/
Opening his mouth but finding himself in a stutter, Wu Jian asks, “madmen… what kind of madmen, are you referring to?”
Xü Beijin looks at him for a while before smiling a little, answering, “shouldn’t you already know? You’ve already met them at that building.”
There are some unsubtle meanings Xü Beijin meant to convey through that blatant sentence, but Wu Jian didn’t get it yet. He is merely looking at Xü Beijin in shock, asking, “that building? You mean, earlier, when we were in that…” Nightmare?
What in the world? These two Nightmares are having some crossover event?
While Wu Jian is getting astonished to no end, Buzzcut suddenly says, “I remember now.”
The rest of those present look at him.
He looks at Xü Beijin, saying, “you’re that bookstore owner, aren’t you?”
Xß Beijin, surprised, wonders what that bookstore owner could possibly have been otherwise.
Buzzcut says, “a few years back I left the bottom floor, when the Missiontakers were all obsessed with a Nightmare… your Nightmare, right?”
Xü Beijin furrows his brows and replies, “that has nothing to do with this Nightmare.”
“You still haven’t opened up your Nightmare yet,” Buzzcut mutters, and his stare starts having a fire to it, “your Nightmare, might actually be the ‘Ultimate Nightmare’…”
It seems this Missiontaker’s desire to leave the Tower is already so hopelessly deep that any opportunities presenting themselves in front of him would be able to trigger his sensitive nerves immediately.
He is blabbering on and on, looking like he wants to force XĂź Beijin to tell him about his Nightmare.
XĂź Beijin is furrowing his brows deeply.
Lin Qin looks at him, then at Buzzcut, and, displeased, he knocks on the desk in front of him, saying, “wait a minute.”
Buzzcut stops, and turns to Lin Qin with an expression going ‘what.’
Wu Jian’s heart almost skips a beat. Oh no. The dalao is pissed.
Though Lin Qin responds with remarkable constraint, considering, and says, “the Nightmare is his, not yours, do you get it?” Then he adds, “if you really want to force his Nightmare, I could let you experience a nightmare right here, right now first.”
He starts cracking his knuckles.
Buzzcut’s mouth twitches, and, like the observant sycophant that he suddenly turns into, replies, “I understand now, dalao, I’m sorry.”
Lin Qin, satisfied, nods.
XĂź Beijin gives the young man a speechless look. A threatening Lin Qin like this is making him feel somewhat complicated.
… Like a lioness protecting her cubs? Him being the cub?
XĂź Beijin is honestly surprised.
Then Lin Qin turns to him and complains, “you really are too gentle and kind that these people keep appearing in droves. If you let me beat them all up when I asked last time…”
XĂź Beijin rubs his nose awkwardly and silently.
Is he really ‘gentle and kind’?
XĂź Beijin starts reflecting on himself.
Looking at Buzzcut, and at Lin Qin, then at Xü Beijin, Wu Jian meekly attempts to inject himself into the conversation, “um… I would like to ask, what does this library… uh, have?”
Xü Beijin then ignores Lin Qin immediately and puts on his business expression to answer, “there are five floors to the library, and on the first and second floors, there are the usual categorised collection of books and quiet rooms for reading.
The third floor contains more reading rooms and also multimedia rooms, plus some books that are not for borrowing; the fourth floor has a grand hall and activities centre, while the fifth floor are the librarians’ offices.
If you need any particular book, there is a computer at the western end where you can look it up.”
Wu Jian thanks him, and then tries to get a read on Lin Qin’s current mood, then quickly decides to ask the couple, “let’s split up?”
Lin Qin, glancing at Xü Beijin, says, “I’ll do the first floor.”
Wu Jian sighs in relief, and says, “then I’ll do the second floor.”
Buzzcut nods and says, “we’ll take care of the third and fourth floors, and leave the fifth for the last. We might need to be guided up there, too.”
He almost reflexively looks at Xü Beijin again, but he stops himself. While he does have a strong desire for the Ultimate Nightmare, it is still quite possible that it isn’t Xü Beijin’s Nightmare, and so provoking Lin Qin is unwise here.
So they quickly disperse.
Xü Beijin finally sighs in relief and looks over at the stream’s image, ignoring all the teases and ‘lol’s the viewers are plastering all over his screen.
… No! He’s not looking! He knows they’re laughing at him and Lin Qin! Who cares!
XĂź Beijin instead checks out the movements of the rest of the Missiontakers.
The five of them have split into two groups, one heading north from the library, and the other to the south.
Fei, Mu Jiashi and Mr Suicide is to the north, while Ding Yi and He ShujĂźn are heading to the south.
Mu Jiashi feels like discussing with Ding Yi but couldn’t find a good time to do so; since she’s back on the bottom floor, now, a chance should come up regardless, and he doesn’t have to hurry himself. He only wants to ask her about the higher floors’ current situation, too, which he is somewhat interested in.
Maybe Ding Yi can tell him more about the latest of the weird developments they say have occurred there.
So that isn’t urgent or too important right now. Instead, he should focus more on this Nightmare.
He is pretty worried, looking up at the sky every so often. There are no clouds today, and the sunlight is almost blinding by itself. Each and every sign he can see seem to indicate that it is going to be great beach weather today.
Mu Jiashi is only feeling the gloom over his mind, however.
The long-haired Mr Suicide is almost window-shopping along, stopping every so often to look around. He looks distinctly not like he’s here to resolve a Nightmare.
Which means that, of the three present, only Fei is currently seriously trying to deal with the Nightmare.
She is observing the shops and storefronts around closely for clues or someone who can provide them with clues.
Suddenly, she pauses.
There is a bookstore by the street, which reflexively reminds her of XĂź Beijin. She wonders if the mysterious bookstore owner might appear in this Nightmare, as a bookstore owner, no less?
Thus she approaches the location, while also checking out the neighbouring stores.
Next to the bookstore, is a dollmaker’s.