Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 134: The Floral-Pendant Gate
The atmosphere in the room suddenly became tense. Seeing the situation, Mrs. Chen, almost in tears, hurriedly stepped in front of the four companions and spoke softly to the gardener. “Master Peng, they are all young master’s friends. Let’s talk this out…”
The gardener’s temper flared, and he swept his pruning shears towards Mrs. Chen’s shoulder. Although he didn’t really “cut”, the force was enough to push Mrs. Chen aside.
Mrs. Chen staggered a few steps, nearly falling over.
The companions tensed up, and Xu Wang immediately said, “What skill is there in bullying Mrs. Chen? Come at us!”
Mrs. Chen saw that the situation was escalating instead of calming down. Just as she was about to speak again, a heavy hand pressed down on her shoulder.
It was Driver Zhang.
He didn’t make any excessive gestures; he just patted her shoulder, silently exerting an invisible pressure. “Mrs. Chen, don’t forget, you are paid by Mr. Chi.”
His voice was deep, even emitting a hint of coldness—a stark contrast to the warm and hospitable Driver Zhang from before.
Mrs. Chen’s lips trembled slightly, but she couldn’t utter another word.
Eventually, she left silently. The look she gave as she left contained apologies and a sense of helplessness.
Driver Zhang watched Mrs. Chen leave, then turned around, leaning against the door frame, quietly watching the room, as if certain that the gardener alone could handle the four of them.
“The nagging one is finally gone.” Gardener Peng comfortably sighed, digging his ear with his free hand.
Qian Ai and Kuang Jinxin, hidden behind the sofa, secretly readied their stationeries—[(Offense) Money Dart] and [(Offense) Dangerous Slingshot]!
Xu Wang and Wu Sheng were still observing. They were ready for battle, but how to fight this battle depended on the other party making the first move.
Suddenly, Driver Zhang stepped back from leaning against the door frame to standing outside the door. The next second, the pruning shears Gardener Peng was carrying on his shoulder began to grow.
The shears, already much larger than ordinary ones, swelled to the size of a person, standing as tall as Gardener Peng himself!
Gardener Peng shifted from carrying them with one hand to holding them with both, swiftly opening the blades and viciously cutting towards the four companions!
The enormous pruning shears didn’t need Gardener Peng to move forward; their length was enough to cut all four of them in one go!
The four companions split up, two to the left and two to the right, all diving to the ground as the blade swept over their heads, cutting the air with a “snap”!
Qian Ai was the first to get up, throwing his arm with flair like a master of hidden weapons from a martial arts novel!
In an instant, he threw a brand new hundred-yuan note from his palm. The thin, nearly sharp bill charged towards Gardener Peng’s face with murderous intent!
Gardener Peng was momentarily stunned but quickly raised the pruning shears to block!
Qian Ai was bewildered from the moment he threw the [Money Dart]. He thought it would be the conventional kind made from coins, not actual hundred-yuan notes! Throwing these bills was like attacking the enemy while stabbing his own heart!
The bill collided with the pruning shears, producing a crisp metallic “clang”!
The obstructed [Money Dart] gracefully landed on the ground, still looking like a thin paper note in mid-air.
After defending, Gardener Peng immediately went on the offensive, targeting Qian Ai with his gigantic shears!
Qian Ai, repeating his earlier move, dove to the ground and rolled towards the corner where the fish tank was!
Gardener Peng tried to follow but suddenly couldn’t move. Looking down, he found his shoe stuck in a puddle of glue, so strong that it couldn’t be pulled free no matter how hard he tried!
[Owl: Someone used [(Defense) Immovable*] on you~~]
*(寸步难行) Idiom referring to being unable to move even a single step. Metaphorically, it could refer to a difficult situation.
Qian Ai caught his breath and gratefully glanced at his tactician, who had come to his aid.
At the same time, Kuang Jinxin, who had been aiming with his [Dangerous Slingshot] for a while, took advantage of Gardener Peng’s distraction to let loose the stretched slingshot!
A sharp pebble whizzed through the air but missed by an inch, grazing Gardener Peng’s leg and hitting the door frame.
Kuang Jinxin was deeply annoyed. If Chi Yingxue had used this weapon, he would have hit the target every time!
“It seems I underestimated you.” Driver Zhang, who had been watching from outside, took off his coat to reveal his muscular physique. He slowly entered the room, approaching the single sofa, bent down, and lifted it with both hands. Without hesitation, he hurled it towards Wu Sheng and Xu Wang!
The two instinctively ran to the side!
The sofa crashed down heavily, breaking many floorboards!
At the same time, Gardener Peng opened the pruning shears, placed them at the sticky spot where his shoe and the glue were stuck, and forcefully cut through the glue, freeing himself!
His first move was to lunge at Qian Ai, aiming for his neck with the shears!
Qian Ai dodged quickly, and the blade instead hit the fish tank behind him, shattering it with a loud “bang”!
Broken glass, murky water, along with the tadpoles and the frog in the tank, all spilled onto the floor, creating a scene of tadpoles struggling on their hind legs around Qian Ai’s feet!
Qian Ai felt nauseous.
In the next moment, those tadpoles began to grow forelimbs! Right on the wet floor, they developed front legs, their tails shrank, and they turned into small frogs! Several of them hopped directly onto Qian Ai’s foot!
Seeing this, the other three companions fighting with the driver also felt a chill.
Qian Ai felt like he was going crazy. He shook his legs, trying to fling them off!
Wu Sheng, who had just dodged a punch from the driver, flashed the thought of using [(Offense) Bolt from the Blue] from his [Stationary Box] but decided against it.
This weapon, unlike the dart or slingshot, was difficult to control in terms of its lethality and range.
If everything happening now had some “feeling resonance” with Chi Yingxue in the darkroom, what if the weapon’s effects were too broad and the lethality went out of control, causing actual harm to Chi Yingxue?
Even with only a one in ten thousand chance, he couldn’t risk it on his own team members.
“Squeak—”
In the midst of the chaos, the sound of the door opening was still distinctly heard by everyone.
The sound came from the courtyard outside the door, which only had one entrance, the floral-pendant gate* leading to the inner house.
*It’s a type of door inside the courtyard of ancient Chinese buildings where the eaves column doesn’t touch the ground and hangs under the eaves. It’s usually painted in the form of petals, so it’s called the “hanging flower gate”.
The four companions were startled, unsure what this new development meant.
Then, they heard that mocking voice again, excited for the drama—
[Owl: The person is in the inner house. You only have one chance. The gate will close in fifteen seconds. Don’t miss it~~]
The four exchanged looks and, without words, saw the same decision in each other’s eyes—go!
They had to enter the inner house; Chi Yingxue was there, and the “east wing room” indicated by the badge manual was there too!
Wu Sheng, avoiding the incoming pruning shears, decisively activated [(Defense) Light as a Feather*]!
*Flying over grass (草上飞) It’s a phrase originally refers to skill in running where one moves so fast that it looks as if they’re flying over the grass. Later, it was exaggerated and misunderstood, and it became something like “feet not touching the ground”.
As the prompt sounded, he felt lighter, as if he was on a magnetic levitation!
But soon he frowned—this defense stationery could only be used by him alone!
With no time to waste, he quickly grabbed Xu Wang, the closest to him, and carried him on his shoulder, speeding out of the house towards the floral-pendant gate, so fast that the driver and the gardener couldn’t react!
Xu Wang felt dizzy, thinking he was being pulled back to reality, but realizing he was being carried by Wu Sheng, the next second he landed on the ground. Wu Sheng pushed him into the open gate. “Hold the door. I’ll get the others!”
Twelve seconds left.
The open floral-pendant gate was slowly closing.
Xu Wang immediately braced it with both hands, trying to resist the gate’s closing force, but it was futile. He used all his strength, yet the door kept closing at its own pace.
Wu Sheng turned back to get the others, only to see Qian Ai and Kuang Jinxin already rushing out!
He quickly picked up Kuang Jinxin and returned!
Eight seconds left.
After delivering Kuang Jinxin inside, he turned to get Qian Ai but collided with Driver Zhang!
Driver Zhang threw a punch with force!
Wu Sheng leaned back, dodging the attack!
He hadn’t noticed when the driver got behind him!
Qian Ai had already been pinned down by the gardener, who was straddling him and trying to stab downward with pruning shears. Qian Ai, however, was firmly grasping the gardener’s wrist, preventing him from succeeding!
Qian Ai’s face turned bright red from exerting all his strength, knowing well that time was running out. Yet, when he glanced out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Wu Sheng was still outside the door.
“Don’t worry about me. Get inside quickly—” Qian Ai shouted this with the last bit of his energy.
As he shouted, he lost some of his strength, and the tip of the pruning shears got even closer to his eyeball.
Five seconds left.
Wu Sheng gathered his energy, pushed off the ground like a bullet, and knocked the gardener off Qian Ai, grabbing… Well, he grabbed his teammate and ran towards the floral-pendant gate!
Qian Ai couldn’t keep up with his speed, almost losing his shoes!
Three seconds left.
Only enough space for one person to squeeze through remained in the gate!
Driver Zhang suddenly blocked the entrance!
Wu Sheng cursed inwardly. Inside, Kuang Jinxin and Xu Wang spontaneously kicked the driver’s backside!
Driver Zhang stumbled forward, and in a split second, Wu Sheng maneuvered around him with Qian Ai!
Finally, they reached the gate.
Wu Sheng entered, trying to pull Qian Ai in, but couldn’t.
Turning back, he saw only a narrow gap in the door, outside which Qian Ai was held back by Driver Zhang.
“Don’t worry. I’ll find a way to rejoin you.”
Through the gap, Qian Ai assured his teammates with determination.
In the last moment, he forcefully grabbed Wu Sheng’s hand on him, pushing it inside!
Time’s up.
The floral-pendant gate closed tightly; not even a sliver of wind passed through.
A punch flew at him from behind.
Qian Ai, without looking, threw a heavy punch back at his attacker!
Driver Zhang stumbled backward, sitting on the ground. Qian Ai was about to pounce when he felt an itch on his leg.
Looking down, he rolled up his trouser leg to find a young frog clinging to his calf, which croaked softly upon being discovered.
Qian Ai felt dizzy, then everything went black as he lost consciousness.
……
Inside the floral-pendant gate, the three companions tried everything to break it open—brute force, stationery, all to no avail. They couldn’t climb the wall to look back, as there seemed to be an invisible ceiling blocking them, just like the Moonlight Maze in 4/23.
Exhausted, they leaned against the door.
Before them lay the inner house’s garden, with flowers, grass, and trees—all lifeless.
The grass had yellowed, the flowers wilted, and the trees had dried up.
But everything remained in that moment of withering: the yellow grass lay flat, colorless flowers drooped, and dry leaves hung densely on the branches, obscuring the gloomy sky.
Xu Wang looked at everything before him with an indescribable feeling.
No household’s yard would be like this.
Just as no household would have no lights, keep tadpoles in a fish tank, or have a gardener whose pruning shears could enlarge.
This wasn’t a recreation of memories.
Like Kuang Jinxin’s dream in the dark room, this place was Chi Yingxue’s imagination, or rather, his consciousness world, blending reality with fantasy.
The hell of the mind.
They were in Chi Yingxue’s mind.
They were facing the hell constructed for them by Chi Yingxue’s memories and pain.
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