Chapter 102 – Without a Key 14

When Xu RenDong took off the ring and returned to the ninth floor, Shi JianChuan had passed out. He was foaming at the mouth and his body was still twitching slightly.

Xu RenDong was stunned for a moment: “You..what did you do to him?”

Lian Qiao leaned on crutches and said very cleverly: “I asked him to calm down and then calm down again.. a few more times.”

Xu RenDong: “.. ..” He suddenly felt that Shi JianChuan was also very pitiful.

Xu RenDong leaned down and stuffed the ring into Shi JianChuan’s hand. Shi JianChuan didn’t wake up so it seemed that he was really abused. It became a little bit awkward when Lian Qiao saw the ring and instantly became jealous again.

“Isn’t this the amulet you gave me?!” Lian Qiao shouted angrily, “Why are you giving it to him now?”

Xu RenDong frowned. He suddenly found that when Lian Qiao was jealous, he turned into a fool and couldn’t even understand such a simple thing.

Thinking of this, he was inexplicably wanting to laugh. However, he also felt that this was not the opportune time to laugh so he stiffened his face and stretched out his hand to point under the eaves.

“What?” Although Lian Qiao was not happy, he still looked in the direction of Xu RenDong’s finger. He finally found the abnormality, “..Why doesn’t that lantern light up?”

Xu RenDong said: “This ring is hidden in the lantern. There is one on each floor so I just went downstairs to get it.”

Lian Qiao suddenly realized: “So that’s it! But how do you know this is a life-saving tool?”

Xu RenDong couldn’t answer this question. He ignored it directly, changed the subject and said, “Forget it, let’s go back to the room first.” Then he lifted Shi JianChuan, who was totally unconscious, from the ground.

When Lian Qiao saw this, he felt a little unhappy in his heart. But thinking that this person was in fact knocked out by himself, there was nothing more to say.

Xu RenDong carried Shi JianChuan back to the guest room and threw him on the bed casually. Shi JianChuan snorted twice in a daze and it seemed that he would not be able to wake up for a while.

Lian Qiao felt a pain in his legs just now and he couldn’t walk at all so the two had to sit down and rest. Xu RenDong asked, “What do you want with me?”

Lian Qiao: “Ah?”

Xu RenDong said: “You kicked the door down all the way and scolded loud enough for the entire street to hear just now, aren’t you looking for me?”

Lian Qiao blushed and coughed awkwardly: “Cough,?I was just worried about you, isn’t that normal? Oh.. that’s right!” He suddenly remembered something, “What is the sentence written on the ring you gave to Shi JianChuan?”

Xu RenDong couldn’t help but be curious: “What sentence?”

“This..” Lian Qiao took out his mobile phone and showed him the enlarged photo just now, “This one is written ‘以色侍君，盼君长留‘. Everyone suddenly started to have sex, no matter what it doesn’t seem right. So I suspect it has something to do with this ring..”

Xu RenDong’s expression changed and then he got up and retrieved Shi JianChuan’s ring.

This ring was taken from the eighth floor. Using Lian Qiao’s method, he saw the small words carved into it:

“在天比翼，愿结连理”

{“In the sky as Biyi birds, willing to join together as Lianzhi” I’m going to be using the Chinese sentence going forward to avoid using the awkward English translation.

This is a reference to ancient poem 长恨歌. There’s a line in this poem that says: “In the sky I would like to be a Biyi bird, and on the ground I want to be as Lianzhi”. The Biyi bird is a bird in ancient legend where the male and female bird is said to only have one eye and one wing, hence they can only fly when together. Similarly the Lianzhi is two trees with different roots but connected branches. So it is a metaphor for a husband and wife being willing to join together, being loyal to each other and becoming inseparable from each other.}

It turns out that the rings on each floor are different!

Xu RenDong was startled and many things flashed through his mind.

No wonder there was a heavy rain inexplicably in the last reincarnation, no wonder everyone would suddenly turn violent when having sex with the maids.. All of this is because the ring was taken away, triggering a specific curse.

Xu RenDong suddenly understood why even Shi JianChuan was affected this time.

He thought that the lust DEBUFF was spontaneously generated at a certain time. So his plan was this: deliberately cause a riot before the old lady appeared on stage, divert everyone’s attention and naturally avoid the old lady and go upstairs alone. This way, when the old lady took people around to their rooms in the tulou, he could enter the ancestral hall in advance, use the time to arrange the order of the tablets and obtain the object in the wooden box.

The plan so far has been smooth. Not long after he left the ancestral hall, the old lady took everyone to go up the nine levels. As everyone was settling in, he quietly took the ring from the ninth floor to give Lian Qiao. He then planned to talk to Shi JianChuan. Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the room, he was thrown down by the delirious Shi JianChuan.

In fact, that’s because the ring on the ninth floor is “以色侍君，盼君长留” {The first ring, the one that has a sexual connotation}. As soon as he took off the ring, he triggered the DEBUFF. This time around, Shi JianChuan did not have the ring on his body so of course he would be affected.

After finally getting rid of Shi JianChuan, he heard Lian Qiao go crazy in the corridor again, kicking down the door and scolding his mother.

Xu RenDong couldn’t stand this the most so he got angry and went to Lian Qiao to settle accounts. And then.. well what happened happened.

Xu RenDong couldn’t help but glance at Shi JianChuan who was unconscious on the bed, feeling a little bit sorry for him.

But it was also a fact that Shi JianChuan betrayed himself in the last reincarnation. Now with this, the two of them can be considered clear.

Xu RenDong came back to his senses and found that Lian Qiao was staring at the two rings in his hand. He also muttered in his mouth: “在天比翼，愿结连理 {second ring}.. What does this mean? Is it to force us to marry those girls?..”

“No.” Xu RenDong said without thinking, “You can’t touch those maids. If you touch them, you will die.”

Lian Qiao’s expression suddenly became very strange: “How do you know? Have you touched them?”

“..” Xu RenDong was at a loss for words. Restricted by his rebirth, he couldn’t tell the truth about what he had experienced before so he had to bite the bullet and forcibly answer, “..I can’t touch anyway. Even if ghosts don’t kill me, you definitely will.”

Lian Qiao was stunned and when he realized that he was talking about the incident before when he was kicking down the door and trying to ‘catch him in the act’, he couldn’t help blushing and muttered in a low voice, “Who told you to leave me and run away..I don’t know if something happened to you, what do you expect me to do..?”

Xu RenDong suddenly felt a little guilty when he heard this.

Lian Qiao’s out-of-control and crazy actions clearly showed that he liked him, cared about him, and protected him on the cusp of his heart. Even though he had tormented Lian Qiao unreasonably before and even used a tough attitude to part ways with Lian Qiao, but when he was in danger, Lian Qiao still came running like a madman to help him.

Xu RenDong couldn’t really understand his feelings for Lian Qiao and Lian Qiao’s feelings for him.

Emotions are inherently incomprehensible.

In contrast, escape games may be simpler.

Xu RenDong finally took out that thing and put it on the table.

“What is this?” Lian Qiao blinked in surprise.

Xu RenDong said: “I found it in the ancestral hall. Do you recognize what it is?”

“This..” Lian Qiao took the strangely shaped silver oval ring in his hand and looked at it carefully, “It looks familiar, like I’ve seen it before.. wait.”

His eyes lit up and he put the previous two rings on the flat ring. The ring slid down along the raised end of the flat ring and it happened to fit onto the flat ring.

Now even Xu RenDong understood it and couldn’t help but whisper: “Nine Ring Links!”

Lian Qiao shook his head: “No, that’s not right. Something is missing.” The two rings slid back and forth along the flat ring, “Nine Ring Links is an educational toy and has a specific formula in order to solve it and put all the links through. But you see, this bare little ring can be directly put on without any obstacles.. It’s hard to explain, let me show you the picture.”

Then he opened the encyclopedia he had already downloaded on his phone and clicked on the entry “Nine Ring Links”.

Seeing the picture, Xu RenDong immediately understood what he meant. It turned out that the long flat ring was called the ring handle and the nine small rings were indeed set on the ring handle. However, the rings are not isolated from each other but are connected in series with each other and the lower end is fixed with a copper plate, which greatly reduced the movable angle of the rings.

Therefore, the real Nine Link Rings simply are not as easy as they are now where you can easily thread the ring onto the ring handle. Whether it is to split up or restore the nine-chain links, a set of precise and repeated processes is required.

As for the specific solution, it was too complicated. There are detailed instructions on the encyclopedia. The large paragraph of text is too long and there are mathematical symbols mixed in it. Xu RenDong did not bother looking at it.

“I’m afraid that we can only start solving it if we have the complete set of rings..” Lian Qiao hesitated for a while, raised his head and there was something very complicated in his eyes, “Brother RenDong, do you understand what this means?”

Xu RenDong nodded solemnly.

Taking off the ring from the lantern will trigger a DEBUFF and only the person carrying the ring would be unaffected.

If you want to clear the level, you must collect all nine rings. That means Shi JianChuan will definitely betray them in order to steal the rings from Lian Qiao.

In fact, what Shi JianChuan did was also reasonable. After all, in this instance, fundamentally speaking, only one person can survive.

It is the person who holds the Nine Linked Rings in his hand.

Nine times nine equals eighty-one, but nine divided by nine equals one. {Saying which references the old abacus system, metaphor for things returning to their place.}

This is where this instance is really difficult.

Lian Qiao fell silent. He turned his head and stared at the flickering candle on the table. The bright and extinguishing firelight reflected on his face incomparably soft but there was a deep emotion in his demeanor, which made people feel inexplicably sad.

“Is this why you want to separate from me?” Lian Qiao asked.

Xu RenDong did not speak. He didn’t know how to answer and he didn’t know what Lian Qiao meant by “this”.

Are the two of them thinking the same thing now?

In fact, sometimes silence is the answer. Lian Qiao smiled, suddenly stood up, crossed the table and kissed his forehead lightly.

The kiss was as light as a cloud and the soft and warm touch didn’t last for a moment and disappeared immediately.

“I’ll listen to you.” After Lian Qiao finished saying this, he put the rings and the handle on the table, then got up and left.

Xu RenDong was shocked. He chased out subconsciously, reached out and grabbed Lian Qiao’s hand: “Lian Qiao!”

Lian Qiao turned around and smiled with crooked eyebrows: “Huh?”

Xu RenDong said: “I don’t need a ring, I..”

“RenDong.” Lian Qiao interrupted him, his eyes were gentle and warm, “Do you remember, in the first instance, you saved me. Without you, I wouldn’t be alive now. So you don’t have to blame yourself, just treat it as my returning this life to you. Don’t be sad, I’m willing.”

Seeing his self-sacrificing divine expression, Xu RenDong felt a burst of anger inexplicably.

“How do you only owe me one life?!” His voice rose involuntarily, becoming sharp and shrill, “I—”

I can die for you without hesitation, even if I’m scared of death, even if it hurts to the point of collapse to die, I died for you countless times!

What about you?

You didn’t even frown when you killed me!

Do you think you owe me only one life? !

You owe me more than you can count!

He had a thousand words to say but his voice stopped abruptly in the next second.

He knew he had violated a taboo. It’s impossible for him to say what he has been through and so, for some unknown fucking reason, he’ll always have to bear the pain alone!

He couldn’t speak and the pain in his heart became stronger. He couldn’t hold back any longer and suddenly pressed Lian Qiao against the wall, biting him on the shoulder!

Xu RenDong bit hard. Lian Qiao was stunned. He didn’t feel any pain at first and then he couldn’t help but gasp.

It was a real bite!

Lian Qiao’s whole body was curled up in pain and Xu RenDong was biting hard, as if he really wanted to bite a piece of meat off his shoulder. Lian Qiao was completely stunned. He couldn’t figure out how Xu RenDong, who was always calm and self-contained, would do such a thing, how could he be so emotional – biting him? !

Although the pain was terrifying, Lian Qiao didn’t resist. He just gritted his teeth silently and even raised his hand to gently pat Xu RenDong’s back.

Xu RenDong felt his caress and, as if he was even more stimulated, bit down with more strength. The sharp canine teeth pierced the skin directly and Lian Qiao couldn’t hold back and let out a “woo”.

He screamed in pain and Xu RenDong finally let go. His teeth still didn’t leave his shoulder and he said vaguely, “Hold me.”

Lian Qiao was stunned for a moment.

Was this.. him being coquettish?

The aggrieved “hold me” sentence made Lian Qiao’s heart melt. He immediately hugged Xu RenDong tightly in his arms and couldn’t help kissing his hair.

The two people’s chests were pressed against each other and they clearly felt each other’s body temperature.

Xu RenDong was no longer angry. He had finished venting but he was still a little aggrieved.

Lian Qiao didn’t ask why. He could feel it and was terribly distressed.

The emotions of the two of them gradually calmed down but they were still reluctant to let go, so they kept hugging each other quietly.

Until a lazy and helpless voice came from behind.

“How long are you guys planning to be intimate in someone else’s room?”