PSP Chapter 35: Hot Springs

The long hook trembled as if alive and stuck at Shen Qingcheng's eyes, the sharp hooked tip gleaming with cold light.

But it was clean and there was no blood on it. It must be fake, Shen Qingcheng noted distractedly.

A man’s back imposed itself in front of him, that of a man slightly taller than him, with a straight and firm back. Holding a knife with his right hand, he slashed hard at the long hook.

Clang--

The long hook flew away from her.

The little girl's face changed suddenly, and she cried out angrily, her voice still horrible on the ears.

Lu Qi's expression was indifferent. Just because the NPC in front of him was a little girl didn't mean he was soft on her.

Then, his expression changed.

The black blade was so powerful it had almost split her in two, but the little girl was still alive and well. The skin on her shoulders hadn’t ripped at all, and her flesh had sunken in like an extremely elastic rubber.

The little girl giggled, "Come kill me, come kill me~"

Shen Qingcheng took several small steps to Lu Qi's side, "Lu-dage, where's the token of love I gave you?"

Lu Qi's movements froze for a moment, but due to the urgency, he said, "In my pocket."

"Lu-dage jiayou¹, don't let her run away." Shen Qingcheng said first, then went to rummage through Lu Qi's pockets.

Lu Qi: "She can't run."

Indeed, although the little girl had not been injured by his knife, she was also unable to run because of the pressure on her shoulders. If Shen Qingcheng had taken a closer look at her, he would find that her legs had begun to tremble slightly, unable to bear the strain.

"Found it."

The small wooden sword was unremarkable, only the size of a palm, and the edge hadn’t even been sharpened.

The little girl felt herself shudder for the first time. The twisted symbols and circular patterns seemed to hide some great terror, which made her tremble.

Therefore, when Shen Qingcheng approached with his sword, she struggled fiercely, "What are you doing! What are you doing! Da Xiong!"

"Aren’t we competing in an upright manner, how can you call for outside help?" Shen Qingcheng gestured with the small sword around the little girl's neck, not knowing where to strike her.

The little girl screamed, "You guys are two against one right now, bullying a child!"

"Tch." Shen Qingcheng laughed. Was she really talking to him about fairness? He stabbed the sword into her heart without hesitation.

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

A series of shrieks came from the wound the small sword had torn open.

The skin around the wound curled away at both sides like it had been scorched, and several long-beaked birds with colorful feathers flew out of the little girl's body.

Without the support, the little girl's body quickly shriveled, and a piece of human skin fell off of Lu Qi's knife.

The colorful long-beaked birds flew very fast. After regaining their freedom, they flapped their wings and swooped down to grab the skins off the ground. They flew out of the window, shrieking, “Help me, help me”, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Silence returned to the hallway in an instant, and the abandoned hook turned into a multicolored feather, lying benignly on the carpeted floor.

The two men didn't intend to chase after them. Shen Qingcheng bent down to pick up the feathers, twisting the base through his fingers and twirling it, "I guessed it was a bird, but I didn't guess it would be multiple birds."

He had also never guessed that it would be a little girl disguised as a faceless ghost.

That little girl wasn’t a faceless ghost, that was for sure.

Lu Qi put away the knife, "That sword?"

Shen Qingcheng: "Yes, the token of our connection²!"

What connection? Of course it was their socialist brotherhood!

The man who had wanted to inquire further about the talisman was silent.

At this time, in the small attic on the second floor of the low building, deep in the castle:

The fire in the fireplace crackled, and a beautiful woman in a red dress reclined lazily on the soft chair beside it with her eyes closed. Half of her face was reddened by the yellow and orange fire.

Her red lips parted lightly, and a somewhat shrill voice came out of her mouth, "What an idiot, even a few humans can mess you up like this."

The big birds circling over the room called out:

"It wasn’t one!"

"It was two!"

"Bullying children!"

The woman sneered. "I think you're just too idle. Even though you knew you can’t kill these humans, you still ran to provoke them."

The colorful birds were angry--they just loved to play tricks on humans!

They landed on a man's shoulders and hopped up and down:

"Tu-gege!"

"Make that woman kill them!"

"Kill them!"

The man who was being used as a perch had snow-white hair and red eyes. He didn't express any opinion on the demands, just put down the skin and said softly, "The skin is broken, you should wear the original one for now."

The bird cried mournfully, "Wuwuwu, I want to wear new clothes! I want to wear new clothes!"

The man only said, "You can't touch them before the dance. Also, don't go out alone when Da Xiong isn’t around. You’re too impulsive."

On the fifth day of the Masquerade copy, the sky was cloudy.

It was another cold, dark day.

The little girl who had to put on an old dress was in a particularly bad mood. She was in a bad mood, so no one else could have a good day either.

She had a sullen expression, already thinking about how to frighten that group of humans when she got to the hall later.

Sure enough, the humans in the hall had already arrived. She stepped forward and opened her mouth.

"Lu Qi, look at me."

Shen Qingcheng had a lot on his head that day.

There was a black woolen hat, his complexion appearing very white against the dark color. He shook his head from side to side, motioning Lu Qi to look at the hat on his head.

A feather was inserted into the black woolen hat. The feather had five colors³, and it shimmered with colorful light as the lighting changed.

Shen Qingcheng: "Does it look good?"

"Ah!" Forgetting the the lyrics she had prepared, the little girl rushed into the hall angrily, "That's mine! That's mine!"

Shen Qingcheng hid behind Lu Qi with a frightened expression, then stuck his head out, "This is obviously a feather, how could it be yours?"

Then he seemed to notice the little girl’s clothing and surprised, asked, "Why didn't you wear a new skirt today?"

"Ah ah ah!" The little girl was about to go mad, shouting frantically, "Da Xiong, catch him! Catch him! I'm going to make him into new clothes! Into new clothes!"

Lu Qi took a quiet step forward, ready for battle.

The other players retreated silently. Having seen Da Xiong’s strength, they did not dare to face him head-on.

The faceless red ghost hadn’t appeared last night, and the player who had heard the sound of the window being pried open was still alive. He glanced at Shen Meiren hesitantly.

Forget it. He was already being protected by Lu Qi, and he couldn't do anything to help, so he stayed away in silence.

Da Xiong didn't listen to the little girl. He stood behind her and said in a deep voice, "It's time to go to the back mountain⁴."

The little girl seemed to have been reminded of something, and she took a few deep breaths to suppress her anger, then looked at Shen Qingcheng gloomily, "You will be mine sooner or later!"

Shen Qingcheng immediately asked Lu Qi, "Lu-dage, she said I belong to her, do you agree?"

Lu Qi: "..."

Big Bear's words mentioned a key point: the back mountain.

They seem to be going there today, although they still didn’t know what the back mountain was used for.

During breakfast, the little girl didn't leave or sing, just observing each player one by one with cold and covetous eyes--especially Shen Qingcheng, who stayed the longest.

The players who were being stared at felt their hair stand on end. They had been hungry all day yesterday; today, a few players couldn’t stand it anymore, and planned to eat a few bites.

They had persuaded themselves with the reasoning that if there was no roast suckling pig on the table, then it wouldn't count as eating human flesh. Now, they were so scrutinized by the little girl that they couldn't even swallow.

The little girl didn't seem to care, as if she hadn’t been watching every player eating their food just a few days prior.

The players sat in the hall rigidly until the breakfast time was over, and when the little girl announced that they should "go to the back mountain", their bodies were a little stiff.

It was still the servants in uniform black and white costumes who took the players to the back mountain.

The number of players was now 11, and they had 11 servants divided into two teams. There were five walking in front and six in the back, like they were escorting prisoners.

The snow in the mountains had not yet melted, and the towering trees obscured the sky until it was even darker. Only the rustling sounds of the players treading on the snow and the sounds of animals moving on the trees could be heard.

Shen Qingcheng had one foot deep and one foot shallow⁵. Normally, his sense of balance already wasn’t very good, and now he had to pay attention to whether one of his feet would suddenly get stuck and trip him, and he had to walk even more slowly.

As soon as he slowed down, the servants behind him stared at him with glazed eyes.

To be honest, if he had had the small sword on him, Shen Qingcheng would have already cut open the skin of the opponent's body to see what was hidden underneath.

This road was not the one that Shen Qingcheng and Lu Qi often took as they went out for food, and neither of them were quite sure where they were.

After almost an hour, the person in front finally stopped.

Shen Qingcheng used Lu Qi's arm as support to stabilize his body, and stretched his neck to spectate, "Looks like there’s smoke? What is this for? It’s not raising an animal until it’s fat and killing it, right?"

The player in front silently took another two steps forward; this Shen Meiren was too outspoken.

"It's a hot spring." There was a faint haze in the air, and Lu Qi explained, "The further you go inside, the higher the humidity and temperature."

Shen Qingcheng: "Huh?" He fanned some air at himself: well, he definitely couldn’t feel the temperature or humidity.

He thought for a while, "Sure enough, it’s fattening and killing pigs. In my hometown, we have to scald the skin with boiling water after we slaughter a pig. Do they think there are too many of us--are they too lazy to boil that much water?"

Lu Qi: "..."

A dozen hot springs, each with a diameter of five or six meters, were quietly embedded in the snow, the thin mist lingering dreamily on the water’s surface.

The servants lowered their eyes and said, "Guests, please enter the water."

Shen Qingcheng touched his chin and asked the servant who was following him, "Not bloodletting first?"

When slaughtering pigs, don’t you always drain the blood first?

The servant: "Guests, please enter the water."

No information at all! With regrets, Shen Qingcheng turned to Lu Qi, who was right next to him, and asked, "Is there anything to eat nearby? I'm hungry."

Lu Qi withdrew his gaze from observing the hot spring and nodded, "Yes, the temperature here is higher than anywhere else, so there should be more types of food."

So the two of them left the servants who were surrounding them and sneaked into the woods to find something to eat.

The two of them left for the whole morning, taking advantage of this time to check out the other players' rooms, and in the end they found that it was not just Shen Qingcheng's room that had holes.

All the players who were assigned red-bottomed masks had holes in their rooms, up to 5. Lu Qi found a few soft white hairs in some of the holes, which had been left by the animals that had made the holes.

Shen Qingcheng: "What kind of animal is the last NPC?"

A deer? Even a deer couldn’t get into such a small hole.

Lu Qi had some ideas, but when he saw Shen Meiren thinking seriously, he didn't speak.

As noon approached, the two ate their lunch, then slowly headed back using the same path.

On their return, there were traces of fighting around the hot springs, and there were still a few drops of blood on the ground. It seemed that the players had already fought the servants and lost.

The players had also been hungry for a day and wanted to leave to find something to eat like Lu Qi and Shen Meiren, but unfortunately they didn’t have a Lu Qi.

Shen Qingcheng was proud of his foresight. Look how well he’d chosen this thigh!

He thought that when he came back this time, he would be receiving some bad looks. He understood all too well that it wasn’t a matter of scarcity, but inequality.

He and Lu Qi had something to eat, but these players didn’t, so some people must be upset.

It turned out that as they came back, they saw that the players were soaking naked in the water, their faced abnormally flushed and red, and their eyes were dazed. How could they have time to pay attention to them?

"Meow~ meow~"

"Squeak~"

"Chachacha~"

The sounds of cats, squirrels, birds and all kinds of small animals lingered in their ears. These sounds were not like the animal noises they normally heard: some were shrill, some were prolonged, and they all sounded very strange.

Shen Qingcheng hadn’t noticed it at first, only realizing when he saw that something was wrong with the players.

He frowned and listened for a while, "What's going on?"

Lu Qi's tone was calm, "Estrus."

TLN:

¹ Literally “add oil” (加油), it’s an exclamation of encouragement similar to “you got this” or “good luck”.

² Literally “promise”(定情).

³ Note that the “multicolored” birds are technically referred to as “five-colored” (五彩).

⁴ Literally “back/behind mountain” (后山). Could be a mountain in the back, could be the back of the mountain. I think it’s the former, but this might change as we get more context.

⁵ Means the surface of the ground is uneven/shifting, and it’s difficult to predict how firm it will be (一脚浅一脚).

I don’t know how many of you saw last chapter’s TLN, since I did forget to add it until almost a week had passed. The reason why there wasn’t a chapter last week was because I graduated.