32

Translated by rabbitrisu

The candles in the hall were blown out by the wind in an instant.

Although not they weren’t all extinguished, at least for a short time, the candles’ lights dimmed. The sudden change in the ambient light made Su Zimo blink uncomfortably.

Su Zimo was standing at the long dining table. Except for the sulf-proclaimed madman who was lying on the sofa, the other nine trainers were standing beside or opposite him.

The moment the candlelight dimmed, Su Zimo was stunned…

He suddenly saw the original friendly and normal trainers around him suddenly change appearances. Because the light was too dark, Su Zimo couldn’t completely see them, but the hairstyle, body shape, and clothing were different from a second ago!

“Ah!”

“What the hell!”

“Who?!”

In the next moment, the cold wind in the hall disappeared, and the dim candlelight returned to its original bright state. Every trainer at the table looked the same as before; they hadn’t changed. The strange image he saw seemed to be an illusion.

However, in addition to Su Zimo, the other trainers also showed terrified expressions on their faces.

“What’s going on? I just saw old man Fang Qin transform,” Standing between old man Fang Qin and Su Zimo was Du Xin. He scratched his head bewilderedly. “It seemed that he became a lot fatter.”

“That’s it?” Qi Xiaomin, who was standing on the other side, looked skeptical. “Did you see it wrong?”

“I saw it too.” Old man Fang Qin’s face sunk. “The old man looked a little different from before.”

“En…” Wan Ling, the little girl hiding behind Dr. Jin, responded softly. “Doctor, it’s different….”

“We just sorted out the food, but we didn’t notice these aspects. That’s really bad.” Cheng Yun looked at the several trainers with different faces, and seemed annoyed that he missed an important clue.

After all, the second task requirement was to find the ‘lifeline.’ That is to say, not only did they need to run away and kill the enemy, they also needed to find the clues.

“Since it happened once, it may happen a second time. We don’t know what that matter just meant.” Su Zimo thought about it and asked again, “Xiao huo, did you light these candles?”

Because Xiao huo was playing with the lighter in his hand, when Su Zimo first saw so many candles in the hall, he subconsciously thought that they were lit by the earlier trainers.

“How could that be possible? We found these candles lit as soon as we entered the hall.” With that in mind, Xiao Huo also showed the slightly beat-up lighter in his hand. “And this isn’t an ordinary lighter, I can’t light it casually.”

Su Zimo nodded secretly. If he remembered correctly, the lighter in Xiao Huo’s hand was called ‘Spot Lighter.’ When the flame was lit, it would slightly increase the chance of malicious spirits being drawn to the spot. That said, it’s a good tool that could force malicious spirits out to be taken care of with battle.

“Actually, I really want to use this lighter. Maybe if I’m lucky, I can call the malicious spirit out at once. I’m afraid that a big boss who can wipe out our entire group will come this time, though, so I’m resisting it.” Xiao Huo switched the lighter to his other hand while muttering.

“Everyone calm down first. The time in the nightmare world may only be a few minutes in the outside world, but for us in the nightmare world, it really is a full five days. We need to plan for things.” Having said that, Cheng Yun looked as if he left the matter behind him and began to sort the food on the table with Bai Man.

Su Zimo set down the vase he found at the corner of the stairs on the table, then took off the backpack behind him. He reached for the two items from the third floor bedroom cabinet, then took out the chocolate and water from underneath.

In addition to the two 200 or 300 millilitre water bottles, Su Zimo took out four 1 litre bottles from the backpack. He was able to carry them all thanks to the backpack that made them feel weightless.

“It should be enough.” Cheng Yun glanced at Su Zimo’s backpack, then smiled at everyone. “Logistics will be handled by Bai Man. Everyone should take a good rest now.”

Su Zimo looked around as he spoke. He noticed that the hall was filled with broken candles but was as bright as day. The villa itself had floor-to-ceiling windows and doors, but all of them were the same as on the second floor, nailed together with wood and iron bars.

Several wooden planks near them seem to have been pried away. Obviously Cheng Yun hadn’t tried very hard to escape from the villa and eventually gave up for some reason.

The villa was opaque. There was no light source other than the candles, and he couldn’t tell whether it was day or night outside.

The main hall, which was full of damaged furniture, seemed to have few commodities, but the villa was large with lots of rooms, so Su Zimo believed that there would be something valuable somewhere in the villa. It’s just… Because everyone was gathered in the hall, Su Zimo would draw very bad attention if he leaves without reason.

“Du Xin.” Dr. Jin suddenly took out some note paper and asked a question. “You said that when the candles extinguished, you saw Elder Fang become fat?”

“En. But I don’t know if it was an illusion or not.” Du Xin nodded.

“That’s fine. I’ll record the details first.” Dr. Jin then went on to Wan Ling and Fang Qin and wrote down all the details they could remember.

Although Su Zimo also saw, he didn’t have any relationship with her, so she didn’t notice him.

“Everyone relax a little.” Qi Xiaomin felt that the atmosphere was heavy, so she pulled out chairs for the stiffly standing trainers and kindly invited them to sit down. She then jumped over to Du Xin’s side and patted him on the shoulder. “Du Xin, is Su Zimo your old classmate?”

Su Zimo, who had just sat down on the creaking chair, was shocked when he heard the topic suddenly shift to himself.

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“Yeah.” Du Xin’s ears turned red.

“What did Mr. Su look like when he was in school?” Qi Xiaomin looked curious. “Don’t you know, Du Xin, last time Mr. Su was really amazing when we worked together in the nightmare world!”

“Zimo in school at that time… He could probably be called the most popular person?” Du Xin glanced at Su Zimo. “After all, he looks good, he was the best in every exam. He should be the legendary school grass, right? ¹ Even students from other schools would sneak through the fence of our schoolyard just to see how beautiful the legendary Su Zimo of Shoushan looked.”

“Hai- Hai-” He coughed. It was actually the first time Su Zimo heard that kind of exaggeration. After all, he was sent by Grandpa to Shoushan No. 1 Secondary School, which was only part of the social lessons he arranged. Because Grandpa arranged too many other courses for him, he often did some of the other courses he arranged to get out of class or physical education. He even took other classes during his classes.

In addition to Du Xin’s impressive costumes, there weren’t too many students that Su Zimo could remember.

“Zimo, this guy, even after four years, is still a perfect existence in the eyes of our old classmates.” Du Xin said with emotion.

“There is no perfect person in this world…” The madman lying on the sofa sighed.

“Indeed.” Su Zimo smiled. “No matter what, I’m now just a newcomer with no nightmare points. Maybe even Wan Ling-meimei is better than me.”

Wan Ling, who was hiding behind the doctor, leaned out and looked curiously at Su Zimo with wide eyes.

“Who didn’t start as a newcomer?” Qi Xiaomin glanced at Du Xin again. “Du Xin, is it true that school era Su Zimo was so perfect?”

“En…” Du Xin thought for a moment. “The only sad thing is that he transferred schools in his senior year but didn’t say a word. At the time, even the class teacher didn’t have news about his transfer. Everyone felt sad.”

“Sorry.” All Su Zimo could do was smile and hand Du Xin a candy.

“Actually, our classmates were very angry at that time.” Du Xin quickly accepted the candy. “We felt that you must have had something important happen, like a change in your parents’ work, so you had to transfer. But there were some guys who spread rumours all over the place.”

“Rumours?”

“They…” Du Xin saw people looking at him with curious eyes. For a time, he didn’t dare to say it out loud, but he moved closer to Su Zimo and lowered his voice. “They even said you left school and went to work at a part-time job, that you never participated in social gatherings, never participated in private party dinners, and never invited anyone to dinner on your birthday because your family was unable to open the pot and you had to give up your studies to work.” ²

Except for Qi Xiaomin, the other trainers beside him didn’t hear much.

After Su Zimo heard that, he laughed so hard he cried a bit.

He never thought he had such an image in the eyes of his classmates. After all, when Su Zimo recalled his school days, he always felt that they were kind to each other when they talked amongst themselves.

It was indeed Su Zimo’s mistake not to have participated in social gatherings, but Su Zimo was still a little rebellious after grandpa;s high-pressure teaching. So, even if Grandpa asked him to go, he still chose to stay at home to study with him. Unlike now, since he’s gone, Su Zimo couldn’t wait to be taken home to the Su family everyday and be hit by Grandpa’s teaching stick while studying.

As for private gatherings, Su Zimo’s relationships with his classmates were distant and dull. They could be considered a failure.

There was also a birthday party every year. Su Zimo’s grandfather made invitations for each classmate, but Su Zimo himself felt that it was overkill for such a trivial matter and refused. Knowing that classmates often had the habit of treating each other on birthdays, Su Zimo asked the Su family’s chef to prepare ice cream cakes and desserts for his classmates… Those things may have been forgotten long ago.

“Who knows.” Su Zimo smiled mysteriously.

As Qi Xiaomin changed the topic, Su Zimo could feel that the atmosphere was calmer. They started talking with Cheng Yun and Bai Man on the opposite side of the table. Some people even played Lianliankan on their cell phones. ³

Doctor Jin was off to the side, holding a pen in one hand and the other on her cheek. She was looking at the notes on the dining table while contemplating something.

“Leader Cheng.” Su Zimo thought about the photos he’d seen in the wallet before, and asked “Do you know of any way to eliminate a slave mark?”

“……”

As Su Zimo said that sentence, all the trainers who knew what a slave mark was looked over, and the atmosphere in the main hall was silent again.

“Why ask this question. Do you…” Cheng Yun was surprised.

“No, I met a girl when I was in my first nightmare world. That girl used to… well, she helped me once, but she was deceived and bound to a slave medal when she was a newcomer, so she’s always been suffering.” Su Zimo paid attention to Cheng Yun’s expression as he spoke.

If Cheng Yun and Cheng Jingmeng really had anything to do with it…

With Cheng Yun’s experience of a dozen nightmare worlds, could he not find a connection between Cheng Jingmeng and the nightmare world? Su Zimo not only felt that if Cheng Jingmeng knew that there was such an experienced trainer around, she may not have been kept in the dark by Gao Yang’s lies.

So what what the relationship between the two that would make them take a photo together and put it in a wallet?

Su Zimo thought that Cheng Yun and Cheng Jingmeng should be brother and sister, but that wouldn’t explain why Cheng Yun would say that the person in the photo was his lover…

“That’s a really troublesome thing. The newcomer really needs to be careful about the unknown.” Cheng Yun sighed, looking helpless.

“Speaking of that, the girl happened to share a surname with Leader Cheng.” Su Zimo stared at Cheng Yun. “She’s Cheng Jingmeng.”

“Really? That’s a coincidence. If we knew about it, we wouldn’t have let such a thing happen. After all, apart from death, I haven’t seen a way to get rid of that kind of thing.” Cheng Yun expressed regret while sighing, but didn’t have a special reaction to the name ‘Cheng Jingmeng.’

Cheng Yun… really didn’t know Cheng Jingmeng?

“Pa!”

Suddenly there was a sound. Su Zimo saw Bai Man looking at the cell phone in her hands. He didn’t know why she suddenly dropped the phone onto the table. The woman who had been very calm and sharp suddenly looked at him with her eyes wide open. Her hands were shaking.

“What’s wrong?” Cheng Yun frowned.

“It’s nothing.” Bai Man picked up her phone quickly, then lowered her head and continued to account for the materials on the table. “I just pity that little girl.”

Su Zimo glanced at the calm Cheng Yun, then looked again at Bai Man, but couldn’t figure out why she was disturbed. A web of thoughts in his brain began to connect with each other, and a very special idea formed in his mind.

Qi Xiaomin said before that Bai Man and Cheng Yun knew each other, and from the moment they met they got along well and were familiar with each other. If Cheng Yun had a sister named Cheng Jingmeng, Bai Man was likely to know.

Well, the reason why Bai Man was surprised may be the same as Su Zimo… Cheng Yun didn’t know Cheng Jingmeng?

In other words, at that moment, Cheng Yun, who was sitting next to Bai Man and opposite Su Zimo, didn’t know Cheng Jingmeng! Su Zimo remembered that Qi Xiaomin said before that there were some tools that could change people’s appearance in the nightmare world, and they were in the hands of dangerous trainers.

Was this someone just pretending to be Leader Cheng Yun?

Because many people knew Cheng Yun’s title ‘Wife-Pampering Madman,’ and because they didn’t know the anything about other people in Cheng Yun’s family, would the other party who learned that information subconsciously think that the woman posing with Cheng Yun is his lover?

Bai Man’s performance at the moment was as if he was acting complacent in order to not stir the grass and startle the snake. ⁴

If it’s true…

Su Zimo’s chest was tight. It was no exaggeration to say that these trainers were facing internal and external problems!

Footnotes

<ol>School grass is the most handsome male student. To open the pot is an idiom meaning to be able to pay for something. Lianliankan is a tile matching game. Not like mahjong, but more childlike. To stir the grass and startle the snake is an idiom to move too quickly and make your target be on their guard.</ol>