Chapter 49: Castle Exploration (Part 7)
Qi An slept deeply, falling asleep soon after lying on the bed. His mind was shrouded in darkness until Zhang Zhaoqi knocked on his door, and only then did he wake up.
Night had already fallen outside the window, and the pure moonlight quietly crept in. The room was pitch black, and just as Qi An's eyes fully opened, the lights in the room suddenly turned on.
They were that warm yellow light, not glaring at all.
The slender young man stood up from the bed, and the night breeze blew in, making the clothes on his body flutter and rustle, revealing his fair, smooth collarbone.
The wind grew stronger, blowing in fiercely from a window that had somehow opened at some point, lightly sweeping across Qi An's exposed neck, and just then blew open a wardrobe not far from the double bed.
This wind was strange. It wasn't normal cold wind, but carried a bone-piercing chill. Even as it lightly brushed past, Qi An felt a peculiar sensation.
It felt like someone was caressing him with their hands, unable to let go, lingering and wandering across his collarbone and neck.
[An'an, you're finally awake!] Sensing that his host had awakened, the system immediately shouted, [I called you several times just now, but you didn't wake up. Now you've finally woken.]
[You called me many times?] Qi An paused, as if he had just returned to that recent state of being immersed in darkness. That feeling was extremely oppressive, as if he were bound by darkness, everything stripped away, both consciousness and body tightly imprisoned by a crushing weight. It wasn't until the knocking sound came that Qi An felt himself break free from that state.
But strangely, Qi An moved his body and found no fatigue or weakness that usually comes from poor rest. Instead, his whole body was full of strength.
The entire body's condition was unexpectedly good.
[Yes, there was a pervert! I tried to wake you up, but that guy probably did something to you. Your consciousness was all darkness.] The system immediately replied, [During this time, Mu Gangnong and several others also came knocking, but you still didn't wake up!]
[A pervert?]
[Yes! A pervert!]
Qi An raised his eyes and looked around the room again. Glancing at the blown-open wardrobe, he wrapped his clothes tighter, letting the collar fully cover his neck and collarbone, then walked to the door and opened it.
"You're awake." Zhang Zhaoqi exhaled softly with relief after seeing that Qi An had no injuries. But when he saw what room Qi An was staying in, his gaze darkened sharply.
However, what he said was still flat and ordinary, revealing no trace of emotion, "Can I come in and take a look?"
"Ah... of course." The young man seemed startled by this request, and a stunning blush spread across his fair cheeks. He lightly stepped aside, leaving a space for Zhang Zhaoqi to enter.
Zhang Zhaoqi kept watching Qi An, and only after Qi An lowered his head under his gaze did he walk in unhurriedly, casually looking around.
[Did many people come to call me just now?] Qi An followed closely behind Zhang Zhaoqi, his tone flat.
[Yes, first there was a boy who knocked for a long while. When he saw no response from the room, Mu Gangnong came over. He seemed to be fiddling with something outside the room—I heard quite a lot of noise. He stayed for quite some time anyway, but you still didn't wake up. Then every once in a while, someone else would come knock on your door.] The system thought about it and spoke up at the end, [When Zhang Zhaoqi came to knock, you woke up.]
[Zhang Zhaoqi hadn't come over before then?] Qi An thought of the knocking sound that had freed him from his imprisonment, and some other meaning crept into his tone.
[Yes! He never came over!] The system answered Qi An extremely quickly, with hidden gloating.
Unfortunately, it only received a soft hum from Qi An in response.
The young man's expression showed no change whatsoever, not even the slightest movement. His head slightly bowed, concealing his delicate features. Qi An's expression was as harmless as always, his black eyes clear and transparent as if one could see straight to the bottom, like a mirror reflecting all his inner feelings.
The deeper they walked inside, the more erratic Zhang Zhaoqi's footsteps became. When he stood in front of the wardrobe and clearly saw what was inside, a flash of crimson quickly appeared in his eyes.
The wardrobe was magnificent and large, but inside it was completely empty.
There was only one thing inside... a wedding dress.
The bride's wedding dress, a red garment. The material was clearly a treasure of the world—silky smooth, so glossy that one would want to gently stroke it. It was decorated with countless rare gems, many of which Qi An had never seen before. These gems sparkled brilliantly under the lamplight.
The light from gems of different colors intertwined, making this wedding dress breathtakingly beautiful.
And extremely expensive. Any normal person seeing it would feel their heartstrings tugged.
This wedding dress was exactly identical to one in the wedding photo on the bedside table.
Zhang Zhaoqi slowly closed his eyes. His hands were clenched tightly.
This wedding dress was indeed stunning.
If it were him seeing it under normal circumstances, he would also be somewhat shaken inside. However, there was one thing...
The size of this dress was exactly the same as Qi An's.
Of course he knew—this dress was custom-made for the young man beside him. Zhang Zhaoqi thought of the wedding photo he had seen earlier, and the red in his eyes rose like boiling water.
That photo didn't include him.
What a... hateful dress indeed.
"Zhang Zhaoqi, Qi An, are you two ready? If you're ready, let's go downstairs. We're all waiting for you to play the game." The sound of the door successfully opening wouldn't escape the ears of certain people downstairs. When they saw the two hadn't come down for quite a while, someone couldn't help but urge them a few times.
The people who had just arrived at this villa were still very curious about these games that could peer into the future.
"Let's go downstairs." Qi An glanced at the wedding dress in the wardrobe just like Zhang Zhaoqi had, then said softly.
When Qi An met his gaze, Zhang Zhaoqi's eyes had returned to their dark color. The young man nodded coldly and indifferently, and like it was nothing, he closed the wardrobe door, completely blocking out the sight of that wedding dress.
Qi An and Zhang Zhaoqi walked out together. When they were just about to leave, Qi An looked back at the wardrobe without changing his expression, then turned to look at the wedding photo placed on the bedside table.
This wedding photo was large, and the red color on it was extremely festive. The two newlyweds wore exquisitely magnificent wedding attire, pressing close together intimately. This photo was almost identical to what he had seen before, except that the dark fog on the faces of the two people had begun to slowly dissipate.
Qi An glanced at Zhang Zhaoqi beside him and withdrew his gaze, walking alongside him.
He slowly turned around and naturally closed the door. His eyes quickly glanced at that photo.
The dark fog on one person's face had completely dissipated.
Qi An saw a stunningly beautiful face in it. With ink-wash serene brows and eyes, and skin so pale it was nearly translucent. The person's cheeks were painted with a peach-blossom pink, making them look extremely gorgeous.
That was... his own face.
[As expected, interesting...]
The hand gripping the door handle paused slightly. Qi An lowered his head to look at his shoes with black and white dual flowers printed on them, and smiled with amusement. He licked his lips, and the crystal-clear saliva moistened his lips into a fresh, tender red, like a demon hiding in the wilderness that seductively drained essence from people.
*BANG*—the door closed.
The lamp radiating the warm yellow glow flickered, as if making a final struggle, then completely went into dormancy. This room that had just been filled with festivity and warmth was immediately swallowed by darkness.
"Qi An, we called you several times just now. Were you sleeping so soundly that you didn't hear us?" When Qi An came downstairs, someone asked with a somewhat complaining tone.
The speaker was also from the second team, same as Qi An. Because he had chosen a terrible room, his expression was very unpleasant.
"I'm sorry, I might have been a bit tired, so I slept quite deeply." Qi An's voice was a bit soft as he timidly responded. His cheeks, which had just regained some color, turned completely bloodless because of the boy's awful expression.
Seeing Qi An reduced to this state because of his venting, the boy suddenly felt a sense of guilt. In his daily life, even when facing girls, he would never hesitate to scold when he should. But facing Qi An, especially when looked at timorously by those jet-black eyes, he couldn't bring himself to say a single harsh word.
Moreover, he had always possessed extremely keen intuition. Relying on his instincts, he had turned danger into safety many times. Just as he opened his mouth, his heart prickled, and a strong sense of crisis immediately surged up. He muttered softly and looked at Qi An.
Finding that the other party was weak and completely had no攻击力, the boy immediately showed a suspicious expression.
"Since everyone's here, let's proceed as agreed and play the Pen Fairy game. We've prepared the props already, so everyone can play directly. Two people per team, find your own teammates." Mu Gangnong glanced淡淡地 at the speaking boy. Though his words were normal, they carried a commanding quality.
No one raised an objection. The people from the second team had faint excitement on their faces, while some from the first team suddenly shuddered violently, then followed closely behind Mu Gangnong to a certain room on the second floor.
There were many rooms on the second floor.
The door of the room they entered had no decorations on it. Most of the slippers had various patterns on them, with none having absolutely no pattern at all. Obviously, this room didn't belong to any person on their team. When they opened the door and entered, the facts confirmed this.
There was no bed inside, only a dozen or so tables. Paper and pens were placed on the tables, and besides a candle burning in the center of each table, candles were also arranged in a circle around the room.
The windows were closed. From the moment they entered, it had been windy outside. Through the windows, one could see this room was very close to a large tree, and leaves and branches were pounding against the windows.
This sound was loud, making one worry whether the windows would be smashed.
The candles inside flickered with weak light in the darkness. It seemed like the air current brought by their entry made the row of candles closest to them tilt toward the other side, as if they were about to go out.
After everyone had entered the room, the person walking last slammed the door shut behind them. These swaying candle flames swayed even more violently, tilting sharply toward the windows, then shook continuously like they were drunk.
In such a setting, everyone's large shadows also became grotesquely shaped. They swayed continuously left and right on the walls—some shadows had extremely large arms, some had extremely small heads, some were completely asymmetrical, like monsters baring fangs and claws in the darkness.
"Before we play, let's introduce ourselves to each other, especially our names." The cold-smiling boy's face became expressionless, and his words were cold and carried no warmth at all.
When they were in the paranormal society, everyone used screen names, and most activities were organized online, so many people didn't know what the others' real names were. Additionally, their time meeting had been far too short. Besides recognizing a few people during the journey to the villa, most could only recognize others' screen names.
"Introduce ourselves?" A girl looked at him in confusion, "So urgently? Is this necessary when playing the Pen Fairy?"
"No." The cold-smiling boy coldly laughed, "But it's still better to know our companions' names. By tonight, you'll understand why we need names."
"Hm?" The girl was startled.
Although many people had doubts in their hearts, they still roughly introduced themselves. This introduction covered everyone from both the first and second teams. There were too many people. Qi An only emphatically remembered the names of a few people: the cold-smiling boy's name was Si Mao, the polite young man from Wu Yi Alliance who was with Mu Gangnong was called Fang Lin, the long-haired girl who had seemed bewitched earlier was called Cui Feng, and the short-haired girl who knew Bai Jing was called Qin Ge.
During the introductions, Gao Lijun for some reason glanced at Qi An complexly, her eyes filled with quite a bit of confusion and uncertainty.
Because Mu Gangnong had said to form teams on their own, familiar people naturally paired up. The loli Zhao Qizhu seemed to intend to be in a team with Qi An, smiling and swaying her little head as she jogged toward where Qi An was. Qi An stayed where he was, and Zhang Zhaoqi also coldly watched the girl run up to Qi An. But just as Zhao Qizhu smiled sweetly and opened her mouth to make an invitation, he wordlessly pulled Qi An to sit at a table.
Leaving the girl standing there alone.
"Big sister, do you want to be with me?" Zhao Qizhu had a perfectly measured smile on her lips. Zhang Zhaoqi's action seemed not to have upset her. She ran to the long-haired girl Cui Feng's side, smiling extremely innocently and brilliantly.
"Do you want to play a game with me...?" The long-haired girl Cui Feng lowered her head to look at her. Whether it was due to the candlelight, her skin suddenly became very strange. It was equally smooth, equally fair, but always gave people a feeling that she wasn't real.
Especially her eyes. They seemed to have become even darker under the candlelight, as if they could glow.
"Yes, I want to play games with big sister." Zhao Qizhu smiled even sweeter, like spilling honey, "But the little brother doesn't seem like he wants to play with us. How disappointing."
As she spoke, she pointed at Qi An sitting across from Zhang Zhaoqi, "Little brother is so handsome, I really want to play with him. But there's another big brother beside him. Big brother won't let me play with little brother, and I can't beat little brother, so I can't play games with little brother. If I can't play games together, I'll definitely be disappointed. Isn't that right, big sister?"
"Can't play games together?" Cui Feng lowered her head and murmured a repetition, her long hair casting dense shadows across her cheeks under the candlelight, "Can't play games together, I'll definitely be disappointed."
"We'll definitely play games together." Cui Feng's expression became somewhat rigid. She mechanically turned to look at where Qi An and Zhang Zhaoqi were, then suddenly smiled enchantingly,妖艳地, "He and I will definitely play games together."
"Hehehe, big sister is really so beautiful. With someone this pretty, little brother will definitely want to play together." Zhao Qizhu pulled Cui Feng to sit at a table very close to where Qi An and Zhang Zhaoqi were, her brows and eyes curving into crescents as she smiled, blocking her quiet ink-black eyes, "I also want to play an interesting game with little brother."
"Want to play games with me, want to play games with me, definitely want to play games with me..."
Sitting on the stool, Qi An suddenly heard a mechanical female voice. This voice was exactly the same timbre as what he heard at noon.
Equally beautiful.
Only the speaking speed was getting faster and faster, and the frequency was also increasing.
When he heard it at noon, this voice should have come from the doll, so this mechanical voice始终 couldn't带有 human emotions. But right at this moment, this voice was becoming stranger and stranger.
The same timbre, but slowly injecting human emotions.
From it, Qi An heard obsession, tenacity, and... madness.
Her voice was as beautiful as ever, but like a ghost crying maniacally.
Qi An looked up at the people around him. He saw Zhao Qizhu smiling sweetly at him with her cute face. He returned a smile, trying to see if he could detect any strangeness in others, but found nothing.
"What's wrong?" Zhang Zhaoqi asked him.
Qi An looked into his eyes that on the surface carried no emotion, subtly furrowing his brows, "...Nothing."
"Can we not play this game?" Bai Jing, the team leader of Qi An's team, looked at Qin Ge, the short-haired girl who was coming closer to him, and asked when she was about to approach.
"Not play... Mu Gangnong's action paused. He turned his copper-bell-like eyes to look at him, "Why suddenly unwilling to play? Our total number of people now is exactly even, so the teams can be divided perfectly. If you don't play, then another companion won't be able to play either."
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone from the first team began to look at Bai Jing with black, ink-like eyeballs. Some people's eyes were vacant, some carried fear, some showed displeasure, but without exception, all their eyes were filled with full blame. As if if he didn't play, he had done something criminal.
Bai Jing was startled by these eyes. He swallowed, trying to ask the short-haired girl Qin Ge who was getting closer and closer, "Why don't we just not play? You're not very afraid of these things, right? You were even scared like that at noon. Why don't we stand to the side and watch them play together?"
"Not play... why not play? This kind of thing is very灵 here. The more afraid you are, the more excited you get, and the more interesting it becomes." Qin Ge smiled at him, "I am a bit afraid, but I wouldn't be scared like that at noon. Based on your understanding of me, don't you know what kind of person I am? I deliberately acted that way to trick you. I just wanted to see if you'd love me as much as you said, but I didn't expect you at noon to be like that..."
After saying this, the short-haired girl also swung her small fists a few times, seemingly fierce but actually not using much force, beating on the boy's body.
"Could it be that you were scared by my prank text message? You didn't actually think I was possessed by a ghost, did you? You're really super cowardly, oh."
"Deliberately scared me?" Bai Jing stared blankly at this girl whose personality was identical to his memory.
"Yes, you broke my heart." The girl coquettishly cold-snorted, "If you make me unable to play this game successfully this time, do you believe I'll break up with you!"
Qi An sat on the stool, contemplating as he watched the girl fiercely drag the dazed boy toward the last table. Qin Ge wore very long pants, the hem even dragging on the ground, completely covering the shoes the girl was wearing.
Her way of wearing these pants was very strange. Qi An couldn't help but look a few more times, but this gaze seemed to attract the girl's attention. She turned her head and stared directly at Qi An, then smiled brightly and cheerfully.
"Pen Fairy, Pen Fairy, you are my past life, I am your present life. If you wish to continue our fate, please draw a circle on the paper."
The summoning words for the Pen Fairy sounded one after another throughout the room.
Qi An and Zhang Zhaoqi crossed their hands, with the pen suspended in mid-air between them. Almost the instant they finished speaking, the pen in their hands moved violently and drew a very round circle on the paper.
Then the pen tip swept quickly across, and a line of small characters appeared on it.
"Dear, write the truth, or you'll be punished. The punishment of love, oh—the kind with kisses, hugs, and being lifted up high~"
Qi An seemed startled, and the hand holding the pen began trembling slightly. After Zhang Zhaoqi finished reading all the words on the paper, a flash of red crossed his eyes, but he gently gripped Qi An's hand.
"Dear~ What color do you like?"
A chill transmitted from the hand, as if a pair of broad hands were gripping Qi An to write on the paper. Pink bubbles even mysteriously appeared on the paper's surface.
Zhang Zhaoqi coldly stared at the paper's surface, trying to grip the pen to write, but found some other force obstructing his movement.
Heh heh.
Qi An glanced at Zhang Zhaoqi, trying to write on it. The moment his brush just touched down, a scream suddenly sounded in his ear.
His hand naturally landed on the girl's shoulder. The girl flinched, her body pausing. She slightly turned her head, revealing a deathly pale face, then suddenly gripped the young man's hand. "You're finally here. I'm so scared..."
As she spoke, she trembled, "I'm so scared. I've been hoping to have you by my side all along..."
The girl's frightened appearance made Bai Jing下意识地 embrace her. But when his peripheral vision caught his phone, his expression changed slightly. His body became rigid.
His eyes just managed to see the first few words glowing on the text message: "Don't come in. There's..."