Chapter 739: Epilogue (10)
Cruise Party
[Part 1]
When he received the invitation, Wen Jianyan was a little dumbfounded.
He called Su Cheng: “Why do you suddenly want to throw a party?”
But what he didn’t expect was that on the other end of the line, Su Cheng was also stunned: “What? Wasn’t this your idea?”
The two compared notes and finally realized that it was Qi Qian playing tricks behind the scenes.
When Wen Jianyan showed up at his door, he was already prepared for it.
“The Nightmare has disappeared, the crisis has ended, and the vast majority of matters have pretty much been handled.”
Qi Qian sat behind his desk looking completely relaxed, signing his name on the document in front of him with smooth, flowing strokes, and set it aside.
“Holding a celebration banquet at a time like this is very normal, isn’t it?”
Wen Jianyan repeated: “Just that?”
Qi Qian put down his pen, looked up to meet his eyes, and the smile on his face was impeccable: “Just that.”
“Crap, my recent secret business dealings with Figaro have been discovered.”
Wen Jianyan had a solemn expression.
Wu Zhu lifted him up from his embrace a little: “You’ve been secretly doing business with Figaro?”
His movements were very gentle, not even applying much force, and even his tone was very mild:
“When did this happen?”
“…”
Wen Jianyan’s heart leapt into his throat.
He thought to himself that things were really bad now.
He reached back to wrap his arms around Wu Zhu’s waist, burying his head into the crook of the other’s neck, pressing close and tight: “Just a while ago, when you went to help Su Cheng and Yun Bilan establish a connection with the real world, I teamed up with him to make a little extra cash on the side. It wasn’t anything important, so I just forgot to tell you.”
He looked up, smiling, and pecked Wu Zhu’s chin one kiss after another.
“Darling, you don’t blame me, right?”
Even though he was fully aware of his tricks, it was truly hard for Wu Zhu to resist such an offensive, crumbling in defeat in mere seconds.
The young man’s heavy and warm body curled up against his chest.
The wet, playful light kisses pecked at his neck and jawline one by one, stirring up his heart into a tangled mess in no time.
“…Of course not.”
Wu Zhu tightened his arms, letting the weight in his embrace press closer, and leaned down to seek his lips.
Half a minute later, Wen Jianyan forcibly stopped him.
“Alright,”
He rested against Wu Zhu’s forehead, his breathing unsteady.
“If we keep messing around, I can forget about getting any real work done next.”
“Be good, I’ll continue with you later.”
Wen Jianyan climbed up, rejoicing that he had dodged a bullet.
He didn’t see the dark and cold look in Wu Zhu’s eyes just now as he kissed the top of his head.
He couldn’t bear to blame Wen Jianyan from the very beginning.
If he wanted to vent his anger, it should be directed at the other guy, right?
__
[Part 2]
Thus, the celebration banquet was settled.
Wen Jianyan very tactfully hinted to Figaro about the possible additional attributes of this celebration banquet.
As for whether the other party would accept the suggestion, he couldn’t control that.
Qi Qian took his Dark Fire remnants to “start preparing” a few days in advance, but what exactly they were preparing was hard to say.
Chen Cheng also joined in, highly suspected of just wanting to watch the world burn.
Wen Jianyan was quite curious about what level of bait Qi Qian had laid out to catch Figaro, so he also poked around a bit when he had free time.
Damn it, that guy Qi Qian actually didn’t leave a single insider for him to ask.
Although Chen Mo was on vacation, he hadn’t been idle for many days either.
It was said that Qi Qian gave him quite a lot of benefits, but Wen Jianyan didn’t ask for details.
First, he was afraid Chen Mo would settle old scores with him; second, he was afraid he would be dragged in to do work too.
Orange Candy, on the other hand, lacked interest in the whole thing.
A large part of the reason was that her body had stopped growing recently.
She originally thought she could return to her normal height all at once after leaving the instance, but she had only recovered to her pre-final-battle physique. This matter dealt her quite a blow.
Because of this, the members of her mercenary squad sweated cold bullets every day, sporting dark circles under their eyes, clearly suffering quite a bit of torment from her.
The good news, however, was that the amnesia episodes caused by the excessive consumption of her talent finally began to decrease. From a few hours a day, it turned into a few times a week, and then to not even happening once a month.
Hugo was still as elusive as ever.
Even though he had long left the Nightmare, he clearly hadn’t kicked his old habit of acting alone. He would often disappear for ten days or half a month, and no one knew where he ran off to.
But the difference was…
If he didn’t show up for a long time, he would now rarely send a message to report he was safe.
Like duckweed growing roots, or a kite having a string.
A person who was hell-bent on seeking death finally had attachments in this world.
“Got it.”
Hearing this tone, it was clear he was definitely coming.
As for the others, naturally, they had no reason not to go either.
Bai Xue even honestly wrote a formal reply letter and asked Qi Qian to bring it on board to hand to the inviter.
It had to be said, among this group of weirdos with no sense of boundaries, he seemed a bit too polite to a fault.
And just like that, piecing it together here and there, they actually managed to gather the vast majority of the people.
__
[Part 3]
Soon, the time for this “celebration banquet”—where everyone had ulterior motives and harbored their own sinister designs—arrived.
White fog descended, and the massive silhouette of a ship appeared within it.
A long ladder slowly lowered from it, landing on the ground with a thud.
The invitees arrived one after another.
They raised their heads and looked at the magnificent, intensely oppressive silhouette of the ship in front of them, involuntarily all zoning out for a moment.
It was as if in these short few seconds, a gale reeking of blood rushed against their faces from their memories, dragging them back to the cruel days of the past.
After all, besides weirdos like them who were inextricably linked to the Nightmare, no one could walk into this fog.
Wei Cheng, Tian Ye, and Zhao Ran walked up the stairs. They looked exhausted, as if they hadn’t slept well in days.
“Just the three of you?” No. 8 confirmed.
But before his words could fade, the few of them suddenly jerked their heads up as if he had said something incredibly terrible, shaking their heads at him repeatedly in horror.
No. 8: “?”
Before he could figure out why, a grinning but inexplicably chilling voice came from behind the three of them:
“…How many did you say?”
The three of them looked despairing.
Now we’re dead.
Seeing that a commotion was inevitable.
Fortunately, the person who stepped onto the stairs behind them was Hugo.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Just three short words, paired with his consistent weariness and calmness, successfully shifted Orange Candy’s hatred onto himself.
Taking no more than three seconds, he successfully broke up the impending fight.
Not far ahead.
Wen Jianyan felt something. He stopped and turned his head to look in the direction of the noisy commotion behind him.
“What’s going on?”
Wu Zhu retracted his gaze: “Just bickering.”
Of course, he secretly hoped those two would get into an actual fight.
Just like that, the two delayed for a moment standing in place, and happened to catch a glimpse of Qi Qian and An Xin’s backs not far away.
They were walking against the flow of the crowd, heading away from the direction of the celebration banquet.
Wen Jianyan watched their backs. His intuition told him the atmosphere between them was different from usual, so his footsteps involuntarily paused, and he raised his voice to call out to them:
“Qi Qian!”
Qi Qian stopped, turned around, and raised one eyebrow, showing a questioning expression.
“…”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze swept lightly over the two of them, and settled when it landed on An Xin.
He stepped forward. The words he wanted to say rolled around on the tip of his tongue.
But when they finally came out, only this was left:
“Wait a minute.”
“I’ll go with you.”
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[Part 4]
The cruise ship’s repair progress was very fast, a huge improvement compared to the last time they were here. Many places had already become clean and orderly again.
Although the overall layout didn’t seem to have changed much from the Nightmare’s ruling period, perhaps due to the change in management, the atmosphere was almost completely different. Everything had become clean, bright, and highly organized, no longer darkly extravagant and unsettling like before.
But the cruise ship was too large after all, and the areas that could be repaired in such a short time were naturally limited.
The deeper they went, the more obvious the traces of that great battle became.
Wen Jianyan stepped over a crevice on the floor and subconsciously glanced down.
It was pitch black below, bottomlessly deep.
Wu Zhu had said they had fallen into true slumber and would never wake up again.
This sea was their burial ground, burying the undead who could never return home.
“…”
He raised his head, took a deep breath, and quickened his pace to catch up with Qi Qian and An Xin ahead.
They were already very deep down here, and everything seemed no different from memory.
The torn carpets were soaked with water, turning a heavy ochre red. Even after so much time, they seemed to still emit a thick, never-fading stench of blood. The light was dim, swaying and projecting bizarre shadows.
The further they walked, the more silent they became, as if even a part of themselves had been left behind in this corridor, nowhere to be found.
Finally, an unknown amount of time later, Qi Qian stopped.
He looked up, his gaze complex as he stared fixedly at the iron doors in front of him for a few seconds. Then he lowered his eyes, took a deep breath, and raised his hand to press the button.
Ding.
A familiar sound rang out.
Crimson light spilled down from above, illuminating everything in a bright red hue, revealing every minute detail.
Empty.
“…Captain told me before that he confirmed there were only two consciousnesses left on the ship.”
“The Tarot Master, and that dealer.”
An Xin finally spoke.
He lowered his eyes. For the first time, his face was uncharacteristically devoid of any smile, with dim shadows falling across it.
“But,” his voice contained a hint of self-mockery, “I still have to see it with my own eyes to be certain, don’t I?”
On one hand, the cruise ship docking was already not easy; on the other hand, the Nightmare had just been silenced and everything was still unfolding, so Qi Qian had to leave a trusted person behind to hold down the fort at Dark Fire’s headquarters. Therefore, An Xin had never been able to get away, and naturally had no way to board the ship and see for himself.
Until today, until now.
His gaze remained fixed on a corner of the elevator.
That cold, completely empty spot.
There was no Tong Yao, no elevator operator, nothing at all.
Indeed, how could there be?
Only anchors who survived the world’s annihilation could become a sleeping face on the cruise ship; only the top ten who stayed in the inner cabins of the cruise ship could retain their will like that dealer.
But Tong Yao was assimilated by the instance.
Just like the millions of anchors who vanished into the instances.
“Furthermore,”
Seeming to suddenly think of something, a flash of pain crossed An Xin’s eyes. He tugged at the corners of his mouth, forcing out an ugly smile.
“…I even delivered the flowers to the wrong place.”
He also only learned later that what he was teleported into wasn’t the real cruise ship, but an arena specifically cobbled together by the Nightmare using instance wreckage, so everything was just a shoddy imitation.
Qi Qian rested his hand on An Xin’s shoulder, wordlessly tightening his fingers.
The slightly increased pressure conveyed his silent comfort.
Suddenly, the person behind them moved.
An Xin froze, turned his head, and saw Wen Jianyan brush past him and lean down.
The next second. A small white flower was placed inside the elevator.
Wait, this is…
An Xin was stunned.
Wen Jianyan had already straightened up and turned his head to look at him.
“Your invitation card.”
He stretched out his hand: “Give it to me.”
After taking the invitation card, he lowered his head. His nimble fingertips folded lightly, accompanied by a rustling sound. In the blink of an eye, a lifelike small white paper flower appeared again.
The invitation cards of the others quickly reached his hands as well.
And just like that…
One flower, two flowers, three flowers, four flowers.
In the center of the abandoned elevator that led below ground and would never be used again, quietly lay four small paper flowers. Time seemed to stop on their cold, pure white surfaces.
“Done,” he said.
“Now they will never wither.”
“…”
An Xin lowered his head blankly, gazing at those few flowers, only to feel a wave of pain belatedly surge up from the depths of his chest.
No longer the pale-faced elevator operator forever bound only by her mission.
At some unknown point, she had already broken free from the shell that had been assimilated, returning to the gentle appearance in his memory, standing on the other shore of time, smiling at them from afar.
She was just like those white flowers.
She would never wither.
