Ch41 - Sha, Sha, Sha

Before taking off his clothes, Nan Zhou knew that his actions would inevitably expose his scars. Nevertheless, he knew that Jiang Fang had a very good personality and was gentlemanly. He wouldn’t ask questions that crossed the line if he knew Nan Zhou was unwilling to disclose the secret. It didn’t matter if Jiang Fang saw them.

Jiang Fang really acted like Nan Zhou thought. He saw the weird scars all over Nan Zhou’s body and didn’t ask much. He stepped into the bathroom and stood between Li Yinhang and Nan Zhou, not forgetting to say, “Yinhang, stay where you can see me and don’t walk around.” 

Li Yinhang knew how to read the air. She didn’t say anything and perfectly carried out Jiang Fang’s instructions. She picked an angle where she could only see Jiang Fang.

Jiang Fang got down on one knee in front of Nan Zhou and looked up at him. “Aren’t you taking off your pants?”

Nan Zhou let out an ‘oh’. He felt no shame as he slid his soft slacks down to his ankles. Jiang Fang saw the underwear printed with small, light brown squirrel patterns and couldn’t hold back. He pressed his elbows against his knees and laughed heartily.

Nan Zhou thought that he laughed very well. His appreciation and yearning for beautiful things made him instinctively reach out to touch Jiang Fang’s face. “…Check first.” 

Jiang Fang placed one hand on his waist. “Okay, Teacher Nan.”

However…

Jiang Fang’s inspection seemed to be a far cry from the ‘inspection’ imagined by Nan Zhou. He was used to fights and rough treatment. He just had trouble digesting gentle, serious and non-provocative touches.

Once Jiang Fang’s fingers brushed against the radiating scars on Nan Zhou’s waist, Nan Zhou gritted his teeth a bit uncomfortably. He let out a low hum in a nasal tone. “…Um.”

Jiang Fang’s fingertips had thin and even calluses. To make matters worse, a thin layer of static electricity remained on his fine cashmere sweater. Every touch from Jiang Fang caused a small current.

Jiang Fang didn’t ask about the origin of the wound. His fingertips just frequently rubbed against the edge of the wound with a hint of silent doubt. Nan Zhou refused to speak so Jiang Fang kept touching his scar. The action was gentle and without any lewd meaning. It was as if he was moving the ripples on the water surface in an ordinary way. This action seemed to resonate with Nan Zhou’s body, making him unable to bear the impact of the subtle electric currents. At the same time, a small heat wave surged in his abdominal cavity.

Nan Zhou really couldn’t stand it and whispered softly, “…Not that one.”

Jiang Fang imitated his sound after realizing. “Ah… understood.” 

Then he gently ordered, “Turn around.”

Nan Zhou turned around. The round squirrel tail pattern on the back was exposed to Jiang Fang’s eyes. Jiang Fang let out a chuckle while pretending not to see the staggered scars on the back. He didn’t want to make Nan Zhou uncomfortable any more. After a brief inspection, he held Nan Zhou’s wrist and looked at the ring finger that was scratched by the glass.

“Put your clothes on.” Jiang Fang handed him the still warm clothes. “Come out and I’ll give you simple treatment.”

Li Yinhang determined that Nan Zhou was dressed and carefully raised her head. “Is it okay?” 

Jiang Fang took out the medicine box from the corner of the bookshelf while he rubbed the fingers of his other hand that had touched Nan Zhou’s body. He seemed to be trying to retain the trace of warmth. ”There are no wounds on him. He should just be scared.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Just then, Nan Zhou walked out of the bathroom. There was no look of fright on his face. There was no respect for the ghost. Nan Zhou double checked with Jiang Fang. “Are you sure I don’t have anything extra on me?”

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“Ktf qfgrbc ktb ifoa atf vfjat gfmbgvlcu rtbeiv’nf yffc mtjrfv ys atlr utbra atja wjxfr j gerailcu rbecv.” Rjc Itbe ribkis rjlv, “Lf kjr bynlberis rb rmjgfv lc atf gfmbgvlcu. Tfa lo atf utbra lr gfjiis ilxf atlr jcv tjr cb ifatjilas ja jii, kts kjr tf rb rmjgfv?”

Li Yinhang, “……”

She decided to give the bigshot the definition of the term ‘lethality’ for normal people. She asked Nan Zhou, “Teacher Nan, what did you see just now?”

Nan Zhou held out his hand to Jiang Fang to clean the wound and thought about it carefully. “My head in the mirror suddenly became crooked.” 

He gestured. “In this way, I leaned against the edge of the frame and tilted to one side.”

Li Yinhang listened to this description and felt cold.

She told him, “…Normally speaking, this matter itself is very lethal.”

Nan Zhou was confused. “The ghost didn’t cause any substantial harm. Is there any need to be so scared?” 

Li Yinhang succinctly explained. “The mental injury is the most lethal.”

Nan Zhou wondered, “Why did the game say that?”

He repeated the game’s requirements. “Don’t go crazy and survive until the game time is over.”

“If the ghost can only cause mental damage, the instance just needs to stipulate ‘don’t go crazy’ and ‘don’t let your san value reach zero.’ The emphasis on ‘survive’ indicates that the ghost can cause substantial damage to the players.” 

Li Yinhang abruptly stopped talking. She realized that Nan Zhou’s ability to think of this meant that he, who had positive contact with the unknown ghost, was now in the most danger among the three of them. Li Yinhang was a bit blocked after discovering this and she whispered, “Have you thought of a solution to the trouble?”

“Not for the time being.” As he answered the question, Nan Zhou was examining the pink band-aid with rabbit heads that was stuck on his finger. He noticed the worry in Li Yinhang’s voice so while touching the band-aid, he tried to reassure Li Yinhang who was more nervous than him. “In fact, I’m a bit scared.”

Li Yinhang glanced at his still garbled san value bar. She asked, “…Do you want to drink milk tea?”

Nan Zhou looked up seriously. “Can it be delivered to the school?” 

Li Yinhang, “……” Yes, you are scared.

In the end, they decided to order milk tea tomorrow.

There was only one bed in the single rooms of the international students dormitory. Jiang Fang gave the bed to Li Yinhang. Li Yinhang wanted to refuse but Jiang Fang interrupted her. “If I let a girl sleep on the ground then I’m afraid I won’t be able to fall asleep.”

Li Yinhang laughed dryly. “Hahaha” In fact, wasn’t it because this bed couldn’t fit two people? 

She tucked herself in tightly, making sure it was tight enough to prevent a ghost from doing anything. Then she closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep. Fuck this. It was 120 hours and this would decrease every hour. They must be able to survive. Li Yinhang forced herself to sleep.

Jiang Fang and Nan Zhou lay on a makeshift bed padded with two layers of soft blankets with Nanji Star asleep in between the pillows. There was silence for a moment. Nan Zhou looked at the silhouette of Jiang Fang’s side face. “Are you angry?”

Jiang Fang closed his eyes. “…No.”

“You are. You actually deliberately pressed on my wound.” 

Jiang Fang opened his eyes without answering.

Nan Zhou sighed softly. “I won’t hide it from you in the future. I am used to doing things by myself so I always want to see the information for myself while not sharing it.”

Nan Zhou added, “I will learn to share it with you and Yinhang in the future.”

Jiang Fang was still silent. Nan Zhou had expressed what he wanted to say in one breath. He didn’t know what else had to be done and remained silent. He intuitively understood that Jiang Fang knew his motive for concealing the rustling he heard twice before. Therefore, his explanation was basically equivalent to wasting time. Nan Zhou didn’t know why he had to waste unnecessary time and repeat his thoughts to Jiang Fang. 

Thus, he pursed his mouth and thought about the reason. After a while, a warm hand suddenly reached out from the side and gently held his wrist. Jiang Fang’s low voice was heard in his ears. “Don’t think about it. Sleep.”

Nan Zhou’s uncomfortable heart calmed down. “……”

You are paying attention to me. I’m a bit happy.

He said, “Yes, good night.” 

However, the hand that was still holding his wrist didn’t let go. Nan Zhou didn’t try to break free. His concealment had made Jiang Fang and Li Yinhang unhappy. He felt he had a duty to comfort them well. In addition, he had other things to explain to Jiang Fang.

Nan Zhou remembered the words that the man had muttered in the death recording.

“We shouldn’t have gone there. That place doesn’t exist so we can’t exist—”

This touched a secret string in Nan Zhou’s heart. Nan Zhou turned to look at Jiang Fang again and his voice was solemn. “Brother Fang.” 

“Hmm?”

Nan Zhou told him, “If something really happens to me, please work hard and don’t forget my existence.”

In the deep darkness, Jiang Fang was silent at first. Then he gave a vague laugh. Immediately afterwards, he turned his head and fixed his eyes on Nan Zhou. His pale eyes borrowed the light from the moonlight outside and they seemed to contain a complete galaxy of stars. “I never want to forget you. Even if you have forgotten yourself, I will help you remember.”

Nan Zhou got such a commitment and his heart was more stable. “Thank you.” 

He calmed down and tiredness poured in.

Jiang Fang sensed his growing tiredness and whispered, “Sleep.”

Nan Zhou used the coldest and most indifferent tone to say words that warmed and softened a person’s heart. “I said good night.”

Jiang Fang understood this tone and couldn’t help saying, “Then I will also say good night, Teacher Nan.” 

Jiang Fang felt the breathing against the pillow become stable and turned sideways. He faced Nan Zhou’s peaceful silhouette in the moonlight and whispered, “…You don’t know.”

When you were very young, you stayed with me like this.

Outside the door was the endless noise of the neighbor’s baby, my mother sobbing while drinking wine and the depressing melody played by the poor violinist in the attic.

The world was noisy but I hid you in my hand. 

At that time, my heart was as quiet as it is now.

However, you don’t know anything now.

Jiang Fang gently placed one hand on Nan Zhou’s wrist and felt the strong beating of his pulse. The other hand was inserted into the pocket of Jiang Fang’s pajama pants. There was a folded paper lying there which recorded the fact that Nan Zhou concealed clues and took private risks today.

Jiang Fang spent 300 points to open a new storage space. He threw this paper into it to keep it safe. Jiang Fang would remember Nan Zhou’s existence and everything about him. 

—Including his mistakes. Jiang Fang would remember it all for him. Nothing would be left out.