Chapter 66: It Turns Out Kissing Really Is Addictive
That night, Jian Tang stayed over in Feng Xun’s room.
Neither of them made the initial suggestion, nor was there any of that so-called cohabitation ritual. Ever since the phrase “Let’s get married” was uttered, a tacit understanding had settled between the two of them.
After dinner, Feng Xun went to ready the bedding, and Jian Tang carried over his own bedroll. The two naturally lay down together.
After the lights were turned out, they held each other close. Feng Xun asked the person in his arms, “Have you truly thought it through?”
Jian Tang mischievously poked his “fiancée’s” prominent, firm pectoral muscles and blinked. “Are you talking about us living together right now, or us getting married?”
“I mean—the fact that you can never back out of this again.”
Feng Xun caught the youth’s troublemaking hand, lacing his own fingers through the other’s gaps to lock their hands together.
“Of course, even if you wanted to back out now, it’s too late. I’ve already taken it to heart.”
Jian Tang laughed, leaning in to press a kiss against the man’s cheek. “It was always real to begin with. You’re my wife. If I don’t marry you, who else could I marry?”
The corners of Feng Xun’s mouth turned up. He tilted his head slightly and captured the youth’s soft, moist lips.
For the first time, he realized that kissing was such an addictive thing. But it really wasn’t entirely his fault—just as he had fantasized before, Little Tang’s lips and the moisture between his teeth carried a pleasant scent of fresh grass, fragrant and sweet. Once tasted, it was incredibly hard to give up.
However, he remained somewhat restrained. Aside from claiming his little lover’s sweet and soft kisses, he didn’t do anything extra.
Too much had happened during the day. Little Tang was thoroughly exhausted, both mentally and physically. After they cuddled for just a short while, Feng Xun urged him to go to sleep.
Once the youth fell fast asleep, he quietly got up, headed to the bathroom to take a cold shower, and came back to pull Jian Tang into his arms again. The two fell asleep wrapped around each other.
—
The next day was Sunday.
Both of them had the day off. In the morning, Feng Xun drove Jian Tang to the flower market the boy had been longing to visit.
They bought back a vast amount of fresh cut flowers and potted plants. Spending the entire afternoon, they settled the accommodations for these new residents of the apartment.
A fiddle-leaf fig filled the empty corner of the living room. Vibrant, massive bouquets of roses found a home in glass vases. Pink-and-white lisianthuses occupied crystal vases in the bedroom and kitchen. There were also many plump, fleshy succulent pots arranged on a small, temporary flower rack built on the balcony.
The beautiful, vibrant flowers and fresh, tender plants injected a wealth of vitality into the small apartment, making it look far more warm and livable.
After finishing their work, Feng Xun laid out dinner on the living room coffee table. They turned on the screen projector, browsing wedding videos online while eating dinner, casually looking to see if any wedding planning companies caught their eye.
Jian Tang and Feng Xun had already agreed to hold the wedding before the end of the year. There were actually quite a lot of things to plan and prepare in the early stages; the timeline was tight and the task was heavy, so they had to start preparing now.
Jian Tang enthusiastically watched the videos on the projector, adding any he liked to his favorites folder. Although Feng Xun was watching as well, his gaze would frequently drift toward the youth.
The light from the projector warmed the boy’s face. The youth’s eyes were curved, a happy smile hanging on his face, his lips glistening slightly with oil as he ate the dishes hand-cooked for him. He sat on the new sofa they had picked out together recently, against a backdrop of vibrant roses blooming passionately on the windowsill.
This was a snapshot of their domestic life. A mundane yet warm daily routine was precisely the ordinary human life he dreamed of.
Feng Xun completely believed that with the official binding of their marriage, their sweet and beautiful life would become even more stable and secure. The warmth and happiness in this apartment would continue forever.
At this moment on the projector screen, a small and beautiful wedding showcase video ended, and the platform automatically played the next video.
It was a piece of local news—
[Yesterday afternoon, multiple stations along Subway Line 2 in this city experienced successive incidents of passengers fainting. According to statistics from the subway operator, a total of over ninety passengers were involved in this incident. Among them, 22 individuals were sent to the hospital for observation due to more severe symptoms, while the remaining personnel have suffered no major issues after emergency on-site handling…]
Feng Xun’s brow twitched. He wanted to swipe this piece of news away, but seeing Jian Tang’s expression, the hand he had just extended silently retreated.
[…This morning, the municipal subway operating company held a briefing on the situation to announce the preliminary investigation results. The direct cause that triggered the mass fainting incident inside the subway cars was a lack of oxygen in the carriages… The involved line has comprehensively launched an inspection and maintenance of the ventilation system, replacing dozens of filters…]
Jian Tang read through the report carefully, and thereby learned how the people from the Bureau had cleaned up after yesterday’s bizarre subway incident—the excuse of “collective oxygen deprivation” was highly far-fetched, but it at least gave the public an explanation.
“It’s good that no one died,” he sighed out softly.
Feng Xun: “…”
Feng Xun: “People did die. The officials just didn’t report it.”
After all, he had killed quite a few himself.
The mutated state of those contaminated task takers wasn’t as severe as Yuan Cheng’s; they didn’t disappear directly after death, and their corpses still retained human form. These would definitely be counted in the death toll.
However, Feng Xun estimated that aside from the ones he personally finished off, the ordinary humans butchered by the mutated task takers shouldn’t be few either. Given his understanding of the local official organization, unless the situation affected too broad an area and the death toll climbed to a point where it could no longer be suppressed, this kind of news that whitewashed the peace wouldn’t even be reported; it would be handled with direct silence.
Just like the performance hall at the water park previously—that bizarre incident left absolutely no ripples, and the information online was scrubbed completely clean.
“It hasn’t been very peaceful lately. You need to be extra careful,” he instructed the youth.
Jian Tang couldn’t help but shiver. “Is the situation r-really that severe?”
Previously, he had never heard of Sinister Seeds running amok to this extent. Why did the outside world suddenly become so dangerous?
Seeing that the youth was frightened, Feng Xun instantly softened his voice.
“It’s alright,” he said. “I’ll give you a few more items for self-defense. As long as you carry them with you at all times and don’t let them leave your side, you don’t need to worry too much.”
Jian Tang instantly thought of that “heroically sacrificed” massive golden rabbit, and his mood immediately dipped a bit. “The rabbit pendant you gave me was stamped to pieces by the bad guy.”
Because they had left in a great rush, they hadn’t even been able to bring back the wreckage, leaving it abandoned right there in the carriage.
“It doesn’t matter. I can give you another one exactly like it.”
The cowlick on top of Jian Tang’s head instantly snapped upright. “Really?!”
“Yeah. I made that one originally anyway.”
Jian Tang remembered. The man in the suit did seem to have mentioned that the rabbit pendant wasn’t a system product, but had been hand-crafted by someone, and its quality belonged to the golden artifact grade. Feng Xun could actually make something that amazing…
He blinked, a flash of insight striking his mind as realization dawned upon him: No wonder I felt Feng Xun was different from other task takers; it turns out he’s a support-type task taker!
To his knowledge, support-type task takers made up a tiny fraction of the population because the relevant professional skill books were incredibly hard to acquire. If someone struck gold and opened such a skill, they basically didn’t need to frequently descend into horror instances anymore; they could establish a firm foothold in the Anomalous World purely by selling self-made items or self-developed medicines.
Ha, so my wife isn’t a violent task taker keen on fighting and killing, but a peaceful, Zen-like item crafter. Then I have even less to worry about!
“That’s wonderful!” Jian Tang revealed a smile. “I really liked that rabbit pendant, and I liked its physical form too. It was huge and reliable, yet cute and adorable. I super loved it!”
Seeing his little lover’s mood visibly brighten, Feng Xun couldn’t help but curve the corners of his mouth.
“Okay,” he said with a smile. “I’ll craft it tomorrow and give it to you.”
The two spent this pleasant weekend together leisurely, and at night, they still slept wrapped around each other.
—
Once Jian Tang was completely fast asleep, Feng Xun gently loosened his hold on him and got out of bed.
He first went to the bathroom to take a cold shower, and after changing his clothes, he came to the front door of the apartment.
The full-length mirror on the side of the entryway reflected the man’s tall, robust figure. He stared at the door before him, the shadow of a key surfacing within his ash-grey eyes, and then he gently turned the doorknob.
The lock clicked open soundlessly.
When the door swung wide, what appeared before him was no longer an ordinary residential corridor, but a green bluestone path laid across sparse grass.
The lawn was neglected and had mostly died, exposing sections of blackened, parched earth. Feng Xun stepped onto the bluestone path and shut the apartment door behind him.
At the end of the bluestone path stood a Gothic-style black castle. It towered over a desolate hillside, completely devoid of human presence for miles around. The sky here wasn’t a clear, transparent azure, but a rusty, dark crimson, looking thoroughly eerie and sinister.
This place was originally the lair of a Vampire Lord. Back then, Feng Xun had only been in the Anomalous World for a few years, and his strength wasn’t particularly prominent. During an instance run, he had accidentally offended that Vampire Lord. The other party pursued him relentlessly outside the instance, vowing to make this oblivious remnant vanish into ash forever.
The final outcome was that Feng Xun became the master of this ancient castle.
In truth, living in a bizarre boss’s lair wasn’t a good choice. Strictly speaking, this counted as being within the territory of anomalous creatures; running into a visiting boss could easily result in getting wiped out on the spot.
But Feng Xun had been very poor back then. The dimensional residential tax levied by the system on remnant task takers was simply too high, and he couldn’t afford a safer place at all, so he could only settle down here temporarily.
This temporary stay lasted for many years. During this time, it wasn’t that anomalous creatures hadn’t come to look for trouble; they had all been beaten away or killed by him.
Feng Xun wasn’t someone highly picky about his living conditions. Finding that he could seemingly keep living here, he truly kept living here.
Of course, it was merely “living.”
He had never treated this place as his home, because it fundamentally wasn’t. Especially after having his true “home,” Feng Xun was even more loath to come back, treating this place strictly as his oversized warehouse.
Feng Xun walked all the way to the castle gates. As if sensing its master’s return, the doors swung open automatically, revealing the magnificent yet empty grand hall inside.
> [Respected Master, welcome back!]
A small black crow flew out from a standing, ancient grandfather clock, attentively circling above Feng Xun’s head.
> [Respected Master, do you have any commands? Your loyal servant is at your service at all times!]
Feng Xun ignored this noisy system butler. Stepping across the obsidian floor of the hall, he went straight up to the second floor and entered his crafting room.
He stayed inside until it was almost dawn before coming out.
He packed the freshly minted rabbit pendant into a small gift box. Aside from this, he had also forged a new pair of rings, intending to give them to Jian Tang as engagement rings.
Having finished what he came to do, Feng Xun returned along the original path, his steps hurried—today was Monday, and he had to cook breakfast for Little Tang before the boy woke up for work.
When passing the first-floor grand hall, that small crow flew out again, its sharp little beak opening and closing.
> [Respected Master, detected that within your housing association information, there is a new resident pending entry. Would you like to execute the entry now?]
Feng Xun’s rapid footsteps abruptly halted.
A new resident?
Oh… it must mean Little Tang.
He currently held two safe house properties under his name: one was this castle, and the other was that small apartment in Dimension A90442. Many permissions and functions of the two safe houses were linked.
Little Tang was the cohabiting lover gifted upon purchasing the apartment safe house, so he would automatically be linked as one of the residents of that property. However, the youth had never been to this castle, nor had he added him as one of the masters of the castle, so he was currently still in a “pending entry” state.
“Execute the entry,” Feng Xun said crisply.
> [Understood! Executing the entry command for you now!]
A blue system light-screen popped up before Feng Xun, displaying a line of text—
> [Do you wish to add “Jian Tang” as one of the new residents of the safe house “Crimson Castle”?]
Just as Feng Xun was about to hit the [Yes] button, his finger suddenly paused.
This castle of his was different from the small apartment in Dimension A90442; it stood on the territory of anomalous creatures, forming a part of the Anomalous World sector.
As an ordinary human, if Little Tang could be successfully linked to this castle, the moment he entered the castle would also equal entering the Anomalous World.
But the problem was, the barrier to entry for the Anomalous World was rigid and harsh for humans—the sole method to enter the Anomalous World was to obtain a voucher.
If Little Tang didn’t have a voucher and hadn’t become a part of the Anomalous World, it would be impossible for him to link successfully with the castle, and impossible for him to become a new resident of this safe house.
Would the system… pop up an operation interface that was fundamentally impossible to complete?
Feng Xun stared at the prompt on the panel. After a long pause, he pressed the [Yes] button.
With a sharp ding, new text popped up on the screen—
[Operation successful!]
[New resident “Jian Tang” has completed linking with the safe house “Crimson Castle”!]
