Chapter 55
Faced with that beautiful face magnified before her eyes, Jiang Liu had only one thought—
This is just too weird!
Objectively speaking, Yang Caisi wasn’t heavy, and having her on top wasn’t too uncomfortable, but Jiang Liu felt as if she had been startled. Her heart was nearly in her throat, and her expression changed for once.
She wanted to try and push the person away, but her limbs had lost all their strength. No matter how strong her desire to break free, she couldn’t move her body an inch.
Jiang Liu used all her strength, her face turning red from the effort, but she only managed to move her body by two centimeters, like an involuntary shudder, completely beyond her brain’s control.
The moment she moved, the expression on Yang Caisi’s face subtly changed. She swallowed unconsciously, her eyes gradually darkening, and she instinctively whispered, “Don’t move.”
Compared to Jiang Liu, she was the one truly suffering.
Summer clothes were already thin, and Yang Caisi could even feel the soft curves of the person beneath her. She stiffened for a moment, her tone unavoidably tinged with a bit of heat.
But Jiang Liu was never one to listen obediently. The feeling of being restrained and powerless was too intense, and a huge sense of anxiety rose within her. This was an instinctive habit for someone accustomed to relying on physical force to win.
After all, in this situation, any Ghostly Shadow that popped out could kill her.
She paid no heed to Yang Caisi’s words and continued to struggle with her own body.
As Jiang Liu moved, Yang Caisi could keenly feel the person beneath her subtly squirming. The movements, which would have been almost imperceptible under normal circumstances, became a form of alternative flirtation in this situation, making her throat feel even drier.
In a place like this, even an NPC couldn’t escape the instance’s settings. Yang Caisi sighed softly, then had no choice but to lower her head and bite her neck, her muffled voice coming out, “Stop moving.”
A slight stinging sensation came from her neck, almost making Jiang Liu jolt uncontrollably. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she looked down at Yang Caisi.
What was she doing???
The most vulnerable part of her body was exposed to someone else’s sight. Jiang Liu’s first reaction wasn’t panic, but rather a feeling akin to helplessness.
The overly soft lips lingered on her neck, the tip of the tongue tracing a path with a slight wetness that made Jiang Liu flush. Only then did she belatedly realize.
This was Yang Caisi, and also the Xiao Si who had clearly expressed her affection.
Realizing this, she threw all thoughts of the instance’s crisis to the back of her mind. Jiang Liu’s brain short-circuited for a moment, and she blurted out, “Don’t mess around!!”
This… this was not the place to do these things!
The scorching temperature of the body on top of her was almost melting her. She was terrified that Yang Caisi would do something rash in a moment of impulse, and she was too scared to move again.
Noticing her stiffness, Yang Caisi actually found it a little funny.
Then she really did laugh out loud. Her breath tickled her neck, and Jiang Liu was thrown into complete disarray.
The woman on top of her raised her head, her voice filled with unconcealed amusement. Her spring-water-like eyes stared at Jiang Liu without blinking, as if wanting to drown her in a deep pool, to sink together.
This expression only lasted for a moment before it quickly transformed into a clear innocence.
Yang Caisi blinked, her tone tinged with a childlike curiosity as she probed, “What did you think I was going to do, sister?”
This momentary change in emotion was too fast for Jiang Liu to react. Her usually quick mind was now a complete blank, and she could only stare at Yang Caisi in a daze.
Was it her imagination? Why did the Yang Caisi in front of her seem different from before?
In the instance, she was a dedicated guide; outside, she was an unapproachable Flower on a High Peak.
But no matter which state she was in, Yang Caisi’s emotions were always restrained, as if there was some strange switch on her body that forced her to hold back.
But now, the switch was on.
Like Pandora’s box, the mystery surrounding her still existed, but her entire state was more relaxed, like a traveler who had walked through the silent long night for too long and finally had a chance to find a place to rest and catch her breath.
Jiang Liu found it a little hard to handle.
Those seemingly magical eyes were now crystal clear, without a trace of aloofness or restraint, which gave Jiang Liu an intangible sense of familiarity.
She must have seen those eyes somewhere before.
The sticky, ambiguous atmosphere from before didn’t last long.
Jiang Liu took a moment to catch her breath. The previous thoughts had calmed her down, and her senses gradually returned. She ignored Yang Caisi’s counter-question and changed the subject. “What exactly is going on?”
Yang Caisi glanced at her, her expression particularly strange. “You’re the one who placed the photos, and you’re asking me?”
Photos?
In a flash of insight, Jiang Liu finally understood what had happened.
Unable to move during the day, this was the world inside the photos!
In other words, the two of them had now become two photos—
And she had personally stacked them together, one on top of the other.
Realizing the key to the matter, Jiang Liu was filled with regret.
Perhaps her expression was too vivid, as Yang Caisi couldn’t help but smile.
Although the current Jiang Liu was very cute, now was not the time for teasing.
She gestured with her eyes for Jiang Liu to look over. The two of them were now lying on a pitch-black empty ground. The surroundings were extremely dim, and without any lighting, it was impossible to calculate how large this space was.
This wasn’t the dimness of dusk, but rather like a thick, black ink, completely impenetrable to light, enveloping the two of them completely.
But what Yang Caisi wanted her to notice was clearly not this.
Jiang Liu noticed that not far to her right, there seemed to be a very light breathing sound, even and long, as if the owner of the voice was in a deep sleep.
The excessive darkness deprived Jiang Liu of her senses. After losing her sight, her other senses became more acute. Jiang Liu discovered that there were many similar breathing sounds, some light, some heavy, echoing nearby, easily noticeable when no one was speaking.
“Are these the trapped people?”
Yang Caisi nodded, her tone gradually becoming serious. “They’ve been trapped here for too long, and they’re becoming more and more delirious, so they just sleep.”
But other outsiders, like them, or like Zhang Xiaochen, were less affected, so they would wake up during the day.
Jiang Liu roughly understood and then asked, “What time is it now?”
Yang Caisi shook her head gently. “There’s no way to calculate time here, but you’ve slept for a long time.”
As she spoke, she yawned and said vaguely, “You’ll naturally wake up at night. I’m going to sleep for a while.”
Three question marks appeared above Jiang Liu’s head. She thought to herself, You can sleep in a hellish place like this?
She wanted to ask more things, such as the relationship between the two of them, the conflict between Yang Caisi and Qiao Ke, or that mysterious woman Hou Yuqiang mentioned.
But before she could speak, Yang Caisi on her chest had already closed her eyes, as if she had finally found a comfortable bed. Her breathing quickly lengthened, and she slept soundly.
Jiang Liu was speechless.
She fell asleep in a second!
She subconsciously wanted to shake her body to wake the person up, but she hesitated when her gaze fell on her face.
She had been so focused on observing the environment just now that she hadn’t noticed how tired Yang Caisi looked, as if her whole person had collapsed.
How long had this person been in here? Two days?
Jiang Liu felt her breathing and a thought arose in her mind: Could it be that she hasn’t rested at all?
The uneven ends of Yang Caisi’s hair fell on her neck, tickling slightly. Jiang Liu tried to blow them away, but accidentally discovered something shining on her neck.
What could be shining? She raised her eyebrows slightly and tried to look up.
It should be a necklace. In the darkness, she couldn’t see what material it was, only that the pendant hung on Yang Caisi’s chest, with half of it slightly exposed. It was being illuminated by a light source from somewhere, and its edge emitted a faint glow.
Jiang Liu tried her best to widen her eyes, but she couldn’t see the style clearly, so she had to regretfully retract her gaze.
In the real world at the end of the darkness, the remaining people had not let their guard down.
It was a Monday, and first and second-year high school students began to appear one after another. Zhao Ziming and the others split up, asking around about the photo studio. After skipping over various unexpected incidents like being scolded by teachers for skipping class and being beaten by security guards for climbing walls, they finally confirmed two points.
First: the photo with the seal was indeed of the photo studio’s supervisor. Many students had seen him in person.
Second: in the files for Class Seven of the second year that they had found in the archives room, there was no photo of Zhou Yuan. It was only after asking around today that they discovered that Zhou Yuan was actually a plain-looking boy with glasses and a buzz cut, the type you could tell from a distance had excellent grades.
And he didn’t know anything about a photo studio, nor did he have an uncle.
Integrating the clues from the day, Zhao Ziming squatted at the school gate with a troubled face, with only one question left in his mind.
“Who exactly is the Zhou Yuan we met?”
The one who asked this was Xu Meng. The young girl’s face was pale now, and she would occasionally look up at the sky, a little worried about Jiang Liu’s situation in the photo studio.
No one could answer this question.
That young man was very similar to the supervisor, and his words showed that he was very familiar with the photo studio, so it didn’t seem like he was completely unrelated. But they had searched almost the entire archives room and hadn’t found another Zhou Yuan with the same name.
As he was thinking, his phone suddenly rang. Amidst the urgent vibrations, Zhao Ziming answered it, speaking first, “Hello, where are you?”
The caller was Hou Yuqiang. He was currently going back to the dormitory to get something, and they would meet up later to go to the photo studio.
It was gradually approaching 5 p.m., and they needed to hurry.
Because that young man who called himself ‘Zhou Yuan’ got off work at five in the afternoon sharp.
There was a scream from the other end of the phone. Zhao Ziming could almost imagine his current appearance. His trembling words came through the speaker, so clearly that even Xu Meng and Zhu Yan beside him could hear.
“The… the photo disappeared!”
In the dormitory, Hou Yuqiang’s whole body was trembling. The hand holding the phone was a little unsteady as he looked at the desk in disbelief.
After taking pictures last night, they had returned to rest. Only Jiang Liu had taken two photos back to the study.
When they woke up in the morning, the photos were stacked together, but Jiang Liu was nowhere to be found.
This was something they had anticipated, so Zhao Ziming wasn’t panicked at all. He calmly directed the others to investigate. But just a dozen hours later—
The photo vanished before Hou Yuqiang’s eyes, bit by bit, as if he were seeing a ghost.
It wasn’t that it disappeared all at once like an illusion, but rather as if something he couldn’t see was slowly gnawing at it, until it completely vanished.
This realization sent a chill down Hou Yuqiang’s spine, a coldness shooting straight to the top of his head. Suddenly, an extremely strong feeling of being watched rose from behind him. He stiffly turned around, and a pair of emotionless eyes appeared before him.
***
The other end of the phone suddenly went silent. It was unclear if the signal had dropped.
“Hello, what do you mean it disappeared? Explain clearly.” Zhao Ziming frowned and pressed for more, not quite understanding what he meant.
After calling out for a long time, there was still no answer from the other side. He looked down at the ongoing call interface on his screen, and a bad feeling suddenly rose in his heart. He immediately started sprinting towards the dormitory.
“Something’s happened!!!”
Hou Yuqiang’s phone was on the ground, the screen lit up, clearly still connected to Zhao Ziming’s call, but the person was nowhere to be found.
The group searched the room back and forth three times but found no trace of him.
The living room and study were arranged exactly as they had been in the morning, with no signs of being rummaged through or any struggle. Even the doormat only had Hou Yuqiang’s footprints.
Zhu Yan scratched his head in confusion and couldn’t help but guess, “Could it be that he left on his own?”
One person glared at Zhu Yan, his tone tinged with annoyance. “Impossible. My brother is a coward. After what he saw last night, he wouldn’t dare to act alone.”
He said this with great confidence, as if being a coward was something to be proud of.
This person seemed to be called Chair or Stool or something. He had a fierce face, and his glare immediately made Zhu Yan take a step back, pouting reluctantly. “I was just guessing.”
“Alright, stop arguing.” Xu Meng came over to mediate, pulling Zhu Yan behind her.
While they were arguing, Zhao Ziming and Jiang He had already checked the study.
There were no signs of a fight in the room. The desk was still as it had been in the morning, neatly tidied up by Jiang Liu.
Only the two photos brought back last night were gone. Only the one of the supervisor was left on the table, untouched.
Zhao Ziming glanced at it briefly and suddenly remembered Hou Yuqiang’s last words.
Disappeared.
His eyes darted around, and realizing a possibility, he spoke, “Let’s go to the photo studio quickly.”
But there was no response from behind him. Zhao Ziming cursed that this group was useless and turned around impatiently. “Let’s go over first and—”
He stopped mid-sentence.
It was empty behind him. The warm wind from outside blew in and swirled around him, but it couldn’t dispel the feeling of his heart sinking to the bottom.
The people who had been talking to him just a moment ago had all vanished into thin air.
Zhao Ziming broke out in a cold sweat and stumbled back two steps, his waist hitting the sharp edge of the desk hard. The expected pain didn’t come; it was as if something soft had caught him.
He froze in place, not daring to move. After giving himself a thorough mental pep talk, he slowly turned his eyes and glanced behind him with his peripheral vision.
A pair of wrinkled, calloused hands were protectively placed on his waist. The five fingers were even moving, forming a claw-like shape and slowly reaching forward. The yellowish skin extended to the wrist, where only a few lively, throbbing blood vessels remained.
Zhao Ziming was speechless.
He was stunned for a moment, then let out a scream that could probably be heard throughout the entire building.
His heart was about to jump out of his throat. He didn’t dare to look at the scene behind him and fled out the door in a panic. He stumbled down the stairs, falling and stumbling but not daring to stop, gritting his teeth and getting up to continue running.
He ran all the way from the back gate of the school to the photo studio, just in time to see Zhou Yuan walking out of the shop, seemingly about to get off work.
The phone in his pocket vibrated; it was the alarm he had set in advance.
It was five o’clock.
This was an old street, and few people usually passed by. The sudden appearance of a panting person startled Zhou Yuan. He slammed the door shut with a clang and looked at the newcomer cautiously.
When he saw that it was Zhao Ziming, who had guided him in a game before, he finally relaxed, his expression gradually improving. He tilted his head and asked in confusion, “Bro, what’s wrong with you?”
Was someone chasing him? But he looked behind Zhao Ziming and saw no one.
Zhao Ziming quickly looked up, finally calming his racing heart, and took two steps back again. “Who are you?”
Zhou Yuan let out a sound of confusion, completely bewildered. “I’m Zhou Yuan. You came to my shop the day before yesterday.”
He pointed to the main door of the photo studio and sized up Zhao Ziming’s expression, guessing, “Are you here to take a picture again? My uncle isn’t back.”
“No!” Zhao Ziming’s face was full of distrust. He subconsciously pulled out a folding knife from his pocket and held it, pursing his lips and saying, “There’s no one like you in Class Seven of the second year!”
Zhou Yuan looked surprised and suddenly dropped his previous expression, falling silent.
Zhao Ziming broke out in a cold sweat for himself, almost wanting to slap himself.
He wasn’t an impulsive person. If this had been a few minutes ago, he would never have laid things bare, but would have instead tried to probe and test him with the others.
But the situation was different now.
Everyone had disappeared, leaving him all alone. Even he had never faced such a difficult situation. His heart was already in a panic, which was why he had questioned him so excitedly.
The moment he said it, he regretted it. He prayed that this kid was as weak as he looked on the surface, otherwise he really might not be able to beat him.
As his mind raced, Zhou Yuan suddenly moved.
Zhao Ziming brandished his knife like he was facing a great enemy, only to find that the person opposite him had no intention of attacking. He just took two urgent steps forward to face him and said nervously, “Why are you asking that? You—have you seen him?”
He was clearly the more threatening one in the entire instance, but when he said this, Zhou Yuan’s expression was exceptionally strange. His whole body was trembling subtly from immense fear, and Zhao Ziming could even hear his teeth chattering.
What was he so afraid of?
Zhao Ziming’s palms were sweating, sticking uncomfortably to the handle of the knife, but now was clearly not the time to worry about that.
He took a deep breath and heard his own voice come out dryly, “Seen who?”
The Zhou Yuan opposite him moved his lips, and two broken syllables floated to Zhao Ziming’s ears on the wind. He shuddered violently, standing there as if petrified.
What Zhou Yuan said was—
***
“So nervous to see me?”
Jiang Liu’s gaze swept back and forth over the person opposite her. Seeing that he wasn’t injured, her worries eased slightly. Seeing his tense body, she couldn’t help but tease him.
Yang Caisi stood beside her with her arms crossed, and in front of them was an awkward-looking Zhang Xiaochen.
He was used to being carefree and never felt shy, but now he was at a loss for words, his eyes looking at the sky and the ground, just not at Jiang Liu.
He had seen everything that had happened in the past two nights. He knew that when he couldn’t control himself and reminded Jiang He, Jiang Liu should have already guessed everything.
But some things couldn’t be avoided.
Zhang Xiaochen swallowed and took a deep breath as if he had made up his mind. His gaze fell seriously on Jiang Liu. “You know everything, don’t you? I really didn’t mean to lie to you.”
Jiang Liu wasn’t surprised, just looked at him thoughtfully. “What’s your relationship with Jiang He?”
Yesterday, she had stolen Jiang He’s phone and found Zhang Xiaochen among his contacts. He was at the bottom of the list, arranged by time, but there was no chat history.
A bitter smile appeared on Zhang Xiaochen’s face, and he proactively held out his arm for her to see.
The arm that had been hidden since entering the instance was finally fully exposed to Jiang Liu’s sight. A hideous wound was prominent on it, not at all the minor injury Zhang Xiaochen had claimed.
In just a few days, the wound had not yet healed. The dark red color mixed with the surrounding skin gave an absolutely stimulating visual impact. Jiang Liu couldn’t help but click her tongue, thinking that this kid had quite some willpower to endure the pain without showing it.
After the wound was exposed, she finally understood what Zhang Xiaochen meant by hiding things.
This was clearly a self-inflicted knife wound, and he had lost his composure in his panic.
“I recognized him right away,” Zhang Xiaochen muttered, a complex look flashing in his eyes. Before Jiang Liu could ask, he spoke up.
“We used to be very close, but we lost contact over some trivial matters. I didn’t know he was here.”
At that time, Zhao Ziming had told Jiang Liu to capture him and report him. Zhang Xiaochen didn’t know what the consequences of being reported would be, and in a moment of panic, he had resorted to this act of harming himself to let Jiang He escape.
He thought he had gotten away with it, but who knew that fate would play a little joke and put the two teams in the same instance.
Zhang Xiaochen sighed inwardly, thinking he should have known.
He should have known from the moment the name Jiang He appeared that he should have expected what would happen next.
After everything was laid bare, Zhang Xiaochen didn’t dare to look up at Jiang Liu, just stared at his feet.
“If you want to blame someone, blame me.”
Jiang Liu clicked her tongue, her tone laced with confusion. “Why would I blame you?”
It was just a small thing he had hidden. Why was Zhang Xiaochen so depressed, as if he had committed a huge mistake? He had lost all his former energy.
Although he had let Jiang He go at the time, they hadn’t suffered any losses.
As for running into each other in an instance, that was purely a coincidence and had nothing to do with Zhang Xiaochen.
Jiang Liu had no intention of prying into things others were unwilling to talk about. If they were willing to bring it up, she would listen. If they didn’t want to, she wouldn’t force them.
Her attitude was exceptionally relaxed. From her tone, it was clear she really hadn’t taken it to heart, which left Zhang Xiaochen stunned.
Zhang Xiaochen looked up in disbelief, his expression at that moment indescribably strange.
Jiang Liu watched him open and close his mouth, about to speak but hesitating, and couldn’t help but say, “Don’t dwell on it. Let’s think about how to clear the level first.”
After saying that, she no longer looked at his expression, but instead shifted her gaze to Yang Caisi.
About half an hour ago, she had noticed her strength gradually returning. It was probably already dark outside.
Jiang Liu tried to move her numb limbs. It was unclear if Yang Caisi was disturbed by this slight movement, but she also woke up.
She seemed to be completely familiar with the rules of this world. She gestured for Jiang Liu to follow, and the two of them went to find Zhang Xiaochen together.
Along the way, Jiang Liu finally figured out the situation here.
According to Yang Caisi, the space they were in was connected. All the people in the photos hanging on the wall would eventually end up here.
But there were some minor differences.
For example—
The darkness here was ‘alive’.
Recalling their earlier conversation, Jiang Liu couldn’t help but purse her lips, unconsciously making a small gesture of turning her ring.
Compared to when she had just woken up, the darkness seemed to have receded somewhat. She could clearly see the scene not far away, and at the same time, she could see several figures lying not far from the three of them, sleeping soundly.
She had seen many such figures on the way. They were all people trapped in the photos.
But unlike herself, these people had no physical form. As the light gradually brightened, their almost transparent bodies became visible, similar to the mist-like Ghostly Shadows seen in the real world.
Zhang Xiaochen had returned to normal and was quick to explain, “This place will devour people’s life force, which is mainly reflected in this. Look at that one.”
He pointed to a body on the left that was almost invisible. “This is what happens when you’ve been in here for too long and are about to disappear.”
As he spoke, Zhang Xiaochen secretly glanced at Yang Caisi, his words filled with sincere relief. “I was almost scared to death when I first came in. Luckily, I ran into Sister Yang.”
Although this thing wasn’t harmful, being alone with these things was a huge test for him.
But running into an acquaintance was different. Even if Yang Caisi was cold and didn’t talk much, this person, like Jiang Liu, had an inexplicable aura, as if she was born with a sense of security, making her exceptionally reliable.
But… Zhang Xiaochen scratched his head, a hint of confusion on his face. “By the way, how is Sister Yang here? Isn’t she an NPC?”
He had been too excited when he first saw Yang Caisi, so much so that he had ignored this serious problem. It was only now, belatedly, that he had a chance to ask.
Jiang Liu smiled mysteriously and took a step forward, bumping Yang Caisi’s shoulder. “Good question. We’ll have to ask our Sister Yang herself.”
Yang Caisi frowned, a sense of unease rising in her heart. For a moment, she became flustered and quickly glanced at Jiang Liu. “Don’t call me that.”
Jiang Liu was a little surprised.
It was just a title. Why was she reacting so strongly?
Thinking of this, the color in her eyes deepened. She tentatively moved closer and called out again, “What’s wrong with Sister Yang? Don’t you like it?”
As she spoke, she didn’t forget to give Zhang Xiaochen a look. “Aren’t you going to thank Sister Yang?”
Zhang Xiaochen didn’t know what the two of them were up to. Before his brain could react, he had already subconsciously complied, “Thank you, Sister Yang, for saving my sorry life.”
After speaking, he even put on a clumsy imitation of a gentleman’s bow, which, combined with his tone, looked particularly comical.
Yang Caisi couldn’t bear to look and averted her eyes, falling silent for a moment.
Seeing that she didn’t answer, Jiang Liu felt bored and dropped her teasing, saying seriously, “By the way, you asked me to come and save you. You should at least give me some hints, right?”
“It’s a cooperation,” Yang Caisi corrected.
Looking at her stubborn appearance, Jiang Liu raised her hands in surrender and went along with her words. “Alright, alright, it’s a cooperation. So?”
She probably didn’t even realize that her tone had a hint of doting.
As the saying goes, the bystander sees clearly. Zhang Xiaochen, on the side, suddenly had an expression like he had eaten a fly. He thought to himself that this was too much like coaxing a child, and Yang Caisi would definitely correct her again.
But when he looked over, the expected displeasure did not appear on Yang Caisi’s face. It was as if she had heard what she wanted to hear, and there was even a smile on her face.
Zhang Xiaochen said, “Uh… fine.”
Since both big shots were here, his heart was much more at ease. If they were in the real world, they could talk for as long as they wanted, but the problem was…
Zhang Xiaochen rubbed his empty stomach and couldn’t help but interject, “Can we hurry up?”
In the past two days, he had only eaten two cookies given to him by Yang Caisi. They didn’t satisfy his hunger, and the sweet taste was cloying, making his throat feel extremely uncomfortable now.
The two people opposite him simultaneously noticed his action. Jiang Liu tilted her head and belatedly asked a question, “You haven’t eaten all this time?”
This was a matter of life and death!
For her, it didn’t matter where she slept, what mattered was that there was something to eat.
Just as she was thinking, her stomach also started to rumble. Counting the time, she had slept for almost a whole day.
A fist suddenly appeared in front of her. A piece of chocolate lay quietly in Yang Caisi’s palm.
“Eat something.”
Jiang Liu’s eyes lit up, but she restrained the impulse to take it and instead looked down at her. “Do you have any more?”
She had been here longer than Zhang Xiaochen. Could she be hungry too?
A light laugh escaped Yang Caisi’s throat. She unceremoniously stuffed the chocolate into her hand and then reached into her clothes to fumble for something.
Only then did Jiang Liu realize that she had a small, ring-shaped bag tied around her waist, hidden behind her oversized shirt, which was why she hadn’t noticed it at first.
When she opened it, it was full of high-calorie snacks. Although there wasn’t much, it was enough to fill one’s stomach in a critical moment.
“I would have thought you were here on vacation if I didn’t know better,” Jiang Liu clicked her tongue.
Yang Caisi handed her the bag. Jiang Liu rummaged through it for a bit and was surprised to find that they were all her favorite snacks.
She didn’t refuse this time, stuffing the chocolate into her mouth in a few bites, not forgetting to toss a piece to the wide-eyed Zhang Xiaochen, while secretly sizing up Yang Caisi.
“Can this lead to the second floor?”
Yang Caisi nodded. “This place will devour life. The only way to survive is to go upstairs.”
When she spoke, she rarely looked at Jiang Liu, instead keeping her gaze fixed on a spot not far away. Jiang Liu followed her gaze—
It was a wall, appearing out of thin air and standing silently in the middle. Just looking at it gave off an eerie feeling.
With just one glance, Jiang Liu had already reached a conclusion. “Is that the photo wall from the second floor?”
Yang Caisi nodded without speaking.
Jiang Liu took two steps forward and only then realized that the photo wall displayed here was completely different from what she had seen in reality.
The originally random arrangement had been disrupted, split like a pyramid, divided into extremely strict levels.
The photo at the top was particularly huge, occupying more than half the space. It was Yang Caisi.
What… was this ranked by?
Jiang Liu’s gaze moved downwards, and it took her some time to find her own figure in the second to last row.
“Why is it so far away?” she muttered to herself, unheard by the other two.
Her eyes shifted, and a plan formed in her mind. Disregarding the two behind her, she walked over quickly.
“Wait.” Yang Caisi was stunned for a moment. She hadn’t expected her to not even listen to the end of her sentence, and she helplessly followed.
Zhang Xiaochen facepalmed, thinking that this damn familiar feeling was back again.
It was still the same Jiang Liu who ran off at the drop of a hat.
In a moment of daze, he had already fallen behind the other two. Zhang Xiaochen panicked and quickly ran to catch up, shouting, “Wait for me!”
Jiang Liu was very fast, reaching the wall in the blink of an eye. It didn’t seem so big from a distance, but now that she was close, she could feel just how huge Yang Caisi’s picture was. The eyes in the photo were exactly level with hers.
She stared at it for a long time, then suddenly did something unexpected.
Yang Caisi only saw her suddenly squat down, her back to her, not knowing what she was doing. She quickened her pace, and then—froze in place.
For some reason, Jiang Liu had actually pulled her own photo off the wall with her bare hands and solemnly placed it at the very top, to the right of Yang Caisi’s photo.
Yang Caisi was speechless.
“What is this thing ranked by?” Jiang Liu clapped the wall dust off her hands and asked casually.
“I don’t know.” Yang Caisi’s expression was complicated, and her gaze towards Jiang Liu was indescribable.
Although she didn’t know the logic behind it, being ranked first was clearly not a good thing. Jiang Liu’s quick hands made her unable to help but sigh.
Yang Caisi shook her head, looking at her appearance and feeling a little like laughing for a moment. She helplessly went forward to pat the white dust off her clothes and said calmly, “In any case, we have to find the mastermind behind this.”
Jiang Liu raised an eyebrow. “Even you don’t know?”
“I’m just an NPC,” Yang Caisi’s lips twitched.
Jiang Liu didn’t speak, just let her gaze sweep back and forth over her, clearly telling her with her eyes that she didn’t believe a word of it.
But she didn’t press the issue, just shrugged nonchalantly. “Blind guess, I think it’s him.”
She pointed to a photo below the two of them. It was the one they had deduced last night to be Zhou Yuan’s uncle, the supervisor of the photo studio.
These two were talking back and forth, making Zhang Xiaochen’s head spin. He finally found a chance to interject, “How can you tell?”
The reason was actually very simple.
Jiang Liu was lost in thought for a moment, her mind returning to the day they first arrived, when they went to the photo studio to find someone.
At that time, she had noticed the contradiction between Zhou Yuan’s words and The System’s information, but she could never figure out this person’s identity.
It wasn’t until she saw that photo last night that a thought suddenly jumped into her mind—
It was common for relatives to have similar features, but it wasn’t absolute. There was another possibility: Zhou Yuan was the supervisor himself.
Hearing this speculation, Zhang Xiaochen’s brows furrowed so much they could have crushed a fly. He looked at her as if he had seen a ghost. “What nonsense are you talking about?”
The age difference between these two people was visibly obvious. How could they be the same person?
Jiang Liu glanced at him and suddenly asked, “Do you remember the game he was playing at the time?”
Zhang Xiaochen scratched his head, not understanding why Jiang Liu would bring this up, and answered dazedly, “I saw a bit of it, but I’ve never played it.”
He didn’t know much about video games, at most playing simple little games during his patrols.
Jiang Liu snapped her fingers, as if she had expected his answer, and said to herself, “That’s a very old game. It was very popular a dozen or so years ago, but now it’s been replaced by more novel games of the same type, and very few people remember it.”
“Zhao Ziming knows about it too,” Zhang Xiaochen said, puzzled.
Jiang Liu couldn’t help but laugh, thinking that this wasn’t the key point.
Zhao Ziming’s style made him look like a trendy internet addict, so it wasn’t surprising that he knew. Besides, what really caught her attention was Zhou Yuan’s phone.
It was a very old model, and it would lag slightly when running such an old game. As a student obsessed with games, he shouldn’t be using such an outdated thing.
She spoke methodically, her words carrying a confidence that wasn’t annoying, which made Yang Caisi smile and gently remind her, “That doesn’t mean anything.”
Jiang Liu spread her hands, her eyes exceptionally innocent. “That’s why I said it’s just a guess.”
She had a good quality: she was bold in her assumptions but careful in her verification, never letting people get bogged down in pointless thoughts, and able to make quick decisions at many critical moments.
It might not be right, but it was always better than doing nothing.
Looking at such a Jiang Liu, Yang Caisi was momentarily stunned.
How long had it been since she had seen this confident, eloquent Jiang Liu in front of her?
Yang Caisi knew her personality well. When she came back to her senses a moment later, she didn’t hesitate to reach out, attempting to pull down the photo of the middle-aged supervisor.
Seeing that the two of them were about to act, Zhang Xiaochen became anxious. “Wait! What if we’re wrong?”
Jiang Liu grinned, a light once again appearing in her eyes, shining like a new star, making her whole person even more vibrant.
She didn’t answer Zhang Xiaochen’s question, but quickly helped Yang Caisi pull down the photo and slammed it on the ground.
The heavy, glass-textured frame hit the ground with a crisp sound, echoing clearly in the boundless space. Looking at the shattered scene, Jiang Liu felt a subtle thrill.
Since entering this strange game, she had occasionally had flashes of inspiration. As the instances progressed, this feeling became more and more obvious.
Jiang Liu had a hunch that perhaps there was indeed a very special connection between her and the Lost Way Game.
Following their actions, a cloud of black mist suddenly surged from the originally silent wall. These things seemed to have their own consciousness and charged straight at Jiang Liu.
She barely had time to react before she was completely enveloped in the mist. The familiar feeling of weightlessness returned, and the thing in front of her had a strange suction force, leaving her with no resistance.
At the same time, the entire space suddenly distorted. The originally sleeping figures all woke up with a start, their screams filling the air. Yang Caisi’s eyes widened in alarm, and she lunged forward, grabbing Jiang Liu’s wrist tightly.
The two of them were like being in a washing machine, constantly tumbling and spinning in the mist, finally being slapped against the inner wall with a thud.
At the last moment, Jiang Liu only heard Zhang Xiaochen’s pained cry, and the inexplicably trembling warmth of someone leaning against her in an emergency.
The world was spinning before her eyes. When she regained consciousness, Jiang Liu only felt her head throbbing. She shook her head hard to clear it and opened her eyes to a pair of worried eyes.
“Are you okay?” The two of them spoke at almost the same time, their voices overlapping, staggered and rhythmic.
The two of them were stunned again. Before they could speak again, they saw a black shadow flash past their eyes.
Looking closely, Zhao Ziming was holding his East-meets-West cross and fleeing in a panic, a pair of Ghost Hands chasing after him. He was covered in dust and grime as he shouted at the two of them—
“Stop with the lovey-dovey stuff and save me!!!!”