Arc 2: Luxury Cruise
Chapter 33
Xu Ziyue shook his head. He was still a little confused but the player was fine so he could only shake off his worries.
But before Xu Ziyue could push Austin more than a few metres further, he heard something fall.
The male player had tripped over one of the workers toolboxes and fell flat onto the ground. At some unknown point in time, there was a triangular block protruding out and it lodged right in between the player"s eyebrows……
Xu Ziyue heard a laughter ring down the corridor. His fingers trembled and his heart dropped. Austin raised his hand, grabbed Xu Ziyue"s hand and gently pulled him over. Following the force, Xu Ziyue bent down and was pulled into Austin"s embrace.
Austin gently patted Xu Ziyue"s back. In a soothing tone with a trace of concern, he comforted: "It"s okay. It"s okay. Don"t be scared. You will be fine."
Xu Ziyue"s chin rested on Austin"s shoulder for a long time. He closed his eyes and calmed himself back down.
Even if the elevator was fixed with Austin"s arrival, even if something happened as they were leaving, even if nothing happened when he went to the children"s playground with Austin, even if……….
Xu Ziyue knocked his fist against his head. Forget it. Even he himself couldn"t believe these excuses. How could there be so many coincidences?
Xu Ziyue and Austin returned to Austin"s room.
Austin saw Xu Ziyue sit on the small sofa in a downcast mood and pushed his wheelchair over. He asked gently: "What"s wrong? Still afraid?"
Xu Ziyue looked up and stared at Austin for a long time before lowering his head back down and asking in a m.u.f.fled voice: "Can I hold your hand again?" It had happened too suddenly earlier, and he didn"t have the chance to relish it enough.
If it was now…….he needed to seize this opportunity.
Austin chuckled: "Of course you can. If it makes you happy, you can hold it for as long as you want."
Xu Ziyue reached out and grabbed the hand that was extended out.
When he first came in contact, Xu Ziyue only dared to touch Austin"s fingertips. Austin"s fingers were warm. It was different from the cold sensation Sun Mo"s gave.
He slowly moved up the hand and then wrapped around Austin"s hand with both his hands.
Xu Ziyue lowered his head and looked at the connected hands, "Austin, why are you so good to me?"
"Is that bad?"
Xu Ziyue shook his head, "It"s not that it"s bad…..I just want to know. Are you also like this to others?"
Xu Ziyue didn"t wait for Austin"s answer. He looked up at Austin and saw that Austin was looking at him.
Austin said: "Isn"t it because you like me? I want to be nice to people who like me."
Xu Ziyue asked back: "Then do you like me too?"
Austin just smiled.
Xu Ziyue let go of Austin"s hand and sat up, "Austin, you……Do you control this cruise ship? Are you this cruise ship"s owner?"
Austin raised his eyebrow. He retracted his hand and calmly leaned back against his wheelchair. Both his hands gently rested on his abdomen. His voice was as gentle as ever but the emotions in his eyes were gone, "I thought you wouldn"t ask me this so soon."
"Even if you aren"t the owner of this cruise ship, your ident.i.ty on this ship is surely a special one." Xu Ziyue licked his lips, "So you knew I suspected you…….." He still really liked Austin"s face but that didn"t contradict his desire to know the truth.
"I am this ship"s owner, but I don"t manage what they do." Austin raised his finger and pointed at the card in front of Xu Ziyue"s chest, "The stamp on there, every one of it has the Westminster"s family emblem."
Xu Ziyue opened the card and looked at it.
Please read this from KKTranslates. If it"s on another site, it was stolen.
He had earlier noticed that the pattern at the base of the stamp was different, but he didn"t look carefully. Looking at it more carefully now, he noticed that it was rather unusual. The entire emblem was composed of two parts; a border and a picture. The picture was of two fish and snake-like animals intertwined and the surrounding border was a circle of complicated lines.
This pattern has appeared in various places on the cruise ship including the ornaments on the walls and also the utensils they used.
Because it was so common, they had overlooked it.
"So you let your subordinates……" Xu Ziyue said this while looking at Austin.
Austin spread open his hands and shrugged.
Xu Ziyue looked at Austin angrily but facing that face of his, this anger didn"t last more than three minutes.
"Even if I can control them, I"m not the same as them." Austin looked at Xu Ziyue. There were some emotions hidden in his eyes that Xu Ziyue couldn"t understand.
Xu Ziyue rubbed his nose. He suddenly remembered something and looked at Austin with horror, "Don"t tell me you"re also not human?!"
Austin: "……….."
Austin"s finger moved. He asked: "Why? There"s someone you know that"s not human?"
Xu Ziyue had used the word "also" so it meant that he also knew someone who was not human.
Xu Ziyue was still confused. He shook his head and even his the words he spoke were muddled, "No, I mean….Uh, that"s not right. I was just thinking that all the incidents happening on this cruise ship were all supernatural events, so it meant that something non-human was likely involved. You"re their leader……so wouldn"t you be one too? But you also said that you"re not the same……..So in fact you"re human but you can control those monsters?"
Austin could tell that Xu Ziyue was avoiding answering his question, but he didn"t persist with asking. As for Xu Ziyue"s guesses, Austin just smiled and said: "They listen to me only because they worked for me when they were alive." He leaned forwards slightly and pressed Xu Ziyue"s hand onto his face, "I"m not monster. Here, can you feel my temperature?"
"I-I-I-I-I can!"
Xu Ziyue stuttered in panic.
"As for why I didn"t restrain them…….." Austin lowered his eyes. Those long eyelashes of his trembled slightly. It was as if he was struggling with something: "Because if I angered them, even if it was me……when influenced by anger they wouldn"t listen to anyone."
Xu Ziyue was rendered dizzy with all these revelations so for a moment he didn"t notice anything wrong with those words of his.
Xu Ziyue asked: "Then….then what"s the special gift you prepared? Can you tell me in advance?"
Austin stopped. He hooked up his lips and smiled, "If I tell you in advance, then it wouldn"t be a surprise."
Even if there was a gift at the beginning, with the situation now, it was long gone. Austin who no longer cared about anything didn"t think that anyone would be able to survive and get twenty stamps but it seems he now should start thinking about it.
When he left Austin"s room, Xu Ziyue felt like his brain had stopped working. Even while he had dinner at the restaurant, he was deep in thought.
The information from Austin"s words revealed some things to Xu Ziyue. The ones messing around with the activities on this ship were the staff, but they were all dead.
Please read this from KKTranslates. If it"s on another site, it was stolen.
It was really strange……Was a part of the current stuff here from before or were they all staff that came in afterwards?
Something like this………… He should naturally ask the tour guide!
Xu Ziyue finished his dinner and saw that the sky outside had already darkened. After thinking about it, he decided to find the tour guide tomorrow.
Even if nothing happened at night, it still made people scared.
On the sixth day, Xu Ziyue got up early in the morning and left his room after washing up.
As he pa.s.sed by the door to Austin"s room, Xu Ziyue noticed that the door again wasn"t closed completely.
Xu Ziyue secretly stretched out his finger and pushed the door slightly ajar.
In the room, Austin was lying quietly on the bed in deep sleep.
"Austin? Are you asleep?" Xu Ziyue asked quietly but he seemed to be afraid of waking Austin.
"Jeez…….It"s not good leaving the door open……." Xu Ziyue said this as he walked in. He looked around and crouched down by the bed.
Yesterday, he touched Austin"s face.
Today……Xu Ziyue swiftly touched Austin"s face and ran out! Along the way, he also helped close the door for him.
Xu Ziyue arrived at the main restaurant in a happy mood. He looked around but he couldn"t find the tour guide. Instead, he ran into a player who similarly lived on the tenth floor.
When the player saw Xu Ziyue, his expression was filled with surprise. The first sentence he said as soon as he approached him was, "Turns out you"re still alive!"
Xu Ziyue"s greeting was stuck in his throat. He paused for a moment and nodded: "Yes, yes. It"s really not easy." Xu Ziyue felt that his words may have sounded too perfunctory but the player before him didn"t seem to notice and even nodded and echoed his sentiments.
"Yeah, it"s really hard. That"s right, my name is Zhang Zhang."
"My name is Xu Ziyue." Xu Ziyue internally felt that his name was easy to remember. He casually asked Zhang Zhang, "By the way, did you see our tour guide?"
"Tour guide? The one we came with?"
Xu Ziyue nodded.
Zhang Zhang asked: "Why are you looking for him?"
Xu Ziyue answered: "I have something I want to ask him."
Zhang Zhang patted his chest and said proudly: "Then ask me! I have already read all the books in the library. No question will be too difficult for me!"
"All………all of them?" Xu Ziyue looked at Zhang Zhang with surprise.
Zhang Zhang shook his head and sighed, "Haa… It took five days. When I came out on the sixth day, I found out that something happened to the other two I planned to meet up with."
"……….My condolences."
Zhang Zhang shook his head, "It"s fine, we only spoke a couple of times. By the way, what did you want to ask? Let me see if I read about it in the library."
Xu Ziyue was certain that the tour guide wouldn"t have appeared in the library, so he tried to see what Zhang Zhang knew.
Xu Ziyue asked: "Do you know anything about the Westminster cruise ship?"
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KK has something to say:
LOL he went in just to touch his face and then ran out