Zhiyi didn't actually think Lin Yan would agree.
She was only using the fact that "he actually rejected such a reasonable proposal of hers" as a means to achieve their continued hand-holding. After all, that muzzle was strapped onto the Doberman's head, stained with murky blood from who-knows-which corpse—there was absolutely no way Lin Yan would put it on—
"Alright."
He nodded.
Xu Zhiyi: "Since you rejected this, you can't continue to reject holding my hand—"
Xu Zhiyi: "??"
In the few seconds she was frozen, Lin Yan crouched down, flipped over the corpse lying peacefully at their feet, and took the nameplate from its chest.
It was a metal nameplate the size of a knuckle, with white lettering and edges stained with an unclear dark red.
"I agreed, so in exchange, you also have to wear what your brother found." Lin Yan held her hand that was nervously hanging by her side, his fingertips resting on her trembling pulse. "Okay?"
Xu Zhiyi didn't reach out to take it.
She already had a physiological aversion to the school's creatures, and now she was being asked to wear their nameplates.
For the first time, she felt the urge to run away from Lin Yan, but she was trapped against the wall by his encircling posture, surrounded only by his presence—like an inescapable black fog, its oppressive weight pressing down on her with tangible force.
He chuckled softly. "Not willing?"
There was no way to escape, so Xu Zhiyi could only look up at him with a pleading expression. "Why do you want me to collect this?"
Lin Yan wanted to tell her that after wearing this nameplate, the ghosts in the Instance would treat her more kindly. But those words were restricted—when he tried to speak, his throat burned with pain.
He knew clearly he couldn't say it.
The game was warning him sternly.
This state of having even his speech controlled by another creature only further proved that he and his sister were no longer people from the same world.
So Lin Yan lowered his eyes, switched to a way of speaking the game would approve of, and said gently, "Xu Zhiyi, no matter what the task is to leave this place, you'll have to participate in this game of ghost-catch-human eventually."
That didn't convince Xu Zhiyi.
"If you play well in the Instance, you'll get more rewards after you leave." He continued.
"…There are rewards?"
Xu Zhiyi thought that finding her brother was already the reward the game had given her.
"There are. Maybe a nameplate is worth a thousand yuan." Lin Yan blinked. "I heard someone earned seventy or eighty thousand from one Instance just by accumulating these small rewards."
Xu Zhiyi's fearful mindset was greatly shaken.
That was possible!
After all, Lin Yan only earned three hundred yuan for two hours of tutoring.
Xu Zhiyi suppressed her excitement and calmly, cleverly pointed out the flaw in his words: "You used the word 'maybe.'"
And besides, despite Lin Yan having disappeared so many times over the past few months and participating in who-knows-how-many Instances, the family's savings hadn't changed significantly.
Lin Yan let out an almost imperceptible sigh.
His little sister had grown up.
Not so easy to fool anymore.
He smiled imperceptibly, reaching out as if to embrace her in apology, but when her head leaned against him, his long arm simply looped over her shoulder and clipped the nameplate onto the back of her padded jacket—somewhere that would be very difficult for her to remove without taking the jacket off.
Quite the opportunist!
"…"
Xu Zhiyi was so furious that she raised her hand to pull off her cotton-padded jacket, but her hand was caught by Lin Yan, firmly held in his grip.
"Trust me." He patted her back soothingly, his voice low and gentle against her ear, "Trust your brother."
Xu Zhiyi froze for a moment.
As if she caught a hint of deeper meaning in his words, she stopped struggling and quietly curled up in his embrace.
From behind Lin Yan's back, she was almost completely hidden from view.
Back when they used to walk home from school together, the streetlamp would cast its light at an angle, and his shadow would cover her just like this, tucking her existence into the darkness.
He lowered his head, and the fingertips holding her hand began to slowly and gently stroke the back of her hand, tracing the fine blue veins beneath her skin. His fingertips slid across her skin like a serpent, utterly intimate.
Xu Zhiyi had barely been soothed when she heard Lin Yan's utterly heartless words: "After we get out, want to practice long-distance running? It'll come in handy when you need to run away."
"…………"
During a period in second grade of elementary school, Xu Zhiyi didn't really want to go outside, let alone go to school. No matter how much she was coaxed or persuaded, she would only hide in the corner of the room, stubbornly staring at the wall corner with her head down.
She ate huddled there, and she slept there too.
One day, while she was imagining herself as a mushroom, she suddenly felt her hair being grabbed from above. The force was very careful, but because it was unskilled, it still hurt her a little.
But even so, Xu Zhiyi didn't speak. She silently crouched without moving, letting the person behind her hold her hair. After more than ten minutes, her head was gently patted.
Xu Zhiyi continued staring at the wall corner.
"Don't you want to take a look?"
It took her a moment to realize it was Lin Yan's voice.
In the end, curiosity won out over her desire to be a mushroom. Xu Zhiyi slowly, taking nearly four or five minutes, finally turned her face around.
She met Lin Yan, who was holding up a round mirror. In the mirror, two thin, messy braids hung down on either side of her head. Though they weren't particularly neat, because two crooked little red strawberry hair clips were pinned along the braids, she still looked at them for a while longer.
It was because of that brief turn of her head that, in the days that followed, Lin Yan began to appear frequently behind her, combing those novel, frizzy braids for her—and of course, clipping on those colorful little decorations as well.
Finally, the first time Lin Yan braided a nearly perfect low bun, Xu Zhiyi, with a little transparent butterfly hair clip on top of her head, was led by his hand and walked out the door with him.
To go see the sun.
So much so that later on, Lin Yan believed the little butterfly had miraculous effects. He put nearly a whole box of colorful little wings on her head—they rustled when she shook her head, and the moment she stepped outside, even the sun would be dazzled.
It forced Xu Zhiyi, who hadn't spoken a word in months, to finally open her mouth and put a stop to that operation.
That was probably when the habit was formed.
Lin Yan had always been enthusiastic about dressing her up. In high school, he bought a drawer full of hair ties, and every autumn there was a newly knitted scarf.
And now, he'd found even more of an opportunity.
Coming down from the art classroom, they passed nearly a dozen unlucky zombies. Every time one fell, Lin Yan would go over and rummage through it. Out of about five or six, he could find one Nameplate.
After searching, he would come back to her and gesture on her body, figuring out where it would look most beautiful.
Xu Zhiyi was jingling with every step she took!
She had gone from full resistance at the start to numb endurance by the end, even cooperatively smoothing out her sleeves to make it easier for him to work.
Lin Yan examined her carefully: "See, it makes your face look rosy and pretty—even more beautiful."
"…"
It was the exact same line he'd used to coax her outside as a child!
But Xu Zhiyi let out a cold snort, her gaze sweeping over the nameplates scattered left and right across her body, and still accepted the routine.
Walking out of the teaching building, the scene on the playground was almost pitiful.
A dozen or so zombies with uncoordinated limbs were dragging their feet, pulling up banners, setting up the main stage, and carrying desks and chairs that looked meant for school leadership. Their faces were ferocious, yet they still loved labor.
Even after death, they had to endure this ordeal.
Xu Zhiyi watched with a pang of heartache, gripping Lin Yan's hand even tighter, terrified that if she let her guard down for even a second, her brother would join this bizarre activity too.
Also afraid he might wander over to snatch someone else's nameplate.
Fortunately, he showed no sign of wanting to go over. Xu Zhiyi breathed a sigh of relief and quickened her pace toward the security booth. Glancing back at the main stage at the end, she silently complained—with all this fanfare, they'd only managed to set up one seat for a leader.
Xu Zhiyi devised a strict plan to retrieve the muzzle.
—Find a stick, poke open the strap behind the Doberman's head, then use the stick to nudge it over.
"Brother, what do you think?" Xu Zhiyi said seriously.
Actually, reaching out directly wouldn't be out of the question either.
Ever since they'd entered the security booth, this fierce, snarling dog had remained obediently crouched in place, showing no sign of suddenly lunging or biting.
Lin Yan exchanged a one-second stare with the eerily quiet Doberman.
Doberman: "…"
Xu Zhiyi urged him to answer: "Brother, do you think it'll work?"
"It'll work. I'll go find a tool." Lin Yan cooperatively turned around and began searching the area.
Once he moved a bit farther away, Xu Zhiyi's fear of the Doberman immediately came rushing back. As the two locked eyes, the latter clearly noticed she was a pushover and bared its teeth viciously.
"…"
But after barely two seconds of baring teeth, it buried its head and rubbed it against the ground, striking a submissive pose.
"…"
Xu Zhiyi had no patience left for this mood-swinging Doberman. She turned her face away, her gaze darting around anxiously without a sense of security.
Soon, she spotted the cracked-screen phone she'd discovered earlier in the security booth by the table leg. After a closer look, she immediately recognized it as Lin Yan's phone and picked it up with a pang of heartache.
She pressed and held the power button. Nothing happened.
"Zhizhi."
Xu Zhiyi turned her head, phone cradled in her hands, showing it off like a trophy: "Brother, your phone—"
In her line of sight, a brand-new muzzle hung suspended in the air.
Xu Zhiyi: "!"
Two blessings at once!
"How do I put this on?" Lin Yan held the black leather strap of the muzzle, eyelids lowered, expression natural. "I don't think I know how."
The bound Doberman: "?"
What the hell is this gibberish? Not a single word a dog can understand.
Rarely having the chance to help her brother, Xu Zhiyi suddenly became very excited, letting out an "oh-oh" twice. "I know, I know! I'll help you put it on!"
In truth, she had zero relevant experience.
But practice makes perfect—after a few tries, she'd probably figure it out.
After the two exchanged the items they'd found, Xu Zhiyi quickly began studying the muzzle's structure, using her fingers to distinguish the ear straps from the neck strap by length.
She shook the muzzle with feigned confidence, daring to try: "Turn around and squat down, gege."
Lin Yan lowered his gaze to look at her.
He stood barely a dozen centimeters in front of her, leaning down slightly, holding her wrist as he pressed the silver muzzle over his face.
His tall frame bore down toward her, his forehead resting in the hollow of her neck—just the right weight, not heavy enough to provoke her resistance, yet not so light that she could ignore his presence.
His hand loosely encircled her waist.
It was an awkward position for fastening the straps, forcing Xu Zhiyi to raise her arm and rest it on his shoulder.
As their bodies touched, the process she had rehearsed in her mind suddenly grew hazy, and her hands began to tremble slightly.
Xu Zhiyi attributed this to Lin Yan's uncooperativeness, feeling entirely justified in her own clumsy, inexperienced movements.
But having gege leaning against her like this gave her the feeling that he was depending on her, and she couldn't bear to ask him to adjust his position.
When she finally finished fastening it, she dawdled for a few more seconds before speaking: "Done."
Lin Yan lifted his head.
He didn't let go of her, but used the cold muzzle to tentatively brush against her neck. That small patch of skin was rubbed by the metal strips, its fair complexion gradually flushing with a faint pink.
"Seems like I really can't bite anymore," he said.
His cool, slightly ragged breath filtered through the iron grille, scattering across her skin.
But because Xu Zhiyi was inexperienced, the straps hadn't been secured very firmly. The muzzle soon slipped from Lin Yan's face, falling between their embrace, caught by her hand.
"Zhizhi."
Lin Yan's gaze drooped onto her pale neck, his lips extremely close, thin currents of air circulating in the narrow space.
Xu Zhiyi's heart pounded wildly.