Chapter 36
Chapter 36
Yu Lingling didn’t press him for answers.
Yu Huan finished making the ginger tea, took off his apron, and headed toward his bedroom. “Don’t burn your mouth.”
Yu Lingling cradled the brown sugar ginger tea and took tiny sips, frowning the whole time. “It doesn’t taste good.”
Yu Huan smiled.
Once her brother’s bedroom door closed, Yu Lingling shifted into a more comfortable position on the living room rug.
How annoying. Her brother had gone off to have fun without her, then come home covered in all sorts of strange smells.
Yu Huan had smelled like that before, but Yu Lingling hadn’t known what it was back then. It was like how she’d sensed that something was strange about Doctor Song without being able to put her finger on what.
After her encounters with the Horror Game Instance – especially the latest multiplayer one – Yu Lingling had gathered even more clues. She was starting to look forward to seeing how things would develop.
But when she thought of that slow, dithering alternate personality, Yu Lingling clicked her tongue. A shoddy yellow plastic egg appeared in her hand. Not only did that personality love dragging its feet, it also had terrible luck and kept getting itself hurt.
“Useless thing.”
When Yu Huan came back out, he had changed into pure cotton loungewear. The heating kept the apartment toasty, and Yu Lingling was the only one who still liked wearing thick, fluffy pajamas and cotton slippers. He put his apron back on, rolled up his sleeves, and headed into the kitchen to make lunch. “Anything you want to eat?”
“Sweet-and-sour ribs and sweet-and-sour pork.” Yu Lingling ticked off her requests on her fingers. “Hot-and-spicy shrimp, crispy sweet-and-sour pork, and cola chicken wings.” After a moment’s hesitation, she reluctantly added, “And one vegetable dish. Fish-fragrant eggplant.”
Yu Huan laughed in exasperation. “What a sacrifice, forcing yourself to think of one vegetable dish.”
Yu Lingling had already gotten to her feet. “I’ll wash the vegetables.”
Yu Huan reworked the menu in his head, then started assigning her tasks. As if bringing it up in passing, he asked, “Would you like a companion your own age, Lingling?”
Yu Lingling pretended not to understand what he meant. “I have plenty of friends my age. I just can’t see them because it’s winter break.”
Yu Huan had always discussed household matters with his sister, especially something that would mean adding another person to the household. “He’s quite interesting.”
Yu Lingling’s curiosity was piqued, and her ears perked up despite herself. She wanted to hear what made him so interesting.
But Yu Huan didn’t elaborate. “If I tell you outright, that takes all the fun out of it. Do you want to meet him?”
If anyone else had said that, Yu Lingling wouldn’t have bothered. But this was her brother. He might keep things from her, but he had never lied to her.
Yu Lingling thought for a moment before asking, “Does he have something to do with the work you just went away for?”
Yu Huan was blanching the ribs. “I met him while I was working. He’s not too bright.”
For her brother to call someone “not too bright” while also finding him interesting – and to describe him as a companion, no less – meant there had to be more to it. Yu Huan never interfered with her friendships. If he was bringing this person up, he was probably trying to find her a partner in the Horror Game.
This supposedly not-too-bright companion probably had an Exclusive Skill of the kind Brother B, Xiao Yi, and the others had mentioned, and this Exclusive Skill must be something her brother thought she could use.
Ordinary skills didn’t interest Yu Lingling much, but if her brother thought this one would be useful to her, then she had to go see for herself.
Yu Huan continued, “He’s in the hospital in the next city over. We can stop by the amusement park along the way, and catch the fireworks show they only put on for New Year’s.”
Yu Lingling immediately declared, “Then I have to go have a really good time… I mean, pay the patient a proper visit!”
It wasn’t as if she absolutely had to visit an amusement park in winter, and she wasn’t that desperate to see a fireworks show. Her main concern was visiting the patient.
Yu Huan didn’t expose her. “Then I’ll have someone reserve a room. We can stay right inside the park.”
Yu Lingling rose onto her tiptoes to peer at the ribs her brother was lifting from the pot. “Okay, bro. It’s not like we’re short on money. If you don’t like working, then don’t go.”
The things inside a Horror Game Instance were probably worth a great deal. Once she found a way to sell them, the money would be enough to support the two siblings.
Yu Huan thought of Chen Zhan and the others. “Some things have to be done by someone, don’t they?”
Having witnessed too many partings caused by death, he had only come to hate them more.
It was just like the questions Yu Huan had asked: Was it really worth it?
Yu Huan himself didn’t know. But he did know that if it weren’t for… he would never have been able to break free from the Horror Game Instance.
There was a saying about skills in the Horror Game Instance: a Normal Skill was what a person wanted most at the moment they entered an instance, while an Exclusive Skill was an obsession engraved into the deepest reaches of their soul.
Yu Huan’s Exclusive Skill was Soul-Severing Chain.
Soul-Severing Chain had only one ability: at the instant a Horror Game Instance was cleared, it could sever the connection between the Horror Game and reality, preventing it from truly descending into the real world.
If he truly didn’t care, how could he possibly possess an Exclusive Skill like that?
Because of this skill, countless people had paved a path of escape for him with their lives.
No matter how weary Yu Huan became, no matter how much he loathed it all, and no matter how much using the skill damaged his body each time, he had never once refused to use it.
The one thing Yu Huan hadn’t expected was for the skill’s effect on Yu Lingling to wear off so quickly.
Yu Lingling couldn’t understand the emotion behind Yu Huan’s words. Even if the world ended, what did it have to do with her? Whether anyone else lived or died had even less to do with her. The fact that she hadn’t joined in destroying the world was already proof of how well Yu Huan had raised her.
Yu Huan let the matter drop. No matter how unusual Yu Lingling’s identity might be, as far as he was concerned, she was the little sister he’d watched grow up. He didn’t want to force his views on her. “Go get some preserved plums.”
Yu Lingling chirped in acknowledgment and happily went back to work.
The siblings tacitly stopped discussing the subject.
Over dinner, Yu Huan suddenly said, “Doctor Song is in the hospital too. He’s just out of danger. Should we drop by and see him while we’re there?”
Yu Lingling asked curiously, “Is he at the same hospital as that young man you mentioned? If it’s on the way, we can take a look. If it isn’t, forget it.”
She still hadn’t forgiven Doctor Song, and they certainly weren’t close enough for her to make a special trip just to visit him.
Yu Huan noticed that Yu Lingling was eating nothing but meat, so he placed a chopstickful of stir-fried greens in her bowl.
Yu Lingling’s face turned as green as the vegetables. She stole a glance at her brother, but when he added another chopstickful of stir-fried water spinach to her bowl, she hurriedly lowered her head and forced herself to eat the greens.
Ugh. It tasted awful.
Yu Huan stopped pushing her and instead ladled a bowl of meatball and cabbage soup for her. “It’s the same hospital.”
Although most injuries sustained inside an instance disappeared once a player came out, wounds left by special anomalies, special items, or certain kinds of transactions could not heal.
In addition, quite a few players needed psychological counseling after they came out.
The Special Department had established dedicated hospitals in every province to treat such cases.
The one serving their province was in the neighboring city.
Yu Lingling gave the greens a couple of cursory chews and gulped them down. “Then let’s stop by.”
She had thought she wouldn’t have to see Doctor Song again before New Year, but Doctor Song just had to be so useless that now she had to go out of her way to see him.
Yu Lingling had saved up plenty to tell her brother. Above all, she stressed one point: “Not knowing things is terrifying. Being unable to read is seriously useless.”
Yu Huan thought of the online elementary school lessons in the courtyard. Perhaps every player had only ever thought of getting anomalies to help them fight and kill. No one had ever considered that they might need to be able to read.