Chapter 142
Chapter 142
Xiao Huai looked directly into his eyes. “Which part do you mean?”
Xiao Qian came closer. His white eye was as cold as porcelain jade. “You knew from the beginning that I approached you with an ulterior motive.”
“You made it obvious.” Xiao Huai did not seem to care.
Xiao Qian asked, “And that doesn’t bother you?”
“Why should it?”
Every human relationship was built on some foundation of mutual benefit.
“But I’m different.” Xiao Qian leaned close to Xiao Huai until very little space remained between them. His voice dropped, carrying a dangerous edge. “I’m very dangerous.”
The corners of Xiao Huai’s lips rose. Light and shadow gleamed in his eyes, presenting him at a breathtaking angle.
Xiao Qian froze.
“You don’t believe me?”
Xiao Huai said mildly, “It’s nothing. I just don’t find you dangerous. You seem rather naive and easy to fool.”
“You…” This was not the first time Xiao Huai had described him that way.
After a moment, Xiao Qian said coldly, “I’ve killed someone.”
He lowered his eyes. “And I was very young when I first killed. After growing up, I caused quite a few other deaths. My creed is simple: return what you’re given. Whether someone hurts me or treats me well, I repay them twice over.”
His white right eye trembled faintly.
“This eye is blind. The person who blinded it has already gone to hell.”
He suddenly looked up. “The intelligence I gave you was real. I used an item that predicts the future, and it was extremely valuable. I used it for you. But I could see only part of the future. The vision told me that honesty would create an opportunity to turn things around. You, however, chose a rather unconventional path.”
“It’s also true that I’m afraid of water. I nearly drowned as a child, more than once. When I was around seven, I almost drowned while trying to protect someone. That was also the day I killed for the first time.”
He tilted his head back, his Adam’s apple shifting as he laughed softly at himself.
“After that, I stopped living like myself. Two people live in my body. One is me. The other… is a demon.”
He lowered his head and looked at Xiao Huai. Left eye and right, black and white, a crying face and a smiling one.
He had two personas.
Xiao Huai’s knuckles trembled lightly. The instant Xiao Qian finished speaking, the room’s humidity plummeted.
In the blink of an eye, the room filled with children.
Xiao Huai had seen this child before. It was the drowned-ghost monster from the previous night. The creature had been so emaciated that he had not initially considered it human.
More than ten children with identical faces surrounded the bed, their dead-fish eyes fixed on Xiao Huai.
Xiao Qian looked down at them.
He had stopped pretending. The master of the drowned ghosts truly was him.
Xiao Qian stroked their heads. “These little monsters are all me. You didn’t expect that, did you?” He smiled, yet a trace of… sorrow lingered at the corners of his eyes.
“Xiao Huai, I didn’t instruct that one to steal your gold coin. I wanted a coin so badly that my other persona learned about it and acted in secret. I knew nothing. Our memories are separate, though they occasionally overlap, and that process takes time. Believe me or not as you wish. I only want you to know that I mean you no harm. At least, my primary persona means you no harm.”
As he spoke, he took out a gold coin and offered it to Xiao Huai. “I just obtained this. Take it.”
As though trying to prove himself, Xiao Qian held the coin toward him.
Xiao Huai stood but did not accept it.
Xiao Qian remained frozen in that pose.
Just when he thought Xiao Huai intended to ignore him from now on, Xiao Huai suddenly reached out.
Was he finally going to take the coin? Good. At least it might reduce the distance between them.
But Xiao Huai’s hand landed on Xiao Qian’s shoulder and patted twice.
He said only one sentence.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
Xiao Qian’s pupils contracted uncontrollably.
You’ve been through a lot.
Xiao Huai’s voice was like a warm March breeze passing through a bamboo forest, clear and pure, sweeping away layers of fog and warming the heart.
Xiao Qian had voluntarily confessed his past. It had not been a happy one and was very likely filled with terrible suffering.
Repeatedly drowned as a child? Most people who nearly drowned once would avoid water for the rest of their lives.
He said it had happened more than once. The implication was simple.
Someone had tortured and abused him by repeatedly drowning him. The first time he killed, he had been protecting someone.
To protect that person, a new persona had been born inside him.
So what if it was a demon persona?
Hell stood empty because its demons walked the earth.
True monsters roamed free. Was fighting evil with evil not a method in its own right?
Could Xiao Qian’s journey to this point possibly have been easy?
The answer was obvious.
When Xiao Huai said, “You’ve been through a lot,” how could he not understand the suffering behind those words?
Xiao Huai pointed at the drowned-ghost children around them. “Um, can you make them leave? They’re a little frightening.”
Xiao Qian came back to himself. “Oh. Right…”
The drowned-ghost children vanished without a trace.
Xiao Huai asked, “Is there anything else you want to say?” He went to the door without taking Xiao Qian’s coin.
After a moment of silence, Xiao Qian finally asked the question hidden in his heart. “After hearing all that, will you trust me more?”
Ordinarily, he would never have cared.
But now, he genuinely wanted to know.
Xiao Huai looked at him, slowly walked back, and smiled. “An excellent game companion always makes sure his customer learns something useful. Never trust anyone too easily in a horror game, especially someone like you who looks like a good person. Isn’t that right?”
Xiao Qian froze again.
Xiao Huai had repeated the very words Xiao Qian said to him in the dining room.
The sentence warned him to trust no one, yet the moment Xiao Huai chose to quote Xiao Qian’s own words…
Its meaning became entirely different.
Xiao Huai left the room and waved. “I still haven’t earned a gold coin today. I’ll go try again.”
Xiao Qian watched his retreating back, then lowered his head and touched his chest.
“You’ve been through a lot,” he whispered, repeating Xiao Huai’s words. His brows relaxed, and he smiled very softly.
At last, he had made it through the worst. He had endured so much.
From this point on, they would escape together.
He still had to see how his foolish little brother was doing.
* * *
Xiao Huai returned to the hall. Even without You Lin beside him, the vampire players did not dare attack.
In only a few dozen minutes, all of Xiao Huai’s wounds had healed.
They were even less capable of imagining how extraordinary he might be.
For one thing, he had to be incredibly rich. Healing items in the System Shop were painfully expensive.
Many players endured their wounds until leaving a game before seeking treatment.
Yet Xiao Huai healed the moment he wanted to. Anyone would assume he had money.
In reality, Xiao Huai was only an ordinary child who loved eating candy.
He looked toward the first door from the left. One more red mark had appeared, confirming that the girl in the short skirt had been counted among the dead.
What truly attracted his attention, however, was the system notification displayed on the door.
It read: [The Mad Hatter is resting and will not open another game today.]
That meant Xiao Huai could not return to the instance and try his luck again.
He had no intention of doing so anyway. Even though he had cracked the Mad Hatter’s game, his chance of obtaining a gold coin there was zero.
Moreover, the god managing a game could alter it, preserving variety while increasing the difficulty.
The uncertainty ensured that players could not simply tell one another how to proceed.
Under countless gazes, Xiao Huai looked toward the second door and walked through it.