Chapter 62: Seed of Slaughter (I)

“Then what?” Dr. Lu sat cross-legged on the bed and asked excitedly.

Sitting in a chair and looking at the ceiling, Qi Leren said: “Then the two of us were very awkward. I tried to greet him with a few words, but my brain had completely gone on strike. Fortunately, he looked more broken up than me. His gaze as he looked at the water made me think he was going to jump several times.”

“The cold, introverted pure goddess.. Oh no, male god, thought he met his favorite soft girl, who risked her life for him, and he fell in love, and he felt that he was going to leave the club. As a result, he found out that he was a man when they met. It’s already polite that he didn’t have a rectal prolapse.. Ahem, didn’t chop you down* on the spot. After all, you deceived the heart of a pure boy.” Dr. Lu didn’t hold back from ridiculing him.

{*E/N: “chop” (砍, kan3) is similar in pronunciation to “rectal prolapse” (肛, gang1)}

“How was I to know! He also lied to me! Ah, ah, ah, ah, my goddess! Return my goddess and return my first love! ” Qi Leren suddenly got mad again, grabbed Dr. Lu’s pillow and smashed it on the bed. Then he crawled into the bed and thought about life like a corpse.

“What happened with him after that?” Dr. Lu asked, stifling his laughter.

“After, we said goodbye to each other. Anyway, we definitely won’t meet again in the future. It’s too embarrassing and shameful. This is a hundred times worse than misunderstanding each other’s gender online!” Qi Leren recalled all kinds of events, and the heart-throbbingly sweet and affectionate memories all turned into the merciless ridicule of fate. He didn’t even have the courage to think about it again from beginning to end, restraining himself from thinking about Ning Zhou.

Maybe after a long time, he would look at this experience calmly, and then they could still be friends, but at least for now, he and Ning Zhou couldn’t accept it.

“Hey, haven’t you ever thought about trying it out with Ning Zhou? After all, you also went through life and death in the quest. It is a romantic and touching story if you ignore that he’s the wrong gender. You’re also someone educated in the new century. Can’t you take a lighter view?” Dr Lu asked with a little regret.

“..I am a straight man, thank you. And Ning Zhou looks straighter than me. Do you think that people’s sexual orientation can be bent as easily as plasticine?” Qi Leren shot him a side glance.

Dr. Lu even thought about it seriously: “It’s not impossible. If it were me, I would seriously consider it.”

“..Just because you’re a straight Schrodinger, don’t compare us,” Qi Leren said coldly.

“But I really think you’ve had quite a fated encounter, so it’s a pity to go your separate ways. Well.. if you feel fear towards male-on-male activities, I can give you a rectal exam, so that you can experience some special life experience. My skill is okay. Maybe you’ll feel very good after trying it, and you’ll be able to accept male-on-male activity.” Dr. Lu touched his chin and made a serious proposal.

“..........” Doctors sure are terrifying. Qi Leren looked at the serious Dr. Lu, and felt that his rather short stature had suddenly become overbearing and sinister.

"Are you sure you don’t want to try?” Dr. Lu asked sincerely.

“Lu, Cang, Shu!” Qi Leren called his name word by word.

“Don’t call me Lu Cangshu, call me Dr. Lu, or call me Director Lu!” Dr. Lu said gravely.

“I didn’t expect you to be a director at your young age.” Qi Leren was surprised.

Dr. Lu waved his hand: “No, this is a beautiful expectation for the future. If you must call me Dean Lu, I have no problem with that either..”

“....”

After such an interjection, Qi Leren’s tattered mood was finally a little better. On the way to Dr. Lu’s house he had almost walked into walls several times, and only finally felt a little calmer now after ranting at his friend. He no longer felt that the sky was falling and the sun and the moon were dark.

“How are you doing these days? You did some quests already right? ” Qi Leren asked about Dr. Lu.

“Well, I’m a doctor. Healers are popular everywhere. Didn’t you see the sign downstairs when you came? By now I’m a famous doctor around here. A few days ago, I went to an instance world with several new teammates. Although half of them unfortunately died, I was lucky. I managed to get a few survival days. I am going to try to find a simple novice instance world in a few days. I don’t want to be fooled by another group of people and go to a dangerous instance world,” Dr Lu spoke with lingering fears.

“Where is Xue Yingying?” Qi Leren asked again.

“She seems to have found a good team and rarely contacts me now,” Dr. Lu said.

Although they come from the same novice village, they may not always be together in the Nightmare World. Qi Leren understands this truth, but he still feels a little sad. Players who live here are already far away from their relatives and friends. As one survived for longer, even teammates around them would die one by one, and they’d constantly meet new teammates, constantly lose old ones, and even lose themselves in the end.

This feeling was really lonely.

Qi Leren couldn’t help but think of Ning Zhou again. His character of being quiet and solitary was probably lonelier than the average person.. Recalling his initial coldness to gentleness later in the quest.. Forget it, what else did he want to do with this? The Nightmare World was so big that they may not meet again in the future. For some reason, Qi Leren felt his chest tighten.

A few hours ago, he was immersed in joy and longing to meet the destined person, but in the end, it was a terrible farce.

He still remembered that after everything was over, they had said goodbye on the steel bridge in the sunset.

He goes one way, while he goes the other.

Qi Leren thought that he would not look back, but when the gentle sunset shone on his face and the gentle evening breeze tousled his hair, memories returned to his mind like the rising and falling tide, and he couldn’t help but stop and look back–

He saw his back. He continued on and no longer stopped for him.

He tried to find the shadow of “her” in that back, but all he found was foreignness.

Unspeakable melancholy appeared in his heart, and he lowered his eyes and walked forward alone.

In the middle of the steel bridge, a couple had a marriage proposal, and the crowds surge up and shout “marry him”, Qi Leren, who had gone away, looked back again, and his eyes crossed the vast sea of people. He saw Ning Zhou at the other end of the bridge, who had also been attracted by this voice, and stopped to look back.

At such a long distance, he couldn’t see his expression clearly, and even his figure was blurred. However, when this person came and went, he seemed to see “her” again, so familiar, but so far away.

At that moment, his eyes were wet.

The lively crowd was still shouting “marry him”, and the sweet girl put on her ring and threw herself into her boyfriend’s arms with a smile. The two kissed in the sunset, arousing cheers and applause.

Qi Leren looked back with loneliness and left the steel bridge.

On the way back from Dr. Lu’s home, Qi Leren was still haunted by this lost mood. Under the setting sun that never fell all the year round, he was in a melancholy mood and walked all the way to the coast where, before he knew it, he found Chen Baiqi.

Seagulls circled on the coast in twos and threes, sometimes making loud noises. Qi Leren walked all the way against the sea breeze, and saw Chen Baiqi smoking in the distance. This time, her sister wasn’t picking up shells on the beach, but rather she was alone, with a cigarette between her fingers, watching the sunset quietly.

“Hey, it’s you. It seems that you survived, not bad.” Chen Baiqi smiled casually at him.

Qi Leren’s anger, which finally subsided, suddenly flared up again. He asked bitterly: “Why did you say Ning Zhou was a cold beauty?”

Chen Baiqi blinked. “Isn’t he cold? Isn’t he beautiful?”

“But he is a man..” Qi Leren complained.

“That can be clearly seen.” Chen Baiqi said.

Qi Leren didn’t know how to complain anymore.

But with Chen Baiqi’s keenness, she didn’t miss Qi Leren’s oddness. She arched her eyebrows with interest: “It seems that you saw him as a woman?”

“..It wasn’t my eyes. The male players who participated in the witch sacrifice mission moved as women during the mission.” Qi Leren covered his forehead, and his tone was terrible.

“Wow, this is really exciting,” Chen Baiqi said in a perfect tone for reading out loud, “Let’s talk about what happened?”

“I don’t want to say it,” Qi Leren refused. It’s one thing to talk to Dr. Lu, but it’s another thing to talk to Chen Baiqi about it.

“This is also information gathering for missions, I’ll pay you,” Chen Baiqi arched the slender eyebrow and said.

Qi Leren looked at his survival days of 55 days and 18 hours and succumbed to the temptation Chen Baiqi offered him: “Well, I’ll briefly talk about the quest situation, but I won’t tell you any of the other irrelevant events.”

Half an hour later.

After learning of Lu Youxin’s death, Chen Baiqi looked at Qi Leren with a heavy face. Qi Leren squatted on the embankment: “I’ve finished speaking.”

“He’s crazy, the Vatican..” Chen Baiqi murmured, her back to the sunset, and her backlit face wore a dignified expression.

Chen Baiqi’s voice was so low that Qi Leren didn’t hear her clearly and asked, “What did you say?”

“Nothing.” Chen Baiqi said coldly.

The abridged version of the story obviously couldn’t fool Chen Baiqi. She hit the nail on the head and put forward the most crucial question: “That is to say, in the instance world, you actually fell in love, right?”

“It’s just a slight affection,” Qi Leren argued.

Chen Baiqi gave him a disbelieving look: “Young man, lying in front of me is not feasible. Are you too underestimating the abilities of an information broker?”

Qi Leren began to play dead.

“But the intelligence about the Lord of Fraud is very good. At present, our understanding of it is very limited. By contrast, "Power” and “Slaughter” are much more publicized. There is also the news of Lu Youxin’s death, forget it.. I will send the time contract to you tomorrow, remember to sign for it, I’m going to laugh at Ning Zhou now, see you later. “ Chen Baiqi didn’t ask any more, and waved her hand as she walked away coolly.

After watching her leave, Qi Leren continued to stay at the seaside for a while, and the mainlaid of Village of Dusk, which was only separated from Sunset Island by the strait, was shrouded in a misty golden light.

He sighed again and again, finally remembered his first love that had ended before it started, and started towards home.

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