"I know," Yin Xiu replied calmly. "They're not afraid of me, but of Li Mo."
"As long as they can't kill Li Mo, they will always come to see me."
Ye Tianxuan nodded. "As long as you have a good attitude, that's fine. Remember to come back to town for dinner after your date."
He waved and turned to leave, not wanting to bother the two any longer.
"What date?" Yin Xiu muttered, then turned to see Li Mo still nervously staring at his waist. He immediately rolled up his clothes and put them down. "It's nothing. You're not in your original form now, so being by your side won't affect me."
But Li Mo's tension did not ease; Yin Xiu's change in him always made him feel sad.
Seeing that words of comfort were useless, Yin Xiu put away his knife, reached out and touched Li Mo's cheek, staring into his eyes, "If you don't want me to become a monster, I will try my best not to become a monster, so there's no need to worry so much."
Li Mo lowered his eyes to meet Yin Xiu's gaze. Even though there wasn't much emotion in his eyes, he could still sense what the other person was thinking. He lowered his head and rubbed his forehead against Yin Xiu's.
He liked his boyfriend's body temperature, a human warmth that he didn't have.
He also likes the sound of his boyfriend's breathing, heartbeat, and blood flowing in his veins when he sleeps.
When they became cold monsters, all of these disappeared, along with human emotions.
"It's fine as long as my boyfriend stays the way he is." Li Mo hugged Yin Xiu and snuggled up to him.
He understood his boyfriend's desire to become a monster for him and stay with him forever, but it was meaningless for two cold monsters to just stare at each other until the end of time.
She wanted her boyfriend to have a short but fulfilling life as a human being, without any regrets.
Holding the warm body in his arms, which gave him a sense of satisfaction, Li Mo lowered his head and kissed Yin Xiu's forehead. It wasn't a touch of pure affection like before, but rather a touch filled with a deep sense of possession and attachment, trembling and carefully landing on his skin.
The lingering cold seemed to seep through his skin and reach the depths of his heart.
Yin Xiu trembled slightly, looked up and met Li Mo's eyes. He reminded him again, "We are family."
That was the agreement before, at least.
"Mm." Li Mo responded with a smile, but his demands went far beyond that. He hoped to fill every place in Yin Xiu's life—family, friends, lovers…—in case one day in the future, someone would be more important to Yin Xiu than him.
The little monster wants to take over Yin Xiu's entire heart and possess him entirely.
Yin Xiu took a deep breath, said nothing more, and gazed into the distance.
After cleaning up the mess in the dungeon, it's nice to be able to sit with someone you like and pass the time like this, which is better than sitting alone by the lake fishing before.
Before nightfall, Yin Xiu led Li Mo back to the town. Ye Tianxuan was arranging for people to settle the dungeon players in one place, waiting for Zhong Mu to return so that they could negotiate.
After going through several hardships, this group of dungeon players had lost all trust in the town players. Now they wouldn't listen to anything and just kept demanding to see their captain, Zhong Mu.
Zhong Mu fainted after using the Flower of Suffering and was taken away by Mu He. After waking up, he was sent back.
After discussing it for a while, the players in the town decided to let Zhong Mu meet them in his original form, to be as honest as possible. If they still couldn't reach an agreement, they would have Boss Ye step in.
So the room was filled with people including Mu He, Zhong Mu, Ye Tianxuan, Yin Xiu, and Li Mo.
Those dungeon players who were initially making a fuss and were extremely reluctant to stay here slowly shut up after seeing the people coming in one after another. When they saw Mu He come in, their eyes suddenly lit up and they became very excited.
"Captain! Captain, save us!"
"Waaaaah, Captain, you're finally here! Come save us!"
Noticing the expectant gazes falling on her, Mu He felt a little flustered and could only respond with a smile.
Ye Tianxuan, standing to the side, shattered their expectations with a smile, "This is not your captain, this is."
He gestured with his chin towards Zhong Mu.
Everyone paused, looking at Zhong Mu, then at Mu He. "Wait a minute, this is our captain! We remember what he looks like!"
"Exactly! Don't try to fool us with this stranger!"
Then he continued to stare at Mu He with expectant eyes.
Zhong Mu scratched his head awkwardly, "Indeed, I am your captain, and I met you in this person's appearance."
As soon as he said that, the whole room fell silent. The people stared at Zhong Mu, still somewhat skeptical.
Zhong Mu sighed and helplessly pulled an axe from his prop bag. "You don't know me, but you recognize this, right?"
When they saw the axe being pulled out, everyone was even more stunned.
The captain used an axe to silence dissenting voices; the axe was the same axe, but the person wasn't the same one.
Everyone was puzzled for a long time, staring at Mu He and Zhong Mu for a long time, and finally said blankly, "So... the one with the axe is our real captain, and the handsome one isn't?"
"Yes!" Zhong Mu nodded vigorously, then stood in front of Mu He. "I only borrowed his appearance; the one who was with you yesterday was actually me."
The crowd fell silent again, seemingly finding it hard to accept.
"You're a player from a small town, and you approached me with a face we don't recognize... so..." The dungeon players looked at each other in despair, "We've been tricked into becoming the team leader by a mole?"
They were even more devastated after they realized the truth.
"So, there's nothing you can do now, even if you don't integrate into the town." Ye Tianxuan took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and threw it in front of them. "This town has no rules. All the rules you see are fake. There's no two-month deadline, and you can't pass the level for now. You either integrate into the town or get killed for being in the way. Choose for yourselves."
The dungeon players were stunned, staring at the note on the ground in utter despair.
If even the rules are fake, then aren't they just acting like a joke, going crazy from beginning to end?
"If we can't clear the dungeon... what do we do then..." The dungeon players lowered their heads in dejection after a series of setbacks, their minds blank. "Then we're no different from waiting to die."
"If you want to live, you only have one choice left," Ye Tianxuan stared straight at them, "follow our town."
Then, he casually rubbed his hands together and leaned back in his chair. "If you want to live, come over here. If you don't want to live, go over there and die."
He pointed to Yin Xiu sitting in the corner.
Yin Xiu, who was sitting in the corner watching the commotion: ?
What do you take him for!