Xiao Li secretly had this thought in his heart but he didn't tear down Shen Chenzhi's lie in front of the strange neighbour. He just nodded. "It is as he said. We are a couple who just moved in."
Facing the other person's too hot of a gaze, Xiao Li reluctantly added a last part. "...He is my husband."
The last two words were faint and almost inaudible but Shen Chenzhi's eyes lit up instantly.
The man next door whispered 'two men' and greeted them in a perfunctory manner. "Yes, welcome."
Then he didn't bother exchanging goodbyes with Xiao Li. He opened the door to his place with the key. After entering, he kicked off the shoes on his feet and slammed the wooden door shut. This building was old and the sound insulation wasn't good. Xiao Li could hear shouting through the door coming from the man. "Wife, are you dead? Why haven't you made today's dinner?"
There was the sound of something falling to the ground and breaking. Soon, there were no more movements.
Xiao Li retracted his gaze from the neighbour's place and walked into the open apartment in front of him.
The furnishings of this place were very simple. Perhaps because it was an old house but the layout was actually very similar to Xiao Li's home in reality. It was just that the furniture was slightly different and the walls were a pale yellow.
Shen Chenzhi closed the door behind him. Xiao Li looked around the room before sitting down on the sofa and staring at Shen Chenzhi. "Aren't you going to explain, my... husband?"
The moment he called out the last word, his head tilted to the side and revealed a beautiful, swan-like neck. This word seemed to be sent out from the tip of the tongue and against the teeth, so it was filled with a seductive meaning.
Shen Chenzhi crouched down. He almost wanted to directly press the person under him against the sofa, kissing hard and finally biting the neck, making him raise his head and scream again-
However, now wasn't a good time to do this. This wasn't the Abyss and Xiao Li wouldn't let him do whatever he wanted. The young man restrained himself and when he spoke again, his voice was a bit hoarse. He squeezed the face of Xiao Li in front of him. "Don't you want to be a couple with me?"
Xiao Li hid for a while but didn't dodge it. He let Shen Chenzhi squeeze his face. "You know that's not what I'm talking about."
Shen Chenzhi smiled and replied, "This is the corpse's domain as you thought."
"There is a part of the chaos fragment's power in it. Just like when it blessed Zui Tian, the corpse was blessed with an ability and brought you back to her memories."
"This is a memory?" Xiao Li asked.
"Not necessarily." The young man gave a stimulating answer while not letting go. "Still, it must be related. We are playing the role of neighbours in her memory. I added a bit more setting."
"Where are the others?"
"Upstairs, downstairs."
Shen Chenzhi was very sticky to Xiao Li as he spoke. In desperation, Xiao Li pulled Shen Chenzhi's collar and planted a comforting kiss on his lips. "Okay, don't move. I want to ask you something."
Shen Chenzhi loosened his hand. "You ask."
"Is the time flow rate here 1:1?"
"No, it is similar to an instance. One week here is only two seconds in reality." Shen Chenzhi gently brushed Xiao LI's hair. He paused for a few seconds before changing the subject and mentioning another thing. "You are worried about reality. In fact, before reality's barrier shatters, my ability is limited and I am restricted in what I can do but-"
Xiao Li interrupted him. "Don't worry about it."
He whispered, "Human affairs should still be left to us.
Knock, knock, knock.
There was a knock at the door and a familiar female voice was heard. "Excuse me, is anyone living here?"
Xiao Li recognized it as Gong Mingming's voice. He pushed Shen Chenzhi away and opened the door. Luo Shan and Gong Mingming were standing at the door.
Gong Mingming was obviously relieved when she saw Xiao Li. "I found you, the two of you are here. Luo Shan and I live upstairs. I guessed that you should be nearby. Mobile phone communication doesn't work here so we could only knock on the door one by one."
Xiao Li leaned forward and pointed to the place next door. "A stranger is living there. This is the memory world of the nameless corpse. I don't know if there are any residents like this on the other floors or if we are the only residents."
Gong Mingming instantly reacted. "A memory world? What is the flow of time here? If we are delayed here for a few days then reality might've already become an instance by the time we go out."
"It is the flow rate of an instance." Xiao Li knew that time wasn't pressing but he still wanted to end it quickly. He left the room and walked down the stairs. "Go down first and see if there are any strangers."
Wang Huai, Ye Zeqing and Ye Lingshi lived downstairs. The entire building had five floors and Xiao Li lived on the fourth floor. The floors below were empty. They knocked on the doors one by one but no one responded. There was also no way out through the security door on the ground floor of the building. The memory of the unknown corpse was confined to these floors.
They couldn't go out but they didn't have to worry about food. Everyone found a lot of food in their homes, including instant noodles and bread.
Eventually, everyone gathered in Xiao Li's living room. Wang Huai first took out an item. It looked similar to a human ear except there was a mouth at the base of the ear. This time, he introduced it before Xiao Li had asked. "The ear of an eavesdropper. It can amplify the sounds in the area."
He tried to use an item and was told by his task book that it wasn't available.
Wang Huai put it away. "It seems that the memory instance isn't the same. We can't use items."
"There are no other residents here so there are only two possibilities." Gong Mingming recorded her voice with a voice recorder. "One, they heard the knocking on the door but didn't dare open it or respond. Two, we are playing the neighbours of the unknown corpse in this memory."
"The family next door to Sherlock might be the source of the unknown corpse or the real murderer who killed her. There are no clues at present."
"We have to start with them and squeeze out more flaws."
"Still, I think-"
They were chatting when suddenly there was shouting from the next apartment. This time, the sound was louder and a man yelled, "Crying, all you know how to do is cry. It's so annoying, just as annoying as your cheap son. You shut up and quickly shut him up. I have to eat!"
Along with the baby's cries, there were a woman's sobs and several types of sounds mixed together. It was really annoying.
Wang Huai suggested, "Shall we knock on the door?"
Nothing was happening but he wasn't used to passively waiting. It might be more dangerous at night. It was better to find out as much information as possible on the first day.
Gong Mingming was relatively social so the task of negotiation fell on her. She knocked on the door of the next house. No one answered the first time. She knocked twice before there was a voice from the room.
Before the door opened, a man's muttering voice was heard first. "Damn, I can't have any peace when eating a meal. Who is it?"
The man was wearing a white vest and grey slippers. His figure was quite strong and his exposed arms were full of muscles. He saw a bunch of strangers at the door, led by a beautiful woman and he converged his attitude a bit. "Who are you and why are you here?"
"Oh, we are the residents downstairs. I wanted to visit you. Shouldn't we get along in the future?" Gong Mingming smiled and greeted him.
"Why are there so many new people?" The man wondered. "Okay, there is no need to say hello."
"We should get to know each other. What are you called?"
"...Fu Jianlin." The man answered reluctantly. "What about you?"
Gong Mingming replied with a few random names. "Lin Ming, Zhao Chen... we are from the same company and the staff dormitories are being redecorated. The company paid for us to rent a place together."
"Old Fu, who are they? The child is already asleep..."
Perhaps the man had stood at the door for too long. A woman came over, her hair was like straw. She wore a simple, loose t-shirt that had been washed white and there were many scars on her legs. They were now healed but they had left deep marks.
She glanced at the door and asked Fu Jianlin timidly.
"Don't you know your neighbours when you are home every day?" The man yelled at her angrily.
Gong Mingming saw the woman and hurriedly asked, "Is this your wife?"
"Hello, I'm a neighbour who just moved in..." She introduced herself to the woman again but the woman didn't directly answer her. She just watched Fu Jianlin.
Fu Jianlin impatiently waved. "She knows nothing. There is no need to talk to her. I will close the door if it's okay. I have to eat."
Gong Mingming still wanted to exchange a few words but Fu Jianlin had closed the door. He didn't plan to pay attention to them. Xiao Li stared at the closed wooden door and concluded. "There is a domestic violence-prone husband, an abused wife and a hapless baby."
"The three elements are complete," Ye Zeqing said. "Baby... I think the nameless female corpse is probably the wife inside."
***
Since the reincarnators knocked on the door, next door was really quiet for a while. There was no more shouting. This floor was very quiet. Compared to Zui Tian's world, the rhythm here was obviously much slower. Up to now, no one had encountered any life or death crises.
Everyone ate instant noodles in the living room of Xiao Li's house and started discussing it again. Shen Chenzhi watched the time passing minute by minute before standing up and suddenly saying, "It's late."
Ye Zeqing raised his head, not understanding the other person's meaning. "...Huh? It isn't too late. It isn't even 10 o'clock yet."
Shen Chenzhi didn't care about him. He stared straight at Xiao Li, light-coloured eyes bottomless as he repeated, "It's late."
His tone was flat and straightforward but Xiao Li touched his forehead and translated it. "He means, it is late now, you can leave. He wants to sleep."
Ye Zeqing, "......"
"Wait, we aren't sleeping here?!" He blurted out.
Wasn't this the default? At this time, everyone should naturally live together. In addition, this place was closest to the source of the nameless corpse next door?"
"What sleep?" Wang Huai stood up. He received a hint from the goddess of night and had the clearest understanding of Shen Chenzhi. He kicked Ye Zeqing, "Go back and wait for Sherlock to take us to lie down and win."
Xiao Li, "......"
This group of people came fast and left fast. They were smart and left through the door. Soon, only two people were left behind. The dim lights of the old house scattered all over the place.
Shen Chenzhi walked over and hugged him tightly. "I don't want to sleep. I want to stay with you for a while."
"Alone," he added.
The author has something to say:
Today is also the sticky little yellow book man.
Proofreader: Tofu
Translator: Rainbow Reads