CHAPTER 21: INTERWINE

The girl with the fishtail braid was naturally Lin Huiru. As the only player on the town side who was still alive by the time the game concluded, the fact that she could appear here at this moment, showed that the difficulty of the “punishment turntable” wasn’t really as high as failing the game.

Or, her luck was extremely good and she drew a 0 difficulty penalty?

Shen Mu looked down. Thinking about it like that, Lin Huiru’s luck was indeed really good. Even before the cards were dealt, she’d already started to make enemies, clearly courting death and yet with her collapsed speech on the first day and her subsequent insistence on maintaining the same style despite its failure, to be able to peacefully survive to the end was incredibly unlikely…… But luck was also a type of strength ah. Without Yang Ge who knew her and was willing to protect her for a round, perhaps she would’ve been forcibly voted out in the first round. The killers didn’t even need to influence the voting, moral people would already do it for them……

To others, the smile in Shen Mu’s eyes seemed to contain a deeper meaning. Lu Ying, who was sitting next to a girl with short hair at another table, wasn’t like her friend, wishing for the whole world to be in chaos and secretly cursing. At this birthday party, Lu Ying had invited her classmates who participated in social activities during the summer vacation, friends in the same association and her boyfriend to Du Lanyu’s dormitory. There were also several “relatives” who followed. Just now He Feizhou said on the phone that the new student, Shen Mu was coming. Lu Ying naturally welcomed him, but momentarily didn’t recall that Shen Mu’s scandalous confession target, Su Yingxing, was also Du Lanyu’s roommate. At first, although she had also paid attention while eating melons, several months had already passed. Lu Ying was studying and participating in activities every day and was also very busy. She had already left the matter behind, and it was only when Su Yingxing and Du Lanyu came in together that Lu Ying had a reaction in her heart. She couldn’t help but secretly shout, ‘fuck’.

After hitting her friend who was smiling with delight to the point where she was just falling short of laughing aloud, Lu Ying hurried forward. He Feizhou cooperated and took out the prepared present——an exquisite crystal ponytail clip: “Happy birthday ah, class monitor ~ Congratulations, you aged another year. This is from me and Shen Mu! I wish that your happiness may be as immense as the East Sea and that you live as long as the Zhongnan Mountains*. I hope that you stay as youthful as your smile, and that your looks may forever resemble the splendid spring……”

*T/N: this line really is from a poem, although the quote seems slightly incorrect. It comes from a famous Chinese couplet: “May your good fortune be as bountiful as the waters of the East China Sea, and may your longevity rival that of the ageless pine on Zhongnan Mountain”

Black lines appeared on Lu Ying’s face: “Are you memorizing poems?” When she exchanged a look with He Feizhou, there was indeed gratefulness. She then smiled while accepting the present, and brought Shen Mu along with He Feizhou to the table where she was sitting. She laughed while introducing herself to Shen Mu, telling Shen Mu not to be courteous, and the atmosphere gradually became lively again.

“Xia Li’s dormitory hasn’t arrived yet. There aren’t enough seats here!” The short-haired girl who feared that there wouldn’t be enough chaos in the world, said with a smile.

“Ai ya, Bai Luo, you being like this is really lacking in goodwill. Are we not in our class? You actually pushed us out!” He Feizhou said to Bai Luo, a short-haired girl, with a smile, while pulling out the chair without a trace of politeness. Lu Ying also quickly pulled out a chair next to her: “Shen Mu, you sit ah!” Even though she gave Bai Luo a stern glance, how could Bai Luo be afraid of her? Instead, Bai Luo revealed a melodramatic smile at Lu Ying. Lu Ying suddenly felt a headache developing.

After Shen Mu took a seat, everything seemed normal, but he always felt a gaze on himself. The visual angle of the room from his position was actually quite good. Needless to say, he could see people sitting at his table, and he only needed to tilt his head to see the neighbouring table. Filtering out Bai Luo’s fervent gaze, Shen Mu tilted his head and just happened to exchange gazes with Lin Huiru. Shen Mu raised the cup in his hand, amicably smiled at her, and Lin Huiru’s face immediately collapsed: “What do you mean!”

Lin Huiru’s voice wasn’t quiet. Although the room was noisy, her voice could still be heard clearly. Of course, it wasn’t only Shen Mu who could hear it clearly. Those who originally weren’t paying attention to Shen Mu stopped their movements one after another and looked over. Bai Luo and another girl who’d always been paying attention suddenly sat up perfectly straight as if injected with chicken blood. Their gazes moved between Shen Mu, Lin Huiru, and Su Yingxing, only lacking artificial stars to project before their eyes.

The next round of the Suspended Life Game was going to be conducted tonight. What kind of mechanism was the “punishment turntable”?

Shen Mu retracted his gaze, poured a glass of wine, then under everyone’s eyes, he stood up and walked to the empty space beside Lin Huiru. In the face of Lin Huiru’s loathing, along with a little fear, he sat down. Within a few seconds, the scene became quiet again.

Lu Ying: “……”

Ten thousand alpacas galloped across Lu Ying’s heart, and in crazy despair, she took out her mobile phone.

She texted Du Lanyu: Where did you go to buy drinks? I, this old woman, am nearly cold!!!

Du Lanyu: ? ? ? Wasn’t it you who asked me to pick up those who haven’t been here before and then come back? (Wronged. jpg)

Then Lu Ying called her close friend,  Xia Li. Amidst the quiet atmosphere, her voice was very sweet: “Wei? Xiao Li? Why are you still not here? Are you lost? I’ll pick you up ba!”

“No need ah, we’ll be here soon. Didn’t we go to eat twice at Mila ma, we know the way ~”

“En? Oh, I forgot you haven’t been here before, I’ll go pick you up right now!” After she finished talking, Lu Ying directly hung up, “Sorry, everyone can play first, Little Li’s group doesn’t know the way, I’ll go and see.”

Xia Li: “???”

After Lu Ying said this, everyone seemingly also realized that it was Lu Ying’s birthday, and they all curbed their expression of eating melon*, resuming their conversations with each other. Shen Mu raised his cup towards Lin Huiru with a smile. Lin Huiru said in disgust, “What do you want to do?” Then she looked uneasily at Su Yingxing again. Seeing that the other party seemed to intentionally avoid looking toward them, she lowered her voice and said to Shen Mu with somewhat complicated feelings: “That little girl is your teammate? Who the hell is in your team?” Obviously she still cared about the Suspended Life Game.

*T/N: chinese slang derived from 吃瓜群眾 [chī guā qún zhòng], the watermelon eating people. It refers to onlookers who are inquisitive and gossipy or who are aware of popular/major news but decline to comment. It’s usually used humorously.

“If you think about the rules of the game, then you would naturally know who was in our team.” When the number of survivors in the killer side exceeded that of the town side, the game would be judged as a win for the killer team. Since the town side had one person survive, the remaining two must be on the killer side. Although he wasn’t on good terms with Lin Huiru, he was concerned by the fact that she still hadn’t learnt any logical thinking at all. He feared that she would have to be in a coma for a lifetime.

Lin Huiru knitted her brows. At the time, she’d only looked over the rules once and she could no longer remember it clearly, but now that Shen Mu asked, she recalled some key points. As a dazed and docile face flashed in front of her eyes, a familiar feeling surged up in her heart, giving birth to a strange oppressive sensation, but Lin Huiru still answered Shen Mu’s question: “Is it him? That fool?”

“How does it feel to lose to a fool?” Shen Mu seemed as though he didn’t hear Lin Huiru’s malice-filled tone, beaming as he returned the question.

On account of the confidentiality of their conversation, Shen Mu and Lin Huiru were close to each other, and their voices were also very soft. Although Lin Huiru ’s beautiful face was filled with disgust, as though she didn’t want to say even a word to Shen Mu, she nevertheless continued to converse with Shen Mu. Today, Lin Huiru wore a light pink woolen sweater, and although she always wore a disgusted expression on her face, she still looked beautiful and moving. When this scene fell in the eyes of others, it gave a sense of “intimacy”.

The tall and strong male student sitting to the left of Su Yingxing saw Lin Huiru and Shen Mu “conversing happily” and couldn’t resist saying: “Damn you Shen Mu, to still have the face to come back. Why didn’t the school expel you!”

“En, I wasn’t expelled!” Shen Mu smiled towards that tall and robust man, drawing up a target in his heart. Although he didn’t know who the person was, he appeared to be one of the dorm mates of either the boyfriend of the class leader or Su Yingxing. That tall and robust student liked Lin Huiru and Lin Huiru liked Su Yingxing. It was unknown whether Su Yingxing liked Lin Huiru or not, but if a girl that he liked and a boy who had confessed to him in public were whispering together, it was impossible to remain indifferent. It seemed that Lin Huiru was in an unrequited love, Shen Mu thought with interest. He glanced over that robust man, his gaze meeting with Su Yingxing’s for an instant.

For a moment, Shen Mu lamented in his heart. What was exactly the mechanism used by the Suspended Life Game for selecting players? If he didn’t have amnesia and hadn’t been sent to Professor Niu’s network management center, but had instead had a vacation and gone to class as usual, would he still have been selected? Although only a few months had passed, he felt that too much time had already gone… The first thing he’d seen when opening his eyes was the simple European bedroom. His first memory after awakening was the preliminary round of the Suspended Life Game. Instead, life in the real world and his past seemed to lack realism at this moment.

For others, the “rest” between the rounds of the Suspended Life Game was returning home, but for him, it was a new beginning.

Su Yingxing had an ordinary short haircut, and he wore an ink blue coat, giving off a cool and dashing aura even in winter. When he wasn’t speaking you wouldn’t feel anything, but when he spoke, he would give others a feeling of being bathed in a spring breeze. When he met Shen Mu’s gaze, Su Yingxing didn’t avoid it, instead smiling mildly. He rose from his seat and poured  a cup of tea under everyone’s gaze, holding it towards Shen Mu: “It’s good that nothing happened, but be sure not to drink before your body recovers. You still have some things left in the locker of the photography club so tidy it up when you have some time. There are lots of new members this year and a junior sister just happened to have no locker.”

Shen Mu: “Was I kicked out?”

The familiar exchange between her classmates allowed Lin Huiru to break away from the atmosphere of the Suspended Life Game, quickly returning to reality: “Heng, the social clubs approve of withdrawals from the club for fourth-years by default so what are you pretending to be muddled for? Oh right, you are repeating a year, but there is already no place for you since you didn’t register at the beginning of this year!”

“The president of the association can apply for you to do a supplementary application~” Bai Luo suddenly saw room for negotiation. Although they didn’t sit at the same table, in order to liven up the atmosphere, the two tables were very close to each other, and it wasn’t difficult to communicate with each other.

Su Yingxing glanced at Bai Luo, feeling somewhat helpless: is it ok to not want to apply?

Fortunately, at this time, Lu Ying returned with Xia Li and his delegation, “Brother Meng” Zhu Meng was also in this lineup. The female students came forward in a lively manner while arranging their seats, and the atmosphere instantly warmed. The tall and strong male student also couldn’t keep picking fault with Shen Mu any longer. Zhu Meng’s penetrating gaze swept across the hall and seeing Shen Mu’s sitting position, a trace of dislike flashed across his eyes. Then, seeing that the person that he’d expected to see wasn’t there, he sat down next to He Feizhou——the only seat available on Lu Ying’s table, and asking Lu Ying: “Why don’t I see your boyfriend? You guys…”

“He went to buy drinks!” He Feizhou quickly pulled Zhu Meng down and looked at Shen Mu: You are in such a bad position.

Shen Mu gently shook his head: It’s nothing, let him sit. If Brother Meng and Lu Ying’s boyfriend Du Lanyu share a table, who knows what he will say.

Zhu Meng’s expression contained an almost unconcealable sense of loss, as he handed Lu Ying a delicately packaged box: “Happy birthday, Lu Ying!” Seeing Lu Ying take the gift with a smile, he asked: “Aren’t you opening it to have a look?”

Lu Ying gave a mysterious smile: “I’ll go back and open the presents all together. Thank you ah, Brother Meng.” She could not help but somewhat regret it in her heart. When the two classes had attended a lecture together, Zhu Meng had expressed his goodwill towards her and Lu Ying had known of his feelings. However, she only possessed ordinary feelings of friendship towards him. While studying, Zhu Meng often took the initiative to explain questions to Lu Ying, and on her birthday today, Lu Ying also invited Zhu Meng to keep an appointment. However, who could have expected that something would be amiss with Zhu Meng.

Lu Ying looked at Zhu Meng who still had a trace of white fog on his glasses, before looking at Shen Mu who was sitting in the seat of Asura with a headache. Finally, seeing Bai Luo who had a face full of smiles, she abruptly calmed down: She could only make do with this situation, and just leave it alone! Since it was already like this, she might as well just happily watch the drama!

At this time, Lu Ying’s boyfriend Du Lanyu brought over the last wave of Lu Ying’s friends who didn’t know the way. Everyone sat down in succession. Under the light, Lu Ying once again shone in glory: “Thank you everyone for joining us today, let’s all be HAPPY today!”

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