Back when she used to watch horror movies with Lin Yan, scenes like this—where someone gets bitten to death by a mutated person they know right in the security booth—happened all the time. Back then, Xu Zhiyi had been plenty cocky, curling up in her brother's arms to hide from the scary scenes, and after they passed, she'd start stubbornly criticizing how unintelligent the director's plot devices were.
Now, not only were her legs too weak to stand, her hands were trembling, and the sensation in her neck seemed amplified a thousandfold. Her blood flowed faster, as if every subtle movement Lin Yan made could trigger a fresh wave of panic in her body.
Her heart pounded relentlessly.
It felt similar to fear, yet somehow different—something entirely new. But Xu Zhiyi's mind had already gone blank, and she couldn't think any further.
She simply chalked it up to a surge of survival instinct, and stammered out a plea: "Brother, snap out of it, don't bite me…"
As she spoke, the blue veins in her neck pulsed and quivered slightly.
Lin Yan just watched her in silence.
After only seven or eight seconds of standoff, Xu Zhiyi's mind raced through a perfect solution: "I can go catch you a little white mouse."
"…"
After a long silence, Lin Yan lightly patted her head and reminded her to look down. "Help your brother put it back on."
"Oh…" Xu Zhiyi seemed to just realize she had control of her limbs again. She lowered her head and gripped the muzzle she'd caught in her hands.
Just moments ago, it had taken her several minutes to fiddle with the straps. Now she snapped the muzzle onto Lin Yan's face with a click, quickly finding the buckles. After finishing, she still wasn't reassured, so she tugged at it again to make sure it wouldn't suddenly fall off before letting out a breath and relaxing her body.
The black leather wrapped around half of the young man's pale face, dispersing whatever gentle aura still lingered on him. His smile was hidden behind the muzzle, leaving only a pair of deep, handsome eyes—he didn't look any more docile than he had without it.
Or rather, precisely because of this barrier, the suppressed malice within him began to stir faintly.
Xu Zhiyi, however, was quite satisfied with her handiwork.
"How does this look so good!"
She examined him from every angle, poking his face through the wire mesh with her finger, showering him with sweet compliments without pause. The danger lurking in the air softened under her words, dissolving into pink bubbles spiraling upward.
It felt like no matter what happened, as long as the two of them were together, they could get through it happily.
Xu Zhiyi took endless delight in getting close to Lin Yan, thinking that after six days apart, her brother had become much more agreeable. In the past, if she messed with his hair like this, before long he'd start bringing up serious topics—college entrance exam score lines, major coursework grades… things that would immediately kill her desire to snuggle up to him any further.
But she wasn't the kind of sister who only cared about her own enjoyment. After she'd had her fill of petting him, she took the initiative to shoulder her duty as caretaker and waved her hand generously: "Come on, brother, I'll go catch you a—"
Lin Yan: "I don't eat little white mice."
"…"
Xu Zhiyi's soaring fighting spirit was choked off mid-flight. She stammered, "Th-then… what do you eat?"
Please, for the love of god, don't eat people.
Lin Yan's hand slid down from her wrist, interlacing his fingers with hers, and he tilted his head slightly. The wire mesh of the muzzle reflected the chandelier overhead, a cold glint flashing past.
Under Xu Zhiyi's nervous, trembling gaze, his beautiful peach-blossom eyes curved as he spoke in a gentle tone, "If I had actually bitten down just now, would you start to hate me?"
"…Of course not!"
She hadn't expected Lin Yan to speak so pitifully. Xu Zhiyi's eyes grew moist, and the last traces of her resistance all but vanished. She quickly lowered her bottom line toward her brother once again, reaching out with her free hand and speaking with a serious expression, "If you really want to bite that badly, then go ahead."
"But you can't bite too hard." She added solemnly.
Lin Yan took the opportunity to grasp her fingertips, rubbing them twice as he laughed, "What happened to your principles?"
Xu Zhiyi candidly accepted the fact that she was far too agreeable. What did this count for? If their roles were reversed and she became a ghost, Lin Yan would probably have already sprinkled cumin on his own fingers.
Original-flavor Xu Zhiyi didn't get bitten.
Lin Yan held her hand and walked through the eerie, terrifying school as if they were strolling through a park. None of the surrounding zombies showed any intention of attacking them—some even limped and staggered away from them. The two groups coexisted quite peacefully.
Some people seemed to act out of fear of Lin Yan, while others wore ordinary expressions, and a few even looked quite friendly.
All of these people had nameplates hanging on them.
Xu Zhiyi reciprocated their friendliness with equal friendliness—specifically manifested in her firmly pulling on Lin Yan.
She already had four names on her! She really didn't need to collect any more!
The moon hanging above the teaching building was shrouded in a layer of dust, hazy and indistinct, yet the light within the school was somewhat brighter than an ordinary night—perhaps because dawn was about to break.
Walking with her brother, the moonlight was beautiful.
When they circled back to the track field, Xu Zhiyi suddenly remembered those fake-smiling students pressed against the glass doors of the dormitory.
When she had gone to the security office to find the muzzle, the lobby of the building had been completely empty with no one standing there, so she had overlooked it as a normal scene.
If they weren't there, then were they still staying inside the dormitory building, or… had they already come out?
Having just deduced that they were fake students, Xu Zhiyi had completely categorized those fake-smiling students as the opposition. Her relaxed mood instantly tensed, her expression turning grave as she pressed tightly against Lin Yan, turning her straight path into a diagonal line hugging the right side.
In her unconscious, darting glances around, she ended up pushing her brother against the flower bed.
Lin Yan pinched her cheek.
Xu Zhiyi, who had only just noticed she'd nearly made her brother trample the flowers: "…"
She blinked apologetically, but only moved slightly away from him, speaking in a serious tone as she recounted what she had been thinking.
Lin Yan—whether he actually listened or not, he didn't seem tense either, only smiling as he said that her brother was here for her.
Xu Zhiyi thought that made sense, and relaxed into happiness again.
Finding the place to confirm the final answer was much easier than she had imagined.
—On the main platform of the track field, a single chair sat alone, with two long tables pushed together to fill the space, and on the tables sat a whiteboard for tallying scores. Aside from that, there was only a giant incense burner placed at the side of the platform.
The whiteboard read: Please draw a circle under the team you do not support.
Team One: He Xiaoman, Song Lianshan, Chen Miao…
Team Two: He Xiaoman, Song Lianshan, Chen Miao…
Although the names were the same, the obvious difference between the two lists was that in List One, every name was written in different handwriting—Chen Miao's calligraphy was the most beautiful, while He Xiaoman's was completely wild scribbles.
In List Two, however, every name was written in standard, beautiful regular script.
Staring at the two rows of identical names, Xu Zhiyi excitedly shook Lin Yan's arm back and forth. "Brother! I get it now!"
Why the students on those slips of paper harbored one-on-one hatred toward the "newly transferred students."
Why, when He Xiaoman complained about the other side's fake smiles, her deskmate teased, "Well, that's also because you look like that."
Because all the people in Squad Two were clones of the students in Squad One. They had the same names, the same faces, but as students, they were more perfect.
In the examination room, they got perfect scores.
In daily life, they always wore affable, encouraging smiles.
Xu Zhiyi couldn't help but shiver. That invigilator had announced the results directly in the examination room back then. If she hadn't scored full marks… would those fake-smiling students have killed her?
Filled with lingering fear, she scrambled up onto the podium, drew an X under Squad Two with a marker, then immediately grabbed Lin Yan's hand tightly, waiting for a beam of light to descend from the sky and carry them both back to Hushan Residential Community.
Lin Yan watched Xu Zhiyi, who was tilting her head up and gazing at the sky with eager eyes, and found it somewhat amusing. "Waiting for rain?"
Xu Zhiyi lowered her head sheepishly, then quickly shot Lin Yan a glare. How could this person be so unconcerned about their departure!
"The Ghost-Catching Event lasts until the sky is completely bright before it ends," Lin Yan told her the good news as if to make up for his earlier remark. "Once everything is over, we can leave."
His gaze swept over the answer Xu Zhiyi had written, then withdrew without a trace.
Meanwhile, Xu Zhiyi was completely overjoyed.
She immediately invited Lin Yan to continue their campus stroll from earlier.
Back when they were in high school—he was a senior and she was a freshman—the two of them would occasionally walk around the track and talk. Back then, teachers would cast dangerous looks in their direction.
—He's not my secret boyfriend, he's my brother, named Lin Yan. The Lin Yan from the senior year who often went up to the podium to receive awards.
Every time, Xu Zhiyi's prepared explanation never came in handy. She thought Hushan High School's atmosphere was far more tolerant than she'd imagined. Only later did she learn that Lin Yan had introduced her to every teacher he was close with, telling them he had a younger sister in the freshman year.
"…"
So she just had to obediently keep studying.
By the gate of Huamei Middle School, a crooked-necked tree grew against the wall. With one kick off the ground, you could climb onto the tree and step over the wall. It was hard not to suspect the school of setting a trap.
The answers were all written out. Now all they had to do was wait for the Ghost-Catching Event to end and go home.
Xu Zhiyi asked that the two of them crouch by the gate and wait, so that the moment the door opened, they could leave together.
Lin Yan said okay.
He brushed away some dust near the tree roots and sat down first as a demonstration.
His clothes had already lost their neatness from all the rushing around, and Xu Zhiyi, not caring in the least, sat down right next to him. Her hand, as if equipped with an auto-indexing function, quickly found his sleeve.
Actually, she'd been pretty nervous when looking at the names on the whiteboard, afraid that Lin Yan's name would be on there. If his name had been on it, she probably wouldn't have been able to choose a team to not support.
They would definitely go home together.
Xu Zhiyi wanted to confirm again, but she was afraid that Lin Yan might give a negative answer next time. After all, thinking about it now, his attitude had been vague ever since they met.
Several times, the words were on the tip of her tongue, but she hesitated and couldn't bring herself to ask. In the end, Xu Zhiyi pressed her lips together tightly, visibly becoming dejected.
Her change was not lost on Lin Yan, who turned his head to look at her.
"Zhizhi, do you want to know how I became like this?"
"!" Xu Zhiyi was startled and quickly moved to cover his mouth, but unfortunately her hand could only press against the cold muzzle. Still, that didn't stop her from refusing repeatedly, "Please don't tell me."
She could almost see a question mark slowly rising above Lin Yan's head.
"That's a death flag. If you say it, you might actually die for real." Xu Zhiyi was well-versed in the trope. "…Anyway, don't say it for now. Wait until we actually get home, then you can tell me."
"That sounds more like a death flag, doesn't it?" Lin Yan laughed. "Besides, I'm already dead. I can't die again, can I?"
What was all this talk about dying?
If you can talk and walk, you're alive!
Xu Zhiyi was quite displeased with such inauspicious words. Her face fell, her expression frozen in an internal struggle for a moment, before she finally let out a slow breath. "Forget it, forget it. Dark jokes are allowed. People who make them usually survive until the finale."
"……"
Faced with Xu Zhiyi's attitude of covering her ears and refusing to listen, Lin Yan easily grabbed both her wrists with one hand, forcing her face to turn toward him.
"Actually, I don't remember how I died." His eyes curved into a smile as he gently pinched her stubborn chin. "But I remember how I felt at that moment. I was quite happy—the kind of happiness that comes from knowing I'd see you soon."
Xu Zhiyi's ears, which she had pretended were deaf, opened up a little.
Lin Yan softly squeezed her fingers. "So, are you happy to see me?"
Xu Zhiyi hemmed and hawed for a long time, but in the end, he managed to coax her into a slightly better mood. She nodded and said she was happy.
Who would have thought that once he saw her calming down, Lin Yan would suddenly start lecturing.
"The instances in the game have countless settings—schools, villages, even palaces—but they all speak standard Mandarin. Still, when you get out, you need to exercise more, because there's no shortage of ghosts chasing after you. Once you're out, I'll drag you to the gym."
Xu Zhiyi listened attentively at first, but the further he went, the more resistant she became. She tilted her head onto Lin Yan's shoulder, closed her eyes, and completely refused to cooperate with his lecture.
Lin Yan's voice was soft, like when he used to tell her bedtime stories. "In the bedside drawer of my room, there are notes I took from my past instances. When you get out, go read them… I'll check."
But every time, he only added the implication that he would also be there at the end of his sentence. That kind of verbal logic made Xu Zhiyi feel terrible. She lost control for a moment, struggled free of his grip, and stood up to leave. "Why do I need to know all this now? Can you just—"
Come home with me?
Her lowered wrist was caught by Lin Yan.
With just a gentle tug, she lost her center of gravity and fell toward him. She didn't hit the hard ground, but she landed solidly on his lap. It was firm, and her limbs were trapped in his embrace. An overwhelming chill enveloped her, leaving her unable to move.
Xu Zhiyi, still shaken, flailed her limbs a couple of times without any real intention of breaking free, but Lin Yan's actions still stirred a hint of unfamiliarity in her. At least in the past, he would never have told her so harshly to stay.
His eyes were cold, overcast and gloomy.
She said nothing, but Lin Yan kept his head lowered, watching her the whole time. His forehead hair brushed against her reddened eye corners, a faint tickle crawling across her skin, like a soothing balm in the silence between them.
"What do you want to eat when we get back? I'll make it for you."
In the silence, Lin Yan spoke in a gentle voice, his tone returning to the softness she remembered from before—a stark contrast to the coldness he'd shown when he grabbed her just now.
"You'll cook? You'll cook when we get back?" Xu Zhiyi's eyes instantly welled up. She pressed him with repeated questions, her tense, defiant body relaxing by more than half, her hands unconsciously wrapping around his neck, wanting to believe yet afraid to. "I want corn and pork rib soup, and little pudding…"
Lin Yan only smiled, saying he'd noted it down.
"Then we've agreed—the moment we get home, we can prepare everything together in the kitchen, right?" Xu Zhiyi said happily. If her brother had talked like this earlier, no argument would have ever erupted between them.
Lin Yan shook his head.
"…!" Xu Zhiyi's face immediately fell.
Before her expression could sour any further, Lin Yan affectionately stroked her cheek and spoke. "I'll still need to go to the supermarket to buy the ingredients first. You can take a nap by then."
"You don't need to worry about that at all." Xu Zhiyi let out a relieved breath, a smug look spreading across her face. "The day before yesterday afternoon, I already bought the pork ribs home, and I also got onions, corn…"
She listed them off one by one, brimming with excitement, while Lin Yan listened quietly. Suddenly he said, "So many things—you carried them all home by yourself?"
"Of course." Xu Zhiyi nodded, with a hint of bragging about her achievement. "There are also some things I can't remember right now, but in any case, I bought a lot—very comprehensive."
She had too little experience shopping alone; when she weighed each item one by one, they hadn't felt heavy, but who knew that stacking all those light things into a single bag would nearly crush her.
Lin Yan fell silent, pulling her closer against him.
His forehead rested against the hollow of her neck, the protruding muzzle of the bite guard pressing against her collarbone.
Xu Zhiyi, not understanding why, patted his back—partly to soothe him, and partly because she genuinely felt a bit poked by it. "Brother…"
Cuddling inexplicably makes people fragile.
Xu Zhiyi thought of the supermarket, and that reminded her of why she'd gone alone in the first place—wasn't it just to wait for Lin Yan to come home and spend as much time as possible holed up together? Who knew that the very next day he'd vanish without a trace.
"You have no idea—when I went to report you missing at the police station, I almost got locked up as a lunatic." She said it in a small voice, a growing sense of grievance creeping in. "No one remembered you, and that damn system even told me to forget you…"
As she spoke, her field of vision began to change.
She was slowly rising.
No.
Lin Yan was growing larger.
His body was gradually being swallowed by blackness, like the core of an onion being wrapped layer by layer.
Xu Zhiyi clawed desperately at the shell encasing Lin Yan, a futile effort to stop his transformation.
She was too panicked, naturally assuming it was the system's retaliation, and since force wouldn't work, she tried softness: "How can this be? Can I change the name? Little cat system, little bird system…"
His flexible attitude didn't stop Lin Yan's body from changing. He only had time to leave one sentence: "…Wait for me to come back."
The Lin Yan holding her had completely transformed back into a pitch-black ghostly phantom.
The Muzzle on his face fell off as well, but luckily she was quick-eyed and caught it in her arms.
They would have to rely on those two books to communicate again.
Xu Zhiyi sighed worriedly in the shadowy figure's arms. If it really came down to it, she could always turn back to the library and flip through other books to find new material—she couldn't just keep relying on that meager vocabulary to talk forever.
She had only ordered one dish, after all.
Just as she was thinking this, the shadowy figure's arm supported her bottom and lifted her onto his shoulder. His shoulders were broader now than when he was human. Though Xu Zhiyi found it strange, she sat down smoothly and cooperatively.
Who knew he would stand up right after?
Sitting on the ground was still a tolerable height, but suddenly being lifted into the air—Xu Zhiyi was so startled she almost screamed, her hands gripping Lin Yan's shoulders tightly as she felt dizzy from the fresh perspective of being over two meters up.
How was this any different from riding a drop tower!