Chapter 7
“Would you like me to copy it out for you?” Yin Xiu asked meaningfully, his eyes narrowing. His lazy tone carried a faint hint of threat.
The little girl stammered, kneading the rabbit in her arms. She glanced at Li Mo, then nodded reluctantly and muttered, “All right...”
The little girl was unusually docile in front of Yin Xiu, leaving the players beyond the screen stunned. She actually agreed? Was she really that easy to talk to? This was the same vicious monstrosity they’d seen before.
Some players, refusing to believe it, switched back to the feeds from the other rooms. After breaking the rules, the little girl had transformed into a vicious monstrosity and was tearing into the players’ limbs. The most gruesome scenes showed her slaughtering everyone. The sight was so horrifying it made their blood run cold.
Back in Yin Xiu’s room, the little girl sat obediently on the sofa, hugging her doll, while Yin Xiu sat beside her with paper and pen, copying out the contents. The scene was peaceful and harmonious.
Even when she wasn’t raging and biting, the timid little girl sitting there so obediently seemed much cuter and more pleasant to look at.
“Why is Yin Xiu’s instance going so differently from everyone else’s?!”
“How should I know?! It just feels like the monstrosities are so well-behaved around him.”
“I don’t believe it! I refuse to believe every monstrosity can be this obedient around him! There has to be one that can put him in his place!”
“I don’t believe it either! When I went through this instance, that little girl scared me so badly I stayed in my room all day! What is going on?! Why is she so well-behaved now?!”
“I’m getting jealous, damn it! Why wasn’t the little girl in my instance this obedient?!”
The comments were full of complaints, but everyone’s attention remained fixed on Yin Xiu’s room.
“Let me think. How should I sum up what your mother left for you?” Yin Xiu was being cautious. He didn’t want to copy the note exactly, in case his version also became part of the instance’s rules, so he simply summarized it.
\nOne. Never go outside.
As long as she stayed in her room and didn’t come out, she could basically ensure she wouldn’t go outside.
\nTwo. Don’t look in the mirror.
He glanced around the house. There was no mirror in the living room, at least. There probably wasn’t one in the little girl’s room either; otherwise, she would have broken the rule at first glance. But there had to be one in the bathroom.
He wrote: Use the bathroom as little as possible.
\nThree. Don’t open the door for anyone, and don’t let them find you.
She could follow this rule just by staying in her room and coming out as little as possible.
\nFour. Eat every day.
Although the note said she had to eat every day, one meal a day still counted. Eating less would also mean fewer trips to the bathroom.
\nFive. At night, you must stay in your room and sleep.
\nSix. Three days from now, take the package Mom left outside the door.
After carefully recalling the little girl’s rules, Yin Xiu wrote down the following:
Eat one meal a day, then go back to your room and sleep. Come out as little as possible during the day, and don’t leave at night.
The little girl stared at the short list on the note, lost in thought.
Was he trying to torture her?
The only difference between this and being in prison was that she could leave her room to use the bathroom during the day... No, even prisoners got three meals a day.
“Big Brother, is this what Mom told me to do?” The little girl looked over the note, repeatedly asking Yin Xiu with a troubled expression.
“Yes.” Yin Xiu nodded calmly and capped his pen. “If you do all this, your mother will come back in three days.”
The little girl’s expression shifted unpredictably. She wasn’t human, and Yin Xiu certainly wasn’t human either.
“But only eating one meal a day is abuse...” she grumbled, trying to protest.
Yin Xiu solemnly patted her hair, looking utterly helpless. “There’s nothing I can do. Your mother wants to abuse you.”
The little girl abruptly squeezed the rabbit doll by the neck, her face turning ashen.
The note her mother left her clearly hadn’t said anything like this!
She had complaints, but she didn’t dare voice them.
“All right, hurry back to your room now.” Yin Xiu indifferently ignored her agitation, picked her up, and tossed her back into her room. He added, “If you’re hungry or need to use the bathroom, call for me. I’ll open the door for you.”
With that, he promptly shut the door, leaving the little girl locked inside.
Staring at the closed door, the little girl stood there in a daze. He’d locked an innocent, pitiful little girl in her room, allowed her only one meal a day, and forbidden her from going out! Was she really being sent to prison? She’d never been treated this unfairly by the other players!
The little girl took a deep breath and clutched the rabbit doll tightly. Her young face grew fierce.
If she got the chance, she’d bite Yin Xiu’s head right off. Bad Big Brother!
But for now...
The little girl blankly rubbed the rabbit in her arms. Sensing the intangible chill spreading unchecked beyond the door, she obediently tucked her head in.
There was plenty of time for revenge. It was fine—every little girl in the other players’ rooms was part of her. She’d taken a loss at Yin Xiu’s hands, but surely she could take it out on the other players instead? She’d go vent now!
Not long after Yin Xiu tossed the little girl back into her room, players in the other rooms along the corridor began screaming one after another, their cries rising and falling.
He calmly put away the paper and pen. Having dealt with the little girl, it was time to deal with the next one.
Although Li Mo, sitting in the corner of the room, hadn’t said a word or interfered while Yin Xiu spoke with the little girl, his presence was impossible to ignore.
That gaze felt as though it were stuck to Yin Xiu, coiling around him like a snake and refusing to let go.
Now that the little girl was back in her room, only the two of them remained in the living room. When Yin Xiu looked up, he saw Li Mo sitting upright in the chair in the corner, smiling at him as usual.
His smile was too perfectly composed. The upward curve of his lips never changed, and staring at it for too long gave Yin Xiu a faint sense of the uncanny valley.
Yin Xiu had always been wary of this man of unknown origins and didn’t want him around. But keeping him at a distance was difficult, especially now that they were inside an instance and were supposedly roommates.
The two stared at each other, neither saying a word.
After a moment of silence, Yin Xiu looked away first and broke it. “I know you can’t see the rules, so you can’t deal with the instance.”
The man raised his chin slightly, waiting for him to continue.
“I won’t ask you anything about yourself, and I’m not interested in what you are.”
“The situation is this: You opened the door and put me in danger, and I entered the instance and dragged you along. If you want to get out of this instance safely, then listen to me.”
His voice was soft and languid. He wasn’t negotiating; he was stating a fact.
No matter how strange and dangerous the man was, if he didn’t know the rules, he could barely take a step in this instance. At worst, he’d simply be trapped here.
In this situation, Yin Xiu still held the upper hand and could take control.
“All right.” The man agreed with a smile, without a moment’s hesitation, as if he hadn’t really been listening at all.
This air of effortless ease made him seem even more like the one in control than Yin Xiu.
“One more thing...” Yin Xiu turned to meet the man’s gaze. At a single glance, something seemed to stir deep in the man’s pupils, restless and agitated.
That intense stare made it impossible to relax. Even Yin Xiu felt it. “Could you stop staring at me all the time?”
Yin Xiu’s annoyance made the smile at the corners of the man’s mouth deepen. “That may not be possible.”
The unsettling aura around him was impossible to hide. His ever-composed posture, his ever-present smile, even his gaze—all of it made him seem like a hunter lying in wait. He didn’t move, yet never once took his eyes off Yin Xiu.
Sometimes, after staring for too long, his throat would move slightly, followed by the sound of him excitedly swallowing saliva. It made Yin Xiu’s spine go cold.
From the moment he first saw the man, Yin Xiu had stayed on guard. He had never let down his defenses, while the other man remained in hunting mode, always close by, watching him and poised to strike.
It was like walking through a forest and brushing past a bear, only for it to spot you, its eyes lighting up as it began to drool and follow you—never stopping, never looking away.
You knew you’d been marked, but you’d never know when it would strike.
Thinking that this tension might last until the instance ended—or even longer—Yin Xiu hoped the man would at least rein himself in a little.
“Then at least don’t stare at me while I’m sleeping.” He slowly lowered his expectations, conceding that much.
The man thought for a few seconds, the smile at the corners of his lips deepening. “I won’t stare, but I have to stay by your side.”