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Published at 3rd of May 2023 06:32:50 AM


Chapter 31

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“It’s strange, although I’ve cleared the level, the game didn’t give a notice to leave the instance.” 

On Saturday morning, Ye Zun fiddled with his phone, still studying the demon ID card.

That grey-white, translucent dialogue box with red letters didn’t always appear, so there were many rules that he still didn’t understand.

Lin came out of the study. “As far as I know, the Demon God’s Amusement Park generally has its own opening and closing times. Even if the player clears the level in advance within their specified time, the instance’s passage will not be opened until the amusement park’s closing time, and that is when the player can leave.”

“Is that so ah.” Ye Zun flipped his phone around and thought of Nogawa Kaoru.

——Perhaps, before I leave the instance, I can pray* for her, as well as the girl with the cherry blossom hair clip.

[T/N: offer sacrifice/incense]

Suddenly, Ye Zun froze and remembered something he had neglected. “Ah, I forgot about Moros!”

Lin raised his eyebrows slightly. The corners of his lips lifted a little before quickly returning to normal, and he said with an undisturbed tone, “En? You don’t need to panic, it came back on its own last night.”

Ye Zun was at a loss. “Ah? Really? But at that time, I left it in the haunted house.”

“It’s alright.” Lin adjusted the cufflinks of his shirt and looked at him, saying, “It was originally a wild animal. If it feels more comfortable in the wild and doesn’t want to come back, you don’t need to feel like you have lost it. If it wants to come back, it can find its owner, no matter how far away it is.”

Although he wasn’t wrong, Ye Zun was still a little annoyed with himself. The priest clearly asked him to take care of it, but he directed all his attention to the ghost that he completely forgot about the little white snake by accident.

“Did it really return?” Or was he just saying this to comfort him?

Lin was slightly amused, and raised his chin slightly towards the corner of the table in the living room. “Of course. It came back last night when you were sleeping. I even fed it milk.”

Just like he said, Ye Zun really spotted a small and shallow celadon plate at the edge of the table.

“It drinks milk?”

“En, it didn’t eat much of anything else. Maybe it filled its stomach while out.”

Only with this assurance did Ye Zun finally let out a sigh of relief. 

Lin walked up to him. “The weather is nice today. Shall we go for a walk together?”

“Father, have you finished all your work?”

“En.” Lin smiled a little. The expression on his face only changed slightly, just as before, with some reservedness. Only his eyes were clear and gentle. “The time I was allocated for the business trip by the church ends today. I will head back first in the afternoon.”

Ye Zun remembered that the priest had entered the instance earlier than him, so it was normal for him to leave first.

“I came here on Sunday, and I will return one day later than Father.”

Lin lowered his eyes to him and smiled reservedly, saying, “It just so happens that we are both free today. I’m a little curious about how you live your weekdays, so I want to experience it with you.”

Ye Zun stood up and went to the bedroom. “Wait for me, I’ll get changed.”

After getting the space storage bag, Ye Zun bought many spare sets of shirts at the time. Anyway, items that are the same only occupy one space.

The one he changed into when he came to see the priest was stained with blood and he has been wearing the priest’s house clothes since then.

“Do you need me to help?”

“Ah, no need, I can do it.”

He didn’t need to wear Nogawa Kaoru’s overly narrow uniform. If it’s just a shirt, it wasn’t that difficult to change clothes even if he was injured.

Because it was a clear and sunny day, as well as a Saturday, there were many people out and about.

The two people strolled in the park and saw the amount of visitors gradually pick up.

Lin naturally held Ye Zun’s bandaged left hand. When Ye Zun looked over, he said calmly, “This way, you won’t accidentally get hurt the second time.”

“En.” Ye Zun nodded, letting himself relax as much as possible.

There were also many people in the park who were more intimate and holding hands, but for the majority, if they weren’t an adult keeping hold of their children, they were a couple. For a mature and attractive man like Lin holding hands with a disabled person like him, they may be the only pair.

A naughty child who was skateboarding on the side of the road was forcibly grabbed to hold hands with his parents, who were worried that he would run to the side of the road and encounter traffic. When he saw Ye Zun who was similarly being led by the hand, he curiously snuck a few glances.

“Gege, were you caught like me because you were naughty and ran around as well?”

Ye Zun froze for a second. Looking at Lin who had a natural expression beside him, his face looked calm but the tips of his ears were slightly red. However, under the eyes of a child that he didn’t want to disappoint, he just nodded lightly.

“Ai, we’re so unlucky ah.” 

The bear child’s* parents didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, rolling their eyes at him. “You think everyone is the same as you.”

[T/N: mischievous/hard to handle child]

“That’s right,” the child said with the tone of an adult. After looking at Ye Zun’s hand and his bandaged head, he said sympathetically, “I’d better not run around after all. It’s not good to be hit and injured like this Gege. You have to be obedient and get well soon oh.”

He still had an indifferent look, waving at Ye Zun to encourage him with a serious face.

The tips of Ye Zun’s ears turned even redder, but he still waved goodbye to him and said without a change in his voice, “Okay oh, see you next time.”

Lin didn’t speak the whole time and Ye Zun also looked straight ahead, not daring to look at him.

After walking like this for a while, the footsteps beside him paused, and only then did Ye Zun look at him subconsciously.

The priest who wore a gentle and shallow smile looked at Ye Zun curiously. “Then, the obedient child who is dutifully caring for his wounds, do you want an ice cream as a reward?”

Ye Zun felt that every inch of his skin was burning red, but his face became even more tranquil and calm. “En, it’s very hot, let’s have one ba.”

Lin raised his hand and touched his head in a natural manner. “So cute.”

Seeing the priest walking towards the ice cream shop by the roadside, Ye Zun finally stopped holding his breath. He lifted his hand and lightly patted the spot that was touched just now.

They didn’t do anything special on this day.

The priest was always at the church so there was nothing worth mentioning on his end and Ye Zun himself was not a person who liked to go shopping and have fun.

The two walked along the riverside in the park for a while, feeling the wind that passed over the water.

Although they went to an amusement park*, there was nothing for disabled people to play.

[T/N: as in the demon’s game, not an actual theme park]

In the end, they had lunch at the restaurant Lin picked out and they spent a while in the library next to the road reading books together.

At four o’clock in the afternoon, the priest looked at his watch, then closed his book and said to Ye Zun, “I should go back. I have rented that house for a long time, it won’t be a problem for you to live in it until the end of the instance.”

Ye Zun nodded.

Lin lowered his eyes and watched him quietly, then softly asked, “Once the instance ends, will you still come to find me first?”

“Of course,” Ye Zun immediately replied, but Lin’s eyes stared at him for a moment. Looking directly into those beautiful eyes from such a close distance, Ye Zun subconsciously wanted to avoid them for some reason.

He avoided those eyes for a short while, but knowing that Lin was watching him, he endured the inexplicable nervousness and forced himself to look up to meet the other’s gaze.

“Tomorrow, as soon as this ends, I will come and find you.” He curved the corners of his lips, making an effort to smile, and tried to crack a joke. “I had nowhere else to go in the first place, so I can only trouble you to take me in temporarily.”

Lin’s eyes narrowed slightly. There was no fluctuation in the gaze that looked at him. Perhaps because there was no smile in those eyes, the excessively perfect face brought an inexplicable sense of oppression.

“If only we can always be together.”

With the other man’s low and heavy voice, Ye Zun slowly relaxed. His important friend was in such a poor mood because he will have to be temporarily separated from himself. It was as if he was important to the other man.

He was certain the feeling of being needed existed, and the other party also looked at him with the same emotions as him, which made Ye Zun’s heart turn slightly hot.

He smiled a little. “It’s okay, I will see you again very soon.”

The man who seemed to have suddenly fallen into a feeling of boredom and burnout raised his eyes slightly. The corners of his lips slowly rose, and his eyes that were like black crystals lying underwater looked at Ye Zun for a moment. He smiled, and gently said, “You are right. We will see each other again very soon.”

No matter how many times he’s seen it, when the man in front of him smiles, it still makes him feel dizzy. He looked very good, as if he was shrouded in holy light.

Even as a man, Ye Zun felt that his level of good-looking was enough to be called beautiful.

He scratched his hair, his pure eyes smiling with clarity. “See you tomorrow.”

Lin nodded to him. As if he had thought of something, he stood up without any concern, with cool and mild waves rolling in his eyes. “En.”

He took a half step back and nodded in a reserved manner towards Ye Zun, then he walked between the bookshelves and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“Goodbye.” Even if they were to meet again tomorrow, Ye Zun’s mood was still affected by their parting.

It couldn’t be described as loneliness, it was just an indescribable emptiness.

The priest went back, and he no longer had his enthusiasm for reading.

The sky was getting dark. On the way back, there were fewer and fewer people in the park. Everyone had gone home.

In the sparsely populated riverside park, he saw the tall spout of water from the fountain reflect the gorgeous sunset. The tall and dense reed leaves and cattails swayed gently in the breeze.

Such a beautiful scene, it would be nice if the priest was here to see this sight together with him.

The sun set below the mountain, the darkness of twilight shrouded all directions.

When he walked until he was able to spot Lin’s house, Ye Zun couldn’t help thinking of Nogawa Kaoru’s house.

That place was already the remains of the past and he didn’t know what happened to Shen Yuan at the end of this tragedy.

He inserted the key into the door lock, twisting it lightly and pushing it open.

The house was a little dark and the sensor light was not switched on.

Ye Zun remembered that the switch in the living room was located around the right-hand wall of the entrance.

He walked in. The door shut itself naturally, and his fingers subconsciously groped on the wall on the right, before he suddenly paused slightly.

A sudden chill enveloped him, causing the hairs on his back to stand on their ends.

Cold sweat beaded.

The walls in Lin’s community were made of smooth wood, but now, he only felt an uneven and coarse rubble.

As if knowing he had finally noticed it, the view of the entire room quickly sank into the misty darkness like splashes of ink.

Suddenly thrust into this unknown strange situation, his heartbeat jumped wildly and uncontrollably.

——What, is going on? Haven’t I already cleared the level?

——Or did I suddenly enter a new instance?

The door behind him disappeared, leaving only a void of darkness.

Standing in the middle of this darkness, he vaguely saw the bedroom in front of him. The door seemed to be open and there was the smallest hint of light.

Ye Zun pressed his hand against his heart: Calm down, you need to calm down!

However, this time, it took a particularly long while, and the effect was not good.

Because he had absolutely no idea what was going on, and he didn’t know the fear he was going to face.

——Should I go and see? Is it in the bedroom?

The author has something to say:

I had already written up to Shen Yuan, but I thought the word count would be 10,000 on Saturday and Sunday, so this was short.

Please be sure to pull Gugu’s feather lightly, and don’t hit the head, or I will become stupid.




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