Having the Same Name as the Demon Lord of the Abyss - Chapter 16

Ye Zun backed away abruptly, eyes wide open in horror.

However, the Class 2 student who was standing with the ghost knew nothing. He still stood closely to the other party. He even laughed at the back of the ghost’s head because of Ye Zun’s sudden fearful expression. “…looking at you like you’re a ghost, it’s hilarious ah! No way he isn’t a lunatic with mental problems ba!“

In the lively crowd, Ye Zun was the only one who noticed.

Ye Zun stepped back, hitting Shen Yuan who was standing behind him, and jumped away in horror.

Shen Yuan’s handsome face still wore that lazy smile. “What’s wrong?”

But it was normal. The skin on Shen Yuan’s neck was clean and smooth, with no black line on his body. He is human.

“You don’t have a black line, I don’t have a problem, it’s not me who has a problem!”

“En, what are you talking about?” With hands stuffed in his pockets, Shen Yuan tilted his head and looked at him curiously, eyes blinking with a loose and innocent smile.

Ye Zun shook his head, his eyes sweeping over the stitched up Class 1 students again before pushing away Shen Yuan’s hand that was stretched out in an attempt to embrace him.

“Hurry and get out of here! The farther the better!” His breathing slightly quickened and he hurriedly walked to the other end of the corridor.

Shen Yuan stayed where he stood, smiling with his teeth on display, watching him walk away. His brilliant and cheerful grin remained for a while, and then, as if it had lost its source of happiness, gradually faded until it disappeared.

Letting out a hollow sigh, he raised his hands and buried his fingers in the roots of his hair, pushing his hair back.

The shadowed eyes turned slightly. He coldly glanced at the terrifying ghosts in the classroom.

“There are still six days. So happy.”

Then, with his hands in his pockets, his feet leisurely made their way towards Class 9 at the other end of the corridor.

……

In the classroom, Ye Zun carefully copied the contents written on the blackboard.

Suddenly, the person beside him fell towards him, the fluffy head pressing against his writing arm. Instead of waking up from the movement, the other rubbed Ye Zun’s arm and found a more comfortable posture, continuing to sleep.

Ye Zun’s right arm was trapped and couldn’t move flexibly. He carefully glanced in the direction of the front podium, at the teacher who hadn’t noticed them and was still teaching. He carefully pushed Shen Yuan’s head with his left hand, wishing that the other would wake up and leave his arm.

Once, twice, thrice; the other was indifferent.

——What on earth is this head made of? Why is it so heavy? He can still sleep like this?

Ye Zun’s arms had already grown numb but Shen Yuan was still unresponsive. Furthermore, because he used Ye Zun’s arm as a pillow, the more he slept, the deeper he fell.

Ye Zun gave up trying to push him awake and forcefully began to wriggle his arm out from underneath. When he finally gets it out, the guy’s head will knock itself on the table, and he will deserve what he gets.

Little by little, when he almost completely pulled himself out, Shen Yuan, who was sleeping soundly, suddenly moved. He propped up his body and sat upright, his whole person seemingly not fully awakened yet. With drowsy eyes, he said insincerely, “Sorry.”

Not long after this, a fluffy head fell straight down. This time, half of his body was leaning accurately against Ye Zun’s shoulder, and he adjusted his posture to fit into the crook of Ye Zun’s shoulder before he stopped moving completely.

The entirety of Class 9 turned around to look at them. Ye Zun was not accustomed to being watched by others, but right now, he could only settle his face into a blank expression.

The old teacher at the podium lifted his eyeglasses with a look of astonishment, but even so, Shen Yuan still slept soundly on his own.

In the end, maybe because he really was domineering, but the old teacher seemed to treat this as a hopeless case and said slowly, “Why sleep for long when you are alive, when we will sleep forever after death*. Let him sleep as he pleases ba, don’t wake him up. This kind of person, if he wakes up, he’ll only affect others. If you enter society in the future, you will know the result of not studying well.”

[T/N: an excerpt from 最末的一块木柈]

However, after the music of the bell ringing once class ended, the person who was resting on Ye Zun’s shoulder for the entire class period suddenly woke up, stretching his waist.

Ye Zun kneaded his own shoulders, sorted out the books on the desk, and walked straight out.

“Let’s go eat together ah, my dearest Didi!”

“I agreed to eat with someone else.” Ye Zun walked out without looking back.

He now only walked the stairs on the farthest side from the second year’s Class 1. He didn’t even want to touch the middle stairway.

Just when he arrived at the left-side stairway, he happened to see the priest who was walking down from the third floor.

Ye Zun startled slightly. Subconsciously, his heart seemed to lift in his body.

Lin’s handsome face rarely displayed any wide-ranging expressions, and he was restrained even in gentleness. His clear eyes focused on Ye Zun from above, and he said in a reserved manner, “I was about to look for you, what a coincidence.”

……

The two people sat in the school cafeteria in an area with relatively less people.

Even so, Ye Zun always seemed to be slightly uneasy, constantly paying attention to places where people might come in from all directions.

“You are saying, those people all have stitched black threads on their bodies?” Lin picked up some vegetables with the serving chopsticks and put them in Ye Zun’s bowl.

Although he had not eaten the night before, Ye Zun still had no appetite even now.

He nodded, his appearance cautious, and lowered his voice, “I suspect that every person in the second year’s Class 1 have become ghosts. As of now, I don’t know if they will attack the people nearby.”

Lin’s eyebrows frowned slightly, staring at him. His crystal black eyes were clear and quiet. “Is that right ah. I will keep my eyes open.”

Ye Zun poked at the rice with his chopsticks, unable to swallow. “I don’t know why, I haven’t eaten for a long time but I don’t feel hungry.”

Lin looked at him. “But the reason why people are people, is how they need to eat. If this abnormality is left alone, you may be alienated.”

Ye Zun was slightly confused, looking into the priest’s black and quiet eyes.

Lin’s voice was calm and mellow, “Any existence needs energy to sustain themselves. Before a ghost kills a person, it also needs to accumulate strength. This strength is its influence on people. Fabricating danger and doing everything possible to weaken you, extracting strength from your fear, and then, killing you. To fight it, you must first get rid of this influence. Do not not enter the opponent’s energy-farming system.”

“You’re right.”

Ye Zun lowered his head, resisting his body’s rejection, and tried his best to deliver the food into his mouth.

The man opposite stopped the movements of his chopsticks and watched him, quietly and devotedly.

……

After lunch, the two walked side by side to the teaching building.

Ye Zun’s fingers unconsciously pressed on his chest.

Lin turned his head and looked at him. “Is the food in the cafeteria not good?”

Ye Zun shook his head. “I don’t know why, but the feeling in my chest is like I swallowed a big rock. In that environment, my mind is always thinking of nonsense.”

As for what he thought about, although he didn’t say it, it didn’t hinder Lin from sensing the problem.

The priest stared at him and lightly nodded. “If that is it, you should be more careful. How about this ba, from now on, I will make and bring lunch to school, and we can go to the rooftop to eat ba.”

Ye Zun froze for a moment, looking at him: “……”

“En.” Lin’s eyes were gentle and quiet. “It may be relatively simple, but will probably be much safer than those from outside. Would you like to try?”

“It’ll be too much trouble for you.” Ye Zun stared at him, startled. He felt that the priest’s whole body was enveloped in a soft holy light.

Lin looked back at him for a moment. The light in his eyes were like the reflections across cool spring water, gentle and quiet. “It won’t be. I am very happy to cook for you. If there is only one person, it is more likely to not want to eat anything, given the waste of good ingredients.”

Being able to do things for others but putting it as though the other’s own existence was helping himself a lot, Ye Zun seemed to be immersed in the warm and clear sunlight. There was a crumbling and soft emotion in his eyes that were looking at Lin, slightly at a loss.

He really, really wanted to let Lin know how grateful he was to him, that he has completely received his kindness. He couldn’t wait to give a perfect and fitting response, for fear of not properly accepting this wonderful gift.

“Thank you. I’m so happy to have met you in this world. Father, among all the people I have met in my life, you are the one who treats me best.”

What is the proper thing to say at this time? I will repay you, like that?

Naturally, he was resolute in returning this kindness, but straightforwardly saying he will repay the priest like this was akin to an exchange of courtesy and reciprocity, tainting the pure goodwill of the other man.

If it was himself who gave an act of kindness, he definitely wouldn’t want the other party to say such a thing, right? He’d just hope that the other will be happy because of his presence.

But if he didn’t say anything, will he be taken for someone who expected this kindness? Will the other party feel that he is too cold and be disappointed?

There has never been such a moment like this, where he is annoyed at himself for his poor skills in communication, unable to think of eloquent words that are pleasant to listen to, words that can convey the truth in his heart.

But actually, there was no need to say anything.

Lin watched him. In those clear and beautiful eyes, even the overflowing emotion of ‘like’ was cautious, carrying a faintly restless anxiety and unsteadiness.

Being watched by those eyes wholeheartedly, it was like he was almost able to touch that hidden heart.

“En, I know.”

Ye Zun’s lips opened slightly, raising his eyes up to look at him: “……”

Lin stood there, tilting his head slightly. His eyes lowered as he looked at Ye Zun intently for a moment, slowly raising the corners of his lips. There was a tenderness in his eyes, like starlight melting in the cool mountain spring. “It is okay, I understand.”

This person seemed to have never been cherished by the world before, so at the smallest gesture of kindness, he became uneasy and lost. As if he had suddenly received the whole world, he was in a hurry to use everything he had to return the good deed.

Looking directly into the abyss, he thought he was seeing the reflection of Heaven.

……

The fear experienced on the first day was almost concentrated in the morning, and since leaving the second year’s Class 1, he didn’t encounter another supernatural event again.

It seemed that the source of the initial danger and the key to breaking the game was in Class 1 of the second year, where Nogawa Kaoru was originally located.

The only trouble was that cheap big brother sitting next to him.

As long as Ye Zun thought back to the scene of him rudely insulting the hostess during dinner last night, he couldn’t muster up any good feelings about him.

However, perhaps because of close contact, he had an itching feeling that he was a completely different person from last night.

Today, the other party’s behaviour was a bit more neurotic, and it’s hard to say whether today’s or last night’s version was more bearable.

The four class periods in the afternoon ended quickly, and there was a two-hour break before the evening self-study session, where the students could leave the campus.

When the end of school arrived, Ye Zun immediately got up to leave the school grounds.

He didn’t expect for his tail to still catch up to him.

“En, where exactly are you going ah?”

“Not going anywhere, don’t follow me.”

Shen Yuan hung behind him at a short distance, catching up with a few steps with his long legs, looking at him curiously while walking. “The sun is setting soon. You’re walking in a deserted area ah. Aren’t you afraid of encountering ghosts in the wilderness?”

Ye Zun saw that he couldn’t get rid of him and gave up the struggle, saying with a flat tone, ” There is no sun at all today.”

“But the sky is about to go dark.”

Shen Yuan was right. Because of the gloomy weather, the sky grew dark even earlier.

Ye Zun didn’t stop, continuing to walk up the mountain road.

Shen Yuan stayed by his side, saying a few nonsensical things from time to time.

Very soon, the corner of a yellow brick building appeared in the middle of the mountain, where a solemn sounding bell rang from within.

“Oh——” Shen Yuan drawled out a long, clear note. “It’s a temple ah. Come to pray to Buddha for help?”

The temple doors were open, so Ye Zun walked in. Gazing at the solemn and serene Buddha statue, he headed to the back where the monks were.

“I have been met with harassment from ghosts. May I ask what you have that can save me from danger and grant blessings? I will donate incense and oil money accordingly.”

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Looking directly into the abyss, he thought he was seeing the reflection of Heaven.

……

But the abyss he saw, was indeed the existence that most resembled Heaven thus far. A beautiful existence.

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