Editor: Kitty
The after effects of being the ‘ghost’ did not last too long. After a while, Luo Jian felt more comfortable, but he was still reluctant to leave the stalker’s arms. He continuously clambered into Xing Yan’s arms, burying his face in Xing Yan’s chest, and Xing Yan doted on him as he gently stroked Luo Jian’s hair.
But as Xing Yan continued to touch him, his hands and feet began to act dishonestly. He picked up Luo Jian and shifted him to sit on his legs while he directly sat on a huge tree vine, kissing Luo Jian’s lips and stuffing his hand into Luo Jian’s clothes. The stalker’s hands were a little cold, and Luo Jian could not help but shiver unconsciously. Using his hands, Luo Jian tried to push him away but was unable to do so.
When the stalker was given an inch, he wanted a mile. He held Luo Jian tightly with his hands, and in deep concentration, Xing Yan bit his lips and reached his tongue inside. Using his tongue, he turned the inside of his mouth into a mess. Luo Jian felt that right now, it was harder to breathe than moments ago when he had almost suffocated.
As they were entangled together, Luo Jian felt something hard and hot press against his abdomen. All his blood shot up to his brain, and his face was as red as an apple. He tried his best to widen the distance between him from Xing Yan, and he grumbled with reproach, “Can’t you take a look at what this place is? Stop fooling around!”
Xing Yan turned a deaf ear to what he had said and rubbed his face against Luo Jian’s. His actions were now filled with tints of erotism as he supported Luo Jian’s waist and shifted him to rub his buttocks against the stalker’s legs.
“Don’t do this…” Luo Jian’s face became even redder. He was eager to stand up, but the stalker did not want him to succeed in doing so. He pressed Luo Jian down by the shoulder and kissed his lips again.
However, just as the two were in a hot struggle and were unwilling to separate, the little boy with the red umbrella arrived with Feng YuLan. With a mere glance, he was able to see the two of them kissing, and the little boy unconsciously stopped. Feng YuLan, who was behind him, followed the boy in a trance. When he stopped moving forward, he did not continue walking ahead. Feng YuLan also stopped where he had stopped, looking like he was in a trance.
The boy did not speak or carry out any actions, and he stared at the stalker and Luo Jian for quite a while as if he had seen something strange. The expression on his face was somewhat odd, but it was not surprise or disgust. Shortly after that, he seemed to be reminded of something as he smiled in a self-mocking manner.
“Ah Lan, I know your weapon can morph into a person that looks exactly like you.” The boy looked at the two people who remained inseparable when kissing. He suddenly opened his mouth and said something totally irrelevant to Feng YuLan. He said, “Does it feel like looking at a mirror’s reflection?”
At this very moment, Ah Lan seemed to be aware, as if he had suddenly woken up from a very long dream. He glanced at the boy with a very complicated expression. The boy was only as tall as his waist. He was small, weak, and pale-looking. His feet never touched the ground, and he appeared just like a ghost wandering around the underworld.
As long as he looked at the boy, Feng YuLan felt as if he would have understood something, but in fact, he was not clear what exactly he understood. He could vaguely guess the boy’s identity, and the bold guess made him feel like it must have been a miracle. Every time he was reminded of his guess,, the mystifying answer he had in the depths of his heart would cause his whole back to be soaked in cold sweat.
However, no matter how surprised he was, Feng YuLan had undoubtedly calmed down. He replied to the boy, “Shadow and my esteemed self are different entities. Our personalities are not the same. But if I took a glimpse at him in that way, he truly felt like a mirror reflection.”
“I see&#k2026;” The boy was silent for a while, seeming to be deep in doubt. He raised his head to look at Feng YuLan and pointed to the pair in front of him. “What do you think of them?”
Then, Feng YuLan looked up at Luo Jian and company. They did not know that someone was watching them and were still tightly hugging each other. However, the stalker seemed to notice something and suddenly let Luo Jian go. Because Luo Jian was still in a daze after the kiss, he had a blank look on his face.
The stalker scanned their surroundings with Luo Jian kept in his arms, and he vaguely sensed that there was a weak presence around him. He thought that since it was so weak, it could be ignored.
However, Feng YuLan did not speak again. He gazed at Luo Jian for a long moment, and after that, he turned around and looked at the little boy very seriously. The boy sensed his gaze, and they eyed each other. This time, Ah Lan opened his mouth to say, “Luo Jian is my best friend. I’m willing to support him, no matter what he wants to do or where he wants to go.”
The child seemed to understand the deep meaning behind Ah Lan’s words. He smiled and said in a joking tone, “Alright, but no matter how determined you are, you can’t stop me.”
Ah Lan also smiled; his smile was very gentle and soft. He said, “I don’t need to stop you.”
Ah Lan’s words seemed to make him hesitant, and the little boy lowered his head slightly. His eyelashes were very long, casting shadows on his pale skin. From Feng YuLan’s point of view, he could also see this child’s small nose and pursed lips—his lips appeared pale as well, and it was hard for him to see any hue of ruddiness on it.
“Have you recognized me?” The boy asked him that.
Feng YuLan froze momentarily and replied, “You are very easy to identify. Although this felt extremely inconceivable and the contrast between what you look like now and what you looked like previously… it’s a big difference! Also, I can’t imagine how you turned into this or how you are able to appear here.”
The little boy did not answer these questions. He took full advantage of everything that he could. He raised his head and looked at Ah Lan with an expectant look in his eyes. His tone even sounded coquettish: “Will you help me?”
Feng YuLan’s lips twitched, and he appeared a little helpless: “Don’t pretend to be young… Alright, I don't know the reason why, but I will help you.”
The boy began to worry: “If you help me, it means you’re betraying your team, betraying your comrades.”
“Are you not my comrade?” Feng YuLan asked in a probing tone.
“Of course I am your comrade!” The boy admitted immediately, but he soon became listless: “But not now.”
“Why not? What is the meaning of comradery you have in your mind? Are you considered a stranger to me when you leave the team? Or could it be that after wearing a mask, you can pretend you don’t know me? Or maybe you can use me like a doll, to allow me to do this and that?” When Feng YuLan spoke at the end, he started to feel wrathful! Until the very end, he could not understand these things. Therefore, Ah Lan forced himself free of the ‘hypnotic’ control and took a step towards the boy. With that step, all of a sudden, Ah Lan appeared extremely imposing.
On the contrary, the boy was surprised and drifted away as if he was afraid of Ah Lan’s wrath. He lowered his head slightly: “I’m sorry. Don’t be angry. Originally, I didn’t want to do this… but… I can’t let him… Don’t let him discover me…”
Ah Lan seized the focal point of what he had said and frowned: “He… Who is he?”
The boy did not reply to Ah Lan again. With a wave of his hand, his entire person suddenly disappeared. Ah Lan could only watch with widened eyes as the little boy disappeared. With his disappearance, the skill imposed on Feng YuLan also vanished. After breaking away from the state of nonexistence, the duo composed of Luo Jian and the stalker soon discovered him.
“Ah Lan, why are you here?”
Feng YuLan suddenly appeared out of nowhere and caught Luo Jian by surprise. He jumped off the stalker and tidied his messy clothes. When he raised his head to look at Ah Lan, he found that Feng YuLan was not paying attention to him but lowered his head and looked at somewhere else instead. He looked thoughtful.
“What’s the matter?”
With Luo Jian’s shout, Feng Yulan’s soul returned. He could not help but gaze in Luo Jian’s direction with an indescribable look in his eyes. At that moment, Luo Jian was almost awed by this kind of look in his eyes. He did not understand how Feng YuLan suddenly looked at him with such eyes, as if through Luo Jian, he saw a distant and unreachable place, into the far, far future.
At that instant, Luo Jian almost wanted to ask him: What are you looking at?
But before he managed to ask that, Feng YuLan interrupted him before he could speak.
“Some of the enemies have fled, but Duan Li and Specter have been held back by two other stalkers, so I came to take a look at how the situation is here. Did the god say where the exit is?”
After hearing what he had said, Luo Jian shook his head regretfully and looked at the stalker beside him: “No, Xing Yan killed him.”
“He’s dead? That will be troublesome.” Feng YuLan looked distressed. Following that, purpose-driven, he turned his head towards Luo Jian, “Haven’t you gotten any other clues from him?”
Luo Jian did not hold his defenses up against Feng YuLan. After some moment of deliberation, he took out the jade pendant he got from the god. The green jade pendant swayed in front of Feng YuLan. Following that, Luo Jian said, “We only obtained this… but this pendant does not match with the other half of the pendant obtained from the ghost’s tomb vault.”
When Luo Jian took out the jade pendant, Ah Lan’s eyes twinkled momentarily, but it was only a moment, and that happened shockingly fast. Ah Lan did not have much of an expression after that. He approached Luo Jian curiously and observed the jade pendant at a close distance. Luo Jian had taken out both jade pendants.
Both jade pendants were green, but one was darker in shade while the other was lighter. The pattern and edges were also inconsistent.
“The dark piece.” As Feng YuLan was observing the jade pendant, a voice suddenly rang in his ears. Therefore, after Ah Lan thought about it, he pointed to the darker jade pendant and asked Luo Jian, “Is this the one obtained from the god?”
“Yes.” Luo Jian narrowed his eyes. Instead of focusing on the jade pendant, he focused on Ah Lan, who was standing right in front of him. He thought that Ah Lan seemed to be different from how he acted previously, but as for what was different? Luo Jian could not tell at the moment.
“Can you show it to me?” Ah Lan slightly tilted his face upwards as his dark eyes gazed at Luo Jian without blinking.
Luo Jian suddenly felt the speed of his heartbeat had changed.
He hesitated for a while, and during that time, the two men said nothing. Even the stalker standing at their side almost remained unmoving as he gazed at Luo Jian and Feng YuLan. The strange silence covered the trio, and it was as if the air around them stiffened and became so heavy that they were unable to breathe.