C58 — Cai Sheng

“Hurry!” Seeing that he wasn’t moving, the child urged him again, “There’s not much time—he’s coming after us!”

A few children surrounded Kou Dong, hurriedly pulling off his outer garment and putting it on the boy. The clothes were bright and new, prepared for Kou Dong by Ye Yan, completely different from the dull, worn-out clothes the kid-nappers had provided. The boy was so thin that his skin clung to his bones, but with the contrast of the fresh clothes, he seemed to have a bit more color.

Kou Dong glanced at the faces watching him and hesitated, his steps faltering.

“Don’t look back,” the boy said firmly, pushing him forward. “He won’t let us go. This is what we deserve. Even if we escape, he’ll catch us again.”

“But you’re different.”

“You just… look like that child. If you escape, you might actually survive.”

As he spoke, the boy attempted a smile. He hadn’t smiled in a long time, so the movement felt stiff and unfamiliar. He reached up to touch his face, then lowered his head, tugging at the edge of the garment.

“It’s nice,” he murmured. “I like these clothes. If I ever see my parents again—wearing something like this, they’ll think I’ve been doing well.”

The wind behind them howled louder, making the children restless as they tightened their circle around Kou Dong. Small hands pushed him forward, urging him to leave.

“Go!”

“Go now!!”

Kou Dong couldn’t speak. Instead, he reached into the clothes and pulled out something, handing it to the children.

It was a thin booklet, with dates and locations written in brush strokes—records of when and where each child had been kidnapped. Kou Dong had taken it from the circus and kept it hidden on him all this time.

The boy took it, flipping through the pages, before carefully tucking it into his chest.

“If we make it out…” He smiled faintly. “We’ll use this to find our parents.”

Ye Yanzhi whispered, “Go.”

The sky had already darkened, and the seven-day limit was almost up. Kou Dong couldn’t afford to stay any longer. He took another step, running forward with a heavy heart.

The wailing, footsteps, voices—everything behind him seemed to fade away. The eerie ghostly flames no longer followed. Kou Dong ran and ran, not knowing how long it had been before he finally caught sight of the dim, shadowy sky.

He had reached the edge of the forest.

Not far away, he saw familiar figures—Song Hong, Ah Xue, and a few other players waiting anxiously for him. Exhausted, he tried to lift his hand to wave, but the young girl seemed to sense something first. She turned toward him.

“There!”

For once, the usually calm and composed girl became excited. Covered in dust and dirt as if she had crawled out of an ash pile, she pointed at Kou Dong and shouted.

“There! He’s out!”

The players rushed toward him, with Song Hong at the front. He grabbed Kou Dong’s arm.

“You nearly scared us to death. We thought you weren’t coming out…”

Without knowing Kou Dong’s exact location, they hadn’t been able to go in and search for him. They had no choice but to wait anxiously in front of the Taoyuan Town stone monument. Finally seeing him now, their eyes lit up with relief.

A thin, bony figure stood nearby, staring at Kou Dong with scrutinizing eyes.

“It’s him?” The man asked, lips curling. “He’s the one you called Xiao Shuanzi?”

Song Hong had no time to explain and just wanted to get Kou Dong out of there as quickly as possible. “Hurry, let’s go—”

“Wait!”

The gaunt man suddenly turned, blocking their path, his suspicious gaze fixed on Kou Dong.

“I don’t believe it,” he said. “I’ve seen him before. Didn’t he come in here with us?”

Careful of the rules, he didn’t say the word “player” directly, but the implication was clear enough. Song Hong hadn’t expected that, right at the finish line, someone would pop up to cause trouble. His patience wore thin.

“He is Xiao Shuanzi! If we don’t leave now, we won’t get out at all!”

The gaunt man ignored him and raised his voice. “I think you’re all in on this together! You just grabbed one of your own teammates and claimed he was Xiao Shuanzi. In reality, Xiao Shuanzi was reduced to ashes, and you put his remains in a pouch to fool us!”

Ah Xue showed no surprise, only looking at him calmly. “And what would we gain from that?”

“Plenty!” The gaunt man spat in her direction. “Only you guys know about the ashes. In the end, it’ll be you three who take Xiao Shuanzi out of here. What about us? We’ll just be background characters, getting no achievement points at all!”

The other players exchanged glances. Shockingly, some of them nodded slightly, their expressions showing agreement.

Kou Dong immediately understood. This was all about achievement points.

The gaunt man was worried that he hadn’t done enough in this copy and feared he wouldn’t get any rewards. So now, at the last moment, he was trying to stir up trouble.

The only problem was that he was both foolish and malicious.

Kou Dong had been holding back a belly full of frustration, just waiting for an outlet. Now, the gaunt man had walked right into his crosshairs. He didn’t hold back—he stepped forward and slapped the man across the face.

The gaunt man was stunned. When he finally reacted, his expression turned ugly. He glared at Kou Dong, his voice rising. “What the hell was that for?”

Kou Dong replied, “To slap the stupidity out of your head and see if you can wake up.”

The gaunt man seethed. “You—”

“You all seem to have mistaken where you are,” Kou Dong said, sweeping his gaze over the other players. “Do you think this is a joke? That you can just bluff your way through?”

He let out a cold laugh.

“We’ve made it this far because we don’t even know how many people have been sacrificed. Do you think this is some casual shopping trip, where you can come and go as you please?”

“Or do you need to draw lots for the wooden figure again before you feel safe?”

At the mention of the wooden figure, the players’ expressions finally shifted. Someone instinctively took a step back, still shaken by the memory.

The gaunt man clutched his face, seething with resentment. “And what if it’s you who gets drawn?”

Kou Dong stared at him calmly. “Want to bet?”

“…”

The gaunt man didn’t have the guts. He finally shut up.

The other players gathered around Kou Dong, each holding onto a piece of his clothing, as they moved together toward the stone tablet at the entrance of Taoyuan Town.

Behind them, a monstrous roar echoed.

Song Hong’s scalp tingled with fear. Suddenly, he shouted, “Run!”

They all bolted toward the exit of Taoyuan Town.

Kou Dong was caught in the middle of the group, and as they ran, he saw it—the door leading out of the dungeon, just within reach.

He stepped forward, one foot crossing the threshold—

But suddenly, he felt something yank him back.

One by one, the other players rushed through the exit, but Kou Dong remained frozen in place.

He heard the sound of wooden wheels.

The wheelchair creaked as it turned, circle after circle. Someone was behind him, asking,

“Nannan, where are you trying to go?”

“…”

Kou Dong’s body stiffened. Slowly, he turned his head bit by bit.

He saw Ye Yan. The young man was twirling a small white flower between his long, pale fingers—the very flower plucked from the head of the beauty snake.

“A substitute like that isn’t enough to fool me.”

Ye Yan clenched his hand, crushing the flower and squeezing its juice from the petals.

“Nannan likes him that much?” he murmured.

“You even gave him a flower?”

His pitch-black eyes lifted and locked onto Kou Dong, sending a chill down his spine.

“—You even wanted to leave me because of him?”

Kou Dong thought to himself: Bro, you’re being completely unreasonable!

That was just a casual gesture!

No matter how he tried to explain, there was no clearing himself from this mess. He could only silently curse the beauty snake for showing off about it to the very end. Swallowing hard, he forced himself to say, “I also drew a heart for you, Brother.”

A big heart! Didn’t you see it?

Ye Yan replied, “I saw it.”

Kou Dong sighed in relief. Good, at least he wasn’t too angry…

But the NPC wasn’t letting this go. He continued to stare at him and asked, “Then why did Nannan give him a flower?”

Kou Dong: “…”

Kou Dong incredulously thought to himself, “Bro, you already have a heart!”

You can’t be this greedy, even as a ghost!

Ye Yan said flatly, “Everything Nannan gives should belong to me. —No one else should touch it.”

Hearing this, Kou Dong felt a tingling numbness creep up his scalp. He asked cautiously, “What about him?”

Ye Yan curled his lips into a smile and answered calmly, “I ate him.”

“…”

“I told him,” Ye Yan continued, moving his wheelchair forward with a slow, eerie creaking, “My Nannan can never be made into a rabbit. And he should never give anyone a flower—Nannan is mine. Mine alone. From the moment Nannan was born, I had already decided that.”

Kou Dong said, “I’m not a thing. I belong to myself.”

Ye Yan chuckled softly and looked at him.

“Nannan is lying to me.”

“Does your soul—truly belong to you?”

“Don’t you belong here?”

Kou Dong suddenly felt dizzy. Ye Yan’s power held him in place, preventing him from falling, but he gasped sharply, struggling to catch his breath.

Belong here?

The words seemed to trigger something, and his vision blurred with fragmented, vivid images. The world of the game spun around him—sky and earth swirling as if he were standing on a plush, sinking carpet. Someone stood before him, lips moving as if speaking to him.

His mind was clouded, unable to make out the words, but deep down, he knew…

This was something important.

Something very important…

Ye Yanzhi, standing on his shoulder, was uncharacteristically furious. Clenching his teeth, he spat out, “He’s lying. —You don’t belong here at all.”

He was lying!

Suddenly, the system’s alert box jumped out with a sharp warning:

【You have violated the rules!】

【You have violated the rules!】

【You have violated the rules!!!】

Bright red exclamation marks flooded his vision.

But Ye Yanzhi didn’t back down. Instead, he let out a scornful laugh, taunting the system.

“Something that came from me… thinks it can control me?”

The system’s dialogue box trembled, falling eerily silent.

In that instant, Ye Yanzhi seized control. Taking a deep breath, he watched as the progress bar above his head filled in an instant.

The next second—

His body surged upward, bones cracking and shifting—

At last, the twenty-one-year-old, fully grown Ye Yanzhi stood before Kou Dong, finally worthy of the title ‘mature man’.

 

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TN:

Ayyyyy!! He finally grew 🤭