IWBL: Chapter 200

The figure’s hand ran across his throat and his throat was really cut open.

A large amount of blood sprayed from the wound as this throat was cut by something unknown. In the end, his entire head fell backwards. It shook in mid-air, leaving only the last piece of flesh connected to the neck.

Strangely, the blood didn’t splash on the ground in front of him. Instead, it was absorbed by the clothes. In everyone’s eyes, the figure slowly turned around. His head hung backwards while his blank eyes stared at the reincarnators.

Xiao Li took a step in order to go to the opposite side of the road but the figure disappeared just as sudden as when it came.

Xu Jiaheng was just an ordinary student, but he was now suddenly being involved in a ghost incident. His face turned pale at the sight of the blood. As his chest rose and fell sharply, he instinctively asked the reincarnators for help. “He… the wounds are increasing. Is this a sign?”

The others were silent for a while. Wang Huai and Xiao Li looked at the shadow that had disappeared while the rest of the reincarnators exchanged looks.

Wen Wenwen responded first. “It should be.”

His answer was a bit perfunctory because he was thinking about something more important.

“I… what should I do?” Xu Jiaheng didn’t pay attention to his tone. He just wanted to vent out the panic in his heart. “I-I don’t want to go home. I’m afraid of my mother. My mother has become so strange. She must’ve been infected by the ghost just now!”

The reincarnators were currently in a very contradictory situation. First, if they brought Xu Jiaheng with them, would the reincarnators be affected when the ghost attacked him? Second, if Xu Jiaheng was ignored then would they lose the way to survive?

Kesia weighed these two points and asked Xu Jiaheng, “Will the school tell your mother if you don’t go to class?”

“I-I asked my deskmate to apply for leave for me. The teacher probably won’t tell her.” Xu Jiaheng whispered.

“Probably?”

“Absolutely. I’ve done this before and she never knew.”

Wang Huai gave a small ‘tsk’ but no one paid attention to him.

Kesia followed his thoughts. “However, if you don’t go back at night then your mother will definitely find…”

It was easy to find someone in such a closed-off town.

“I have a way as long as you take me in.” Xu Jiaheng thought of a method and his eyes lit up. “I can ask my deskmate to cover for me. I will say that I have to take an exam soon and I have to go to her home to do homework. My mother won’t doubt her.”

He had made up his mind. Even if these people weren’t willing to take him in, he would live at the house of his deskmate. He would never return home.

“Wait.”

Kesia pulled the other reincarnators and stood a bit further away from Xu Jiaheng. “How about it? We can let him stay in the living room on the first floor or we can buy another house next door for him to stay in.”

“I don’t think it is that good.” Wen Wenwen raised objections. “Didn’t you clearly see what had happened in the movie theatre? It is easy to involve us when a ghost attacks him. There will be risks when adding one more person.”

He Tian didn’t continue their topic and instead asked another question. “What is the figure doing as you saw just now?”

“He cut his throat.”

“I saw the same thing.”

“It isn’t complete, right? In Xu Jiaheng’s story, the figure he saw at the beginning wasn’t wounded. He was intact.” He Tian glanced at Xu Jiaheng and said, “The figure we saw was headless from the beginning. I suspect that we have been accelerated and we must protect him.”

“I agree.” This was Jin Handong’s voice.

Wen Wenwen rubbed his hands with his face and didn’t pay attention to them. He bared his teeth and turned to look at the other bigshots. Xiao Li was crouching down on the upper step and asking the little boy, “Have you ever left this town?”

“No.” Xu Jiaheng shook his head hesitantly. “My mother said we can’t leave here. This place is our roots. It is the place where we are born and where we will die.”

Xiao Li inquired, “Do you know if there’s anyone who has gone out?”

“No, going out is strictly prohibited.”

“Do people like us come in every year?”

“Yes, it isn’t fixed. However, they have never left here. Some get married to locals while I don’t know what happened to the others. Perhaps they settled here or maybe…” Xu Jiaheng looked blankly. He had never considered these issues nor did he care about them. This was how he had been educated by his ancestors for generations.

Xiao Li lowered his eyes and asked softly, “Do you want to go out?”

“What?”

“It’s nothing.” He stood up and patted the dust off the bottom of his cloak. “I’m done.”

“Then I’ll ask you.” Wen Wenwen was already standing by his side and waiting. “Should we take him?”

His question didn’t have a beginning but Xiao Li understood what he meant. Xiao Li turned to look at Xu Jiaheng for a second. “Bring him.”

Among the rest of the people, Shen Chenzhi would choose whatever Xiao Li chose. It wasn’t known what was wrong with Wang Huai but he was also following Xiao Li. This meant that only Wen Wenwen wanted to be safe while everyone else chose to take risks.

“Fine.” Wen Wenwen sighed. “We’ll take him.”

They discussed it and found that it wasn’t realistic to buy a house nearby. Their nearest house was two blocks away. The final result was that Xu Jiaheng would be sleeping on the sofa.

***

That night, Xu Jiaheng was sitting on the sofa in the residence of the reincarnators. He looked out the window from time to time, shivering.

Xiao Li was sitting at the table and holding a cup of hot coffee in his hand. Wen Wenwen had made a cup for everyone just now and he couldn’t refuse. He took it, tasted it and felt it was bitter. He just wanted to squat down to grab sugar. He crouched down. He didn’t know what happened but his entire body fell. He tried to place one hand against the ground but as a result, his hand couldn’t be placed as support.

Xiao Li thought that he would fall to the ground and even prayed that it wouldn’t be too painful. Then he was greeted by a soft but strong object. Shen Chenzhi was hit by a living person but he didn’t feel any pain. He just lowered his head and held Xiao Li’s arm. “Let me do it next time.”

He let go of Xiao Li, bent down and found the sugar in the condiments box under the cupboard. Then he took out a packet of creamer from the refrigerator.

Xiao Li stood behind this person in his cloak. He watched Shen Chenzhi move and whispered, “…One packet isn’t enough.”

Shen Chenzhi paused and finally took two packets.

Xiao Li originally wanted to say that ‘two packets aren’t enough.’ He didn’t like bitter things. He liked milk tea more than coffee. However, he saw Shen Chenzhi’s appearance and swallowed back this sentence.

Shen Chenzhi closed the refrigerator door, tore open the creamer packaging and helped pour it in for Xiao Li.

Xiao Li waited obediently to the side. Shen Chenzhi saw this from the corner of his eyes and felt an itching in his heart. He wanted to turn around and hug such an obedient person. He wanted to kiss Xiao Li, kiss him on the corner of his eye.

This type of thinking caused Shen Chenzhi to spill the creamer slightly. He didn’t show anything as he neatly threw away the packaging and put the coffee in front of Xiao Li. Once everything was done, Xiao Li sat back at the table. He stirred the liquid with a spoon and looked thoughtfully at his hand.

Wen Wenwen was standing by the window and discussing with He Tian and the others about what happened in the cinema just now. He spoke very quietly so there was no possibility of him being heard by Xu Jiaheng. “What do you think?”

“Is it related to the movie?” He Tian was a very direct person. “I don’t know if this movie ‘Peeping’ is just a hint or if it is a world.”

“That figure is exactly the same as the one in the movie. Maybe it is the movie projected to reality. He came out of the movie…” Wen Wenwen speculated.

“Let’s make an assumption. If you violate the rule of not leaving the movie theatre, the movie will become a reality. The movie character will come to the dungeon world to ‘peep’ on you. However, what is the relationship with the entire town?”

Kesia recalled a post about Hercule on the forum and paused for a while before speaking slowly. “A movie in a movie? Could this entire town be a big movie…? We just watched the movie ‘Peeping’ within a movie?”

After all, the protagonist Xiao Ni in ‘Peeping’ was watching a horror movie at the beginning.

“Is it a matryoshka doll again?” Wen Wenwen muttered. “However, this hint is too obvious. Two taboos are similar and it will make it easy to think of this. In addition, what is the path to surviving in a movie… kill the director? Jump out of the big screen?”

Then this involved the issue of dimensions.

The wind outside the window became cold at this time. Instead of blowing away the thicker fog caused by the night, it made the fog even more mysterious. Kesia reached out to close the window. The first time, her hands shook because the wind was too strong and she didn’t touch the window switch. The second time, she managed to close it.

At this moment, Xu Jiaheng yelled from where he had been sitting on the sofa and playing with his phone. “My mother is calling!”

Wen Wenwen swallowed down what he wanted to say. He walked over quickly and saw that Xu Jiaheng’s phone had fallen to the table. He was staring at it like an enemy. The phone was showing:

[Mom is calling.]

Xiao Li held the cup of coffee and came over. “Pick it up?”

Xu Jiaheng told him, “I-I can’t…”

He was more afraid of the normal-sized mother who hid in the closet than the mother who reached the ceiling.

“If you don’t answer, she might be curious and come looking for you.” Xiao Li calmly reminded him. He lowered his head and took a sip of the coffee. He didn’t think it was sweet enough and wanted to spit it out, but he barely managed to swallow it down.

Xu Jiaheng was crying but he still picked up the phone and pressed the connect button nervously. He missed the button and had to click on it a second time. “Hello?”

“Xiao Heng, how is your studying?” His mother’s voice was heard.

“V-Very good. There are some knowledge points that I didn’t understand in class but I understood it as soon as she taught me.”

“That’s good. There are some fruits at home. I will cut them and send them to you as a snack.” His mother earnestly cared for him.

Xu Jiaheng organized his words. “N-No, there are fruits here. Don’t worry about it. Don’t you want me to study hard?”

“Learning is important. Then forget it.” His mother laughed, her voice as normal as every night in the past. “However, Ah Heng, you have to remember one thing…”

Xu Jiaheng had a bad feeling in his heart and didn’t answer. He heard his mother clearly enunciate every word. “Mom, is, always, watching, you.”

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Proofreader: Tofu