Chapter 6 - Novice Copy (6)

Hongyi Amusement Park

Chapter 6 — Second Game (6)

Those ghosts were originally real people. Although……Li Hongying didn’t feel they were better than normal evil spirits by much. Those who stayed here were people who had been hated and cursed by her. If not, they wouldn’t be in a copy with her.

Jiang Xiaoli didn’t know how she should deal with this ‘big boss’, even though Li Hongying looked very weak and harmless.

Li Hongying seemed to want her to promise not to leave? She wanted her to willingly ‘stay’……Was this considered as a condition for the escape copy? For example, ‘the player must take the initiative to stay in the escape world to be able to stay’……Or because it was a novice copy so there are restrictions to the extent that some kind of criteria must be accomplished to set off something……

The two of them said no more. Jiang Xiaoli and Li Hongying returned to the dorm room together. This world seemed to be a mix between real and fake. It was created by Li Hongying but really was not entirely based on her desire. Those students…..should also be real ghosts so much that their relationship with Li Hongying was not of superior and subordinate. Judging from their resentment and words, the students here were probably…….humiliated or onlookers who looked on with cold indifference.

Humans are truly a very, very strange species. Jiang Xiaoli undoubtedly started to feel sorry for Li Hongying and felt those groups of students were too much, especially when Li Hongying calmly gave an understatement about the matters they have done. Jiang Xiaoli was distressed. Yet when she was facing Li Hongying, the fear in her heart surfaced bit by bit and the cold sensation all over her body reminded her constantly that Li Hongying was a ghost!

Lying on the bed in a daze, Jiang Xiaoli shot a glance at the two shining words, ‘hong yi’, on the bed next to her and only felt it was so glaring that her eyes hurt.

She was such a fool.

How does she clear this copy?!

…….

The copy this time is about to end but Li Hongying did not want to open the door.

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So she suppressed the plot and didn’t let go.

If it wasn’t dangerous, this copy would be quite easy. In addition, a seven day novice period. As long as you are a good and healthy person who is friendly, eighty per cent could clear the game without a hitch. Although a lot of people were torn alive after the protection period because they agreed with a sentence or two when they were getting information in the early period.

Li Hongying stayed in this copy for a very, very long time. She has met all sorts of intruders, they weren’t novices and were players who had at least experienced a novice copy. She has come into contact with players who had various scents. Some were so unpleasant that it made her disgusted and there were also some who were like fine cuisine dishes.

Jiang Xiaoli was really delicious but this was only the first reason why she was not willing to let her go. The other reason was…….

Regardless of whether it was before her transformation into a feracious ghost or after, Jiang Xiaoli was actually the first ‘person’ to be so close to her. Her smell was good, her body temperature was good, her touch was also good; It all called out to Li Hongying and she was very reluctant to let go. She started to blame that ghost A, who violated the rules and disappeared as a result. If it wasn’t for her who exposed it, then with her consistent pitiful appearance, it wouldn’t be anything difficult to have coaxed the sentence of ‘I will always stay with you’ or ‘I will not leave’ out from Jiang Xiaoli.

——There’s also this annoying escape game.

If this was not Jiang Xiaoli’s first copy……

Li Hongying ground her teeth and thought that if this wasn’t her first copy, she feared Jiang Xiaoli would have entered her stomach already or the stomach of some other ghost.

Time gradually passed. When she was doing her daily assignments, Jiang Xiaoli was concentrating on watching Li Hongying solve a question for her. Even though everyone had already shown their cards 1 , the scene that should have played out still went on. 2 Jiang Xiaoli didn’t know how the system made its judgement so she could only continue to follow the rules

Li Hongying seemed to have forgotten that her own identity had long been exposed and returned to being that withdrawn and timid classmate. When Jiang Xiaoli approached her to consult her on her assignment, she would tell her the solution and the steps once through.

Li Hongying was a little good-looking. Jiang Xiaoli watched Li Hongying place her black-frame spectacles aside. It made her sharp and strong, only that she restrained it.

“Do you understand?”

“……” Jiang Xiaoli suddenly returned to her senses, only to realise that she was actually attracted by Li Hongying’s countenance. This made her very embarrassed and she couldn’t help but cough lightly, “I’m sorry, I got distracted.”

“I know.” The corners of Li Hongying’s mouth turned up in a smile. She came closer to her, nearly knocking into Jiang Xiaoli’s nose. She whispered, “You can get even closer to look.”

Get even closer? If she got any closer……Jiang Xiaoli cast a glance at Li Hongying’s lips. The colour of her lips was quite light but appeared to be extremely soft. Jiang Xiaoli felt her heart heat up as if it had been bewitched. A crazy voice in her head roared loudly: Get closer! —— No, no. Jiang Xiaoli moved her gaze away with much difficulty, her reason still prevailed.

The corners of Li Hongying’s mouth drooped. Her gaze on Jiang Xiaoli became increasingly deeper. She knew she was not very proficient in regards to the other abilities of ghosts but she didn’t expect Jiang Xiaoli to be unaffected. She no longer had any murderous intent for Jiang Xiaoli and also did not have the slightest intention to hurt her so……it wasn’t violating the rules.

Li Hongying stood up, lifted her hair and leaned forward. She left a kiss on Jiang Xiaoli’s cheek and unleashed her unskillful ‘suggestive’ ability once more and everything became fluid.

Before she hugged Jiang Xiaoli’s waist and pressed her on the desk cabinet to kiss her [harmoniously], her cold fingertips travelled to the hem of her skirt and straight up into the depths, when……it was about to touch; That damned escape game’s rules showed up and gave Li Hongying an electric shock.

This was also considered as harmful? This can be considered harmful?

Li Hongying was so angry that her eyes turned scarlet. She accidentally showed her original form. Wisps of blood trickled and stained Jiang Xiaoli’s body. Jiang Xiaoli hadn’t even recovered from feeling dizzy, before she saw the person who had been fervently kissing her turn into a red-clothed ferocious ghost, bleeding from all her seven apertures.

Jiang Xiaoli was already shocked enough, the pulsing of her heart was frightened cold in a split second. Her deathly pale face looked at Li Hongying. There were moist tears in her eyes that had overflowed from the intense kiss. Li Hongying lowered her head, tears of blood flowed along her pointed chin out of the corners of her eyes and dripped onto Jiang Xiaoli’s face. She raised her hand to wipe away that droplet of blood and touched Jiang Xiaoli’s petal lips, “Stay here with me, all right?”

To be possessed by a spirit and lose one’s thinking ability. Jiang Xiaoli suddenly thought of that saying and felt that she was genuinely ‘entranced by a spirit’. Otherwise, how would she and Li Hongying suddenly……“I want to live.”

Live? Li Hongying’s face became cold. Was it not good to stay here? Was it not good to stay here as an NPC? She will not allow Jiang Xiaoli to die. A bit of flesh was needed every day……Li Honying thought of something all of a sudden and lowered her head to leave a blood-stained kiss on Jiang Xiaoli’s forehead.

“Then, is it alright if I stay with you?”

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……

Jiang Xiaoli had a long dream.

In the dream, it started as a first-person perspective of Li Hongying.

She hung around at home, did not like to budge, liked to read novels and manga, immersed in games and liked to play mobile games at school too. Because she was so immersed in these, she was a little shortsighted as a result and started wearing glasses in junior high school. She didn’t care much about studying but she was intelligent and learnt quickly so she got by with fair grades.——Quite an ordinary student.

She had a tall build, didn’t touch up herself much, was lazy and wasn’t good with her words. When she was in junior high school, she did not have many like-minded friends but everyone didn’t go to the same high school so they parted.

Li Hongying originally thought that high school was a new beginning. She truly liked girls and she has read many Yuri campus novels. She was full of hidden expectations for her future livelihood.

As a result, from the very beginning, people were not familiar with each other and she accidentally exposed the matter of her reading Yuri novels. She thought it would be nothing. At that time, her roommates also said they understood and would not discriminate but in the blink of an eye, they were afraid of her watching them, avoiding her one by one……

It goes without saying that Li Hongying did not know how to speak and did not know how to explain. Later, she gradually stopped being with them. Only that, it was not known which roommate made vicious gossip about this matter so it just spread throughout and everyone knew about it.

Not particularly a big issue.

But Li Hongying was too withdrawn and introverted and could not stand the curious looks of others. The vicious gossip constantly reached her eyes too. She didn’t know what to do so she began to keep her distance from everyone. Then later on, it became more severe.

At first, they purposely asked her about some homosexuality questions and then spread it for laughs. There were even girls who deliberately approached to exploit her, pretending to get close to her and then shouted such words like it couldn’t be that she liked them. The pranks in the beginning, became more and more excessive, until they even thought she was withdrawn, taciturn and feeble to bullying so anyone could step on her.

The world seemed to be broken up into two parts. Li Hongying was in the shadows and the others were in the light. Everyone laughed and shouted, watching passively in general, teasing the person in the shadows. Because of this, they obtained a new pleasure during their dull studying.

It had been spread so much that parents and teachers, all knew Li Hongying was a lesbian. The Li parents even brought Li Hongying to see the psychologist. That psychologist said it wasn’t an illness. The Li family parents felt that they were losing face so Li Hongying went through a lot of beatings. Those books at home were torn and sold, nothing was left. Her grades started to drop and the teachers also disliked her all the more. Some students who joked with her, did not want to get involved. Li Hongying became more withdrawn, she didn’t understand why she would become like this and why everyone started to reject her but she seemed to be unable to change no matter what she did.

She became a sinner and was nailed onto a disgraceful pillar, anyone passer-by would consciously disdain her.

But she did not know what she had done wrong and also did not know who in the world had harmed who.

As the days passed, after one placement test after another, Li Hongying went around in circles and into the worst class. The situation completely did not change at all. The people in this whole school seemed to recognise her. Regardless of where she transferred to, she was disdained by people and no one wanted to get close to her. Her roommates even submitted applications to change their dorm room. The originally four-person room was deserted, leaving only Li Hongying.

Jiang Xiaoli thought. Li Hongying should have been depressed for a period of time because the Li Hongying in the scenes hid under the blankets for a great number of times to weep silently. Sometimes, her tears unconsciously dampened the pillow when she was sleeping and she also didn’t know about it.

Jiang Xiaoli watched the big lump under the blankets in the scene and her heart felt a bit stuffy that it was difficult to bear.

Did Li Hongying do anything wrong? Precisely, nothing. But if she could……change her disposition or concealed it better. She wouldn’t be commented on and rejected or bullied? However, when Jiang Xiaoli thought of it this way, she felt remorseful. Even if Li Hongying was withdrawn, liked girls, it was not a reason that others could ridicule her with comments.

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Footnotes

摊牌 tān pái : To make one’s hidden resources known to others. “该做的戏” refers to the original or typical scene in which the players will die and “还是得继续做” means that the show still goes on. Put them together and it means, the show still goes on but not according to the original script.