Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 340: Got tired of bugs
“Who’s there?”
Yun Bilan’s voice came from afar.
As she spoke, the sound of hurried footsteps in the empty corridor clearly picked up, heading straight in their direction.
“!!!”
Hearing the approaching footsteps, Wen Jianyan felt his hair stand on end.
“Ba—baby, can you at least let go of my hand first?”
Wu Zhu stood still.
His inhuman golden eyes flickered in the darkness as he stared at Wen Jianyan without blinking. That excessively handsome, almost inhuman face bore no expression.
He still held Wen Jianyan’s hand tightly, stubbornly maintaining the interlocked fingers, like a shark biting into its prey or a child clutching a beloved toy. No matter how the young human struggled, he couldn’t break free.
Even after hearing Wen Jianyan’s words, Wu Zhu showed no reaction—not even the slightest movement of his brow—as if he completely didn’t understand what was being said.
Wen Jianyan was furious.
He yanked Wu Zhu’s collar sharply, forcing the other to lower his head, and gritted his teeth viciously:
“Don’t pretend you don’t understand!”
Even if Wu Zhu was a fragmented being with incomplete memory and intelligence, he was crafty as hell!
Whenever conditions were being negotiated, he understood everything perfectly, but at times like this, he suddenly played dumb? Selective comprehension, huh?!
Wu Zhu blinked and remained still.
The footsteps drew closer.
Through the thin veil of darkness, Wen Jianyan could almost see the faintly swaying light of a flashlight. His heart pounded wildly in his chest, nerves stretched to their limit, like a startled cat ready to leap at the slightest disturbance.
“……”
Staring at the completely unresponsive Wu Zhu, Wen Jianyan felt like a punctured balloon, deflating in frustration.
He propped a hand against Wu Zhu’s shoulder, as if finally making a difficult decision, and gritted his teeth:
“You… just don’t let them see you. Wait until there’s no one around before coming out.”
Taking a deep breath, Wen Jianyan let his other hand slide down from Wu Zhu’s firm, pale arm until he found Wu Zhu’s other hand. He reversed his grip, clasping it.
His warm palm rubbed against the back of Wu Zhu’s cold hand, and the soft, plump pads of his fingers lightly scratched against Wu Zhu’s palm.
His voice was low, filled with struggle:
“When the time comes… I’ll let you kiss me however you want, okay?”
Wen Jianyan felt the cold fingers that had been interlocked with his own twitch slightly.
He raised his eyes and looked at the man before him.
Wu Zhu’s expression remained unchanged, but Wen Jianyan knew—the bastard was finally “understanding” human language again.
“……”
Wen Jianyan couldn’t help grinding his teeth.
He forced himself to be patient:
“This time, I absolutely won’t brush you off.”
The footsteps were almost upon them.
From behind, an astonished voice called out: “…Captain?”
Shit.
Too late.
Wen Jianyan’s hair stood on end, and his vision went black for a moment.
Wu Zhu stood in place, gripping his hand with absolute calmness, exuding an air of unshakable tranquility, like a mountain unmoved by the storm.
“………………”
Looking at the man still standing perfectly fine right in front of him, Wen Jianyan felt a rush of heat straight to his head, nearly making him pass out.
Damn it!
Game over!
But Wen Jianyan knew—at this point, struggling was meaningless.
Not to mention Wu Zhu was unlikely to let go; the bigger issue was that reacting now would make things even more suspicious, as if the words “Something’s Wrong” were written all over his face.
Rather than scrambling to cover things up now, it was better to act natural. Maybe that would make the scene seem less strange.
Keeping his face stiff, Wen Jianyan shot Wu Zhu his deadliest glare before taking a deep breath and slowly turning around, his mind racing through countless possible excuses and explanations to salvage the situation.
As expected, the people standing in the corridor were his squad members.
Yun Bilan, Blond, Chen Mo, Bai Xue, and several other Red Faction members who had been acting with them.
All of them were staring in shock, clearly not expecting to witness such a scene.
“Captain! It really is you!”
Blond exclaimed, stepping forward excitedly.
“You’re okay!!!”
Chen Mo also visibly relaxed. His usually stern face showed a rare hint of reproach: “Captain, at least give us a heads-up if you have a backup plan next time. We were all worried sick.”
“Nah, not me! I wasn’t worried at all!”
Zhong Shan jumped in enthusiastically.
He pounded his chest, his voice booming: “Captain is such a badass; there’s no way something like this would take him down. I trusted him from the start!”
Yun Bilan remained silent.
Her face was hidden behind a mask, making her expression unreadable.
Wen Jianyan took in the scene before him, a hint of surprise flashing across his face.
They…
Even though Wu Zhu was still tightly holding his hand, strangely, no one in the squad mentioned the sudden appearance of a whole-ass person beside him.
Every single one of them had swept their gazes over his side, yet none of them seemed to notice Wu Zhu at all—it was as if their eyes simply passed over a patch of empty air.
Wen Jianyan seemed to realize something and turned to look at Wu Zhu.
The man remained as motionless as ever.
But… was it just his imagination?
For a split second, Wen Jianyan thought he saw the corners of Wu Zhu’s ever-straight mouth lift—just the tiniest bit—the moment he looked over.
Wen Jianyan: “……”
This bastard!!
At that moment, the “Integrity First” live broadcast room barrage finally caught up:
[Ohhh! So he’s already hidden his presence!]
[That should be…]
[Then why can we still see him?]
[I remember the live broadcast chat mentioned a system task before. This NPC should be part of the Nightmare bug, so the live broadcast camera can capture him.]
[Thank you, live broadcast system!!]
[So he did all that just to watch the anchor act coy…?]
[Am I the only one who feels something’s off about this atmosphere?]
The live broadcast chat fell into a rare silence.
…
[Wait a second, I’ve just realized something—why are they supposed to be clearing a bug, yet the bug ended up getting all lovey-dovey with him?!]
Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze, his expression dark.
The others standing nearby were momentarily stunned, not quite understanding why their captain, who had been fine just moments ago, suddenly looked so grim.
“Anyway,”
It was Chen Mo who finally broke the silence and asked inquisitively, “Captain, what just happened? Why did this corridor suddenly change like this?”
“Ahem.”
Wen Jianyan cleared his throat, trying to compose himself after his earlier emotional breakdown. He briefly glossed over everything that had just happened in the mirror corridor, excluding Wu Zhu’s sudden appearance, and instead focused on explaining his deductions about the corridor’s true nature and the painting he had found.
“The painting of the woman in white?”
Hearing this, everyone looked shocked.
“Yes, it’s over there.” Wen Jianyan nodded and pointed to a corner of the wall.
The painting now appeared normal again—the woman in the white dress stood motionless in the darkness, expressionless, as if the scene Wen Jianyan had witnessed earlier was just an illusion.
However, Wen Jianyan had already memorized the direction she had pointed in and, based on that, identified what she truly meant to indicate.
“It’s that one… the third painting from the left.”
Wen Jianyan remained where he was and simply raised his hand to point.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to move—
It was just that Wu Zhu was still gripping his hand tightly, like a stubborn piece of cling wrap that refused to come off. And Wen Jianyan genuinely had no idea how to shake him off without the others noticing.
The rest of the team didn’t think too much about it and followed Wen Jianyan’s direction. When they saw the painting, they were all taken aback.
Within the narrow frame was a depiction of a tilted, dilapidated house, standing still in the depths of the scene. Behind it, a faint, swaying shadow could be seen.
The structure looked eerily familiar.
“That’s—that’s the place we first entered in the town!” Zhong Shan gasped, eyes widening.
Indeed, it was the same abandoned house.
However, this painting didn’t depict the house’s front—it showed its back, standing in the rain. In the overgrown weeds behind it, a dried-up, abandoned well was faintly visible.
“……”
The group fell into a moment of silence.
“Don’t move.”
At that moment, the sound of fabric rustling was heard behind them, followed by Wen Jianyan’s voice. His tone was low, his words slightly muffled, making it difficult to hear clearly even in the quiet corridor.
Everyone was startled and turned their heads.
Wen Jianyan was still standing where he had been, unmoving.
However, compared to before, something about his half-damp shirt now clung to his back a little unnaturally. His expression was slightly stiff. Though the dim lighting obscured it somewhat, it was clear that his pale complexion—made even paler by the rain—was now tinged with an unnatural flush.
“Captain, what did you just say?” Blond scratched his head in confusion.
Wen Jianyan cleared his throat and, in the most normal tone possible, said, “Nothing, but you’d better hurry up.”
He gestured toward the paintings and reminded them, “These paintings aren’t right. The things sealed within them will probably break out soon, and our time here is limited. We don’t even know if this corridor will remain accessible, so we have to get out before the three-hour mark… Understand?”
As always, Wen Jianyan’s explanation was clear and logical.
However—
Maybe it was just their imagination, but his speech seemed faster than usual like he was rushing.
That made sense, though.
After all, they had all seen the corridor’s abnormal changes, and it really wasn’t safe to linger.
But in a place where no one else could see—
A man with black hair and golden eyes stood behind Wen Jianyan, pressing close against his back. His arms wrapped around the young man’s waist, his overly tall frame enveloping him completely. He even went as far as to rest his chin on Wen Jianyan’s shoulder, inhaling the warm scent at the nape of his neck.
His long, cold hair cascaded down like flowing water, occasionally brushing against Wen Jianyan’s ears as he moved.
The ticklish sensation almost made Wen Jianyan flinch, but noticing his teammates’ oblivious expressions, he forced himself to endure it.
Wu Zhu seemed to understand the situation.
Since Wen Jianyan was mindful of the others and couldn’t outright reject him—and since no one else could see him—he took advantage of the opportunity to be even more shameless.
He had let go of Wen Jianyan’s hand, but instead of stepping back, he pressed even closer, clinging to him like some oversized human-shaped accessory.
But only Wen Jianyan could see it.
A vein throbbed at Wen Jianyan’s temple.
Yet, with his teammates watching, there really wasn’t much he could do.
He took a deep breath, forced a stiff smile, and said through gritted teeth, “We should leave now.”
Hopefully, leaving this gallery would help shake off this guy…
Please!
