Chapter 67: 54

[Extra] 54 - Ye Lan x Ye Xiao - «Daytime Sleep» 01

The author has something to say:

I’m inserting Ye Xiao’s past in order to complete the storyline (it is not easy to explain since the main text is written in first person =3 =), the timeline is several years in the past.

The full name comparison table:

Ye Tan - Geng Chen
Ye Jun - Yi Wei
Ye Lan - Bing Xu
Ye Xiao - Gui Mao

The rankings are according to strength at the time of entrance1, and won’t be altered if there is a change afterwards.
If you can’t remember that’s fine, everyone’s character is super clear so it’s unlikely there will be mistakes, hei~~~

———

Gui Mao had originally planned to go to sleep early today, taking off his bloody clothes and carelessly rushing into the waterfall, being the first to walk back to the bunks.

But when the others returned to the room after the trials had finished, the continuous stream of moans, cries, and insults created endless noise, making even he, who had the best temperament in the cycle, feel moody just by hearing it. They were all wounded, each one was also simply a youth of eleven or twelve years, and it could be said they had almost no endurance, so every day there was someone who yelled and cried bitterly, unable to bear the torment. Compared to the ruthless Killing Arena during the day, this revealed the weakness and unwillingness of a habitat that seemed more like purgatory instead.

It wasn’t that he looked down on them.

It was only that, these youths that wailed and caused trouble due to their injuries generally didn’t last several days before meeting their Maker, and were replaced with new people to fill the vacancies when the moment came. Gui Mao was one of the sixty youths that made up this cycle, and, of the people that came in at the same time as him and were able to survive until this day, there remained only ten.

Gui Mao considered himself a heartless person, he had long gotten used to smiling while helping his brothers collect corpses, but after hearing these sounds of weeping for a long time, his heart was also at a loss. Every single one of these youths were risking their lives to survive, but he didn’t have any hopes, so much so that he didn’t cling to surviving in the world, and he didn’t know what on earth he was trying to achieve every day.


Gui Mao couldn’t stop himself from fidgeting in irritation, he still hadn’t put on a garment, so he got up and walked out the door with a bare upper-body.

As usual, there was a person sitting by the doorway in a daze, Gui Mao greeted him with the usual wave of his hand. As he walked towards the courtyard, he leapt into the air and jumped towards courtyard's Eastern Head Pavilion, climbed up layer upon layer until he reached the roof in the topmost layer, and sat down on the ivory eaves with one leg slung over the other.

He gazed into the distance, towards the East, and caught sight of a familiar figure.

The sun was setting on the sky, and the clouds reflected the glow of the sun, that person was sitting upright, cross-legged on some stone steps under a veranda, polishing a sword.


The neighbouring courtyard was for the Seniors one cycle older than Gui Mao, he had asked about this person’s ranking, and found out he was Geng Chen.

Geng Chen’s actions were extremely regular, he would come here practically every day after training, and would either meditate or polish his sword. He sat there like a boulder, unmoving, and spoke very little, his movements were calm and steady, not fitting for someone his age.

At the Nightrunner, very few people used swords, and even fewer practised internal breathing. The daily trials were all life-threatening, surviving today did not necessarily mean one would survive tomorrow, and internal cultivation2 was extremely time-consuming, seeing its effects was also very slow, and people were unable to bear practising asceticism. It’s always easy to avoid clear shots, but hard to guard against hidden arrows, so everyone wished they could meticulously study all kinds of shady means and ruthless methods, to catch others by surprise and gain victory to continue living.

That was why, the first time Gui Mao looked down into the neighbouring courtyard from the high building and saw there was someone using a sword, he viciously thought about when this person would die.

However, as his own colleagues were replaced in wave after wave, that neighbouring youth holding a sword seemed as though he would never fade away.

It was only after he asked around that he found out that Geng Chen’s skills in concealed weapons and poisons were also the most outstanding in his cycle.

That person was truly strange, both tenacious and fearsome but also open and candid, simply incompatible with the Nightrunner.


Gui Mao gradually discovered that that steady figure had the power to captivate and pacify him, so whenever he felt irritated, he only had to climb to the top of the building and look down for a short time, then his heart would be able to settle down.

Geng Chen meticulously finished polishing his sword and began to meditate, Gui Mao watched him, accidentally falling asleep.

After a brief and boring dream, he woke up and wiped away some drool. That person was still meditating in his original spot, not having moved a single bit, and it seemed as though no time had passed for him.

A sense of guilt arose involuntarily.

After the passing of the third watch3 , the lanterns in the neighbouring courtyard were extinguished one by one, and a smiling young man came out of the room and sat next to Geng Chen. This person was called Yi Wei, and he also used a sword, from hearing his rank one knew he was among the elites of this cycle. Gui Mao also occasionally saw him performing sword-dances in the courtyard, but they were never tinged with the least bit of bloody murderous spirit, and instead had a vigorous style resembling a wild crane alone among the clouds.

But Gui Mao had rarely ever seen him practising martial arts, he seemed to be a genius whose skills were bestowed by heaven, and that, coupled with a shallow smile that didn’t show warmth or sincerity, meant he always carried an air of indifferent contempt and frivolity.

Yi Wei and Geng Chen were both swordsmen, but they actually gave the impression of being two completely different extremes.

At this moment, Yi Wei was sitting next to Geng Chen, holding his chin up and smiling at him with narrowed eyes, idly speaking to him. Geng Chen continued to silently cultivate with his eyes closed, and it wasn’t clear whether he was listening or not.

After chatting for a while, Yi Wei was unable to suppress a sleepy yawn, so he got up and pushed Geng Chen back into the room to rest.


Gui Mao saw as the lights on that courtyard were extinguished, so he stretched and also returned to the ground.

Back in his own room, everyone was already asleep, and the only sounds that could be heard were occasional low moans. As he walked back to the room, that person whom he greeted when he went out was still sitting at the threshold in a daze. Gui Mao stopped in front of him for a moment, pulled out a plum candy from his pocket, and slipped it to him.

The Nightrunner had a trivial reward system in which the top few names in every trial could ask for some prizes from the upper levels. Some people exchanged these for time off, some used it to ask for top-notch medicine. Gui Mao had fortunately gotten the top spot several times, and each time he had asked for food. He always felt that he would get eternal rest after he was dead, so there was no need to ask for time off, and that no matter how effective a medicine was, it might not necessarily change his fate, so he might as well get drunk while he still had wine4 . This was how he had obtained these plum candies.

He was not at all familiar with this person that often sat at the doorway of his room in a daze, although it seemed like he had asked for his name before, Gui Mao didn’t lack relations with other people, so after a few words he turned his head and forgot the name of this closed gourd. He encountered him every time he went in or out and, if Gui Mao’s mood was good, he would slip him a few snacks in passing.

But every time he came back from watching Geng Chen, his mood was always good, so he almost always gave him some.

The Nightrunner was not a peaceful place, and it was not unprecedented for people to attack each other during rest time, but no matter what food Gui Mao offered him, that person would always take and swallow it.

Gui Mao thought that, since he was so unsuspecting, there might be something wrong with his brain.

After giving him the candy, Gui Mao laid back down on his bunk, and it wasn’t long before he fell asleep.

That person remained motionless by the door, sitting like that for the entire night.


After a long time of steady, placid days accompanied by the smell of blood, the end of the year was just around the corner. There were a lot of people that couldn’t survive the winter outside, and this was even more true inside the Nightrunner. The end of year was a big hurdle at the Nightrunner, consisting of a series of cruel trials one after the other.

This year was the fifth year since Gui Mao’s cycle began at the Nightrunner, so there would be a Great Trial at the end of the year according to the rules.

Nobody knew the details, but according to the information Gui Mao acquired from making inquiries at the neighbouring courtyard, for this kind of Great Trial, of the sixty people in the previous cycle, only eight had survived.

Gui Mao held his chin and seized up his surrounding colleagues, who were both friends and foes, and felt that he might not be lucky enough to rise to the top, and that these days of neither being on the top nor on the bottom might come to an end soon.

It could be said that he wasn’t afraid, and he also had no regrets to speak of, the only thing that came to mind was that he still hadn’t spoken to Geng Chen.

Gui Mao had always been straightforward, so as soon as the thought popped into his mind, his feet had already started moving in that direction.

He surveyed the scene from the other person’s doorway for a short time, but unfortunately Geng Chen wasn’t inside. Unexpectedly, that always-smiling Yi Wei pat him on the shoulder and asked: “Are you next cycle’s Gui Mao? What are you doing here?”

Gui Mao felt suspicious: “You know me?”

Yi Wei smiled: “You often stare at me from the roof of the building, so naturally I had to find out information about you, so as to avoid dying in the dark.”

Gui Mao clicked his tongue: “Who stares at you!”

“I’m so good-looking, you staring at me is a given, what’s there to be shy about.” Yi Wei smiled brightly, feeling very good about himself, and said, “What did you come here for?”

Gui Mao tilted his head: “I’m going to have the Great Trial in a few days time, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to survive, so I wanted to ask some Seniors for advice on their experience.”

“Oh, the Great Trial.” Yi Wei stroked his chin as he pondered for a moment, and confidently smiled as he said, “Don’t worry, a simple-minded person like you can very easily pass it.”

Gui Mao did not believe him at all: “Hey, how would you know.”

Yi Wei still had that insincere smile, and spoke with certainty: “Because I’m not only good-looking, I’m also very smart.”

Gui Mao sighed in his heart: This person’s words turned out to be so shameless, it was no wonder that every time he spoke with Geng Chen, Geng Chen would rarely pay attention to him. But even though he was a person that badly needed a beating, Geng Chen had never beat him up, so it was clear that Geng Chen’s character was truly the best of the best.

After this series of comparisons, his good impression of Geng Chen increased by a lot.


Yi Wei sighed: “Alas, you’re mocking me in your heart.”

Gui Mao’s thoughts were interrupted by him, and he hurriedly explained: “I didn’t say anything.”

“I’m clearly a lot smarter than you all, yet all you fools ridicule me, the ways of the world are truly unjust.” Yi Wei spoke a few self-pitying words, and suddenly added, “I can also tell you that, in the future, Geng Chen will become Yaksha, and I will become Ye Jun. Wait until the evaluation is finished, and remember to rehabilitate your opinion of me in your heart, I really am a smart person, that’s not a joke.”

Gui Mao was stunned, and it took him a long time to understand what he had said. He spoke in surprise: “So it turns out Geng Chen wants the title of Yaksha the Blood Demon.....”

Yi Wei shook his head: “No, he wants to be Ye Jun the Imperial Servant. Unfortunately, he isn’t willing to listen to what I say, so he won’t be able to seize this title.”

Gui Mao was at a loss: “I don’t understand. Since you’re so confident, isn’t there anything you can do to help him accomplish what he wants?”

Yi Wei laughed bitterly: “No matter how smart I may be, there are plenty of things I can’t do. Just like Geng Chen, no matter how strong he is, there are a lot of things he can’t do.”


Gui Mao returned to his room in a confused daze, unable to understand Yi Wei’s words for a long time.

How could there be things that Yi Wei and Geng Chen couldn’t do? Were there such difficult things to accomplish in the world?

As for himself, when he wanted to eat roast chicken, he asked for it as a reward and got it, and it was delicious; when he wanted to eat deep-fried skewers, he asked for them and got them, and they were delicious; when he wanted to eat the Super Unrivalled Seascape Buddha Jumps Over the Wall..... he only got a regular Buddha Jumps Over the Wall5 , but it was also super delicious, so there was no problem.

Gui Mao’s melancholy was drowned out by the menu, and he gradually forgot what the initial question was.


In the blink of an eye, the Great Trial came and went. Gui Mao survived, so much so that he felt it was outrageously easy.

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Just as he had been told, he arrived at a secret realm filled with rising white mist, and in the middle of that secret realm he saw a lively fried chicken jumping about, wielding a large knife. Gui Mao threw himself at it and bit off a mouthful, but it had no flavour at all, so he angrily chopped the fried chicken up into small pieces.

Then the trial ended.

Gui Mao was wholeheartedly dumbfounded.


Gui Mao returned to the room, stupefied. He was the only person in the entire room, but he was happy for the quiet rest. Gui Mao leisurely daydreamed for a long time, and in the evening, still by himself, ate three people’s worth of food portions.

He wandered about, overcome with boredom, until the early morning of the second day, when one or two exhausted colleagues returned.

Was slicing up a fried chicken so difficult? Gui Mao wanted to take the opportunity to insult and ridicule them, but his colleagues started tearfully complaining about how vicious and sinister the enemies were this time, how terrifying the monsters and demons were, and how difficult it had been to win.

Gui Mao swallowed a mouthful of saliva, apparently the enemies had been random, and his luck had just been good.


After New Year’s Eve, the Nightrunner had a rare moment of brief rest. Although there were no celebrations, for them, being able to live and have nothing to do was the greatest favour they could be granted.

The Great Trial gradually came to an end, this cycle had around ten people survive, which could be considered pretty good.

The room that had been formerly crammed with thirty people now only had a few remaining, which made it appear bleak and cold when compared to the bustling and lively New Year’s fireworks being set off outside.


Gui Mao looked at the doorway, which was completely empty.

That person that always sat by the threshold in a daze, did he not survive?

There probably wasn’t any other reason apart from bad luck.


The names on the list were eliminated one by one. Gui Mao scanned the names gathered on the list, trying to see if he would remember that person’s name if he found it, but unfortunately the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches code names were of no substance to him, so he really couldn’t remember anything.

“How many people survived this time?” Gui Mao asked without thinking.

“Eleven…..” Someone answered.

“Hey, one’s not dead yet, it should be twelve.” Someone else refuted.

“What’s the use of that now, if he can’t attend training, he’ll be eliminated sooner or later.” The previous person scoffed.

Gui Mao didn’t understand, so he asked: “What happened?”

That person answered: “Although the person survived, he turned stupid, he doesn’t understand people’s words and he can’t recognise anyone, he’s been relying on medicine to hang on for two days, I’m afraid he won’t last much longer.”

“Is that so? No wonder I’ve been smelling strong medicine from next door these past two days.” Gui Mao didn’t like the bitter smell of medicinal herbs, and he had felt that this smell was a hindrance.

After speaking a few more words of nonsense, fireworks began being set off outside, Gui Mao found himself with nothing to do, so he decided to climb over onto the roof and lay down for a look.

He had been laying down for a while when he heard someone next door cursing and making a racket, there seemed to be some sort of argument. He listened carefully, it turned out people in the next door room were trying to shift the responsibility of taking care of that fool.

Gui Mao was familiar with a few of the people next door, so he figured he might as well go down and take a look. He pushed the door open and went in, and was immediately assaulted by the strong smell of medicinal herbs, making him want to leave again.

There was a person lying down on a bunk, illuminated by the candlelight, his hair was a complete mess and his eyes were unfocused, with a foolish look on his face, and both saliva and medicine dripped from the edge of his mouth, flowing down into his chest and getting everywhere. His whole body was covered in disorderly bandages, and it seemed like his injuries weren’t light, yet he was always flailing about.

The few people surrounding him were cursing and complaining, nobody wanted to take care of him.

But the people that really acted to eliminate colleagues were inevitably pushed aside by others in the future, so nobody wanted to be the one to stand out on this issue.

Gui Mao thought he seemed familiar, and looked for a long time, suddenly coming to the realisation, wasn’t this the guy that dazedly sat outside the door of his room everyday?

No wonder he always sat at the threshold and he never saw him going in to rest after the lights went out, it turned out he wasn’t from the same room as him in the first place.

Then, why didn’t he behave and go back to his room to rest, what was he running off next door for?


Gui Mao walked to the front of the bunk while he wondered this, taking a careful look, and found that it was indeed that person.

The person that was holding the medicine by his side was startled: “Hey, he seems to be looking at you?”

“He is?” Gui Mao turned to the right, and that person’s sight shifted an inch, following him.

“Yo, he hasn’t looked at anyone in the last two days, I thought he was blind. Is he taking a turn for the better?”

The person holding the medicine spoke, laughing with someone to the side: “Could it be terminal lucidity6 ? Hahaha.”

The person to the side laughed out loud. That person with dementia stared at Gui Mao for a long time, and suddenly opened his mouth: “Gui Mao.”

“Aiyo, he spoke! He can still speak! Then hurry up and drink the medicine.” He stuffed the bowl of medicine into his arms as he spoke, but he didn’t know how to reach out to hold it, and it spilled all over his chest.

It seemed as though he was unaware of the others, he just foolishly repeated: “Gui Mao.”

Gui Mao was bewildered: “You recognise me?”

That person didn’t answer, appearing as though he didn’t understand the question, and only stared at him helplessly.

The surrounding people took advantage of the situation, turning to Gui Mao and stuffing the medicine bowl into his hands, saying: “Since you two are friends, you should just take care of him!” And slipping away out of sight.

Only two people remained, and Gui Mao had no alternative but to sit down by his side.

Seeing him sit down, that person repeated again: “Gui Mao.”

“Yes yes yes, that’s me, I’m here.” Gui Mao stirred with a spoon and asked, “What’s your name?”

He didn’t answer for a long time, and Gui Mao quietly waited for quite a while until that person slowly opened his mouth: “I don’t remember.”

He didn’t recognise others, and also didn’t remember who he was, but he recognised me? Gui Mao was increasingly suspicious, he scooped out a spoonful of medicine and gradually lifted it next to his mouth: “Drink this medicine first, alright? Your injuries are so serious, I’ll help you wrap them up again later.”

That person was still stupidly watching him, it seemed that this sentence was too long, so he wasn’t able to respond.

Gui Mao though about it, and said: “Open your mouth.”

He obediently opened his mouth.

Gui Mao couldn’t help laughing, it turned out he could understand simple orders. He slowly fed him the entire bowl of medicine, that person seemed to gradually understand how to swallow, so the last half of the bowl went smoothly.


Gui Mao went out to return the bowl to a young servant, and the people that had slipped away before were all amazed: “So fast? Yesterday I poured a bowl of medicine for more than half a sichen, I was worried to death.”

“What’s he called?” Gui Mao asked.

Someone answered: “Bing Xu.”


Gui Mao nodded as he remembered, looking pensive as he turned to go back, but he saw that that person had fallen to the ground and crawled a small distance on his hands.

“Hey, ancestor, what are you doing?” Gui Mao grabbed him by the collar and carried him back to his bunk, discovering that his previously wooden expression had turned into one of panic.

“Gui Mao…..” Bing Xu couldn’t speak, only repeating his name, but he could still make out a bit of urgency.

“I’m here I’m here, be good, ah. Come, lie back down.” Gui Mao helped him settle down, looking at the messy bandages on his body, and roughly knew what had caused it.

“With your injuries like this, what are you doing still trying to go out, is there something outside?” Gui Mao carefully cut open his bandages, cleaning his wounds again and scattering some medicinal powder on them.

Bing Xu only replied in a daze: “You.”

“Me? What about me?” Gui Mao thought he was staring a sentence by mentioning him, so he applied the medicine while he waited for him to follow up. It was only after a while that he reacted: “You mean to say I’m the one outside?”

Bing Xu nodded.

Gui Mao smiled lightly and sighed: “You really are stupid.”


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1 The names are based on the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches year numbering system, however, the way the Nightrunner’s ranking works is based on the first part of the name rather than just what number the name directly translates to. This will be explained in the next chapter, but in case anyone is curious now, the rankings of the guys from strongest to weakest is: Yi Wei, Bing Xu, Geng Chen, and Gui Mao. Top.

2 Internal Cultivation, 内家 nèijiā, focuses on the cultivation of internal aspects like the mind, spirit, and qi. As opposed to External Cultivation which focuses on the cultivation physical aspects like strength and agility. Top.

3 The third of the five night watch periods, between 23:00 and 1:00. Top.

4 今朝有酒今朝醉 lit. now have wine now get drunk. Idiom that means to live in the moment and enjoy life while you can. So like YOLO or Carpe Diem lol. Top.

5 Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is a type of soup that uses a lot of non-vegetarian ingredients, and is regarded as a delicacy for its rich flavour. The name comes from the saying that the dish is so good it would even be able to entice vegetarian Buddhists to eat it. Top.

6 A phenomenon in which a person with severe mental deterioration suddenly regains their clarity of mind just before dying. Top.

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