C84 – Sinister Lover [Slice]

Chu Chen’an found it difficult to move; his hands were tied, and a bone-chilling coolness surrounded his body.

 

 

“An An.”

 

“An An… ”

 

 

“I missed you so much.”

 

 

Lan Huai’s eerily cold voice kept ringing in Chu Chen’an’s ears. Chu Chen’an could only immerse himself in the chaotic darkness, making it difficult to escape.

 

 

Chu Chen’an sat up in a sweat; he had nightmares throughout the night.

 

 

The feeling of ghosts pressing on the bed wasn’t pleasant.

 

 

But the dream was so real that he couldn’t tell if it was a dream or reality.

 

 

“Awake?”

 

 

Chu Chen’an raised his eyes in dismay and unexpectedly met a pair of turquoise eyes.

 

 

Lan Xu was sitting on a bamboo chair not far away; he was smiling, and the silver bells on his purple clothes emitted two bursts of clear sound, like a rope that compelled the heart.

 

 

 

“Why are you here?”

 

 

 

Chu Chen’an was scared, the Lan Xu in front of him looked exactly the same as Lan Huai.

 

 

This was his room; how did Lan Xu enter?

 

 

He vigilantly looked at Lan Xu, squeezing the quilt in his hand.

 

 

Lan Xu was born very good-looking; he had red lips and white teeth, and his features had the unique depth of foreigners.

 

 

“Sorry, I forgot to explain to you.” He smiled harmlessly. “It was your classmate who said that you seemed to have a fever; there was no cold medicine in the B&B, so he came next door to find me to help. I boiled up some herbs and gave you an ice compress for a while, and now the fever has gone down.”

 

 

Chu Chen’an looked down at his watch; it was already two o’clock in the afternoon.

 

 

He raised his hand and touched his forehead; it was indeed cool, and there was a bag of ice emitting a cool fragrance sitting on the bed.

 

 

No wonder he felt a headache last night.

 

 

It turned out to be a fever.

 

 

Chu Chen’an lowered his head and could only thank him politely, “Thank you.”

 

 

“Don’t be polite; did you catch a cold last night? You were shivering before.” Lan Xu’s hands crossed, and he continued, “The night is cool in the fortress; remember to cover up at night.”

 

 

Chu Chen’an nodded and dropped his guard slightly as he met Lan Xu’s clear gaze. Lan Xu’s smile looked warm and clean.

 

 

But he still didn’t dare look at Lan Xu; he didn’t dare look at the face that looked exactly like Lan Huai.

 

 

Although the personalities were diametrically opposed, Lan Huai was cold and gloomy; Lan Xu was clean and generous.

 

 

 

Between Chu Chen’an’s downcast eyes, a drop of crystal-clear sweat slid down from his cheek to his chin, and his pink lips were glistening with a watery luster.

 

 

Tempting.

 

 

Lan Xu’s smile faded as he stared at Chu Chen’an’s handsome face for a long time.

 

 

Only after Chu Chen’an noticed his direct line of sight did Lan Xu speak, “Your classmate went to get some soup and should be back soon, so I’ll go back first and have a good rest.”

 

 

Chu Chen’an froze, then he nodded in agreement.

 

 

 

 

After Lan Xu left, the system’s mechanical tone automatically sounded:

 

 

[Tick]

 

 

[Please confirm your player identity.]

 

 

[Player name: Chu Chen’an]

 

[Role: Freshman Art Department student]

 

 

[Your tasks are:]

 

 

[I. Complete the temporary game]

 

 

[II: Complete additional tasks]

 

 

[III. To be unlocked]

 

 

[Wulan Mountain is located in a remote area in the southwestern region of XX country. Within the mountain there is a mysterious large fortress called Luowu Fortress, in which all the people living there are foreigners. There are many rumors that the foreigners are good at using Gu and poison to control human corpses.]

 

 

[The foreigners don’t like it when people from outside come to disturb their lives; many people came rashly out of curiosity, but their whereabouts are unknown to this day].

 

 

[You, Chu Chen’an, a college student from the art department who came to draw, followed a self-organized tour group to this place.]

 

 

[This tour group team includes filming crews and adventure experts. Many of them were not just traveling; their purpose was in the mysterious mountain realm at the head of Wulan Mountain. According to what the grave robbers revealed, there was an ancient tomb of a prince in the mountain realm with gold, silver, and jade all over the place; it was a rich and secret land.]

 

 

 

[Not only that, a lot of people also came here in order to check the rumors of the foreigners’ witchcraft. If the rumors were true, it would bring them unparalleled traffic value.]

 

 

[But they don’t know what kind of death trip they’ll be facing.]

 

 

 

[You will follow the party, completing temporary games and additional quests along the way. Meanwhile, the difficulty of your copy of the world has been reduced and the NPC behind the scenes has died, so you can also consider this a pleasant and exciting traveling experience.]

 

 

 

[I wish you a speedy completion of your mission].

 

 

 

001 spoke softly as he looked at the dark sky outside the bamboo building.

 

 

 

He felt that things weren’t that simple.

 

 

He Xuesheng came back with the soup; his hair reached his shoulders. He was an art student in the same class as him and had a good relationship with him.

 

 

“Chen’an, you’re awake?”

 

 

 

He Xuesheng sat at the head of his bed. “When I came to call you in the morning, I saw that you kept the door closed, and there was no movement even after twelve o’clock. As soon as I opened the door, I saw that your whole face was red, which scared me to death, and I almost thought that you had been possessed by an evil spirit! This broken B&B doesn’t even have cold medicine; fortunately, Lan Xu had an ice compress and medicinal herbs. That medicine was really godly ah, after a moment of effort, you’re already better.”

 

 

He Xuesheng was a chatterbox; as long as the other party didn’t say anything, he could keep going.

 

 

 

“Well, I’m much better.” Chu Chen’an served the hot soup, saying, “Thank you, Xuesheng.”

 

 

 

“Hey, don’t be polite; I just helped serve the bowl of soup.”

 

 

 

He Xuesheng touched his nose and continued, “Today, Old Liang and the others carried the camera over to the mountainside, saying that they were going to film the mountain. Didn’t you say you wanted to go and see it before? It’s really a pity not to follow.”

 

Old Liang was the director who came to film, and there were three people in the crew following him.

 

“Did they go early in the morning?” Chu Chen’an asked.

 

“Yes,” He Xuesheng looked back at the window and said in a lowered voice, “But do you have a feeling that the people here are very strange?”

 

Chu Chen’an nodded; he also felt that.

 

“I feel like they haven’t even looked at us squarely; that look is like it’s hiding a sharp knife; it scares me to death.” He Xuesheng scratched his hair and added, “Except for that Lan Xu.”

 

 

When he mentioned Lan Xu, Chu Chen’an’s heart inexplicably thumped.

 

 

 

He couldn’t help but recall last night’s weight-bearing nightmare and Lan Huai’s gloomy eyes.

 

.

“I feel it too,” he asked. “Why didn’t you follow?”

 

 

 

He Xuesheng shook his head and smiled. “I’m not interested in those; I came here purely to look at the mountains and play in the water, and to cope with a couple of writing assignments in the meantime.”

 

 

 

Chu Chen’an followed suit and laughed as he turned to his soup, his thoughts confused.

 

.

Lan Xu.

 

 

Lan Huai…

 

 

What exactly was the relationship between them?

 

 

“Right, I forgot to tell you. I went downstairs this morning to go for a walk. I walked to a shrine or a clan temple, and the doorway was filled with yellow and green talisman paper. I stood at the doorway and looked at it a little more, and as a result, you know what happened! I saw an old woman carrying a basin of blo-od out of it, and it was as blo-ody as human blo-od.” He Xuesheng’s tone of voice was spot on as he explained, “Later, Lan Xu told me that it was the blo-od of a deer that was k-illed in a ritual.”

 

 

Chu Chen’an held the bowl and listened to him with wide eyes.

 

 

 

Then he quickly exclaimed, “Oh my god.”

 

 

 

He Xuesheng frowned again and muttered, “But I’ve been drinking deer blo-od for half a year; the smell of deer blo-od isn’t that punchy.”

 

 

But fortunately, He Xuesheng was nervous and had long since put his earlier worries behind him. He added, “Let’s go sketching on the mountain in a while. When I was walking, I found that there was a field of flowers there; the Botiful Buddha is also there.”

 

 

 

Chu Chen’an smiled and answered.

 

 

 

“Okay.”

 

……

 

 

 

On the way out, there were quite a few foreign women coldly sizing them up, and those people looked at them with cold and repulsed gazes, making He Xuesheng and Chu Chen’an unable to help but speed up their steps.

 

 

They followed the mountain road all the way up to the rugged slopes, and further down was a wide field of foreign-colored flowers.

 

 

 

Just by standing at a distance, they could smell a misty and enticing fragrance.

 

 

The scent made one unable to resist getting closer.

 

 

He squinted his eyes and couldn’t help but take more sniffs; the ethereal floral scent seemed to hook his heart.

 

 

He suggested, “Let’s go down and draw.”

 

 

 

“Okay.” Chu Chen’an also wanted to take a closer look.

 

 

They put down their easels and equipment near the field of flowers, and Chu Chen’an’s gaze circled around the bewitching flowers.

 

 

So beautiful.

 

 

He Xuesheng couldn’t help but walk into the flower field. As soon as he put down his easel, he carefully picked one of the most colorful flowers and placed it between his nose to sniff it.

 

 

The fragrance of the flowers tickled his heart, pulling him deeper.

 

……

 

Chu Chen’an set up his easel at this time.

 

His identity was that of a college student born into an artistic household, and the system automatically added the skill of painting to him.

 

 

Moreover, Shen Delu had taught him to paint when he was in Copy Two.

 

 

Creating an oil painting wasn’t difficult for him, and he added a few strokes.

 

 

Suddenly, he raised his head to glance into the distance and realized that He Xuesheng’s figure had disappeared.

 

 

It disappeared into the field of crimson flowers.

 

 

Chu Chen’an hurriedly stood up and moved away from the flower branches to go into the flower field to look for him.

 

 

 

“He Xuesheng, where are you?”

 

 

 

His voice echoed in the vast flower field, but there was no response.

 

 

Chu Chen’an looked around the deserted surroundings and suddenly panicked a little.

 

 

How could a person disappear into thin air?

 

 

He searched for a long time in the flower field but couldn’t find him, so he could only turn around and go out of the field to look for help.

 

 

When he rounded out of the flower field, he found that his location wasn’t the hillside just now; he had reached a path.

 

 

The side of the mountain path was also filled with colorful flowers.

 

 

The seductive scent of the flowers seemed to be confusing his judgment as well, and Chu Chen’an could no longer find his way.

 

 

He was lost.

 

 

He couldn’t help but start to panic.

 

 

He could only follow the path downwards; gradually, the fragrance of flowers filled his nostrils, and he circled into the dense forest uncontrollably.

 

 

……

 

Suddenly, the wind puffed up, and the path ahead of Chu Chen’an broke off in front of a tall cavern.

 

 

The rocky door of the cavern was half open.

 

 

He saw the corner of Lan Xu’s purple outfit, and Lan Xu’s silver bell rang a few more times.

 

 

In front of Lan Xu’s body…

 

 

was a huge double ice coffin.

 

 

Chu Chen’an was stunned, and he didn’t dare to go any further.

 

 

Before he turned around, Lan Xu turned around and noticed him.

 

 

Lan Xu smiled, revealing his neat white teeth, and said, “You seem to be the second person to come to worship my brother.”

 

 

Chu Chen’an clenched his palms into fists.

 

 

A younger brother?

 

 

Impossible.

 

 

How come he didn’t know that Lan Huai had a younger brother before?

 

 

“How did you get here?” Lan Xu waited patiently for him to reply.

 

“My classmate disappeared in a field of flowers, and I wanted to go out to find someone to help.” Chu Chen’an lowered his eyes and scratched his fingers as he said, “I ended up getting lost.”

 

 

Lan Xu laughed out loud as he watched Chu Chen’an’s cute little actions: “Then wait a moment; I’ll take you out to look for him.”

 

 

Chu Chen’an nodded. “Okay.”

 

 

 

He didn’t understand why Lan Xu was laughing.

 

 

“Before that, can you come in and do me a favor?” Lan Xu’s turquoise eyes looked at him.

 

 

Despite Chu Chen’an’s ten thousand reluctance, he had to answer, “Okay.”

 

 

He walked into the cavern.

 

 

The cavern was huge, neatly arranged with talisman paper and all sorts of peculiar decorations, and the ice coffin placed in the center was permeated with coldness.

 

 

That was his corpse when he was Chen An.

 

 

The person lying next to him was Lan Huai.

 

 

 

“Help me pour the wine into this bowl; I’ll go change the talisman paper.” Lan Xu said that and handed him the white porcelain wine bottle.

 

 

 

Chu Chen’an took it with his hands shaking; he didn’t dare look at the person in the ice coffin. He lowered his head and carefully poured a bowl of wine.

 

 

At this time, he didn’t know that there was a symbolism for pouring wine on the dead during the worship of the foreigners.

 

 

He held the bowl of wine in his hand and carefully placed it on the altar.

 

The gray effigies of Chen An and Lan Huai were placed on the altar.

 

 

He froze and looked at Lan Huai’s effigy and suddenly asked, “Did you just say… that you are Lan Huai’s brother?”

 

 

 

“Yes, I went to the city before and only came back in recent years.” Lan Xu walked towards him, stared at him, and said, “The one next to him is my little sister-in-law.”

 

 

The word “sister-in-law” caused goosebumps to rise all over his body.

 

 

Chu Chen’an followed suit and looked at Chen An again. “Oh…”

 

 

“Pretty, isn’t he?” Lan Xu squinted and smiled, his tone carrying a bit of pride and a special meaning.

 

 

Chu Chen’an felt that his eerie and bright smile was somewhat dazzling.

 

 

He lowered his eyes and followed with an uncomfortable smile; he could only stiffly praise himself, “Well, he’s very pretty.”

 

 

However, what kind of person complimented their little sister-in-law’s beauty like this?

 

 

Lan Xu added, “He is also my wife.”

 

 

Chu Chen’an’s miserable smile froze, his eyes stunned.

 

 

“What did you… say?”

 

 

“We foreigners are allowed to get married in the underworld.” Lan Xu stared at Chu Chen’an’s trembling eyes and smiled, his tone softly eerie. “I can also tie the knot with my little sister-in-law.”

 

 

Chu Chen’an panickedly swept his eyes over the ice coffin, his eyes full of disbelief.

 

 

“When my little sister-in-law comes back, we can still have a wedding again.” Lan Xu continued speak sweetly.

 

 

Chu Chen’an froze in place.

 

 

He had, inexplicably, gained an additional husband.

 

This was definitely the most outrageous custom Chu Chen’an had ever heard of.

 

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