Chapter 368: a cat hitchhiker

"AHM… Brother Ji Yun?" Luo Yan asked, completely unsure.

"It's me," said Shen Ji Yun's voice and it was indeed coming from the rabbit mascot. 

Luo Yan blinked a couple of times and stared at the big white rabbit standing in front of him. His face was probably filled with question marks right now. It's like his brain suddenly came to a pause while slowly processing what he was seeing right now. And once his brain was done processing, he burst out laughing. 

"Haha… Brother Ji Yun… hahaha… what are you wearing?"

Shen Ji Yun's face hiding inside the rabbit suit flushed brightly red. Of course, he was embarrassed to wear something like this. But what could he do? When he was thinking of ways on how to disguise himself, after much consideration, he thought that this was the best one. With the head gear, he could completely hide his horns. But only wearing the head gear looked weird. So, he decided to just wear the whole thing. 

Good thing that after got off the train he immediately spotted a stall selling this rabbit mascot suit. This white rabbit was one of the mascots of Tropical Land. And that stall was selling the suits of all those mascots. Of course, he had to choose the rabbit suit. If he had to make a fool of himself, then he'd rather do it in a rabbit mascot suit.

He stared at Luo Yan who was still laughing happily. His peach blossom eyes were bent into crescents, a melodious laughter coming out of those pink lips. Suddenly, all the embarrassments he felt disappeared. He could make a fool of himself a million times if that meant that he could see Luo Yan laugh. For that beautiful smile, everything was worth it.

"I'm disguising myself," he just said with a bit of helpless tone in his voice.

Luo Yan had already guessed that. But still. There's still definitely a lot of other ways to do it. But instead of doing those things, Shen Ji Yun chose to wear a rabbit mascot suit. Seriously, sometimes he couldn't understand this guy's thought process. But that's also one of the things that made him adorable.

"How come this place is even selling mascot suits?" he asked after he finished laughing.

"I have no idea either. There's probably a demand for it, so those programmers in charge of this place made one."

"Was the stall filled with hanging mascot suits?" Luo Yan asked curiously, imagining a stall with different animal mascot suits of all sizes hanging in it.

"Actually, no. There's only a holographic screen. Once you picked the one you wanted, then it would be automatically equipped on your game avatar. Just like a costume," Shen Ji Yun explained.

That's a bit disappointing. Well, this was a virtual game. So, it's understandable that they do it that way.

He glanced at Shen Ji Yun and he couldn't help but chuckle again seeing him in that big rabbit mascot. "Then, shall we go, Mr. Rabbit?"

If Luo Yan could see Shen Ji Yun's face right now, he would see a small smile crossed the other's face. "Okay."

And the both walked towards the castle.

----------

Bai Ze, the 'eternal unlucky one', was driving a two-horse drawn carriage towards the direction of the Wild Land. Inside the carriage was his traitor cousin and the pink-haired witch loli. 

He was still sulking a bit. He couldn't understand why he always lose to Su Yuqi. In real life and even inside the game, he couldn't win a verbal argument. That girl was simply his nemesis. And Luo Jin, who should take his side, with them being cousins and all, took Su Yuqi's side instead. As he always did. Bai Ze was close to thinking that Su Yuqi made his cousin drink some ecstasy potion that's why he's so obedient to her.

Bai Ze didn't continue to argue with them and just reluctantly concede. Thus, ending up with him driving this carriage like some coachman or something.

It's because he also wanted to meet up with Shen Ji Yun and Luo Yan as soon as they could. He already sent a message to Shen Ji Yun but he still hadn't read it. He wasn't sure if it was intentional or if he was just in a situation where he couldn't read his messages. But then again, he read Su Yuqi's message. So, why couldn't he read his? 

He doubted if he was discriminating against him. After all, between him and Su Yuqi, surely Ji Yun would choose him. Their friendship of more than ten years was surely not just for nothing. So, did that mean that he intentionally didn't read his message? But why?

He once again remembered the reason why they were here. Because of those rumors floating around that Shen Ji Yun and Luo Yan was on a date here. Bai Ze didn't believe a whiff of it. This was Shen Ji Yun they were talking about. The same guy who wouldn't smile even if the prettiest girl confessed to him. Well, granted, Luo Yan was indeed much prettier compared to any girl or boy out there. But still. 

Besides, why would Shen Ji Yun even go to a date with his cousin? Although he knew that there were people out there who preferred the same gender, the possibility of his friend liking Luo Yan had never entered his mind. It's not that he had something against two men falling in love. In fact, he had no opinions about it. 

His problem here was that one of the people involved was his cousin who was a minor and was in a coma for seven years. So, he didn't like that kind of rumor involving Luo Yan. Not that he believed it, mind you.

In conclusion, the only possibility he could think of why the two were together here was because of a task. Which was more believable and definitely more acceptable.

Bai Ze's train of thought was suddenly cut off when someone called him.

"White Marsh!" – It was a female voice that sounded familiar but he couldn't remember where he heard it.

He looked around. He hadn't yet found the owner of the voice when someone suddenly jumped on the carriage and sat beside him. 

It was a girl with short ash brown hair cut into a bob. A pair of cat ears was on top of her head. There were even whiskers on her slightly plump cheeks. She looked a bit plain but her pair of cat-like green eyes were very attention grabbing. It made her face more charming.

Bai Ze, who almost had a heart attack, certainly recognized this girl. No wonder that voice earlier seemed familiar. 

"Catnip?"

Xia Li smiled a toothy grin, making her look like some mischievous cat. "Hi. Mind if I hitchhike?"