Ch21 - Xiao Ming’s Daily Life

A sharp scream from the bathroom made the people in the living room jump up. The thin monkey took the lead and rushed to the door. “Sister Shen!”

He raised his hand to press it against the doorknob only to find that the door was locked from the inside. Shen Jie’s voice trembled. “Don’t…” 

The thin monkey who was unaware of the ins and outs was so hot-blooded that he almost slammed into the door. Fortunately, he was stopped in time by Shen Jie behind the door.

“Use your mind…” Shen Jie gasped. “I locked the door myself… I’m not blocking you. I’m blocking myself.”

“If I run out on impulse and the task isn’t completed, what should I do?”

Li Yinhang somewhat admired Shen Jie’s ruthlessness toward herself at this juncture. She leaned against the door and knocked carefully. “Sister, let me go in and accompany you.” 

Shen Jie didn’t say anything. She unlocked the door and opened the door a crack for Li Yinhang.

One hour later, the sweating Shen Jie walked out of the bathroom with her hair wrapped in a towel. This time to wash up was very lonely.

She described her experience as briefly as possible. The feet had appeared and left too quickly. Shen Jie had seen them from a head down position and didn’t have time to glimpse the entire person behind her. She could only grasp the small details and describe them.

Nan Zhou asked her, “Was it a child’s feet or an adult’s feet?”

Shen Jie’s face was pale and miserable. “It was like… a woman’s feet.”

It was silent in the living room. The inevitable had finally happened but no one felt relieved at all. In a horror game, ghosts would appear once the plot had reached a critical point or the investigation had entered an important stage. This was a common routine in ordinary games. However, even the most difficult games would have unlimited replays. For them, if they took the wrong step then they might never go back.

As everyone was silent, Nan Zhou suddenly raised his head and wondered, “Why is it a woman?”

The others who were in agreement by chance. “…Huh?” 

Nan Zhou repeated. “Why is it a woman?”

Everyone, “……”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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The fitness trainer who couldn’t keep up with his thoughts was a bit impatient. “Can you have fewer strange questions?”

“What about Mr Jiang?” He turned to look for Jiang Fang who was the translator. “Where did Mr Jiang go?”

The monkey clicked his tongue, patted the fitness trainer’s head and pointed to the door of the children’s room. Jiang Fang had entered a long time ago. Currently, Jiang Fang was lying on the bed in the children’s room with his hands folded together on his chest. He repeatedly flicked his fingers to stimulate his mind to move at a high speed. Due to his height, he was unable to lie flat on the small children’s bed. He had to hang his feet down on the edge of the bed and step on the slippers beside the bed.

Then Nan Zhou’s voice from outside the door passed through the door panel. “Why is it a woman?” 

Jiang Fang suddenly sat straight up from the bed when he heard these words. A small bit of inspiration flashed through his mind like a shooting star. It was a pity that he didn’t have time to catch it. By the time he realized it, only the light of the shooting star’s tail was left in his mind.

Jiang Fang frowned, slightly unhappy. He had just confirmed that he had failed to grasp the inspiration and was lying back down on the bed when there was a knock on the door. Then a figure slipped in through the crack in the door. It was Nan Zhou holding a quilt and pillow.

Jiang Fang didn’t move. Just like Nanji Star sitting on Nan Zhou’s shoulder, Jiang Fang watched him setting up the quilt beside the bed.

“Miss Li is sleeping in the living room with Shunfeng. I’m here to sleep.” Nan Zhou stated the facts. “They don’t understand me.” 

It was a very plain tone but Jiang Fang heard a bit of grievance from it. Jiang Fang repeatedly tried to hold down the corners of his lips while Nan Zhou reflected on it. ”Also, maybe Shen Jie encountered that thing in the bathroom because I tore off the wallpaper. I think something might happen tonight.”

“So?” Jiang Fang looked at Nan Zhou in the dim light of the nightlight. “You are moving in to protect me?”

“Yes.” Nan Zhou didn’t even think about it. “There will be points for protecting your teammates.”

This was valuable gaming experience that Nan Zhou had accumulated on the bus. Protecting a fellow teammate was worth 100 points for every person. 

Jiang Fang, “……”

Nan Zhou wondered, “Why aren’t you talking?”

Jiang Fang didn’t know if he should laugh or cry as he reached down from the bed. “Your 100 points wants to say goodnight to you.”

Nan Zhou looked at the hand that was in front of his eyes and gently touched it. “Good night…” 

Jiang Fang suddenly grasped his hand. It wasn’t in a forceful manner full of control and aggression. It was a tight hold. The movements were very light but resolute. He didn’t hold it for a long time. He only touched for a moment before naturally releasing it.

Jiang Fang smiled. “I worked my brain a bit too much and need to get my blood back.”

Nan Zhou didn’t understand why blood could be recovered by shaking the hand but he still gave a low ‘um’ to indicate that he knew. Nan Zhou turned over and thought, ‘Jiang Fang’s hand is very soft. It is just like I thought.’

Nan Zhou thought of this and fell asleep. He had a dream. Nan Zhou couldn’t remember how long it had been since he dreamed. In his dream, he was riding a bicycle on the main street of a small town. He was surrounded by people passing by. A familiar child waved at him and called him ‘Teacher Nan.’ 

He nodded to the child and kept riding forward until he reached the end of the crowd and the street before braking. The setting sun on the horizon was blood red, pale black mountains lay dormant on the horizon and the dry branches on both sides of the road were like slender ghost hands reaching to the sky.

He sat on the bicycle seat and watched the blood-stained sunset disappear from the sky. He slowly finished a whole apple before turning the bicycle around. He returned to the town under the particularly dim and hazy moonlight, heading toward a brightly lit home in the small town.

His mother smiled. “Are you back?”

Nan Zhou answered, “Yes.” 

His younger sister poked out her head. “Are you back?”

Nan Zhou answered, “Yes.”

His father was gentle and kind. “You’re back?”

Nan Zhou answered, “Yes.” 

After responding one by one, he put down his school bag full of paint. He rolled up his sleeves and went into the kitchen. Then he discovered there was a stranger in his kitchen who was taking out a steaming hot cake from the oven. He presumably heard a noise. The man turned around and smiled. “…You’re back?”

In his dream, Nan Zhou couldn’t see the person’s face clearly. He tried every means possible to know who this person was. Nan Zhou went around to the front of this person, pulled his shoulder and raised the chin but he couldn’t figure out the identity of this person.

Nan Zhou asked, “Who are you?”

The man kept smiling with his face covered in a cloud and refused to say it. 

Nan Zhou suddenly woke up while breathing rapidly. Melting warm light penetrated through the window. The sky was clear. The rising body temperature gradually normalized and his disordered breathing stabilized.

However, his mind was still in a trance.

Nan Zhou had a problem with dreaming. It wasn’t easy for him to separate himself from his dream.

Nan Zhou stared at the ceiling in front of him, trying to focus his attention on something realistic to speed up the process of organizing his thoughts. Then he started frowning as he watched the ceiling. 

…It felt like something was wrong.

Just then, a curse from the fitness trainer was heard from outside. “Fuck!”

Nan Zhou shot up from the ground. It wasn’t until he sat up that he was convinced it wasn’t his illusion. The house in front of him had a fantastic… no, weird distortion. The entire house had become smaller.

Nan Zhou stood up and his head touched the ceiling. He had been dreaming all night and now he hit the ceiling. There was sudden blackness in front of him and he fell back down on the bed. 

Nan Zhou was slow to come back to his senses. He held his head and rubbed the top of it. Nan Zhou looked at Jiang Fang waking up in front of him and suddenly felt this person was very familiar. However, he gradually forgot the content of the dream within a few minutes of waking up.

Nan Zhou stared at him for a while before pointing at the ceiling and whispering, “…It fell down.”

“It’s fine.” Jiang Fang patted him on the back and gently comforted him. “Even if the sky is falling, fortunately I am still tall.”