Chapter 175
Chapter 175
Lu Yuanshi’s gaze slowly moved beneath the bed. He said calmly, “There seems to be something unclean down there.”
Xiao Huai approached the bed. Every jujube and longan that had fallen to the floor minutes earlier had vanished without a trace.
From the smell, they had not disappeared into thin air. It seemed more as though someone had eaten them.
He bought two mirrors from the System Shop.
He tossed one beneath the bed and held the other in his hand. With the angle adjusted properly, he could see under the bed without lifting it.
About two minutes passed. A sinister wind swept in from outside, and the candle burning inside the room abruptly went out as though sensing something.
The instant the firelight vanished, the mirror beneath the bed shattered.
The glass broke with a crisp sound. At that moment, Xiao Huai’s pupils widened slightly. He saw a rubber doll clinging beneath the bed frame with a brilliant smile.
But after only an instant, the doll disappeared.
An inexplicable chill crept up Xiao Huai’s back. His expression darkened as he put the remaining mirror away.
He looked at Lu Yuanshi. “Let’s get something to eat. I’m hungry.”
Lu Yuanshi gazed at him. “All right.”
Only after they left the courtyard did Lu Yuanshi ask, “Were you scared just now?”
“No,” Xiao Huai answered without hesitation.
“You don’t look well.” Lu Yuanshi reached as though to feel his forehead.
Xiao Huai instinctively dodged. “It’s your imagination.”
Xiao Huai had seen countless horrors. He had long since become accustomed to every frightening element the horror game could throw at him. The unexplained chill down his back had come
Because the doll had not seemed dead.
It looked far too human.
The doll was probably the culprit that had eaten the jujubes and longans.
He did not know whether a rubber doll clung beneath the bed in every player’s room.
If his room was the only one, what was the reason?
They passed through several courtyards before reaching the front gate of the Yang Residence.
Strangely, from the players’ rooms all the way to the gate, not a single servant of the Yang Residence moved about. Their path remained completely unobstructed, without one human figure in sight.
When they opened the gate, dense fog filled their vision.
Like a heavy veil, it concealed everything. Beneath the fog, the street looked eerie and deserted.
The mist spread everywhere, hiding the road ahead and leaving only the blurred outlines of nearby buildings.
Streetlights along both sides cast weak light through the dense fog, forming hazy halos.
The instant the mist touched his eyes, Xiao Huai frowned and narrowed them.
There seemed to be something wrong with this fog.
He would have to experience it himself to learn exactly what that was.
The dense fog did not enter the Yang Residence. It spread only outside.
Without speaking, Xiao Huai stepped through the gate first.
Lu Yuanshi followed and quietly watched his reaction.
As they moved through the fog, Xiao Huai’s vision blurred, as if moisture had covered his eyes and left him unable to tell east from west.
Suddenly, a hand covered his eyes. It was the warmth of Lu Yuanshi’s palm.
Something invisible slowly brushed his heart, and his blood flowed faster in that instant.
Xiao Huai raised his head, wanting to see what Lu Yuanshi was doing. But with his eyes covered, he looked faintly bewildered.
Lu Yuanshi traced the outline of Xiao Huai’s ear. Leaning down beside it, he whispered,
“Why are you crying?”
His low voice carried the dampness of the fog.
Xiao Huai froze. He certainly had not cried. The fog was responsible.
He reached up and moved Lu Yuanshi’s hand away. Miraculously, when he opened his eyes again, the world was clear rather than blurred.
“I wasn’t crying.”
Those were the first words he spoke after returning to himself.
Lu Yuanshi smiled without answering, his white coat rippling in the wind.
Xiao Huai could clearly feel that he had not cried, yet Lu Yuanshi had teased him about it.
Lu Yuanshi would not joke carelessly about something like this.
Moments ago, it had clearly been because of Lu Yuanshi… that Xiao Huai could see the world again.
Xiao Huai walked several steps, then turned his face and met Lu Yuanshi’s eyes.
In the fog, everything became indistinct. Only the two of them remained perfectly clear to each other.
When their gazes met, time seemed to freeze. The surrounding world gradually disappeared, leaving only the invisible connection between them.
“Lu Yuanshi, what exactly are you?”
Lu Yuanshi was like this dense fog. Sometimes, Xiao Huai truly could not see what kind of person he was.
Some instinct told Xiao Huai that Lu Yuanshi carried more secrets than anyone.
Lu Yuanshi lowered his eyes and remained silent for a long time. At last, something almost like a helpless smile flashed through them.
“Do you want to know?”
He extended a hand toward Xiao Huai. Yet some invisible boundary seemed to stand between them, and when his fingers failed to reach Xiao Huai,
That boundary only seemed to stretch farther away.
Lu Yuanshi said, “If you can find me, I’ll tell you.”
Xiao Huai could have asked, *Aren’t you standing right in front of me?*
But he did not.
The instant his fingertips met Lu Yuanshi’s outstretched hand,
He parted his lips. “Caught you.”
Not found. Caught.
Something caught would not easily be released.
Lu Yuanshi’s eyes widened slightly. Xiao Huai smiled, withdrew his hand, and walked ahead.
“I am a gambler and a hound. I will find you, and I will catch you too.”
He tipped his neck back, watching Lu Yuanshi from the corner of his eye.
Neon lights cast hazy halos through the fog across the side of Xiao Huai’s face, making him look almost unreal.
But every word he spoke became an overwhelming wave that battered Lu Yuanshi’s heart.
Trying to break open the heart he had sealed away.
The tension left Lu Yuanshi’s brow. So he was the one who had fallen deeper.
He caught up to Xiao Huai and remained quietly beside him, silently memorizing every detail.
* * *
At night, a handful of pedestrians walked through town, their faces impossible to distinguish beneath the dense fog.
Only a few glowing signs guided the pair forward.
The sign of a shop ten meters away caught Xiao Huai’s attention.
Red Mansion.
“Shall we go in?” Xiao Huai looked at Lu Yuanshi.
Lu Yuanshi nodded, and together they approached the Red Mansion.
Butler Yang had mentioned the Red Mansion earlier. Since he had deliberately named it, the place very likely held important clues.
Xiao Huai had memorized the clues Zhong Jiangyuan gave him within seconds.
Clues were always like this: they offered inexplicable scraps of information and left the player to guess everything else.
There were two in total.
One leaf bore the words *The Mortal World*. The other held only one word: *God*.
Anyone else who saw these clues would be tempted to curse whoever created them.
They were so abstract as to leave a person speechless.
Zhong Jiangyuan had tried to connect the two clues. Could they share some relationship?
At the time, Xiao Huai had merely studied the leaf engraved with *God* for a moment longer. Without speaking, he put both clues away.