Chapter 27: The Night of the Masquerade

“Girls, I think I’ve stumbled upon a huge piece of gossip…”

After watching the two leave, the ghost bride excitedly pulled out her phone to share what had just happened with her best friend.

Lu Shi weighed the mask in his hand as he walked beside Shen Zheming, a hint of an apologetic smile on his face.

“Sorry, Brother Shen. After I paid, I forgot to explain. She seemed to misunderstand.”

A family like Shen Zheming’s probably cared a lot about their reputation.

Lu Shi thought for a moment, then stopped.

“Maybe I should go back and clarify things with her.”

The fox masks were one white and one black. Shen Zheming held the black one.

“No need. Going back would seem deliberate and make people think more.”

For some reason, Lu Shi didn’t detect any blame in Shen Zheming’s words.

Maybe Shen Zheming was just too well-mannered, too good at hiding it.

As the auditorium entrance came into sight, Lu Shi fumbled to put on the mask.

The mask’s strings needed to be tied at the back of the head. Lu Shi lifted his arms and tried a couple of loops, but it felt wrong.

How do you tie a bow again? He only knew how to do it in the front, not the back. Why not just tie it in a knot and be done with it?

Out of the corner of his eye, Lu Shi saw Shen Zheming move. The next second, his hand, still half-raised, brushed against Shen Zheming’s fingertips.

“Let me help you.”

Shen Zheming’s fingers were nimble, and in just a few seconds, he tied a slipknot that could be undone with a single tug.

The mask only covered the upper half of his face. Lu Shi adjusted it slightly, trying to get it to sit straight.

Because of the mask, his vision was a bit obstructed, not as wide as usual. The scene before him swayed with his movements. When it steadied, the world in front of him contained only Shen Zheming.

Shen Zheming didn’t seem to need his help. He put on his own mask without assistance.

Then he turned his head, meeting Lu Shi’s gaze through the mask. The line of his jaw appeared even more chiseled, but his voice wasn’t cold at all.

“Let’s go.”

Chen Youxuan was unsettled by Wang Xiuzhi’s visit yesterday. Even at the party, he kept zoning out.

He had been restless all day, terrified that Chen Qiming and Zhu Wanqing would find out. But strangely, Lu Shi hadn’t told anyone else, even though it was such a good opportunity.

Even the household servants hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

Could it be that Lu Shi’s main target for revenge yesterday wasn’t him, but Wang Xiuzhi?

But hadn’t Lu Shi been good to Wang Xiuzhi before? Word had it that even on the day he was found, he had gotten into a fight with some thugs for her sake.

The guy who had invited Chen Youxuan handed him a piece of chocolate cake.

Chen Youxuan forced a stiff smile, trying not to look too distracted.

His gaze kept scanning the crowd, trying to spot Lu Shi by his hair color. But the lighting in the auditorium was too dim and strange; everyone’s hair looked about the same shade.

Helpless, Chen Youxuan had to suppress his anxiety and impatience, pretending to chat normally with his friends.

Meanwhile, Lu Shi had just regrouped with Ding Wei.

Ding Wei had indeed been abandoned by his friend, so when he found Lu Shi, he was so moved he almost cried.

“Brother Lu, I knew you’d have my back!”

Ding Wei was wearing a rather fierce clown mask and reached out to grab Lu Shi’s shoulder.

Lu Shi instinctively dodged, slipping behind Shen Zheming.

Then he felt his reaction had been too obvious, making him look cowardly.

He cleared his throat.

“As long as you know.”

Ding Wei: “Brother Lu, Brother Shen, when the chase starts later, can you take me with you? I promise I won’t hold you back.”

Lu Shi: “Don’t worry. Do I look like I can run fast?”

As he spoke, he glanced at Shen Zheming.

Shen Zheming: “I can’t run fast either.”

Ding Wei patted his chest, letting out a big sigh of relief.

“That’s good. I’m terrible at running. With you guys around, I feel safe.”

As long as there were more people, even getting caught by NPCs together wouldn’t be as scary.

The three of them wandered around for a while longer, and soon it was nine o’clock.

Ding Wei was about to grab a cupcake from the table, but before his hand even touched it—

Suddenly, all the lights in the auditorium went out, leaving only the dim glow of the decorative candles.

A hand wearing a red glow bracelet suddenly emerged from under the table in front of Ding Wei.

Screams erupted from all directions in the auditorium.

The NPC attached to that hand cackled as it began to crawl out from under the table.

Ding Wei swore, then quickly turned to call Lu Shi and Shen Zheming.

“Let’s go, go! There’s an NPC here! Run!”

He turned around.

There was no trace of the other two.

Lu Shi, by the faint light of the candles on the table, saw the tablecloth move. He reacted extremely quickly—he didn’t even need to see a hand reaching out from under the table to know an NPC was nearby.

Instinct drove him to bolt, but before running, he didn’t forget to grab Shen Zheming’s hand.

Lu Shi pulled Shen Zheming and sprinted through the auditorium. During their earlier walk, he had silently memorized the layout—where the dead ends were, where the steps were—he remembered it all clearly.

Lu Shi held Shen Zheming’s hand tightly. The scary NPCs popping up around them made his scalp tingle.

He had two reasons for dragging Shen Zheming along.

First, they had entered as a pair. Subconsciously, Lu Shi considered Shen Zheming his teammate, and he couldn’t abandon his teammate.

Second, he was genuinely a bit scared alone, and he had pulled Shen Zheming along to bolster his courage.

Besides, Shen Zheming had said he could hold his hand, so he couldn’t be blamed.

After about fifty meters of sprinting, Lu Shi slowed down a little, wondering if he should accommodate the precious young master.

But the next second after he turned his head, the precious young master thought he was running out of steam, easily accelerated past him, and started leading instead.

A flicker of surprise passed through Lu Shi’s eyes.

He had thought Shen Zheming wasn’t much of a runner, but unexpectedly, Shen Zheming could run this fast.

So this was the advantage of long legs?

Lu Shi’s own stamina wasn’t great, and after being led by Shen Zheming for a few steps, he began to struggle.

“Wait, Brother Shen… Shen Zheming…”

Out of breath, Lu Shi applied some pressure with his hand to make the person in front stop. His chest heaved violently, and he swallowed.

“Ding Wei…”

How did Lu Shi suddenly remember the other person?

Because during the run, his mask had slipped down, blocking his vision and making it hard to breathe, so he had simply pulled it off.

Looking at his right hand clasped with Shen Zheming’s, and then at his left hand holding the mask, he realized he had forgotten to grab Ding Wei with that hand.

Ding Wei was gasping for breath, desperately chasing after them.

But where there had been a glimpse of their backs just a moment ago, in the blink of an eye, they had vanished like the wind.

Ding Wei couldn’t run anymore. He leaned on his knees, panting heavily.

This reminded him of the long-distance running test in school: a bunch of people said they’d walk together and end up together at the bottom, but in the end, each one ran faster than the last, leaving him the only one exhausted like a dog.

So much for “noobs sticking together” and “we’re all slow”!

He never expected Brother Lu and Brother Shen to be this kind of people too!

Ding Wei took off his clown mask, tears streaming down like thick noodles.

He didn’t need the mask anymore—he was the clown himself.

But running too fast seemed to have its downsides.

For example, Lu Shi and Shen Zheming had attracted the attention of two NPCs because they ran too fast.

This batch of NPCs had higher IQs. The two NPCs exchanged glances.

Oh ho, two scoundrels finding each other. They both spotted a crafty idea in each other’s eyes.

They directly used the auditorium’s winding corridor to trap them in a pincer attack.

Now both the front and back were blocked by the two NPCs dressed as ghosts, forcing Lu Shi and Shen Zheming to stop.

Shen Zheming looked around and noticed an unlocked performance hall nearby.

He tightened his grip on Lu Shi’s hand.

“Follow me,” he said in a low voice.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Enemies on a Single-Log Bridge

AcademyBattleBL

Read Now →
Not interested