Once Pei Yanchuan had rested enough, Ye Chu helped him outside. "So, should we head to the opera stage now?"
Pei Yanchuan limped along. "Yeah. There should be plenty of clues there."
Ye Chu looked at his reddened ankle and asked, "Want me to carry you?"
Pei Yanchuan stiffened. "Um... I'm pretty heavy."
A high school boy over six feet tall was hardly going to be light.
But Ye Chu still crouched in front of him. "Get on. Let me try..." Unable to refuse, Pei Yanchuan slowly climbed onto his back.
Ye Chu supported him under his thighs and stood up with him on his back. "It's fine. You're not heavy." Then he suddenly stumbled. "..."
Pei Yanchuan pretended not to have noticed and stayed obediently on his back. If he said the wrong thing at a time like this, Ye Chu might throw him straight off.
[? Just got here. Genuine question: have I been shipping them the wrong way around?]
[Woohoo! Raise the 78 flag! ChuYan is real!]
[This is a mystery show. Can we please have fewer people who only care about shipping?!]
Fortunately, the opera stage wasn't far from that house, and they arrived after a short walk.
The stage was even more desolate than they had imagined. For some unknown reason, the surrounding trees had withered. Several wooden stools stood below it, neatly arranged, yet strangely eerie.
Ye Chu set Pei Yanchuan down on a stool. As he turned around, a swarm of black bugs appeared from nowhere at his feet.
They were the size of a thumb, with smooth shells and legs lining both sides of their bodies, crawling toward the two of them in a dense mass.
Ye Chu and Pei Yanchuan: "!!"
Bugs surrounded them. They hurriedly climbed onto the stools. Fortunately,