Chapter 182
Chapter 182
After that frantic series of moves, Azim’s legs had gone weak, and black spots even danced across his vision.
While his mind was still numb, a hand reached toward the Slit-Mouthed Woman’s forehead. Before Azim could react, the person ripped off the Immobilization Talisman he had placed there barely ten seconds earlier.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman drove her scissors into Azim’s eyeball without hesitation. Blood spurted on the first strike, the blade entering at a particularly vicious angle.
A piercing scream instantly echoed through the narrow passage. Azim clutched the empty socket, blood dripping through his fingers. His remaining eye glared venomously at the culprit. “Why did you hurt me?!”
Qiao Yu crumpled the talisman in his hand and tossed it into Chinnawat’s pocket. “Wasn’t me. Never happened. Don’t make things up. The Slit-Mouthed Woman gouged out your eye, not me.”
“But you tore off the talisman.”
“Yes, I did tear it off. But I didn’t gouge out your eye!” Qiao Yu looked terrified that Azim might pin the blame on him, making the sight all the more infuriating.
“But you indirectly caused my eye to be gouged out!”
“If it was indirectly gouged out, why are you coming after me?” Qiao Yu shrugged, then asked the Slit-Mouthed Woman, “He says his eye was indirectly gouged out, so it has nothing to do with us. Come on, let’s get back to work.”
The Slit-Mouthed Woman fell silent for a moment. “…Makes sense.”
If you couldn’t beat him, you might as well join him.
From another perspective, working with Qiao Yu was actually rather entertaining.
Azim covered one eye and stared bitterly at their retreating backs.
He did not confront them now. This man from Hua was highly skilled at games, and with Azim isolated and without support, it would be unwise to offend him.
Once he got out, however, he would select the man to participate in a game every single time.
No one could walk along a river forever without getting their shoes wet.
Even if the man was lucky enough to clear every game, that was fine. The moment the Instance ended, Azim would kill him and trap him inside it forever!
Qiao Yu knew nothing of Azim’s plans. Of course, even if he had known, he would not have cared.
He merely folded his arms and continued ordering the Slit-Mouthed Woman to break through the wall.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman was a perfectly respectable female ghost, yet he worked her harder than a construction laborer. She gripped her scissors and hacked away, panting with effort.
“Eighty for the sledgehammer, forty for the mallet…”
The Slit-Mouthed Woman looked over in silence. “These are scissors, thank you.”
“Eighty for the big scissors, forty for the small scissors… Tsk, that doesn’t rhyme.” Disgust crossed Qiao Yu’s face.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman finally snapped. “Can you shut up? Otherwise, I quit!”
Qiao Yu mimed zipping his lips shut. “…”
It had to be said: without Qiao Yu babbling beside her, the Slit-Mouthed Woman made excellent progress. In under ten minutes, she had smashed a crack into the wall.
She drove her scissors in again. With a crash, chunks of concrete rained down. Water from some unknown source immediately surged through the crack, fighting to spill out.
The opening grew wider and wider. The next second, the entire wall collapsed layer by layer, and a raging torrent rushed straight at them.
Shang Yan instinctively reached out to embrace Qiao Yu. Only when his head pressed against the other man’s chest did he realize that his childhood body, stunted by years of poor growth, could not possibly shield Qiao Yu.
Before he could think of another solution, the world spun and Qiao Yu swept him into his arms. Along with the icy water came… Qiao Yu’s faintly warm breath.
Shang Yan’s heart skipped uncontrollably, his fingers gripping Qiao Yu’s equally slender arm.
The water’s buoyancy rapidly carried them upward. The moment they broke the surface, Shang Yan anxiously turned his head. “Qiao Yu, are you-”
“I’m fine.” Qiao Yu knew Shang Yan could swim. He released him, pushed his wet bangs back, and looked across the water.
Maria was staring fixedly at them from nearby, her face the very picture of utter disbelief.
“Why are you here?!”
What did it mean to have disaster literally fall from the sky?
This. This was exactly what it meant.
Qiao Yu equaled disaster.
The math checked out.
Maria’s vision went dark. She toppled onto the water and gave up completely, letting the current carry her wherever it pleased.
Qiao Yu refused to let her off, however. He swam over at top speed and copied her, lying flat on his back atop the water. “Look, Maria. I can do the backstroke too.”
Maria fell silent. “…Can you stay away from me?”
Qiao Yu clicked his tongue. “Why are none of you hospitable? You may be biracial, but you’re still half Hua. Do I really need to teach you our traditional virtues? When friends come from afar… uh… strike them down, however far away they may be.”
Understanding dawned on Maria. Ever eager to learn, she asked, “That makes sense, but what if I can’t kill you?”
Qiao Yu thought about it. “Then raise your hand and say hi.”
Shang Yan covered his face. Qiao Yu truly was a social terror. From humans to dogs, even female ghosts could not escape being dragged into his antics.
Dating Qiao Yu was delightful, but over time, Shang Yan could not help feeling insecure.
Qiao Yu was like an elusive gust of wind, and no one knew where he hid his sincerity.
Remembering how Qiao Yu had protected him just now, Shang Yan unconsciously pressed his lips together.
Yet only when someone truly fell into that gust of wind would they discover… somewhere beyond their sight, Qiao Yu was embracing them with all his strength.
And at the heart of the wind lay the sincerity he had given them.
Dog-paddling toward the human and ghost, Chinnawat exclaimed, “That’s amazing! I can’t do the backstroke. How do you stay afloat?”
How was Qiao Yu supposed to explain that?
The question stumped him.
After thinking for a moment, he said with a perfectly straight face, “It’s simple. If you know how, you naturally float without moving. If you don’t, you’ll still float after a few days.”
Maria fell silent. “…”
“Why would you float after a few days?”
Qiao Yu finally lost patience with his endless nonsense. “Maybe because you’d be bloated enough by then.”
“What does bloated mean?”
“It means I’m about to beat you up!”
“Why would you beat me up?”
“Because you ask too many questions.”
Chinnawat fell silent. “…”
-Pfft, I’m dying!
-If anyone ever says Chinnawat is unlucky again, I’m fighting them!
-Exactly. Isn’t he the chosen one? It’s a miracle the streamer still hasn’t beaten him to death.
With peace finally restored to his ears, Qiao Yu had time to think. “What do we do? It looks like we’ve reached another dead end.”
Shang Yan studied his solemn little face and obligingly asked, “We have no path again, and the Slit-Mouthed Woman ran off. What now?”
Qiao Yu seized Maria before she could successfully escape and ordered viciously, “Cry for me! Now!”
Maria: Meow meow meow??
Qiao Yu clenched his fists and let his little mouth run at full speed. “Lu Xun once said that Lady Meng Jiang’s tears brought down the Great Wall. You’re nowhere near as impressive as her, but you should at least be able to cry down one concrete wall, right?”
Maria waved her hands frantically. “That’s a huge problem. I can’t do it!”
“You can’t even do one little thing right. What use are you?!”
Seeing Qiao Yu’s twisted expression only made it harder for Maria to cry. “Don’t do anything rash. Anger is a demon. There’s a drain below us-I can open it for you!”
Qiao Yu immediately lowered his fist and smiled with gentle innocence. “Please do, Big Sister Maria.”
Maria rolled her eyes.
She had finally learned what it meant to change faces faster than turning a page.
The most absurd part was that she had hidden underwater, yet this man still managed to come crashing down from the sky.
Ptooey. What rotten luck!