“These delinquent boys and young men,” Lin Huai said in the dark alley, his eyes sparkling as though he were discussing something delightful rather than dangerous, “were already planning to take advantage of me. So when I beat them up, they didn’t dare call the police. As for those middle aged men, they were sneaking out behind their wives’ backs to fool around. They wouldn’t dare come after me either.”
The alley was narrow and damp, the faint smell of trash and rainwater lingering in the air. Moonlight filtered in from above, thin and pale, casting silver edges on broken bricks and scattered debris. Lin Huai stood within that light, looking almost luminous.
“I’ve saved up quite a lot of money already,” he continued, voice light and almost cheerful. “But recently I’ve felt that earning money like this is too slow and I don’t know when it started but I somehow turned into an urban legend.” He tilted his head, as if pondering his own fame. “I’ve tried dressing as a man, too. It’s just not as effective as dressing as a woman… So I need to think of a new method…”
Chu Tianshu: “…For example, starting a livestream online and calling yourself Her Highness Lin Biluo?”
Lin Huai blinked. “Eh? How did you think of the same thing as me?”
Chu Tianshu looked at him calmly and continued, “And then, when they’re crazily tipping you and calling you goddess, you take off your wig, reveal the truth that you’re actually a man, shatter their fantasies on the spot, toy with their feelings and deal them a devastating psychological blow?”
Lin Huai turned toward him slowly, eyes bright with admiration. “You really are my soulmate.”
Under the moonlight, the small tear shaped mole at the corner of Lin Huai’s eye and his beautiful peach blossom eyes both shimmered faintly. He looked like a spirit born of the night, mischievous, dangerous and dazzling.
Chu Tianshu only stared at him for a moment before placing a hand on his shoulder and sighing. “You’re still too young.”
Lin Huai: “Huh?”
“You still don’t understand those men well enough,” Chu Tianshu said evenly. “After finding out you’re actually male, they would only say…. ”
“Isn’t that even better!”
Lin Huai: …
It was clear that Lin Huai lacked knowledge in such realms as “turning the tables with men,” “advancing boldly knowing the other is male,” and “men should play with men.”
The two of them crouched there for quite some time. At last, they spotted an office worker staggering toward them, swaying as he walked, likely tipsy or exhausted.
At the same time, from a distant branch of the alleyway, a sharp scream rang out, a woman’s voice, trembling and desperate.
“Help… help me…”
The two exchanged a glance.
“Go take a look?” Chu Tianshu suggested.
“All right.” Lin Huai glanced regretfully at the approaching office worker and made a soft clicking sound. “What a pity. Such a fat sheep.”
By the time they reached the inner part of the alley, Ji Fengjian was already lying on the ground.
While the two had been fighting, the girl had dragged her severely injured body deeper into the alley, stumbling and nearly collapsing as she ran. Unfortunately, Ji Fengjian had not managed to hold Gu Beichen back for very long.
“I shouldn’t have tried to play the hero,” Ji Fengjian thought hazily.
In truth, the death of a single NPC was nothing worth dwelling on for him but Gu Beichen’s attitude, the way he had looked down on him, was something he found deeply irritating.
Gu Beichen could manipulate the shadows in the night to fight on his behalf, shaping them into strange, twisting vines. Those vines seemed to secrete a substance capable of inducing paralysis. Ji Fengjian had been careless for just a moment and fallen victim to it.
Clutching his arm, his entire body numb, he gasped in pain. At the same time, Chu Tianshu and Lin Huai spotted him from a distance.
“Is that person your teammate?”
Lin Huai vaguely remembered that this man, like Chu Tianshu, had transferred into Liangchuan High School today. There was no other reason, his flamboyant, scene kid red hair was simply too eye catching to forget.
He rose onto his tiptoes, craning his neck to get a better look but Chu Tianshu pulled him back.
“Don’t go over there. Don’t make a sound.” Chu Tianshu’s gaze darkened slightly as he looked at Ji Fengjian in the distance and the large pool of blood spreading across the ground.
“Let me see…”
“I’ll check the situation. You stay here. Don’t make any noise,” Chu Tianshu said without allowing argument. “Don’t let them discover you.”
A sudden sensation of restraint came over Lin Huai’s wrist, as though it had been clamped in iron tongs. At the same time, a hand covered his mouth, his chin and even the tip of his nose, sealing him in place and preventing him from moving.
Lin Huai blinked.
In this unprecedented situation, being subdued by someone else’s firm, unquestionable dominance, he felt a strange, subtle emotion stirring within him.
It was difficult to say whether that subtlety came from dissatisfaction at being restrained, or from the awkward discomfort of the other person’s palm being too warm against his face…
Yet under the moonlight, the young man who held him down wore an expression so cold and serious that, for that fleeting moment, Lin Huai, who had always hated being controlled, did not actually feel annoyed.
Still, having one’s mouth covered was undeniably unpleasant.
After a brief stalemate, Chu Tianshu spoke first. “Sorry. I reacted in a hurry… Go find somewhere to hide… No, make a strategic retreat, all right?”
Recalling Lin Huai’s temperament, he corrected his wording. The person beneath his hand blinked, then made a soft, muffled “Mmff, mm, mmph,” a trace of dissatisfaction flickering in his eyes.
He sounded as though he wanted to say something.
…It didn’t look like he intended to retreat at all. Chu Tianshu felt a headache coming on as he considered Lin Huai’s fearless, reckless personality.
“This isn’t the time for you to be willful,” Chu Tianshu murmured, casting a glance toward the dark alley ahead. “I’ll explain the details to you later. Anyway, it’s just that, ”
From beneath his palm, Lin Huai produced a string of incomprehensible sounds: “##@%#…!!”
Chu Tianshu: “You…”
He hadn’t even begun the next round of persuasion when something strange brushed against his palm.
It felt like something small, soft and cool… turning lightly against the center of his hand,
before sliding swiftly across.
That was,
Ah?
Ah?!
Chu Tianshu: “…%##;;@#!!!!”
The one who nearly cried out and ruined everything turned out to be Chu Tianshu himself.
As though burned by a red hot iron, he jerked his hand away instantly. With his left hand, he grabbed his right wrist tightly, as if restraining himself from making any further inappropriate movement.
…For example, punching the wall out of sheer agitation.
The instigator of all this, meanwhile, unhurriedly withdrew his tongue back into his mouth and adjusted the wig that Chu Tianshu had mussed up. Chu Tianshu stood there, dumbfounded, his entire face flushed red.
“You… you… you…”
“…I told you to let go of me for quite a while,” Lin Huai said, lifting a stray lock of his wig and tucking it behind his ear. “I even gave you a final warning just now.”
Chu Tianshu: “You… you.. you…”
Seeing how flustered he looked, Lin Huai smiled with a trace of mischievous satisfaction. His prank had succeeded and he was in an excellent mood.
“I said earlier, ‘If you don’t let go of me, I’m going to lick you,’” Lin Huai added leisurely. “It’s just that you didn’t hear it yourself…”
Chu Tianshu: “You… जी reyou… you… I just touched the railing and didn’t wash my hands yet!”
Lin Huai: …
Happy moments are always fleeting. The faintly ambiguous, almost tender atmosphere was equally short lived. Chu Tianshu looked at Lin Huai’s face, which had instantly darkened to the point of dripping water and a bead of cold sweat slid down the back of his neck.
“…Did you hear what I said just now?” Chu Tianshu asked cautiously.
Lin Huai: “Oh.”
He turned around. The deep red hem of his skirt traced a blossoming arc through the air. Once Lin Huai had turned his back, Chu Tianshu finally regained a measure of composure.
“Go stand behind that utility pole,” he said. “That spot’s a blind angle.”
Without a word, Lin Huai walked over, though even he didn’t know why he was listening to this idiot. After he had settled himself in place, Chu Tianshu added, “Keep up the posture of a junior girl secretly admiring her senior, okay?”
From behind the utility pole, Lin Huai shot him a dark, ambiguous smile.
“Pah,” Lin Huai replied.
He looked as if he wanted to spit out every single virus he might have licked in earlier. Only then did Chu Tianshu finally feel reassured. He turned back and walked toward the alley where Ji Fengjian had fallen. Light is reversible; when he could no longer see Lin Huai, Lin Huai likewise could no longer see him. He raised his right hand.
For once, Chu Tianshu showed a rare hint of hesitation.
He seemed at first to intend to wipe it against his pants. In the end, however, he lifted his hand and gently pressed it against his own face.
His hand
was cold.
His face, on the other hand, was burning hot.
“…Wait, what on earth am I thinking?” Chu Tianshu narrowed his eyes and quietly lowered his hand.
…It’s just some moisture, fluid, salivary enzymes…
After repeating these thoughts to himself several times, Chu Tianshu finally regained his calm.
Hearing approaching footsteps, Ji Fengjian forced himself to lift his head.
“It’s you?”
He quickly recognized Chu Tianshu. Squatting down, Chu Tianshu asked, “What are you doing here? This bloodstain…”
He pointed at the patch of crimson. “Did you find Tomie?”
“Not yet!” Ji Fengjian snapped angrily. “That Gu Beichen, he’s a damn lunatic!”
Gasping heavily, he recounted everything he had seen in quick, broken sentences. “Damn it, does this guy have some kind of mania? He… he’s really ruthless as hell…”
“Ruthless people live longer in this game,” Chu Tianshu said, tapping his wrench lightly against his palm. “But ruthless to his extent… it’s unpleasant.”
“They ran off deeper into the alley.” Ji Fengjian pointed toward the darkness ahead. “I, I… damn it, I can’t get up.”
He struggled to shift his body. Chu Tianshu said, “Call yourself an ambulance. I’ll go check the situation.”
“Damn it…” Ji Fengjian nearly roared out Gu Beichen’s name again. With unwilling fury in his eyes, he lost consciousness.
After Ji Fengjian fainted, Chu Tianshu quickly returned to the utility pole.
Behind it, Lin Huai was still standing obediently. The hood of his deep red cloak covered most of his face, revealing only a sharp chin. He was playing with his phone, as if he had truly been waiting quietly here for a long time, just as he had promised Chu Tianshu.
, Even though at other times, he was free and arrogant, obeying no rules and listening to no one.
The streetlight poured down from above, spilling over his head, sliding along the length of his cloak, flowing onto the ground and sinking into the depths of his heart.
Seeing him like this, Chu Tianshu suddenly felt both very happy and very heavy at once.
Gu Beichen’s behavior was so extreme and unhinged that he was a dangerous factor who had to be dealt with early yet Lin Huai knew nothing of this.
When the two of them were still about thirty steps apart, Lin Huai lifted his head. Leaning against the utility pole, he tilted his chin lazily.
“What’s the excitement? Let me see.”
“Someone’s been killed.”
Chu Tianshu briefly described what had happened. Then he said, “You go back first. I’ll go deal with Gu Beichen and then…”
He tried to persuade him to return and rest but Lin Huai simply patted his phone and slipped it back into his pocket.
He lifted his face, expression dark.
“Since this person came for me, why should I leave?”
“You…”
“He’s done so much just to see me. If I don’t make an appearance, wouldn’t I be letting down his infatuation?” Lin Huai clapped his hands elegantly. “Come on. I’d quite like to see what this so called ruthless man… looks like.”
Following the scent of blood, he moved to rush in the direction Gu Beichen had gone. Seeing that his mind was made up, Chu Tianshu followed close behind and grabbed his arm.
“This isn’t the same as before. Don’t act recklessly.”
Lin Huai smiled.
“Aren’t you here?” he said lightly. “How could I possibly act recklessly?”
The way he smiled was truly beautiful. In his words, there was an absolute ease and trust that even he himself did not seem aware of. Chu Tianshu felt his heart pound violently in his chest.
Chu Tianshu: “…You’re really taking advantage of having me cover for you and going all out, aren’t you?”
He smiled helplessly.
The two of them disappeared swiftly into the pitch black alley.
At the same time, elsewhere,
“Hah… hah…”
Jiang Rou dragged her feet forward, staggering step by step. She covered her mouth, trying desperately to keep herself from crying out loud.
‘Don’t find me, don’t find me…’
She didn’t even understand what she had done wrong. For her, today had been nothing more than an ordinary day.
In the morning, she had waved goodbye to her mother and gone to class. At the school gate, she had seen a transfer student arrive by car and had chatted about him with her classmates. In the evening, she had finished class on time and on her way home she had happened to encounter another transfer student who had entered the school that very day.
She remembered his name, Gu Beichen. His appearance matched his name: cold and handsome. A young girl’s faint stirrings of affection had made her unable to resist following behind his hurried steps. Under normal circumstances, such a small impulse would never have been fatal.
What she had never expected was that in the next moment, she would witness him brutally murdering her classmate.
After seeing her classmate’s corpse vanish into the shadows, she finally let out an uncontrollable scream.
And then, this tragic fate descended upon her.
Gu Beichen walked toward her. He cupped the girl’s cheeks and brushed aside her hair. His movements were even gentle.
But his cold words shattered her final illusion.
“I was planning to look for you anyway. Since you’re here… I might as well deal with you too.”
What followed was a nightmare of pursuit, injury and slaughter. Gu Beichen seemed to enjoy chasing her. He clearly could have killed her immediately yet after chopping off one of her fingers, he toyed with her like a cat playing with a mouse, tormenting her for an entire hour.
Ji Fengjian’s sudden appearance had once given her a glimmer of hope. Although he had said things she couldn’t understand, in the end he chose to fight Gu Beichen and shouted for her to run. Knowing she would only be a burden, Jiang Rou faithfully carried out his command. She ran as fast as she could, not looking back even once.
Yet the moment Ji Fengjian’s scream rang out behind her, her heart turned cold again.
She was finished.
Gu Beichen’s footsteps echoed once more through the alley. Jiang Rou, her strength completely exhausted, collapsed heavily to the ground.
“Wuu… wuu…”
She wept in despair, her fingers clawing desperately at the dirt beneath her.
She was finished.
The sound of Gu Beichen’s steps approached. He bent down and looked at the girl still twisting and struggling on the ground, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.
It was an extremely cold and bloodthirsty smile. In that instant, the girl finally understood,
Gu Beichen had not killed her because she might report him.
He killed because he enjoyed the process of chasing and slaughtering his prey.
“Please…” she said with difficulty. “Please…”
“I… I really am not…”
“But who can guarantee that you’re not?” Gu Beichen replied calmly as he wiped his short blade clean.
Then he raised his arm, the cold blade suspended in the air.
The girl shut her eyes in despair.
At that very moment, another voice sounded from afar.
“Of course someone can guarantee that she isn’t Tomie,” said a lazy voice. “And that person would be me.”
Gu Beichen abruptly looked up.
A girl dressed in black hair and a red skirt sat atop the wall.
Her long hair and red skirt were lifted by the night wind, blooming in the air like a scattering flower. Receiving Gu Beichen’s puzzled gaze, she shrugged.
“What, never seen a woman with a voice as deep as mine?”
✦ ✧ ✦
Cresvynia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
☕ (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑ translator fuel acquired?
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 111 · Although the author really didn’t want to writeChapter 112 · An explanation of the main storylineChapter 113 · Lin Huai’s QuestionChapter 114 · Hello classmateChapter 115 · Let me introduce the protagonist’s family backgroundChapter 116 · The innocent and naive Lin XiaohuaiChapter 117 · The Trisolarans ArriveChapter 118 · He Isn’t Fighting AloneChapter 119 · Why Here?Chapter 120 · A World Where Everyone Is Sculpted in ClayChapter 121 · How Could It Be YouChapter 122 · I want to sell my carChapter 123 · The Mysterious Transfer StudentsChapter 124 · Gu BeichenChapter 125 · The Male Lead of This StoryChapter 126 · A Voice Never Heard BeforeChapter 127 · You’re Tomie, aren’t you?Chapter 128 · I’ll give youChapter 129 · I just want to be with youChapter 130 · The Principal’s OfficeChapter 131 · Chu: I Disbanded Your Hate GroupsChapter 132 · Speak ProperlyChapter 133 · A Trisolaran Enters the Grand View GardenChapter 134 · Ji FengjianChapter 135 · About Me and YouChapter 136 · Kayako Likes ItChapter 137 · YouChapter 138 · I’ll Beat MyselfChapter 139 · I Want to See MyselfChapter 140 · The Trisolarans’ First Experience of Love and SexChapter 141 · The Trisolarans Try Romance Once MoreChapter 142 · The Trisolarans Try Romance for the Third TimeChapter 143 · It’s All This Buff’s FaultChapter 144 · The Way You Straight Men TalkChapter 145 · Why are you taking it so seriously?Chapter 146 · Chu Tianshu Shows Off His MusclesChapter 147 · Enter the DreamChapter 148 · Leave a little secretChapter 149 · Shadow StreamerChapter 150 · Don’t Look at MeChapter 151 · The Trisolarans betrayed StalinChapter 152 · Then I WillChapter 153 · The Trisolarans rewrite the Book of Life and DeathChapter 154 · What Career Could Be More Important Than Your Wife?Chapter 155 · Aren’t We Already Together?Chapter 156 · MVP of the Entire FieldChapter 157 · Meeting the FamilyChapter 158 · A Phone Call Across Time and SpaceChapter 159 · Lu Jin, You’re So MiserableChapter 160 · The Lands Of DaughtersChapter 161 · The So Called Pregnancy StreamChapter 162 · The Street Where Only the Two of Us ExistChapter 163 · No bare faceChapter 164 · Question 1: Do you have hair loss?Chapter 165 · LaxativesChapter 166 · Where Exactly Do You Exist?Chapter 167 · Seven ZeroChapter 168 · The issue of 0 and 1Chapter 169 · Wind ChimeChapter 170 · Visa and Wind ChimesChapter 171 · Continue to persecute Lu JinChapter 172 · Examiner: I’ve fallen in love with himChapter 173 · Lin Huai intimidates scalpersChapter 174 · Night of EvilChapter 175 · Congratulations to the Male Guests on Successfully Finding Their PartnersChapter 176 · Before ThisChapter 177 · The gong says he is terrifiedChapter 178 · The Tasker CampChapter 179 · I’m So ScaredChapter 180 · The Final Transitional ChapterChapter 181 · Four Beauties Among the FlowersChapter 182 · Plum FragranceChapter 183 · Dry Weather and Flammable ThingsChapter 184 · The Heartless Sword ManualChapter 185 · Only MeChapter 186 · The North PoleChapter 187 · Let Brother Lin Learn to Meow Like a CatChapter 188 · Good Night