Chapter 40.3

Shen Yuan stared at the extinguished candle in front of the door. His gaze was dark and deep. After a moment, he finally said, “We’ll follow yesterday’s arrangement. It’s almost 12 o’clock, go back to your rooms.”

Duan Hongzhen looked displeased. “I have to sleep with this gigolo again? I hate gigolos the most.”

Tang Mianmian, whose

skin was very fair

indeed, pouted in anger. He dared to get angry but didn’t dare complain.

Duan Hongzhen glanced at Xiao Tangqiu, who stood not far away, and suddenly smiled. “I think this guy’s more interesting. Why don’t we switch tonight?”

Xiao Tangqiu subconsciously said, “My skin is also very fair.”

He paused before continuing, “…Although my face is a little more tan from the sun lately, I’m still very fair once I remove my clothes.”

Duan Hongzhen’s expression suddenly turned a little complicated. “Who wants you to take off your clothes?”

He looked at Shen Yuan, his expression becoming even more incomprehensible. “Did the captain ask you to take off your clothes when you slept with him last night?”

Xiao Tangqiu paused before answering, “That’s not what I meant.”

Duan Hongzhen smiled and asked, “What do you mean? Do you mean to say that you’re a gigolo as well?”

Xiao Tangqiu was speechless. Right then, Shen Yuan said faintly, “We have three minutes left.”

“We only have three minutes left, it will be twelve o’ clock soon! We don’t have time, let’s go back to our room!” Xiao Tangqiu quickly changed the subject. “…We still have a tough battle to fight tomorrow!”

Duan Hongzhen shrugged helplessly, accepting the reality of sharing a room with Tang Mianmian.

Tang Mianmian also looked bleak and gloomy. Xiao Tangqiu threw him a sympathetic look. Seeing that Shen Yuan had opened the door and entered the room, he resolutely threw Tang Mianmian aside, and obediently followed behind.

Naturally, the little boy couldn’t stay in the same room as the middle-aged woman. Although he hadn’t said a word, they couldn’t just let him be. Shen Yuan looked at him and then looked at Duan Hongzhen. “You guys sleep together tonight.

Duan Hongzhen arched an eyebrow. “Are you kidding me, captain? Never mind that I’ve to sleep with this gigolo, but now you’re telling me I have to sleep with this little kid too?”

The little boy remained silent with a straight face.

Shen Yuan’s voice was calm. “It’s decided.”

The matter was so happily decided!

Anyway, last night had at least proved that Duan hongzhen wouldn’t kill Tang Mianmian.

Xiao Tangqiu comforted himself, then pretended not to see Tang Mianmian’s expression that said,

love me, don’t leave me.

He simply closed the door, not feeling even an ounce of pressure or remorse.

Shen Yuan began to take off his coat as soon as he entered the door. After his black coat was removed, the fitted top and pants underneath, that allowed easy movement, were revealed. He didn’t remove any more of his clothing, but bent down to take off his shoes. Similarly, he also wore a pair of army boots that made it easy for him to move around.

The most important aspect of Shen Yuan’s clothes was obviously to allow for easy movement, which was very different from the clothes that Duan Hongzhen, that smug fellow, wore. Xiao Tangqiu didn’t want to stare at a grown man taking off his clothes, but his gaze unconsciously landed on Shen Yuan.

Perhaps it was because he had been battle-hardened, Shen Yuan’s figure, wrapped in those fitted clothes, looked very good. He had the kind of figure that looked slim in clothes but once removed, one could see the muscular form underneath. Unfortunately, it was covered by his clothing now. Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t observe any other details and felt a little regret inside.

After Shen Yuan took off his army boots, he walked barefoot, then headed to the bathroom. He was obviously going to take a shower first. Xiao Tangqiu hesitated but still couldn’t resist blurting out, “I saw your tattoo earlier.”

Shen Yuan stopped walking.

Xiao Tangqiu summoned the courage to continue, “Then your tattoo disappeared… What kind of tattoo is it?”

With his back facing Xiao Tangqiu, Shen Yuan remained quiet. He seemed to be expressing his refusal to speak by keeping his back turned towards Xiao Tangqiu.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” Xiao Tangqiu immediately began to regret his moment of rashness. He was just a temporary teammate of Shen Yuan’s. He shouldn’t have been carried away for a moment and regarded that they had a relationship that had gone through a life and death situation. “…Just pretend I didn’t say anything.”

While Xiao Tangqiu was regretting his impulsive act, Shen Yuan suddenly turned around and looked at the door, his expression turning cold.

“What’s the matter?” Xiao Tangqiu asked subconsciously, but soon heard a rustle from outside the door.

Shen Yuan didn’t answer. He walked straight toward the door, past Xiao Tangqiu, who quickly followed. In the next second, Shen Yuan opened the door.

As soon as the door opened, Xiao Tangqiu immediately saw the young man standing in front of their room, stretching out his hand to take their candle!

Seeing that the door had been opened, the young man and the middle-aged man suddenly shifted guiltily. Xiao Tangqiu glanced at them and found that they were holding their own candle, obviously about to steal and switch theirs.

The firewood in the castle’s kitchen must not have worked. It seemed that the two men were ready to give it their all since they were completely cornered.

After seeing Shen Yuan open the door, they immediately revealed a face full of fear. Although they hadn’t seen Shen Yuan’s fighting capabilities for themselves, they were very afraid of him, a senior old player. Now that their sneaky, thieving behavior had been uncovered, they were scared out of their wits and ran off at once.

Shen Yuan coldly watched as they ran back to their own room, looking especially pathetic and wretched. Then, he shut the door.

Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly, “It seems that once the candles are extinguished, it is impossible to light them up again no matter what we do. What do we do once all the candles are extinguished?” So far, only one candle would be extinguished every night, no one could guarantee that two candles wouldn’t be extinguished in one night.

Shen Yuan turned and walked towards the bathroom. “Solve everything in advance and leave the instance in advance.”

“Can we leave the instance in advance?” Xiao Tangqiu suddenly froze.

“…Yes.”

Shen Yuan said this and entered the bathroom.

Xiao Tangqiu had no idea that they could leave the instance ahead of schedule. But on second thought, if they were strong enough, it might be possible to beat their way out of the instance on the first day.

The sound of trickling water came from the bathroom, putting Xiao Tangqiu in some sort of trance. Back then, he often slept with Meng Xinghe. Every time Meng Xinghe showered in the bathroom, he would usually play video games outside… How long had it been since he experienced those days?

Whenever he looked at Shen Yuan, he would involuntarily think of Meng Xinghe. If Meng Xinghe hadn’t died, he would be about the same height as Shen Yuan now, wouldn’t he? Every time he saw Shen Yuan, he thought he was looking at the grown-up version of Meng Xinghe.

It was a pity that apart from their similar appearance, the two were completely different in every other aspect, and their personalities were polar opposites. At the beginning, he would sometimes be confused because they looked so similar, but now he had no way of deceiving himself, because they were actually so different.

Although Xiao Tangqiu had clearly recognized the fact, he still found it impossible to treat Shen Yuan as a complete stranger. He couldn’t help but feel close to Shen Yuan, and couldn’t help wanting to get closer to him.

Not long after, Shen Yuan came out of the bathroom. He had changed into another set of clothes, but it was still the same fitted clothing. This dangerous environment obviously didn’t allow him to change into loose and comfortable pajamas. His hair was still wet and water droplets kept dripping down from the ends of his hair, which seemed to reduce the overall sense of aggression that he had.

Shen Yuan glanced at Xiao Tangqiu impassively, “Go take a shower.”

Xiao Tangqiu was afraid that Shen Yuan would think that he was dirty so he ran to obediently take a shower. As soon as he entered the bathroom, he found a set of neatly folded clothes on the sink. He hesitated for a moment before going back into the room to ask Shen Yuan, “Did you prepare the clothes on the sink for me?”

Shen Yuan sat at the head of the bed and flipped through the book with the thick, black cover. He didn’t look up. “You haven’t changed your clothes once.”

Xiao Tangqiu scratched his face. “I didn’t change.”

……So Shen Yuan didn’t like that he hadn’t changed his clothes for a few days and felt that he was too dirty.

Shen Yuan answered faintly, “Wear mine then.”

Xiao Tangqiu wanted to ask,

where did you take out these clothes from? Do you have a space?

When he was in the church earlier, Shen Yuan had changed his clothes in less than a minute. Where did he take out those clothes from? And that black covered book…

Although he still wanted to ask what that book was, his intuition told him that Shen Yuan wouldn’t divulge that information, so he simply didn’t ask.

Shen Yuan noncommittally made a grunt of agreement.

Xiao Tangqiu looked at Shen Yuan’s leisurely, unbothered expression. He couldn’t help asking for a yard after he had been given an inch. “What about… underwear? Only changing my clothes without changing my underwear isn’t good either.”

Shen Yuan finally raised his head and gave Xiao Tangqiu a look. Xiao Tangqiu blinked innocently, “It’s not clean to change my clothes but not my underwear, is it?”

Shen Yuan was silent for a moment and finally said, “Mine is too big for you. It won’t fit.”

Xiao Tangqiu, “……”

Looking at his speechless expression, Shen Yuan’s eyes seemed to reveal a hint of a smile, but it was fleeting, and he soon restored his usual calm appearance.

After a few seconds, Xiao Tangqiu finally realized that Shen Yuan was joking with him. Shen Yuan actually joked with him?! He found it hard to digest this somewhat thrilling turn of events. Meanwhile, Shen Yuan had already took out a pair of underwear and handed it to him.

Xiao Tangqiu subconsciously looked at the size of his underwear and heard Shen Yuan say, “It’s new.”

He looked up, not knowing what to feel, only to find that Shen Yuan had lowered his head to continue reading.

He hesitated for a long time before finally entering the bathroom in a complicated mood, holding Shen Yuan’s underwear.

Xiao Tangqiu’s mood was more than a little complicated at the moment.

In the past, he and Meng Xinghe often played this sort of joke with each other, even taking off their underwear to compare sizes whenever they disagreed with each other… But ever since Meng Xinghe left, no one had played this sort of joke with him, not until he met Tang Mianmian online.

The bathroom still had the lingering scent of Shen Yuan’s shower gel. The scent wasn’t overpowering. It was a clean, cold fragrance. Xiao Tangqiu found that Shen Yuan had left him some shower gel too. He hesitated and picked it up.

This was a shower gel of unknown brand. He had never even smelled this scent before this. Perhaps it was a unique product of the city of the abyss. He carefully squeezed a little shower gel onto his hand and began to lather up.

Steam had gathered in the narrow bathroom. Xiao Tangqiu was still showering. Suddenly, he realized something – there wasn’t a mirror in the bathroom.

He recalled at once that there wasn’t a mirror in the bathroom that he and Tang Mianmian had shared before either. Not only were there no mirrors in their bathroom, there was also none in their room.

He tried to think back, and realized that there wasn’t a mirror in the other guest rooms as well. Aside from that, he couldn’t remember seeing one in any other part of the castle, such as the corridors, halls and bedrooms. There wasn’t a single mirror in this castle!

After taking a shower, Xiao Tangqiu hastily changed into Shen Yuan’s clothes and went back into the room to tell Shen Yuan about it.

Shen Yuan’s hand, which was just about to flip a page, paused midway, “Mirror?”

“Yes, this castle doesn’t have a single mirror.” Xiao Tangqiu wasn’t someone who often looked at the mirror, so he hardly ever cared about whether there was any mirrors around him or not. If he hadn’t suddenly noticed this while taking a shower just now, he probably wouldn’t have discovered this detail at all. “Could there be something strange about this?”