TTGOL CH95

Chapter 95: Qu Cheng

The aftermath of watching the movie ultimately ended with Jin Cheng getting exactly what he wanted.

To say he was the only one who got what he wanted wouldn’t be completely accurate. Tang Cuo wasn’t some coy, innocent boy, nor did he want to play hard to get. He was very open about this sort of thing.

The feelings were there, the atmosphere was right; being attracted to each other and wanting to possess each other—it just happened naturally.

It was just that Yong Ye City had one major flaw: the eternal night made people lose their sense of time. No matter when you woke up, it never quite felt like it was time to get out of bed.

Even though there was clearly no sunlight outside the window, Tang Cuo still pulled the blanket over his head, shrinking into a little mound on the bed.

Risking being kicked to death, Jin Cheng dug him out from the mound and popped two chocolate beans into his mouth. In that split second, Tang Cuo—whose brain hadn’t fully woken up but remained highly vigilant—thought someone was feeding him poison. But upon sensing Jin Cheng’s presence, he held back, licked the chocolate beans in his mouth, and—

It was sweet.

The sweetness soothed him. His murderous aura receded, and hugging the blanket, he looked completely harmless. After a while, Jin Cheng whispered in his ear that he was going out to buy breakfast and told him to wait at home. Tang Cuo gave a quiet “Mm.”

Jin Cheng was in a fantastic mood today, easily pleased by that simple “Mm.” He left the house happily and even ran into the Puppeteer Yao Qing halfway, greeting him without holding any past grudges.

According to the law decreed by the Twelve Movements, no matter who killed whom right now, both parties would have to go to jail. Yao Qing wasn’t worried about Jin Cheng suddenly killing him. But having dropped from Zone A down to Zone E and failing to get the Twelve Movements, he was in the midst of absolute misery. Seeing Jin Cheng appear before him beaming like a spring breeze—how could he not feel like he was having a heart attack?

Why couldn’t this guy just live a little more low-key?

Yao Qing would never get an answer to this question, because after greeting him, Jin Cheng nonchalantly walked right past him, not expecting a response at all.

Furious, Yao Qing turned and left.

Back home, Tang Cuo was already up, slouching on the sofa to conserve his energy. While setting the table, Jin Cheng talked about running into Yao Qing. Rather than talking about Yao Qing, it was more like he was reporting his itinerary to Tang Cuo.

Tang Cuo took it calmly, offering no comment.

For the rest of the day, Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng found themselves in a rare state of having absolutely nothing to do.

Whether it was Wen Xiaoming or Chi Yan, both were currently stuck in instances. In fact, you could say that most people in Yong Ye City were in instances. Because after Black Hat’s decree via the Twelve Movements, the mandatory mission interval had been shortened to one week. To avoid triggering a mandatory mission, people naturally became more proactive.

Jin Cheng had already felt the desolation on the streets when he went out earlier. Judging by Yao Qing’s direction, he was probably heading to the Mission Hall too.

“The suicide trend has stopped, though. Those who wanted to die jumped right at the start. Those who hesitated until now don’t really want to die, so they’re just scraping by.” When Jin Cheng went to see Lin Yandong yesterday, he had also dropped by the Ruby Tavern.

Although K was a black-hearted, unscrupulous merchant, this was public intel, so he didn’t mind doing Jin Cheng a favor along the way.

Suddenly, Tang Cuo remembered something and asked, “Mr. Crow seems to have rarely appeared lately?”

Jin Cheng: “It is a bit strange. As the two blacklisters, we’re always grouped together in instances, but aside from the two times he appeared to announce the decrees, he hasn’t shown up at all since. Either he’s been sanctioned by the system, or—he’s found something far more entertaining to do.”

Jin Cheng said this lightly, but behind this guess meant something they didn’t know was happening. The feeling of the unknown was always unpleasant. Tang Cuo frowned and decided it was better to hang out at the training ground.

Jin Cheng held him back. “Today is a rest day.”

Rest how? Continue watching movies?

Tang Cuo refused.

Helpless, Jin Cheng stuffed a book into his hands and said, “It won’t hurt to take a short break. Listen to your instructor: you need to balance work and rest.”

Tang Cuo looked at the cover—Sicilite’s Fairy Tales, the book they had brought back from Lin Yandong. It wasn’t that he insisted on being a workaholic; to put it bluntly, he just hated the feeling of being beaten, so he dedicated himself to beating others.

Aside from that, Tang Cuo was very lazy. For instance, right now, he had to lie down or sprawl out to read.

He wouldn’t wash dishes. He wouldn’t do chores. He refused to drink water.

Jin Cheng was truly no different from those straight guys who only knew how to say “drink more hot water.” He even rejected Tang Cuo’s suggestion to eat hot and sour noodles for lunch.

A domestic war was on the verge of breaking out. Fortunately, An Ning knocked on the door just in time, extinguishing the newly ignited flames of war.

She was here to report on Black Hat’s situation.

While Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo were in the instance, An Ning and her companions had continued to diligently monitor Black Hat’s grocery store, keeping a close eye on his every move.

“There are a lot of people watching him, but he rarely shows his face. Even when he does, he goes to the higher zones, making it hard for us to track him.” Because the details were too dry and there wasn’t much to say, An Ning skimmed over it. But there was one thing that caught her attention. “There was a customer who went to the grocery store… he was a bit strange.”

Jin Cheng looked up. “Strange how?”

“His sword looked somewhat familiar to me.” An Ning described the shape of the sword in detail, looking expectantly at Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo. As expected, she got the answer she anticipated.

Jin Cheng: “It’s Meng Yufei’s sword.”

An Ning: “I wasn’t entirely sure, so I came to ask you. If that really is Meng Yufei’s sword, why would it be in that person’s hands? Isn’t Meng Yufei dead? His sword should have been recycled by the system.”

Hearing this, Jin Cheng raised an eyebrow, a half-smile on his face, seemingly thinking of something comical. Tang Cuo gave him a look and quickly figured out the whole story. “He went to alter his face?”

Jin Cheng shrugged. There couldn’t be any other answer. Who would have thought that Meng Yufei, who was still wetting the bed at five years old, was actually such a coward?

“Did you see where he went in the end?” Jin Cheng was highly curious. He wanted to interview Meng Yufei face-to-face right now to ask how it felt to use the character customization system.

“I sent someone to follow him. But he’s quite vigilant; he seemed to realize he was being followed. Instead of returning to his residence, he went straight to the Mission Hall. There are too many people in the hall, so once he went in, we lost him. We had to wait outside, and we still haven’t seen him come out.”

Jin Cheng: “How long has he been in there?”

An Ning: “He went in around three or four yesterday afternoon. I’m eighty percent sure he entered an instance.”

An Ning’s guess made sense. It had been over a dozen hours. If he had stayed in the Mission Hall, he would have been discovered sooner or later.

Jin Cheng thought for a moment and said, “Stop watching him. That’s Meng Yufei; it’s still too dangerous for you guys. I’ll find someone else to keep an eye on him. Have your people pull back, don’t delay your own instances.”

Jin Cheng decided to hand Meng Yufei’s matter over to K. K had ties with Black Hat, but not with Meng Yufei; a mere Meng Yufei wouldn’t even register on K’s radar.

At this very moment, the Meng Yufei they were talking about was lying on a ship’s deck like a dead dog.

The freezing night rain battered his wounds, bringing piercing pain. The howling wind and crashing waves were dragging him step by step toward the abyss of death. He had to grip the ship’s ropes tightly just to keep from sliding into the sea.

Corpses lay all around him, both players and NPCs. Blood continuously flowed from the rocking hull into the sea, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

“Cough, cough…” He felt everything in terror, yet he had to force his head up, desperately reaching out to grab the ankle of the person standing in front of him. “Don’t kill me!”

It was a very slender ankle, so pale that the blue veins were visible.

The rain was pouring harder. Meng Yufei used all his remaining strength to look up, but still couldn’t see the face hidden beneath the hood. But the unseen is always the most terrifying. This night rain, this red cloak—they were branded onto Meng Yufei’s heart like a steel stamp.

The face hidden under the hood was looking at him, but gave no answer.

Choking on the rainwater, Meng Yufei caught a glimpse of a dagger’s cold gleam flashing from within the wind-blown cloak. He hurriedly shouted, “I’m useful to you! Don’t kill me, I’m Meng Yufei, Meng Yufei!”

“Meng Yufei?” A man’s voice sounded behind him, tinged with surprise. Footsteps immediately followed. The man walked up to Meng Yufei, slowly squatted down, and forced his face up.

“I changed my face,” Meng Yufei didn’t dare hide it. He looked at the man in front of him, feeling inexplicably that he looked familiar. In a flash of insight, he remembered the man’s identity, his eyes widening. “Jiang He? You’re Jiang He, right?”

Jiang He let him go and didn’t answer.

Meng Yufei: “Then you definitely know who I am. Aren’t you going after Jin Cheng? Don’t kill me, I can help you! I’ll be useful to you!”

“We aren’t going after Jin Cheng; we just want the Twelve Movements,” Jiang He explained. Then, finding it laughable, he mocked himself, “I’m no longer Chong Yanzhang’s subordinate. Telling me this is useless.”

“But don’t you want the Twelve Movements? If you want the Twelve Movements, it’s impossible to avoid confronting Jin Cheng!” The more Meng Yufei panted, the louder his voice became.

A massive wave crashed over, causing the ship to violently lurch.

Meng Yufei’s hand gripping the ankle was violently jerked loose. He slammed into a cargo crate, nearly dislodging his internal organs. He was probably only one breath away from death. Jiang He looked at him, his expression somewhat aloof, and turned his head to ask, “Are you going to kill him?”

Zheng Yingying’s dagger had been hidden beneath her cloak the entire time. She looked up, seemingly explaining, “They wanted to kill me, so I killed them.”

Jiang He didn’t answer.

Zheng Yingying lowered her head again and said hauntingly, “They all deserved to die.”

The ship was still swaying, creaking as if it would fall apart the next second. Dawn was still far away, and the tempest of the dark night was brewing its next performance.

A crow stood on the tilted mast, watching everything below with great interest.

Meng Yufei thought he was going to die, but he survived.

The little girl in the red cloak squatted down in front of him. This time, Meng Yufei finally saw her face clearly.

She said, “I won’t kill you.”

Joy spread in Meng Yufei’s pupils, but a second later, Zheng Yingying’s words made him freeze.

“But you must exchange your name for your life. From now on, you’re not called Meng Yufei anymore. You are called Huanhuan. My family’s little dog had that name. I really liked it, even though it bit me once.”