CH 35

Too fast. 

The shadow appeared so fast that Lin Yi’s mind almost separated from his body. He was actively thinking about what to do.

Before Lin Yi even realized it, he had already thrown the thermometer out of his pocket and then dodged to the opposite direction of the sound it made, huddling to make himself as small as possible.

He was attempting a feint to the east and an attack to the west. He was trying to get the 2-6 Monster in the kitchen to chase after the sound. He would then take that chance to look for another means to escape.

There was no place to hide in the dining hall. The only place, though hardly a good one, was the dining table. As soon as Lin Yi slid under the dining table, the dull sound of footsteps came into the dining hall. 

It came from the kitchen, was heading for his spot then walked past him. The footsteps seemed to be heading where the thermometer had landed.

Lin Yi held his breath. He knew very well where the thermometer he threw landed. It flew outside the dining hall, near the living room. If the footsteps chased after the sound, he could take this opportunity to leave the dining hall. Otherwise, once the 2-6 Monster finds out it was just a thermometer and turns back around, the only thing he could do was wait for death.

The dining table can’t hold back anything at all.

Thinking of this, Lin Yi begun to construct an escape route in his mind. But before he could even finish the first draft, the sound of footsteps suddenly stopped.

Lin Yi’s heart tightened. He had been listening to the footsteps the entire time. Based on the footsteps, he judged that the 2-6 Monster was just a little in front of the dining table. He hadn’t left the dining hall; at most, he was standing at the door of the room.

After the footsteps stopped, it was replaced by a rustling sound.

Like the friction of cloth.

Lin Yi’s brain immediately ‘hummed’. At the same time, the blood all over his body froze. The rustling of cloth… was from the 2-6 Monster leaning back, like a dancer stretching his muscles and ligaments before practicing; its upper body was continuously leaning back while its legs remain standing. 

Slowly, its entire upper body turned upside down. Unlike a dancer who would have used his hands to support himself against the ground to maintain his center of gravity, the Monster didn’t need it. Its center of gravity moved to its head. It persisted on this twisted and weird posture resting on the floor because it was clutching a sharpened chopstick on its right hand.

Its eyeballs rolled back and forth in their sockets, looking for the person hiding under the dining table.

Past the few dining chair legs, it spotted the shadow under the dining table and grinned.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” it said. 

“I knew you wouldn’t have mentioned about the sides of the dice for no reason.”

“You must be trying to tamper with the dice, am I right?”

It said, “His memory is really useful. I can already tell what you’re thinking just based on your movements or expressions.”

The figure under the dining table stayed motionless and the Monster stared at it for a while. 

The figure looked back at it calmly, with an expression on his face that didn’t match any in its spied upon memories. It had never seen such an expression.

This made it want to get closer, see him more clearly to search for relevant fragments in its memory.

It moved a little closer and saw the expression on the figure’s face.

Almost instantly, a terrified expression stole over its face. It was almost difficult to maintain a normal human expression. It has an impression of this, but it wasn’t from any human’s memory. It was a memory that has been sealed away for a long time, a memory belonging to the 2-6 Monster’s own memory. 

“You…you…” Its jaw was trembling: “It’s…it’s you…”

——

Lin Yi returned to his room. Ou Ying hurriedly asked, “Lin Yi, what took you so long?”

Jtfcu Tjcu jirb mtjrfv joafg tlw. “Olc Tl Wlbcu, jgf sbe jigluta?” 

Lf tjv vlrmerrfv klat Ye Tlcu atja lo Olc Tl vlvc’a mbwf yjmx, tf jcv Ye Tlcu kbeiv ub jcv ibbx obg tlw.

Olc Tl vlvc’a fnfc ibbx ja atfw. Lf kfca ragjluta ab atf yfv, abbx boo tlr rtbfr jcv ijs vbkc bc la.

Ou Ying noticed that something was strange about Lin Yi. “Lin Yi? Is something wrong?”

Lin Yi ignored her and closed his eyes. 

Ou Ying wanted to ask again but Cheng Yang pulled her to stop. “Ou Ying Xue Jie, forget it…Forget it. Lin Yi Xiong seems very tired. Let him rest.”

This reminded Cheng Yang of his business tycoon father, who didn’t want to talk to anyone whenever he came home after a long day of work.

Ou Ying glanced at Lin Yi. She also knew that Lin Yi hadn’t rested last night. But she was worried that Lin Yi’s strangeness was because something had happened.

Cheng Yang plucked up his courage and asked Ou Ying. “Ou Ying Xue Jie, then…then should we two go?” 

Without Lin Yi, the success rate of pouring mercury into the die has been reduced by more than half. But just as she had advised to Lin Yi, there was a high probability that tonight would be a safe night. If they didn’t take action tonight, with two active Rules of Death and most of the dice points pointing to the ‘evil choice’, their survival rate was going to be squeezed to almost nil.

Ou Ying said, “Okay.”

Cheng Yang stuffed the things he and Ou Ying made into his pocket. He then remembered the most important thing and said, “Where’s the thermometer?”

Ou Ying recalled, “I think Lin Yi has it. He took it out with him when he went out.” 

Saying so, Ou Ying looked at Cheng Yang.

After a long time, a lightbulb went off in Cheng Yang’s head. “Oh.”

Ou Ying is a girl. It wasn’t quite proper for her to be looking for the thermometer on Lin Yi’s body.

So it was left to Cheng Yang. 

Cheng Yang walked carefully to the bedside and reached out to rummage in Lin Yi’s shirt pocket. His movements were very light, for fear of waking up Lin Yi.

It wasn’t in the left pocket so Cheng Yang went to rummage in the right pocket.

It wasn’t in the right shirt pocket either. Cheng Yang was planning to check Lin Yi’s trouser pockets. But before he could act, he glanced at Lin Yi and unexpected locked eyes with him.

Cheng Yang choked. His philtrum began to throb again. 

“What… are you doing?” Lin Yi asked hoarsely.

“Look… looking for the thermometer…” Cheng Yang said with a trembling voice.

“Oh.” Lin Yi sat up and touched his shirt pocket. “Here.”

He came up empty. 

Cheng Yang and Ou Ying stared at Lin Yi and Lin Yi jumped up with a jerk from the bed, startling Cheng Yang into a yell, “Ahhhhhhh! F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!”

Ou Ying was actually a little scared by Lin Yi. She asked worriedly, “Lin Yi, are you feeling unwell?”

Lin Yi glanced around the room and fell silent.

How did he get back here? 

Ou Ying said, “You rest first. Cheng Yang and I will go find the dice.”

“Xue Jie, I really am feeling a little unwell.” Lin Yi said quietly. He had already realized that had been ‘not himself’. Presumably it was due to the stimulation of bumping into the 2-6 Monster in the kitchen. It forced his mind to go into overdrive.

“I get like this when I’m not feeling well… I didn’t do anything strange, did I?” Lin Yi asked hesitantly.

Ou Ying shook her head and Cheng Yang said, “You just came in without saying a word. You didn’t respond when we called you and then you just fell asleep.” 

Lin Yi: “Oh…”

Fortunately, he hadn’t done anything too outrageous.

“I seem to have broken the thermometer.” This was the only thing Lin Yi could remember. He didn’t even remember why he broke it.

“It’s okay, there are thermometers in every room.” Ou Ying thought for a while but couldn’t help but ask, “What happened?” 

Lin Yi said, “I can’t remember.”

“Alright.” Ou Ying said, “Then you have a good rest.”

Seeing that Ou Ying and Cheng Yang were about to go out, Lin Yi hesitated whether to follow. But in the end Lin Yi decided against it. He was afraid that if he used his brain too much, he would act even more strangely. So he just watched Cheng Yang and Ou Ying. “Xue Jie, Cheng Yang, you have to be careful. If you get the chance to tamper with the dice, take it but don’t force it. After I rest up a bit, we might still get a chance to do it later.”

Ou Ying said, “I know. Don’t worry and just rest.” 

Cheng Yang also nodded “Lin Yi Xiong, sleep well.”

‘Kachak’

Cheng Yang closed the door.

Lin Yi sat cross-legged on the bed. He looked up at the full-length mirror at the foot of it. His expression in the mirror was a bit dull and eyes were almost completely bloodshot. 

Having to rest for a while, Lin Yi lay down again and closed his eyes.

But he was in the 2-6 Rule World right now, without his MP4 player by his side. Without the MP4 recording, he couldn’t fall asleep at all.

So Lin Yi thought back to the recording on the MP4 player and imitated it himself.

‘Gegege, gegege—’ 

‘Gegege, gegege—’

The cries of his parents.

After exiting the room, Cheng Yang felt that he could faint at any time. The corridor was full of ghosts! When he and Ou Ying came out of the room, all those beings turned to look at the two of them.

Ou Ying heard Cheng Yang’s shortness of breath and comforted him in a low voice, “There are no ghosts in this world.” 

Cheng Yang nodded stiffly. “There are no ghosts in the world, there are no ghosts in the world. Prosperity, civilization, harmony, freedom, equality…”

The two of them first went to an unoccupied room on the second floor to get a mercury thermometer.

Ou Ying took off the thermometer from the clothes hanger. She looked at the thermometer scale; the red line had shrunk to nothing.

Cheng Yang shuddered beside her. “F*ck, it’s so cold.” 

Ou Ying quickly put the thermometer away and when she turned her head to look at Cheng Yang, she paused for a moment. She pretended not to see anything and said, “Let’s go.”

They also need to go to the kitchen on the first floor to find a tool that could pour the mercury into the dice.

But even when Ou Ying passed Cheng Yang, Cheng Yang remained standing still..

This made Ou Ying stop. 

“Cheng Yang, there are no ghosts in this world.” Ou Ying said.

Cheng Yang glanced at Ou Ying, “It’s so cold, it’s colder than when I went fishing in Antarctica shirtless.”

Ou Ying said, “Repeat what I just said.”

“It’s cold.” Cheng Yang rubbed his arms, “It’s colder than when I went fishing in Antarctica shirtless.” 

Ou Ying frowned: “…”

“It’s so cold.” Cheng Yang shivered.

Ou Ying looked down at Cheng Yang’s feet.

How could Cheng Yang not be cold? His whole body was on tiptoe and in the distance between his heels and the ground, there seemed to be another pair of feet underneath. 

Cheng Yang said, “Ou Ying Jiejie, what are you looking at?”

Cheng Yang’s had change his form of address from “Ou Ying Xue Jie” to “Ou Ying Jiejie“. Ou Ying said after a short silence, “Luo Yi, is that you?”

Cheng Yang looked at Ou Ying. “Ou Ying Jiejie, do you believe there are ghosts in this world?”

Ou Ying took a deep breath. Seeing that Ou Ying didn’t answer for a long time, Cheng Yang leaned forward, his face almost pressing against Ou Ying. “Ou Ying Jiejie, do you believe there are ghosts in this world?” 

“I can answer your question.” Ou Ying and Cheng Yang watched each other closely. She tried her best to keep calm. Fortunately, after becoming the vice president of the student union, she had gotten a lot of experience in keeping calm. She said, “But before I answer your question, answer my question first.”

Cheng Yang asked again, “Do you believe there are ghosts in this world?”

“Luo Yi.” Ou Ying asked, “Who killed you?”

Cheng Yang was silent. 

“When did you become a cowardly pushover who only dares to vent your anger on soft buns?” Ou Ying said, “Why aren’t you taking revenge on the person who killed you?”

In the woman in red’s Anke game, she said the dead came back to seek vengeance.

They were here to retaliate, to get revenge.

“Are you afraid to seek revenge on him?” Ou Ying said, “Luo Yi, you know I don’t deal with cowards so I won’t be answering any questions from you.” 

Cheng Yang looked at her, turned around and after a while, left.

Ou Ying rubbed her eyes and then quickly followed out.

Ou Ying knew Luo Yi’s character best.

He wasn’t the type to stand for insults.