C57 — Cai Sheng (XIX)

The driver and the horse outside were silent; he wasn’t sure whether they were frightened or had already died. Kou Dong looked at Ye Yan’s face and could sense the chill on him without saying anything.

 

The beauty snake raised his head, showing no fear, and kept stroking the petals of the white flower in his black hair with the tip of his tail, as if stroking something beloved.

 

“Why,” he said slowly, his slender eyes narrowed slightly, “Sir, you are so powerful, don’t you know where I want to take him?”

 

There was obviously a provocative meaning in these words, and Kou Dong was frightened when he heard it, fearing that Ye Yan would get up from the wheelchair and attack.

 

Ye Yan’s long and slender fingers knocked on the armrests of the wooden wheelchair one by one; his voice was monotonous, which subconsciously caused panic. He stared at the beauty snake, as if he finally saw what kind of wolfish ambitions were hidden under the other’s skin.

 

After a long time, he snorted softly, “You are bold.”

 

Beauty Snake laughed: “Of course. –If one isn’t bold, how could I have brought him out from sir’s side?”

 

He tilted his head slightly, a very subtle movement, but he made it very charming. The beauty snake extended the tip of his red tongue and moistened his upper lip; there was some sarcasm in his voice: “Sir, sir… I didn’t have such an idea, but sir did too much. You clearly know our thoughts; how could you think of locking him in that room for your own use?”

 

His eyes, hidden by his dark hair, suddenly flashed with a sharp edge.

 

“In our circus, eating alone is not a wise decision.”

 

Ye Yan’s jaw tightened. He coldly said, “He is mine.”

 

“Yes or no, it’s not up to Mister alone,” the beauty Snake stroked the small white flower, suddenly smiled, and said meaningfully, “Do you know, mister, that this flower—”

 

Kou Dong was choked by his own saliva and started coughing.

 

Ahhhhhhh!

 

He showed off as soon as he opened his mouth; you are a snake, not a peacock that spreads its tail everywhere!

 

With this cough, he interrupted the words that were already pouring out of the Beauty Snake’s mouth. The beauty snake stretched his body and used his tail to touch him and hurriedly asked, “Is there anything wrong?”

 

Before his words left his mouth, he only heard a sound in the air. Immediately after that, the beauty snake was dragged up from the ground as if someone had pulled the tip of his tail and squeezed it in the palm of his hand.

 

His body gradually formed a knot; a sound came out of his throat, and his fair face turned pale.

 

He kept his eyes open, looking at Ye Yan in the wooden wheelchair, “You…”

 

“–Take your tail away.”

 

The last trace of a smile at the corner of the teenager’s mouth was gone; his expression was gloomy and sullen; his entire person was enveloped in a black mist that couldn’t be distinguished even by looking.

 

The wind was so strong that it was like a wail as it blew through the woods. Ye Yan’s fingers were long and neat, but now that they were clenched tightly, they were a little greenish-white in color.

 

“The next time,” he said coldly, “I’ll chop off your tail.”

 

The beauty snake twisted from side to side under the invisible hand in the air, and when it finally broke free, he looked at him upside down.

 

“What,” he laughed, “is mister afraid?”

 

“Are you afraid that he will know that you have made us do a lot of insidious things to collect life? …Are you afraid that if he can choose, he will not choose you, the executioner?”

 

Ye Yan furrowed his brows.

 

“That was because they deserved to die.”

 

Those who lured Nui Nui out, those who deceived Nui Nui, and those who tipped them off all deserved to die.

 

He never felt that what he did was wrong.

 

Nui Nui was gone.

 

What right did they have to live?

 

That group of wimpy, apathetic parasites who wouldn’t hesitate to sell out the next person in order to survive, they had finished rotting from the inside out, so on what basis were they still alive?

 

“Let alone picking and cutting,” he said in a cold voice, “a thousand cuts wouldn’t be enough to ease my heart’s hatred.”

 

The beauty snake laughed even louder. He said, “You have harmed so many people, you and those abductors, what difference is there? –How can you be so confident that this child will choose you?”

 

Ye Yan slightly flinched.

 

He slowly turned his head over, but this time he didn’t look at the Beauty Snake but at Kou Dong. The child he loved back then was now seven or eight years old, his hand caressing one end of the carriage, but he looked over with what looked like a timid expression and ducked towards the Beauty Snake’s back.

 

His heart suddenly shrunk but his expression didn’t change; he only muttered, “He has no choice.”

 

The beauty snake was stunned.

 

Ye Yan finally removed his gaze from his Nui Nui, and when he looked at the Beauty Snake again, there was only undisguised killing intent.

 

“He can only choose me.”

 

As soon as he finished speaking, Kou Dong saw shadows gathering in the air, hundreds of ghosts howled in the wind, and the two ghosts fought in one place. Kou Dong watched the two people fight and silently judged the situation.

 

This wouldn’t work; the fight wasn’t enough. If he ran, he would definitely be seen.

 

If he was seen, the fight might turn from two sides beating each other to two sides joining together to catch him.

 

That was no good!

 

He couldn’t bear one, let alone two—he would definitely die in this copy.

 

Ye Yanzhi was also a bit anxious: “What should we do?”

 

Was it possible to stand here and wait for them to finish the fight?

 

Kou Dong thought about it and shook his head.

 

“Ye Yan can definitely win the fight.”

 

After all, he was the final boss, and the Beauty Snake was only a slightly stronger passerby at best.

 

“If he wins, it will be difficult to talk about my escape from the circus.”

 

Ye Yanzhi frowned. “Then ……”

 

Kou Dong tilted his head, and after a long time, he sighed and licked his slightly dry lips.

 

“Alas,” he said in a very sad manner, “there’s no way out.”

 

He really didn’t want to be a scumbag, but he was forced by the situation…

 

Heaven made him a scumbag; he had to be a scumbag!

 

Kou Dong sat down in the car and started to fan the flames: “Stop it, don’t fight for me!”

 

Ye Yanzhi: “……”

 

 

What kind of cheap talk was this?

 

 

Kou Dong sat upright, his little mouth chattering to stir up trouble, “Stop hitting… Really, stop hitting, Brother Ye Yan; don’t hurt Brother Beauty snake’s face!”

 

The boy sneered and really put all his strength into hitting his face. The beauty snake was also a grudge-ridden evil ghost, so naturally he wouldn’t suffer his harassment in vain; he entangled himself with him, wanting to strangle him to death.

 

After Kou Dong cared about this one, he didn’t forget to care about the other one, “Brother Ye Yan, be careful. What should you do if I get hurt? It’s so heartbreaking…”

 

The beauty snake suddenly increased his strength, and the ghosts wailing in the air became louder. The sky was bleak, and the moon was dim.

 

Kou Dong looked at this scene and was quite emotional for a moment.

 

He sighed to his cub: “This is definitely the closest I’ve come to a Mary Sue in my life.”

 

No one would even believe that there would actually be two male ghosts fighting over him, who was only seven years old!

 

It was even a life-and-death struggle!

 

Kou Dong felt that he was simply the most desirable female lead in a romance drama. He touched his face and said in a subtle and low-key manner, ”That’s true. Although I’m young, for a scourge of my caliber, age can’t stop anything.”

 

Age couldn’t hide his charm.

 

Ye Yanzhi: “……” What kind of charisma, scum talent?

 

He tugged a sliver of the child’s hair and reminded, “It’s almost time.”

 

The fight between these two ghosts had already entered the realm of selflessness.

 

Kou Dong nodded and quietly stood on his tiptoes, slowly going down from the carriage. His toes touched the ground, and he carefully glanced towards the two ghosts again.

 

The ghosts were fighting in full swing, and there was a sense of envy between enemies, so no one was looking at him.

 

Kou Dong spread his legs, crouched down, and walked around to the back of the carriage. After taking a few slow steps and confirming that he was a bit far away from the carriage, he increased his speed. Ye Yanzhi determined the direction and commanded him to run wildly all the way.

 

At the same time, Song Hong and his companions had also come out of those four houses. They teamed up as players and used up two props to finally trap the Big Headed Doll, and several other members who went to search for Kou Dong rushed all the way to the edge of the town with a house full of children, guarding the stone tablet in Taoyuan Town and waiting for Kou Dong to arrive.

 

Only if Kou Dong came and left the town with them would they be considered to have won.

 

Otherwise, even if they left, they wouldn’t be able to find the door to leave the copy.

 

Kou Dong held his old mobile phone up to his ear, trying to discern the direction.

 

“Where are you?”

 

The sky had darkened, and he wondered if the fight between the two ghosts had yanked the sun down a little faster as well. The wind was wrapped in yellow sand, splitting his head and rubbing his exposed skin.

 

Song Hong’s voice at the other end was also blurred, “in the west of the forest, further ahead ……”

 

Suddenly, the sound of ghosts wailing in the air suddenly stopped. After a few seconds, it resounded again.

 

Kou Dong got a very bad feeling; he didn’t think it was either of the two sides going up in smoke.

 

Seriously, those two were ghosts and had long since ceased to be considered human beings, so naturally, they couldn’t die once more. Even Ye Yan couldn’t resolve a ghost with an undead body in such a short period of time.

 

What was more likely—Ye Yan found out.

 

They knew that he had escaped.

 

Would they team up to catch him?

 

He didn’t have time to think about it in detail or ponder over it, only pulling his stride wider again and running forwards as hard as he could. This scene vaguely reminded him of the demon in the middle of the ancient castle, but this time, there was no godfather to protect him anymore.

 

Moreover, the evil ghosts behind him changed into two.

 

Ye Yanzhi always kept an eye on the movement behind; he suddenly clutched his clothes and said in a low voice, “There is movement behind!”

 

Kou Dong gasped for breath, but he still didn’t see the shadows of Song Hong’s companions. He heard the sound of feet rustling on leaves; it didn’t sound like a wheelchair, so he couldn’t help but turn his head back.

 

The one making the noise wasn’t Ye Yan, nor was it the Beauty Snake. Poking out from behind the tree was a child’s arm.

 

A dirty beggar child followed him and also stopped and looked at him.

 

Kou Dong saw him and thought he vaguely looked familiar, like one of the children who had been locked up in the same room with him before.

 

“You ….” The child shook his head and hurriedly said, “You can’t run like this.”

 

He pointed to the forest.

 

“There are a lot of ghosts’ eyes and ears in here. –They will know.”

 

Kou Dong froze and asked, “Then how should I run?”

 

The child looked at him again, and then he reached out a hand and pulled on his lapel.

 

He whispered, “Follow me.”

 

He led Kou Dong deeper. There, in the shadows of the trees, many children stood up one after another. Kou Dong saw many faces that he had seen before, so he thought that Song Hong had released these children after locking Big Head Doll and the others in the house.

 

The tall ones were tall and the short ones were short, but all of them were in a sorry state, with dust on their faces and bodies.

 

“You go this way,” the child said in a thin voice, “there are many hanged ghosts on that road. They listen to him, and they all tell him. If you want to run, you can only go here.”

 

“Go straight ahead,” added the other little girl, “once you’re out of the woods, you’ll see the monument of the Town. –and you’ll be able to escape.”

 

Their hands linked, and together they showed Kou Dong a new path.

 

“Go, here ……,”

 

Kou Dong’s footsteps slightly lurched.

 

Ye Yanzhi knew exactly what was going on; these children weren’t just simple children; they had been more or less changed from that devil’s cave. The real Xiao Shuanzi was kid-napped from the village, betrayed, and ended up with no trace of his body. This was also related to these innocent little killers in front of him.

 

All of them were the culprits who made the NPCs into what they were today.

 

Were such people trustworthy?

 

Seeing that he didn’t make a move, the child didn’t make a sound either and only looked at him with a pair of astonishingly large eyes. Those eyes were resting on a thin, almost disfigured face, and their bodies were dry, without any meat on them.

 

They all stared at him quietly. Kou Dong, stared at by dozens of pairs of dark, glowing eyes, finally slowly lifted his hand and put it on the boy’s hand.

 

The boy’s eyes lit up sharply, and he whispered, “You believe us?”

 

Kou Dong gripped his hand tightly and said nothing.

 

He believed in such eyes.

 

The boy held his hand and stepped onto the road with him. The children behind him followed from afar, and the boy led him deeper and deeper and suddenly said, “Actually, I’m not a good person.”

 

Kou Dong looked at him.

 

“I’m not a good person,” the boy said in a low voice. “When they asked me where Xiao Shuanzhi had gone, if I didn’t tell them, I would have been the one who smoked the wood man.”

 

He swallowed, speaking with some difficulty.

 

“I …… betrayed him.”

 

The younger child actually knew what betrayal was all about. He had said things he shouldn’t have out of this fear and had destroyed the secret.

 

He got someone killed.

 

Indeed, how hard a choice was that?

 

At one end of the spectrum was yourself, and perhaps the rest of the house, and at the other end, your partner, who had thoughts of escaping. Both ends were doomed, and one side would definitely lose.

 

It was difficult for a mature adult to decide, let alone a group of children who had nothing to eat and nothing to wear.

 

Kou Dong’s voice was a bit hoarse as he said, “The one who gave you the choice is the culprit.”

 

If there were no abductors, these children would have been free with their parents’ worries. All they would think about was what to eat today and who to play with tomorrow, rather than the bloody topic of whether to die themselves or their companions.

 

From Ye Yan’s point of view, all the children in the room naturally wouldn’t have a good death. –They chose the wrong path.

 

But who forced them to choose?

 

And who deliberately guided and built that place into a demonic cave where only evil remained?

 

“I have been thinking,” said the boy softly, “that if I were to do it again, I would like to be a good boy… so that I wouldn’t dream of Xiao Shuanzhi every day.”

 

He paused, and his voice weakened as he whispered, “…… I kind of liked him.”

 

Kou Dong’s heart suddenly beat wildly; his small, animal-like intuition played a role again. He looked at the child in front of him and frowned: “You—”

 

The boy moved his lips and revealed a shallow smile.

 

“When you let me play the game, it was the most fun I’ve had in years.” He said, “Thank you.”

 

Kou Dong realized with a jolt that he was about the same height as him, and even his build was very similar. It was possible to make a mistake by looking only at the back and not the front.

 

The boy held out his hand at him.

 

“Won’t you give it to me?”

 

“… Your clothes?”

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