Unfortunately, this diary that had trapped Chi Ling offered no clues. Chi Ling flipped through it back and forth twice, enduring two reads of the blissful married life and affectionate daily routines recorded inside, only to feel his eyes ache. Helplessly, he put the diary down.
Looking at Chi Ling, who had closed his eyes and lay sprawled like a corpse, Ji Qing asked timidly, “Should we rest for a bit?”
Sitting up like a wandering ghost, Chi Ling tossed the diary back to Ji Qing and turned to walk into the bedroom.
After purchasing a new set of bedsheets and quilt covers from the mall and carefully replacing the old ones, Chi Ling finally felt a sense of grounding once he lay down. Lying on his side, he stared blankly at the opposite wall, his gaze filled with utmost tenderness at that moment.
Chi Ling closed his eyelids. “Time for sleep. Goodnight.”
Closing his eyes only made it harder to fall asleep, as numerous thoughts flashed through his mind without letting him grasp any of them. Irritated, Chi Ling opened his eyes, propped himself up by the bed edge, and sat up.
“Tsk.”
Leaning against the headboard without a word, he soon got up and walked into the other bedroom.
Tugging the blanket back forcefully, he found no abnormalities. Removing the pillow next, he lifted the quilt and spotted a few stray strands of hair caught in the gap between the headboard and the wall.
Gently picking up a strand, he found the hair soft to the touch, black in color, and not particularly long.
Ji Qing’s hair was blonde; by comparison, this looked much more like Chi Ling’s own hair.
“Ji Qing, come here for a second.” Brushing the hair away, Chi Ling called out to the person in the living room.
“What is it? Is there something wrong in here?” Timidly walking into the room, Ji Qing looked at Chi Ling with nervous tension.
“Did you check the closet? Open it and take a look.” Chi Ling instructed Ji Qing with a clear conscience.
“Ah?” With weak legs, Ji Qing shuffled over to the wardrobe, closed his eyes, and yanked it open violently.
“Ahhhhh!”
“What are you screaming for? There’s no danger.” Chi Ling was speechless.
The two peered into the closet, only to find it completely clean with no clothes inside.
This room bore zero traces of anyone ever living in it.
Even the bed, judging purely from its exterior, looked as though no one had ever slept on it. The flat quilt lacked a single crease.
“Older brother Chi, did you discover something?”
Placing two fingers lightly against his forehead, Chi Ling glanced at Ji Qing, dropped his hand, and turned around. “Nothing for now.”
Walking out of the room, he said to Ji Qing, who was staring at the closet with deep resentment, “I’m going to rest.”
After a moment of thought, he walked back a few steps, pulled a new set of bedsheets out of his storage space, and tossed them into Ji Qing’s arms. “You’ll sleep in this room tonight.”
Hugging the bedsheets, Ji Qing nodded and watched Chi Ling walk over to the other bedroom.
Damn it! I feel like sharing a room with Older brother Chi would be safer!
Should I go make a floor pallet in his room tonight?
As Ji Qing thought this, he suddenly recalled Chi Ling’s look and shuddered.
Forget it, it’s still way too terrifying. When there’s no danger, Older brother Chi is the biggest danger.
After sleeping for a while, Chi Ling felt his mental state improve significantly and his mind clear up a lot. Reaching under his pillow, he fished out his phone.
Checking the phone showed that only a little over forty minutes had passed, yet looking at the sky outside, it felt as though several hours had gone by. The sky had already grown dim, with only a faint glimmer of light remaining.
From this angle, Chi Ling could clearly see the moon outside the window. The moonlight was bright and clean, spilling across the windowsill and casting a patch of light right beside the bed.
Reaching out to catch it, the moonlight landed squarely on his palm. He pressed his lips together and brushed his fingers against the stud earring on his right ear—it was also shaped like a crescent moon, with a tiny diamond star twinkling beside the silver moon.
“The moonlight is very nice tonight.”
The stud earring suddenly grew hot, as if agreeing with Chi Ling’s words. Curving his eyes, Chi Ling kicked off the blanket and stepped out of bed, leaving behind a bed bathed in moonlight.
Opening the door, he found the living room lights on. Ji Qing was sitting on the sofa with his knees hugged to his chest and his head lowered, as if even his hair radiated helplessness.
Hearing the door push open, he raised his head to meet Chi Ling stepping out, joy overflowing across his face.
“You’re finally awake!”
Chi Ling sat down on the sofa as well, and Ji Qing inched closer bit by bit.
“You have no idea, not long after you fell asleep, the sky started getting dark. I wanted to wake you up, but an hour hadn’t even passed yet…” Ji Qing rambled on.
Chi Ling made a hand gesture to indicate he understood.
Pulling out his phone, the displayed time read only 5:30 PM, but the world outside was already pitch black.
“So are we still going out to look for information today?” Ji Qing looked at Chi Ling with watery eyes, waiting for him to make the call.
“We won’t go out today, let’s observe the situation first!” After a brief contemplation, Chi Ling made an immediate decision, intuitively feeling it was best not to go outside tonight.
The two bought some items from the mall and ate around the table.
“Um… can I sleep in your room tonight?” Ji Qing asked coyly.
While tearing off a piece of bread to eat and sipping milk, Chi Ling spared him a single glance.
“I’ll sleep on the floor pallet!” Ji Qing immediately added conscientiously.
Nodding, Chi Ling continued eating his dinner.
The two sat in the living room until around 8:00 PM. Out of sheer boredom, Chi Ling even bought a novel to read.
“Haah!” Ji Qing beside him had already been yawning endlessly.
Kind enough to lend his novel over, Ji Qing still couldn’t summon any spirit.
Watching the sky grow increasingly dark outside the window, Chi Ling fell into deep thought. Even he could feel a wave of fatigue washing over him; the reason he wasn’t as exhausted as Ji Qing was likely because his declining mental points caused headaches while simultaneously keeping him alert to a certain degree.
“Go to sleep.”
The moment Ji Qing heard Chi Ling’s words, he could barely hold on any longer. Remembering his plan to set up a floor pallet in Chi Ling’s room, he hugged his quilt and headed into the large bedroom, only to collapse the moment he finished laying it out.
Finding it both funny and exasperating, Chi Ling let out a spark of kindness and pulled a blanket over the sleeping person.
After checking the bathroom, kitchen door, and front door to ensure they were all securely shut and double-locking them with the key, he returned to his room.
Once inside, he closed the bedroom door and locked the windows tightly. If not for the lack of curtains, he would have drawn those meticulously shut as well.
Finally lying down in bed, Chi Ling tucked himself in properly and touched the ring on his finger once more.
“Goodnight.”
Yet this night was far from peaceful. Falling asleep quickly, Chi Ling endured continuous noises throughout the entire night.
During the first half of the night, sounds of a cleaver chopping against a chopping board and boiling oil bubbling drifted up from downstairs, echoing endlessly for half the night. During the second half of the night, a sharp whistling noise through the air upstairs was followed by the sound of a heavy object slamming onto the ground.
Covering his head with the blanket did nothing; those sounds kept piercing into his ears and drilling into his mind, causing his head to throb with needle-like pain.
By dawn, when things finally grew somewhat quiet, Chi Ling wanted to catch up on some sleep, but felt completely paralyzed by sleep paralysis, unable to move a muscle as an icy chill crept in from his side.
With his head still buried beneath the blanket, Chi Ling felt a sudden sense of suffocation.
When an indistinct, weak cat meow from an unknown source finally brought an end to all these anomalies, Chi Ling sat up in annoyance and looked out the window to find day had fully broken.
Glancing at Ji Qing, who was still fast asleep, Chi Ling slowly broke into a smile—he wasn’t angry, not angry at all!
The moment Ji Qing woke up, he was greeted by Chi Ling, who had dark circles under his eyes and an indifferent expression.
“Slept well last night?”
The mild question sounded like a demon’s whisper, and Ji Qing could sense Chi Ling’s current mood was exceptionally foul, prompting him to nod cautiously.
“If you’re well-rested, get up! Early to bed, early to rise, we need to dig up more clues today.”
Throwing off the blanket to get out of bed, Chi Ling carefully folded his quilt and walked out of the room.
Thinking it was still early, he pulled out his phone only to discover it was already past 10:00 AM.
?
What was going on with the time flow rate this time?
Tugging at the damp, washed bangs clinging to his forehead, Chi Ling figured he should cut his hair shorter after getting out of this instance.
Walking to the balcony, he looked outside, but saw very few people moving around.
What was going on? Did nobody wake up yet?
Weren’t they supposed to practice early to bed and early to rise?
Could it be that last night, he was the only one who didn’t get a good night’s sleep?
Chi Ling felt his fist tighten. Pale-faced, he gulped down a large mouthful of bottled water and retreated back into the living room.
Noticing Chi Ling sitting on the sofa with a wretched expression, Ji Qing asked cautiously, “Chi Ling, didn’t you sleep well last night?”
Chi Ling’s gaze swept over him instantly like biting frost.
“Hahaha! Hitting right where it hurts!”
“Look at the dark circles under his eyes, you can tell he definitely didn’t sleep well!”
“Tsk tsk! Still has a unique charm to it!”
“Why did he run into so many things on the first night? When I did this instance, *********.”
“Finish up your breakfast quickly, we’re going out to look around.” Chi Ling had already finished his breakfast and picked up the novel he hadn’t finished reading last night.
Ji Qing hurried to shovel mouthfuls of breakfast into his mouth.
Taking a brief glance, Chi Ling thought, “…”
There wasn’t really any need to rush quite that much.
Still, a reminder was necessary: “If I’m not mistaken, this instance has a time limit.”
“Last night, the night phase in this instance lasted from 5:00 PM until 10:00 AM the next day, which means there are only seven hours of daylight total. Barring accidents, each daytime phase will shrink by one hour, leaving only the night by the final day. If we haven’t gotten out by then, I wouldn’t dare guarantee what might happen.”
The food in Ji Qing’s mouth instantly became hard to swallow.
Chi Ling smiled. “Swallow it quickly, once you’re done we’re heading downstairs.”
Ji Qing nodded in terror.
Though he told Ji Qing to hurry and swallow, Chi Ling didn’t actually urge him further, picking up his book instead to read at a leisurely pace.
Once Ji Qing finished eating, the two prepared to step outside.
Checking everything over once more to ensure nothing was missed, Chi Ling pulled open the front door.
A small, pitch-black furry thing blocked the doorway, gazing up at Chi Ling with curious amber-colored pupils.
It was a small black kitten with glossy, slick fur, looking very affectionate. It sat crouched upon a small pink soft mat, resembling someone’s household pet.
Picking up the black cat, Chi Ling spotted a note resting on the soft mat.
[Stepping out for the day, please help look after my Gray-Gray. Kind neighbor, if you treat it well, it will bring you good luck. ——Left by the neighbor in 314.]
Chi Ling instantly connected the kitten before him to the cat meow he had heard that morning.
While Ji Qing was still puttering around inside the room, he caught sight of Chi Ling squatting by the doorway and hurried over to look.
Spotting the palm-sized kitten nestled in Chi Ling’s arms, he exclaimed with surprise, “Where did this little thing come from?”
Stroking the kitten’s spine, Chi Ling lifted his eyelids indifferently. “The neighbor next door.”