Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 3: Stationery Box

Xu Wang’s original intention was simply to divert the topic to avoid bringing up yesterday’s “foolish actions”. But as the conversation turned, the shadow of these two consecutive days of bizarre encounters spread over him.

Wu Sheng, thrown off by his barrage of questions, had forgotten what he was initially going to say and could only shake his head in response to Xu Wang’s inquiries. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have met you after so long in casual clothes yesterday. At least I should have dressed more formally to show respect to an old classmate like you.”

“You serious? Those were pajamas.” Xu Wang realized that despite ten years passing, some things never change—like Wu Sheng’s insistence on maintaining his dignity no matter the circumstance and his own instinctive desire to tease. It was as if both their essences had weathered through all trials without changing at all.

A deliberate cough of impatience broke the “peaceful and harmonious” atmosphere. “Do we really have such a lack of presence?”

Xu Wang was startled and only then noticed two other people standing behind Wu Sheng—a man in his forties and another young man in his early twenties. The older man had a buzz cut, a lean face that was expressionless, hands in his pockets, and eyes full of irritation. The younger man had short hair, a round, fair, and clean face, and was almost as tall as Xu Wang’s 180 cm. He had handsome features but had a naive simplicity about him. As their eyes met, the young man gave off a friendly smile, his eyes narrowed into slits—definitely the “puppy” type according to the popular classification.

“Have you… been here all along?” Xu Wang genuinely hadn’t noticed them.

The young man nodded, cheerfully saying, “Yeah, yesterday too. We’ve been here all along, but you didn’t look at us…”

“Wait,” Xu Wang interrupted, swallowing hard. “Yesterday…?”

The young man scratched his head awkwardly, mumbling, “Yeah, seeing how engrossed you were, we didn’t feel like interrupting.”

Xu Wang: “……”

If anyone should feel embarrassed, it should be me. Why are you, as a bystander, acting embarrassed?!

Wu Sheng finally regained his rhythm, interjected by the young man’s assistance, stepped forward, and said, “Yesterday…”

“Yesterday, I fooled you all, right! Ha ha!” Xu Wang interrupted at breakneck speed, wearing a face of triumphant glee.

Wu Sheng was taken aback, his firm gaze faltering.

Xu Wang feigned surprise; his expression was so sincere that he could instantly win an Oscar. “No way, you didn’t really believe it, did you? I was just kidding yesterday!” He slapped Wu Sheng’s shoulder heartily, his tone and sly smile as familiar as ever. “A reunion of old classmates, of course, needs some special seasoning to be memorable.”

Wu Sheng stared at him for a long time, then slowly lowered his gaze.

Xu Wang knew that he believed him; the stormy expression on his face was proof. However, the other’s silence made him anxious because, based on his understanding of Wu Sheng, this person is definitely not one to suffer in silence. Whether bullied or tricked, he has a hundred cunning ways to retaliate. Thus, the current “extinguishing of fire” made him particularly unsettled.

Finally, Wu Sheng sighed deeply, crouched down, and started aimlessly drawing circles in the snow.

Xu Wang felt a bit guilty. After all, he was the one who made an impromptu confession, took advantage, and then said it was all in jest. Maybe Wu Sheng wasn’t the same impenetrable cool boy anymore; perhaps time had softened his heart…

With that thought, Xu Wang felt a pang of empathy and immediately crouched down to make amends. “Actually… Fuck!!!”

A fist-sized snowball rolled in from the back of his neck. The icy chill startled him into a leap. The snowball, on its conquering path, scattered into numerous flakes, intensely kissing every inch of skin on his back.

The culprit shook off the melted snow from his hand and smiled at Xu Wang, looking refreshed and cheerful.

“Wu Sheng, are you eight years old!” Xu Wang, having forgotten his recent antics of “adding spice to the reunion”, berated him through gritted teeth while lifting his clothes to shake off the snow. Focused on his battle with the snowball, he forgot about the injury on his shoulder, and a sudden movement caused him to sharply inhale from the pain.

“What’s wrong?” Wu Sheng stood up, the previous schadenfreude gone, replaced by a flicker of concern in his furrowed brow.

Xu Wang irritably opened his collar to reveal a bit of the bandaged shoulder.

Wu Sheng connected the dots. “The bear yesterday?”

“What else. I’m already this miserable, and you still pelt me with snowballs. Have you no humanity!” Xu Wang was infuriated, though the pain from the injury had already subsided. What truly stung was falling for Wu Sheng’s childish trick!

“Considering how spirited you are, the injury can’t be that serious.” Wu Sheng teased, though the sight of the white bandage still bothered him.

Xu Wang didn’t feel like arguing anymore. He just wanted to know, “What should we do? Is there any other way back to reality besides being pounced on by a bear?”

Wu Sheng became serious, his gaze earnest.

Xu Wang noticed that Wu Sheng still had that exceptional focus when it came to serious matters.

“First, this isn’t a dream. You, me, and them are all real. That should be a common understanding by now; second, according to the roster, we four are currently a team, and according to the cheat sheet, we need to head to a coordinate; third, what we’re supposed to do after reaching the coordinate is unclear because after you disappeared yesterday, the three of us reached the coordinate, but nothing happened. So, I guess full attendance might be a necessary condition to trigger an event or update the prompt; fourth…”

Xu Wang’s head was starting to hurt from all the information, and he raised his hand. “Can I take notes on a small notebook or something?”

“Last point,” Wu Sheng continued undeterred, looking intently into his eyes. “If you get pounced on by a bear again and return to the real world, just stand still and don’t move.”

“Why?” Xu Wang asked.

“Because as a team, we need to meet up in reality, and yesterday, Xiao* Kuang and I drove all over Beijing looking for you, almost getting lost near Xizhimen Bridge,” Wu Sheng explained.

*Little/small (小) Often, it’s used as an address for someone who is younger or lower rank than you. It signifies familiarity and closeness with that person.

“Xiao Kuang?”

The fair young man, with a naive smile on his face, raised his hand. “Kuang Jinxin.”

Xu Wang quickly shook hands with his comrade. “Xu Wang.” He then turned back to Wu Sheng, returning to the topic. “Do I really have to stand still? That’s a crossroads, quite an awkward place, with all the traffic…”

“Do you want to resolve this quickly?” Wu Sheng frowned.

“I do!” Xu Wang didn’t hesitate.

Wu Sheng: “Then why all the questions?”

Xu Wang: “What I mean is, wouldn’t it be more efficient and safer if I just give you my phone number now?”

“……”

The older man, who had been silent until now, finally lost his patience and kicked the snow in front of him. “Can we start getting serious about this now? I don’t want to be dragged here every night. I’m going crazy!”

Xu Wang understood his frustration. Anyone suddenly dragged into such a magical place would be at their wit’s end. He was about to speak up to calm everyone down and make introductions to foster camaraderie when suddenly his sixth sense kicked in.

The air had quieted down, so silent that even the sound of the kicked snowflakes falling was crystal clear.

Xu Wang looked around nervously, and before he could make sense of it, he was suddenly tackled!

He hit the snow with the back of his head, looking up at Wu Sheng on top of him, unsure if this was a sign of impending doom or an impending boon.

The other two didn’t need to be tackled. As if they had rehearsed, two loud thumps could be heard as they dropped to the ground.

With Wu Sheng on top of him, Xu Wang couldn’t see anything but him, but the increasingly loud footsteps and the muffled growls of a bear!

And it wasn’t just one!

Xu Wang tensed up, daring not to move, while Wu Sheng suddenly grabbed his arm and tapped it forcefully twice!

A fierce wind suddenly rose while the bears roared, but the wind was even more intense, drowning out their roars!

As if anticipating this, Wu Sheng didn’t look around at the changing surroundings but instead pulled Xu Wang up and tapped his arm for the third time.

Xu Wang could see clearly this time. He had tapped on the [Stationery Box] from the four options on his arm, which displayed rows of grid-like slots akin to an inventory bar in a game. He didn’t know what item Wu Sheng had tapped that caused a gust of wind earlier, but the third tap was on the last remaining item in the box—[(Defensive) Jingle Bells].

As this icon disappeared, the [Stationery Box] was completely emptied, and suddenly, a sleigh appeared on the ground, drawn by four reindeer and adorned with jingling bells and Christmas wreaths.

Yes, a sleigh had just sprung up from the ground.

“Stop gawking!” Wu Sheng leapt up agilely onto the sleigh. Xu Wang snapped out of it, hurriedly clambered up to follow, and sat down inside, followed by Kuang Jinxin and the stern-faced older man. Once all four were seated, the reindeer, as if sensing their readiness, dashed off at a gallop. The sleigh broke through the air, whipping up frost and snow in its wake!

Xu Wang, watching the antlers before him, exclaimed from the bottom of his heart, “After this, nothing will surprise me, really.”

Kuang Jinxin squeezed next to him, patted his shoulder, and kindly suggested, “Brother, you might want to take another look behind us.”

Xu Wang turned back. The speeding sleigh had put a considerable distance between them and the black bears, but he could still clearly see a “tornado” that had diverted the bear pack.

The tornado was a spectacular sight, whirling and howling. The bears jumped around, trying to catch the densely packed, lively fish leaping about in a frenzy inside the tornado.

Xu Wang slowly withdrew his gaze, genuinely repentant for his previous bravado. “I’m sorry, I was too naive.”

Kuang Jinxin looked excited, finally finding a “kindred spirit”. “I felt the same yesterday. When I first saw the icon in the stationery box, I was like, ‘What is a [Fishnado]?’ But when I used it, I was stunned. It opened a new world for me!”

“Fish… nado*?” Xu Wang wanted to discuss life choices with whoever named it.

*In Chinese, tornado is [long juan feng] (龙卷风) which broken down means dragon rolling winds. This is a play on that word and replaces the dragon (龙) with fish (鱼) becoming fish rolling winds [yu juan feng] (鱼卷风).

Kuang Jinxin enthusiastically continued, “Yeah, it’s called ‘Fishnado’. It and ‘Jingle Bells’ seem to be the default items in everyone’s stationery box who enters here. The three of us have it, but Wu Ge’s* was used up yesterday. Mine and Sun Ge’s disappeared today when we came in again. I’m not sure why, but luckily yours was still there.”

*Brother (哥) Term used often by someone younger to refer to someone who is male, who’s older or higher rank than you and whom you have a good relationship with or respect.

Xu Wang nodded, acknowledging his “unexpected gain”, and turned to the stern-faced older man beside him, extending a hand of friendship. “Sun Ge?”

The stern-faced older man hesitated, his mood instinctively not wanting to respond to such idle pleasantries, but since one does not hit a smiling face, he reluctantly reached out his hand. “Sun Jiang.”

Just as Xu Wang was about to say something more, he felt a shadow in his peripheral vision. Instinctively turning back, he saw a bear’s paw swooping towards him!

Xu Wang was too slow to react, feeling the bear’s claws nearly graze his eyelashes, when suddenly someone pulled him back by the nape of his neck, tilting his body just in time to avoid the deadly strike!

“Move forward!” Wu Sheng released his grip on Xu Wang’s collar, sharply instructing the entire team. Not needing to be told, everyone had already leaned forward, with Kuang Jinxin nearly sprawled on a reindeer’s back.

As the reindeer ran faster, the undeterred black bear relentlessly pursued them, its speed not befitting a bear but more like a leopard!

Xu Wang maintained his backward glance, fixated on the bear that wasn’t lured away by the Fishnado, watching as it closed in once again—closer, even closer—and suddenly lunged forward, its paws catching onto the back of the sleigh!

Xu Wang was going mad.

What kind of place was this? Who had dragged them into this? And did such a dangerous activity even have a business license?!

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