CH 13.2

Chapter 13.2 – The Tyrant, Shi Yuan

After that, Lu Tinghan listened to Shi Yuan recite his lines while sketching.

Shi Yuan: “Become my nourishment!”

Lu Tinghan finished drawing grass.

Shi Yuan: “This world is very cruel! Traveler, you have disturbed the spirits in the woods, today is the day you will die!”

Lu Tinghan finished drawing the two flowers.

Shi Yuan: “Beneath this forest are rotten mud and human white bones! Your blood will turn into beautiful red leaves that can never escape the forest!”

Lu Tinghan finished drawing the rolling mountains and clouds.

Shi Yuan practiced back and forth, and finally asked Lu Tinghan, “Is it still impossible?””

Lu Tinghan: “Not quite.” It’s no different from being coquettish.

Shi Yuan was a little sad.

Lu Tinghan put the sketchbook aside and said, “You are not suitable for this role. You don’t have that kind of vicious and insane feeling.”

“Then what should I do?” Shi Yuan curled up his tail.

Lu Tinghan thought for a while: “You can find a different way of thinking. For example, forget about the setting and lines of the tree demon, just assume that you are a monster.”

Shi Yuan: “Oh…”

In fact, there was no need to “assume” at all.

“Let’s assume that I am the ‘traveler’.” Lu Tinghan continued, “What would you say to me?”

Shi Yuan replied: “I would say, hurry up and stay, help me untie my tail, and then touch my head.”

Lu Tinghan: “Think of a more aggressive version.”

Shi Yuan thought for a long time: “Untie my tail! You still have to touch my head!”

“…” Lu Tinghan said, “Stop saying the words ‘tail’ and ‘head’, and change to something else.”

Shi Yuan: “……”

Shi Yuan: “Untie! Touch!”

Lu Tinghan’s face was expressionless, but if you look carefully, his eyebrows slightly throbbed.

He said: “Shi Yuan, it’s not that kind of feeling. All these things you said were ‘requests’ and all gave me the right to refuse. But the feeling the script wants is that you want to keep me in the forest forever, and if I go away, you’ll never find me again.” He touched Shi Yuan’s head. “The so-called villain is to achieve his purpose regardless of everything.”

Shi Yuan thought for a while in a daze, his tail froze in mid-air and he didn’t move.

Just like a sculpture.

When Lu Tinghan thought he had crashed, Shi Yuan leaned over.

He said, “Let me infect you.”

Lu Tinghan was taken aback.

Shi Yuan looked at him intently: “The world is cruel and human life is too short. It would be great if you could become a monster. I like you. Let’s live forever together in the mud and bones.”

He had a pair of jet-black eyes, and the pure blackness was like an abyss.

Lu Tinghan: “……”

Shi Yuan stepped back a little, looking forward to asking, “How is it this time?”

“……well.” Lu Tinghan said, “Very good.”

“Really?” Shi Yuan’s eyes lit up. “But these lines are not in the script.”

Lu Tinghan: “It doesn’t matter, just show it to the troupe like this, and you will definitely pass.”

Shi Yuan’s tail began to sway in the air, happily.

After being recognized, he finished reading the last point of the script and began to learn to use his mobile phone.

Lu Tinghan continued to draw sketches, and Shi Yuan tried the content on his mobile phone one by one, from the camera to the song-listening software to the mini-games. If he couldn’t understand something, he would ask Lu Tinghan.

That night, he received plenty of company and attention. He was satisfied, and the tip of his tail swayed in a pleasant rhythm.

When the whistle of the curfew sounded, Shi Yuan took a shower, still wearing pajamas of Lu Tinghan’s size, big and loose.

Lu Tinghan closed the sketchbook and suddenly asked, “Why do you suddenly want to go to the bar today?”

“Because of that new friend,” Shi Yuan replied. “He said he could drink and make money, and he could show me.”

Lu Tinghan: “You are not short of money, don’t go to that kind of place.”

“Why? Is that kind of place bad?”

“You are easily deceived.”

Shi Yuan couldn’t refute Lu Tinghan, he also knew that he was not very smart and could not tell lies. He said, “Well, then I won’t go.”

Lu Tinghan was just about to go upstairs, when there was the sound of footsteps behind him. Shi Yuan hugged him from behind and asked, “Will you have nightmares tonight?”

Lu Tinghan: “No.”

A firm response.

Without nightmares, it meant that Lu Tinghan would not need to sleep with him, as Shi Yuan wanted.

Shi Yuan invited again: “Then can I sleep with you? You can touch my tail, it feels very good.”

Lu Tinghan: “……”

Lu Tinghan: “No.”

Shi Yuan: “Your heart moved a little right?”

“No,” Lu Tinghan denied it. “Good night, Shi Yuan.”

Shi Yuan eagerly watched Lu Tinghan go upstairs before returning to his bedroom and fell asleep with his tail in his arms.

He woke up at six o’clock the next day, and Lu Tinghan was no longer at home.

Shi Yuan took a car to the Garcia Grand Theater and wanted to find Cheng Youwen to give him a performance with new lines.

Cheng Youwen was scratching his ears, cursing and rewriting the script, so he didn’t have time to pay attention to him. Qin Luoluo and Wolfgang were interviewing other actors. They said that the person who would play the “God of Salvation” in the script had not yet been decided.

Shi Yuan could only go to Xia Fang first.

Xia Fang chased Tracy, who was jumping up and down in the background: “Oh, little aunt, don’t run away, I can’t catch up—”

Wearing a black military hat and a blue armband wrapped around her shoulders, Tracy stood on a high prop stand. She shook her ears, her eyes were cat-like cunning, and she giggled: “Come after me, General Lu will never be caught by monsters!”

Half a piece of paper was pasted on Xia Fang’s back, and on it was written in a crooked manner: [Big monster!]

Xia Fang himself was ignorant of this.

“Don’t run away, don’t run away!” Xia Fang shouted, “What are you crazy about again? You will break things later!”

Shi Yuan moved a small bench and sat to watch them chase after each other. Finally, he understood that Tracy was playing the role of Lu Tinghan and Xia Fang was an infected creature.

Tracy ran frantically for a while, got tired of running, and was dragged by Xia Fang. Xia Fang said: “Auntie, Eldest Miss, you are not in good health, don’t run away – and you are pretending to be General Lu again, Cheng Youwen will definitely scold you for not learning well.”

“Just scold me then!” Tracy smiled, “He scolds me every day!” She laughed so hard that her whole body trembled and she couldn’t breathe. The tip of her nose and lips were blue and white.

—This was really unusual.

Thinking about it carefully, she was very quiet before, how could she be so excited and active?

Xia Fang grabbed her and left, Shi Yuan was not at ease and followed.

They went up the narrow stairs to the second floor. There was a small house at the end of the corridor with pink wallpaper and a child’s bed, white screen curtains, and a few puppet toys on the head of the bed. The plush bear looked at the visitor tenderly with dark eyes, and the rainbow flower with a raised smile.

This was Tracy’s room.

Xia Fang asked her to sit by the bed: “Auntie, take a break for  a while, your face is pale.”

“I don’t want to!” Tracy hugged the bear. “I still want to play games!”

“Didn’t I play with you?” Xia Fang’s head was aching. “How many times have you ‘killed’ me?”

Tracy’s eyes turned around and suddenly looked at Shi Yuan: “You are also a monster! I’m going to kill you, too!”

Shi Yuan thought for a few seconds, then fell to the ground: “Ah, I’m dead.”

Tracy’s eyebrows lit up and she smiled, and Xia Fang took the opportunity to roll her into the quilt. Her face was pale, and after being entertained, she soon fell asleep, still talking dreamily in her mouth: “I will kill all monsters…”

Shi Yuan followed Xia Fang out.

Xia Fang covered his face and said, “I didn’t expect that you are quite good at coaxing children.” He sighed. “I’m going to the balcony to get some air, you wanna come?”

They came to the balcony and leaned on the marble railing, taking in the crisscrossing streets under their eyes.

Xia Fang took a cigarette out and lit it, holding it in his mouth: “She didn’t scare you, did she?”

“No,” Shi Yuan replied honestly.

“It’s because of the sequelae of infection.” Xia Fang bit his cigarette, a bit slurred. “She was infected by cats, sometimes she gets so nervous and starts running up and down like crazy – you’ve seen a cat that does parkour at night, right?”

Shi Yuan shook his head.

“Anyway, she just goes crazy from time to time. She is not in good health and always runs to the hospital. She has been in the hospital for three months in the first half of the year. How can her body withstand such madness? You saw her running around, her lips were white.” Xia Fang sighed. “Just my luck. With such a small salary, I can only smoke the worst quality cigarettes, and I have to help take care of a kid.”

Shi Yuan hesitated for a moment: “The sequelae of infection are that bad?”

“Yeah, not everyone can be a mutant,” Xia Fang said. “You see, Cheng Youwen is also a cripple. He can’t even walk with his sheep’s hooves. It’s even worse in winter. Coughing every day is like coughing up all his lungs. I wouldn’t be surprised if he coughed himself to death one day.”

He glanced at Shi Yuan and said, “There are really a few people like you who have no sequelae. You are so lucky.”

Shi Yuan thought for a while and asked, “Does Mr. Cheng not like Lu Tinghan?”

“What?”

“You just said, ‘You are pretending to be General Lu again, Cheng Youwen will definitely scold you for not learning well’.”

“Oh, why do you remember so clearly?” Xia Fang flicked the cigarette ash. “He really doesn’t like the general, and he has to curse once he hears his name.”

Shi Yuan: “Why?”

Xia Fang looked at him with deep eyes, and suddenly asked, “You know that General Lu worked as an Abyss Watcher, right?”