Chapter 164 – 1992-2020
When Xu RenDong came downstairs, everyone knew that Lian Qiao had woken up and they all came to visit him. Seeing that he was in a good state of mind, they asked him what happened that day.
Lian Qiao held the porridge bowl and didn’t speak.
Little Apple said empathetically, “Is it inconvenient to say?”
Lian Qiao nodded.
Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay. Scarface was not very happy and said: “What’s there to hide? What happened to you? Is it a human or a ghost? Tell everyone! What if there are clues?”
Little Apple frowned, thinking: why is this scarred man so KY? Just as she was about to speak, Xu RenDong said coldly: “Even if there are clues, calm down. Of course he has his reasons for not wanting to say it.”
Then he got up to see off the guest and said, “Okay, I’m thanking everyone on his behalf. Please go back.”
Everyone had no choice but to leave.
Little Apple has no intention of being a light bulb but she still felt a little uneasy. Standing at the door, she hesitated and said, “If you need my help, just ask.”
“Okay.” Facing Little Apple, RenDong’s tone softened. He thanked her sincerely, “Thank you.”
After Little Apple left, RenDong locked the door, turned to Lian Qiao and said, “You eat first, and I will read a book.”
Lian Qiao was a little surprised: “Don’t you want to ask me what happened that day?”
RenDong smiled: “If it’s necessary, you will tell me.” He opened the book and said lightly, “Your life is more important than anything else. I will study my textbook now.”
Lian Qiao looked at his back, his expression was a little dazed.
At this time, Xu RenDong was about seventeen or eighteen years old and he had already grown very tall. Looking from here, his back looked very thin and straight, like a new branch in early summer, with a little tenderness in it and was in the most beautiful years of his life.
The lines of his side face are soft, the childishness of a boy is not lost, but there is a calm temperament of an adult in his eyebrows and eyes.
So beautiful.
Lian Qiao looked at him and couldn’t help being crazy.
Suddenly, the eyes became hot. Lian Qiao stretched out his hand to wipe it but the back of his hand was wet.
He wept.
In fact, when he passed out with a high fever, his eyes were already swollen from crying. Lian Qiao rubbed his sore and swollen eyes, pulled the corners of his mouth and smiled.
The meaning of that smile was unknown, as if it were mixed with thousands of emotions that couldn’t be said.
The next day.
No matter how hard Xu RenDong worked, the college entrance examination is a college entrance examination after all. The syllabus for the three-year high school exam was not something he could memorize in three nights. What’s more, during these three days, he was often distracted because he was looking after Lian Qiao. The review process was delayed again and again and he was unable to review the entire syllabus by the time he entered the examination room.
Fortunately because he still had some background knowledge from his real life, the final results of the college entrance examination were not too bad. Although it is far from the standard of his alma mater, it is still much higher than average.
Just after Xu RenDong finished the exam, the rankings were immediately announced. In the afternoon, the postman delivered the admission notice.
The moment the notice was handed in, the scene had already changed to a university campus—the instance changed so rapidly that everyone almost didn’t even have time to change clothes.
The new scene this time is an entire university campus. It covers a very large area. There are seven or eight teaching buildings alone, as well as libraries, cafeterias, university student activity centers, education supermarkets and even a mountain in the back, which sounded dangerous upon hearing.
A dozen or so players opened their eyes, stunned by the grand scene.
It was about three o’clock in the afternoon, which happened to be the time of getting out of class. The college students walked towards the dormitory building in groups of twos and threes with their books in their arms. The laughter was full of youthful atmosphere, which made this group of players with an average age of 30 feel ashamed. They only felt that they were old uncles and aunts, so they couldn’t help but hide on the side of the road, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the college students.
Humans are weird. When facing elementary school students and junior high school students, they can calmly regard themselves as an elder; but when facing college students who are only seven or eight years younger than them, they strongly felt that they were old.
At this time Xu RenDong was eighteen years old. Compared with yesterday, his facial features were a little longer.
Standing in the shade of the camphor tree, he opened the acceptance letter sent by the courier to confirm the location of his dormitory.
He was so good-looking that, just standing with his head bowed like that, he attracted all the sideways glances of passing girls. His eyebrows are like distant mountains, his eyes are like waves in autumn water. His concentration was so charming – as though just through concentrating on other things, it would make people jealous and unable to help shouting in their hearts: Look at me, just look at me.
However, he was unaware of this and was still doing his own thing, immersed in his own world.
Like a priest sitting alone among rose bushes with a Bible in his hand, the world is nothing but sacredness, nothing can enter his eyes and no evil can get close to him.
Lian Qiao stared at him and a strange color gradually appeared in his eyes.
“RenDong.” He suddenly called out.
“Huh?” Xu RenDong raised his eyes, his black and white eyes looked over, like cold stars, like jewels, like white mercury within which there were two pills of black mercury.
Lian Qiao was throbbing just being looked at by those eyes: “…it’s nothing. I just wanted to call you.”
RenDong was not annoyed and instead smiled slightly, lowered his head and continued to look through his admission notice.
The people on the side were still observing the surrounding environment and they hadn’t noticed the secret feelings between the two. Only Little Apple, whose eyes fell on Lian Qiao, seemed to have a wry smile in his eyes.
“I found it. My dormitory is in… Building No. 2.” RenDong found an access control card from the courier bag, “The dormitory number is 602 and it says to go to the dormitory management station to find the auntie to get the key.”
Everyone spontaneously and consciously stopped students to ask for directions and find the location of Building No. 2. A group of people went to the dormitory in a mighty manner, just as though they were an entire village escorting the ‘hope of the village’ to attend school.
Lian Qiao observed this and a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth. Sure enough, everyone was stopped at the gate of the dormitory management station.
“You guys, what are you doing here?” The dormitory auntie raised her eyebrows, her expression unkind.
Everyone explained that they were sending a student to school and the auntie of the dormitory looked suspiciously at everyone: “Only one parent is allowed to enter the dormitory when sending new students to school. Who is his parent?”
Everyone: “…” Although everyone is no longer young, if anyone was old enough to pretend to be Xu RenDong’s parents, they weren’t willing to admit it.
At this time, Lian Qiao stepped forward without hesitation.
“His parents are busy.” Lian Qiao spoke to this aunt in an obedient and sweet manner. “I am his brother and I will send him up. The others will not go in, just wait here. Auntie, do you think that’s okay?”
Lian Qiao had a baby face and his clear doe eyes blinked. He immediately won the favor of the dormitory aunt. The auntie stepped aside and let him go. As for the rest of them, they could only stand at the gate of the dormitory management station and look at each other, smiling wryly.
The dormitory was on the sixth floor. There is no elevator and it was a bit tiring to climb up. The two pushed open the door and saw that there were upper and lower beds inside. All four beds are still vacant, and none of the roommates have arrived.
Lian Qiao clicked his tongue: “If I knew it earlier, I would have said I was your roommate.”
“What are you thinking?” RenDong smiled, and shook the accommodation card in front of him, “This has my identity information on it. Since I have this, that means your identity needs to be authenticated to enter the dormitory building, so how could it be possible for you to come in so casually? What’s more, even if you sneak in, if you don’t leave at the stipulated time, the death condition may be triggered.”
Lian Qiao shrugged, looking indifferent. “Whatever, I’ve already come in anyway.” He glanced at the stairs and saw that no one was passing by, so he kicked the door shut with his foot and then opened his arms towards RenDong.
“Hug me.” He said coquettishly.
Xu RenDong came over and hugged him.
Lian Qiao rested his head on his shoulder and rubbed the tip of his nose against his nose. His eye circles were quietly red again.
“I missed you so much.” There was a nasal sound in the words.
Xu RenDong was taken aback for a moment and quickly realized that he was probably talking about the three days he spent in a coma. Not seeing him every day was like three seasons had passed. He wrapped her arms around him and said softly, “I miss you too.”
Lian Qiao sighed softly. Then he smiled and took a deep breath.
“You’ve finally grown up.” He sniffed the warm breath on RenDong’s neck and his eyes brightened, “Can we do some adult things?”
Xu RenDong blushed and whispered: “Don’t do it here, someone will come.”
Lian Qiao locked the door behind his back: “This way there will be no interruptions.”
“…” RenDong turned his face away and the slightly red ears were completely exposed to Lian Qiao’s eyes, ignorantly hooking people. “Don’t…they are still waiting outside…”
“Let them wait.” Lian Qiao stroked his earlobe fascinatedly, and kissed him lightly, “We need time to manage, our, personal, affairs.”
…
The dormitory downstairs.
The weather in early autumn was still very hot and the sun shone through the gaps in the leaves, soon making everyone sweat profusely.
The man with the scar gritted his teeth: “What are they doing upstairs? Why don’t they come down?”
Little Apple said: “Maybe they are exploring a new area.”
Everyone said: “Then let’s explore too.”
“Yes, this scene It’s so big, maybe the elevator is here, so we have to look for it!”
“Speaking of which, we don’t have a clue where the button is even now…”
Darkness was far away and the sun was shining, ghosts wouldn’t dare come out and hurt people. So everyone teamed up in groups of two and explored the campus separately.
Little Apple was in a group with the Monk and was assigned to the library. The Monk has a straightforward personality and his words are always confronting. In the entire team, only Little Apple had a decent relationship with him. So the two were assigned together without hesitation.
However, just after the two turned away, the long-haired aunt quietly winked at everyone. Everyone understood one after another and, after confirming that the other two people were not looking, they followed Auntie Long-Hair calmly.
Ten minutes later, everyone arrived at the gymnasium opposite the library. After entering, they realized that there were huge crowds of people. It turned out that today is the first day of school, and the freshmen have to come to collect books and bedding.
Fortunately, there were many people coming and going at this moment and many of them were parents of students, so this group of older people who were obviously not students did not attract attention, and smoothly entered the depths of the gymnasium.
Everyone found an empty room to enter, locked the door cautiously and sat down in a circle.
“Come on, what do you want us to discuss?” The man with the scar took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it with a click.
The long-haired aunt said kindly: “Smoking is prohibited in the gymnasium, so stop smoking. It will be troublesome if the smoke detector is triggered.”
The man with the scar gave her a displeased look, but it was undeniable that she had a point so reluctantly spit out the cigarette and stuffed the lighter back into his pocket.
“Then I’ll just say it straight.” Aunt Long-Hair smiled slightly and turned to look at the crowd, “I invite everyone to come here today to discuss the most important issue, that is— on the day of 2020, should we do anything? “
Everyone was silent for a while and no one spoke.
Auntie Long-Hair said: “Everyone is not a novice anymore. This dungeon is called 1992-2020, which corresponds to the key player Xu RenDong. There is no doubt about that. The problem is, Xu RenDong is growing up day by day. What will happen? Will the elevator and the button appear out of nowhere?” She smiled wryly and shook her head, “I don’t think something this good will happen, do you?”
“Okay, stop beating around the bush.” Scarface had a bad temper and interrupted her impatiently. “We can all think of this. You just want to kill him, don’t you?”
The long-haired aunt stared at him and her usually gentle eyes suddenly became sharp at this moment.
“Sorry.” She said slowly, “I want to clarify one thing. It’s not ‘I’ who wants to kill him, but ‘we’ have to kill him in order to escape.”
Someone interjected: “Why do we have to kill him? Does this instance have some sort of enmity with him, why is he always being attacked?”
Another person said: “I’ve thought about this too. The direction of the dungeon is too obvious this time so maybe it’s a trap instead. What if we guessed wrong?”
After all, the old players are not as brainless as the newcomers and they also have a certain understanding of the fickle nature of the instances. Everyone was discussing and they all had their own ideas about the instance clearance conditions. The long-haired aunt coughed lightly, lowered her eyes and said, “Anyway, he is the key player after all. The key players have some special clues in their hands but he definitely won’t take the initiative to say it. In short, killing the key player, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.”
As soon as she said this, those who understood immediately understood.
Killing a key player in the dungeon can imprison the opponent’s soul and obtain a sacrificial doll. Even if Xu RenDong didn’t spawn the elevator and buttons after his death, at least one puppet would drop.
The preciousness of dolls was self-evident. The old players who knew the existence of the puppets lowered their eyes tacitly, for fear that others would see through their minds.
As for those unaware players, they interpreted the so-called “advantages outweigh the disadvantages” as extorting a confession from Xu RenDong by torture and asking him to say the special clues he knew.
Auntie Long-hair said this very skillfully, not only did she not reveal the existence of the doll, but also confused everyone.
Everyone lowered their heads, lost in thought.
Although they were strangers to Xu RenDong, they had, after all, watched him grow up these days. Seeing that he has grown from a baby in their arms to a young and upright man and then thinking about killing him…. Obviously they all had some concerns in their hearts.
But—a stranger is a stranger after all. No matter how fond you are of strangers, it is not as important as your own life.
The instance reminder was very clear, Xu RenDong’s life will come to an abrupt end at the age of 28. This is the request of the instance and they don’t want to contradict it.
It wasn’t that they aimed at Xu RenDong, it was Xu RenDong’s bad luck. Who made him the key player?
As a result, everyone quickly voted in favor of Auntie Long-Hair’s proposal.
“However, can we really kill him?” Someone said, “Not to mention Lian Qiao, Xu RenDong himself is also a big boss who has passed through several levels. It is difficult for just the few of us to take them on.”
“Yes, there’s also the Monk and Little Apple. They have a good relationship with them, so they probably wouldn’t agree…”
Aunt Long-Hair laughed and said, “That’s why I called everyone together today. We can…”
Everyone couldn’t help it. They leaned over and listened to Auntie Long-hair’s plan.
On the other side, the library.
“This Little Apple, why has she been gone for so long….” The monk sat on the steps in front of the library with a piece of roasted wheat in his mouth.
His shiny bald head caught the attention of all the college students. Everyone who walked past him couldn’t help but look at him once more. The monk stopped one person with a smile, and asked: “Hey, classmate, how can I get to the gymnasium?
The student pointed out the direction and said, “What do you need to go to the gymnasium for?”
“Books and bedding.” The monk put his hands together, his expression slightly embarrassed, “Amitabha, the poor monk just remembered that we monks don’t tell lies but sometimes the female benefactor would. She said there’s ‘no need’ but now that I think about it, maybe she didn’t really mean that.. I’ve sinned, I’ve sinned, Amitabha.”
Student: “…” So did you really let that female benefactor go to carry books and bedding alone?
You are such a straight man.
