Translator: CinderTL
Seeing through his disguise, the "Luo He" standing before the Gate's entrance glared with venomous, azure eyes. A thick aura of Curse flowed beneath his gaze.
Moments later, his body began to twist and distort. Bizarre lumps rose beneath his skin, followed by countless sharp straws that pierced through his flesh, transforming him into a tattered sack.
Even in this state, "Luo He" remained fixated on her, seemingly unable to comprehend how his deception had been exposed.
Fu Fu narrowed her eyes, her lips splitting into a grin that revealed her adorable tiger teeth. In a tone of a seasoned educator, she said, "Listen closely, little one. Auntie will teach you a lesson. The person you're impersonating may seem cold and aloof, but he's actually a warm-hearted softie."
"If it were truly a dangerous matter like going to Feng Manor, he would never have brought me along," Fu Fu shrugged. "He would have gone alone to investigate everything, then returned to tell us about it in a deceptively calm voice."
Fu Fu pursed her lips, suddenly adopting a girlish pose, cupping her face as she reminisced. "Damn it! He always manages to fool me!"
I don't know if Luo He didn't understand or couldn't bear to listen any longer, but he turned mechanically and began walking deeper into the mist.
With the plan foiled, there was no point in staying.
But after only a few steps, Luo He stopped abruptly, as if sensing something. Footsteps approached from behind.
They were sparse and casual, as if the person wasn't even trying to be quiet.
"Don't rush off," Fu Fu said, rolling up her sleeves as she stepped out of the Gate and tilted her chin at Luo He. "Let's play a little."
Screech—
Screech—
His body trembling slightly, Jiang Cheng drifted in and out of consciousness, feeling as if he were moving. But it wasn't the movement of his own body; it was the sensation of being pushed in a wheelchair.
The grating sound of the wheels against the ground was slightly irritating.
He could still hear footsteps behind him.
Someone was pushing him, pushing the wheelchair he sat in. Instinctively, he felt it was a woman, because her footsteps were light and crisp.
In his subconscious, he was inexplicably certain that the woman had beautiful legs and wore sharp high heels.
He tried to open his eyes, but couldn't. It wasn't his fault; someone had blindfolded him with something like an eye mask.
It wasn't just his eyes. His limbs were also immobile. He could feel his hands and feet bound with inelastic rope.
He shifted slightly. The clothes he was wearing felt uncomfortable, not the kind he usually wore. Someone must have changed them. The fabric was rough and coarse.
Left turn.
Another left turn.
Then right turn.
He silently counted in his mind, though his consciousness remained hazy. It was like an instinct etched into his bones.
After the final turn, he finally stopped.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Creak—
The woman pushing him stepped forward and pulled open an ancient iron gate.
From the sound, Jiang Cheng even suspected the gate's hinges had rusted solid. Otherwise, how could it make such a racket?
He was then pushed through the gate into a room, the door slammed shut behind him, and the woman's sharp footsteps faded away until he could no longer hear them.
The woman was gone.
He was alone in the room.
It was cold here, with a familiar yet alien atmosphere. Though the comparison was strange, that's how it felt to him, blindfolded and disoriented.
He had been here before, long ago.
After confirming no one was nearby, he began his self-rescue. First, he gathered strength, then exerted a sudden burst of force. He knew he wouldn't break free in a single attempt.
Instead, he aimed to find a less tightly bound area to use as a breakthrough point.
Unfortunately, he was wrapped like a mummy. His captor had been meticulous, leaving him no chance.
As he pondered his situation, he suddenly sensed a presence in another direction. He wasn't alone here—someone else was present!
The figure was hidden in the darkness, whether they had been here long before or had followed him and the woman inside remained unknown.
A moment later, he heard a sharp, metallic clang—not exactly pleasant, but instinctively chilling.
Though blindfolded, he could still sense a flash of light before his eyes.
It was a swift blade, drawn with a sound like a snake's hiss.
The blade's light was clear as water, clean, sharp, and filled with the chilling finality of autumn winds sweeping away fallen leaves.
Someone had drawn a blade beside him.
Are they going to kill him?
Jiang Cheng suddenly felt a surge of tension. He had just woken up, his consciousness still hazy and his surroundings unfamiliar. How had he ended up here? Was he about to die?
But then, his vision suddenly brightened.
A faint white light pierced his eyes, forcing him to squint. He could barely make out a figure standing before him, clad in black robes and gripping a slender blade.
The hand holding the knife was steady. Two flashes of white light later, the restraints binding him snapped apart.
Jiang Cheng's body tingled with numbness. Even raising his arm felt like a struggle. He moved slightly, trying to sit up.
The white light came from a bare incandescent bulb hanging directly above him, the only source of illumination in the room.
Clearly, the Black Clothed Man before him didn't intend to kill him. Otherwise, there would be no reason to remove his blindfold and release his restraints.
"Who are you?" Jiang Cheng asked. "Where is this?"
He had originally wanted to ask why he was being saved, but he swallowed the question. After all, the man had only spared him for now. What he might do later remained unknown.
But he received no answer. His vision seemed to be failing him; everything appeared blurry, and he could only make out vague shapes.
The entire world felt unreal, as if shrouded in a gray filter.
The Black Clothed Man slowly retreated, finally merging eerily with the wall. Through the hazy glow, Jiang Cheng only remembered his crimson eyes.
Throughout the encounter, the Black Clothed Man had remained silent and expressionless. Jiang Cheng tried to piece together his appearance from memory, but a sharp, unsettling pain washed over him, scattering his thoughts.
"I can't think about this anymore. I need to get out of here first," he muttered, gritting his teeth against the throbbing in his head. He stood up unsteadily and stumbled toward the gate.
The iron gate wasn't as heavy as he'd expected, but it was clearly very old. When he ran his hand over it, a layer of rust flaked off.
Creak—
The gate swung open. As he'd suspected, it revealed a long, endless corridor. He remembered the woman pushing him in a straight line down this very hallway earlier.
Doors lined both sides of the corridor—iron doors that looked ordinary enough, like those in a school, yet far more eerie and sinister.
Overhead, a row of spaced-out lamps emitted a dim, lifeless glow.
The room he'd been in was at the very end of the corridor.
The silence was absolute, a silence so profound that not even an echo dared to break it. This sudden stillness gave him the unsettling sensation of being abandoned at the edge of the world.
(End of the Chapter)
---
📖Read (NS) on Pa.treon@CinderTL - c974. [+4]
🔑Early Access at $1.
✍Translated (6) Series, (4.1K+) Chapters, (5.8M+) Words.