Chapter 37.3

Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t believe his ears, but he soon reacted by pulling Tang Mianmian towards Shen Yuan’s room. Shen Yuan merely stood motionless in front of the door. He glanced at Xiao Tangqiu and said faintly, “You stay, your friend goes with Duan Hongzhen.”

Duan Hongzhen?

Windbreaker man was called Duan Hongzhen?

As Xiao Tangqiu pondered over his words, Windbreaker Man gave a grunt of disapproval. “Older brother, it’s not like you don’t know that I don’t like other people sleeping in my room.”

Shen Yuan said coldly, “Then sleep in their room with him.”

Windbreaker Man reluctantly shrugged his shoulders.

The woman was still unwilling to give in, “Older Brother Shen! How can you allow them to push their luck! And Older Brother Shen, aren’t you particular about cleanliness… “

Shen Yuan looked at her impassively. “Who’s the captain?”

The woman puffed her cheeks, “…You.”

“Then listen to me.”

Shen Yuan lowered his gaze, “Go back to your rooms. We’ll go to Daemon Town tomorrow.”

After that, he went straight back to his room but didn’t bother to close the door behind him, apparently leaving it open for Xiao Tangqiu.

Xiao Tangqiu’s heart started to pound wildly. He didn’t expect Shen Yuan to actually agree to his request. After a moment of rejoicing, he couldn’t help but wonder why Shen Yuan had such a change in attitude. Could it be that…

Right then, Windbreaker Man, Duan Hongzhen, smiled at Tang Mianmian as he played with his scalpel and said, “Be careful, I sleepwalk at night. I have killed several people accidentally while sleepwalking before.”

Tang Mianmian, “…Ying!”

Tang Mianmian, who had just felt a hint of relief after an extended period of fear, panicked again. He hugged Xiao Tangqiu’s arm, “Wuwuwu! Qiuqiu, let me share a room with you! I am willing to sleep on the floor!”

But before Xiao Tangqiu could say anything, Duan Hongzhen continued with a grin, “Older brother sleepwalks at night and doesn’t kill anyone, but he’ll do something more horrible than killing.”

Tang Mianmian immediately turned around and said, “Goodnight, Qiuqiu! See you tomorrow Qiuqiu!”

Xiao Tangqiu wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. When Tang Mianmian saw Duan Hongzhen head to his room, he quickly scampered behind him like an overgrown puppy, the words “great god” falling off his lips endlessly as he tried his best to kiss up to the latter.

The two women saw Shen Yuan return to his room and turned to leave. One of them looked at Xiao Tangqiu and gave a cold snort.

Xiao Tangqiu touched his nose wryly. Seeing that everyone was gone, he cautiously walked into Shen Yuan’s room and gently closed the door.

Shen Yuan’s room wasn’t any different from the other rooms. He sat at the head of the bed, looking down at a thick book with a black cover, which seemed very old.

Xiao Tangqiu didn’t recall seeing it anywhere in the old castle. He guessed that it belonged to Shen Yuan. He brought it in from outside. What was worth Shen Yuan bringing to such a dangerous place?

He didn’t dare to disturb Shen Yuan, so he quietly went into the bathroom and showered first. According to his observation, Shen Yuan seemed to be obsessed with cleanliness. He and Tang Mianmian had been fighting with the monster for so long. Of course, it was only natural that they were dirty.

When Xiao Tangqiu went back into the bedroom after taking a shower, Shen Yuan was still looking at his book. He hesitated for a moment before saying, “Thank you for saving my life and my friend’s tonight…”

Shen Yuan remained motionless, not even lifting his head.

Xiao Tangqiu simply climbed into bed. Regardless of whether Shen Yuan accepted his thanks or not, he had already said it… Fortunately, the beds in the guest rooms were large enough for three or four people. Otherwise, how embarrassing would it be for him to sleep next to Shen Yuan!

The temperature difference between day and night in the castle was extremely large, and the temperature at night was as low as below zero. Hence, Xiao Tangqiu decided that unless Shen Yuan opened his mouth to drive him out of bed, he wouldn’t take the initiative to sleep on the floor. Fortunately, Shen Yuan merely watched him climb into bed and didn’t drive him away.

Xiao Tangqiu quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and then lay down at the side farthest from Shen Yuan. Today had been a thrilling and exciting day. He thought that he would be too excited and scared to fall asleep. He didn’t know why, but watching Shen Yuan’s silhouette somehow relaxed his originally tensed nerves.

Gradually, he fell into a deep sleep.

Xiao Tangqiu had a dream.

He dreamed of Meng Xinghe again.

In his dream, Meng Xinghe was still young and beautiful. He was walking towards him with a smile from across the road. Meng Xinghe seemed to be saying something but all of a sudden, Xiao Tangqiu felt palpitations and started shouting in the dream.

There’s a car coming! A car is about to lose control and crash in this direction! Get out of the way!

However, in the next second, Meng Xinghe stood in the middle of the road and started to bleed out of his seven orifices. Amidst the flow of dark, almost black blood, countless strands of hair started pouring out as well.

From his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, poured out a mass of hair and dark red blood.

His expression was horrible, showing intense pain as he held out a hand towards Xiao Tangqiu, veins throbbing violently.

“Save me… Save me…”

“Why… won’t you… save…”

“You’re… leaving me to die!”

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly woke up from his dream, his heart beating wildly.

Meng Xinghe’s bleeding face was still before his eyes. Suddenly, he saw the man, who looked identical to Meng Xinghe, at the foot of the bed. He was so scared that he almost rolled down to the floor. But he managed to react in time – it was Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan stood at the foot of the bed, staring impassively at Xiao Tangqiu. “Something happened.”

Xiao Tangqiu paused before asking, “Something happened?”

Shen Yuan replied, “There were screams.”

Xiao Tangqiu then realized… It was dawn.

It seemed that it was already dawn outside. Although the brightness of day and night in this castle didn’t seem to differ much, the temperature was not as cold as it was at night. He hurried into the bathroom to wash up and went out with Shen Yuan.

Looking at Shen Yuan’s side profile, Xiao Tangqiu remembered last night’s nightmare and couldn’t help falling into deep thought.

The two had just left the room when they met Duan Hongzhen and the others. They were obviously waiting for Shen Yuan at the door while Tang Mianmian was waiting for Xiao Tangqiu.

To Xiao Tangqiu’s surprise, Tang Mianmian seemed to have slept well and was in high spirits. Apparently, Duan Hongzhen’s claims of killing in his sleep was just a joke. However, Tang Mianmian looked up and down at Xiao Tangqiu and couldn’t help showing a look of sympathy. “It seems that fella didn’t lie… The great god really has a habit of tormenting people in his sleep.”

Xiao Tangqiu had a nightmare yesterday. Naturally, he didn’t sleep well. He gave Tang Mianmian a wry look, “What happened?”

Tang Mianmian’s expression turned solemn. “There’s another dead person.”

Xiao Tangqiu looked along Tang Mianmian’s line of sight. There was an open door among the rooms in the corridor. Several people were standing in the corridor, discussing something in a low voice. They appeared much calmer than he had imagined them to be. Even he, who had successfully experienced an instance, would not necessarily be calmer than they were if he saw another dead body.

However, he soon realized that this group of people were old players. Besides Shen Yuan’s team, there were four other old players in this instance. Compared with the flustered newbies, this group of old players had a much smaller sense of presence. When they had divided the rooms on the first day, they had chosen to live in the same room, so both men and women were staying together.

Among the four old players, there were originally two men and two women, but now there was one man less.

Soon, several newbies who got up early discovered something was wrong. They stood at a distance, not daring to approach and only craned their necks to stare at the situation.

Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian looked at each other. “Let’s go have a look.”

Although Tang Mianmian was very scared, he nodded. In this crisis-ridden world, fear was useless.

Xiao Tangqiu quietly took a look at Shen Yuan from the corner of his eye and felt relieved.

“What happened?” Both of them walked to the door and Xiao Tangqiu actively asked the room’s occupants.

One of the old players looked at Xiao Tangqiu, quickly sized him up and answered, “One of our companions died.”

His tone was very calm, revealing a hint of ruthlessness and apathy – ruthlessness because they were unmoved by the death of their companion and apathy because they were accustomed to it.

The gears in Xiao Tangqiu’s head started turning. He understood some things in an instant. Perhaps in this cruel world, a companion’s death was a normal thing. Most old players had no time to grieve over the death of their companions. Shen Yuan was probably accustomed to the death of his teammates, which was why he seemed so indifferent and alienated from everything else.

He and Tang Mianmian walked into the room and were immediately shocked by the horror awaiting them. The whole floor of the room was covered with blood and looked like a remnant of a bloody river.

“If I got up early in the morning only to be greeted by this, I would’ve pissed myself,” Tang Mianmian couldn’t stop shivering. “How can a person shed so much blood…”

“I think it’s more than just blood.” Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly. He looked at the direction of the bathroom. Sure enough, the blood came from the bathroom and was still flowing out. “Let’s go in and have a look.”

Having said that, he pushed the bathroom door open and was shocked at once.

Compared to the room, the scene in the bathroom was bloodier and more horrifying. Not only was the floor covered in blood, the walls and the ceiling were also the same. A man lay naked in the bathtub, floating amidst bloody waters.

Xiao Tangqiu’s hair stood on end at the sight. The man’s death was exactly the same as Meng Xinghe’s in his dream!

His eyes were wide open; he had obviously died unwillingly. Blood mixed with large masses of hair flowed out of his empty eye sockets. Aside from that, hair and blood gushed out of his ears, nose and mouth as well. The hairs floated in the bloody waters, resembling aquatic plants.

Xiao Tangqiu’s felt a chill crawl up his spine.

Tang Mianmian’s expression turned ugly. “Fuck…. fuck…”

At this moment, Shen Yuan and the others also came in. They looked at the horrific scene of the bathroom with a calm expression. Shen Yuan swept his gaze across the four corners of the room, maintaining his expressionless face.

Although Shen Yuan didn’t ask them anything, these old players, who obviously knew their identities, took the initiative to explain. “We went to bed very early last night. Later in the night, he suddenly said that he felt itchy and wanted to take a bath… I thought that taking a bath in the bathroom wasn’t counted as leaving the room, so I didn’t stop him. He stayed in the bathroom for a long time and I kept hearing the sound of water running in the bathroom. Then, I fell asleep.”

One of the girls continued, “I was the first to wake up this morning and when I woke up, I found blood all over the floor. I screamed in horror so everyone else got up. We went into the bathroom and saw that… he was already dead.”

This group of old players obviously didn’t know when or how their companion had died… But in such a horrible place, it was obviously meaningless to investigate these matters.

Just then, the other girl said faintly, “When we opened the door and left our room earlier, we found that the candle at our door was extinguished… I’m very sure the candle was burning when we went back to the room last night.”

Xiao Tangqiu’s face sank. It seemed that when the candle went out, someone would die in the room.

He couldn’t help steal a glance at Shen Yuan. If Shen Yuan hadn’t been there last night, he and Tang Mianmian would’ve died.

Hearing this, the other newbies, who had curiously leaned in, immediately turned to look at the candle at the doors in horror. The candles flickered and looked like they would go out at any moment. Once the candle went out, they would die. This was bullshit!

Just then, Fresh Grad, who had accused Xiao Tangqiu of leaving the thief to die, pointed at the latter and cried, “The candle at your door has also gone out! Why didn’t you die?”

All eyes immediately focused on Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian, filled with questioning and vigilance.

Before Xiao Tangqiu could answer, Fresh Grad suddenly looked as if he had realized something. “You must have blown out the candle at their door when you saw yours go out, so that the ghost that wanted to kill you couldn’t find the target it really wanted to kill!”

“You killed this man! You’re both murderers!”