Chapter 56: Trapped

    "O–Ow!" Jin Jiuchi let out a surprised yelp as he felt a strong tug on his scalp, and only then did he deign to turn away and run toward the kitchen. No, rather than running, it was more like he was jogging instead, while looking back once in a while. "They’re really poisonous? But why did they look kinda cu—"

    "Don’t you dare finish that sentence!" Nian growled at him.

    Blood drained from his face upon seeing the sea of black spiders quickly catching up to them, and there was even one climbing up Jin Jiuchi’s trousers at the moment!! Nian flailed around before he managed to kick it away, even then he felt so disgusted that he had to rub the sole of his shoe on Jin Jiuchi’s ass.

    "Faster faster faster!!" He urged, almost hysterical.

    "Brother Yang, Little Brother! Hurry up!!" Tang Ye and Xinxin were waiting for them at the door, and as soon as Jin Jiuchi bolted in, they immediately slammed the door shut and put on the latch!

    The sound of those small spiders hitting the door was akin to rain on a tin roof. They scratched and scrabbled at the door as they tried to find a way through, their tiny bodies piling up against the wooden surface in a writhing mass. Just imagining it was enough to send chills down everyone’s spine.

    Though he was not the one running, Nian still felt a little out of breath as he jumped down from Jin Jiuchi’s arms and patted himself all over to confirm that no spiders had crawled onto his body. A huge sigh of relief escaped his lips when he found none. Goodness, that was such a close call!

    When he turned to glare at Jin Jiuchi, he saw the man rubbing his ass with a thoughtful look, while his gaze was fixed on Nian.

    "What?" He challenged in a menacing yet still milky voice.

    "Nian’er, you..." Nian’s glare intensified, willing the man to finish his sentence. But then Jin Jiuchi remarked with an amused smirk on his face, "You’re really scared of spiders, huh?"

    "Only a weirdo like you will think that they’re cute!" Nian seethed, his cheeks warm.

    Compared to the harmonious(?) atmosphere between the two, it was more dreary and bleak on the other side.

    "W–What should we do...?" Xinxin whispered in fear as he gazed tearfully at the door, his thin frame shaking. "We... we are trapped here, aren’t we?"

    Tang Ye had just intended to go forward and comfort the frightened Xinxin when he recalled that this person was a man whose asset was even bigger than him down there. As such, he immediately retreated a step and cleared his throat awkwardly, "The most important thing now is to find the tickets. As for the creatures outside, we will cross the bridge when we come to it. Perhaps they may have gone away by the time we finished!" He flashed a reassuring smile at Xinxin, whose shoulders immediately relaxed as he held immense trust in the young man’s nonsensical words.

    Would the spider creature really leave them alone after this? Or would it be waiting in the dark and seize the chance when they were caught off guard to launch a strike? No matter what, it would be better to focus on the tickets, because only then would they be able to clutch onto the hope of getting out alive.

    "Let’s see..." Tang Ye started to fumble around in the dark. "It seems like there are some unused candles around here when I searched last time... aha, here they are!" He found the candles in one of the cabinets, pulled out a lighter from his pocket and lit them up one by one, casting a dim golden glow to the enclosed space.

    Nian’s eyes narrowed at his lighter. "Is that a prop?" He asked casually.

    "Ah, yes," Tang Ye said as he picked up one candle and began to look around. "It’s a common prop I received from my previous Cycle. It has no other use than to make fire, but I guess it has come handy at a time like this, huh?" He let out a wry chuckle.

    Xinxin also picked up another candle to illuminate the other side of the room. There was only so much space in the kitchen and soon, they found the location of the secret chamber.

    "I... am sure that this was not here last time," Tang Ye remarked hesitantly as he glanced at his feet where a blurred outline of a hatch could be seen, covered by a thick layer of dust. Tang Ye used his feet to brush the dust away and he paused when he got to one corner. Crouching down, he brought the candle closer to see what it was.

    "A latch?"

    Indeed, it looked like a latch to pull the door open – or at least, it used to be. But now the latch’s handle was broken and missing, and what remained was only two small pieces of metal on each side. It was as if... someone had forcefully snapped it so that the door would not be opened ever again.

    All of a sudden, Nian recalled the diary entry on the journal Jin Jiuchi had read to him earlier. Dong had written about seeing something that shouldn’t be seen, an innocent boy and a demon. The more he thought about it, the more he felt like something was off with the secret chamber.

    Was it really something that should be opened? If not, then why would Tang Ye insist on it?

    "Nian’er," a low voice whispered to him from behind, almost startling Nian’s soul out of his body. He held onto his wildly beating heart and turned in time to hear Jin Jiuchi say, "I have a bad feeling about this."

    He quickly shoved the wayward thoughts to the back of his mind as he caught sight of Jin Jiuchi’s solemn expression. "...Why?"

    Jin Jiuchi rubbed his nose, at a loss of words to describe. "Just say that it’s... instinct."

    Nian nodded. He agreed with Jin Jiuchi on this one as he also felt like whatever lay in the secret chamber, it’s best if it could remain there forever.

    However...

    A pocket watch appeared in his palm the next second – a special prop which he had never taken out until now. Under Jin Jiuchi’s curious gaze, he flipped it open. But rather than numbers that told the time, a bunch of foreign symbols stood at the twelve points instead. As of now, the pointer was spinning around wildly before it stopped... right on the direction of the hatch.

    Nian took in a shaky inhale, "I have to get in there..."

    His voice was small, yet Jin Jiuchi heard it nonetheless. "Why?"

    Nian pursed his lips into thin lines and he finally told Jin Jiuchi the truth, "There is something important, very very important I have to find in this Cycle. It will determine my fate in the future."

    Jin Jiuchi blinked at him slowly, "Very important thing? What is it?"

    "It’s a—" Before Nian could finish his sentence, he was caught off guard by Tang Ye’s shout and he turned to find the young man grabbing the small pieces of metal in two hands, using it as a pivot as he dragged the door up.

    "Urgh...!" The veins on his neck bulged as he exerted strength on his arm, and the door swung open and slammed onto the ground with a loud thud, revealing a narrow flight of stairs that led to the pitch-black darkness below.

    "Ha... Haha!" He wiped the sweat on his face and shot up to his feet energetically. "Finally! Let’s go down!" Not even giving the others a chance to respond, he took the lead to descend the stairs and soon, his figure was swallowed by the darkness and disappeared from their sight.

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    A/N: Question! What is in JJ’s mind when he’s rubbing his ass?

    A. Why does it hurt all of a sudden? I can’t be bitten on the butt by a spider, right...

    B. So this is how it feels to have my ass kicked, by Nian’er to boot!

    C. Others (use your full imagination) :p