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Little Couple
Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil
Lin Qin follows Xü Beijin’s gaze, and is then surprised.
While it is the case that Lin Qin had his back to He Shujün, and had his attention on Xü Beijin, but regardless, if she made any noise at all, she could not have slipped under Lin Qin’s radar.
Lin Qin is practically a bug in this game by himself.
Even so, He ShujĂźn still managed to disappear? In those few minutes of time?
After the shock has passed, Lin Qin feels somewhat displeased; or perhaps… embarrassed?
He gives a discreet glance at XĂź Beijin, acting like he did something wrong.
Though Xü Beijin hasn’t noticed, because he finds it odd enough, and stands up with brows locked deep.
Never mind He ShujĂźn leaving quietly like a cat, but why did she leave in the first place?
Just a few minutes ago, she was already sitting there motionlessly. He is sure a dark mood had come over her. It is therefore hard to imagine anything suddenly grabbing her attention, thoughts or visuals, that made her leave.
Lin Qin has already walked over to investigate where she could have gone, but XĂź Beijin stops him.
Lin Qin seems confused.
XĂź Beijin, meanwhile, has part of his attention divided on his stream.
The comments are also surprised at He Shujün’s disappearance.
Xß Beijin scrolls through his list of locations and finally finds where she went to.
He ShujĂźn is on the third floor reading room.
XĂź Beijin narrows his eyes. In terms of the route she took, it could not have been through the stairs over to the side of the library, because it would certainly have attracted their attention.
So her only choice must have been through the emergency stairs that are on the other side of the library.
Assuming she left as soon as their attention were occupied, she had just enough minutes to make it up to the third floor.
So… it’s the same question again. Why is she going to the third floor? Did she know something, or… did she see something?
XĂź Beijin is quite amazed, frankly.
Lin Qin, meanwhile, has his arms crossed, waiting for XĂź Beijin to answer him.
While the rest of the Missiontakers has asked him to keep an eye on the young woman, but clearly XĂź Beijin is higher priority.
He’s never going to ignore the one he likes for someone inconsequential.
Now, he is tilting his baby face while getting a good look at Xü Beijin’s features.
He doesn’t exactly appreciate beauty or ugliness; instead, he simply finds Xü Beijin’s face appealing to him. So this, is the person he likes?
He sure has good taste.
Back when Xü Beijin first popped up in his life, he found him to be a speck of light that deviated from his normal world. He wasn’t happy.
He finds it strange, surprised, that there was such an exception in his world.
By now, he thinks, instead of a surprise, it is more of a ‘serendipity.’
And he will surely win over this serendipity and keep him.
Starting with letting him have a good sleep.
Proud of his imaginary achievements, Lin Qin is smiling while checking out XĂź Beijin.
So when Xü Beijin is finished checking the streaming system, Lin Qin’s gaze immediately sends goosebumps all over him──What in the world is Lin Qin doing looking at him with that gaze!
Xü Beijin, speechless, then says, “follow me. I think I know where she is.”
The viewers of the stream are teasing him harshly.
“hahahaha Beibei youre cheating with the stream again!”
“you can’t call a miracle a cheat, now [doge emoji]”
“look at the little apple obediently clopping along with Beibei; ah, this must be what it is like to be in love”
“can you not use such a word?”
“once, I thought I was watching a horror game stream; then, I realised it was more a detective drama stream; now… its more like a romance game, ha. ha. ha.”
“really? even though you have no guts, or intelligence, or even love, for that matter?”
“[knife emoji] [knife emoji] [knife emoji]”
“stop spying on my private life, please!”
The extremely farcical dialogue almost made XĂź Beijin laugh out loud when he should definitely not in this serious mood.
Lin Qin, going up the stairs after Xü Beijin, asks curiously, “so where is she?”
“Do you know where in this library holds the most valuable information?” Xü Beijin asks with a pretentious tone.
Lin Qin answers honestly, “I don’t know…”
Then Xü Beijin answers, “it’s the reading room on the third floor.”
Lin Qin’s eyes widen.
Xü Beijin then explains, both to Lin Qin and to the viewers of the stream, why He Shujün would head upstairs, “in the last run of the Nightmare, everyone was distracted because they found the student there. They didn’t check the items placed in the reading room there carefully──More specifically, I refer to the newspapers and magazines placed there.
It was an honest oversight. Perhaps He Shujün overheard them when they were recounting events earlier outside. She then heads to the third floor based on that fact.”
Lin Qin understands, but he also has a new question, in the form of how XĂź Beijin knew what the Missiontakers were talking about outside.
Or how he knew the results of their exploration from the last run for that matter.
But Lin Qin does not ask.
He tilts his head; maybe it’s just a coincidence. Maybe Xü Beijing heard them.
At the same time, XĂź Beijin completely failed to realise what he just exposed to Lin Qin without conscious thought.
He has completely let his guard down around Lin Qin by this point, which has led to him spilling his secrets by proxy.
Thankfully, Lin Qin has no intention of pushing or capitalising them.
Or more accurately, Lin Qin has no need to push or capitalise on them, as far as he sees it.
If it were matters relating to Xü Beijin’s health, or liking him, or brawling, then Lin Qin would be far more stubborn and resilient than anyone. Something Xü Beijin is keenly aware of at this point.
On the third floor reading room, they find He ShujĂźn and the teenager who looks like a student in a stand-off, locking eyes on each other.
He Shujün didn’t look much different; the teenager seems confused, though, looking at He Shujün like looking at a madwoman.
When he sees Xü Beijin come up, he calls out to him, “Xü-ge, what’s wrong with her?”
XĂź Beijin looks over at the teenager; he already knows his name at this point.
This Actor is named Lu Chengzhe. His role is exactly as he stated earlier.
He worked part-time in this library for the summer holiday last year. With the spread of the madness and the loss of his home, he came to the library instead to help organise it.
Of course, he also holds secrets himself. For example, he did not tell the Missiontakers that his job is, in fact, to sort out the newspaper delivered to the reading room.
After the madness spread, news and media did not completely collapse.
Quite the opposite, in fact, as the madness seems to have generally caused the journalists and media professionals to be far more attentive and serious about their work.
In some sense, the madness taking ahold of their minds has gave them more pronounced acuity, acumen and even honesty.
Perhaps, you could seriously call the mass media insane at this point.
While humanity was gripped by madness, humanity was kept informed by completely factual, honest, fair and unbiased reporting worldwide. It is something practically unfathomable before it.
It means the library got to enjoy a status quo, with its subscription to various print media still delivered on time every morning.
Each physical outlet the library had a subscription to, continued delivering after the madness spread around.
So, in terms of this Nightmare’s setting, Lu Chengzhe has spent his days in this reading room, voraciously consuming the information, clues and details… regarding, the Raining Hellfire.
That is why the Missiontakers saw Lu Chengzhe on the third floor as soon as they arrived, and saw the newspaper he was holding, realising what was about to happen.
The secrets held inside the reading room of the third floor is far more than that, though.
As the only Actors in this library, XĂź Beijin and Lu Chengzhe had a comparatively high amount of information fed into them by the Server regarding the library, besides basic information of the Nightmare.
Though they cannot simply divulge it to the Missiontakers unprompted.