Chapter 23
As the sun began to set, the streetlights in the garden lit up one after another. Zhang Xiaochen, frustrated, kicked a stone at his feet, his tone laced with resentment.
“Where the hell did that kid run off to? Is this damn place even safe for people at night?”
He rubbed the goosebumps on his arms, feeling the atmosphere around him grow increasingly eerie.
During the day, with the sun shining brightly and the garden full of residents basking in the sun, he naturally felt brave. But that didn’t mean he was willing to stay here as it got dark.
“You’re such a coward. Aren’t you ashamed?” Zhao Ziming said with a look of contempt, walking beside him with his hands in his pockets.
Zhang Xiaochen spat. “Better to be ashamed than to be dead.”
He couldn’t even count how many times he had embarrassed himself in front of Jiang Liu and Xu Meng. As long as he could survive and clear the level, being a little timid was fine.
Listening to the two of them bicker, Jiang Liu felt rather speechless.
They were grown men, yet they quarreled like children.
She looked up at the sky. A faint shadow of the moon was flickering on the horizon, and the surrounding sky was darkening. If they didn’t head back soon, these crazy plants would be difficult to deal with.
They had all left together in the afternoon, but Cheng Da had clearly been out of sorts, ignoring everyone and saying he wanted to find a quiet place to be alone.
Only after he repeatedly promised he wouldn’t wander far did they agree to let him go.
Who would have thought that in such a short time, he would vanish into thin air?
At this thought, Jiang Liu couldn’t help but quicken her pace.
The official notice said the road construction would only last three days. They needed to hurry.
***
When they found Cheng Da, he was squatting on the ground in a daze, completely oblivious to their approaching footsteps.
Compared to the bustling center of the garden, this area seemed much more desolate, like a small, abandoned children’s playground. There were no streetlights nearby, and the path was bumpy and full of soft soil.
Jiang Liu reached out and touched a swing. The chain’s connection point was already rusted, and it creaked as it swayed. The sound of grinding rust was particularly eerie in the silent night.
Aside from some common playground equipment, there were a few scattered wooden huts that looked quite old, their doors covered in a thick layer of dust.
Zhang Xiaochen clicked his tongue at the sight, then kicked at the messy, dug-up soil. He couldn’t believe such a bleak place existed within this vibrant garden.
“How did you find this place?”
“Huh?” The sudden voice startled Cheng Da. He scrambled to his feet, but his legs were numb from squatting for too long. His vision went black, and he stumbled back to the ground.
Under the faint moonlight, the tear stains on the young man’s face were clearly visible, and his swollen eyes were bloodshot.
In just one afternoon, he seemed to have aged considerably.
As he fell, the ground that had been hidden by his body was exposed to everyone’s view—
A small pit had been dug in the flat ground.
Looking closely, they saw he was tightly gripping a small shovel he had found somewhere.
Zhao Ziming instinctively let out a whistle, crouched down, and wrapped an arm around him, joking, “Feeling festive? Playing house by yourself?”
Cheng Da shuddered as if waking from a dream and violently threw the shovel far away.
His reaction was so extreme that everyone noticed something was wrong.
Jiang Liu glanced at his scraped knuckles and handed him a wet wipe with a complicated expression.
Cheng Da reached for it as if in a trance. Before he could even touch the packaging, Jiang Liu’s voice, like a magic spell, sounded by his ear. “Your brother is here, isn’t he?”
His outstretched arm froze in mid-air. He jerked his head up to look at Jiang Liu with such force that even Zhao Ziming, who was holding him, flinched.
Cheng Da’s face was bloodless. He stared at Jiang Liu with trembling lips, his expression as horrified as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
Amidst everyone’s gasps of surprise, he stammered, “H-how did you know?”
***
In Greek mythology, the sun god Apollo and the west wind god Zephyrus both admired a handsome youth—Hyacinthus. However, Hyacinthus always spent his time with Apollo, which made the west wind god very jealous.
During a game of discus, the wind deliberately changed the trajectory of the discus, striking Hyacinthus on the forehead. Blood gushed out and fell to the ground, and from it, a flower took root and grew.
And so, the bellflower gained a little-known flower language—jealousy.
Jiang Liu’s voice was soft, and though it was the middle of summer, everyone felt an inexplicable chill.
A cool breeze happened to blow by. Zhang Xiaochen shivered, his gaze toward Cheng Da now tinged with unfamiliarity.
As for Cheng Da—he was already in tears, covering his face with his hands, not daring to look up. He muttered as if possessed, “I-I didn’t mean to. I didn’t think… I didn’t think he would really disappear…”
The dirt on his hands mixed with his tears, smudging his pale face, but he was oblivious. He suddenly looked at his own arm in horror—
The purple bellflower was vivid upon it, looking as if it had merged with his flesh.
Cheng Da frantically scrubbed at that patch of skin. The surrounding area was already red and swollen, but the totem remained firmly imprinted there.
He stared blankly at the totem for a moment, then lowered his eyes in self-abandonment, his gaze filled with despair.
“Last night, it said it could make Cheng Ji disappear. I tried to resist. I thought it was a dream, who knew…”
Cheng Da struggled to his knees before Jiang Liu, his tone pleading, “I regret it. I don’t want anything to happen to him. Please, I’m begging you, save him. He’s down there.”
His desperate cries echoed in the silent night. Jiang Liu crouched down and touched the earthen pit, her expression calm, which inexplicably ignited a flicker of hope in Cheng Da’s heart.
After a long moment, Jiang Liu silently stood up. “Let’s go back and eat first.”
That single sentence extinguished the flame of hope that had just been lit in Cheng Da’s heart. He felt a wave of dizziness, and his vision went black before he fainted.
The atmosphere on the way back was extremely heavy.
Zhao Ziming carried Cheng Da on his back and walked ahead without a word. Xu Meng followed behind, lost in her own world. Neither of them spoke.
They could keep their composure, but Zhang Xiaochen couldn’t.
His gaze constantly swept over the group, finally settling on Jiang Liu. He quickly took two steps forward and asked in a low, hoarse voice, “Are we really not going to save him? I’ll go find a couple of shovels…”
Even if they were strangers, he couldn’t just stand by and watch a companion die.
Jiang Liu said coolly, “This ground has been compacted for road paving. With just the few of us and those small shovels, he’ll be cold by the time we dig him out.”
A surge of anger rose in Zhang Xiaochen. “But we can’t just leave him to die!”
Seeing him ready to confront her, Jiang Liu felt a wave of helplessness.
She wasn’t a patient person and retorted without a second thought, “Is someone buried underground still alive? Do you know his exact location? What if you accidentally chop off his arm or leg with a shovel?”
This barrage of questions stunned Zhang Xiaochen. He stared at Jiang Liu, stammering for a long time, his great anger dissipating. He scratched his head and asked in a small voice what they should do.
Jiang Liu rubbed her empty stomach, her brow furrowed unnaturally, as if in thought or perhaps sighing. “I’ll think of something. Let’s eat first.”
Even though Zhang Xiaochen was anxious, hearing that Jiang Liu had a plan put him somewhat at ease. He then mumbled an apology, “I was too hasty.”
Jiang Liu clicked her tongue, her tone a little disdainful. “Is this the first time you’ve been impulsive?”
Zhang Xiaochen was speechless.
He wanted to retort, but a flashlight beam swept over them from ahead, and a figure rushed towards them.
“Sister Liu!”
Jiang Liu stopped, stepping back a little awkwardly. “What are you doing here?”
Xiao Si didn’t notice her small movement. She rushed forward and took her hand, the urgency in her eyes almost tangible.
“You weren’t home so late, I was worried sick.”
First, An’an went missing in the middle of the night, and then last night Cheng Ji also left and didn’t return. She was terrified that history would repeat itself, so she had rushed out to find them.
Her worry was genuine. Jiang Liu could clearly feel the warmth and dampness in her palm. Looking down, she saw that Xiao Si had rushed out without even taking off her apron after cooking.
Under the faint moonlight, her gaze paused on the face that so closely resembled Yang Caisi’s, and the corners of her lips curved. “Sorry to make you worry.”
Xiao Si smiled brightly. “It’s fine as long as you’re okay. I made your favorite sweet and sour fish. Let’s go home.”
At the mention of sweet and sour fish, Jiang Liu’s stomach rumbled softly. Xiao Si glanced at her secretly, the smile on her face unwavering.
The two of them quickened their pace as they chatted, seemingly oblivious to the people behind them. Zhao Ziming looked at their retreating backs with a complicated expression and suddenly sidled up to Zhang Xiaochen.
“What’s going on with her and this NPC?”
In the instances he had experienced before, he was lucky to get a bite to eat. Where had he ever seen an NPC so eager to cook for someone? Could it be that Sister Yang was secretly giving Jiang Liu an advantage?
Zhang Xiaochen was equally puzzled, speaking with a strange expression, “I don’t know, but she seemed to be flirting with that identical Yang Caisi too. Could it be—”
His mouth suddenly fell open. He looked around in shock, then whispered, “Could it be that because she can’t have the real thing, she’s using Xiao Si as a substitute?”
Thinking about it that way made a lot of sense. She fell in love with Yang Caisi at first sight in the first instance, but the real one was an ice queen dedicated to her career. Jiang Liu was heartbroken, then happened to meet the identical-looking Xiao Si in this instance, who had a gentle and obedient personality, so she was temporarily using her as a replacement…
In that brief moment, a slew of melodramatic scenarios flashed through Zhang Xiaochen’s mind, and the way he looked at Jiang Liu became increasingly complex.
Zhao Ziming was speechless.
He gave Zhang Xiaochen a wordless look, wanting to say something but holding back.
“Am I right?” Zhang Xiaochen, however, got excited and eagerly sought his opinion.
Zhao Ziming rolled his eyes as if looking at an idiot. “You should go get your head checked.”
He was trying to have a serious discussion about the NPC’s strange behavior, and Zhang Xiaochen hits him with this? He was supposed to be a tough little punk, why was his head full of soap opera plots? That doesn’t fit your character at all, okay?!!
He quickened his pace, carrying Cheng Da, afraid of being infected by Zhang Xiaochen’s nonsense.
Zhang Xiaochen scratched his head. “Why are you cursing at me for no reason? Am I wrong?”
He turned to look at Xu Meng, awaiting her answer.
Xu Meng was speechless.
She silently took a step back, making a wide circle around Zhang Xiaochen, a perfect picture of ignoring him completely.
Zhang Xiaochen: “?????”