Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 9
by Little PandaBreaking the Cage
Escape 09
Legal Hunting
Xin Lan ran forward, holding Shen Shuiyan’s hand, which felt icy cold to the touch.
Zero Nine: “Host, the spatial dimension has been stretched, but it’s not a ghost wall1. Keep running forward, and you’ll reach the end.”
Xin Lan didn’t panic. Hearing this only made her more composed as she continued running forward, pulling Shen Shuiyan along.
Shen Shuiyan had no idea what kind of monstrous thing was behind them. She didn’t look back, forcing her legs to move as fast as they could. But her physical fitness was nothing like Xin Lan’s, who could jump down from the fourth floor and land unscathed. Soon, Shen Shuiyan was gasping for breath, entirely dependent on Xin Lan’s pulling force to keep moving.
The singing suddenly drifted away, as if a great distance had opened between them.
Xin Lan glanced back, only to see hollow eye sockets and a smile dripping with malice.
Xin Lan shoved Shen Shuiyan forward. Spinning around, she delivered a sharp kick directly to the eyeless ghost, sending him flying a meter back.
Shen Shuiyan stumbled but immediately began stripping off her thick coat.
As she shed the layer, the biting wind made her shiver. Having no time to register the cold, she swung the coat at the earless ghost, wrapping it around her face, and followed up with a kick of her own.
Neither of them lingered, immediately bolting forward.
There was only one path. They had no choice but to keep pushing ahead.
Without the bulky cotton coat weighing her down, Shen Shuiyan ran a little faster.
The singing drifted close and far. What should have been a cute nursery rhyme sounded no different from a death warrant.
Xin Lan spotted the stairwell of the teaching building and dragged Shen Shuiyan inside in a few bounds.
The moment their feet hit the steps, all sound vanished, leaving only the sound of Shen Shuiyan gasping for air.
“Are we safe?”
Shen Shuiyan wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked back outside.
As far as the eye could see, everything was swallowed by darkness. Xin Lan gestured for her to wait, took a single step out, caught sight of a pale, ghastly face, and calmly pulled her foot back.
“They’re still out there.”
“I thought this was just a survival game. I didn’t expect it to have supernatural elements too.”
Shen Shuiyan wiped her sweat, her features calm and composed.
“I brought this on us,” Xin Lan said.
“I followed you of my own free will.”
The wind howled past, making Shen Shuiyan shiver.
She tossed her tissue into a nearby trash can, smiling at Xin Lan. “You’ve got great stamina.”
“It’s too cold out here. Let’s head up first.”
Xin Lan looked at Shen Shuiyan. Though the girl was smiling, her lips were pale and blue. She gestured toward the third floor.
They reached Class 1. Although the classroom wasn’t exactly warm, it was much better than being exposed to the freezing wind outside.
“This might be a penalty I triggered.”
The rules penalized anyone who made a mistake. Xin Lan figured that since she had tried to enter a restricted area, she had been driven out and was now forbidden from leaving the teaching building.
But this restriction had to be temporary.
“Will the penalty vanish once hunting time ends?”
“Probably. It’ll definitely be gone before class starts tomorrow.”
“The rules are too insidious.”
With their range of activity restricted to the dormitory and the teaching building, people were being forced to slaughter one another.
Xin Lan frowned as she watched Shen Shuiyan stand there, shivering involuntarily.
The nighttime temperature was very low, and since Shen Shuiyan had taken off her cotton coat, she only had a thin long-sleeved shirt on. If she spent the night here, she would definitely fall ill.
Xin Lan unzipped her down jacket and beckoned to Shen Shuiyan.
Shen Shuiyan pointed to herself, a bit surprised.
But she didn’t resist. She walked over.
Xin Lan sat cross-legged on the floor, using some books as a cushion. Shen Shuiyan pressed into her embrace. Xin Lan pulled her jacket tight around them, wrapping her arms around Shen Shuiyan’s waist to transfer her own warmth.
The beauty’s waist was very slender to the touch, and Xin Lan couldn’t help but tighten her hold.
Xin Lan actually had a hidden obsession with beautiful waists, one so deeply buried that she hadn’t even consciously realized it herself.
At this moment, she merely tightened her hold in secret, loosened it slightly, and then couldn’t help but hold her tight again.
Shen Shuiyan didn’t notice anything amiss. Leaning against Xin Lan’s shoulder, she smelled the fragrance of shampoo.
Clean, warm, and soft.
Pressed close against Xin Lan, Shen Shuiyan felt the softness of her chest.
Pressing against each other brought a wonderful, never-before-felt sensation.
Her body is so warm⦠Shen Shuiyan thought, slightly dazed.
“Did you stay in Zou Yunfei’s group because of his combat strength?”
“Yes. I don’t interact with him much.”
In fact, Shen Shuiyan didn’t have much contact with anyone. The two classmates she usually interacted with the most hadn’t even been selected for this game.
Even now, she still hadn’t figured out why these four hundred of them had been selected. Was it really just bad luck from a random draw?
“Then tomorrow, I’ll go steal you from him.”
Xin Lan smiled, as if she had thought of something fun.
Zero Nine shuddered at her expression, silently lighting a candle for that ex-boyfriend.
“Hmm?”
Shen Shuiyan was slightly puzzled. A sudden guess surfaced in her mind, leaving her a bit stunned, but on second thought, it wasn’t entirely impossible.
“Since I’m a better fighter than him, you can stand on my side, right?”
“I don’t think I’m that important to you,” Shen Shuiyan said, pressing against Xin Lan and feeling her heartbeat.
Although Xin Lan had been trying to recruit her from the very beginning, she indeed hadn’t felt that Xin Lan valued her all that much.
“I like dealing with smart people. If you want to survive, follow me. I’ll definitely be the final winner.”
Xin Lan spoke arrogantly, yet with a certain conviction.
Even if she was always the villain, and even if her final ending was always death, she was still the ultimate boss who had schemed against the protagonists countless times. Even if she chose to forget those memories, what had been honed through battle after battle was the iron-blooded will of a soldier.
Shen Shuiyan leaned against her shoulder, the light in her eyes flickering.
“Why do I feel like you’re just looking for a chance to give Zou Yunfei a beating?” Shen Shuiyan asked with a soft chuckle.
And within that laughter, she made her answer clear.
“That’s part of the reason. I won’t let him leave here,” Xin Lan admitted carelessly, speaking with complete indifference.
“You hate him that much?”
“I wouldn’t say that. He doesn’t have the value to be kept in my mind. It’s just that people always have to pay the price for what they’ve done.”
Xin Lan gazed out the window at the dark night, thinking of those hollow eye sockets.
What would happen if I threw my ex-boyfriend out there to play with the ghosts?
That seems like it’d be pretty fun.
Zero Nine felt she could practically erect a tombstone for the ex-boyfriend now. She glanced at the two girls holding each other in a manner oozing sapphic vibes, then silently returned to her show.
The air fell silent, the wall clock in the classroom ticking softly.
Feeling the warmth and smelling the rich fragrance on Xin Lan, Shen Shuiyan felt a faint sleepiness.
Xin Lan, however, wasn’t sleepy at all, her face holding a resolute coldness in the dark.
She didn’t remain sitting and instead lay down. Shen Shuiyan lay facing her, placing one hand on Xin Lan’s body.
The long wait was the most boring part. Zero Nine enthusiastically asked Xin Lan if she wanted to watch a TV drama with her.
Zero Nine: “Host, I’ve been binging γThe Overbearing System-President Falls in Love with Meγ lately. It’s pretty good.”
Xin Lan: “Sysβ¦ President?”
Zero Nine: “Well, we’re Systems, right? So the big boss of Systems is naturally the System-President.”
Xin Lan: “I refuse. Sounds like it would lower my IQ.”
Zero Nine: “Let me tell you the plot! It’s about the little System’s rise to the top! In the beginning, the System is just a newbie, but then it relies on its own wisdom to guide one outstanding Host after another. It transfers through several departments, and finally reaches the peak of System-life, becoming the System-President and marrying its goddess!”
Xin Lan: “Let’s watch it together then.”
Since she was bored anyway, Xin Lan watched the TV drama with her and found that those Systems actually had pretty decent acting skills.
Still⦠are Systems really that free? They even have time to film dramas?
Zero Nine gave a detailed answer to her question.
Zero Nine: “Once our accumulated missions and success rates hit a certain standard, we Systems can choose to retire! Some go on to shoot movies, while others throw themselves into various mission worlds to play around as NPCs.”
Xin Lan: “If you become an NPC, do you keep your memories as a System?”
Zero Nine: “Of course not! Otherwise, it’d easily interfere with the worlds.”
Having received her answer, Xin Lan continued watching the show with Zero Nine.
At twelve o’clock, the bell chimed, announcing the end of hunting time.
Shen Shuiyan opened her eyes and moved away from Xin Lan.
The sudden loss of warmth made Shen Shuiyan furrow her brow. Xin Lan pulled her clothes tight, looked at Shen Shuiyan, and stepped forward to take her hand.
The warmth in her palm made Shen Shuiyan look at Xin Lan.
The moonlight outside the window allowed her to see that beautiful face clearly. The expression on it was calm as she led her outside.
A faint, strange feeling arose in her heart. It must be because it’s too cold outside, Shen Shuiyan thought, and Xin Lan’s hand is too warm.
Walking outside, sure enough, those two ghosts were nowhere to be seen.
She took a few steps forward, spotted Shen Shuiyan’s cotton coat on the ground, and picked it up.
Shen Shuiyan held it in her arms but didn’t put it on.
At the thought of this coat having just covered the earless ghost’s head, she had no desire to wear it.
Fortunately, the dormitory wasn’t far from the teaching building. Shen Shuiyan and Xin Lan jogged back, arriving quickly.
The two of them went up the stairs on the same side, which was closer to Shen Shuiyan’s dormitory.
“See you tomorrow.”
Shen Shuiyan waved to Xin Lan, and Xin Lan nodded.
The sound of knocking echoed through the night. Shen Shuiyan knocked several times, but no one opened the door.
Shen Shuiyan knocked a few more times. The people inside seemed determined to play dead, refusing to open the door.
A cold sneer surfaced on Shen Shuiyan’s face, yet with excellent patience, she knocked twice more.
“Why don’t you sleep in my dorm instead?”
Xin Lan hadn’t left since the moment she started knocking. Seeing that Shen Shuiyan’s dormitory door wasn’t opening, she spoke up.
“Thanks, then.”
“No big deal.”
Xin Lan knocked. After a moment, the door opened. A crack appeared cautiously at first, but once the person inside saw it was Xin Lan, she swung it wide.
Xiao Chun curiously eyed Shen Shuiyan standing behind Xin Lan, then retreated to her own bed.
Tao Ling had also returned. Her right hand was set in a splint, and her left hand was heavily bandaged as she sat on her bed.
Xin Lan climbed into bed and shed her outer clothes. Shen Shuiyan set her cotton coat on a chair, undressed as well, and joined Xin Lan. The two of them snuggled under the same blanket.
“Before we sleep, there’s something very important I need to tell you.”
Xin Lan shifted a bit further inside, looking at Shen Shuiyan seriously.
“What is it?”
“Don’t wake me up at random. I don’t want to wake up tomorrow morning and see you missing limbs.”
Shen Shuiyan: “⦔
Was this a threat? It had to be a threat.
The author has something to say:
The top student’s real identity is starting to emerge!
If you like Lan-jie, please pick her, boohoo. I want to hire some paid posters for Lan-jie, with the following message: “Lan-jie is the coolest, Xiao Wu is the most dominant!” (This post is worth fifty cents) Hahahaha hiccup
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