CH 41

Chapter 41 – Esophagus 13

Lian Qiao waited quietly in the dark. After an unknown period of time, he finally heard the sound of soft footsteps in the corridor.

He felt more at ease. He pulled his quilt up and closed his eyes, pretending that he had been asleep this whole time. The bedroom door opened and closed and then Lian Qiao quickly felt someone approaching. A warm little hand pushed him gently.

“Lian Qiao, wake up.” The voice was low and soft, like a lover’s caress.

Lian Qiao pretended not to hear. The boy called a few more times and when he saw that Lian Qiao wasn’t responding, he sighed slightly. Then Lian Qiao heard the rustling of his clothes and wasn’t sure what the other person was doing.

Are you undressing? Do you want to sleep with me?

Lian Qiao’s heartbeat was fierce and he couldn’t help but get excited. Just when he couldn’t keep acting any longer, the scent of roasted meat burst through the tip of his nose.

Eh?!

Lian Qiao opened his eyes in surprise and suddenly something hot and fragrant poked him on the lips. He licked it subconsciously- it was a roast lamb leg!

“Eat.” Xu RenDong said softly.

Lian Qiao got up from the bed cautiously, trying not to make any noise. He took the roast lamb leg and asked in confusion: “Brother RenDong, where did you get this?”

In the darkness, he couldn’t see Xu RenDong’s face but felt that Xu RenDong was smiling at him.

“Stole it from the Boss.” Xu RenDong whispered, “I will explain it to you tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Lian Qiao nodded. He held the roast lamb leg and chewed happily.

After a slight noise, Xu RenDong sat down next to him on the bed. In the darkness, it was impossible to see even someone close clearly but Lian Qiao sensed that Xu RenDong was eating something while holding something else in his hand. He suddenly felt that they were like two students living on campus, sneakily eating supper after the lights had been turned off. They dared not to make a sound for fear of being discovered by the dorm monitor.

Lian Qiao couldn’t help but raise the corners of his mouth as he looked at Xu RenDong in the dark. Although he couldn’t see anything, just listening to the faint sound of chewing and swallowing from that direction made Lian Qiao feel an indescribable sense of excitement.

The strange feelings seeded inside his heart took advantage of the night to grow unscrupulously.

Just when Lian Qiao was about to lose control and wanted to do something, Xu RenDong suddenly said: “Are you finished?”

Lian Qiao: “Yeah.”

Xu RenDong: “Here’s a handkerchief, wipe your mouth.”

Lian Qiao froze. He felt Xu RenDong groping in the dark but couldn’t find him. So he stretched out his hand intuitively and quickly grabbed Xu RenDong’s hand. Those were the tender and soft hands of a child.

Lian Qiao was suddenly shocked and his whole body froze.

Xu RenDong gave him the handkerchief and then quickly retracted his hand. Lian Qiao held the handkerchief which had some residual warmth and thought blankly: What am I thinking? Did I really just get lustful over a three-year-old child?

A five-year-old child, towards a three-year-old child? That’s really terrible.

The physiological discomfort was like a tide flooding Lian Qiao’s mind. Immersed in a strong sensation of self-blame, he spent a sleepless night.

The next day, Lian Qiao woke up with a pair of heavy dark circles under his eyes. He saw Ye QingLiu feeding the baby rice cereal. The little fat kid was asking questions about the rice cereal that just suddenly appeared. Ye QingLiu spread her hands and indicated that she didn’t know. It was on the table when she woke up.

Little fat kid: “Only rice cereal? Was there nothing else?”

Ye QingLiu: “Only rice cereal.”

The little fat kid was not satisfied with the answer. He frowned and muttered: “Impossible. I thought I smelled barbecue meat last night. Was it… a dream?”

Lian Qiao turned his head guiltily but Xu RenDong said with certainty: “You were definitely dreaming.”

The little fat kid wanted to ask other people but Lian Qiao hurriedly interjected: “Yes, I can smell food too. But mine is hotpot.”

Ye QingLiu glanced at him contemptuously. “Dream on, where the hell would hotpot come from?”

The little fat kid still looked suspicious but in the end he didn’t say anymore.

At this time, the sky was just getting bright and the children woke up one after another. They discussed what to do today. Before long, the old nun suddenly appeared at the door of the room.

Xu RenDong caught a glimpse of the nun and immediately stood in front of Ye QingLiu. He calmly blocked the old nun’s line of sight with his body to prevent her from  seeing the rice paste in Ye QingLiu’s hand. The old nun looked around with her muddy eyes like dead fish, her haggard lips twisting.

“Little bastards, follow me!” She knocked on the door frame with a pointer and spoke  with a stern expression. “Don’t dilly-dally and come downstairs!” The children looked at each other uncomfortably. No one dared to disobey the NPC and they followed her obediently through the building.

When she came to the living room on the first floor, the old nun pointed to the blackboard and asked who stole the chalk. The children were very surprised. After all, they had only gotten to the monastery last night. In the dark, no one had even noticed there was a blackboard in the corner of the living room. So who would steal the chalk?

Xu RenDong stood silently in the crowd without saying a word.

The old nun asked to no avail and sneered: “Hehe, okay! You little rascals are all so dishonest! Then be punished together! Stand up for me one by one and hold out your hands!”

She fiddled with the pointer in her hands, staring at the children darkly. Obviously she was not about to show mercy. The children looked at each other and the timid ones had stood up obediently, waiting for the old nun to come and punish them.

Xu RenDong suddenly noticed that the little fat kid glanced at him. His eyes were not quite right, Xu RenDong’s heart suddenly tightened and then sure enough, the little fat kid turned to the old nun and said, “Mother nun, actually last night…”

Xu RenDong calmly interrupted him: “Last night, the baby seemed to be hungry and was crying all the time.”

The little fat kid was taken aback and squinted. He looked at Xu RenDong with his eyes narrowed. The old nun heard that the baby was crying. Her expression showed a subtle change and then she asked with interest: “Oh? Did you feed it?”

Xu RenDong looked directly at the old nun’s muddy eyes: “I just fed it some water and it took a long time to stop crying. So I was thinking we need to find something better to feed it today. It’s too small. If we don’t feed it properly today, it will definitely not be able to hold on. “

A dark smile flashed across the old nun’s face: “You are pretty thoughtful, huh? Okay then I will spare you this time. There is milk powder in the kitchen, so you can feed it that!”

After she finished speaking, she walked upstairs slowly. The children watched her back until she returned to her room and locked the door behind her with a click. Only then did everyone’s mood slightly relax.

The little fat kid suddenly grabbed Xu RenDong by the collar: “You took the chalk, right?! I told you not to act arbitrarily! You almost killed us just now!”

Xu RenDong lied without hesitation: “It wasn’t me. “

The little fat kid said angrily:”Who else if not you!”

Lian Qiao approached and advised: “We are all on the same team, so what are you up in arms for? Let him go, if you have something to say, say it calmly.”

The fat child glanced at him but didn’t let go of Xu RenDong. Xu RenDong frowned and was about to resist when Lian Qiao took the lead and stepped on the fat kid’s feet!

“Ouch!” The little fat kid jumped up with pain when his big toe was stepped on. His hands naturally loosened.

Lian Qiao retracted his foot with an innocent look: “See, using physical force isn’t good right? It will ruin the harmonious atmosphere.”

All the children: “…” You really treat yourself as a five-year-old kid!

Xu RenDong was amused by Lian Qiao’s childish behavior. He suddenly discovered that Lian Qiao had a lot of insidious tricks. Although they weren’t exactly ‘righteous’, they were very effective! Xu RenDong couldn’t help giving him a thumbs up in his heart and then said to everyone: “Okay, let’s not waste time. While the NPC is not here, let’s hurry up and split up to explore the place.”

The little fat kid glared at him angrily however reason prevailed and he eventually took Ren GaoFei and the others upstairs. Xu RenDong took his small team to the kitchen on the first floor. He pretended to rummage through the cabinets and quickly found the milk powder bag.

Ye QingLiu walked over: “This is the milk powder that the old nun was talking about?” The baby she was holding in her arms had already woken up and was sucking her finger. Ye QingLiu took her finger out of the baby’s mouth and whispered, “That’s unhygienic. Don’t eat hands.”

“I suspect this is a trap.” Xu RenDong groaned, “When the old nun mentioned the milk powder, her facial expression wasn’t quite right. It was like she was anticipating something. She even skipped the corporal punishment and went directly back to her room to hide. I think there’s definitely a problem here.”

The group of newcomers all came to a realization that they needed to think carefully or would easily get tricked. Luckily Xu RenDong was here.

Xu RenDong breathed a sigh of relief that his lie worked. He put the milk powder away and when he looked up, he met Lian Qiao’s thoughtful eyes.

Xu RenDong remembered that he had promised to give Lian Qiao an answer as to where he’d gone last night so he walked to Lian Qiao and whispered: “I will take you someplace.”

Lian Qiao’s eyes lit up.

Xu RenDong distracted everyone and then took Lian Qiao alone to the white wall at the end of the living room corridor. He took out the chalk and began to draw the door on the wall. Lian Qiao suppressed his excitement while acting as a lookout for him. He muttered: “Is this where the game’s boss lives? Brother RenDong, you are really good. This is only the first day and you’ve already found food and even where the boss is. How many things did you do last night?”

Xu RenDong smiled and said nothing. When the four white lines formed a box on the wall, a wonderful change appeared. The chalk line quickly corroded the wall like a chemical liquid and the depression of the lines quickly became a gap. Xu RenDong pushed gently and the rectangular wall was pushed open like a door, revealing an unfathomable dark cave behind the wall.

“Wow…” Lian Qiao exclaimed, “I’ve seen this design in games. I didn’t expect to see it in reality. The effect is so great! It has the feeling of a children’s fantasy novel!”

Just as he stretched out his neck to look inside the dark cave, Xu RenDong suddenly took out a chicken leg and asked, “Are you hungry?”

Lian Qiao was confused: “Not hungry.”

Xu RenDong: “Oh, then eat a chicken leg anyway.”

Lian Qiao was suddenly stuffed with a drumstick in his mouth. His face was suddenly bewildered. But under Xu RenDong’s ardent gaze, he still gnawed off the chicken leg honestly and burped when he was full.

Xu RenDong nodded in satisfaction: “Okay, let’s go in.”

Lian Qiao thought to himself: Today the big boss is really strange, indulging in feeding all kinds of meat. What kind of hobby is this?

It’s really puzzling.

Two children, one large and one small, crawled into the cave. The stone gate drawn in chalk quickly closed behind them. Just like a drop of water falling into the lake, the crack of the door quickly merged with the uneven stone wall and the traces of chalk completely disappeared.

Lian Qiao stroked the stone wall and said in admiration: “It’s like a fairy tale…”

Xu RenDong found that Lian Qiao was a lot more talkative and lively than when they  came last time. Of course, the last time they came here the other teammates were all dead so of course he wouldn’t be in a good mood. This time, Lian Qiao had just begun to explore and hadn’t experienced pain and torture. His curiosity about this world was far greater than his fear. He walked into the cave where the monster was hiding like a child exploring a treasure cave.

Xu RenDong suddenly developed a strong desire to protect him. He raised the kerosene lamp and walked forward. He was just about to instruct Lian Qiao to follow him when Lian Qiao suddenly took the kerosene lamp from his hand and walked ahead.

Xu RenDong was taken aback.

Lian Qiao, who was a head taller than him, raised the kerosene lamp high and the warm yellow dispelled the darkness in front of him. His free hand slightly reached out in the direction of Xu RenDong and the palm was facing up, as if he were waiting for Xu RenDong to put something onto it.

Xu RenDong: “???” What do you want?

He looked at Lian Qiao’s hand, pondered for a moment and put the remaining half of chalk onto Lian Qiao’s hand.

Lian Qiao: “???”

He glanced at Xu RenDong in surprise and then, after thinking about something unknown for a moment, took a deep breath and said with a dry smile: “Ahaha, yes, yes. I just wanted to see the chalk. Brother RenDong, you are so smart! I just want to see what’s so magical about this chalk, how come you can make a door with your bare hands…Ahahahaha…”

Xu RenDong looked at him strangely. “We’re going to meet the boss soon so I know you’re very excited. But you’d better calm down, there’s dangerous things coming up.”

“…” Lian Qiao was speechless for a while and then nodded with a pained expression.