“Good, good evening…” Qi Leren, who came out of the basement after completing today’s training task, glanced over and saw Ning Zhou sitting on the sofa. The uninvited guest sat straight on the soft sofa, who knows how long he’d been waiting.
Qi Leren, who was covered in sweat, subconsciously looked down at his clothes. This time he was fine, wearing a sports vest, and finally he was not curious-looking: “I’ll take a shower and be right back!”
With that said, Qi Leren ran upstairs to first wash himself quickly.
Perched on the coat rack, the big black bird let out a strange laugh and seemed to laugh at Ning Zhou, this master of its that had been left on the sofa. The latter gave it a blank look, and under the deterrent of its master’s eyes, it made a whistling sound and looked in all directions casually.
After a quick shower, Qi Leren ran down the stairs with a boiling hot water kettle, and poured Ning Zhou and himself a glass of water. The big black bird that was not entertained rattled discontentedly, and Qi Leren had no choice but to pour it a cup. Unexpectedly, the bird was brazen and pushed its luck: “I’m hungry, I want something delicious!”
It also coveted the few rations Qi Leren had left!
Qi Leren was distressed. There weren’t many “pleasing rations”. By now, they had all been fed to this bird… But this was Ning Zhou’s bird. Right now, he had to count on Ning Zhou for help. Alright, let’s feed…
“Ignore it.” Before Qi Leren took out the food, Ning Zhou made a noise to stop him.
Qi Leren retracted the hand he’d been about to feed it with in good faith.
The big black bird looked at its master resentfully, pecked his ear discontentedly, and flapped its wings to fly away.
“Your bird has character… but its very smart. What’s its name and breed?” Qi Leren asked.
Even outside of the mission, where Ning Zhou was no longer equipped with the Closed Meditation skill, he was still quiet, rarely saying anything: “It has no name, the species is an eagle, and its habitat is in the Jinghai Desert.”
Qi Leren’s regional understanding of the Nightmare World basically comes from his playing Nightmare Game, and he vaguely remembered that the Jinghai Desert was the location of the Underground Ant City, hiding the nest-like underground world under its scorching and horrible desert, as well as the scorching Purgatory deep underground, which was a place where demons ran rampant.
There were really too few topics between the two. They’d hardly talked during the Witchcraft Sacrifice. After that, every time they met, the unique circumstances hadn’t allowed them to sit down and chat, but now they were a little embarrassed.
“If it’s an eagle, then doessn’t it speak eagle (English)?” Qi Leren told a pun.*
*{E/N: Ning Zhou says his bird is an eagle (语鹰 yu ying), and Qi Leren tries to joke by saying oh, then wont it speak the language of the eagles (ying yu 鹰语; the same characters but switched), which is a homonym for english (英语 ying yu) }
Ning Zhou gave him a calm, blank look, giving no indication of laughing.
Qi Leren froze, forgetting that Ning Zhou was not a person from the real world. He didn’t know what English was!
“Ahem, in the outside world, there is a common language called English. We sometimes use it when we talk. What is Hello, Happy, Hani… Ahem, it’s nothing special, pretend I didn’t say anything.” Qi Leren felt that he had suddenly become an emperor of silence, and his heart was in tears. Why was it that he could easily talk to sinister killers when he was acting as Red? Yet now, in the face of his own kind, he often made stupid mistakes?
In fact, he didn’t know what to say to the other party. Why did he say such a thing? Ning Zhou: “…Oh.”
For some reason, this silent scene reminded Qi Leren of a long time ago. At that time, he had not yet entered the Nightmare Game, and he was still an unemployed youth who was looking for a job everywhere shortly after graduation. His parents introduced him to a friend’s daughter. This sister was dignified and beautiful, that is, she was a little cold. After the exchange of “um, ah, oh, ok, thank you, you’re welcome”, there was no more…
At this moment, the scene was similar to the picture of that blind date, except the one on the opposite sofa wasn’t quite the right gender.
“I…” Qi Leren was ready to talk about the Slaughter Secret Society.
“You…” Ning Zhou also happened to speak.
The two voices collided.
“You go first.”
“You go first.”
Two voices collided again, and they went silent at the same time.
Qi Leren began to sweat again. It won’t work! This communication is totally impossible! It’s embarrassing to sit and talk!
“Are you hungry? I’ll make some fried rice.” Qi Leren was really a little hungry. It would be better to communicate at the dinner table.
“I don’t…” “I’m hungry! I’m so hungry! I’m starving!” Ning Zhou had just said two words when his bird screamed at the top of its lungs, startling Qi Leren.
After being interrupted by it, the atmosphere in the room was finally better. Qi Leren showed a big smile and looked at it gratefully: “If it can eat, I’ll make three servings. Cooking at home is much cheaper than eating outside. Paying the bill when you eat out hurts.”
Seeing Qi Leren’s offer, Ning Zhou didn’t refuse and silently followed him into the kitchen… A win.
Qi Leren’s mood became complicated when he saw Ning Zhou cutting tomatoes with a kitchen knife. It felt like seeing Dr. Lu approach him; he always felt that the skill points were a little biased.
A pan of fried rice and a pot of soup were finished quickly, and Qi Leren’s craftsmanship was OK. After all, he lived alone all the year round, and he would have to eat instant noodles every day if he couldn’t cook with his own hands. Ning Zhou, though, seemed almost like a chef, and Qi Leren felt distressed when he thought of his own life experience.
But there was a feeling of friendliness with this chef, and the atmosphere was much better when the two people sat at the dinner table. Qi Leren told Ning Zhou about the Slaughter Secret Society while eating, and how when he saw Ning Zhou listed as the mission goal for the selection ceremony to decide the holder, he’d almost fallen into the trap. Ning Zhou gave him a deep look.
Qi Leren choked for a moment, and he found it was easy to misunderstand, but the explanation made it worse and worse, so he had to bury his head in his food, burping from the anxiety. He was ridiculed by the eagle, who was tasting its unfamiliar fried rice.
After eating, Qi Leren revived his spirits and began to tell Ning Zhou about his plan: “The Slaughter Secret Society’s internal struggle is fierce. The Court always suspected that they could catch Kunagshan because the present keeper agent Lie Yang (Luo Yishan) had secretly leaked his whereabouts, because once the keeper dies, the memento ring will fall into the hands of the keeper agent. Right now, the ring has lost its binding. No matter whose hands it falls into, anyone can use it, but the functions of the half-field are incomplete. The acting ring holder also has the right to hold a selection ceremony to elect the next ring holder, and the new ring holder binds the ring to restore all functions in the half-field. But my presence broke his calculations. He must be worried that I’ll find you before him and sacrifice you to the Lord of Slaughter to become the new holder, so he needs to find a way to get rid of me and hold another selection ceremony. There are too many variables now. So I guess he’ll get rid of me before I finish the task. When there’s only one competitor left, whether the task is completed or not, he’ll become the ring holder. ”
Qi Leren’s situation at this time was undoubtedly dangerous, but he felt quite safe in this house. After all, the Court’s people shadowed him all the time. It was very difficult for Yang to kill him here. If Yang was being careful, he wouldn’t assassinate him here. The place was too unfamiliar, and his likelihood of failing would be very high. Once he failed, Red would be more vigilant.
In order to assassinate the demonized Red, it was necessary to kill him with one swift and resolute blow and end the battle before he awakened his demonization. The best way was to carry it out in the field. When you entered the field with full confidence and wanted to complete the sacrifice and seize the memento ring…
“There’s a good chance that he’ll rally his men to attack me suddenly and get rid of me after I enter the field. I’ve heard that in many selection ceremonies, it was quite common for candidates to kill each other. The Devil of Slaughter is indifferent to this group of believers, looking at them as no different from beggars. He just likes to watch them kill indiscriminately,” Qi Leren said with a frown.
“What are you going to do?” Ning Zhou asked.
Qi Leren glanced at Ning Zhou with trepidation: “This… requires you to be sacrificed…”
Ning Zhou: “…” He had a bad feeling.
Qi Leren was really becoming more and more skilled at convincing his teammates.