Chapter 58: Class Game (Twenty-Four)

San Zhi’s smile froze on his face as he heard Yun Xueqing say indifferently, “There’s no need to say these things in front of me.”

San Zhi refused to give up. “Don’t you want to know about his past?”

Yun Xueqing’s gaze was indifferent. “If I want to understand someone, I’d rather hear it straight from that person’s mouth than from idle gossip.”

San Zhi was so exasperated that he laughed, his tone laced with sarcasm. “You two have such a good relationship. No one can come between you.”

Fu Wuxuan, standing to the side, spoke in an unusually gentle tone. “Since you know that, why are you still standing here? If you’re smart, get lost.”

San Zhi flew into a rage and immediately pulled out his natal Ghost Artifact, the Azure Lamp, shattering the Ghost Wall in front of them and leaving.

Yun Xueqing and Fu Wuxuan exchanged a glance simultaneously. They followed each other at a distance, neither too close nor too far, and slowly walked out.

Fu Wuxuan sighed with emotion. “After getting weaker, the treatment has actually improved.”

In the past, he always had to handle things himself. Now, people lined up one after another to solve his problems for him.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t break it himself, but eating soft rice was more cost-effective.

Fu Wuxuan was completely oblivious to how shameless his thoughts were. At the fork in the road, he grinned and bid Yun Xueqing farewell.

The two Weird households were different, so Yun Xueqing went alone to the Marquis Mansion. Just as he was about to return to his room, he thought of the Crown Prince who might still be waiting for him in the bedroom.

He didn’t know if the other was in human form now or had reverted to corpse form.

Not wanting to waste time crossing paths with him, Yun Xueqing simply detoured and planned to make do in the study for the night.

He arrived at the study and saw that the door wasn’t locked, with faint candlelight leaking from inside. Someone was clearly there.

At such a dangerous time, facing an unknown person, Yun Xueqing sensed something amiss and prepared to turn and leave. Then he heard a deep voice from the study: “Yun’er.”

Since he’d already been discovered, there was no point in hiding. Yun Xueqing gave up on escaping and turned to enter the study obediently.

Inside the study sat a middle-aged man with his hair tied up. He wore a black mystic robe, and the dim candlelight illuminated his entire body. His expressionless face carried an inherent majesty.

The study wasn’t furnished much—mostly books and the four treasures of the study. Yun Xueqing heard the man in the mystic robe command, “Yun’er, grind some ink for me.”

Yun Xueqing roughly guessed that this man was his nominal father, the lord of the Marquis Mansion.

Grinding ink was no trouble for him; he’d done it for his master before. He walked over and ground it meticulously. His gaze shifted from the Marquis to the letter paper on the desk.

The letter was half-written, detailing mundane daily matters. There might have been some code hidden in it, but Yun Xueqing didn’t understand, so he couldn’t decipher any information.

But he noticed one thing: the Marquis, his nominal father, was writing to the Second Prince.

Their private correspondence basically confirmed that the Marquis Mansion was part of the Second Prince’s faction.

But if the Marquis Mansion was the Second Prince’s lackey, why arrange a marriage alliance with the Crown Prince?

As he pondered, the man beside him suddenly asked, “Has it been done?”

Yun Xueqing didn’t know what he was referring to and stayed silent, observing the other’s expression without acting rashly.

Just as he was thinking of how to muddle through, the man suddenly lifted his sleeve, looked at the red dot on his arm, and frowned. “It hasn’t happened yet? What have you been doing all these days?”

With his sleeve lifted, Yun Xueqing focused on the Other Shore Flower Seal on the back of his hand and overlooked other details. Only then did he notice a red dot in the middle of his fair forearm.

Yun Xueqing, who often drew talismans, was familiar with it—it was cinnabar.

He suddenly recalled that long ago, Meng Lang’s senior brother had told him that in some noble families, they placed a dot of cinnabar on unmarried daughters, called Palace Guarding Sand.

As long as her virtue remained intact, the Palace Guarding Sand would stay, to test chastity.

To use this on him… Yun Xueqing’s eyes darkened slightly as he detected a hint of conspiracy. He looked at the Marquis without a word.

Seeing Yun Xueqing’s utterly indifferent expression, as if he didn’t care at all, the Marquis couldn’t continue writing. He grew somewhat anxious. “If you don’t sleep with him soon and transfer the poison to him, you’ll die soon… Could it be that you’ve really fallen for that Crown Prince and can’t bear to harm him?”

It matched what he’d overheard that day. There was indeed poison in his body, meant to assassinate the Crown Prince.

Bearing a poison that could kill at any moment, Yun Xueqing gripped his pinky finger harder, but his face remained calm. “How much time do I have left?”

The Marquis shook his head. “No more than five days.”

That meant five days left to live.

Yun Xueqing’s face remained serene. “That’s enough.”

Having obtained sufficient information, he continued grinding ink for the Marquis, silent from start to finish, as still as a statue with no presence.

Once the Marquis finished the letter, he returned to his room. Yun Xueqing didn’t plan to stay in the study either and casually found a guest room to lie down in, pondering the information he’d gained today.

There was poison in his body that would act on the fifth day. If he didn’t sleep with someone and transfer the poison, he would die.

But he’d figured out the general rules: doing bad deeds in this hellish place would lead to death in unexpected ways, so he absolutely couldn’t transfer the poison to someone else… Unless someone willingly sacrificed themselves, but Yun Xueqing couldn’t get past his own conscience.

If the poison couldn’t be resolved, he only had five days. He had to escape within those five days.

But the way out seemed to require helping someone seize the throne, which was nearly impossible in just five days.

As he racked his brain for solutions, he fell asleep. When he opened his eyes again, a charred black face like burnt coal loomed infinitely close, its pure white eyes glaring fixedly at him, as if waiting for him to wake.

Such a grotesque and disgusting face was visually shocking, but Yun Xueqing didn’t scream. He slowly sat up and, based on the attire, recognized the face. “Your Highness the Crown Prince?”

The other didn’t speak or move, just stared deathly at him.

Yun Xueqing didn’t know how just one night had turned the other into this state, but this appearance certainly couldn’t be shown in public.

His face had become charred, and even his body emitted a burnt smell, making Yun Xueqing suspect if the fire he’d set last night had also burned him.

But the other couldn’t explain, merely glaring.

Seeing no intent to attack, Yun Xueqing asked indifferently, “Do you want me to cover for you?”

The other seemed unable to speak and could only nod faintly in affirmation.

It was daytime now, with social obligations unavoidable. In this world, whether human or Weird, they at least appeared normal during the day. With his current look, he couldn’t go out, so he needed Yun Xueqing to cover for him.

Yun Xueqing originally wanted to use this chance to make demands or threats, but seeing the other’s hostile gaze—as if refusal meant immediate death on the spot—he decided not to stir up trouble. He agreed to cover.

To cover, Yun Xueqing was quite perfunctory. If asked, he casually said the other was bedridden and unfit to receive guests today. No further cover was provided.

He was pressed for time now and had no leisure to negotiate with the Crown Prince.

Come to think of it, Weirds were generally human by day and monstrous by night, but the Crown Prince was reversed.

However, at last night’s Qionglin Banquet, most Weirds had revealed their true forms vying for the Merfolk’s tail, yet the Crown Prince remained human throughout. Perhaps this daytime monstrosity was related?

Yun Xueqing suddenly thought of Li Yulin, who had attended the banquet last night.

Clearly, during the day when he’d met him, Li Yulin had been on his last legs, as if his days were numbered. Yet at night, he’d been fine as ever. Was there a connection?

With a hypothesis, he went to verify. He arrived at the place agreed with Fu Wuxuan and headed together to the Second Prince’s Mansion.

That day they’d come, the rooms were already filled with yin qi. Today it was worse, the chill piercing straight into their bodies, intensely uncomfortable.

There lay Li Yulin, who had been lively last night, now on the bed. His face was deathly pale, lips bloodless, as if he’d depart to the western paradise any second.

Even so, upon seeing the two visit, Li Yulin mustered his spirits. “What do you want to ask… Just ask.”

Fu Wuxuan eyed his condition and roughly guessed. “You know how to leave.”

Not a question, but a statement.

Li Yulin fell silent for a moment. “…Yes.”

He no longer denied it.

Fu Wuxuan’s lip curved. “Why didn’t you tell us before? The way out is related to you?”

His guess was extremely close. The old Li Yulin would have been terrified, but now, with his vitality drained, he lacked the energy and merely said despondently, “Yes.”

Before Fu Wuxuan could press, Li Yulin stated bluntly, “As long as I die, and the Crown Prince dies, you can leave.”

Fu Wuxuan was somewhat surprised that the other revealed it so directly.

After all, to kill himself—who would willingly let others kill them?

Anyone else might keep such a method buried deep.

Fu Wuxuan glanced at Li Yulin on the bed, seemingly discerning truth from falsehood in his words. Moments later, he suddenly laughed aloud. “If it’s really that simple, then we can leave soon, right?”

He smiled at the corners of his mouth, but his eyes held no mirth.

He didn’t believe it.

Li Yulin’s face remained numb, offering no defense.

He fell silent again, as if he would remain so until the end of time.

After a long while, he spoke again. “After you leave, don’t be curious about this world. Don’t be curious about anything… And don’t participate in the King’s Challenge anymore.”

He spoke word by word, like a soulless shell:

“Don’t be curious. Never be curious… That’s how you survive the apocalypse.”