Chapter 87
Chapter 87
Unlike the inn’s exterior, the walls of the room were not covered in rules. Although there were no windows, the room was rather cozy overall.
A candelabrum remained lit in the small room, filling it with warm candlelight.
“Is this where we’ll be sleeping from now on?”
It was much nicer than they had expected.
The players crowded closer.
The inn had only one low story, and including the lobby, it was not particularly large.
There were ten rooms in total.
With Xiao Huai leading the way, the players began opening the doors as well, hoping to find some clues inside.
But clues would never be hidden somewhere so obvious.
In the end, they were merely touring the rooms.
After looking around, everyone seemed to relax a little, and some began chatting quietly.
“Two people to a room. Want to share with me?”
“Sure. Sounds good to me.”
“There are exactly ten rooms. Wait… then…?”
Did that mean one player would have to share a room with the NPC?
They raised their heads and looked at Xiao Huai, but he had not noticed their dilemma.
Twenty players, divided between ten rooms in pairs.
“Me! I want to share a room with him…”
“I’ll share with him.”
The two voices rang out almost simultaneously.
Everyone turned toward the speakers. Even Xiao Huai looked over this time.
Lu Yuanshi and Lu Zhi had spoken at the same time. Lu Zhi looked at Lu Yuanshi in confusion, while Lu Yuanshi’s gaze remained fixed on Xiao Huai.
The corners of Xiao Huai’s eyes were still faintly pink. He had yet to recover fully from suppressing his cough earlier.
Candlelight fell across his cheeks, softening his features, especially with the lingering red at the corners of his eyes.
When he lifted his lashes and looked at the others, his eyes became so captivating that they left an itch in the heart.
A ruthless NPC who killed without mercy was not frightening. A handsome NPC was.
After all, for anyone who was a sucker for a pretty face,
morals always seemed to bend in favor of good looks.
Lu Zhi stammered, “A-Zhuolang, c-can I share a room with you?”
Xiao Huai looked at him. So they had been discussing room assignments.
He did not care whom he stayed with. “Sure.”
The instant he agreed, Lu Zhi suddenly felt a terrifying gaze fall on him.
He turned his head and met Lu Yuanshi’s eyes. His heart nearly leaped out of his throat.
Those ink-black eyes resembled an abyss poised to swallow him whole.
Although Lu Yuanshi was smiling, there was no amusement whatsoever in his eyes.
Deep down, Lu Zhi became certain that if he did not change his mind right now,
something terrible would happen.
His face turned pale, and he stammered even harder. “S-sorry. I, um… I don’t think I can share a room with you after all.”
Xiao Huai raised an eyebrow and glanced at Lu Yuanshi.
Oh.
No wonder.
Lu Yuanshi’s smile was hiding a blade.
The faintest curve touched Xiao Huai’s lips as he lazily walked into the room. “Whatever.”
The other players stared at the scene in bewilderment. What was going on? Had Lu Zhi started acting strange too?
Had this young boy also been bewitched by the NPC?
He had actually wanted to share a room with him.
Fortunately, he had come to his senses in the end.
A boy about Lu Zhi’s height walked over to him. “We can share a room.”
“Oh, uh… okay.” Lu Zhi nodded and fled the area as fast as he could.
The others gradually dispersed as well.
Assigning rooms was essentially the same as dividing into small teams.
As though all the bones had vanished from his body, Xiao Huai flopped onto the bed. Completely abandoning the image he had been maintaining, he draped an arm over his forehead and narrowed his eyes.
Because he had jumped onto the bed with such force, and because of the exotic outfit he wore, a sliver of skin at his lower abdomen was exposed.
His waist was lean and taut.
One leg bent slightly, long and powerful.
It was an invisible temptation.
It drew the gaze of the room’s other occupant.
Lu Yuanshi closed the door, a smile curving his lips.
“It turns out you’re even more delicious than I imagined.”
Xiao Huai frowned but did not open his eyes. He was too tired.
He had not slept all night, and driving off the soulbugs had cost him a tremendous amount of fluid.
If the trace of power Joseph had given him had not made his constitution slightly better than an ordinary person’s,
he might have staggered and fainted on the way here.
He was surviving on nothing but stubborn endurance and pretense.
He lazily rolled onto his side, exposing his lashes in the candlelight, the gentle bend of his knee, and the strip of waist beneath his hem.
Every line was beautiful.
As though something had occurred to him, Xiao Huai’s eyes curved in amusement. He opened them and met Lu Yuanshi’s gaze.
His voice was hoarse and languid.
“Want to have a taste?”
Lu Yuanshi froze slightly. Xiao Huai closed his eyes again, his voice growing quieter as his eyelids became heavier.
“I meant this.”
A piece of candy appeared in his palm. It was the extra candy A-Zhuolang had given him with the bread back then.
Because it was sweet, Xiao Huai had saved it.
Without his noticing, his breathing gradually evened out. He had accidentally fallen asleep just like that.
The candy in his palm tumbled carelessly onto the bed.
Lu Yuanshi walked to Xiao Huai’s bedside and watched him in silence.
In sleep, Xiao Huai lost all his sharp edges. A faint pearly sheen rested on his lips, while stray locks of hair fell loosely across his forehead.
Lu Yuanshi’s gaze shifted to the candy.
Are all humans like you?
It was clearly only a piece of candy, yet it seemed to tug fiercely at his heart.
He reached out, his knuckles gliding past the tip of Xiao Huai’s nose and the redness at the corner of his eye.
He did not touch him. It was as though an invisible boundary kept Lu Yuanshi from doing so.
He lowered his head, drawn inexorably closer to that boundary, until the tip of his nose finally brushed Xiao Huai’s lashes.
The world was so quiet that only Xiao Huai’s warm breathing seemed to remain.
Lu Yuanshi had not known that Xiao Huai would be even more lethal than he had imagined.
“Why can you sleep so peacefully beside me?”
When I am the most dangerous one of all.
Lu Yuanshi straightened, pulled over the blanket, and covered him with it.
The line of his lips seemed to curve ever so slightly.
“Sweet dreams.”
Xiao Huai slept straight through until after nine the next morning.
With no windows in the room, there was no way to tell night from day.
Xiao Huai pressed his lips together. Through the haze of sleep, his eyes suddenly flew open.
Damn it. Something was bound to happen on their first day in Aledi Village.
How had he slept like a pig and passed out completely?
Just as he sat up, he met a pair of deep, familiar eyes against the light.
Looking fresh and radiant, Lu Yuanshi leaned against the doorway and watched him.
“You’re awake?”
“Why… why didn’t you wake me?”
Xiao Huai knew he had no right to blame Lu Yuanshi for not waking him.
After all, they had only met in Diamond Magnate.
Yet the question still slipped out.
Lu Yuanshi’s answer was simple.
“I couldn’t bear to.”
Xiao Huai rubbed his eyes and suddenly felt like laughing. His lips curved gently upward.
It had been a long time since he had slept so well, not on desert sand, but in a real bed until he was fully rested.
If Lu Yuanshi really had woken him, he might even have been a little angry.
He knew that Lu Yuanshi’s words, [I couldn’t bear to], were probably only a joke.
Even so, he felt inexplicably happy.
Noisy voices came from outside the door, but Xiao Huai said, “Thank you.”
Lu Yuanshi tilted his head.
Xiao Huai’s fingertips lightly brushed the blanket, and he finally laughed aloud.
Xiao Huai said, “It’s nothing. I just wanted to thank you for letting this lazybones sleep in.”