Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 81: Divine Descent

The five-day quarantine inspection was finally over.

Yin Ren stood in front of the door to Ping’an Manor and looked around with emotion.

Everything seemed strange. The neighbor’s anti-theft door had a brightly colored number, and the scratches on the wall were full of artistic sense. Zhong Chengshuo opened the door with his head down, and even the click of the key inserted into the lock felt like a brand-new feeling.

Yin Ren stared at the pleats behind Zhong Chengshuo, which he also found novel, putting him at ease.

The door slowly opened.

At noon, the evil spirits were resting somewhere. The warm lights scattered on the wooden floor, soaked by the sun, and the room was full of greenery, giving it an emerald color.

The smell of the room was particularly strong after being away for so long. The scent of plants and wood was mixed with their own smell. The weather had turned cooler recently, which gave the aroma quite a refreshing scent, but everything still smelled warm.

Every pore of Yin Ren seemed as if it were immersed in warm water, making him stretch his body subconsciously. When his back was halfway arched, a pair of arms came from behind and gently hugged him.

Zhong Chengshuo’s body heat enveloped his back.

There was a little more weight on Yin Ren’s shoulders as Zhong Chengshuo lowered his chin and pressed it against his shoulder and neck, breathing lightly and evenly. They all slipped into the crook of Yin Ren’s neck without a single leak.

Up and down, perhaps like the gentlest tide in the world.

For five full days after their relationship was confirmed, the two were unable to contact each other. Yin Ren didn’t have too strong of a concept at first, but at this moment, when he felt the familiar body heat, the memories of those five days suddenly stretched as far as five years.

He had expected that after five days of separation, they would have many questions and things to say. Shian, Sunken Society, the mysterious peeper… and each other; there were too many mysteries around them.

But he didn’t want to change his mind.

Yin Ren leaned back and worked harder to absorb the heat. He kicked inwardly at the mysteries sending them to the bottom of his heart.

His hair swam along Zhong Chengshuo’s limbs, hooking around his waist, wrists, and ankles. Yin Ren “hugged back” hard in his own way, carefully feeling the soft, warm skin of the other person.

…Yin Ren remembered that Zhong Chengshuo usually didn’t like being touched by others.

He proudly collected his hair and brought them closer together.

Ten minutes passed, and Zhong Chengshuo was still motionless.

Yin Ren: “……”

He yanked at Zhong Chengshuo’s calf with the tip of his hair, causing him to lose his balance and fall onto the carpet, surrounded by hair.

Yin Ren took advantage of this and laid next to Zhong Chengshuo. Their feet were covered by the golden sunlight, and the temperature was just right.

“Don’t stand if you can lie down.” Yin Ren muttered solemnly as they lay shoulder to shoulder.

Zhong Chengshuo rubbed a strand of long hair with his fingertips, and responded with a smile in his voice. “Nn.”

They stared at the sunny ceiling, maintaining a comfortable silence. It was like two ordinary people laying down on an ordinary afternoon.

Zhong Chengshuo: “What do you want to eat tonight?”

“Chocolate cake.”

“Don’t you want to go out to eat?”

“I don’t want to go anywhere.” Yin Ren quietly let go of the perception of the tip of his hair and felt the other’s fingertips. “I’m going to celebrate and want to have takeout.”

It was like celebrating a full week of their relationship.

“No luosifen or stinky tofu,” Zhong Chengshuo said quickly.

“Don’t worry. I remember. We’ve lived together for a while now.” Yin Ren couldn’t help laughing.

Zhong Chengshuo’s fingers froze for a second, before he clenched them harder. Yin Ren took a slow, deep breath of home. Just as he started to let out a sigh of satisfaction, it choked at his throat…

A few seconds later, Dog Thing came out of Yin Ren’s most tightly pressed pocket, limping with four thin black legs. It climbed firmly between the two heads and turned around vigorously as it displayed “low battery” on its black screen.

‘Oh, this thing is about to explode,’ Yin Ren thought to himself.

It wasn’t Dog Thing’s fault. They ran into the Archive and Dog Thing gave him reminders and warnings, but it didn’t get to eat even half the food there. After they left, it stayed with Yin Ren in confinement for five days, not daring to say a word.

Now that it was finally released, the two of them still had the gall to talk about dinner openly in front of it.

Dog Thing arched angrily at Yin Ren. He stretched out his fingers justifiably and a bit of black Evil Force condensed from his fingertips.

The Evil Force was extremely condensed, bending at his fingertip like a pitch-black, extra-large mercury bead.

Dog Thing jumped high, and the screen was directly covered by the Evil Force. It absorbed all the power and then reluctantly restored its screen display, showing a perfunctorily low 2% battery power.

“My phone spirit weapon.”

Yin Ren decided to reintroduce this non-human thing and let his lover, who didn’t possess human common sense, study it. Perhaps these two negatives would become a positive. King Yama might be able to figure something out.

“It reacted when we were in the Archive. Take it and have a look.”

“Really?” Zhong Chengshuo turned his face away.

“Well, it says that I’m ‘weak’.” Yin Ren snorted. “And said those little monsters in Guo Laifu’s head were also ‘weak’.”

“Woof, woof, woof!” Dog Thing barked wildly, slamming the screen into Yin Ren’s face.

“What? You said it yourself.”

Yin Ren took off the bold phone and placed it between the two of them.

“Just in time. I want to ask you, the thing that is watching us in the Archive—”

[Moderately strong.] Dog Thing couldn’t wait to answer.

Yin Ren frowned.

It was the same rating given to the mysterious sniper. Was it really true that there were masters walking everywhere now, and an Evil Spirit wasn’t even comparable to a dog?

“Then Chengshuo and me…”

[Siren: Zhong Chengshuo, weak at the bottom.]

[Siren: Yin Ren, I can’t be sure.]

It slowly squeezed out the answer, word by word.

[Siren: Aura is weird.]

[Siren: Unable to judge.]

Zhong Chengshuo hesitated. “Is it scolding us?”

Yin Ren: “……”

Yin Ren: “Maybe.”

Zhong Chengshuo examined Dog Thing for a while, then turned his attention back to his phone.

“I want to disclose the news of our relationship. Minister Fu hasn’t said anything, as Lu Jie and the others haven’t responded.” Zhong Chengshuo slid his thumb up and down his phone as he went through his contact list. “If you have no objection—”

Yin Ren stretched out his hand and covered Zhong Chengshuo’s phone screen. “Don’t do it yet.”

Zhong Chengshuo looked at Yin Ren in confusion; the tips of his hair drooped a little.

“To be honest, I seriously don’t meet your parents’ acceptance standards, so I need formal approval.” Yin Ren’s expression was more serious than before. “Let’s take care of those two first, uh, the elders.”

……

Night.

Zhong Chengshuo went back to his room and closed the door. Two seconds later, as if he had reacted to something, he gingerly stuck himself to the door and opened the tightly closed bedroom door.

The man stood still in front of the doorway, looking tangled.

Mr. Yin, who witnessed the entire process: “……”

Yin Ren raised his voice. “Do you want to sleep together?”

“Not for the time being. I need time to adapt.” Zhong Chengshuo responded after taking a century to think on it, then he pulled down his nightcap and almost covered his eyes. “I’ll be extremely nervous, which can affect the quality of my sleep.”

After that, he floated into the bathroom like a ghost and began to wash up.

Yin Ren laid back on the sofa a little sadly. He quietly parted his hair and crept into Zhong Chengshuo’s pillow, ready to steal a little warmth and heartbeat.

As a result, his strand of hair was arrested on the spot by Zhong Chengshuo. He clutched them firmly into his palms and fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, the lock of hair shrank with difficulty and slipped out of Zhong Chengshuo’s hand.

Yin Ren took out a piece of chocolate cake from the refrigerator and packed it together with various snacks and drinks, turned on the tablet, and pulled out an e-book reader.

He quietly laid out white paper on the sofa and began to draw a circle of complex patterns with cinnabar. After confirming Zhong Chengshuo was asleep, Yin Ren lay down in the center of the white paper.

The white paper swallowed him up like a swamp.

When he saw Yin Ren, Guo Wei almost fell off the edge of the rooftop.

The escape game was long over, and Guo Wei was sitting on the roof of the main teaching building in a daze.

Guo Laifu’s consciousness had gradually become clear, so it was only a matter of time before he would be executed. Guo Wei thought he would pass away quietly…

Instead of being surrounded by food and movies he had never seen before.

“Yin Ge, you…” Unlike the phantom in the dream, Yin Ren clearly came to visit in the flesh.

“Shh.” Yin Ren made a quiet gesture. “Help contain my aura so Shian doesn’t find out.”

Guo Wei didn’t ask much and just stared at the visitor in shock.

Kong Wanqing told him that Yin Ren was a powerful evil being, but as Guo Wei looked right and left, “powerful” could be determined, but he didn’t find where the other party looked like an evil being.

“These are all payments. I want to rent the rooftop for three hours every night until you… leave.”

Yin Ren put down the sumptuous food and electronic products, and sat down next to Guo Wei on the rooftop, giving him a piece of chocolate cake. “This is a gift. It’s a celebration cake for my relationship with Chengshuo.”

Guo Wei: “……”

There was no need to explain so clearly. He didn’t want to know about the world of adults.

Guo Wei held the cake plate and looked at it for a while, carefully licking the edge of the cream. The cake was just the right amount of sweetness and had a fragrant smell that couldn’t be compared to the commissary pastries, which he hadn’t had time to taste while he was still alive.

Guo Wei lowered his eyes at the cake for a while, then pursed his lips and sighed like an old man. “Aren’t you afraid I will miss these things and want to become a ghost?”

“That’ll be your choice as well.” Yin Ren savored the thick and slightly bitter chocolate sauce.

“Forget it.” Guo Wei chewed on the dessert cherishingly. “I tried it before. If I go too far away from the campus, I’ll forget about it. Then my heart will be empty. What I found is always here… I’ve been looking for this place all my life, and I don’t want to keep looking.”

Yin Ren opened a can of soda and gave it to Guo Wei. “Then live happily until the end.”

“Tell me what else you want to eat. This place is very loved. I’ll take advantage of it and exchange food to use it.”

“Then I want to eat fried pork and cold noodles.” Guo Wei thought for a while. “Li Xiaoya mentioned that she likes these two dishes the most.”

“No problem.” Yin Ren pulled out the tablet and e-book reader. “The e-book reader is for you. I bought a lot of books on it. There’s also a tablet that you can watch movies on, but I have to take it back at dawn—take it and watch what you like.”

Guo Wei’s dead eyes exuded some vitality that shouldn’t have been there. “What about you?”

Yin Ren stood up and beat his waist. “Doing some exercises.”

Under the night, above the rooftop.

Guo Wei was lying on the rooftop, eating snacks while watching a movie. His cloudy eyes flickered with bright lights and shadows.

Yin Ren built a large hemisphere next to him and tightly locked himself in it.

Making sure that Guo Wei couldn’t see the scene inside, Yin Ren took a deep breath and launched a little bit of Evil Force.

Sure enough, the dizziness and pain that got out of control were countless times greater than the outside world.

In the dark, Yin Ren twitched and curled up his body. His five senses were confused, and his internal organs seemed to be tearing apart. As if he were descending into a never-ending fall, the sense of chaos almost made him vomit out his dinner.

Thin arms protruded from his chest, and his calves were covered with weird black feathers. Yin Ren grabbed the cement floor fiercely with both hands. Afraid of hurting Guo Wei’s memory, he didn’t use any Evil Force to protect his body, leaving only bloody scratches.

Ten minutes passed, and in a painful gasp, the arms retracted, and the black feathers disappeared. Yin Ren flicked his bloody fingertips and began a new round of attempts.

He repeatedly tamed the power in his hand.

Three hours passed. Yin Ren repaired his fingertips and staggered to open the barrier. Guo Wei had just finished watching a movie and had eaten all the snacks around him.

It was just after seeing Yin Ren, the happiness on his face faded a little, and he became a little more worried.

“Are you okay?” Guo Wei asked in a low voice.

The child was sensitive to “pain”. Yin Ren rubbed his face. “Fine, just a little tired from practicing.”

“You’re already very strong, so why are you…” Guo Wei clenched the e-reader in his hand.

“Well, I wanted to take things slowly, but unfortunately, I fell in love with a troublesome guy. At a critical moment, I have to catch him.”

Yin Ren didn’t have any haze on his face.

“I can only be a little less lazy. It’s all his fault.”

Guo Wei wasn’t deceived by the relaxed tone. The boy didn’t hide the worry in his eyes.

“I’m really fine.”

Yin Ren stretched his limbs.

“I have long been used to this.”

……

Shian Campus.

Shian obtained valuable information about the birth of a ghost, but they didn’t take their eyes off of two suspicious elements.

“Something is wrong with those two in Unit 9.” Li Nian looked through the mission report.

“Who says they aren’t?” Fu Xingchuan collapsed on the sofa. His tassel earrings were scattered in a mess. “Guo Wei was half a step from becoming a fierce ghost. He was brewing in there for almost half a year. Yin Ren is a powerful person, and his battle was even more exaggerated than Guo Wei’s. To say this kid’s a genius, why didn’t it look like that during the entry exam?”

When he was still in the Archive, according to the wristband records, Zhong Chengshuo had no negative emotion throughout the entire process. He could be described as the first person in the history of visitors to the Archive to do this. This symptom could no longer be explained by a simple “mental abnormality”.

Fu Xingchuan decided to relieve himself of the entanglement and temporarily ignored the part where these two little beasts were in love.

Kong Wanqing, one of Shian’s old acquaintances, had the ability to “resonate”. After being strengthened by the Evil Force, this ability should’ve been invincible in the Archive.

As a result, he faced a pair of partners in Unit 9 and ended up dead. The etiology of Guo Laifu’s illness was suspected to be destroyed, but no one gave the content of what was the cause.

That closed campus had completely become a black box.

Strange things were always happening around these two people. Things could only happen three times. As a metaphysician, Fu Xingchuan never believed in so many coincidences.

Unfortunately, this was all just suspicion, and they had no clear evidence.

“Liang Shan’s cognitive pollution was very thorough. Could it be that he missed something?” Fu Xingchuan sighed towards the ceiling. “At that time, he swore that Zhong Chengshuo and Yin Ren are both humans.”

Li Nian shook the thermos cup and looked at the city under the sun.

“It’s not uncommon for them to be humans. Haven’t there been many strange things recently?”

“In less than two months, there have been four cases involving sources of corruption from an Evil Force. Xiang Jiang had just returned from Luotian some time ago. Sunken Society seems to also be spreading corruption over there like crazy.”

“It’s suspected that an Evil Spirit seal was broken and ran out of control, causing corruption sources to scatter everywhere. This situation is a bit like the original—”

“Wait, wait, wait.”

Fu Xingchuan bounced up in horror. “Fuck me. Don’t open that crow’s mouth. This is not a joke!”

“How many years has it been? Isn’t the interval every thousand years? I want to live a few more days.”

Li Nian remained silent. He quietly pulled up something and turned on the screen in the direction of Fu Xingchuan.

“There’s no evidence that the interval between occurrences of ‘that phenomenon’ is every thousand years.”

“I’m not looking.” Fu Xingchuan covered his eyes and slowly lay back on the sofa, turning his back towards Li Nian. “I don’t want to experience bad luck for the second time in my life. Not watching it.”

“Trying to escape reality.” Li Nian pointed out coldly.

“You want to know the situation of those two. I’m just providing a starting point.”

What was on his computer was a document about anomalous phenomena with black characters on a white background, which looked ordinary.

[Phenomenon A-A2: Divine Descent]

[Insufficient data, no unified judgment standard yet]

[Overview: A large number of Evil Force eruptions without a source. Cause is unknown.

The duration of Divine Descent is less than 24 hours and will not cause physical damage. The Divine Descent affects an area with a radius of about 100 kilometers. Evil qi value in the central area may exceed 60,000fR.

There will be a large number of deaths from biological corruption, mental disorders, and disappearances in the central area of the Divine Descent. Organisms in marginal areas are less corrupted, and those that are corrupted are prone to mental diseases.

According to records, the act of killing after the Divine Descent will trigger a “sense of gaze”, and a small number of murderers claim to have received a “blessing from God” and seen “the road to eternity”. From July to September 2xxx, Sunken Society organized six large-scale sacrifices after the Divine Descent, during which the number of homicides in and around Haigu soared 46.3 times higher.

The “Divine Descent” doesn’t last long, and the danger rating of the phenomenon itself is lower than that of an “Evil Spirit”. However, its appearance predates the Evil Spirits, and is suspected to be one of the causes of the Evil Spirits. The two recorded “Divine Descent” occurred around 4xx and 2xxx, respectively, and the central locations were near Haigu.]

[Handling method (reference): Immediately strengthen police resources in the outbreak area after the disaster and refer to the <Level 1 Emergency Plan for Major Phenomenon and Events> to immediately carry out a comprehensive cleanup of the outbreak area to eliminate the corruption of the Evil Force.

Please pay special attention to secondary effects of the Evil Force, and properly treat and place people with special abilities.]

Fu Xingchuan couldn’t avoid it. He rolled over in grief and looked directly at Li Nian’s computer screen—

The date of the last “Divine Descent” was exactly 28 years ago.

---

The author has something to say:

Here we go!!!!!

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 80: The Hunter

“Because in the end, you’ll always understand. Compared to being on the run, the police station is the place that will give you complete peace of mind.”

The mask took a round stainless steel jar from the shelf and put a new label on it. The mouth of the round jar was wide open, making it look like a deep well from the side.

The man arranged the small objects in an orderly manner; they circled Guo Laifu one after another. There were countless sensor wires connected to the ends of these spirit weapons. The computer screen flashed with cold light, and the mainframe emitted a loud heat dissipation sound.

…Yin Ren had seen science posts do similar things. This was a researcher preparing to collect data.

Guo Laifu let out a muffled roar, which sounded like a curse. The masked man turned a deaf ear as he walked slowly to the office chair. He leaned forward and supported his hands on the armrest.

The two dark eye holes of the rabbit mask were directly facing Guo Laifu.

“Hm,” he said. “Now you have more panic than fear. You never imagined that you would be in a position of prey.”

The masked man went back to the computer and muttered a few words. “The basic data is determined. Empathy ability is poor, and fear of oneself is relatively dull…”

After finishing the recording, he moved and returned to Guo Laifu again.

“Let’s get started,” the masked man said quietly.

The next moment, Guo Laifu’s memory turned into melted butter.

They didn’t know what the masked man had done, as there were only chaotic colors in Guo Laifu’s vision. The colors quickly deformed and merged as Guo Laifu’s screams overshadowed the buzzing vibration of the spirit weapons. It was hard to imagine a human making such a sound.

The chaos continued, and time seemed to have lost its concept.

Guo Wei thoughtfully fast-forwarded the memory.

At the end of the boundless chaos, it was pouring rain.

After the indescribable chaos was over, Guo Laifu’s vision finally returned to normal. He was standing on a deserted road. The masked man was wearing a translucent raincoat and stood silently beside him.

Guo Laifu was soaked all over. His eyes were wide open, and he looked dumbly at the night in front of him. His limbs were free, but he remained motionless.

“Two days later, leave Haigu and return to Qingjiang Public Security Bureau to surrender,” the masked man commanded deftly.

“Ah… Ah…” Guo Laifu spoke in a broken voice, as if he had awoken from a dream. He nodded his head desperately.

“Don’t hurt anyone during this time.”

“Ahh… That tricky evil…”

Guo Laifu folded his hands and bowed desperately like a drowning dog*. He moved his tongue with difficulty, spitting out ravings that no one understood.

*(落水狗) Refers to a bad person who has lost favor or power.

At the end of his screaming, Guo Laifu’s knees went weak, and he knelt heavily on the muddy ground.

The masked man lowered his head. Though Yin Ren couldn’t see the man’s expression, he knew that there was no sympathy in them.

“Very good,” he said flatly.

Just then, a blood-red lightning bolt flashed across the sky.

The masked man paused.

He raised his head and looked at the dark clouds rolling in the sky. In the crazy rainstorm, blood-red lightning flashed one after another, filling the darkness with a bloody color in the middle of the night.

“……Ah.” The masked man sighed. “Trouble. Things are getting unbalanced.”

Before the man finished speaking, Guo Laifu seemed to sense something. Like a sudden illness, Guo Laifu stared at the man’s back. His body fell onto the uneven asphalt road and convulsed frantically.

Melting chaos once again appeared in Guo Laifu’s vision. He yelled, shook his head desperately, and rolled back wretchedly. This road was close to a garbage dump. Guo Laifu rushed into it like crazy as he gouged out his eyes with both hands.

There was no hesitation in his movements as a sticky noise sounded from his eye socket.

Immediately afterwards, ignoring the sharp pain in his eyes, he groped around a pile of household garbage and grabbed a dirty fruit knife…

Yin Ren knew what happened next.

Guo Laifu used the fruit knife to cut off his nose and jabbed disposable chopsticks into his ears. Until a security personnel appeared, he was madly mutilating himself.

…Like trying to escape his five senses.

The heavy rain and thunder covered everything as Guo Laifu lost his eyesight. The masked man also disappeared, and everything sank into nothingness.

The memory ended, and the darkness dissipated.

The three of them returned to the sunny campus again.

“This is the process of Guo Laifu going crazy.” After seeing the record, Guo Wei’s face was a little distorted with joy. “Unfortunately, I can’t reproduce his thoughts at the time, so I don’t know how helpful that was to you.”

“No.” Yin Ren swallowed. “Thank you, you’ve helped us enough.”

The masked man in the memory, Zhong Chengshuo, was standing behind him.

Yin Ren turned his head slowly to look at him. The culprit who drove Guo Laifu crazy was standing under the sun. Behind the transparent glasses, those black eyes were moist and stable, and he even looked slightly innocent.

There was no sense of guilt on Zhong Chengshuo’s face. He blinked at Yin Ren, with a slight expectation in his eyes.

This kid…

“Come with me.”

Yin Ren grabbed Zhong Chengshuo’s wrist, and the two went into the main teaching building and found a relatively hidden corner. Yin Ren skillfully cut off all communications and took a deep breath.

“Zhong Chengshuo, what the hell is going on with Guo Laifu?”

“He should have gone to Qingjiang to surrender himself.” Zhong Chengshuo stood upright as he spoke with a trace of regret in his tone. “But the Evil Force that broke out that night… Well, you broke the seal, causing the Evil Force in Haigu to be thrown into disorder. He was affected by the drastic change in environmental conditions.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.” His tone was still calm. “This has never happened before.”

Before?

Zhong Chengshuo’s voice surfaced from the memories.

[…The people in those recordings are all death row prisoners. Except for one of them, the rest have been executed.]

That was the day they visited Feng Qi after the case was over.

When they visited, Feng Qi was using some recordings to consolidate his ability to “interpret ravings”.

The tablet screen was full of “Mom, Mom, I’m so scared”, “Help, help”, “I’m scared, I’m scared”.

It was the same as Guo Laifu’s situation.

[Guo Laifu, a serial murderer on the run… This person is completely mentally disturbed and is still undergoing treatment. The other death row prisoners only showed symptoms of ravings, but they have no mental problems.]

At that time, this was what Zhong Chengshuo said while he was joking with Feng Qi, saying that some big case might be unearthed from this.

A prophecy.

“Besides Guo Laifu, how many people are there?” Yin Ren patted his face.

Zhong Chengshuo leaned in front of a window in the corridor of the teaching building. Outside were the bright sunlight and swaying flowers. Coupled with the handsome face of that person, this image was soft and harmless… which made it particularly deceptive.

“Plus Guo Laifu, forty-two people,” Zhong Chengshuo replied calmly. “All of them are murderers from Sunken Society, who carry at least three lives or more and are wanted by the police. They only left behind the sequelae of ravings—I dealt with them very cleanly.”

Ravings, a language disorder that occurred after a specific mutation appeared in the brain. The specific cause was unknown, but most of them appeared in people who had been greatly stimulated.

Yin Ren: “……”

Yin Ren: “…What did you do to them?”

“Secret.” Zhong Chengshuo stared at Yin Ren earnestly while holding his index fingers to his lips. “We just started dating, so we need to get to know each other slowly.”

Yin Ren silently looked at the ground.

Forty-two murderers related to Sunken Society.

Was “King Yama” of the Nightwalkers uninterested in living tasks, or was the spontaneous “murderer hunter” already full?

He wondered why King Yama insisted on developing in the Nightwalkers—whether it was to get rid of evil beings or study them, even if Zhong Chengshuo had such eccentricities, with King Yama’s strength, Shian would give some leeway.

But it was absolutely impossible for Shian to accept a “murderer hunter”.

Seeing Yin Ren unresponsive, Zhong Chengshuo looked at him with some confusion. “What’s wrong with you?”

Yin Ren looked at the black ballpoint pen in his hand.

A few strands of hair quickly wrapped around the body of the pen and cut it directly into pieces. In Zhong Chengshuo’s surprised gaze, there was a creepy chewing sound in the black hair, and the remains of the ballpoint pen were swallowed up.

“Now we’re real accomplices.” Yin Ren let out a long exhale.

He believed in him.

Zhong Chengshuo’s past, his motivation; Yin Ren decided to continue to explore—this wasn’t to obtain some kind of victory. He just… simply wanted to understand this person.

The wing ball covered them again, isolating the two of them from the bright and noisy campus.

Zhong Chengshuo looked at Yin Ren suspiciously.

“What are you waiting for?” Yin Ren rubbed his face vigorously as he spoke sternly. “I’ve made up my mind about what to say. Let’s make a confession quickly. We have to go out and have a serious, ahem, relationship.”

Zhong Chengshuo was stunned for a moment. In the shadow, his entire face blushed slightly.

“But before that, I have a question I must ask,” Yin Ren muttered. “Is it really a coincidence that you met me that night?”

“Nn. Guo Laifu went crazy, and I have no way to deal with it,” Zhong Chengshuo replied sincerely. “But I still have time to save my dad’s two potted plants.”

“…Pfft.”

“What are you laughing at?” Zhong Chengshuo scratched his nose. Yin Ren saw this human’s expression of “embarrassed” for the first time.

“Has anyone ever told you your character is really…”

“Strange? Many people have said it.”

“No, special,” Yin Ren whispered. “It’s very special.”

……

“Therefore, that child intends to stay here and doesn’t want to turn into a ghost,” Fu Xingchuan concluded.

Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo were rescued out of the school, and were interrogated by Fu Xingchuan on the spot. He obviously didn’t intend to let them leave the Archive before asking for a clear overview.

The two partners quickly handed in the fragments of the red rope full of Evil Force. In order to show their sincerity, they even put their luggage 800-miles away.

“Yes, I seriously asked Guo Wei several times and told him Shian could help him turn into a ghost.” Yin Ren only had one set of clothes left. He leaned “weakly” on his partner as he said, “He refused.”

“It’s not like it’s a good thing—not much better than being a ghost.”

Fu Xingchuan let out a sigh. His eyes were still firmly locked on the two of them. He vaguely guarded the members of Unit 7 behind him. Yin Ren could see that there were several hidden attack arrays around him, ready to go.

Fu Xingchuan was warning them.

…As cultivators, their Minister Fu was really conscientious.

Yin Ren pretended not to notice and continued his “weak” act. “Guo Wei was affected by Kong Wangqing’s corruption source. I used a dream technique to recruit Guo Wei’s teacher and classmates. When Guo Wei was about to return to normal, Kong Wanqing appeared…”

“He… He forcibly controlled Guo Wei and began to use strange powers. I was hit by his technique and barely held on, delaying him to let Zhong Ge take the others and run first.”

Fu Xingchuan looked at them silently.

Yin Ren specifically confirmed that after he returned to his original state, Guo Wei was beside him, safe and sound—that was to say, he was able to control the spread of the Evil Force.

As long as the source of corruption was handed in quickly, even if Fu Xingchuan wanted to doubt him, there would be no conclusive evidence.

After all, a dead man tells no tales. Yin Ren lowered his head, showing a sad look.

“Kong Wanqing claims that his ability is emotional ‘resonance’, which can amplify negative emotions. After I was hit by him, everything fell into chaos. I may have been influenced by the Evil Force. After Zhong Ge woke me up, I realized… I killed Kong Wanqing.”

In a sense, everything he said was the truth.

“I have no idea how I killed him. I just remember being in great pain and feeling like the Evil Force was about to smash me into pieces. Minister Fu, will I go to jail?”

Fu Xingchuan raised his hand and glanced at the reading instrument on his wrist. His brows arched, but he didn’t say much.

“Do you have an impression of how Zhong Chengshuo saved you?” Fu Xingchuan showed no sign of relief and continued to ask sternly.

“He…”

Zhong Chengshuo: “I hugged him and fed him a bag of chocolate chips.”

Fu Xingchuan: “?”

Fu Xingchuan: “…Chocolate chips?”

Minister Fu’s tone was so confused that even his alert posture titled for a moment.

The two members of Unit 7 looked at each other and felt that this style was completely incompatible with the ferocious ghost just now. It was more credible to say that Zhong Chengshuo gave him ten shots of tranquilizer than the current statement.

The dark ghost fetus just now wouldn’t be defeated by a few chocolate chips.

Fu Xingchuan looked at the lie detector device again. What Zhong Chengshuo stated wasn’t nonsense; the honesty index was surprisingly high.

“You hugged Yin Ren and gave him some sweets.” Fu Xingchuan tried to make sense of the statement. “Is he normal now?”

Did these two think it was that easy to deal with a frenzied non-science post? Combined with the previous abnormal readings, Minister Fu felt that these two in Unit 9 must be crazy.

Yin Ren: “……” Zhong Chengshuo told the truth too quickly that he couldn’t think of a reasonable way to amend at this moment.

Damn it. He originally wanted to describe the entire process in a more touching way. As a result, Zhong Chengshuo gave a brief summary, making him look like some kindergartener who was throwing a tantrum during lunch.

King Yama obviously had his own ideas.

Zhong Chengshuo gently grabbed Yin Ren’s hand and made sure the other party couldn’t break away. He took a deep breath. “Yes, Yin Ren’s will is very strong—I wanted to go back before because I know him and have the confidence I could wake him.”

“Minster Fu, we just started dating.”

He added the final sentence with extra emphasis and solemnity.

Fu Xingchuan fell completely silent.

It was hard to tell whether the expression on his face was lost in deep thought or complete blankness. After a long time, he waved his hand as if he had given up..

“Forget it. You guys go back first and isolate for a while,” Fu Xingchuan said wearily. “We’ll verify your statements… Well, apart from the relationship thing.”

The faces of the two members of Unit 7 were still shocked. Their eyes swept between Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo.

“Hurry up and pack your things.” Although Fu Xingchuan lowered his guard, he didn’t release the protective spirit weapons. “Xiao Zhong, take care of Xiao Yin. We—”

Suddenly, something frantically moved in Yin Ren’s pocket.

Oops, it was Dog Thing.

The black ballpoint pen had been destroyed, which meant Guo Laifu would return to normal soon. Those little monsters that only exist in the minds of lunatics would no longer appear, so Dog Thing had lost the opportunity to freely eat the “weak”.

Yin Ren quickly held it down and patted it soothingly. Now he had been strengthened by a lot, so it wasn’t like he couldn’t share some of his Evil Force and feed that dog.

Despite its poor intelligence, the dog was well-versed in current events and knew who it shouldn’t mess with. Since Fu Xingchuan was here, it wouldn’t continue—

But it backfired. The cell phone began to struggle more vigorously. At the same time, Yin Ren’s scalp became cold.

“Get down!” Fu Xingchuan yelled. “Don’t even look up!”

The three of them hit the ground instantly except for Wang Zhou, who was still distracted by the outrageous love story. Fu Xingchuan threw out an explosive spirit bomb and directly blasted him to the ground.

Wang Zhou’s leg knocked against some ruins and made a “crack” sound.

Wang Zhou: “Ahhhh!”

“Quiet.” Fu Xingchuan gritted his teeth.

Yin Ren didn’t say a word.

He finally knew the reason for Dog Thing’s struggle—

Something was watching them.

The line of sight descended from above, pierced the direction of the center of the vortex, and stared at the five of them steadily. He didn’t know if it was because of the special environment in the Archive, but the sense of peeping was hundreds of millions of times stronger than the “sniper” from the outside world.

It was like a cold, foul, barbed tongue.

The sight licked the five of them, one by one, causing Yin Ren’s back to become horribly numb.

“Zhong Chengshuo, Wang Zhou, don’t push yourself. Do not look at it.” Fu Xingchuan lay down under an abandoned wall, staring at the dust on the ground.

“What is that?” Zhong Chengshuo asked curiously.

“I don’t know,” Fu Xingchuan said. “Know when you are outmatched. I have a hunch that it’s very bad.”

……

At the same time, Haigu Municipal Hospital.

Sun Qi’an cracked her sore shoulders and neck and went to dinner with a familiar nurse friend.

Her nurse friend was in a single room that belonged to an elderly man.

Speaking of which, this old man was considered a legend here…

The old man had been in a vegetative state, lying unconscious at the hospital for over seven years. Just six years ago, the old man miraculously woke up, but his body was so weak, he couldn’t leave the hospital.

His kids made quite a hearty living, so there was no shortage of money. Counting the moment he was admitted to the hospital, the old man had been hospitalized for thirteen years.

He was introverted, didn’t talk much, and wasn’t a picky eater. On weekdays, except for reading books and watching TV, the elderly man didn’t have any other requirements. All the nurses had a pretty good impression of him.

Usually, when people came to visit, the old man would always look their way and nod quietly.

But this time, it was different.

The old man didn’t look at Sun Qi’an, as if he hadn’t noticed her arrival. His wheelchair was parked by the window of the ward. The location of the ward was quite good, as he could see most of Haigu.

Perhaps the old man was tired of reading and wanted to look at the scenery. Sun Qi’an didn’t think much about it and just waited politely at the door.

At this moment, the old man moved…

He raised his hand, straightened his skinny fingers, and made a gun gesture.

The direction of the muzzle was pointed towards the Shian Building at the center of the city.

“Mr. Qiu?” Sun Qi’an called out in surprise.

The old man turned his head stiffly and smiled at her.

It was a twisted smile that bared all his teeth.

---

The author has something to say:

Cleansing wipes and chocolate chips save the world!!!

Good news: We’re in love!

Bad news: Medical examination and separation into isolation rooms.

Xiao Yin and Xiao Zhong: ……

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 79: Rabbit

Wang Zhou looked at the transformed ghost fetus in front of him with fear.

Soon after Zhong Chengshuo entered, its expansion suddenly stopped.

The fleshy pillars connecting to the sky vortex withered and shattered as the dark, pitch-black ghost fetus gradually shrank. The intense evil qi dissipated, and the sense of oppression disappeared without a trace. Guo Laifu’s world of consciousness became day, and they could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The campus in front of them returned to its original state once again.

Bao Linlin patted her face vigorously. “Reporting. Should we continue to rebuild the ‘artificial gap’?”

There was a little more relaxation in her voice.

“Continue.” Fu Xingchuan wrinkled his brows. “Lu Xiaohe, Zhao Shiyin, try rebuilding the pass—”

“Minister Fu, I received communication from Yin Ren.”

Lu Xiaohe’s unilateral communication interrupted Fu Xingchuan. She sounded shocked and confused, without any drowsiness in her voice.

“What?”

“Yin Ren claimed that Kong Wanqing from Sunken Society was involved in the matter, and they will give a detailed investigation report after they get out. His voice sounded quite confident, so maybe he found something.”

“Yin Ren also said that Kong Wanqing has been eliminated. He and Zhong Chengshuo are safe now and only need to take a short rest inside.”

Fu Xingchuan instantly rubbed his stubbled chin. “Can you be sure the other side is in a normal mental state?”

“To be honest, not really.” Lu Xiaohe reported dreamily. “Since it’s Yin Ren reporting, his voice pattern, speaking habits, and characteristics match perfectly. Communication is gradually restored, and they are also wearing their wristbands, so I was able to get some physiological indicators.”

“Then what is the basis for your ‘unconfirmed mental state’?” Fu Xingchuan raised his brows.

“Emotional index.”

Lu Xiaohe sounded even more confused.

“The wristbands that Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo are wearing didn’t return any malicious emotions, but…”

Zhong Chengshuo not having any negative emotions was fine, but Yin Ren’s emotions were relatively normal. At this moment, that person’s “Expectation”, “Nervousness”, “Relaxation”, and “Anxiety” were all mixed together, and “Like” was so overwhelming it made her eyes hurt.

Combining Zhong Chengshuo’s “Like” with Yin Ren’s, it was like someone adding two chopsticks to her bar chart.

They exceed the typical threshold of “love”.

…When combined with the fluctuation of the two’s previous “like,” the development of this thing could be traced.

“Minister Fu, I think there are three possibilities.”

Lu Xiaohe briefly described the situation and then came to a conclusion with difficulty.

“First, the intruder did something. Second, they were bewitched by some kind of abnormal phenomenon. Third, uh, they fell in love.”

All three options sounded completely ridiculous.

The intruder didn’t come to the Archive just so he could release pink love waves. Anomalies would preferentially induce lust, so the emotional reading wouldn’t be so… innocent.

But who the hell would fall in love in this kind of shithole? Lu Xiaohe roared inside. Those who didn’t know would think those two bastards were visiting an aquarium.

Fu Xingchuan was silent for a long time. He found a pile of rubble and sat down, staring at the void inexplicably.

…This was really the most confusing class of newcomers he had ever brought. Even the knowledgeable Fu Xingchuan couldn’t think of a reason.

But he wouldn’t be stupid enough to believe what he was told.

“Xiao Lu, keep in touch with Yin Ren.” Minster Fu helplessly exhaled a ring of smoke. “Just in case, I’ll stay here and guard. I’m not going anywhere. There’s no need to increase troops on Shian’s side. Call someone to pick up Xiao Ge and Xiao Huang first.”

“Yes.”

“In addition,” Fu Xingchuan narrowed his eyes. “Have Shian do a full set of tests to ensure everyone in Unit 9 receives the most comprehensive internal medical examination.”

“Understood.” Lu Xiaohe’s tone became serious.

“What did Lu Xiaohe say?” Wang Zhou approached curiously—the internal situation was strange, and Lu Xiaohe and Fu Xingchuan were using a one-line call.

“Nothing.” Fu Xingchuan continued puffing out smoke. “I just suddenly felt that Unit 7 is quite worry-free.”

At least breaking an arm or leg was still within the comprehension of normal people.

Bao Linlin and Wang Zhou: “……”

……

On campus.

Yin Ren cut off the communication and let out a long sigh of relief.

After all the ups and downs, his physical condition was surprisingly good, but he was mentally tired. It was just that the exhaustion was mixed with sweet excitement. Yin Ren stretched out beside Zhong Chengshuo, and his eyes couldn’t help but fall on him involuntarily.

He had helped lay Zhong Chengshuo down from the head of the bed and was now lying on the single bed. The man was sleeping heavily; his appearance was the same as always, but Yin Ren felt something was different.

For example, the man’s features suddenly became more pleasing to the eye.

Yin Ren couldn’t help but poke his hand. His fingertips slid down the side of Zhong Chengshuo’s face. Zhong Chengshuo seemed to recognize his aura. The man turned his cheek sideways toward Yin Ren’s hand. His brows stretched as he murmured vaguely.

Lord Ghost King froze in place.

Partner, accomplice, lover. Through the invisible, intangible role transformation, the touch of this person’s skin had changed a lot. It felt more lively and hot, as if something was about to invade his fingertips, causing his fingers to tingle and become numb.

An evil thing and a mortal had become lovers. Yin Ren had seen countless similar stories. Until now, he had a unique… lack of confidence in his own control.

Mr. Yin had never eaten pork but had seen pigs run*. How wonderful. His pig had started to run, and in the process, it had turned 360-degrees and done ten consecutive backflips.

*(没吃过猪肉，也见过猪跑) Metaphor referring to having not experienced things personally but have heard/seen them so you have some understanding || In this context, it’s basically saying, he has seen relationships but has never been in one, but he has some understanding of them. The author then uses the pig allusion from the metaphor to basically say, now he has experienced it, and on a much greater scale than he had imagined.

Yin Ren had never seen this scene before.

It was completely different from what was in the script, and it wasn’t at all similar to the feelings he imagined.

Was “like” such a tricky and hot thing?

His own experience of “taking care of everyone as a junior” was no longer applicable—rather than stripping away secrets and teasing mortals, he now had no idea how to get along with them. Lord Ghost King’s face was burning.

Guo Wei watched Yin Ren move around in confusion.

Yin Ren lay down by the side of the bed, burying his entire face in the sheets. He and Zhong Chengshuo were squeezed side by side on the single bed, one facing up, the other facing down, like two pieces of rice cake waiting to be turned over.

Somehow, Guo Wei felt that the long-haired brother exuded a sense of shame.

“Guo Wei.” Yin Ren’s voice was muffled by the bed sheets.

“Nn.”

“I still have some snacks in my suitcase. You can eat them,” Yin Ren whispered. “By the way, go around the campus and see if you can restore some memories. If you can’t, we’ll help you after our break.”

Without the corruption and its source, Guo Wei had returned to his honest appearance. “Okay, thank you, brother.”

When the boy left, Yin Ren was still slumped inside the sheets, like a rice cake, until a hand touched his long hair.

Suddenly, Yin Ren almost bounced like a live fish.

“Yin Ren.” Zhong Chengshuo’s voice was low, beside him.

“You’re awake?” Yin Ren didn’t turn over and stubbornly kept facing down. “It’s only been a while. Get some sleep.”

“I can’t sleep well. I’ve been thinking about our affairs in a daze.”

Our affairs.

Yin Ren slowly turned his head sideways and found half a shiny red ear sticking out from the edge of the nightcap. The piece of light red looked like shallow scratches, making Yin Ren’s hands so itchy that he couldn’t help but rub them as presumptuously as before.

“Oh, mm.” Yin Ren thought for a while and responded primitively.

The two were silent for a moment.

“Actually, I have a question to ask.” Zhong Chengshuo turned to his side and stared at Yin Ren with his bright, black eyes.

Sure enough, a science post was a science post. Seeing such a scene, it was impossible for Zhong Chengshuo to easily let him go. Yin Ren put away his scattered thoughts and held his breath.

Zhong Chengshuo: “How old are you this year?”

Yin Ren: “…” What kind of weird entry point is this?

Yin Ren: “One—one hundred and eighty years old.”

Zhong Chengshuo was silent, but his black eyes held a lot of suspicion and a little condemnation.

Yin Ren’s gaze wandered. “…Actually, I’m three hundred and sixty years old, but I have been asleep for a while, so I cut it in half.”

Zhong Chengshuo continued his starring attack.

Lord Ghost King quickly gave up resistance. “Fourteen hundred years old… but I didn’t lie to you. I have slept for more than a thousand years, so it really can’t be counted. You should treat me as three hundred and sixty.”

Zhong Chengshuo: “…Okay.”

There was another burst of silence.

Yin Ren couldn’t hold back. He turned and poked Zhong Chengshuo’s face with the tip of his hair. “Do you have any other questions?”

That memory, that mountain village, his own huge body, Kong Wanqing’s weird death… With the insight of King Yama, he probably guessed that “Yin Ren is most likely an Evil Spirit”.

But Zhong Chengshuo didn’t ask.

Zhong Chengshuo was a person who used his broken hair for research. Now that they were getting closer, he had become more reserved.

“Are there really no other questions?” Just in case, Yin Ren asked again.

“There is, but that’s your worst memory.” Zhong Chengshuo pondered for a moment. “I don’t want to pry into… you because of my own curiosity. You’re now not only my object of observation, but also my lover.”

“The book says that it’s better to let things go with the flow.”

“…I see.” Yin Ren’s expression softened a little.

Zhong Chengshuo moved and leaned toward Yin Ren. His forehead gently rested against Yin Ren’s forehead. He closed his eyes again, and there was a fresh smell of mint on his breath.

“I actually bought two packs of chocolate chips.” Zhong Chengshuo spoke with his eyes closed. “There’s another bag in the luggage.”

“That brand tastes good.” Yin Ren felt the body heat and heartbeat of the other. Strangely, he developed a hint of sleepiness. “Let’s go back, and buy… some later…”

“Okay, wait until we go home.” Zhong Chengshuo also had some drowsiness in his voice.

“I want to go home now…” Yin Ren sighed softly, rubbing the tip of his hair against the bed sheet, and gently hooked Zhong Chengshuo’s thumb.

The absurd and bizarre night was over, and the sky outside the window gradually lit up as dawn was coming.

Warm breaths intertwined. On the small single bed, two people fell asleep together.

……

When the two woke up again, the sky on campus was already bright.

The main teaching building was safe and sound. Guo Wei repaired part of the campus by himself. However, the small part that remained—especially the areas that Zhong Chengshuo blew up—was still a mess. Zhong Chengshuo was debugging his equipment not far away, preparing to speak with Shian.

Yin Ren, on the other hand, sat with Guo Wei on the edge of the flower bed. The pomegranate flowers were in full bloom above their heads.

The dark hair swam across campus, hooking up the building rubbles and quickly putting them back together.

The twisted gate was restored to its original state, the hole in the wall fence was intact again, and the senior high school building and bathrooms gradually returned to their original appearance. The flattened building “healed” under Guo Wei’s powers, and the campus became closer to the day when Unit 9 had just arrived.

The phantoms of students came and went on campus, and above the campus was a clear morning sky.

“The specifics are this. Guo Wei, have you thought it through?” Yin Ren asked seriously.

Shian would continue to look for the cause of Guo Laifu, and he would be executed after he recovered. If Guo Wei continued to stay here, when Guo Laifu died, he would disappear as well.

Yin Ren looked at Guo Wei.

Guo Wei had completely returned to his original appearance, but his eyes were still clouded with the peculiar characteristic of death. At that moment, Guo Wei looked at the gate of the campus not far away. His baggy school uniform swayed in the wind.

“Mm, I’ve made up my mind. Even if I go with you, if I want to become a ghost, I still have to give up these things.”

Guo Wei stared at the campus, which was slowly returning to its original appearance.

People he knew well had come. Compared with before, there were a few more yellow flowers on the green lawn, looking like melting sunlight.

Yin Ren: “Yes, you will have to give them up.”

After all, pure obsession was the essence of a ghost, and this couldn’t be changed.

“But I won’t use a brutal method like Kong Wanqing. I’ll only seal up your memories.”

…But what should be forgotten must be forgotten. To forget or disappear, Guo Wei could only choose one.

“Yin Ge, do you know?”

Guo Wei didn’t directly answer him and kept staring at the campus gate not far away.

“When I was young, my mother was beaten so much by Guo Laifu that she had no choice but to escape to a foreign country. I don’t blame her, though. She still hugged me and cried for a long time before she left. I have thought many times that even if she can start a new life, I will always be a thorn in her heart.”

Yin Ren patted the boy on the back. Guo Wei was very thin, and he could feel the joints in his spine.

“After that, I went to school, and my grades were average. At that time, I thought, the world is more than me, and it won’t miss anything without me.”

“It’s meaningless to live. If only I could choose not to be born—I’m a nuisance to my mother, the village, and the school.”

Guo Wei’s eyes were a little red. He straightened his back stubbornly and didn’t wipe his eyes.

“But I have such good teachers and classmates. For the first time, I thought it’s a good thing to be alive… I also properly said goodbye to them, it’s great.”

Guo Wei looked at the blue sky in his memory and twitched his nose. “…Really great.”

“So, Yin Ge, this time, I want to choose ‘not to be born’ on my own.”

“……Okay.”

The phantoms of the students were playing around on the sunny campus. Several students in Class 2 and 3 stepped into the main teaching building with their backpacks and passed the two of them in front of the flower bed.

Guo Wei looked at the phantoms gently.

After a long time, Guo Wei took out a black ballpoint pen from his pocket.

“If you want Guo Laifu to return to normal, destroy this.”

The black ballpoint pen was simple in shape. Yin Ren had seen it with his own eyes. Guo Wei once used it to switch between day and night outside the campus.

“This is the memory that drove Guo Laifu crazy—it was the center of the outside world before and was particularly conspicuous.”

Guo Wei handed the black ballpoint pen to him with both hands, with such firmness that it couldn’t be rejected.

“In order to make sure you come to my school, I listened to Kong Wanqing’s suggestion and turned it into a pen and took it with me…As long as you give it a little stimulation, Guo Laifu’s head will be confused for about half an hour. Destroy this memory and he will regain his sanity.”

“In fact, when you were in the hotel, I deliberately caused the night. At that time, I ran to see you, but I was accidentally discovered by Zhong Ge.”

Having said that, Guo Wei lowered his head a little embarrassedly.

Yin Ren was slightly stunned.

…Zhong Chengshuo had seen Guo Wei before entering the school?

But he didn’t report this to Shian. Even though this information was of little value after entering the school, this wasn’t at all like Zhong Chengshuo’s style.

Guo Wei didn’t notice Yin Ren’s distraction. He continued in a low voice, “Before destroying it, if you want, I can take you in and have a look.”

“Then I’ll trouble you.”

At that moment, Yin Ren collected his thoughts.

Zhong Chengshuo was rightfully his lover, so he could just ask directly. Yin Ren reached for the pen, but his hand was grabbed halfway in mid-air.

It was Zhong Chengshuo’s hand.

Zhong Chengshuo had finished messing with the communication equipment. At some point, he approached. At this moment, he looked at the pen in his hand in silence, and his fingers moved slightly as he rubbed it repeatedly.

For a moment, Yin Ren almost thought he was going to snap it in half.

After a few seconds passed, Zhong Chengshuo seemed to have made some determination. He released his fingers and solemnly stuffed the pen into Yin Ren’s hand.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’ll know later,” Zhong Chengshuo said as he lowered his eyes.

Guo Wei looked at Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo. In the end, he decided to give up guessing Mr. Zhong’s charades. Guo Wei tapped his fingertips on the pen and directly activated the memory inside.

Like a dark room that was erected on the campus, the surrounding scene quickly dimmed. Guo Wei’s memory operation was much stronger than Kong Wanqing’s. The picture in front of the three of them was as clear as a movie.

Rapid gasping echoed in the room as Guo Laifu looked at his own body.

His hands, feet, and torso were all wrapped around an office chair. The person who bound him was very professional, and specially selected thick tape and cloth that wouldn’t leave strangulation marks. Not to mention struggling, Guo Laifu couldn’t even use his strength.

There was a gag in his mouth, and saliva kept sliding down from its corners.

Frighteningly, Guo Laifu quickly glanced around.

This was a fairly dim space, roughly forty square meters.

There were no windows, and the air was a bit humid. There were multi-layer shelves on both sides of the room, and the stainless-steel round cans on the shelves were tightly packed and neatly stacked. They were all the size of a human head, and each had a small label on it.

There was a long table in the middle of the room.

Guo Laifu’s gaze was fixed…

A figure was leaning on the edge of the long table. There were neat little objects piled up beside the man’s hand. They were blurred by the shadows, but they exuded a different kind of cold aura.

“You’re awake,” the figure said.

The figure stood up from the table and stepped out of the shadows. At the same moment, Yin Ren held his breath subconsciously.

He recognized the figure.

It was a young man wearing a creepy cartoon rabbit mask that Yin Ren was very familiar with. He was flipping through a small, hard-covered notepad in his hand.

“Guo Laifu, 47 years old, serial murderer on the run, a fringe member of Sunken Society. You came to Haigu four days ago. You killed five people with your own hands, sacrificed and dismembered the victim while they were awake, and the last victim was your own son.”

That person’s voice was distorted by a voice changer, but his calm tone remained unchanged.

“A very suitable research object.”

Guo Laifu’s eyes were glued to the ominous rabbit mask. He struggled frantically, but he couldn’t even move the chair.

“Mmmmmm—” His bound hands trembled slightly.

“Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you.” The man put on black gloves carefully. “Murder is against the law.”

“Mmph!!!”

“When everything is over, I’ll help you pick a suitable city to surrender to.”

“Mmph!!!” Guo Laifu’s voice was full of shock and disbelief.

“Because in the end, you’ll always understand. Compared to being on the run, the police station is the place that will give you complete peace of mind.”

The eye holes in the rabbit mask were as black as the void, as if there was only an abyss under the mask.

---

The author has something to say:

Xiao Zhong: The book says go with the flow, so let’s take a look at the memory together.

Xiao Yin:

Xiao Yin: It was actually me who was complicit (x

So there is a reason for the lack of psychological descriptions of Xiao Zhong in this arc (?

On the first day of dating, Xiao Yin was shocked.jpg

---

Kinky Thoughts:

This chapter is too bittersweet. I was hoping Guo Wei would become a ghost and join Yin Ren, but he chose not to be born himself. That’s so sad.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 78: Gifts

‘What a beautiful creature,’ Zhong Chengshuo thought.

It exuded the smell of Yin Ren, and its appearance was much more regular than that Evil Spirit dog under Shian.

It—no—he knelt quietly in the center of the village, wearing countless dimly colored seals.

Embroidery, shackles, wooden runes, jade pieces—all kinds of spiritual seals were stacked layer by layer. They covered the huge monster like a mottled red veil, encompassing most of its body.

But they had a strange texture, not like foreign objects, but a texture of blood and keratin, as if they grew out of it.

The monster’s upper body still retained a little human structure, and the hanging “red veil” covered his “waist and abdomen”, hiding his head and torso underneath.

There was no flat skin under the red veil—hundreds of human arms that were slender and pale and covered in scars protruded out. The fingers at the end of the arms were much longer than ordinary people, with sharp black nails.

At this moment, they slammed into the ground fiercely, trembling violently; only one of them had their arms tightly curled around his chest.

From below his waist and abdomen, at the root of the arm, his skin gradually turned into a void-like darkness, without layers of the red veil.

The sealed red veil was scattered in all directions, and underneath it, it kept bulging, poking out countless sharp shrouds of unknown structures. The edge of the red veil was extended under Zhong Chengshuo’s feet, and he could see the little things underneath.

Those were countless tangled, translucent wings.

They had a shadowy ink color, an irregular structure, and fleshy “feathers”. These wings seemed as if they were melted at high temperatures, drawing and sticking to each other with a fluid texture like oil and filled with twisted, unknown runes.

Under the red veil, they twitched and trembled in pain.

Swish, swish.

Countless wings rubbed gently against each other, probing in all directions like the tide, creating a velvety sound.

Even for such a short time, Zhong Chengshuo could find that Yin Ren was still “expanding”.

Around him, the mountain village was looming in the thick fog, and the procession of evil beings kept circling around them. The green and red lights circled one after another, with Yin Ren precisely at the center.

Yin Ren trembled violently, but he didn’t have any murderous intent or hostility.

[If a person in a non-science position directly observes an Evil Spirit’s body, on the light side, they will lose their ability to think, and on the heavy side, they will die of cerebral hemorrhage on the spot.]

Li Nian had emphasized this to him in the underground where Shian’s Evil Spirit was before.

Kong Wanqing, who looked directly at Yin Ren, exploded on the spot, obviously suffering a more serious consequence than cerebral hemorrhage.

Though Kong Wanqing was dead, Guo Wei was still tied up with the red rope and was floating nearby. As partly a fierce ghost, Guo Wei was unharmed—the power of the Evil Force was purer than evil qi, so there was no reason for evil things to be affected.

Yin Ren was likely an unusually powerful Evil Spirit.

…And he was frantically suppressing his own power at this moment so that the surroundings wouldn’t be affected. There was no doubt that this was Yin Ren’s style.

Zhong Chengshuo looked away. He took off his glasses and carefully put them in his pocket.

He went straight to one of the giant hands and patted Yin Ren’s finger. “Yin Ren.”

The touch of the monster’s skin was warm; it could even be considered scorching.

That hand stopped trembling.

The bulge of the head under the red veil deflected slightly, facing Zhong Chengshuo.

Yin Ren seemed to want to say something but couldn’t. There was silence all around, with only the sound of wings rubbing against each other.

……

Not so long ago.

The balance collapsed, and it was about to get out of control.

Yin Ren suddenly understood the madness of Evil Spirits back then—his feelings were all confused, his negative emotions were completely out of control, and his thinking was like a boat braving a storm. His thoughts no longer seemed to be his own, and the whole world became a miserable mess.

From the moment he woke up under the seal, he began to suppress his power. He would… never become a complete Evil Spirit.

But now, in his chaotic thoughts, he understood.

Something inside him was solidifying while something else was decaying. It was raging out of control. Like a larva turning into a moth, his body was undergoing some kind of ominous transformation.

Perhaps he was no different from Guo Wei.

Perhaps before, he wasn’t really an Evil Spirit.

His thoughts were stirred up by storm-like emotions. The Evil Force in his body was out of control, disordered, and exuding an almost toxic rage. The rage triggered his instinctive fear, and Yin Ren’s thinking became more fragmented.

It was a vicious cycle.

It was like an organ that was originally functioning well in the body suddenly decayed at a certain moment. It frantically eroded the adjacent healthy parts, constantly attacking his body. Those forces turned into thousands of whirlpools, dragging his shattered thoughts into darker depths.

Was it because of the special environment of the Archive that made them particularly sensitive?

Or was it because of his momentary confusion?

Yin Ren couldn’t or didn’t want to think anymore. Just suppressing the Evil Force without letting it leak was consuming all his energy.

In the endless pain, Yin Ren thought dimly, ‘Zhong Chengshuo should have escaped by now.’

That person was rational and would come to the right conclusion—take away the members of Unit 9 and stay away from this place. Even Yin Ren himself couldn’t figure out the current situation, so there was no information for Zhong Chengshuo to speculate…

Even if Zhong Chengshuo “likes” him, he wouldn’t be dazzled by that kind of feeling…

“I’m here to pick you up, Yin Ren.” Yin Ren heard, tasted, and smelled a voice.

The scent of Zhong Chengshuo stopped in front of him.

There was a very subtle, warm touch on Yin Ren’s fingers.

“Yin Ren.” The man stroked his fingers and called to him confidently.

[Why?]

Yin Ren lowered his head, struggling silently in the whirlpool of thoughts. He couldn’t make a sound… He forgot how to make a sound, like he couldn’t find his vocal cords and tongue.

[Why did you come back?] He couldn’t convey his thoughts to that person.

“Kong Wanqing’s ability is to induce negative emotions and stir them out of control.” As if Zhong Chengshuo had guessed what he was asking, he answered him on his own. “In the Archive, it’s very dangerous to have a wavering mind.”

Yin Ren held on to his last sobriety. He stretched out his hand and pushed Zhong Chengshuo gently.

[So you need to get out of here…] He thought to himself.

“So I don’t think you should be ‘alone’ especially at a time like this.”

The smell of Zhong Chengshuo approached again. The warm body heat touched the scarred giant hand.

“I don’t want you to leave now.”

[…Are you trying to get yourself killed…]

Yin Ren commanded that hand with difficulty, gently pushing Zhong Chengshuo away again.

Once he completely lost control, Zhong Chengshuo would definitely die.

The weaknesses of a science post were clear. Being an Evil Spirit with a physical body, even if Zhong Chengshuo was strong enough to be immune to his Evil Force, he could still physically turn him into minced meat.

“I won’t do things I’m not sure about. If I die here, that means I made a wrong judgment.”

Zhong Chengshuo seemed to be able to read his mind. The man’s soft voice was gentle and tasted like slightly sweet tea.

“People die every day for this reason,” he said. “It’s just a very ordinary ending.”

He walked back again, his steps as firm as ever.

[……I don’t…understand……]

“Yin Ren, you’re the most humane, most appreciative of life, and the strongest person I have ever seen. You’ll struggle until the last moment.”

The air vibrated as the tone of voice changed. In the blurred colors, Yin Ren could vaguely feel Zhong Chengshuo speaking with a smile.

“I will never leave you ‘alone’, until you give up.”

This time, Zhong Chengshuo closed his eyes and relaxed his body slightly.

He leaned on Yin Ren’s palm; his soft hair brushed between his fingers, and his cheek rubbed against the skin of the palm. The man’s breath was small and light, but it was so distinct in the chaos.

Calm, peaceful, even reassuring.

Zhong Chengshuo leaned on Yin Ren’s palm. The atmosphere around him was exceptionally tranquil.

[……]

The expansion of his body stopped. His rusty mind began to turn, and a trace of wind blew into the suffocating pain.

Yin Ren suddenly remembered the moment on the rooftop not long ago.

[Aren’t you going to ask?] Before negotiating with Guo Wei, he couldn’t help asking this.

[I wouldn’t like someone that didn’t surprise me.] Zhong Chengshuo, who had forgotten his “like” replied like so. [As I said, I want to witness it for myself.]

At this moment, you also want to witness this with your own eyes, right?

In the face of the gradually collapsing Evil Force, a science post couldn’t do anything. Yin Ren miraculously felt a trace of calmness. Zhong Chengshuo’s body temperature soaked through his palm, and his breathing rose and fell.

Yin Ren thought of Zhong Chengshuo, who had been waiting for him in the office a long time ago and had fallen asleep.

The man was lying on the table, sleeping soundly, and his breath was warm and moist.

And that rainy night, much longer ago.

For a long time, Yin Ren only wanted to live day by day without looking back, but at this moment, he never wanted to go back to the past like that.

If the ending was doomed, at least… He at least wanted to say goodbye.

A trace of fire flashed faintly in the boundless darkness.

In the vicious cycle of loss of control, there seemed to be something more.

The waves of fear and despair washed away, gradually taking away his broken thoughts, but it couldn’t wash away the weakest and most instinctive thoughts.

Why did he want to go along with Zhong Chengshuo and tell him he’d “give it a try”?

Why did he want to explore the secrets of that person and compete in terms of “care”?

Yin Ren couldn’t remember.

But he still… recalled something that should have been smaller and less worthy of mention than these…

The arm that was curled up in his chest trembled and stretched out. It gently probed in Zhong Chengshuo’s direction as it opened its clenched fist.

In the palm of the giant hand, something glowed with a soft light. Compared to the huge palm, it looked like a piece of crumb…

A pack of slightly deformed waterless cleansing wipes with a minty fragrance.

He didn’t know why, but he still remembered to keep them for him.

Zhong Chengshuo’s movements froze for a few seconds. He put his knee on the other hand and grabbed the pack of waterless cleansing wipes. The man’s breath turned; he should be looking at him again.

At the bottom of the vortex of fear, under the abyss of despair, there was a little senseless anxiety and curiosity.

Yin Ren wanted to see Zhong Chengshuo’s expression. I wonder if he likes mint or aloe vera?

In order to facilitate his action, he could only carry one pack.

Zhong Chengshuo didn’t use it right away.

The air was flowing as Zhong Chengshuo held it carefully in his arms. Then the man moved beside his hand for a moment, as if he was taking something out of his pocket.

“What a coincidence,” he said. “I also bought you a gift.”

Zhong Chengshuo put it in the palm of the giant hand.

In his chaotic thinking, Yin Ren desperately squeezed out more clarity and tried to explore what it was…

A pack of colorful chocolate chips printed with exaggerated smiley faces.

In the dim mist, it was quite dazzling.

[……]

The man’s movement was solemn, and he didn’t care about how absurd this scene looked.

[……You’re such a person……]

In that short moment, Yin Ren wanted to laugh.

Although he couldn’t find the corners of his mouth, or even his face, helplessness, pleasure, and tranquility poured into his heart. In an instant, colorful emotions overshadowed the darkness.

A bit of clarity had returned. Yin Ren didn’t give up on this opportunity. He tried his best to stay awake.

Restrain. Sort… Order.

The huge monster got up slightly. The wings under the red veil swished open, causing the seals around them to rattle without wind. All of Yin Ren’s fingers twitched frantically, except the one holding Zhong Chengshuo, which trembled with restraint.

To tame, to fuse… to dominate.

The light in the darkness became brighter, and the chaos and corruption gradually faded. The Evil Force in his body reluctantly bowed down, and the vicious cycle was completely broken.

The mist faded, and the red veil danced gently. The surrounding environment became clearer, and various perceptions gradually returned to place.

But Zhong Chengshuo seemed to be thinking about other things.

Seeing that Yin Ren didn’t withdraw his hand, after thinking for a few minutes, Zhong Chengshuo said, “I see. It’s not easy for you to open the packaging.”

[No such thing.]

Unfortunately, Zhong Chengshuo couldn’t hear what he was saying. The man climbed into Yin Ren’s hand, tore open the bag of chocolate chips, and poured out the colorful candy into the center of the palm.

The next moment, they fell deeply into the flesh of the palm, as if sinking into a swamp.

‘A sweet and bitter taste,’ Yin Ren thought. He liked it very much.

…He also liked the person who gave them to him.

In the bloody mist, hundreds of arms stopped trembling.

The hand clutched slowly, holding Zhong Chengshuo in the palm of his hand. Zhong Chengshuo leaned on Yin Ren’s finger. He could feel Zhong Chengshuo’s body didn’t tense up; his posture was relaxed even, as if he were resting.

The folded arm was like a cascade of petals, and the hand that was holding Zhong Chengshuo came closer to his chest….

Almost like a hug.

Out of control and wretched, but unprecedented peace and relief.

“Zhong Chengshuo…”

Under the red veil, a faint and distorted voice came from the outline of the head.

“We… um, we…”

“Let’s ‘give it a try’.”

Through the faint “red veil”, in Yin Ren’s distorted vision, he saw Zhong Chengshuo’s solemn face.

“Okay.”

Zhong Chengshuo put his hands at the root of Yin Ren’s thumb and replied seriously.

He then moved for a moment and pulled out a small notebook, pen and paper from the inner pocket of his suit.

“Then today is officially the first day of our relationship,” Zhong Chengshuo said happily as he jotted down a few words in the notebook.

“Yeah.” Yin Ren wanted to laugh again.

He stretched out his arms and gently placed Zhong Chengshuo on the ground.

The last bit of chaos was overshadowed by sobriety.

The red veil flew up and swirled in the mist. The wings gathered together, and the arms retracted. The huge figure shrank as if it were collapsing and contracting, and countless colors were sucked into a human-sized figure.

The Evil Spirit named “Yin Ren” didn’t succeed in descending into the world after all.

Yin Ren slowly fell to the ground, regaining his human appearance. The ruins collapsed, and the shadows of the mountains melted. The phantoms of his memory dissipated, and the surrounding area became the dark campus again.

It felt as if a lifetime had passed.

Yin Ren’s head was sore, and his limbs were slightly numb, but he was in a particularly comfortable mood…

After this battle, his control over his Evil Force had greatly improved, and he could now safely use about one-third of his power instead of pulling it out little by little.

And he harvested his first lover in a thousand years.

…Except for the long tunic he was wearing that failed to be restored, everything else was fine. Yin Ren silently wrapped himself in his hair.

Lord Ghost King’s size shrank too much, and the distance between him and Zhong Chengshuo had suddenly widened by a lot.

The sound of leather shoes stepping on the ground and tiles sounded as Zhong Chengshuo quickly walked over to Yin Ren.

He opened his arms slightly toward Yin Ren.

“What? You want me to fly you?” Yin Ren spoke a little jerkily.

“No,” Zhong Chengshuo said. “I want a hug.”

“Hug…”

Yin Ren brushed away the long hair in front of his face and hugged him somewhat carefully.

Through the thin layer of hair, he could feel Zhong Chengshuo’s warm body, and his heartbeat was fast and strong, with the tendency to gradually speed up. Just now, in the palm of his hand, Zhong Chengshuo looked so fragile, but holding him in his arms at this moment, he exuded a vitality that couldn’t be ignored.

In the dark consciousness, in the silent embrace, Yin Ren quietly turned his head and kissed the other’s blushing ear.

Zhong Chengshuo suddenly stiffened under his embrace, and his ears instantly turned red.

“You caught me.”

Yin Ren took advantage of the situation and grabbed the back of the other party’s suit, sighing in relief.

“Let’s go home, Zhong Chengshuo.”

“Nn.” Zhong Chengshuo buried his face into the crook of Yin Ren’s neck. “This report is going to be a bit troublesome…”

Yin Ren: “……”

Yin Ren: “…Don’t say that. I almost lost control again.”

Despair came so suddenly that his heart stopped for a moment.

……

Sure enough, the journey home for the two of them wasn’t going to be smooth.

Fifteen minutes later, the campus returned to the night scene—Yin Ren untied the red rope and used his Evil Force to wake up Guo Wei, who was unconscious.

The three of them sat in silence in the staff dormitory.

The four packs of waterless cleansing wipes were used by the two partners. Yin Ren had put on Zhong Chengshuo’s pajamas. Sure enough, the pajamas quickly turned into a black tunic.

Right now, the two were sitting on the edge of the same bed. Yin Ren was carefully wiping the mud off of Zhong Chengshuo’s face.

That was the last trace of Kong Wanqing left in the world, and it must be completely destroyed.

“Kong Wanqing directly looked at my body and exploded.” Yin Ren swallowed and confirmed in a low voice.

“Yes.” It was about 5 in the morning. Zhong Chengshuo yawned.

“It’s possible Minister Fu is setting up an exit outside and we’ll bump into it when we go out.”

“I see…”

“If you guys want to go out, I can send you out in a while.” Guo Wei had changed from his previously sinister look. He was looking at the ground awkwardly. “I didn’t know that Mr. Kong was a bad guy, sorry. I caused so much trouble for everyone…”

“It’s okay, classmate. You must not open the campus completely.” Yin Ren rubbed his head painfully. “We have to think of an excuse first. Zhong Ge, ahem, Chengshuo, do you have any ideas?”

Unfortunately, at just this time, Zhong Chengshuo had already fallen asleep at the head of the bed.

Yin Ren: “!!!”

Yin Ren: “……”

Lord Ghost King sighed for a few seconds, then he turned to the nightcap in the suitcase and gently snapped it on his boyfriend.

‘Forget it,’ he thought.

“’The situation is too complicated. It’s best not to lie and just distort the details’… right?” Yin Ren rubbed the tips of Zhong Chengshuo’s hair with his fingertips, imitating the other party’s tone. “Classmate Guo, help me out and close the campus for a little longer.”

Then Yin Ren returned to the suitcase and pulled out a spare headset and wristband.

“Hello, Special Investigation Unit 9. Xiaohe Jie, can you hear me?”

---

The author has something to say:

Out of control refers to physically out of control (……

Xiao Yin, don’t rush to wear the wristband. Xiao Yin, your Lu Jie hasn’t prepared her heart-attack medicine…

---

Kinky Thoughts:

Ah, I love this chapter. As always, Nian Zhong writes beautifully when it comes to awakening the feelings of her characters. Love it in Stray and Happy Doomsday, and now this.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>