Volume 6: Days of Being Zapped in the Lab
Got It
No more bets after a decision is made1
The matter of the wake2 was thus settled.
The Shen family had always maintained an attitude of keeping a respectful distance from ghosts and gods; they didn’t believe in them, but they would maintain the requisite respect. Normally, the task of holding a wake should be done by the deceased’s younger generation descendants, but Shen Wenwu had no children and no wife, so having his peers hold the wake was also a measure born of no alternative.
Father Shen finally remembered he still needed to put on a show of social graces3 and superficial effort, urging Shen Maomao to first send Lou Jingmo off, and then come back to relieve him.
Shen Maomao could only give Lou Jingmo a push outwards and go out with her, planning to find her a place first.
Lou Jingmo wasn’t planning to go far either; she just casually found a hotel nearby, intending to rush over to provide support anytime if something happened at night.
To keep up the lie, after finding the hotel, Shen Maomao didn’t go back immediately, instead snuggling up on the bed to chat with Lou Jingmo.
Hotel, funeral home—only one character different, same pronunciation4, and they were even located together, which made her feel a bit awkward.
The bedsheets and duvet cover were reasonably clean and tidy, but very damp. Sitting on them, a chill would travel from one’s bottom to the brain, scaring away the sweltering summer heat. Presumably, Lou Jingmo wouldn’t need to turn on the air conditioning when she slept tonight.
Shen Maomao felt a bit apprehensive and couldn’t help but grab Lou Jingmo and say some meaningless things: “Lou-jie, I’m suddenly a bit flustered.”
Lou Jingmo was looking down, playing with her phone: “You’ve already said that nineteen times.”
Shen Maomao: “……I just am flustered!”
Lou Jingmo, her expression unchanged: “Twenty times.”
Anger flared in Shen Maomao’s heart, and malice welled up from her guts; she suddenly threw her arms around Lou Jingmo’s neck and pinned her onto the bed.
Lou Jingmo hadn’t expected her to be so audacious5; caught off guard for a moment, she was actually overcome. She immediately dropped her phone and began to struggle desperately.
——And then failed to resist.
As the saying goes, brute force trumps all techniques. Having left the game, the stamina Lou Jingmo had gained from prop buffs was reclaimed. Left with only her skills, she naturally couldn’t defeat Shen Maomao, who had both skills and monstrous strength, and could only be pinned down and bullied.
Shen Maomao straddled her waist, pressing her down so she couldn’t move, and also reached out to keep tickling her ticklish spots. Lou Jingmo was tickled so much she laughed until tears came out, and finally, exhausted, she lay on the bed panting heavily.
Shen Maomao watched and watched, then spaced out——she kept feeling that the current atmosphere was a bit strange.
By this time, the sun had already begun to set. There was a window in the hotel room, and from the third floor, one could see the dying rays of the setting sun outside. The golden-red afterglow filled the entire room, casting a layer of golden light on Lou Jingmo’s face as well, allowing Shen Maomao to clearly see the fine downy hair on her face……and her flushed cheeks, the corners of her eyes wet with tears from laughing, and, beneath where she herself was sitting, those waist and hips that rose and fell as she panted……
It always made rows upon rows of ‘Prosperity, Democracy, Civility, Harmony……’6 float through her mind……
Shen Maomao’s face flushed red. She rolled over and got off Lou Jingmo, then lay flat on her back on the bed, inwardly cursing herself for being ‘unharmonious,’ for actually starting to crave Lou Jingmo’s body again.
Lou Jingmo rested for a moment, took a couple of breaths first, and then said, “You should go.”
Shen Maomao suddenly felt a bit reluctant, reluctant to leave the current state of ease.
Ever since discovering the card on Shen Wenwu, she had felt this indescribable sense of urgency. The game was like an elaborately woven net, not only wrapping her layer by layer in the game world but also wanting to seep into her real life, bit by bit.
From the student who jumped from a building in class, to Ren Yue, to Gong Lian, to her cousin, traces of the game were everywhere in life, leaving her somewhat breathless.
Ordinary people still didn’t know of the game’s existence; game players knew everything but couldn’t say anything. Beneath what looked like a calm and waveless sea surface, a fierce slaughter was brewing.
She took a deep breath, sat up from the bed, and earnestly vowed to Lou Jingmo: “Don’t worry, Lou-jie, I’ll definitely work hard to get the card back! Wait for my good news!”
Lou Jingmo looked at her valiant and spirited departing figure, her face full of incomprehension.
Shen Maomao……was she pumped up on chicken blood7??
Night had fallen, and the funeral home was silent.
The lights in the body display hall were turned up bright, which did dispel much of the fear the place inspired. The two of them sat on cushions on the floor. Shen Maomao was listlessly stuffing joss paper into the brazier8, while her younger cousin Shen Wenyu had started another round of a game.
The various display halls were close to each other, and the soundproofing wasn’t very good. Or perhaps because it was too·quiet where they were, they could faintly hear the sound of crying from outside even in the room, which sounded somewhat creepy.
Shen Wenwu lay quietly on the body viewing platform9. His face was bluish-purple, his hands crossed over his stomach, and beneath his hands lay that card which everyone coveted10.
Outside the window, the sky was pitch black. Thick clouds enveloped the entire city, and only the large searchlight downstairs flickered with a ghastly white light.
Everything, absolutely everything, seemed to be overlapping with the game world.
Shen Maomao, who had been fearless during the day, started to feel chicken. She had said she wouldn’t trouble Lou Jingmo, but right now, she really wanted to hear Lou Jingmo’s voice.
At 8:30 PM, Shen Maomao took out her phone and sent Lou Jingmo a message: 【Lou-jie, are you there?】
The next second, Lou Jingmo sent a video call request.
The sudden ringing startled Shen Maomao, making her hand tremble, and the phone almost slipped from her grasp.
Before answering the video call, she secretly glanced at Shen Wenyu beside her. Shen Wenyu was wearing headphones and wasn’t affected at all.
Shen Maomao took a deep breath, straightened her back a little more, and only then tapped to accept the call.
Lou Jingmo, wearing pajamas, appeared in the video.
That kind of peerless beauty, magnified on the screen, delivered a critical hit that almost suffocated Shen Maomao. Lou Jingmo’s looks were truly top-tier! Even under the illumination of the phone’s front camera, no flaws could be found. Those eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips—not a single feature failed to meet her heart’s desire……cough.
“What’s wrong?” Lou Jingmo spoke, her mature older sister voice11 incredibly sexy.
Shen Maomao’s ears grew hot. She also put on her headphones and spoke to Lou Jingmo in a low voice: “Nothing, I’m just a bit chicken, wanted to chat with you……”
Lou Jingmo looked at her flushed face, her expression softening, and said softly, “Have you found an opportunity?”
Shen Maomao glanced at Shen Wenyu again and replied, “Not yet. He’s been playing games for several hours, hasn’t even gone to the bathroom once.”
Lou Jingmo: “Wait a bit longer. Don’t fall asleep. I think Fang Tian might make a move.”
Shen Maomao immediately perked up: “What will she do?”
Lou Jingmo: “I’m not her, how would I know?”
Shen Maomao: “……Alright then.”
Time passed bit by bit. Beside her, Shen Wenyu finished a round of his game and suddenly took off his headphones.
Shen Maomao, who had been keeping an eye on him, quickly took off one of her earbuds and asked him, “Why’d you stop playing?”
Shen Wenyu: “Are you scared by yourself? I’m going to the bathroom.”
Shen Maomao’s eyes lit up: “Not scared, not scared! Go quickly, don’t worry about me, my friend is keeping me company.”
Shen Wenyu: “……?” Why did he sense a hint of impatience in her tone?
But he was in a hurry to go to the bathroom and didn’t think too much about it. He hastily left with his phone, leaving her alone in the vast display hall.
Lou Jingmo’s voice came through the earpiece: “It came without any effort at all. First, check if there are any surveillance cameras nearby.”
“Mm,” Shen Maomao responded, looking up and around. Sure enough, she found a surveillance camera in the corner, but there was no red light on it, and a section of the exposed wire was broken. It was clearly out of order.
The time, place, and conditions were all favorable. She stuffed her phone into her pocket, darted12 to the side of the body viewing platform, and pushed open the lid of the glass case. A blast of icy air instantly rushed out, making her shiver uncontrollably twice.
Her heart pounded wildly. She reached out directly to grab the card, her right hand unavoidably touching Shen Wenwu’s icy hand.
At that moment, her nerves were stretched to the absolute limit, her mind filled with scenarios of Shen Wenwu suddenly jolting up and grabbing her wrist.
But until she took the card out, nothing happened at all.
Lou Jingmo said softly, “How did it go? Did you get it? I can hear you breathing heavily. Did something happen?”
Shen Maomao let out a long breath and closed the case with a backhand motion: “It’s fine……Got it! Nothing happened at all……”
Lou Jingmo chuckled lightly: “What did you want to happen? This is reality, not the game world.”
Shen Maomao propped herself up with her hands and sat back down on the cushion, her legs as limp as two noodles. She gripped the earpiece microphone and whispered to Lou Jingmo, “That was too intense……my legs went totally weak from fright……”
Lou Jingmo said exaggeratedly, “What’s there to be afraid of? Summon the courage you use to thrash ghosts!”
Shen Maomao: “……Screw you!”
Lou Jingmo laughed out loud.
Not long after, Shen Wenyu returned. Shen Maomao quickly blanked her screen and turned to look at him: “You’re back?”
Shen Wenyu shook the water from his hands, a curious look on his face: “Jie, are you dating someone?”
Shen Maomao practically exploded on the spot: “What nonsense are you spouting, you little brat13??”
Shen Wenyu: “With that expression of yours, it’s clearly a case of trying to hide something, only making it more obvious.”
Shen Maomao: “Go play your game!”
The most important thing was done, and Shen Maomao relaxed considerably.
The card was a game prop and could be directly stored in the prop storage space. Looking at the space in her mind, it was all thumbnails, so she couldn’t quite make out the pattern on it. But even if she could see it clearly, she reckoned she wouldn’t recognize it. So, to find out what kind of card this was, she would probably have to wait until she saw Lou Jingmo the next day.
The two chatted for a while longer. Because Shen Wenyu was still there, they didn’t talk about game-related matters. In the end, they had to take an intermission because the phone was really too hot.
With Lou Jingmo keeping her company for the first half of the night, she hadn’t felt very sleepy. Then, she played on her phone for two hours. When she looked up again, her vision was a bit blurry, and she couldn’t help but admire Shen Wenyu, who could play on his phone for half a day without letting go.
It was almost twelve o’clock. Shen Maomao was chatting desultorily with Lou Jingmo, occasionally tossing some more joss paper into the brazier. Beside her, Shen Wenyu finally had a pang of conscience and decided to pause his game to help Shen Maomao burn paper, letting her rest for a bit.
The clock hands ticked and tocked. The moment the hour, minute, and second hands all pointed to twelve, shua!—all the lights in the body display hall suddenly went out at the same instant. The entire room was plunged into darkness, with only a flicker of leaping light where the brazier was.
The author has something to say:
No more bets after a decision is made—someone actually guessed it right. The ‘Guess the Card’ event is over. Everyone who commented yesterday will receive a small red envelope. Those who guessed correctly 【referring to specifically guessing which card it was】 get extra money!
Even tickling can get censored14, I’m speechless15.
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