until the final day. The world would appear kind, but in reality the death rule was completely incomprehensible.

Everytime that friend of his mentioned that death world his face would turn as white as paper; he couldn’t speak clearly and would be scared witless.

He tried to inquire about the content of the mission world, but the other would fall silent, only saying one sentence: “If you enter the mission world and no one has died, cherish that time, ba. It’s the last of your life you have left.”

Soon after he told him this information, that lucky man died. His friend said he was stabbed to death by a madman on the streets. All the man’s friends and relatives said he was unlucky to come across such a madman, while those who knew about the mission worlds felt sorry for him. They all felt that he shouldn’t have died in such a simple world! 

But Hai Jun knew that maybe it was the unsolvable world that had caused him to lose the courage to live, so… he would die in such a simple world.

So Hai Jun wasn’t afraid of having an accident but was hoping for one!

If someone had an accident, then at least that meant that this wasn’t the legendary death world.

“What should I do? It- It’s knocking!” Wu You took a deep breath but couldn’t calm down, the feeling of fear crawling up from the bottom of his heart. Originally, he was already very afraid when they didn’t see any other teammates. 

Naturally, there were only two possibilities for the three of them. One was that this mission world only needed three participants. If that was the case, then that was naturally the best. That would also mean that this mission world was very simple. The second possibility was that they hadn’t found the other teams yet… If it was like this then there must be a specific task requirement.

For example, only after meeting the requirement would they be able to see each other, and the people who didn’t meet it… would be declared dead on the final day of the mission world.

Wang Mu, who was the grumpiest out of the three, cursed, “What’s up with this damn world? We haven’t even seen the shadow of a single person! We went to the six rooms across from us, but there was no one there, and we aren’t even sure if there are other teammates!”

Looking out from the building they were in, the two buildings opposite had two rooms and four rooms respectively. They checked each of the six rooms but there was not a single person to be found, and they didn’t find any of the teammates they were looking for. 

Just then, the knocking on the door stopped.

All three men let out a breath of relief, and they could make out the traces of having survived a calamity in each other’s eyes.

Wu You put down the kitchen knife and sat down in a chair in the living room, no longer listening so attentively. He seemed to be letting go of things. Everyone released their bated breaths and said, “Apparently it gave up and left.”

Wang Mu en’ed and also sat down, taking out a cigarette and pretending to be calm, but his trembling hands betrayed him. After lighting the cigarette he drew in a resolute breath and lowered his voice, “There are no people in the world, and there are no NPCs, either. This is the first time I’ve ever encountered a situation like this.” 

“Let’s reassess the situation in the evening, ba. For now, let’s not go out. If we hear that strange sound this evening, we’ll open the curtains and watch what happens.” Hai Jun, who was bracing himself against the door, let go and started pacing in a circle. Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly motioned for all of them to be silent and said, “Shh! Listen!”

“What’s that sound?” Hai Jun furrowed his brows, looking around for the source of that faint ‘ka ka ka’ sound.

Wu You suddenly reacted, “It’s coming from the door!”

With a creak the door was pushed open by an invisible force. The three people’s back’s suddenly went cold and their scalps went numb, their breath quickening! 

Fuck, that thing can pick locks!

“W-what is it going to do?” Wang Mu jumped in fright, his toes curling!

The three people trembled in fear for a long time, but the ghost didn’t move to hurt them. Wu You swallowed slowly, inadvertently catching sight of a piece of paper on the ground!

He looked at the paper before pointing it out to the other two, dartiting forward to pick it up off the ground before retreating as quickly as if he’d been bitten by a snake. After a moment, he bowed his head to look at the contents of the paper. 

The note read: Hello, you guys are also mission takers, right? We are mission takers living on the 6th floor in apartment 11… My teammate said it was best not to call, because we didn’t know what situation might emerge. We just wanted to remind you.

“What does it say?” Wang Mu asked urgently.

Wu You said in a low voice,  “It seems as though the thing knocking on the door is not a ghost, but a person.”

After speaking, Wu You handed the slip of paper to the other two. After they read it, Wang Mu hesitated for a moment before speaking, “Is it really a mission taker? It’s not some ghosts trying to call us on purpose, right?” 

The little yellow card was deliberately taken from Gu Xizhou and Si Yu’s room by Wang Mu.

Wang Mu thought for a moment and said, “Wu You, go find a pen and ask them how they know we are mission takers! Let’s see how they reply and discuss it again.

Wu You hastily took out a pen and wrote on the note handed to him by Gu Xizhou: How do you know we are mission takers?

Seeing the extra words on the note, Gu Xizhou thought for a moment before writing: Like you, we went into the brightly lit apartments. Inside the apartment there were unwashed rice bowls, so we guessed that there must be other mission takers in this mission world. 

Wu You: How can I trust you?

Gu Xizhou was about to reply when the corners of Si Yu’s mouth turned up. He took Gu Xizhou’s pen and wrote: Believe it or don’t.

“What are you doing? You just gave everyone a scare and now you want to say that,” Gu Xizhou said helplessly. “What if they originally weren’t going to make the call but do so because you embarrassed them! Won’t you feel bad?”

Si Yu suddenly lowered his voice, extremely serious, and said to Gu Xizhou, “No matter what they do, it’s their own choice. Taking the small card was also their own decision. In a way, every decision is the product of their own judgment.” 

Gu Xizhou was ambivalent of Si Yu’s words, “En.”

“So after getting the small card, whether or not they call it is also their own choice. Now that we’ve come to them, whether or not they believe it is also their own choice.”

“Everything you say makes sense!” Gu Xizhou was frustrated, this guy’s logic got full marks. Gu Xizhou was really no match for him!

“En, it makes sense.” The corners of Si Yu’s mouth turned up as he smiled at Gu Xizhou. 

Everyone saw the change in the handwriting and realized that it had been written by another person.

Wu You hesitated for a moment before coming to a decision, writing: “I believe! Can we exchange information?”

Si Yu saw these three characters and lowered his gaze slightly. It seemed as though the other party’s reaction wasn’t what he expected. He picked up a pen and wrote down a line: What room numbers were lit up last night?

Wu You: Your building only has two… 

After exchanging information, they discovered that altogether there were nine rooms with lights on. Other than their floor, room 306 was also lit up.

Wu You: We went into room 306 and didn’t find anything useful, did you find anything?

Si Yu: Not yet.

Wu You: Oh, okay… If we find anything we’ll let you know. Please keep us informed! 

Si Yu: Okay, keep in touch.

Wu You: Okay

Si Yu: We’ll go back first.

Wu You: Okay. 

After resolving that matter, Gu Xizhou glanced at the sky outside. By now it was only noon. Gu Xizhou looked at Si Yu and walked over, saying, “Should we go take a look at room 306 later?”

“Okay,” Si Yu nodded willingly.

When Gu Xizhou and Si Yu returned, they stopped by 306 on the way. There was no one inside the house. They guessed that they were scared away by Wu You and were now hiding somewhere. Gu Xizhou and Si Yu went in and looked around. The room was a single room like theirs, and the number of people shouldn’t be a lot, only 1-2.

Gu Xizhou left a note for the other party before returning to their apartment with Si Yu. 

Because of the previous communication, Gu Xizhou knew the other party’s name and that the person they wrote to was Wu You. As for the other two people, they didn’t ask.

The information Wu You gave them was also somewhat useful. He was now sure that there were either 8 or 9 groups of people participating in the mission, and that there was possibly a ghost in one of the rooms. They couldn’t be certain yet.

After the two people ate lunch, nothing new happened. Extremely bored, Gu Xizhou wrote six notes and dragged a very unwilling Si Yu to a room with an open door. If the door wouldn’t open he would just get Si Yu to pick the lock.

After all of that Gu Xizhou discovered that no one believed him at all! 

Apparently not many people went out to look for clues right away like they did. Most people were waiting at home for the NPC. Not only that, but not everyone had a monster like Si Yu on their team!

The corners of Si Yu’s mouth turned up, and he said with a smile, “I told you you were going to expend all the effort only for them not to believe you.”

Gu Xizhou shrugged his shoulders and said indifferently, “Well, I tried my best, and I think what you said before makes a lot of sense.”

Si Yu raised his eyebrows, “What did I say?” 

“I just gave them an opportunity in advance. Whether or not they believe me is their business,” Gu Xizhou said, lowering his voice. “In the mission world, life and death is ruled by fate.”

“I still feel like you want to save them,” Si Yu said with a light laugh.

Gu Xizhou shook his head, “No one can save anyone, and besides, I’m not that great.

“Do you know why I kissed you that day?” 

Si Yu thought for a moment before lowering his voice. “You were drunk.”

“No, I wasn’t drunk.”

Si Yu tilted his head towards Gu Xizhou, resting his chin on his shoulder as he whispered hoarsely in Gu Xizhou’s ear, “Why then?”

Gu Xizhou’s eyes curved slightly as he smiled, “I like you, ah. Before I die, I can…” 

Gu Xizhou abruptly stopped talking. Si Yu pressed up against him and asked in a low voice, “Sleep with me first?”

Gu Xizhou glanced at him. How could this person read minds? Gu Xizhou gritted his teeth, lowering his voice to say, “Yes, ah.”

A pair of dark eyes fell on Gu Xizhou’s body. Si Yu stared at Gu Xizhou intently, his voice heavy, “You could have.”

“Then why did you interrupt me? En?” 

Si Yu lowered his voice. His provocative voice brushed the tip of Gu Xizhou’s ear, revealing some long suppressed emotions.

Gu Xizhou moved his gaze away, clearly not wishing to have an in depth discussion with Si Yu on this topic. Afterall he still didn’t know how to explain the Ji Ji thing to Si Yu…

“I’ll go cook dinner,” Gu Xizhou said, changing the subject, “I’ll wait for you to wash the dishes. We have to wash dishes or we won’t have any bowls to eat out of!”

Si Yu stared at Gu Xizhou’s face for a moment before agreeing helplessly, “Okay.” 

After dinner, Gu Xizhou walked into the room, his line of sight falling on the neighborhood outside. At the moment there was no sound from outside or anywhere else. Apparently, he would have to wait until midnight.

After washing up, Si Yu pushed back a corner of the quilt and sat on the bed, patting the spot next to him for Gu Xizhou as he suggested, “Let’s go to sleep first, ba. The noise will definitely wake us up during the night.”

Gu Xizhou thought that there was some sense to his words. After washing his face simply, he laid back down in bed.

During the night, Gu Xizhou felt feverish. Between intermittent periods of semi-consciousness, he finally opened his eyes. 

The handsome man holding him in his arms laughed hoarsely and asked in a low voice, “Awake?”

“En.” Gu Xizhou rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked at Si Yu. “You didn’t sleep?”

Si Yu said unexpectedly, “No. I wanted to look at you more. After all, you only come to find me when you need something. As soon as you don’t need anything, you let me go.”

Gu Xizhou curled his hand into a fist and pressed it lighty to his lips, trying to explain, “I just… En… When I’m working on a case I don’t have freetime, you can understand… En?” 

Si Yu grinned, pressing one slender finger to Gu Xizhou’s lips.

Gu Xizhou: Is this telling me not to explain? En…

Si Yu’s thumb brushed the gap of Gu Xizhou’s lips, before suddenly kissing him as if trying to take the next step. Gu Xizhou blanked out for a moment before pressing down on Si Yu’s hand, “Don’t mess around, ah. Don’t be coquettish in the mission world!”

“Okay,” Si Yu said, the corners of his mouth curving into a smile. He looked down at Gu Xizhou and asked quietly, “That day that female ghost groped you, you thought it was me, didn’t you?” 

Gu Xizhou sighed, “Yes! …Can we please not talk about this again?”

“Okay,” Si Yu mumbled, “How do you always attract those things?”

Gu Xizhou was just about to retort when a loud ‘Bang, bang, bang,’ noise suddenly came from the silent neighborhood. Gu Xizhou didn’t say anything more and jumped off the bed. There was no light coming from the 7th floor opposite them; it was black as night. Gu Xizhou could vaguely make out the silhouette of a person hitting the metal railing.

Si Yu got up from the bed and went over to the window, resting his chin on Gu Xizhou’s shoulder as he whispered in his ear, “What’s the situation?” 

“There’s something on the seventh floor,” Gu Xizhou said.

When the two had stood there for a long time, Gu Xizhou estimated that it was almost time!

“Kuang Dang!”

Gu Xizhou saw a blurry shadow falling from the seventh floor along with the protective railing. Watching from the window, he could see everything clearly. What fell was a woman wearing a red slip dress. 

The woman’s body along with the railing smashed into the silver van parked in the neighborhood.

With wire wrapped around and around her hands, her eyes covered with paper, and her head wrapped with tape she was quite a pitiful sight.

“Should we go down and take a look?!” Gu Xizhou asked, knitting his brows.

Si Yu blocked him, shaking his head, “Wait.” 

Gu Xizhou hesitated before ultimately listening to Si Yu.

Five minutes later, two monsters suddenly emerged from the dark.

Their bodies were enormous, strange veins covering their limbs. They landed on all fours, backs to the ground, faces upturned. Their heads could rotate 360 degrees any way they chose. The two monsters stealthily stole the red clothed woman like thieves from the silver van and went upstairs.

Just then, one of the heads capable of rotating 360 degrees looked towards Gu Xizhou and Si Yu’s window, revealing a gloomy and bizarre smile, as if to say: ‘I can see you.’ 

Gu Xizhou: I can see you too ^_^

Failing to catch sight of the terrified expression it had imagined, that monster tilted its head, somewhat puzzled, before it disappeared into the darkness.