The transmission was cut off, and Shen Tanqi held the little one with a sense of unease, waiting quietly for Yu Ce to return.
The innkeeper brought the already brewed medicine over. Shen Tanqi placed Goldfish on the small wooden bed in the clinic and patiently coaxed, “Goldfish? Wake up; let’s drink some medicine.”
The delicate eyebrows of the goldfish slightly furrowed. Hearing Shen Tanqi calling him, he slowly opened his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse, “Daddy.”
“Daddy is here.” Shen Tanqi blew on the medicine to cool it down, enduring the heartache, and brought the bowl to the child’s lips. “The medicine is bitter. Goldfish, open wide and drink it all. You’ll feel better.”
Not knowing he was sick, Goldfish rubbed his eyes. He obediently held the medicine bowl brought to him by Shen Tanqi, and started to drink it with little gulps.
Just halfway through, there was an intense knocking on the door. Goldfish nearly choked on the medicine.
Shen Tanqi was about to tell everyone not to answer, but the doctor impatiently shouted, “Who is it? We’re closing soon!”
Uh-oh.
A thought flashed in Shen Tanqi’s mind. He immediately lifted the little one, who was still drinking medicine, intending to escape into the back room. However, the door had already been kicked open with a loud crash.
A beggar hurriedly rushed in, swiftly locking the door behind him. When he turned around, he saw Shen Tanqi holding the child with a perplexed expression.
“It’s you!”
Both of them spoke at the same time.
Wasn’t this the old swindler who claimed he had the ominous Red Phoenix Star and the bloody calamity?
The beggar’s gaze fixed on Shen Tanqi’s face, seeming to finally relax. He said, “Excellent, following you, I definitely won’t die tonight.”
Shen Tanqi: “Huh?”
The beggar’s expression turned solemn. He locked the door tightly with several locks, ignoring the doctor and the innkeeper’s attempts to stop him. He even closed the windows firmly.
“Hey? Who let you in? Go beg for food outside!” The innkeeper grabbed a broom and was about to kick him out.
The beggar changed his attitude immediately, directly stating in a stern voice, “If you don’t want to die, behave. There’s a Chen Gui outside!”
Upon hearing the words ‘Chen Gui,’ Shen Tanqi’s eyes suddenly brightened. He grabbed the innkeeper, who was about to fight the beggar, and said, “How do you know about Chen Gui?”
The beggar’s eyes swept across the people in the room and spoke in a deep voice, “Exorcising evil, eliminating demons, it’s the duty of a monk. Naturally, I know.”
The beggar suddenly pulled out a steamed bun from his pocket, and astonishingly, the bun transformed into a golden alms bowl1
right before everyone’s eyes.
The beggar turned the golden alms bowl upside down on the door, wiped the sweat from his forehead, then turned to Shen Tanqi, dropping a bombshell, “Where’s your man?”
Shen Tanqi: ?
What man?
Seeing his confusion, the beggar chuckled, extended his hand, and pointed at Goldfish in Shen Tanqi’s arms, saying, “This kid’s dad, where is he?”
Shen Tanqi fell silent for a moment and replied, “He went out to exorcise evil. Also, he’s not my man.”
Upon hearing this, the beggar rubbed his smooth chin with concern and urgency, saying, “Oh my! Call him back quickly. Otherwise, how can a monk like me handle the demons outside alone!”
A cold wind squeezed in through the window seams. Little Goldfish in Shen Tanqi’s arms suddenly shivered as if sensing something.
The little one gently tugged at Shen Tanqi’s collar, pulling it slightly, and in a hoarse voice said, “Daddy, little mirror.”
Shen Tanqi looked down, and he saw Goldfish’s small hand making a gesture on the transmission token. Clearing his throat, Goldfish spoke into the transmission token, “Erdan, hurry, come find Daddy. Daddy is in danger… cough… there’s danger.”
As soon as the words fell, a slow and deliberate knocking echoed from outside the door.
The entire clinic fell into an instant, profound silence, where one could hear a pin drop.
The moonlight cast sparse shadows resembling ghostly claws, scattered on the paper windows of the clinic.
A tall figure stood in front of the clinic door, with an extremely thin and elongated neck, and a disproportionately small head, almost like a child’s head placed on an adult’s body.
Shen Tanqi dared not even breathe, silently listening to the movements outside.
The figure outside the door silently knocked three times.
Then, a hissing sound, like that of a snake, came from outside the door. The voice alternated between sharp and blunt, as if many voices were mixed into one sentence—
“Is anyone there, can you help?”
Do not answer!
Shen Tanqi remembered Taro Ball’s words, kept his mind calm, and widened his eyes. He and the beggar each covered the mouths of the doctor and the innkeeper.
Sweat dripped down his forehead as time passed by, until the doctor’s face turned red from being suffocated.
Finally, Shen Tanqi heard the eerie laughter from the figure outside the door, followed by the sound of footsteps, seemingly getting farther away.
But what was it laughing about?
Just as this thought crossed his mind, a hand suddenly gripped his throat tightly. Shen Tanqi looked in astonishment, only to see the innkeeper’s neck gradually elongating, and his head shrinking significantly.
“Is anyone there, can you help?”
A chill rushed from the soles of Shen Tanqi’s feet to the top of his head. His legs felt numb, rooted in place. In that moment, all that echoed in Shen Tanqi’s mind was a single phrase: doomed.
Subconsciously closing his eyes tightly, he felt a flash of white blade light before his eyes, and a warm liquid splattered across his face.
Inside the room, the doctor screamed at the top of his lungs, thoroughly frightened and passing out completely.
Shivering all over, Shen Tanqi was about to open his eyes when a low, soothing voice reached his ears, “Don’t open your eyes.”
A soft handkerchief wiped away the liquid from his eyes and face. Shen Tanqi slowly opened his eyes, and the innkeeper had vanished, leaving only a pool of crimson blood on the ground.
His breathing became rapid in an instant, and darkness encroached upon his vision.
The living person who had stood beside him just moments ago, fetching and delivering medicine, had turned into a ‘ghost’ before his eyes.
All that remained was this bloody trace.
“Don’t look, don’t be afraid, don’t think.”
Yu Ce’s voice was cold, like a thin piece of ice falling into boiling hot water. He embraced Shen Tanqi gently, patting his back as if comforting Goldfish and Taro Ball.
“It’s okay, I’m here.”
Shen Tanqi raised his eyes and looked up at him, his heart pounding rapidly, as if it was about to jump out of his throat. He tightly grasped Yu Ce’s sleeve, took a deep breath, and repeated, “I’m okay, I’m okay.”
“Host, if you’re fine, hurry and save me!”
The system, at some point, found itself captured in Yu Ce’s palm, with the tip of a sword pressed against its chest.
Yu Ce glanced at it indifferently, complaining to Shen Tanqi, “It just tried to eat you.”
Shen Tanqi: “…It’s fine. It was trying to save me. Let it go.”
Thrown down from Yu Ce’s hand, the system rolled on the ground and ended up next to Little Black. The chick and the dog embraced each other, shedding tears.
“Dog brother, I almost couldn’t see you again.”
“Chick brother, if I could beat the White Dragon, I would’ve used my powers to break the seal and save you!”
“Dog brother, sob…”
“Chick brother, awoo…”
Shen Tanqi rubbed his head, feeling a chaotic mess in his heart. “Shut up.”
Seeing his visibly distressed mood, the system and Little Black quickly fell silent.
Turning back, he looked at little goldfish in the small chair, holding a medicine bowl, who had unknowingly fallen asleep. The sense of having survived a disaster gradually became tangible.
Although he wouldn’t have died just now, as the system would have saved him, what about Goldfish after being swallowed by the system?
Shen Tanqi stared at the system and gave a command, “Next time we encounter danger, prioritize saving Goldfish and Taro Ball.”
The system hesitated for a moment and said, “No.”
Shen Tanqi glared at it and asked, “Why not?”
“The system’s duty is to protect the host’s life, and if you can’t leave this world alive, it’s my failure,” the system spoke with rare seriousness, using the internal channel to communicate with Shen Tanqi. “But in this world, any NPC’s death, including the male lead, doesn’t matter because here, you are the only truly real person.”
Truly real person.
Shen Tanqi was already in a daze, unable to discern what was truly real and what was fake.
Was the little Goldfish calling him ‘daddy’ fake?
Was little Taro Ball, trying hard to protect him, fake?
Was the presence of Yu Ce beside him also fake?
He looked up, and Yu Ce, after comforting him, had already begun to work on something important, drawing some kind of formation on the door with cinnabar.
Suddenly, Shen Tanqi walked briskly over and embraced Yu Ce from behind.
The icy cold body in his arms made him instantly feel like he had been hit by a night-cold breeze, clearing his mind a lot.
He hugged tightly, feeling the familiar aura from Yu Ce. Since coming to this world, Yu Ce was the friend he was most familiar with.
So what if it wasn’t real?
So what if they were NPCs?
Were NPCs destined to die?
This reasoning was flawed. Even in reality, those unrelated to him were no different from NPCs.
Because Yu Ce and the others were related to him, they were no longer just NPCs.
He wanted everyone he cared about to live well.
Shen Tanqi clenched his fists in the dark.
Yu Ce was suddenly hugged by him, and the array in his hands almost went crooked. He was stunned, feeling his heart soften, about to turn around and hug Shen Tanqi back to comfort him.
However, he saw Shen Tanqi, full of energy, calmly breaking free from his embrace, and coolly directing everyone, “We can’t just wait to die. Hurry, hurry, gather all the information you know about Chen Gui. The other side knows nothing about us, they’re going to get killed sooner or later.”
Yu Ce: .
Some people adjust too quickly.
“Senior brother…” he tentatively spoke up.
Shen Tanqi glanced at him, calmly saying, “What senior brother? Hurry up and draw your array. I’ll discuss tactics with the old man and let you know.”
Yu Ce: “Oh… okay.”
It seems that in this family, he still needs to find a way to have some say.
Dutiful and resigned, Yu Ce thought about it as he drew all four walls with his array.
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
