Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 44: An Old Friend
At the moment the four companions jumped from the car, the front of the vehicle had already reached the edge of the quicksand pit!
They leaped out forcefully, landing heavily and rolling several times due to inertia. Wu Sheng, who had braked a split second longer to decelerate for his teammates, jumped last, landing with half his body already sinking into the pit!
Had it not been for his desperate grasp at the edge of the quicksand pit at the last moment, the sand, which had already buried him up to his waist, would have completely swallowed him!
Qian Ai was the first to get up. He didn’t bother to pick up the chainsaw and scythe that were kicked out during the jump, rushing over to pull Wu Sheng up first. Then Xu Wang and Kuang Jinxin also hurried over, and together, the three of them managed to pull their teammate back to solid ground!
The Beetle wasn’t so lucky; after falling into the quicksand, it continued to sink until Wu Sheng was pulled out, and the quicksand suddenly stilled. The sinking of the Beetle stopped, and in the end, only about one-fifth of the car roof remained visible above the sand.
“If you’re going to swallow something, do it completely,” Qian Ai said, exasperated. “Leaving just the roof visible but impossible to drive out is just torture…”
“The only explanation…” Xu Wang walked over to pick up the scythe and chainsaw and then came back to hand them to his teammates. “Is that the pit was meant to swallow us, not the car.”
Thus, as they jumped out and the only one in danger, Wu Sheng, was saved, the quicksand stopped.
“Haa…”
Suddenly, a light sigh came from the darkness.
The four companions immediately huddled close, back-to-back, on alert, but without the car lights, everything was engulfed in darkness.
A cluster of lights lit up on a carousel at the roadside.
A man holding a cell phone flashlight, sitting on the carousel, was gently waving his phone towards them with a lazy, indifferent air.
“You’ve already wasted one of my [Quicksand River]. Couldn’t you just obediently follow the sand back home?” The man tilted his head, his body casually leaning against the slender neck of a carousel horse, genuinely puzzled. “Why jump out of the car?”
From a distance of six or seven meters, the light was limited, but in the presence of high attractiveness, these things are negligible. Not to mention he was illuminating himself with his phone; even without it, Xu Wang would recognize this friend in just the moonlight.
Fair-skinned, beautiful, with a mole at the corner of his eye. He was effortlessly cool, shooting arrows in the endless sea, and now, sitting on the carousel with a slight tilt of his head and frown, he was another kind of beautiful.
Chi Yingxue.
Xu Wang silently repeated this name in his mind, but he didn’t speak out. He wasn’t sure if the other party recognized them, but “witnessing their own miserable, unknown opponent” was not a more advantageous position than “an unexpected encounter with a stranger”.
“Are you mute?” After waiting for a response and receiving none, Chi Yingxue frowned more deeply, clearly displeased.
Xu Wang took out his cell phone and also turned on the flashlight, shining it towards his own team, creating a sense of equal footing as if to say, “Don’t think you’re the only center of attention here.”
Then, he said calmly, “So if you use a [Quicksand River], we have to obediently comply and go home? Do you own this place?”
His tone was slightly mocking, almost teasing.
He thought to himself that anyone can show off—he’d seen Wu Sheng do it countless times. Chi Yingxue probably didn’t know his place while Wu Sheng was learning Ampere’s law.
“Ah, finally a breath of air.” Chi Yingxue’s brow relaxed, nodding in satisfaction. “I’ll give you two choices. One, leave the car keys and go. Two, leave the car keys, and I’ll send you on your way.”
Xu Wang gritted his teeth, but before he could respond, three more bursts of light suddenly shone from behind him, blending with his phone’s flashlight into a broad, bright area.
Turning around, he saw his three teammates, each holding a cell phone flashlight.
One against four.
Captain Xu’s spirit suddenly rose.
“Let’s choose option three; we’ll send you home first, then drive away…” Xu Wang started to say, but then abruptly stopped.
The lights from his companions also somewhat illuminated the other side, revealing more of the previously only partially visible opponent.
Chi Yingxue had chosen the tallest, most imposing horse in the entire carousel to sit on but didn’t sit upright. Instead, he lounged casually, beautiful eyes half-glancing, exuding disdain and indifference towards his opponents from head to toe.
Such an irritating person, Xu Wang dealt with every day, so he wasn’t internally moved.
What really made him pause mid-sentence was Chi Yingxue’s attire.
Last time in the Endless Sea, although this man was far on the mast, the stylish jacket he wore left a deep impression on Xu Wang.
This time, his style was completely different.
A light watermelon pink short-sleeved shirt paired with pale lake green shorts. The low saturation of colors made the combination fresh and bright. The shirt’s loose fit added a lazy, casual feel, and even more casual were the flip-flops, looking ready to hit the beach waves at any moment.
Dongying is a coastal city.
Dressing in beach holiday attire, stepping on the sand, and chasing waves in between checkpoint runs seemed cool.
But there was one problem.
It was November in Shandong, and in a week, night temperatures were approaching zero degrees.
Captain Xu was at a loss for words, but Kuang Jinxin asked directly, “Aren’t you cold?”
Chi Yingxue looked around before finding the speaker and countered with a question. “Do you think it looks good?”
Kuang Jinxin honestly nodded. “It looks good, yes…”
“That means I’m not cold,” Chi Yingxue said with a gentle, charming smile.
Kuang Jinxin swallowed hard, not knowing what to say next.
“Alright, enough with the pleasantries.”
Chi Yingxue turned off the flashlight and put the phone back in his shorts pocket. His hand didn’t come out again but stayed in a casual pose. Meanwhile, the other hand that had been hanging behind the horse’s body, without any warning, suddenly lifted, holding a crossbow, and shot an arrow straight at Xu Wang!
The arrow grazed Xu Wang’s left arm, which he had rolled up to make reading documents easier. The arrow, not losing speed, zoomed through the gap between the four and finally thudded into the tree trunk behind them!
His action was so natural and his expression so calm that the four of them couldn’t react in time.
Only when the arrow was embedded in the tree trunk did Xu Wang come back to his senses and lift his arm.
Below the owl icon was a finger-long gash, which was broken and bleeding slightly with a bit of stinging pain.
There were many vital points a single arrow could send someone back home, but Chi Yingxue intentionally missed, only grazing Xu Wang’s arm.
“Captain!” Kuang Jinxin, seeing this, immediately hoisted a rocket launcher, but Wu Sheng covered the muzzle with his hand.
Before Kuang Jinxin could question it, Chi Yingxue spoke up from atop the carousel. “I’ll give you one last chance. Choose one or two?”
Wu Sheng stepped forward, shielding Xu Wang behind him, tapping the ground lightly with the wooden handle of his scythe, looking over. “Our captain said option three. Didn’t you hear?”
Chi Yingxue narrowed his eyes slightly, not at him but at his scythe. “Hey, that’s a cool weapon.” He earnestly asked, lifting his crossbow, “How about I trade this for it?”
Wu Sheng smiled, his voice softening. “Want to trade? Then come over here.”
Chi Yingxue jumped down from the carousel and walked towards Wu Sheng as naturally as if he was approaching a teammate rather than an opponent.
Wu Sheng stood still, just waiting quietly.
Until Chi Yingxue was within two meters.
Wu Sheng swung his scythe in a cutting breeze!
So fast and unprecedented, Kuang Jinxin and Qian Ai didn’t even see when he moved!
But Chi Yingxue, as if anticipating, leapt back with a sudden stop, dodging cleanly but narrowly, the blade almost grazing his neck!
Wu Sheng wasn’t annoyed despite the strike missing. He retracted the scythe and returned to a “let’s talk” posture.
From start to finish, he never showed a hint of killing intent.
Chi Yingxue steadied himself, touched his neck as if scared, but then smiled, just like when he disparaged his teammate on the Endless Sea—a light, disdainful smile. “Were you trying to chop off my head?”
Wu Sheng didn’t confirm or deny.
Chi Yingxue sighed, almost thoughtfully. “What would it achieve even if you did? I won’t die. I’ll just be sent back home early. Besides…” He shrugged, looking at Wu Sheng with a hint of pity. “You couldn’t hit me anyway.”
Wu Sheng finally spoke, not to retort but to ask a new question. “What is your team’s plan?”
Chi Yingxue was taken aback. No matter how quick-witted he was, he couldn’t grasp the purpose of such a question. “What makes you think I’d answer? Our plan was to lure you into a trap under the Ferris wheel and then hijack the car. The [Quicksand River] wasn’t even part of the original plan. If you hadn’t unnecessarily turned the car around—”
Realizing what he had just revealed, Chi Yingxue abruptly stopped, disbelief dawning in his eyes.
But Wu Sheng didn’t give him time to recover, pressing on. “Where are your teammates hiding?”
Despite Wu Sheng’s direct gaze, Chi Yingxue didn’t dodge, but his mind quickly tightened up, no longer daring to be careless.
Yet, his mouth seemed to have a mind of its own, rebelling amidst the tight guard, revealing, “Han Buting is on the pirate ship. Li Zijin and Li Xia are under the Ferris wheel…”
As the questioner received a satisfactory answer, the unintended confessor also heard a belated alert.
[Owl: Someone used [(Illusory) Don’t lie To Me] on you~~]
The night breeze whispered through the trees, sounding like murmuring ghosts.
“You used an illusory stationery on me.” Chi Yingxue’s voice, and the light in his eyes, sank.
Wu Sheng glanced at the bloodstain on Xu Wang’s arm before looking back at the initiator and said in a very soft tone, “Next time you attack someone, be smarter.”
Kuang Jinxin and Qian Ai were stunned, not expecting their advisor to avenge their captain. They instinctively looked towards their own captain.
Xu Wang, with all the dignity he could muster in his lifetime, barely resisted the urge to clutch his heart, or more precisely, the wildly thumping heart inside.
Isn’t that line too fucking cool?!
Always being so impressive, like Long Aotian*. How could he ever climb out of the quagmire of unrequited love!
*It’s basically the Chinese equivalent of a male Mary Sue (Gary Stu).
“Are you here to deal with them, or are you here to sell information to them?” A seventeen- or eighteen-year-old boy, unknowingly perched on the only visible part of the Beetle’s roof, sat cross-legged in a posture that made one feel he should have a game console screen in front of him.
He sported a messy short haircut, as casual as if he’d cut it himself, and had bright, lively eyes, but his voice, whether deliberately suppressed or not, carried a pretense of cold depth, starkly contrasting with his youthful demeanor.
The only consolation was that he wore a fleece hoodie suitable for late autumn. At least in terms of temperature sensitivity, he wasn’t as crazy about fashion over comfort as his teammate, surnamed Chi, who prioritizes looking good over staying alive.
The author has something to say:
Classmate Chi Yingxue expressed that without little lights or spinning circles, what’s the use of such a carousel (╰_╯)
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