The Banquet Begins

After he said that, he was slapped without any mercy.

The other party clearly didn't have that intention, and when he asked why they wanted to cooperate with him...

"Would you collaborate on this kind of project with someone whose appearance makes you lose all dopamine?"

Yan Luo's disdainful gaze made Lin feel like he was just an insect. "Thank you for making me realize that even if a guy is handsome, he's still a guy."

"You're welcome." Lin covered his face, which was bleeding from the beating, and said calmly, "As long as you don't sleep with me."

"Smack!"

Lin scrubbed his body clean vigorously. Although Ying would bathe him, he still felt very dirty, extremely dirty...

He leaned against the tiles in the shower, the warm light shining on his face. He hugged himself and slowly slid down to the floor, letting the hot water flow over his body.

Lin still has some places to go, but...

He can no longer trust those who were once considered the most important people.

What should we do now? Where should we go?

Most importantly, how can we get back what we've lost...?

"Bang!"

Yan Luo, puzzled, put down his phone and propped himself up, seeing the open bathroom door with wisps of white steam rising from it, while Lin lay on the ground, seemingly unconscious.

After leaving the shrine, Lin, relieved of the psychological pressure, finally succumbed to exhaustion and collapsed to the ground.

Looking at the motionless Lin, Yan Luo helplessly put down his phone. "What a hassle..."

"... Huh?"

When Yan Luo moved Lin to the bed, he touched his nose, thinking he must have smelled something wrong.

Her sense of smell has always been keen, otherwise she wouldn't have been unable to stand the smell in the shrine. Now she noticed that the scent of photinia on Lin had disappeared, replaced by a faint fragrance.

It doesn't smell like shower gel, but rather a very subtle and indescribable fragrance.

"How can a man smell so good..." Yan Luo muttered to himself, quickly tucking Lin in with the blanket, then went to sit down on a chair in the room and started playing on his phone.

She felt she couldn't get too close to that guy, or it would make her seem a little strange.

He casually opened an anime series he hadn't finished watching, leaned back in his chair, and started watching. Yan Luo covered his mouth and yawned, occasionally glancing at Lin, who was fast asleep on the bed, out of the corner of his eye.

Although they had only known each other for a short time, Lin had left her with a bad first impression. Now, however, he looked quite beautiful in his sleep, like a work of art viewed through a screen...

Before she knew it, her attention had completely left the anime series, and she was staring intently at the sleeping Lin.

Wait a moment!

Yan Luo shook his head vigorously, suddenly wondering if he had gotten his brain caught in a door.

She was staring at a man, completely mesmerized?

Why? Just because he's slightly better looking?

Yan Luo chuckled. She wasn't some naive young girl who had never seen the world. Was this guy some kind of male succubus?

After a period of psychological counseling, she stopped paying attention to Lin, but just then, she heard some barely perceptible sounds...

Yan Luo pulled a pistol from her nightgown and stared at the window with a solemn expression.

Lin was awakened by the splashing water. He woke up with a heavy thud and, still half asleep, saw water dripping from the faucet above his head.

What happened...?

I felt a bit cold, since the damp environment of the bathroom can easily make one feel cold.

But why is he here?

He propped himself up slightly, trying to figure out what was going on, but ended up slapping his hand onto a puddle of warm liquid.

Lin lowered his head in bewilderment, only to be stung in the eyes by the glaring scarlet light.

Blood.

Beside him lay a large pool of blood, and a dying man lay beside him, weakly gazing at him.

Yan Luo clutched her abdomen. Judging from the direction of the bloodstains, the blood that had almost pooled into a small pool had flowed out of her body.

"Hey, you..."

"Shh..." Yan Luo weakly shook her head, gesturing with her eyes for silence, "Keep your voice down... there are people around..."

Lin immediately lowered his voice and leaned down to ask Yan Luo, "What happened?"

"Enemy..."

Yan Luo is an assassin, which doesn't just mean she's a killer who takes lives, but also a pitiful person who walks on the edge of life and death.

She wouldn't tell anyone how helpless she was on this path, killing and then being killed, it was just as natural as it seemed.

"You... go..." Yan Luo coughed up two mouthfuls of murky blood, his once clear eyes now dimmed considerably. "Don't... make eye contact with anyone..."

"You..." Lin stared blankly at this complete stranger. They knew nothing about each other and were just strangers who had exchanged names.

But she ended up saving herself.

Lin wasn't stupid. This wasn't the bathroom where he took a shower, which meant that Yan Luo had carried him to another room. She could have easily abandoned him, but she still saved him.

A trustworthy person betrayed me.

A complete stranger saved me.

Why did you save me? Why didn't you run away yourself?

"... cough cough... professional... quality..." Yan Luo's pale, bloodless face was expressionless. She covered her mouth to prevent her cough from spreading.

Gradually, the massive blood loss blurred her consciousness. She opened her blood-filled mouth, wanting to say something to Lin, but could only reluctantly lose consciousness.

"... Professional ethics?"

Lin stared at the unconscious Yan Luo with a complicated expression. After a long while, he seemed to have made up his mind. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he opened his eyes again, a calm yet sharp gaze appeared in his eyes.

Upon entering the room, Lin went to the window and leaned against the wall, glancing outside out of the corner of his eye to confirm that the room they were in was one floor below the previous room.

The location has been confirmed.

Lin pondered for a few seconds, walked to the table, pressed the kettle's boiling switch, then squatted down to lock the window and draw the curtains.

Finally, he went back into the bathroom, turned the tap on full blast, the water gushing out loudly, then turned off the living room lights, silently picked up the kettle of boiling water, and went behind the door.

Because he deliberately left the kettle lid open, steam slowly filled the space under the ceiling...

"Splash!" The sound of water rushing in.

"Gala..."

The door was pushed open.

Lin, expressionless, tiptoed and poured boiling water from behind the door onto the face of the man in black who pushed the door open.

This chapter has not been approved.

The content of this chapter has not been approved.

Chapter Sixty-Two: The Banquet Begins

As expected, he still couldn't get used to the dizzying sensation of the spinning world. It felt like his brain was about to be shaken out. Even with Lin's patience, he almost couldn't recover.

However, there was no time to fully recover. Lin forced himself to stand up and observe his surroundings.

Whether it was unexpected or not, when the cacophony of voices filled Lin's ears, he already knew that Yan Luo's wish had been fulfilled.

Whoever locked them up here, what exactly did they want...?

"Yan Luo ..."

Lin reluctantly raised his head to look around, but the moment his gaze fell upon his surroundings, he hesitated.

He turned around, then looked at himself in front of and behind him. After the dizziness in his head had completely subsided, he stood silently in the crowded shopping mall.

Yan Luo is gone; she disappeared after the bell rang.

"Welcome to all men and women, women who are men but have the heart of women, men who are women but have the heart of men, and many other non-binary individuals whose names I cannot name. Whether you identify as an armed helicopter or a hang glider, you are all welcome to this banquet."

"I'm your good friend, good brother, good sister, good toy... Hmm? You didn't say that? Oh dear, you're mistaken..."

The audience fell into an eerie silence, watching the person on stage who "seemed" and "should be" very familiar to them, spouting nonsensical words with a grin on his face.

"What do you mean, welcome..."

A man stood at the very front, his hands trembling violently with rage, a simple mask quivering on his face. Seeing Lin's jovial demeanor, he roared, "Lin!!! How many times do you intend to provoke me?!"

"Isn't this my good buddy Chrono? Do you want to come up and say a few words too?" Lin casually handed the microphone to the other party, but was slapped away.

"Bang!"

"You had that woman bring me here just for this?" Chrono's anger was completely overflowing.

It wasn't just Chrono; the others, such as Su, Spasi, and Ling, who had been summoned, were also completely bewildered. Ling, in particular, knew nothing about the Fire Moths but had been brought to this place that resembled a futuristic sci-fi movie set, leaving her utterly lost and unsure of what to do.

"Could it be that you actually enjoy staying in the Deepest Place?" Lin asked with a sudden realization. "What was that Thousand something again?"

Chrono was utterly enraged. "You just called my name! Don't play dumb with me!"

"Haha, you're still as funny as ever, my good brother. Well then, I wish everyone a good time, and then you can welcome your good friend Lin back."

Lin smiled and waved, ignoring Chrono who was furious but unable to retaliate, and walked backstage.

The others looked at each other, unsure of what to do next, but fortunately, a few people who were good at warming up the atmosphere had already started walking around and striking up conversations with others.

"Kevin, what was that just now..." Su found Kevin, who was sitting in the corner like a block of ice. He wanted to ask Lin what had happened, but Kevin just glanced at him and sat motionless in his chair without saying a word.

"Kevin?"

"... Su, do you know how to remove the glue?"

"What?"

"No, it's nothing."

Kevin took a deep breath, a hint of melancholy in his expression.

Sue looked at him strangely at the chair beneath him, which was completely out of place with the banquet's decor.

A white plastic chair that you'd only find at a roadside night market stall.

Why is Kevin sitting in this chair? No, I should say, why is there a chair like this here?

"As expected, Lin was right. Kevin, there are still some things about you that haven't changed." A funny voice came from the side. Elysia and Mei walked over together in evening dresses. Elysia couldn't help but laugh when she saw Kevin's gloomy face. "If there was a chair at a street food stall here, you would definitely sit down and try it."

"... Elysia, did you make this too?" Kevin rarely showed such an embarrassed expression.

"What do you need to eat? I'll get it for you." Mei couldn't help but laugh out loud. She seemed to see the boy who strode towards her at school and confessed his love to her loudly again. At least in some ways, he hadn't changed.

"... Noodles will do."

"Hey, hey, hey? Sakura, are you ready?"

Lin knocked on the door and asked the person inside.

"Huh? Um..." Sakura replied in a slightly hurried voice, "But is this really okay? What about Rin...?"

"She'll definitely like it, don't worry."

Lin confidently assured her.

Having received such a confident answer, Sakura finally mustered the courage to push open the door and walk out.

She was never afraid of anything, except when facing her sister with her true self.

But when she saw Lin outside the door, she almost ran back into her room.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Lin asked, puzzled, as he straightened his clothes and saw her stiff expression.