Chapter 48: What Is Normal?

    Under the jade doll’s menacing gaze that screamed murder, Jin Jiuchi had no choice but to open his mouth wide and two fingers were immediately shoved inside, causing his eyes to go wide. "Mm–mmh!!" His protest came out muffled when Nian pinched his tongue and stroked it back and forth.

    T–Ticklish! Oh God, it was so ticklish that Jin Jiuchi had to grab onto the jade doll’s small waist for purchase so that he did not grind his teeth down by reflex. He must not hurt Nian’s delicate and beautiful fingers!

    "Mm-nghh...?!" Are you done yet?!

    Nian took his fingers out soon after, with a thin transparent string connecting them to Jin Jiuchi’s lips. He had a grim look on his face as he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his fingers clean. "Nothing, your tongue is normal. Did you say that you were with—" he raised his head and almost choked on his saliva when he saw Jin Jiuchi’s face. All thoughts and theories formulating in his mind scattered in an instant like a startled flock of birds. "W–Why are you looking at me like that?" Crimson suffused into his fair cheeks. Realizing that he had almost draped himself over Jin Jiuchi’s body in a haste to prove his suspicion, he quickly scurried away until there was at least half a meter of distance between them.

    "Like what?" Jin Jiuchi narrowed his eyes, his beautiful lips glistening in saliva. A dark bruise was blooming on the corner of his mouth from where Nian had punched him, and his tongue darted out to lick it. "Sssh... it hurts. Nian’er, how can you be so violent?"

    Nian had to double check that the color of Jin Jiuchi’s eyes were indeed silver right now, and only then could he be rest assured that the one with him right now was indeed the silly husky, and not the wolf who was eager to eat him up – in a very literal sense.

    "You’re looking so serious..." he murmured under his breath. He shook his head and tried to forget the sensation of those sharp teeth, soft lips and barbed tongue on his neck. "Do you really not remember anything?" he asked Jin Jiuchi with a frown.

    "Have you mistaken me for someone else, Nian’er? Or..." his gaze moved to Nian’s disheveled collar and he reached out to run the tip of his finger there, eliciting a quiet gasp from the jade doll who hurriedly swatted his hand away with a flushed glare. "Did someone hurt you? But I don’t smell anyone other than us here..."

    ’Of course, you wouldn’t be able to smell it because it’s you!’ Nian scolded the man a thousand times in his heart. Now he could pretty much conclude that Jin Jiuchi had no idea what was going on.

    But what was up with him earlier? Double personality or... was Nian really under a spell of illusion, after all?

    Nian’s expression sank and he quickly denied it. No, it couldn’t be an illusion. He would know better than anyone if it was! Most importantly, even if he was indeed hallucinating, the scene where he was pinned down by a more perverted version of Jin Jiuchi and bitten until he bled was the last thing that would appear in his mind!

    Clenching his jaws tight, he told the man, "Tell me everything that happened to you before this."

    Through Jin Jiuchi’s words, Nian found out that he seemed to have entered a parallel space where Miss Zhao had been waiting for him.

    When he heard how the ghost bride offered Jin Jiuchi roasted peanuts and baked cookies, he barked out a furious laugh. Here he was fighting for his life, while Jin Jiuchi was enjoying his life to the fullest!

    The more Nian thought about it, the angrier he was. He seethed in a low voice, "Haven’t you learned your lesson from last time? The nightmare creature gave you food and you just ate it without a question?!" He really could not fathom what was running through this man’s mind. Was he a hungry ghost in his past life and that’s why he could not get enough of eating in this lifetime?

    "Miss Zhao will not harm me because she is kind!" Jin Jiuchi defended the bride in a righteous tone. Perhaps realizing that his argument was very subjective, he cleared his throat and added, "Moreover, I checked it beforehand and they are real, genuine food! At least, I no longer feel so hungry that I could die!"

    Nian snapped at him, "Of course, it’s because you—" bit me and took something from me. He choked on his words, unable to bring himself to continue it. Until now, he still had no idea what the other version of Jin Jiuchi had taken from him, and somehow he had a hunch that it was not only blood...

    Jin Jiuchi tilted his head, puzzled. "Because I what? Moreover, where did you go just now, Nian’er? I searched for you everywhere! And why did you punch me just now?" He rubbed his cheek, still recalling the shock and pain delivered by Nian’s small fist. Nian was clearly so small, so delicate and so adorable, but how could he be so powerful?

    Nian, however, couldn’t bring himself to tell Jin Jiuchi what he had gone through. It was too damn embarrassing! "I... I was sleeping..." he stammered out, not realizing how dubious it sounded with the messy state of the room and how the two of them had ended up on the floor.

    But fortunately, Jin Jiuchi was too occupied with his own thoughts to notice it. "Oh, and also, while we were eating and chatting, Miss Zhao’s red veil suddenly lifted with a whoosh and I saw her face again!" Just the mere thought of it was enough to make Jin Jiuchi’s teeth hurt. He gestured at his own face, "Her face is all ruined and bloody, Nian’er! It looks even worse than last time! Then she asked me if I was afraid of her..."

    "...What did you say?" Nian asked, curious. Judging from Jin Jiuchi’s character, he should have said no and even complimented the bride’s beauty, right?

    Jin Jiuchi’s mind wandered back to the event that had taken place a few moments ago.

    ...

    He hurriedly chewed and swallowed the food in his mouth before saying, "Actually, there is something I have been meaning to ask..."

    The nightmare creature paused, presumably not expecting that Jin Jiuchi would still be sitting in front of her instead of screaming on top of his lungs and bolting out of the door like many others did. She gave a jerky nod, curious about what the man wanted to say. The movement caused more blood to spill out of her badly mangled face and even splattered on the table. Seeing this, Jin Jiuchi’s hands were quick to pull the plates to him lest the food would be contaminated by blood.

    "Uh..." he gestured vaguely at her and then the blood on the ground that would soon reach his feet. "You are bleeding a little too much, aren’t you? Is that normal?"

    The bride: "..."

    The blood stopped flowing an inch away from the tip of Jin Jiuchi’s toes, unable to go forward anymore.

    Jin Jiuchi mistook her silence, thinking that she had been offended by his thoughtless question and he hastily tried to salvage it, "Oh, please don’t think too much about it! I am just casually asking. It’s okay even if you don’t want to answer!"

    But unexpectedly, Miss Zhao took her time to ponder before replying with difficulty, "I... have been like this... for as long as I could remember," she rasped. "What is... normal...?"

    Propping his chin up with a palm, Jin Jiuchi hummed and threw another peanut into his mouth. "I don’t know either. Care to hear a secret, Miss Zhao?" he grinned at her. When he saw the bride nod, he placed both hands on the table and leaned forward to whisper in a small voice,

    "Actually, I enjoy your company a lot. With the players, I often feel out of place. I know that I’m a freak and a weirdo in their eyes..." he heaved out a dramatic sigh. But when he looked at the bride, his eyes immediately lit up like a child who had seen a jar of candy. "But with you, I don’t feel that way. Perhaps it’s because both of us are not normal?"

    "Both of us... are not normal..." she echoed his words.

    Jin Jiuchi’s grin turned wider and he sent her a wink. "Uh-huh, don’t you think that’s the case? Anyway," he poured each of them a cup of tea and toasted her, "Cheers to your wedding!"

    ...

    "I asked her if she was okay to bleed so much..." Jin Jiuchi cleared his throat and omitted a lot of details from his conversation with Miss Zhao. It was not something that he wanted the jade doll to know. Moreover, he had already promised Miss Zhao that it would be a secret!

    Nian narrowed his eyes in doubt, sensing that Jin Jiuchi was not telling the whole detail. But he was soon distracted when Jin Jiuchi took something out of his pocket. "Oh that’s right, she gave this to me before she left."

    Nian’s eyes almost fell out of the sockets when Jin Jiuchi opened his palm to reveal a small item that couldn’t be more familiar to him.

    Ticket. It was the return ticket Jin Jiuchi was holding – the only item that could bring them out of this place.

    Jin Jiuchi offered it to him with a grin, "Nian’er, isn’t this the thing you have been searching for?"