Ch10 - The One with Paranoia

Translator: transcendentwings

Editor: teaff 

. . . This was the same setting Xu Xingzhi had in his novella.

According to Xu Xingzhi’s original storyboard, Meng Chongguang and his group were looking for the key that was their ticket out of the savage wasteland all of these years.

The wasteland only had one “gate” that served as an entrance and exit and there were only a total of two keys for the wasteland in this world.

Of the two, one was, of course, personally kept by the leader of the righteous sects who resided outside of the wasteland; the other key was hidden in the savage wasteland by the leader. This was to make the prisoners to retain hope and torture them mentally as they suffered from the repeated cycles of futile searches. 

There were a multitude of theories regarding the whereabouts of this key.

Some were convinced that this key didn’t exist and was merely a dream given to these prisoners by the superiors. However, there were others who thought that the key existed, only that it was broken into pieces and scattered around such that it was extremely hard to gather. But, compared with the former, the latter ultimately still offered some semblance of hope.

In Xu Xingzhi’s plot, eventually, Meng Chongguang was the one who obtained the key and walked out of the wasteland.

Xu Xingzhi hadn’t actually written up to that point yet, nor had he stated where the key was actually hidden, but he had already clearly marked the four locations where vital relevant information could be obtained from in his drafts.

— Feng Mountain, Hutiao Ravine, Huachu Territory, Wutou Sea.

As for where the wasteland’s real key was located, even the creator, Xu Xingzhi himself, had no idea which nook or cranny it was tossed into.

Presently, Xu Xingzhi possessed a large amount of information but could only enforce a two-syllable action, “delay”.

Xu Xingzhi didn’t hate this group of people. Including Meng Chongguang, they were all born of his own writings and their tragic fates could be said to be completely fabricated by himself. 

Even if he was informed by the “World’s Consciousness” that Meng Chongguang was a heinous person, even if he was once handcuffed to the bed and restrained by him, Xu Xingzhi still couldn’t bring himself to hate Meng Chongguang all that much.

But he needed to go home.

His father Xu Sanqiu and his little sister Wutong were both on the outside so he couldn’t indulge in this illusion and not return.

The “World’s Consciousness” couldn’t have been more clear. If he didn’t kill Meng Chongguang, then he couldn’t leave at all. 

Besides, although he didn’t hate Meng Chongguang, that didn’t mean that he wanted to help Meng Chongguang escape the wasteland.

After all, Meng Chongguang possessed an unpredictable temperament. No one could foresee how much those who played a part in throwing him into the wasteland and imprisoning him for 13 years would suffer when he finally walks out.

Therefore, facing Zhou Beinan’s question, Xu Xingzhi neither too quickly nor too slowly followed up with Taichi: “No wonder why he told me to act quickly and eliminate Chongguang. If I wasn’t able to kill him, then he wanted me to perish in the wasteland as well.”

Zhou Beinan chuckled: “Look at what kind of b*stard shidi you brought up.” 

Xu Xingzhi returned his compliment: “The b*stard that you are referring to, is it Meng Chongguang or Jiu Zhideng?”

Zhou Beinan minced no words: “Both of them aren’t any good.”

With the memories of the original owner as a foundation, Xu Xingzhi had some confidence in maintaining a conversation with people.

He really wanted to point out that he, Zhou Beinan, was also trapped in this prison of a wasteland so he had no business acting so high and mighty, but Zhou Beinan made things difficult for him first: “You lived with Jiu Zhideng these years, didn’t you?” 

Xu Xingzhi: “. . . Why do you ask?”

“Right now, the entire Fengling Mountain belongs to him and Meng Chongguang was cast into this prison cell by him. Would he be willing to let you go?” Zhou Beinan grinned ambiguously and sarcastically, “. . . Your relationship must’ve fallen through if he forced you to come and kill Chongguang, right?”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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. . . Everyone was in a shixiong–shidi relationship, so why did it seem like he, as the eldest shixiong, was the Lord Rabbit raised by this unlucky pair of shidi?

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Pc bgvfg ab jnblv tjnlcu ab qea lc wbgf foobga jcv kfjnf wbgf lcaglmjaf ilfr, We Wlcuhtl rfaaifv obg gfrbinlcu la bcmf jcv obg jii: “Ugfaas wemt.”

As soon as his words fell, a muffled sound suddenly came from outside the door, followed by the rustling sound of powdered, crushed brick falling. 

Zhou Beinan jumped up and went to scout the situation out.

Xu Xingzhi suddenly had an extremely bad premonition.

He got up  too and followed behind him.

Zhou Beinan was a wandering soul and just walked directly through the door while Xu Xingzhi who was following behind, needed to open the door first which delayed him a bit. 

After opening the door, he discovered that Zhou Beinan was frozen in place, and Xu Xingzhi’s grim premonition grew even stronger.

Xu Xingzhi followed his gaze and choked fiercely.

There was no one by the doorway, however, there was a terrifying human-shaped indentation on the originally intact carved stone pillar. It could be clearly seen that someone had been hiding behind it while facing the entrance of the room.

What was even more horrifying was that there were five very demarcated finger scratch marks off to the side and in front of the humanoid shape. 

The marks were very long and the stone chips were curled up in the gash. It was obvious at a glance how angry the person eavesdropping was to be able to leave behind such deep scratches.

Thinking back to what the two talked about, the timing at which the abnormal noise was generated, and then considering who had such power in this tower, made it easy to guess the identity of the eavesdropper who was previously lying in wait outside.

Zhou Beinan spoke sympathetically to the stiff Xu Xingzhi: “My condolences.”

Xu Xingzhi was already enlightened by the “World’s Consciousness” very early on that Meng Chongguang was overly obsessed with the original owner. But witnessing this terrible trace of catharsis with his own eyes still made Xu Xingzhi’s calves cramp a little. 

When Meng Chongguang made a turn into the small room where the Beast Hide Person was imprisoned, the Skeletal Girl was in the middle of treating the unconscious Beast Hide Person.

When Meng Chongguang entered, he neither kicked the door down nor did he make a sound, but after a single glance, the Skeletal Girl had a vague hunch and asked: “Who provoked you, angering you to this extent.”

Meng Chongguang gritted his teeth: “I’m not angry.”

The Skeletal Girl replied: “You’re already about to go mad from anger from what I can tell.” 

After distancing from Xu Xingzhi, Meng Chongguang sported a cold and dismissive expression on his face. He stepped forward and placed his foot on the head of the Beast Hide Person who laid on the ground with a mere lingering breath: “Shixiong specifically mentioned before to not let him die so why hasn’t he woken up yet?”

The Skeletal Girl: “. . . You beat him into this state, wasn’t it all because you wanted him to die in the first place?”

“Does he not deserve to die?” Meng Chongguang’s expression was slightly annoyed, “He made me lose control and lash out in front of Shixiong which effectively ruined my image in the depths of Shixiong’s heart.”

The Skeletal Girl: “. . .” 

Meng Chongguang increased the strength under his feet, crushing the skull of the Beast Hide Person and sneered: “. . . He should still consider himself lucky this time. If he even hurt Shixiong with the slightest scratch, I would definitely have stripped him of his bones and ground them into powder to make teacups.”

The Skeletal Girl wasn’t particularly afraid of him: “If you want him to live, then move your foot off first. It wasn’t easy for me to stabilize his pulse and breathing. If you step on him for a moment longer, I’m afraid even this lingering breath would’ve been stomped out by you.”

Meng Chongguang seemed to be throwing a tantrum at her. He kept one foot firmly on the Beast Hide Person’s head with a I-just-won’t-move-what-can-you-do look on his face.

The Skeletal Girl ignored him completely, her fingertips shone with a green glow as she hovered over the mashed up spine, going over each vertebrae one by one and couldn’t help but complain: “If he just had superficial injuries then it would’ve just been a matter of transferring his injuries onto me, but he’s been injured to this extent. . . All I can do is try my best to maintain his vitality.” 

“. . . Many thanks.”

All of the Skeletal Girl’s joints stiffened.

Naturally, the one who offered their gratitude wouldn’t be Meng Chongguang. He was never polite in front of them. If they could hear him offer his appreciation, the rarity of such an event would be like an iron tree blooming or melons growing on a graveyard.

The expression on Meng Chongguang’s face changed suddenly as he turned to look towards the entrance of the small room. 

Xu Xingzhi stood there and lightly waved his fan at the Skeletal Girl in greeting.

The Skeletal Girl quickly hung her head; even Meng Chongguang turned around with his back facing him as he obediently removed his foot from the Beast Hide Person’s skull and scraped his sole a few times on the ground with a guilty conscience.

Xu Xingzhi grasped the folded fan in his hand and walked over evenly, greeting naturally: “Shimei, you’ve worked hard.”

He didn’t know if it was his own misconception, but he only simply called out shimei and Xu Xingzhi seemed to have seen tears sparkling in the empty eye sockets of the Skeletal Girl. 

. . . But she already lacked the capacity to shed tears.

The Skeletal Girl opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, but didn’t make any sound. She only lowered her head and hurriedly headed out.

As she passed Xu Xingzhi, she paused, hesitated briefly, and finally returned a greeting to Xu Xingzhi: “Long time no see. . . . Shixiong.”

Xu Xingzhi raised his hand and stroked her soft and straight hair, not minding her glaring bare white bones at all. 

The Skeletal Girl tried to hold back but ultimately couldn’t as she rushed forward into Xu Xingzhi’s tight embrace.

She was practically shaking as she cried: “. . . Shixiong.”

Xu Xingzhi himself was a freak of nature since birth and not the good dragon Ye-gong; if he was afraid of this set of bones in front of him, he wouldn’t have written such a villainous novella in the first place.

When he was hugged tightly by the Skeletal Girl, Xu Xingzhi suddenly became abnormally soft-hearted. 

He was reminded of his little sister Xu Wutong who also often crashed into his embrace without warning and then raised her head to call him big brother, her eyes full of attachment and admiration.

Xu Xingzhi touched the Skeletal Girl’s cheek and called her name accurately: “Ruzhou, it’s okay now, Shixiong is here ne.”

Before she became this neither human nor ghostly appearance, Yuan Ruzhou was just a maiden who hadn’t experienced the vicissitudes of life. After losing and recovering her composure, she bashfully pushed Xu Xingzhi away and whispered softly, “. . . My apologies, I must’ve hurt you Xu-shixiong.”

This kid was too well-behaved and lovely, Xu Xingzhi’s brotherly compassionate persona couldn’t help but overflow as he patted the crown of her head again which only made her lower her head and run away in embarrassment. 

After sending Yuan Ruzhou off, Xu Xingzhi siddled over to Meng Chongguang and tapped his head with the folded fan: “. . . Are you angry?”

Meng Chongguang lowered his head as he stepped on his own shoes and ignored him.

Xu Xingzhi could hardly suppress his grin.

The young demonic child whom the original owner picked up from Fengling Mountain in the original’s memories and the matured demonic spirit who was throwing a tantrum before him overlapped with each other as if they were carved out of the same mold. 

Xu Xingzhi was sure that Meng Chongguang had overheard at least 60-70% of the conversation he had with Zhou Beinan previously. Fortunately, it didn’t matter if the words “come and kill Meng Chongguang” were addressed openly or not; if it was mentioned, it would actually help avoid suspicion instead.

Meng Chongguang probably wasn’t angry about the reason for his appearance, what he cared about was most likely where he was coming from.

Xu Xingzhi tentatively proded: “The reason you’re angry, is it because of Jiu Zhideng?”

When Meng Chongguang heard those three characters, his expression changed drastically: “Shixiong, your forbidden to mention that person!” 

Xu Xingzhi chuckled.

This wily demon was already so grown-up, so why was he still so childish when he throws a tantrum?

If the relationship between the original owner and Meng Chongguang was really so deep, then why did they have internal unrest? Not only was their master slaughtered, but there was also the framing incident, so how did everything get blown out of proportion?

Meng Chongguang didn’t think any of his actions nor words were foolish at all. Those three characters obviously provoked him intensely. He threw himself into Xu Xingzhi’s arms and channeled more force into his own arms to firmly trap Xu Xingzhi in his own embrace: “Shixiong, do you still want to return to his side? Will you kill me?” 

Meng Chongguang was born beautiful and fair with the air of an ethereal fairy. Although they stood next to each other, he was actually slightly taller than himself, but Xu Xingzhi couldn’t stop his breath from stuttering when he was stared at by his pitiful gaze.

Adding on the question that was asked, Xu Xingzhi felt a little guilty.

. . . He didn’t want to return to Jiu Zhideng’s side, he only wanted to return home to his real family.

He could only cope with it perfunctorily: “. . . Foolish question.” 

“Shixiong is unfair to me. . .” Meng Chongguang encased Xu Xingzhi into his arms and whispered with his chin rested on the crown of Xu Xingzhi’s head as he whispered softly, “Shixiong and Jiu Zhideng spent 13 years outside together, yet didn’t take me along too. . .”

Xu Xingzhi was hugged until his limbs were numb.

Meng Chongguang’s embrace had a delicate fragrance of plants, but it was difficult to distinguish if it was the fragrance of bamboo leaves or peach leaves.

But alongside the smell of this unique fragrance, Xu Xingzhi actually felt the familiar feeling of his head becoming heavy, his legs feeling weak, and perspiration beginning to form on his back. 

“Shixiong, you aren’t permitted to leave me.” Meng Chongguang announced in a gentle tone, “I want it so that you wouldn’t dare to leave me even by half a step.”

The author has something to say:

Xu-shixiong: . . . I can’t complete this job anymore, I want to go home.

Meng Chongguang with a gentle expression: Denied. 

Xu-shixiong: No is no, why are you trying to take my clothes off?!

Chongguang: Xixi, memeda.

Xu-shixiong: . . .