Novel Bin Ch117.2 - The Cycle of Karma, What Goes Around Comes Around (31.2)
Chapter Ch117.2 - The Cycle of Karma, What Goes Around Comes Around (31.2)
translator: baumkuchen editors: glitterypanda, serefina
At this point, half the time had passed.
Even though Qiao Yun was doing her best to drink water, at the end of the day, her stomach had its limits. The water had already passed her upper thigh, and looked like it was about to pass waist-level.
Qiao Yun, her back pressed against the wall of the aquarium, covered her mouth with her hands, not even daring to cry, afraid that her tears would make the water level rise.
As they walked to the box in the next corner, Gan Yu dropped his head onto Chi Xiaochi’s shoulder.
His eyelashes were coated in a layer of mist, and his cheeks, which had been white as paper, turned a pale pink. His breath which he exhaled from his nose was hot.
......He’d gotten a fever.
Chi Xiaochi helped him sit down in front of the box. He whispered into his ear, “Your leg hurts?”
“En,” Gan Yu said, “My sister and I share feelings.”
Chi Xiaochi said, “I’ve only heard of twins having a telepathic connection, I’ve never heard of them even being able to share bodily sensations.”
Gan Yu pursed his lips in a smile. He lifted the lid, and steadily lifted the panel out. He used his fingertips to trace out the steel ball’s path. “There are all kinds of things in this world. There are many things that you don’t know of or are beyond your imagination.”
The bead in the panel slowly began to roll along his predetermined track once more.
When the water had already reached Qiao Yun’s chest even as she stood on top of the fake mountains, Yuan Benshan let out a low curse, “Fuck.”
“Click”.
The second lock opened.
This time, without waiting for Qiao Yun to push the lid, Meng Qian and Xu Jiayi both lept to their feet, and, working in tandem, pushed at the edge of the lid, finally managing to lift it a little.
Meng Qian came to the edge, urging, “Qiao Yun, quickly pass us the key!”
Qiao Yun raised her arm, wanting to push the key out of that tiny little gap, but halfway through her motion, she pulled her arm back.
Meng Qian, “......What are you doing? Give it to me!”
Qiao Yun clutched the key to her palm in a death grip. “Wait until you open the third lock!”
Meng Qian tried to coax her. “Qiao Yun, we’ll open the third lock. Look, Mister Gan has already begun unlocking it.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Qiao Yun said disdainfully, “If I give you the key, will you still risk the threat of the ‘bomb’ exploding to save me? You’ll definitely leave me here!”
Meng Qian, “Qiao Yun!”
Qiao Yun’s voice turned shrill. “I’m warning you, if you guys don’t save me, I’ll eat this key. If worst comes to worst and it’s a case of either the fish dies or the net splits, none of you can leave!”
Seeing that Qiao Yun was serious, Meng Qian couldn’t help but break out into loud cursing.
Yuan Benshan, annoyed by their bickering, roared out in anger, “All of you be quiet! Shut your mouths!”
In this kind of cacophony, Gan Yu’s expression was still as steady and calm as ever.
But it was clear to the naked eye that the high fever had had a huge impact on the functioning of his body. His speed of solving the maze had become a lot slower. Several times, the steel ball just barely brushed the &#k2018;bomb’ as it passed, making Chi Xiaochi’s heartbeat fluctuate by a hundred beats per minute.
Gradually, only Qiao Yun’s head was left above water. She was no longer able to control her tears of fright as they rolled down her face, only able to choke down her sobs. Meng Qian was even more nervous, to the point that he was on the verge of puking.
No one dared to disturb him, but everyone’s gazes were focused on Gan Yu’s back.
Gan Yu’s body was as immovable as a mountain, and his hands were even steadier, only trembling slightly whenever he reached a temporary safe zone.
The water level rose higher and higher, passing her neck and mouth. Qiao Yun could only rely on her desire to survive and buoyancy to keep her face above water, uttering “ah”s of despair from her throat.
While over on Gan Yu’s end, he too was getting close to finishing. He just needed to pass one “bomb field” before reaching the end point.
The path through the “bomb field” was one you had to take to reach the end. The bombs were arranged into two rows, forming a complete passage that was five centimetres long and only a few millimetres wide.
The little steel ball couldn’t touch the two walls at all to pass.
The difficulty level of this was enough to make one’s body feel numb just from watching.
Chi Xiaochi looked back and saw that the water was already about to fill the aquarium. Heart freezing in his chest, he yelled at Qiao Yun, “Take a deep breath! Dive!”
Matters had already reached this point, Qiao Yun had no choice but to listen.
She snatched a breath of air from the remaining gap, filling her lungs with oxygen, before sinking down into the water, her eyes tightly shut.
But at that moment, Gan Yu said, “......It’s turned into two.”
In the beginning, Chi Xiaochi didn’t understand what Gan Yu was saying. After he ran it through his mind one more time, cold sweat began to pour down his back.
Damn it!
He was seeing double!
Gan Yu frowned as he stared closely at the two paths through the “bomb field” that had now turned into four, racking his brain for a way of getting through this.
It was already too late to have Yuan Benshan take over. Chi Xiaochi forced himself to stay calm. He reached out his right index finger, keeping his touch as gentle as possible as he drew out a line through the safe route. “Go through here.”
Gan Yu raised his right hand as well, gently pressing his index finger against Chi Xiaochi’s fingertip. “Is it here?”
Chi Xiaochi already guessed what he wanted to do. “......Can you do it?”
Gan Yu’s answer was simple. “I can.”
Chi Xiaochi chose to believe him.
He pressed his index finger against the entrance to the “bomb field”, leading Gan Yu’s fingertip along that millimetre wide path, drawing out as smooth a line as possible.
With one hand, Gan Yu tilted the steel ball panel, rolling the little steel ball into the “bomb field”.
In Gan Yu’s eyes, Chi Xiaochi’s hand was doubled, and the “bombs” were also doubled.
Amongst the double images, only the heat of Chi Xiaochi’s fingertip was startlingly clear.
Using that fingertip as his guide, he made the steel ball roll smoothly onto the black and white grid that symbolised the end point.
“Click”.
The third lock, opened.
As soon as Gan Yu placed the steel ball panel back into the box, his body went limp, falling straight onto Chi Xiaochi as he gasped loudly for breath.
Xu Jiayi and Meng Qian, who long since been waiting for this, climbed up onto the aquarium and hurriedly pushed up the cover.
At this point, Qiao Yun had already begun to choke on water, but feeling a light shining down from above her, the last traces of her survival instincts pushed her into using the last of her strength to rise up to the surface.
Meng Qian dragged her upper half out of the water, grabbed her hand and forced open her tightly-clenched fist. Pulling the copper key out of her grip, he threw it to Xu Jiayi. “Quickly open the door!”
Just as he was about to pull Qiao Yun out, he suddenly saw the screens light up on the surface of the four boxes that were holding hidden bombs. A countdown began.
“30, 29, 28......”
Seeing this, who wouldn’t be able to tell what was going to happen next?
Meng Qian let out a loud “fuck”, shook off Qiao Yun’s hand, and scrambled straight over to the door in a wild dash to stare at Xu Jiayi as he opened the door. “Are you done yet?!”
Xu Jiayi had also heard the countdown start. He could only do his best to keep calm as he inserted the key into the lock. However, this lock was really old. After inserting the key, for a moment, he wasn’t able to turn it!
Meng Qian was so anxious he was stomping his feet. He snatched the key out of Xu Jiayi’s hands to open the door himself, actually throwing Qiao Yun, who was dizzy from nearly drowning and was bent over the aquarium wall retching up water non-stop, to the side.
Xu Jiayi turned and glanced at Qiao Yun. Open disgust appeared on his face. Not only did he ignore her, but he took the initiative to pull the unconscious Gan Tang up onto his back.
Chi Xiaochi needed to support Gan Yu’s body, and was currently too busy to help. He turned and shouted at Yuan Benshan, “Pull her out!”
He really disliked Qiao Yun, this person who had betrayed her teammates in anger at such a critical moment, but he was worried that the next room would require teamwork to pass.
Gan Yu and Gan Tang already couldn’t hold on any longer. Jia Siyuan was dead. If Qiao Yun were to die, there would only be four able people left.
Yuan Benshan hesitated.
The clown’s words quickly came to mind.
Hadn’t Qiao Yun been placed in the aquarium precisely because she was the “player with the best performance”?
His performance in the last room had already been very out of line, so if he watched on as someone died once again, would he be chosen as the clown’s next target to toy with?
Thinking of this, Yuan Benshan quickly ran over and pulled Qiao Yun down from the aquarium.
Qiao Yun fell to the floor, her arms and legs drained of strength. She had no way of standing up on her own. She looked up at him in a daze, not yet understanding what was going on.
With seven seconds left on the countdown, the door was finally successfully opened.
Meng Qian was the first to rush through. Chi Xiaochi, holding Gan Yu in a princess carry, was second. Following closely after them was Gan Tang and Xu Jiayi.
Yuan Benshan hadn’t had the time to pick Qiao Yun up. Seeing the time limit rapidly approaching, he didn’t even have the time to think, simply grabbing her by the arm and dragging her towards the door like a sack.
As soon as his back foot stepped through the door, the four bombs exploded simultaneously.
Miraculously enough, the force of the bombs was confined to that small concrete room. The fully-filled aquarium exploded, the glass scattering everywhere like artillery shells, while this room was utterly untouched.
Before Yuan Benshan could breathe a sigh of relief, he felt as if something was wrong.
He seemed to have...... failed to pull Qiao Yun into the room.
But Qiao Yun’s right wrist was still in his grasp.
The faces of the people before him were all wretchedly pale. And when he stiffly turned around, what he saw, was Qiao Yun, missing the lower half of her body.
Qiao Yun’s mouth opened and closed in pain, but she already could no longer make a sound.
Like he was holding hot charcoal, Yuan Benshan hastily threw the remaining half of her body into the flames behind her.
With that, the door slammed shut.
The elevator device started up once more, sending the stunned, frightened group away from that hair-raising bomb house, towards an unknown destination.
The author has something to say:
Chi Xiaochi: I trust you.
Liu-laoshi/Gan Yu: I trust you too.
sere: ok CXC and 061 are cute but everyone else in that room is so ew??? Like Meng Qian is horrible, Yuan Benshan is terrible, and both Qiao Yun and Xu Jiayi are also really gross
baum: I mean do note that these rooms are designed to bring out the worst in people. what Qiao Yun did to Jia Siyuan was horrible, but it was necessary for them to pass. and given that she did that and she’s panicking, afraid, and guilty, i do think her fear that they would leave her in the aquarium was reasonable, even though it really wasn’t conducive to them getting through this and extremely annoying. and at least Xu Jiayi made himself useful by picking up Gan Tang. i don’t really have any excuses other than panic for Yuan Benshan and Meng Qian tho lmao