Chapter 109 – Without a Key 21

After Lian Qiao left, Xu RenDong returned to work at his company. He has been on leave for too long and felt that his working days were a lifetime away. However after several days of extra shifts, he returned to his original state. It’s just that when he came home from a busy day, the lights were dark and he didn’t have a hot meal to eat, which made him feel very lonely.

As the saying goes: If I had never seen the light then I could have endured the darkness. After Xu RenDong experienced the warmth of home, he could no longer be without Lian Qiao.

On this day, Xu RenDong finally finished the previously accumulated work and had a rare moment of free time. He opened his internet browser to see what was the latest news. For some reason, he suddenly thought of something and entered the three words “Nine Linked Rings” in the search box. A whole bunch of random results popped up quickly on the screen.

Among them, what attracted his attention was a paper on the historical origin of the Nine Linked Rings. And the author’s signature turned out to be “Shi JianChuan”.

Xu RenDong followed the links and found Shi JianChuan’s personal information. He was surprised to find that Shi JianChuan turned out to be a university teaching assistant and his main focus was folklore research.

..He really couldn’t have guessed that such a coquettish person was actually a high-level intellectual.

The university where Shi JianChuan worked was in this city. Xu RenDong thought that there were still many things he wanted to ask him so he left the company early one day and went to his campus.

Although this college was a famous school, folklore was not a popular major and so the college office was very remote. Xu RenDong entered the campus, inquired around and wandered around for quite a while before finding the location of the Folklore College. It was an old building that was five stories high. The decoration style was from decades ago. There was a thick layer of ivy on the wall. This ivy was probably older than Xu RenDong.

The surrounding trees were lush and there was no one passing by. Xu RenDong looked up, only to feel that this old building was eerie, like a haunted house and the white figure in the window on the third floor also looked like a ghost..

Eh? How did this man move around on the window?

Xu RenDong watched it for two minutes and felt strange. Suddenly, another face appeared behind the figure, startling Xu RenDong.

The man in the back was obviously taken aback. The eyes of the two briefly exchanged in the air. In the next second, there was only a clatter. The first man opened the window, strode out with his long legs and jumped out from the third floor with the aura of wanting to kill someone!

Xu RenDong was stunned.

The man that was still standing upstairs was also shocked.

With a “bang” the man with white clothes fell freely to the ground and was momentarily also stunned by his fall.

Xu RenDong: “..” I’m not here to catch an adulterer in the act, why are you jumping out of buildings? Even if you want to jump off a building, you shouldn’t jump in front of me!

What if you hit me! What kind of behavior is this!?

Although he didn’t quite understand this person’s brain circuit but, out of humanitarianism, Xu RenDong quickly ran up to confirm his safety. Taking a closer look, the man’s skin was glowing white and he was naked like a white snake. Xu RenDong was abruptly frightened by his own association and shivered. He suddenly heard footsteps in the corridor, looked up and saw a Shi JianChuan running down from above.

Shi JianChuan greeted him when he saw him: “Yo, you managed to track me all the way here, pretty good.”

Xu RenDong: “..” Can you put on your clothes before talking?

Shi JianChuan turned his head to confirm the injury of the man on the ground. Seeing that he didn’t seem to be seriously injured and there was just a scratch on his forehead, he carried him back into the building with a smile.

Xu RenDong followed him upstairs and asked,”Is his head okay?” Meaning both meanings.{I.e. Is his head wound okay, plus does he have a mental problem?}

Shi JianChuan didn’t turn his head back: “He’s okay. It’s just that he’s been a snake for a long time and forgot how to be a human being.”

Xu RenDong: “.. ” I feel like I just heard something amazing!

The Folklore Teaching and Research Office was on the third floor, where the white snake jumped off the building just now. Xu RenDong felt that the fact that the two of them were doing ‘it’ in the school was an insult to academia and his face was a little ugly unconsciously.

Shi JianChuan poured him a cup of tea and politely asked him to sit down. He then said with a smile, “Don’t mind. I’ve been holding back for a long time so I was really lustful. As a result, I couldn’t control my passions.”

Xu RenDong was stunned and his teacup almost fell to the ground. It was the first time he saw such a shameless person that could say such things so lightly, as though he were talking about something else entirely.

Xu RenDong recovered from the embarrassment and suddenly became afraid.

He remembered that when he was in the dungeon, he always thought that the white snake was Shi JianChuan’s summoned beast or some kind of special effect of a prop. The biggest object of suspicion was of course the black Tang suit embroidered with snake patterns, so much so that he wanted to steal it for a while..

Fortunately, he didn’t. Otherwise if the White Snake was summoned and saw at first glance that he wasn’t Shi JianChuan, he might have just bitten him to death.

The water boiled and the aroma of tea rose from the tea cup. Shi JianChuan took a sip of tea, narrowed his eyes contentedly and asked, “Did you come to ask me some questions?”

Xu RenDong said, “Yes.” He rationalized his thoughts and sat upright, “You said that you have cleared all the instances, so..”

Shi JianChuan interrupted him: “My props are all used up. There are seven instance levels. Don’t kill key players for dolls. That’s it. Good luck.”

Xu RenDong: “..”

His words were short and fast, as if he had been preparing them long ago, waiting for Xu RenDong to ask.

After Xu RenDong thought about it, he really had nothing to ask. He had no choice but to say to him, “What about afterwards? What are you going to do?”

{I know it seems like there’s some missing info here but honestly it’s not me, I’m just translating what the author wrote. She really didn’t have XRD ask any more questions or explain anything further at this point.. I haven’t skipped anything here.}

Shi JianChuan glanced at the fair-skinned man beside him with a smile in his eyes: “The future is uncertain, live one day at a time.”

Xu RenDong: “..” This was truly a speech that fitted this person’s character.

Shi JianChuan was flirtatious but the fair-skinned man was quite restrained. He didn’t make any outrageous reaction after hearing this. He just quietly put his head on Shi JianChuan’s shoulder, probably a habit he left behind when he was a snake. .

In front of Xu RenDong, Shi JianChuan politely did not unleash his passions on the spot but just smiled and touched the man’s face.

Xu RenDong was suddenly a little curious: “Because all the instances have been cleared, so he lost his ability and can’t change back to a snake?”

Shi JianChuan’s face suddenly changed slightly and a strange brilliance flashed in his eyes. He seemed to think of something but seemingly dismissed it with a smile.

“No.” Shi JianChuan said while smiling, “It’s not that he lost the ability to transform back into a snake but that he has regained his human body.”

Xu RenDong was taken aback for a moment. Regained? Does that mean that the white snake was originally a human but turned into a snake for some reason?

Shi JianChuan quickly changed the subject, as if he didn’t want to talk anymore about it. Xu RenDong thought that Shi JianChuan might also have something to hide, just like he couldn’t talk to people about his reincarnations after death.

After that, Xu RenDong chatted with the two casually and said goodbye to them.

When he walked out of the hospital building, it was already dark. Xu RenDong looked back at the third floor subconsciously and found that Shi JianChuan was pulling at the curtains, smiling at him.

Looking at this situation, I am afraid that it will not be a single day and night. {As in.. the duration of them doing ‘it’.}

Xu RenDong smiled, shook his head and left the college.

Unknowingly at some time, autumn had set in. The night wind was bleak and the leaves were rustling. Xu RenDong felt a little cold so he closed the car window. Turning to one side and seeing the empty passenger seat, he suddenly felt lonely.

He missed him.

He hadn’t seen Lian Qiao for a few days and today he was stuffed with dog food by Shi JianChuan, so Xu RenDong was naturally feeling lonely.

Lian Qiao had contacted him off and on these days. He knew that Lian Qiao had gone home to tell his parents the truth. Lian Qiao’s parents were doctors. They were very busy at work. They work night shifts and hold academic conferences sometimes so they rarely spend time at home together.

Lian Qiao was waiting for an opportunity to talk to his parents about his future.

He didn’t know how it was going.

Xu RenDong suddenly couldn’t restrain his thoughts, so he called Lian Qiao, however Lian Qiao’s phone was turned off. He sent a WeChat and didn’t get a reply. Xu RenDong felt nervous for a while. He remembered what had happened last time and when he looked at his watch, it was indeed time for Lian Qiao’s live broadcast again.

He took a deep breath. When he got home, he entered the live broadcast room.

Unexpectedly, the live broadcast room was actually a black screen.

The anxiety in his heart suddenly increased. When he saw the barrage, everyone was also asking why the anchor was not online today, why the anchor was not online yesterday and why the anchor has not been online for three consecutive days. Was his contract terminated?

Xu RenDong stared at the barrage for a while but no one could answer these questions.

Lian Qiao didn’t live stream for three days. He remembered that Lian Qiao had said that he had signed a contract with a live broadcast platform and had to live broadcast for more than two hours a day. He also had a phone call with Lian Qiao yesterday and the day before yesterday. Lian Qiao on the other end of the phone was still complaining that his parents were too busy and he didn’t know when he would be able to talk about the topic. Today, however, there was no news at all.

It seems that probably.. their talk has collapsed.

Xu RenDong’s heart sank little by little.

He called Lian Qiao’s friends one by one. Those were all people who Lian Qiao met online. They knew very little about Lian Qiao’s real life information. Some didn’t even know Lian Qiao’s real name, let alone where his family lived.

Xu RenDong worked all night and found nothing. He wanted to go to the police station to report the case. But thinking about it, Lian Qiao most likely just failed to negotiate with his parents and was locked up in solitary confinement. The police station could not interfere in other people’s family affairs.

So, early the next morning, Xu RenDong went to the headquarters of the live broadcast platform Lian Qiao signed to find Lian Qiao’s identity information. Unsurprisingly, the headquarters also refused to provide information because the relationship between Xu RenDong and Lian Qiao could not be determined and the platform signed a non-disclosure agreement with the broadcaster. The real information of the broadcaster could not be leaked to outsiders.

Outsiders.

As if Xu RenDong was hit in the head, his heart throbbed again.

It was only at this moment that he suddenly realized that he knew too little about Lian Qiao. He only knew that Lian Qiao was an internet livestreamer, that he lived in City B and that his parents were doctors.. But what about other than that?

Did Lian Qiao have siblings? What was his major in college? Besides those people on the Internet, what friends does he have in reality?

He knew nothing.

Xu RenDong grew up in an orphanage and had very simple social relationships. He never thought that Lian Qiao had any other social identity besides being his lover. He was always waiting, accepting, but never realized that he should actually ask anything.

There was only Lian Qiao in his world but there were many, many more people in Lian Qiao’s world.

A terrible thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

—If Lian Qiao died, who else can prove that the two of them once fell in love?

Xu RenDong sat in the cafe outside the platform headquarters, chills all over and his heart throbbed. He quickly took the medicine that Jiang Li prescribed for him and ordered a cup of hot coffee, forcing himself to calmly think about what to do next.

He had to find Lian Qiao, or Lian Qiao’s career would be ruined.

Since he said to go home, it must be in City B. But the question is that City B is so big and where was Lian Qiao’s home?

Xu RenDong pondered for a long time and finally took a deep breath. He picked up the phone and dialed his boss’s number.

“Sorry, I need to take a few more days off.”

“Three days? .. Actually, three days may not be enough. At least a week.”

“Okay, I see. Then I’ll just resign.”

“I understand the seriousness of this matter and I will bear the consequences myself. As for the liquidated damages, I’ll have to get back to you after I come back from my urgent matter.”

“Okay. Thank you. I’m really sorry.”