Death Spiral [Infinite Flow] - Chapter 62

Chapter 62 – Kiss Marks

After returning to the apartment, Xu RenDong’s first reaction was to go across the hall to find Lian Qiao. However as soon as he opened the door, a fist flew towards his eyes. Xu RenDong took a step back instinctively and reached into the backpack with his backhand.

…Huh, where’s my mace?

“Brother RenDong! Calm down! It’s me!” Lian Qiao was taken aback by his reaction and quickly withdrew his hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to hit you. I just wanted to knock on the door!”

Xu RenDong thought: Liar! You obviously want to punch me against the wall! You rebellious little brother! {Referring to the previous life when XRD misunderstood LQ’s ‘I want to push you against the wall’….}

Xu RenDong suppressed his unhappiness and said, turning sideways, “Come in.”

The two sat down on the sofa and Lian Qiao asked excitedly: “How is it? How many points would you give me?”

Xu RenDong: “What?”

Lian Qiao: “A surprise test! Didn’t you say you want to test me?” He became anxious afterwards, “If I didn’t pass the instance, would you not want me anymore?”

Xu RenDong said: “Not necessarily.”

Lian Qiao breathed a sigh of relief.

Xu RenDong: “If you didn’t pass the instance, you would be dead.”

Lian Qiao: “…”

Xu RenDong suddenly remembered something and subconsciously touched his left eye, “Lamia’s eyeballs are gone.”

Lian Qiao said, “Mine’s gone too. It seems that this is a one-time consumable item. By the way Brother RenDong, what’s your instance like this time? Tell me.”

Xu RenDong gave a brief explanation and, afterwards, Lian Qiao described his own instance. Then he showed a thoughtful expression.

Xu RenDong wanted to ask him what he was thinking but suddenly something flickered in his heart and he changed the way he was thinking. He narrowed his eyes and made a deep gesture: “Did you finally notice something?”

Lian Qiao was shocked: “So this is testing me too?! Big boss, can you give me a heads up if you’re going to test me in the future!”

Xu RenDong: “No.” How can I tell you in advance if I, the person giving the test, can’t even keep up with you, the candidate’s, thinking!

Lian Qiao: “Alright…” He sighed and said, “I’m wondering if there will be a special player in each instance.”

Special player? Xu RenDong’s heart felt tight. He pretended to be calm and asked, “How are they special?”

Lian Qiao: “How do I put it… Let’s use my instance this time as an example, the skeleton in the cabinet. At first glance, it refers to that article in New Concepts but it actually is reminding us that the skeleton key is in the cabinet and also that the skeleton key is a master key. That’s the meaning in English. But if you are unaware of this English meaning, you wouldn’t be able to guess it. Brother RenDong it’s the same on your side, the butterflies in the stomach. If not for checking the information, who the hell would know what it means?”

Xu RenDong nodded: “Go on.”

Lian Qiao: “Strangely enough, within the instance, there are people present who understand these things. Mine is a middle school student who was studying New Concepts and, on your side, it’s that girl who speaks German. In our last instance, with Lamia, wasn’t the prompt ‘esophagus’? The etymology of Lamia’s name is ‘esophagus’, which we didn’t notice even when we checked the information. But after we left the instance, I accidentally came across a book sale. The title of the book was “Esophagus”, and the content was also related to Lamia. Guess who the author was?”

Xu RenDong originally thought that the “special player” meant him who could read save files after death, but it turned out it wasn’t. He thought for a while then said: “That little fat guy?”

Lian Qiao smiled and said, “Yes! You would have never have thought that Little Fatty was actually a recent celebrity internet writer!” He took out his phone and opened Weibo, “Look! He’s actually a beautiful youth! As expected, fat people are all potential good stocks. I almost didn’t recognize him!”

Xu RenDong glanced at it. The man in the photo, who had an aura of poetically wasting away, indeed bore some similarities to the little fat kid in his memory, but their temperaments were very different.

It seemed that Lian Qiao’s inference was not wrong. At least one person in each instance knows the specific meaning of the clearance prompt, but what did that signify?

Xu RenDong really didn’t understand that well but he couldn’t lose the presence of the boss so he looked at Lian Qiao with an expression of “you finally understand”. Lian Qiao said, in realization,”So big brother, did you take me with you because of this? Because I am the special player from the ‘Russian doll’ instance?!”

… Is that right? No wonder he couldn’t survive as soon as Lian Qiao died.

Xu RenDong nodded deeply.

Lian Qiao’s eyebrows drooped: “Oh, that’s it, I thought it was because I was talented, clever and ingenious and that’s why you chose me… So I’m just a tool then, wuwuwu.”

No, you misunderstand! I really want to hug your thighs because of your talents and cleverness!

Because he had to maintain the image of being a big brother, Xu RenDong couldn’t tell the truth so he wrapped his arms around himself and smiled coldly: “Heh.”

Lian Qiao looked at his unpredictable attitude and suddenly became clear again: “But you didn’t use me up and throw me away, which means I’m still a bit useful! Yes, you said that you are cultivating new people and will even give me surprise tests to test my growth progress…Big brother, you are actually nurturing me with your heart, aren’t you!”

It’s so good to have the identity of a big boss!

Seeing that Lian Qiao was moved to tears by the conclusions of his own brain, Xu RenDong suppressed a smile and patted Lian Qiao’s shoulder meaningfully: “It’s good that you know.”

The two chatted for a while and then, when the hour hand pointed to eight o’clock, Lian Qiao stood up and said, “Then I’ll be going back first! It’s going to be time for me to broadcast soon.”

Xu RenDong escorted him to the door and looked at his leaving back. Suddenly he felt as though something deep in his soul was pulling away from him little by little. The lemon in his heart went ‘peng’ and exploded again. It was dull and painful, and there was an unspeakable sorrow.

He couldn’t help but cry: “Lian Qiao.”

“Huh?” Lian Qiao turned his head with his eyebrows bent into a nice arc, “What’s the matter?”

Xu RenDong said: “Move over and live with me.”

Lian Qiao opened his eyes wide and his face was full of shock. Time seemed to stand still and Xu RenDong heard 10,000 butterflies flapping their wings inside his chest.

He suppressed the fierce heartbeat and said, in the flattest tone he could manage, “You have passed the exam and I recognize your ability. Let’s enter future instances together.”

Like fireworks blooming in the night sky, after a brief period of splendor, the expression on Lian Qiao’s face returned to dimness again. However, this loss lasted only a moment and he soon smiled again: “Okay.”

Xu RenDong also returned to his apartment. As soon as Lian Qiao left, the whole apartment suddenly became quiet. He started to miss Lian Qiao’s noisy voice a little.

However, he actually said it. He actually took the initiative to ask Lian Qiao to move in… what was he thinking…

Xu RenDong’s face was slightly hot. He touched his face and warned himself strenuously: It’s just living together for safety reasons. Don’t think too much!

The next day, Lian Qiao said he wanted to cook and eat together in the evening. Xu RenDong got home from work early and knocked on the door of Lian Qiao’s apartment. Lian Qiao didn’t respond to the knock or the WeChat message he sent. This time Xu RenDong had experience and directly opened the live broadcast platform and entered Lian Qiao’s live broadcast room. Sure enough, Lian Qiao was live-streaming grocery shopping in the supermarket.

“Look, does it look like the flower thrown by the bride at the wedding?” Lian Qiao held a broccoli flower and swayed it. A passing auntie could be seen casting a disgusted look at him through the lens.

The audience in the barrage are all “hahahahaha”.

“Broccoli is also a flower, there’s no problem!”

“You look so good-looking, everything you say is right!”

“What the hell, is it really good to send such green flowers hahahaha!” {refers to the Chinese slang ‘wearing a green hat’, meaning being cheated on.}

“The anchor won’t play games today? Have you changed to broadcasting eating?”

While Lian Qiao was shopping for food and chatting with the audience members, Xu RenDong watched silently and suddenly noticed a few strange patterns under the live broadcast room. As soon as he moved the mouse up, a text description jumped out on the icon. It turns out that this was a reward in the live broadcast room and it needs to be recharged and exchanged into platform currency before it could be purchased.

Xu RenDong clicked on all the props in this row and a line of shiny special characters floated in the barrage, saying that the so-and-so audience had rewarded whichever props. Xu RenDong saw his ID and was shocked. He didn’t want Lian Qiao to know that he was spying on his grocery shopping. Fortunately, there were many people giving rewards to Lian Qiao and Xu RenDong was not very conspicuous in the crowd.

He was relieved. At this time, Lian Qiao had already selected the dishes and was lining up to weigh in front of the electronic scale.

Someone in the barrage asked him why he was so happy today and if something good had happened. Lian Qiao smiled without saying a word.

Everyone began to guess what happened. Xu RenDong knew that this meal was being made for him. He looked at the mess in the barrage where guesses and conjectures of every type were being made and felt a secret happiness in his heart, as if he had secretly eaten a candy behind everyone’s back.

But before Xu RenDong could be happy for long, he saw Lian Qiao say joyfully: “The truth is that there was a qualitative leap between HuaHua and me!”

HuaHua?

Xu RenDong sprayed water on the table.

Yesterday, you just escaped from the instance and today, you already made a leap with the goddess. You really are talented.

Xu RenDong felt more sour and depressed the more he thought about it, so he closed his laptop with a “plop”. After a while, he sat back in front of the computer in a fury and contacted the live broadcast platform customer service to ask if he could refund the reward.

Customer service: “Dear, it’s not possible. According to the service agreement, it is confirmed that the rewards sent cannot be withdrawn.”

Xu RenDong: “I pressed the wrong button.”

Customer service: “My dear, I’ll check it for you here. You have rewarded the anchor with ten props with different prices within two minutes. You mean you pressed all ten buttons incorrectly, is that right?”

Xu RenDong: “…” He only felt that his face was slapped and his heart became more angry. He just went for it and said, “Yes! My hands were shaking!”

Customer service: “Sorry, dear, refunds are not possible. However, I suggest you go to the neurology department. Frequent hand shaking may be a symptom of Parkinson’s disease!”

Xu RenDong: “…”

What he needs now is not a neurology department, he should go to the psychiatric department to calm down.

Half an hour later, Lian Qiao sent a message: “I’m going home after I finished shopping! Would you like to come over now?”

Xu RenDong appeared at the door of Lian Qiao’s house with a gloomy expression. As soon as Lian Qiao opened the door, he was startled by the murderous look on his face.

“Fuck!” Lian Qiao subconsciously picked up the cooking shovel and stood holding it in front of him to defend himself, “Brother…. RenDong? What’s wrong with you?”

“…” Xu RenDong glared at him silently and then said for a while, “It’s nothing, the weather is too hot and my mood isn’t good.”

“Oh!” Lian Qiao suddenly realized, “Then I’ll get you something to drink! Is Coca-Cola okay?”

Xu RenDong nodded and Lian Qiao took two cans of Coke and put them on the coffee table in front of him. Xu RenDong saw that the coffee table was piled up with freshly bought vegetables and meat and that he hadn’t even had time to unpack it. It seems that Lian Qiao really sent him a message as soon as he got home.

Xu RenDong’s mood suddenly improved a lot and his expression eased. He was about to ask if he needed his help. He saw Lian Qiao fanning his neckline while wiping his sweat, saying “It’s too hot, too hot. The air conditioner works too slowly.”

Xu RenDong glanced at his neck inadvertently and unexpectedly saw a small pink mark.

… Calm down, don’t think too much. It shouldn’t be that kind of explicit thing I’m imagining. Lian Qiao is not so frivolous.

Xu RenDong took a deep breath and then, on Lian Qiao’s collarbone on the same side, a small pink trace could also be seen.

…. Fuck! How is this not frivolous! It’s pretty much a manwhore! That coquettish bitch HuaHua! What did you do to Lian Qiao in broad daylight!

Murderous aura instantly filled the entire apartment. Lian Qiao shivered for no apparent reason, holding his arms in surprise and said: “Hey, why is the air conditioner so powerful all of a sudden?”

Xu RenDong: “Heh.”