Chapter 55

Chapter 55

Qi Yang was a bit flustered: “I don’t know what that black mist is, I’m a little worried about you.”
“Worried about me, not yourself?”
Qi Yang scratched his head: “I’m very lucky… and I’m older than you. These days, I’ve been like your big brother, right? It’s normal for an older brother to protect his younger sister.”
Hearing a certain word, Luo Li pursed her lips and said nothing more.
Ning Shuo looked around.
They were standing on a concrete road, with scattered houses behind them, looking like an ordinary small town.
When they were swept away, it was clearly daytime, but now it was night.
In the dead of night, all was quiet, the starry sky was vast, and a bright full moon hung high, round like a symbol of reunion.
For an instant, a sense of familiarity filled his heart, and Ning Shuo couldn’t help but say, “In my hometown, we call the person we like ‘the moon’.”
Before the words were finished, Ning Shuo was stunned.
…Was this a line he had read in some novel?
He didn’t remember Li Kingdom ever having such a saying.
Ning Wang was also taken aback: “Your hometown isn’t…”
A startled cry interrupted him.
As if responding to the gazing moon, another girl exclaimed happily, “Look over there!”
Under the night sky, many people walked towards them.
The leader had a warm smile: “Hello, my name is Nian Chao, codename Chao Sheng.”

These countless people were those who had been made into Soil or directly killed by Camberny in the Ancient Castle.
There were natives who were used as human ladders to reach the so-called “Sky City” due to the Script’s background, and there were Players who entered because of the Script’s countless resets.
For them, Camberny’s death probably meant flesh growing from bones, consciousness awakening again.
A girl with “Evil Person” carved on her face hugged a surviving girl and wept bitterly. The girl wiped away her tears, struggling to lift the corners of her mouth: “Nian Nian is very beautiful, not ugly at all.”
“Once we leave this Script, the scar on your face will heal.”
Nian Nian’s body stiffened. She just hugged tightly and didn’t respond.
The girl sensed something wrong and immediately lifted Nian Nian’s sleeve.
She had no heartbeat.

Life is a series of gatherings and partings.
They had gained brief freedom because the Script was about to shatter, but they did not know whether eternal rest or reunion and separation was more cruel.
Some sobbed, some were silent, some greeted strangers cheerfully: “For the next four days, stay in the city. We’ll tidy up, there will definitely be vacant rooms.”
Nian Chao was good at chatting. When Ning Shuo handed him the diary, he said in surprise, “It seems I inadvertently helped you out.”
He handed the diary back to Ning Shuo: “This thing is better kept for you surviving Players. It might come in handy later.”
It wouldn’t.
The System is ever-present. When matching Players, it filters all information the Players have encountered.
Among countless Scripts, there are always ones that Players haven’t encountered or missed.
They all knew this.
However, even so, Ning Shuo still put the Leather-bound Notebook into his Backpack: “Thank you very much.”
They went into the city. The natives had already tidied up the houses.
Ning Shuo entered one room, and Ning Wang naturally followed him in.
Ning Shuo: ?
Ning Shuo: “Don’t you have your own room?”
“I came to ask you a question,” Ning Wang, who had entered later, closed the door backhandedly, grabbed Ning Shuo’s wrist and pressed him against the door, “What did you mean by what you said just now?”
They were clearly the same height, but Ning Wang’s oppressive feeling made Ning Shuo feel like he was looking up at him: “Ningning, if you want to ask a question, just ask. Isn’t this posture a bit ambiguous?”
“Brother, that line of yours was also a bit ambiguous, wasn’t it?”
– In my hometown, we call the person we like “the moon.”
Ning Wang thought, at that time, Ning Shuo was alone with him, unless Ning Shuo suddenly went crazy and talked to himself-
“I probably just suddenly thought of a line from some novel, just talking to myself. Ningning, what are you expecting?”
The flirtatious mood was doused with cold water in an instant. Ning Wang did not even have time to feel crushed before a dark glint flashed through Ning Shuo’s eyes. “Ningning… were you hoping I’d flirt with you?”

Ning Wang narrowed his eyes. Instead of retreating, he advanced. “Brother, your face is so good-looking. It would be my honor if you flirted with me. Isn’t it only natural to look forward to it a little?”

“Brother… don’t you like this face of mine?”

With his free hand, Ning Shuo pinched Ning Wang’s cheek. “You sure know how to compliment yourself.”

Anything short of a direct answer counted as tacit agreement-

Ning Shuo was looking forward to it too.

It was as if flowers had burst into bloom inside him. Ning Wang let go of him, and when Ning Shuo turned toward the bed to change, he asked, “Bro, can I still sleep with you tonight?”

Ning Shuo glanced back at him. “Why do you want to sleep with me?”

Ning Wang answered with perfect confidence, “I’m scared.”

“Whether you’re scared or not, you think I can’t tell? Acting cute won’t work, Ningning.” Ning Shuo connected it with what had happened before, and a guess that seemed impossible, yet somehow very possible, surfaced in his mind. “…Don’t tell me you’re secretly in love with your brother?”

Ning Wang fled in panic, while Ning Shuo watched his retreating back with a meaningful look.

At first, he had thought it was impossible.

As it turned out, it seemed to be true.

Looked at this way, Ning Wang’s earlier jealousy made sense too.

As Ning Shuo changed his clothes, he thought, Ningning had actually fallen for him this early.

But then again, it made sense. If Xie Ning really had to date someone in this life, he probably would not think anyone else was good enough.

From that perspective, dating himself really was the best possible option.

However, an option was one thing;

Ning Shuo still had to figure out what his feelings for Ning Wang counted as.

Friendship? Family affection? Neither seemed quite right.

The dream from that Dreamweaver Script had made it clear that Ning Shuo kept his guard up around everyone.

Even his closest friend.

And yet, at some point, Ning Wang seemed to have become the exception. Although until now, Ning Shuo had always rationalized it as Ning Wang being the same person as him, so there was nothing to guard against.

Besides, did people not say love often began with desire? If you looked at someone and did not want to kiss them, what kind of love was that?

Ning Shuo looked in the mirror every day. No matter how much he liked that face, he had never once thought, “I want to kiss it.”

So when it came to Ning Wang, who had the exact same face as him, even if he liked him, even if his heart stirred-

Ning Shuo suddenly remembered opening the gates of the Ancient Castle and seeing him standing in the firelight, wearing a Gauze Hat.

At that moment, there had been an impulse in Ning Shuo’s heart.

But that impulse had been vague and indescribable, and in the end, it had only turned into the words, “Good Ningning.”

Now that he guided his thoughts toward love, Ning Shuo abruptly realized what that impulse had been.

Ning Shuo had wanted to kiss him.

In the firelight and the burning Rose Field, he had wanted to kiss that person who looked so arrogant, yet so lazily at ease.

The thought had only just surfaced when Ning Shuo slapped a hand over his own forehead. “Have I lost my mind…? Dating myself?”

Was it not just showing off? He did plenty of that on a normal day.

Was it because he had never had a mirror in front of him when he was showing off, so he had never realized how damn charming his show-off self was?

Ning Shuo, who had read countless novels but not a single Narcissus one, drifted off in a daze. Even as he fell asleep, he was still muttering, “Looking at your own face, how is anyone supposed to get hard?”

Then he thought of what he had said in front of Rao Lin and the others-

“Could you get feelings for your own face?”

“I really could. The more I see this face, the more I like it.”

…Damn it.

Perhaps because he had thought too much before falling asleep, Ning Shuo had a dream.

In the dream, he was surrounded by darkness, and the only thing there was a hand gripping the back of his neck.

The calluses on the pads of that person’s fingers scraped against his skin, making him itch a little. Ning Shuo instinctively tried to pull away, only to be held in place. “Where are you running?”

The question of whether he could get hard, which he had been thinking about before bed, took concrete form in the dream. Desire made him burn.

That person’s voice was very familiar, so familiar it was almost identical to Ning Shuo’s own breathless gasps.

“Ningning, are you hot?”