Doll Survival Game - Chapter 36 - Going Home

The magician removed his coat, took off his hat, and pulled a red ribbon from the bandage on his wrist. He casually tied up his long gray hair.

“In such a hurry to get rid of me?”

Idia gently smoothed his golden curls and kicked at the building blocks beneath his feet. “I’m eager to construct a new instance…”

“And without the doll controlling you, you can’t roam freely for long, can you?”

The magician didn’t respond. He bent down to pick up a block, intending to take it back as a keepsake. As he lifted it, a thought struck him, and he chuckled, “You told him too much.”

Idia squinted, “I just wanted to see his expression when he learned about his score… Isn’t it adorable? His eyes were full of confusion.”

“He’ll figure it out,” the magician said confidently.

“Hmm…” Idia chuckled softly, “It’s not a difficult task. He just needs to connect the dots, extract, and supplement… Once he grasps the essence, he’ll understand.”

“But even if he figures it out, it won’t change anything,” Idia looked at the magician. “Right?”

“True enough.” The sun hung in the sky, and the magician undid the top two buttons of his shirt, lifting his head as if staring directly at the sun.

Behind him, the building blocks shifted, and Idia turned his head.

A masked staff member emerged from below, dragging an old man with wooden legs. “Ah, so annoying! Couldn’t you wait a bit before reverting? I almost couldn’t climb up.”

The staff member spotted the magician and was about to speak when the magician vanished on the spot. He pouted, “…Rude.”

Idia glanced back, unconcerned by the magician’s sudden departure, and walked over the building blocks toward the staff member.

The staff member dropped the old man, “Got any ideas for the new instance?”

“A few,” Idia crouched down, grabbing the old man’s hair. With a tilted smile at the old man’s vacant stare, he said, “Don’t be sad. You’ll have plenty of time to rest now.”

In the blink of an eye, the magician found himself back on a quiet, vintage street. He shrugged helplessly, “Too bad I didn’t get to tell Idia his instance design was lacking.”

Instead of entering a building, the magician walked down the street and stopped at a shop window.

Through the glass, he saw the empty red velvet bench inside and let out a peculiar laugh-

If you never appear during the day, is there any point in the day existing at all?

On the bus.

“What score did you get?”

The doll’s voice whispered in Xia Lang’s ear, making him shiver. He replied just as quietly, “21… Ranran, did you get a high score?”

“65,” Luo Yiran was still puzzled as to why his score was only 65.

He had pieced together most of the story.

Xia Lang’s eyes widened, “That’s high! I heard from Cheng-Ge that no one has ever scored over 70.”

Could it be that the maximum score isn’t 100?

Luo Yiran frowned.

“Thank you.”

Guan Cheng suddenly approached, looking earnestly at the doll on Xia Lang’s shoulder, and then said to Xia Lang, “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you that night.”

Xia Lang quickly waved his hand, “It’s okay! It was so dangerous! It’s good enough that you could protect yourself, Cheng-Ge.”

The doll glanced at Li Qi Feng and Via, who were lying at the back with their eyes closed, and then at Fang Jincheng, who was staring blankly out the window.

Guan Cheng sighed, “Xia Lang, let’s dissolve our teammate relationship.”

Xia Lang was taken aback, “Huh? Why?”

Guan Cheng looked at the doll, “Your plans might differ from mine now… But if you ever need help, you can still find me.”

Luo Yiran withdrew his gaze, “You’ve helped Xia Lang a lot before. If you need anything in the future, you can come to me.”

Guan Cheng nodded, his face full of sincerity and relief, “Thank you… Really, thank you.”

The bus suddenly braked, almost causing Guan Cheng to fall. The tour guide at the door turned back, his face indifferent, “Everyone off the bus.”

To be safe, in case there was still some order to follow, Via opened his eyes and was the first to head for the door.

Li Qi Feng followed as the second, and when he reached the door, he suddenly turned to the doll, “Shall we exchange contact information?”

By this time, Li Qi Feng knew that the doll might have known that killing the mermaid wouldn’t completely fulfill the task, but… the doll hadn’t really deceived them.

Moreover, the information about the live broadcast was indeed true.

The doll casually gave his ID number and waved, “Hope we meet again.”

Li Qi Feng thought of something, “Let’s not meet in the next instance; we’re in a punishment instance, and the death rate is high.”

With that, Li Qi Feng got off the bus.

The moment he stepped off, he vanished, and Guan Cheng went to call Fang Jincheng.

As he passed by, Xia Lang hesitated, then looked at Fang Jincheng, “Are you okay…”

Fang Jincheng paused, lifted his head, his floral shirt still damp and clinging to him. He forced a smile, “I’m fine.”

“At least… I’m still alive, right.”

With that, he got off the bus, and Guan Cheng followed closely.

Xia Lang remained seated, feeling a bit lost.

“Xia Lang,” the doll spoke, “Tomorrow, let’s go home and take a look.”

Xia Lang paused, then nodded. He seemed to have regained his composure, stood up, and placed the doll by the bus door, “Ranran, see you at the dormitory.”

“See you at the dormitory.”

Xia Lang also disappeared at the bus door.

The tour guide kicked the bus door, “You’re the last one, hurry up.”

The doll looked up. After they boarded, the mermaid monster’s form had vanished, so the doll stood steadily by the bus door, looking at the tour guide, “I have a curious question.”

The tour guide frowned.

“Is this bus also an instance?”

The tour guide’s face darkened. He had been looking down at the doll, but suddenly he bent over, eyes curving into a smile, “What, you want to play?”

Luo Yiran didn’t answer, just smiled, and then left the bus.

“…Such an unlikable doll.”

…

The dormitory lights were already off when Luo Yiran opened his eyes, and Xia Lang was softly calling him, “Ranran… are you back?”

He wanted to correct him to call him “brother,” but thought better of it.

Luo Yiran sat up, “Get some rest. We have classes tomorrow. We’ll head home after class in the afternoon.”

Xia Lang was silent for a while, then said, “I can’t sleep.”

Luo Yiran turned on the small bedside lamp, “Anything you want to talk about?”

“…”

Xia Lang was quiet for a long time, and Luo Yiran wasn’t in a hurry. He waited patiently.

After a while, Xia Lang broke the silence, “Will… will…”

He stumbled, as if speaking was difficult, “Will it be discovered? That I killed that… person…”

Luo Yiran laughed, facing Xia Lang’s direction, and raised his index finger, “Shh-”

“It will never be discovered… Besides, didn’t I tell you? It was just an accident. And in this world, there are too many accidents.”

There was no sound from Xia Lang’s side.

So Luo Yiran spoke again, “If you can’t bear it, just forget it.”

His voice was calm and soothing, “After all, no one will know.”

As the unease slowly faded, Xia Lang lay down and closed his eyes, unexpectedly filled with peace.

Summer vacation was approaching quickly, and after that, Luo Yiran and Xia Lang would enter their senior year. By then, they would only have one day off a week.

Fortunately, for now, they still had weekends off, and next Monday was the college entrance exam for senior students, giving them a five-day break.

On Friday afternoon, after school, the two returned to the dormitory, packed lightly, and prepared to go home.

It took over two hours to get from school to home, with a subway ride, a bus transfer, another bus transfer, and finally a short walk to their home in Youshun Town.

The two had grown up in the town, and many people knew Luo Yiran and Xia Lang. Many also liked the two kids.

After all, well-behaved and sensible children were rare.

Smiling and greeting neighbors, Luo Yiran opened the door to their home.

They lived on the outskirts of the town, with the nearest neighbor across a road.

They hadn’t been home for a while, but there was only a thin layer of dust inside, probably because their aunt had come to clean.

Xia Lang, who had joined the family at age seven, was fond of the home. He touched the table and said, “Ranran, let’s clean up a bit!”

“Okay,” Luo Yiran replied, then noticed a photo on the red-brown cabinet in the living room.

In the photo, an old man was slightly bent over, and beside him, two young men were smiling at the camera, one with a gentle smile and the other looking a bit shy.

Below that photo was another, showing a younger old man and two smaller children.

Xia Lang fetched a red plastic basin from the kitchen to fill with water. The water flow was slow, and it took a while to fill half the basin.

When he came out, he tossed two cloths into the water.

Xia Lang set down the basin and glanced at the photo, “Grandpa Luo must be at peace now! He was most worried about you, Ranran, when he left.”

Luo Yiran casually acknowledged, taking a cloth to carefully wipe the photos on the cabinet.

They cleaned until they reached the innermost bedroom, which belonged to Grandpa.

Xia Lang looked at the wide, thick wooden bed for a while, “Should we clean under the bed too? I don’t think we’ve ever cleaned under Grandpa Luo’s bed.”

In fact, after Luo Jun passed away, they rarely entered this room, and when they did, it was just to tidy up, leaving most things in their original place.

Luo Yiran was about to agree, but paused, saying, “Why don’t you change the water first? I’ll lift the mattress.”

Xia Lang quickly picked up the basin, “Okay, but wait for me, Ranran, we can do it together.”

Luo Yiran didn’t wait. After Xia Lang left, he lifted the mattress and immediately looked underneath.

Under the mattress was a small brown paper bag.

Luo Yiran stared at it for a few seconds, then reached out and picked it up.

He opened it and poured out a few black-and-white photos.

Luo Yiran’s expression was calm, almost cold, as he flipped through the photos. His fingers paused on one.

In the slightly blurry black-and-white photo, a thirty-something Luo Jun was posing with a friend of the same age.

Luo Yiran’s eyelashes lowered as he looked at the photo of Luo Jun, grinning broadly with an arm around the other person’s shoulder. The other person had a faint smile, but his soft features were gentle and non-threatening, exuding a sense of warmth.

But those soft features were very familiar. If Xia Lang saw the photo, he would immediately recognize that the person with the gentle smile bore a striking resemblance to Luo Yiran-almost as if it were Luo Yiran grown up.