Chapter 920: KISS BENEATH THE MISTLETOE
"LET"S go, Brother Ji Yun!" Luo Yan said as he pulled Shen Ji Yun towards the direction that the Christmas elf gave them.
It actually took quite a while before they managed to find the place because they had to "decode" first whatever the h.e.l.l it was that the elf told them. Yes, because instead of telling them straight where the mysterious mistletoe was, the other gave them a riddle of it"s possible location. So, before they could go there, they had to solve that first.
Not that Luo Yan was complaining, well, maybe a little. By now, he should have gotten used to the NPCs of this game not giving the players what they needed directly. Instead, they had to work for it. Which was probably one aspect of the game that made it quite fair for the players. In a way that one wouldn"t get anything unless they worked hard for it.
Anyway, back to the riddle. What the elf told them was;
[Reaching stiffly for the sky, I bare my fingers when it"s cold. In warmth I wear an emerald gloves and in between I dress in gold.]
It was not hard to understand that the riddle was talking about a tree. The hard part was finding which tree it was.
Luo Yan and Shen Ji Yun both agreed that it was just one of the two – either it"s an ordinary tree that was often overlooked or a very remarkable tree that one could tell was special just by one look.
The both of them were in agreement that it was definitely the former. After all, if it was the latter, wouldn"t everyone have easily found it? Then, it wouldn"t be called "mysterious", right?
According to the elf, the mistletoe"s location changed every year. This year, it just happened to be hung on the tree in question. Of course, he didn"t directly say that it was a tree. But it"s almost the same since the riddle was too easy to solve. Really, the only problem they had was knowing which tree it was.
After that, the two spent about half an hour looking for clues about that tree. To avoid wasting time, they interviewed NPCs who seemed to know the location of the said tree. That was the thing that took a lot of their time. It would have probably taken a lot more time if it wasn"t for Luo Yan"s good luck in finding those useful NPCs.
Seriously, he"s starting to develop a nose for this stuff.
And from all their investigation, they finally arrived to an area that was almost outside the village"s territory. It was a sad piece of land that didn"t have any Christmas decorations or even a path that might entice visitors to go there. It was just full of snow and at the corner was a tree that was almost buried by the said snow.
Luo Yan turned to Shen Ji Yun. "Brother Ji Yun, do you think this is the place?"
"Let"s check it out first," Shen Ji Yun answered. He hoped that this was really the tree that they were looking for. He didn"t want to see Luo Yan disappointed just in case they were wrong.
So, the two walked towards the tree.
Luo Yan looked up at the tree"s branches and leaves. But to his disappointment, he didn"t see anything. Only frozen leaves and branches.
He sighed. "It seemed that we guessed the location of the mistletoe incorrectly."
He was already starting to think where to go next when he suddenly heard Shen Ji Yun say;
"Maybe not."
Luo Yan turned towards the other. Shen Ji Yun was looking up at the tree with narrowed eyes. With the way his brows scrunched up, it looked like he noticed something that Luo Yan didn"t notice.
Luo Yan was about to look up to see what it could possibly be, but before he could, he felt his waist being pulled by a strong arm. Before he knew it, his body had already gently collided with hard muscles. He raised his head to look at Shen Ji Yun.
"Brother Ji Yun, what—"
"Yan Yan, look!" The other pointed above them with a slightly excited voice.
He instinctively looked up and his eyes slightly widened when he saw something slowly appearing above them. Like a distortion that was slowly pealing off an illusion. After a few seconds, the object was finally revealed – a green plant that was arranged like a wreath.
It didn"t have any special decorations. Just two bells on top. Its size was also not that big. Almost like an ordinary wreath. The only thing special about it was the yellow glow surrounding it.
"Is that what I think it is?" Luo Yan couldn"t help but asked.
"I think so."
Luo Yan turned his gaze back to Shen Ji Yun. "How did you notice that, Brother Ji Yun?"
Shen Ji Yun scratched his cheek. "I used a skill to make sure that there"s no illusion around."
"But how did you realize that we had to stand beneath it for it to appear like that?"
"Well, isn"t there a phrase "kiss beneath the mistletoe"? I just thought that it would appear if we stood under it."
Luo Yan smiled at that answer. "You"re a genius, Brother Ji Yun," he said with a thumbs-up. "Then, shall we test if this is really the mysterious mistletoe?"
"How?"
"First, let"s remove our masks," as he said that, Luo Yan removed his mask and then proceeded to removing the one on Shen Ji Yun"s face. "You know what to do next, right Brother Ji Yun?" he added with an inviting glance.
Shen Ji Yun gulped and then slowly lowered his head. Once their lips touched, what should have been just a shallow peck became a deep kiss.
The two were so engrossed that they didn"t even notice how the mistletoe above their heads started to glow red.
Curiously enough, the reason they ended their kiss was not because of the bright glow from the mistletoe but because of someone"s voice interrupting them.
"Luo Yan?"