The Trial Game of Life

At this point, five hours had passed since Scarlet’s 24-hour limit started.

In Lawless’ new base, only the core members could go up to the third floor. Forgettable Face stood at the room door facing the stairs as he smoked a cigarette and stared at the room at the end of the corridor. His eyes cast a slightly sinister gaze, yet they also carried a hint of fear.

The other men were standing rather close to him, and their eyes, intentionally or unintentionally, were also constantly peeking at that room. They then exchanged a glance with their teammates, but no one dared to speak aloud.

Because there was Scarlet in that room.

After Scarlet came to Lawless, she never asked how things were being done on their side, and neither did she give any scary orders. She only asked them to prepare a room. At this moment, she was taking a bath in that room and had even requested a basket of fresh petals. To obtain this basket of petals, the Lawless members had to bite the bullet and run to three different supermarkets to get it.

The Lawless members absolutely couldn’t understand what she was going to do. However, there was no doubt that Jiang He must have something to do with her, because he was also in the room.

“Is that thing dealt with?” Forgettable Face lowered his voice and turned around to ask a teammate.

“Over and done.” The teammate also replied in a low voice.

Forgettable Face couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief, and the two continued to talk for a while, then turned and went into the next room. Inside the room was Miao Qi, while the room next door held Wen Xiaoming.

Without Pei Pei, their interrogation didn’t go very smoothly. The [Spider Vines] inside Miao Qi’s body, having passed its growth time limit, was now beginning to wither.

Miao Qi never wanted to compromise at first, and he certainly won’t compromise now either. The unanticipated factor was Wen Xiaoming. With his appearance that seemed like a weak-hearted poached chicken白斬雞 [bai zhan ji] refers a Cantonese-style boiled chicken dish. As a slang, it refers to men who are thin and don’t have lots of muscles., no one expected him to be such a tough nut to crack.

This wasn’t about how hard he was, but that no matter what attack fell onto him, the effect seemed to be only half of its original. Moreover, this man’s resistance was so thick that he still refused to die even when he didn’t take a single sip of potion for a long while.

He didn’t die, rather, he cried. In fact, he cried so much that you would think you were bullying a teenage kid. When he hurt, he would cry; even if you didn’t touch him, he would cry too. He breathed exaggeratedly through his nose and squashed his mouth loudly as tears flowed out with zeal, crying till the point his face all flushed and till the point even Miao Qi next door started to feel agitated.

“If you have the guts, go beat my boss. You beat me, you’re no hero — hiccups!” Wen Xiaoming cried until he started hiccupping. The bleached pink hair had faded, but the studs on his ears were glimmering, making him look both fragile and annoying. No matter how one looked at him, they couldn’t associate the person with the word ‘skilled player’.

“Is this really Jin Cheng’s teammate?” Those who tried to beat him really couldn’t handle this.

“I heard that he’s even older than Jin Cheng. He’s the oldest in their team.” Another said.

“Huh?”

“It’s true.”

Wen Xiaoming heard that and felt really really sad. It wasn’t his fault that he had such young looks. If they wanted to blame someone, then blame the mass for growing old too fast.

Forgettable Face walked in wearing a black expression and ordered them: “Stop his mouth!”

The people in the room hurriedly did so, but they felt a tad wrong after that. They turned around and asked: “How can we interrogate him if his mouth is gagged?

“Interrogate what interrogate!” Saying so, Forgettable Face closed his mouth vigilantly and said in a low voice: “Scarlet is here, even if we manage to pull something out of him, it’ll only benefit her. First, let’s wait for some news from Pei Pei. Besides, you only need to watch this person carefully. This man has many horrible ideas and is an equipment master. Be careful not to fall for his tricks.”

Wen Xiaoming, who had fallen on the ground, couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. If the interrogation went on, he actually might not hold it anymore. It seemed that Lawless and Scarlet really didn’t have the same goal.

That made things a lot easier.

At the same time, Zheng Yingying, who had been sent downstairs and was unable to go up to the third floor, was standing by the window and looking coldly at two people climbing out of the next window. They were carrying a big sack on their shoulders.

If she saw correctly, the living corpse should be in the sack. The Lawless members tried their best to capture it and brought it here from the original base. Why did they move it again?

Because of Scarlet? They didn’t want Scarlet to find out?

Zheng Yingying watched the two men walk into the building next door carrying the living corpse, but all of a sudden, she felt alert and quickly squatted down. At this moment, the two men turned back, and not seeing anything unusual after casting a few glances in her direction, they went back to their original route.

After waiting a few seconds, Zheng Yingying raised her head and looked upstairs, as though she could see the man and woman on the third floor through the ceiling. In her remaining one eye, a shade of black was suppressing all the surging emotions, feeling both inexplicable and gloomy.

About ten minutes later, while strolling on the second floor, Meng Yufei, who was a tad hesitant to take this opportunity to escape, was pushed against his back with a dagger.

“Huanhuan.” A familiar, slightly hoarse whisper poured an immeasurable puff of cold air over him, as if it could knock on Meng Yufei’s crown.

Meng Yufei knew who it was without even having to think about it. As he made only a slight move, the dagger pierced into his lower back and pushed forward a little bit. The power of the familiar curse spread out, and Meng Yufei quivered, not daring to move at all.

Zheng Yingying used her cloak to block the dagger, pretending to be talking to him while leading him into the empty room on the side of the corridor.

As the door closed, Meng Yufei saw Zheng Yingying’s face and quietly regretted his carelessness. How could he not expect that with her [Infinite Forms], Zheng Yingying could easily change her appearance?

But Zheng Yingying and Qian Wei had gone to find Jin Cheng, so how come they were here?

“What’s the relationship between the two people upstairs?” Zheng Yingying asked.

“It’s not…” Meng Yufei’s eyes rolled: “Isn’t it just the relationship of ex-lovers? I was surprised at the beginning. I didn’t expect Jiang He to hide it so well.”

Zheng Yingying didn’t answer, but Meng Yufei could clearly feel that her aura was turning colder, so much so that it felt like she had just crawled out of a morgue. Meng Yufei couldn’t help but think with contentment: Given her temper, Jiang He might really become a member of the morgue very soon.

Although strictly speaking, Meng Yufei harboured no hatred for Jiang He, he disliked this kind of smarty-pants who always played using his brain and made everyone else look very stupid.

Thinking about this, Meng Yufei told Zheng Yingying what he had just encountered on the road, and even spiced it up a little. Finally, he concluded: “I think Jiang He is about to return to Scarlet’s side.”

A gleam of light shuddered in Zheng Yingying’s eyes: “Shut up.”

Meng Yufei shut his mouth, but inwardly, he was feeling rather smug. But he could only be smug for a few seconds, for Zheng Yingying suddenly stabbed him in the lower abdomen, then stood on her tiptoe and knocked his chin with her head.

This was a surprise attack he couldn’t have foreseen.

Obviously, it was his jaw that got attacked, but Meng Yufei also felt that his eyes immediately went dark, and coupled with the cursed blade’s ‘devour’ ability, he slumped down before even letting out a sound.

Zheng Yingying stretched out her hands to support him and gently put the person down, without making any loud noise.

Meng Yufei managed to shoot her one last glance before completely passing out, but he couldn’t figure out why Zheng Yingying would attack him so abruptly.

Of course, Zheng Yingying wouldn’t explain. Using the old trick, she tried to hide Meng Yufei under the bed, then transformed herself into Meng Yufei using the [Infinite Forms] cloak and directly headed upstairs.

In Scarlet’s room, she walked out of the bathroom barefoot, clad a black silk dressing gown. Her hair hadn’t been dried, with water still trickling down all over. Her posture might look so leisurely, but the shackles on her wrists and ankles still remained.

“May I trouble you?” She threw the towel at Jiang He, who was standing by the window.

Jiang He was silent for a moment, but eventually, he walked over and started rubbing her hair.

Scarlet was sitting on the bed and Jiang He was standing on the side of the bed, the two persons keeping barely a distance between each other. They were so close that Jiang He only had to lower his head a little to see the drops of water dripping down Scarlet’s neckline. His movements were neither too fast nor too slow, and his composure even revealed a hint of dexterity. It was rather clear that this wasn’t the first time he had done this.

At such a close distance, sometimes, Jiang He’s fingers would inevitably touch the back of Scarlet’s neck. His fingers were cold, but Scarlet’s skin was very hot. The collision of two completely different temperatures induced a rather strange sensation.

Neither of them spoke. The sound of their breathing overwhelmed this small space, making the atmosphere inside the room feel almost stifling.

Scarlet’s whole body was very relaxed as she looked up at Jiang He, her posture exuding a slightly lazy air. She lifted her hand, seemingly wanting to touch Jiang He’s face, but Jiang He tilted his head to avoid it.

He took a small step back and said: “Please have some self-respect.” 

Scarlet’s hand stopped in its tracks and her eyes turned icy cold in a blink: “I’ve given you a chance, Jiang He.”

This time, Jiang He simply put down the towel and said: “What happened in the past is now all over. I’m only asking you to stop. Don’t fight for the movement.”

“But have you ever thought that if I can’t get the movement, will Lin Yandong and those people like Jin Cheng let me go? In this Yong Ye City, will anyone ever let me go?”

Jiang He was silent.

“Why do you think I got out of jail? Even when I’m locked in the deepest dungeon, there are still people who want to hurt me and treat me as a pawn. They take advantage of me and abandon me however they feel like, they use my name to kill others, they use my life to buy their own. Does anyone really want to give me a way out?” Scarlet’s voice was drenched in mockery. She pointed a finger at the door: “Even the underlings outside are probably calculating how to use me in their hearts, do you think that I can’t tell? Jiang He, you’re not the only person who is smart here.”

Jiang He looked straight into her eyes, his expression calm as always: “Didn’t you create this yourself? If you don’t take other people’s lives to lengthen your own life, naturally, other people won’t take your life to lengthen theirs.”

Hearing this, Scarlet chuckled suddenly and lowered her head. That mockery, that wrath seemed to disappear at this moment. Grabbing Jiang He’s clothes, she asked once more, as though there was only one question left in her heart: “Are you like them?”

Jiang He asked back: “Should I believe you, Scarlet?”

Scarlet lifted her head again and looked into his eyes.

Jiang He: “You said that the others try to use you and treat you as a pawn, but if you’re being good to me now, don’t you also want to use me? How can I tell?”

Scarlet was slightly taken aback, then she smiled: “You’re still mad at the time I stabbed you, aren’t you? I was just too angry, and you said you wanted to part ways with me, but I didn’t want to. You know my temper. I would rather destroy what I couldn’t get, so I stabbed you. But in fact, even if I lost my mind back then, you would simply be going to jail. I didn’t really want to kill you. Jiang He, you treat me differently from others…”

It was just going to jail.

Jiang He looked at the lips that had been reddened by the steaming heat in the bathroom. As he listened to the words she had to say, she was clearly trying to explain to him, but his heart felt only colder as each second passed.

And it also carried a trace of confusion.

Parting ways with Scarlet was the last medicine Jiang He could give Scarlet. He wasn’t strong enough to keep Scarlet from killing people, but deep down, he knew that Scarlet becoming like this was both due to the evil Yong Ye City and the characteristics of the Necromancer class. All factors had a part to play, forcing her to embark on this path of no return.

Jiang He wanted to be with her. Even when everyone screamed at Scarlet at that time, in Jiang He’s heart, he never thought of betraying her. The so-called parting was simply his bargaining chips.

He wanted to use himself to bet on his position in Scarlet’s heart and whether she would know when to withdraw.

In the end, he lost. The instant Scarlet stabbed him, Jiang He saw a clear killing intent in her eyes. At least at that moment, Jiang He believed that Scarlet really wanted to kill him.

Even so, during the siege that followed, just like before, Jiang He still helped her hide the phylactery away.

Thinking about it now, what was even the purpose of everything he had done for so many years?

Seeing Jiang He’s slow response, Scarlet stretched out her hand and stroked it along Jiang He’s shoulders. He looked at her up close, felt her breath on him and her smiling voice ringing in his ears: “If you really can’t forget that, then I’ll let you stab me too, how about that? In this way, we are even.”

She grabbed Jiang He’s hand and brought it closer to her.

All of a sudden, he put his hand on her neck and, slowly, he tightened it.

Scarlet kept smiling, not a hint of struggle seen on her face: “The look you give at me is frightening. Do you know why I kept you by my side before? You seem to be just one ordinary man amidst the crowd. Apart from being a tad smarter, you have never shown anything special. So do you know why?”

Jiang He said in a low voice: “Why?”

Scarlet: “Because of your eyes. Sometimes you will suddenly show such frightening eyes, just like now, very suddenly. Those eyes are so frightening that they make people scared, but also a little moved at the same time…”

She showed no regard for the fact that her fragile neck was still in his hand. Unable to help it, she raised her hand to touch the corner of his eye, a trace of infatuation unconcealed in her gaze.

The atmosphere in the room was both ambiguous and dangerous.

Like a poisonous snake that entwined itself along a rose, sticking its tongue out.

Jiang He’s hand tightened, and the two of them seemed to sink deeper and deeper in each other’s eyes. But at this moment, Scarlet’s expression slightly changed and a cold light flashed in his eyes. With a wave of her hand, a strong wind smashed the door open.

“Who’s there?!” 

Amidst her loud shout, the door hit a man, sending him slamming into the wall across the corridor. He hugged his chest, his face as white as chalk. Scarlet let go of Jiang He and, with a few steps, she reached the door, her expression sinking heavily.

The man was hardly given any time to defend himself. As she spread her five fingers and tightened them ever so lightly, a powerful force broke out, pulling the man towards her palm.

Her slightly long nails pierced his neck and blood quickly gushed out. His whole body convulsed and his eyes rolled up, only leaving the whites of his eyes exposed. Scarlet threw him away with disgust, and barely a moment later, right before everyone’s eyes, he turned into a living corpse.

Hearing the movement, Forgettable Face rushed over, and his face turned scarily pale upon catching the scene. He immediately wanted to run over to reason with her, but was firmly held back by his teammates: “You know who she is, don’t act rashly!”

Forgettable Face gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, his fuse almost blown. All of a sudden, Scarlet suddenly cast him a glance. Forgettable Face snapped out of it at once, as though an icy cold knife was resting on his neck.

Upon seeing this, the teammates hurriedly came forward: “Lady Scarlet, is this… is this perhaps a misunderstanding?”

Scarlet creased her eyebrows. She seemingly felt that someone over there was staring at her with a spine-chilling gaze, but the moment she looked over, it was gone. Was it just an illusion?

As for Forgettable Face, he was but a dog that only knew how to bite people.

“Throw it out.” Very casually, Scarlet announced the verdict for the living corpse. The Lawless members felt extremely irate, but no one had the guts to speak up. They could only quickly take the living corpse away while it hadn’t gone berserk yet.

And at the top of the stairs ten meters away from Forgettable Face, Zheng Yingying was hiding behind the wall, cold sweat slipping down her forehead and her back.

The stare just now came from her, and it was also she who pushed the man towards the door to die in her place. With just a glance and not even having to face Scarlet head-on, she could clearly feel how terrifying Scarlet was. But even so, Zheng Yingying clenched her fist tighter and bit her lips, the darkness in her eyes rippling violently.

Scarlet walked out in her nightgown, and Jiang He was behind her. What does this mean?

Jiang He had already chosen her, and she wouldn’t allow such things to happen.

Things that belonged to her must not be tainted by others.

They absolutely could not.

They absolutely should not.

They were hers, and even when they were dead, they were still hers.

Suddenly, Zheng Yingying pursed her lips, revealing her neat, spotless teeth — Scarlet must die.

The author has something to say:

Here’s an early clarification: Zheng Yingying and Jiang He are not in a romantic relationship. The little girl is very young; there won’t be any romance subplot for her.