V3C7

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Seeing the sentence by the pool of blood, everyone looked towards Liu Qingqing. They were undoubtedly skeptical and scrutinizing looks. Liu Qingqing’s face paled from shock and anger, and grievance from being unable to explain herself. She shook her head hurriedly. “No! It wasn’t me, it’s Dan Liang! He’s lying, he… How could he be like this!”

Liu Qingqing started to cry from stress, leaning into Gu Fengyi as she tried to catch her breath. Gu Fengyi let her stay in her arms, softly comforting her. Her tone was gentle, but Lin Jue wasn’t in her arms like Liu Qingqing, able to be convinced just from her words. Gu Fengyi’s eyes looked into the distant darkness, cold like the stars, jarringly different from her tone.

Even a bystander like Lin Jue felt a chill run down his back. He couldn’t help but place himself in the same situation. If he had met Dan Liang on his way to the plaza and killed him, excitedly bringing everyone here to verify the corpse after arriving at the plaza, only for Dan Liang to revive as Judas and leave behind a sentence in blood that he couldn’t testify against- He is Judas…

Truly vile to the extreme.

The sentence would be a fishbone stuck in their throats, unable to be swallowed or spat out, not deadly, but painful. Doubt had been sown among them and the smallest wind would make it grow fiercely, blooming into a flower of sin.

Who could promise that it wasn’t the truth? Even if it was 99% the tactics of Judas, there was still that 1% of possibility, wasn’t there? Besides, the suspicion on Liu Qingqing and Dan Liang was at most split thirty to seventy in favor of Dan Liang.

If it were him, would Song Hanzhang trust him as before? Would they still be able to work together and give each other their backs?

Just thinking about Song Hanzhang’s suspicious gaze made Lin Jue’s mind go blank, his chest feeling as if it had been pierced through by a knife. It made him want to cut out his heart to prove his innocence. The more he placed himself in the same situation, the more he came to hate Dan Liang.

No matter what reason he had, no matter whether he was Judas or not, the next time he met Dan Liang, he wouldn’t let him get away. Once Dan Liang was killed, it would be clear who Judas was. When the real Judas was killed, a ‘Judas’ Rule’ would appear on the ground, and at the start of the next round, on one of the billboards in the plaza.

Gu Fengyi evidently thought the same thing. “Once I find Dan Liang and kill him, everything will be clear.”

&&&

Gu Fengyin and Liu Qingqing left. Even though Gu Fengyi still had her suspicions, she brought Liu Qingqing with her.

Lin Jue watched as the two left. “I thought Gu Fengyi would go alone… She’s still suspicious of Liu Qingqing, right?”

“It’s an easy decision. If it were you, would you let someone who was a potential Judas leave, then be on guard for the next ten or so hours in case they cane back to stab you out of nowhere?” Song Hanzhang retorted.

“But Judas can’t directly kill players.” Lin Jue still remembered those two Judas’ rules.

“There’s no need to do anything directly. Liu Qingqing’s skills can easily cause trouble in an important situation, so instead of being nervous and frightened, it’s better for her to actively seek out the answer. Once Dan Liang is killed, the truth will be clear,” Song Hanzhang said.

“The campus is so big; it won’t be an easy feat to find Dan Liang.” Lin Jue was deeply experienced in how sneaky Dan Liang could be and couldn’t help but worry for Gu Fengyi and Liu Qingqing.

“It might be difficult for others, but not for Gu Fengyi. Her snake sense is very acute, and moreover, Dan Liang has yet to go to the plaza. If I was Gu Fengyi, I would go to the plaza now and ambush him when he comes to collect his reward. It’s very possible that she’ll get him in a single hit,” Song Hanzhang analyzed.

Lin Jue nodded in understanding. “Then are we going as well?”

“No, I’m not interested in clowns. If he takes the bait, then Gu Fengyi alone will be enough to take care of him, and if he doesn’t, we’ll only be wasting our time. Not to mention, in the time we’ve been away from the plaza, Dan Liang has most likely already received his rewards,” Song Hanzhang said and turned towards the south as if no longer wishing to be involved in the issue.

Although Lin Jue regretted that he couldn’t kill Dan Liang with his own hands, he still let go of the matter and hurried after him. “Where are we going now?’

“Just walking around. Familiarize yourself with the environment, this round most likely won’t let us pass easily.” Song Hanzhang still seemed engrossed in something.

For some reason, Lin Jue felt like Song Hanzhang wasn’t troubled over the question of who Judas was. A Judas who was unable to directly kill players truly had little effect over the game, especially when everyone had gotten to know each other a little, so the dangers Judas posed were much smaller than the previous two rounds. Judas aside, Song Hanzhang evidently had deeper concerns for the round that Lin Jue was once again unsure of. Just like the last round, though he knew Song Hanzhang was deeply troubled by something, he was unable to help him bear the load. That powerless feeling frustrated him.

Lin Jue hurried his steps until he was walking alongside Song Hanzhang.

The school’s changes were even more severe than the last round. Last round, the school had been covered with greenery and crawling with insects, approaching a rainforest in appearance, but this round, whether they were in a false reality or a game’s simulation, the world had been corroded into something of a nightmare.

The roadside lamps were so rusted that one wondered if they would suddenly fall over, and paint peeled from the metal bins everywhere, suspicious traces of blood on every surface. Just one look would make one shiver. Further away, the school buildings were submerged in a mist that seemed to have an eerie magic, making them seem almost like a mirage.

No matter how he looked at it, this place was like a twisted dream: eerie, mutant buildings and monsters that appeared out of nowhere, enough to make the courageous fear and the cowardly mad.

Lin Jue was bashful mentally for a long while. The monster he met at the start of the game in the guest house occupied his mind and words of question made their way to the tip of his tongue repeatedly; every time he looked at Song Hanzhang’s handsome profile under the hazy light though, he was suddenly unable to say anything.

It was odd. Even though there was nothing for him to be ashamed of, he stopped before a single word came out. Maybe instinctively, he knew the monster he met was greatly related to his inner thoughts. Revealing what he had seen would be equivalent to laying his secrets out in broad daylight.

“What do you want to say?” Song Hanzhang, who had been peeped at several times, asked.

“Um… Not much,” Lin Jue immediately swallowed back his words, but the question was like a fish happily spitting out bubbles in the water, its trail already exposed, eagerly waiting for its bait with just a little more luring.

But even though Lin Jue wanted to be a live fish on the hook, Song Hanzhang didn’t even bother to cast a line out, wanting only to fish for what wanted to be caught. He said decisively, “Nevermind then.”

Now that he was leaving, the fish got worried. You even reached out your rod, how could you not try to catch me?

Lin Jue could only start honestly, “It’s not alright actually. I just want to ask about the monster I met last time; I keep feeling like there’s something…”

The fish that had volunteered to jump into the basket told the story as if it were spitting out bubbles. At times like these, Song Hanzhang was a good listener: patient, asking for details as he tried to gather his sentences. When Lin Jue had gone through everything, Song Hanzhang had also almost finished analyzing it.

“The first thing that we can determine is that the moment we entered the game this round, we were all pulled into different scenarios. The common ground was that we were all faced with a monster and had to defeat it to leave. The monster… I believe it has something to do with our hearts,” Song Hanzhang said slowly.

“That’s the same idea that Gu Fengyi had. She also thought that disgust, fear, desire… those kinds of emotions would appear in front of us in the form of monsters, but…” Lin Jue couldn’t continue. That monster surrounded by fallen feathers, just what did it represent?

“Obviously, that was me, and who I am in your heart,” Song Hanzhang said.

Lin Jue’s heart trembled, yet it was as if a weight had been lifted from him. Maybe he had always known but had refused to face it until Song Hanzhang himself had given him the answer.

“You poured so much emotion into me; I felt your pity, your awe, your dependence and adoration, and even fear.” Song Hanzhang stopped under the lights and looked straight into Lin Jue’s eyes. Through the thin lenses, his eyes seemed to be cold stars, emanating light without heat. He pierced through what Lin Jue was unwilling to face, making his heart jump as if he was standing naked in front of a crowd.

Adoration. Adoration? Adoration! Lin Jue’s mind was filled with that word, his thoughts wandering so wildly that he didn’t even dare look into Song Hanzhang’s eyes.

How could it be adoration? Why was it adoration? Lin Jue didn’t understand, didn’t dare to understand. He felt like he was being pushed into a lake, his mind numb, memories flashing by his breathless self- their first encounter in the dormitory, Song Hanzhang’s confident cover-up of his antibody, the closeness they gradually grew to have, facing dangers together in the library… From the very beginning, Song Hanzhang had been different. Maybe it was an imprint, or the drawbridge effect from the stress they were under, but undeniably, unmistakably, Lin Jue was willing to gamble his life for Song Hanzhang.

So much that if one day, one of them was to die, he wished it would be him.

It was an extremely complicated emotion, brewed from a situation almost impossible to replicate and hence with no precedent to refer back to. Lin Jue wasn’t even sure what he was feeling. He simply cared for him more than himself; he had never seriously considered whether or not what he felt was love.

While he wandered around in his delusions, he heard Song Hanzhang ask, “…So, why are you afraid of me?”

Lin Jue was stunned but Song Hanzhang was confused, his uncertainty evident on his face.

Yes, Song Hanzhang didn’t care at all about that one word which he passed over so easily but struck Lin Jue like a nuclear bomb. What he was concerned about was Lin Jue’s fear.

Suddenly, Lin Jue smiled. Not out of self-mockery, but because he found it really funny. He faintly realized that he and Song Hanzhang had never been on the same line of thought. Song Hanzhang was actually someone with a very simple way of thinking; he didn’t think there were any problem with admiration, and he wasn’t bothered to investigate whether it was adoration or longing or any number of other complicated emotions. As long as he was certain that it wouldn’t disturb the trusting relationship between them, he wouldn’t care.

Unlike fear. So he cared.

Having realized, Lin Jue felt a weight being lifted off his shoulders. There was a little bit of disappointment, but also a little bit of pride. Disappointment because he cared for someone who didn’t care if others cared for him; because he was flirting with a blind man and could never expect any response, but could never expect any scorn or lines drawn in the sand either. Because it wasn’t a good ending, but it wasn’t a bad one either. And pride, because even though he was unilaterally humiliated by Song Hanzhang intellectually, emotionally, it was him who held the advantage.

Lin Jue was even in the mood to joke. “Well, they say all love turns into hate, so I must love Xuezhang so much that I’m scared of him.”

“Is that so?” Song Hanzhang looked at him doubtfully, as if prepared to reconsider the dangers of such feelings.

Lin Jue’s mouth twisted from trying to hold back his laughter. “I was joking.”

|TOC|

Like this:Like Loading...