The sky grew darker and darker. The heavy blackness left almost no trace of daylight, and even the bright full moon seemed to have been swallowed by the darkness, unable to shed so much as a sliver of light.
Evening breezes carrying an eerie chill kept creeping in from every direction, stirring the white lanterns and making them sway, lending the scene an ominous, uncanny air.
"Whoosh... whoosh..."
The chilling sounds of the wind mingled with the notes of a suona, making this dinner attended by only eight people feel even more unsettling.
Zhang Yaoyao put down her chopsticks and cautiously poked Liu Peng, who sat beside her. Unaware of the fear showing on her face, she said in a trembling voice, "Peng, why do I feel like something's wrong?"
Liu Peng patted her slender shoulder. The warmth of his palm seemed to make her feel considerably better as he reassured her, "Don't be scared. It's still the first day. Nothing will happen."
His words helped the other nervous players relax quite a bit. After all, the rule that no one died on the first day still held.
There were more than five hours left before the first day ended. Even if a whole group of ghosts appeared here now, they wouldn't be able to hurt them at all.
After hearing that, Chu Qingjiu lost interest. None of them seemed to have noticed the strange sights around them. They were nothing like the players he had encountered before.
His long, raven-black lashes lowered slightly, motionless as a fringe of fine feathers, making his face look even fairer and more beautiful.
He held the red cord the head steward had given him in one hand, toying with it out of boredom. Its vivid red made him look even more alluring, and the cord wound around his pale, slender fingertips like a lovely ornament.
Qi Wu stared straight at Chu Qingjiu's exquisite, slightly lowered profile, utterly entranced.
He didn't know when it had started, but he had become increasingly helpless against Chu Qingjiu's face, constantly getting so absorbed in looking at him that his mind wandered.
Every move the other man made unsettled him. Now that he thought about it carefully, he seemed to have turned into this lovesick fool after their eyes had met that time.
He could hardly be blamed. Chu Qingjiu looked like a cool, aloof immortal banished to the mortal world, untouched by earthly affairs from head to toe, and that gave him some truly wicked ideas.
For instance, making this cold, distant beauty take on the seductive air of someone steeped in desire. Or making him lose himself and shed tears for him.
He had seen Chu Qingjiu with reddened eyes, emotion rippling through them. That expression could all too easily stir a twisted urge to torment him.
The longer he looked, the drier his mouth grew. Even he felt there was something wrong with the way he was acting.
It was as though something had bewitched him.
"Am I good-looking?"
While Qi Wu was lost in thought, he suddenly heard Chu Qingjiu ask that question.
If he listened closely, he could even catch a faint hint of amusement, almost scattered by the wind.
Chu Qingjiu had known all along that Qi Wu was watching him. That gaze was so scorching that it almost gave him the illusion his very soul would be burned to ashes.
It would have been far too difficult not to notice a gaze like that.
Qi Wu had no intention of hiding it, so Chu Qingjiu's question didn't particularly surprise him. He simply smiled, looking utterly harmless, and cheerfully said, "You're the most beautiful person in the world, gege!"
"I don't like idiots. Try being less stupid."
For a moment, Qi Wu didn't understand what Chu Qingjiu meant. Was he calling me stupid?
Chu Qingjiu didn't want to spell it out, either. He was beginning to doubt whether Qi Wu really was the Top-Ranked Player on the Player Rankings who had severed his Puppet Threads back then.
How could he be so stupid? Didn't he know this meal was dangerous?
Even if no one died on the first day of an instance, that only applied to the first day. No deaths on the first day didn't mean the first day was completely safe.
Everyone who had eaten would now be targeted by ghosts. They had essentially stolen the ghosts' food, so how could the ghosts possibly let them off so easily?
"Gege, do you think I don't know this food is meant for ghosts?"
Qi Wu leaned closer to Chu Qingjiu and lowered his voice.
"Yes. But judging by your attitude, you seem to have nothing to fear?"
Chu Qingjiu leaned away from Qi Wu, then turned his head and met his clear, pure amber eyes.
Looking closely, he could even see a slightly sly smile in Qi Wu's eyes, as though he had known about Chu Qingjiu's doubts all along.
Qi Wu nodded earnestly and smiled, revealing his cute little canine tooth. Looking completely harmless, he said, "Because I'm strong enough. As long as you have absolute strength, you can ignore all of this. Isn't that right, gege?"
That was indeed how it worked. In an instance, anyone with overwhelmingly superior strength could do whatever they pleased. But Qi Wu's current identity was Wu Qi, so he couldn't reveal the strength that only Qi Wu could wield.
If it came out that he had entered under an alternate identity, the instance would very likely target him until he died.
Chu Qingjiu naturally knew that. Still, he had no objection to Qi Wu getting himself exposed through his own recklessness and being targeted until he died. Qi Wu had to die sooner or later anyway. Whether he died at Chu Qingjiu's hands or the instance's made little difference.
Considering that Qi Wu, though noisy and clingy, took good care of him, Chu Qingjiu decided not to trip him up in this instance.
Even if he didn't trip Qi Wu up, Qi Wu would find a way to trip himself up.
Qi Wu pursed his lips in displeasure and looked at Chu Qingjiu reproachfully. "Gege, you're spacing out."
"..."
Chu Qingjiu fell silent for a moment, then stood up and said coolly, "I'm going back to my room. Be careful tonight, everyone."
Seeing that Chu Qingjiu was leaving, Qi Wu stood up as well. He very naturally took hold of one of Chu Qingjiu's arms, pressing himself close against him, and didn't forget to turn back and say goodbye to the others.
"I'll take gege back to his room now."
With that, he pulled Chu Qingjiu away without giving him a chance to object.
Chu Qingjiu didn't resist. He might as well make use of a free human walking stick. Qi Wu would slow his steps to accommodate him anyway.
"Whoosh..."
A cold gust blew Chu Qingjiu's soft black hair back, and his rather frail body shivered.
The night seemed colder than the day. Perhaps it was because the time when the ghost gates would swing open was drawing near, while the hall they had just left had been full of invisible ghosts. Surrounded by their yin energy, he had become more susceptible to the cold.
"...Cough, cough."
He couldn't help coughing. Noticing how Chu Qingjiu's body trembled when the wind blew past, Qi Wu said gently, "There's a jacket in my bag. I'll put it on you in a minute."
"Cough... no need. I'm fine like this."
"No. What if you catch a cold? You're already frail."
"..."
Chu Qingjiu thought about how battered this body already was. If he caught a cold on top of that, he wouldn't be able to take it, so he stopped arguing.
What he didn't know, however, was that a male ghost they couldn't yet see was following behind them.
The male ghost stayed right behind Chu Qingjiu, sniffing the enticing fragrance he gave off, his expression greedy and ravenous.
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