Chapter 183: Peaceful Coexistence

The short-haired girl glanced at the umbrella still wedged between them and gritted her teeth inwardly.

This woman was genuinely difficult to deal with.

The man seated behind the short-haired girl was growing irritated too, since he hadn’t expected an umbrella to end up blocking his view.

Tsk — it had to be that short-haired girl’s doing, otherwise he could have unlocked two safety locks by now.

He fixed his gaze on the girl seated in front of him, resolving to watch her closely from now on.

With Lin Yun keeping watch from behind, Song Xizheng felt more at ease. Once in the woods, he’d pulled out a large cleaver and chopped down any monkey bold enough to approach.

This left the remaining monkeys trembling with fear, none of them daring to approach him any further after that.

Even the man beside Song Xizheng grew reluctant to provoke him, worried he might swing that blade at any moment.

The rest of the ride passed by fairly peacefully after that point.

The short-haired girl had to stay alert against harassment from behind, leaving little energy to bother unlocking anyone else’s lock.

Song Xizheng, meanwhile, had nothing to worry about from his own back row, since those two passengers had already been thrown off during a sharp bend earlier, their locks pried open by the monkeys.

Lin Yun felt more relaxed by this point. She had no real interest in unlocking anyone else’s lock, so long as her own stayed secure.

Click.

The short-haired girl froze in shock at the sound — that was unmistakably her own safety lock!

Despite every precaution, it had still somehow opened!

She was furious. That wretched man behind her — why had he been staring at her so intently? And why hadn’t the woman beside her tried unlocking hers instead?

The man in the back row was equally baffled.

No, he genuinely hadn’t moved. He’d been racking his brain trying to figure out how it could have popped open on its own.

Could it have been seat number fifteen’s doing, somehow?

That didn’t add up either, though. Seat fifteen’s right hand had been holding an umbrella the whole time, and the left seemed to grip some kind of weapon. Surely that person couldn’t have unlocked anything?

He scratched his head, puzzled, but quickly let the thought drop.

It didn’t really matter anyway, since the problem had resolved itself. All that was left was dealing with seat fifteen, then he could enjoy the rest of the ride in peace.

The short-haired girl seethed. No — she refused to simply be thrown off the roller coaster like this. She needed to drag somebody down with her!

Yes, exactly — take someone with her.

Her eyes darkened, and just as they entered the sharp bend, she slashed the umbrella with her knife, reached through the gash, snatched it away, and flung it to the right.

Lin Yun was equally caught off guard by the sudden move. Before she’d fully registered it, the umbrella had already been torn from her grip. She quickly raised her protective shield instead.

With the girl no longer restrained by any lock, she could easily lunge forward and stab at Lin Yun directly.

But the roller coaster had already plunged into the sharp bend, lurching forward violently. The short-haired girl scrambled to grab Lin Yun’s hand, only to be knocked back by the shield instead.

The short-haired girl froze in disbelief. How could this possibly be happening?

She had no time to think it over, though, since the speed of the turn had already flung her clean off the ride.

The man in the back row, having watched the whole scene play out, quietly withdrew the hand he’d been itching to use.

Forget it — he clearly couldn’t afford to tangle with people like that. Better to behave; he had no desire to lose a hand on this ride.

As for Song Xizheng, his patience had finally run out entirely.

The man beside him had been unbearable — first failing to unlock his lock, then having the nerve to grope him besides? Fuming, he’d slashed his cleaver at the lock in front of the man.

The long-haired man swallowed hard, turned his head, caught the murderous glint in Song Xizheng’s eyes, and immediately fell into line, thoroughly cowed.

Lin Yun’s lips twitched. Goodness — once they got off, she’d definitely have to ask Song Xizheng exactly what happened. He’d apparently provoked her easygoing companion into actually brandishing a cleaver.

The rest of the roller coaster ride carried on peacefully all the way to the very end.

Eventually, the coaster slowed and rolled gently to a stop at the finish line.

The girl in the green vest looked faintly surprised. She’d expected many tourists to be thrown off this run, yet roughly half had somehow made it through safely.

The staff in green vests moved along the cars releasing the remaining locks, and the surviving tourists began climbing down.

After receiving their small paper flower, Lin Yun and Song Xizheng wasted no time heading off.

The moment they stepped past the ride’s final exit, Song Xizheng hurried aside and threw up several times.

Lin Yun’s expression shifted into something rather strange. "Are you pregnant, perhaps?"

Song Xizheng shot her a speechless look before turning back to retching, clutching at something nearby for support.

He’d been tormented by the ride itself, on top of being disgusted by that long-haired man beside him.

Lin Yun let out a soft sigh and, shielded discreetly behind her backpack, pulled out a bottle of mineral water. "Here, drink a couple sips — it should help settle your stomach."

Sang Biao poked his cat head out from the backpack, watching Song Xizheng with curiosity.

"Don’t even get me started — that roller coaster nearly made me lose my lunch entirely. It was even worse than the very first time I ever rode a carousel."

Song Xizheng took the water, swallowed a couple times, and the queasiness finally eased off.

"Sister Lin, I’m telling you, that guy next to me couldn’t manage to unlock my safety lock, so instead he tried groping me! Tell me honestly, how was I supposed to just tolerate that?"

Lin Yun blinked slowly, taking a moment to process it. "Ah, so that’s what explains the cleaver, then."

"Exactly! I’m absolutely convinced now that he did it entirely on purpose!"

"He must have used that whole approach to lower my guard, then took advantage of my slipping attention to unlock my safety lock! That has to be it!"

Song Xizheng was so worked up by the whole ordeal that he gritted his teeth and muttered a string of curses under his breath.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the long-haired man emerging nearby.

Lin Yun glanced over as well and murmured quietly, "Is that the one you mean?"

"That’s him, exactly! That’s the guy I mean!"

The long-haired man froze the instant he spotted Song Xizheng watching him.

He hesitated for a couple of seconds, clearly weighing his options, then abruptly spun around and bolted away.

There was no helping it — he hadn’t forgotten the threat of that cleaver.

Lin Yun said nothing further.

Song Xizheng muttered, "...Lucky for him he ran that fast. If I ever cross paths with him again, I’ll chop him into mincemeat, I swear it."

Hearing those words, the long-haired man only sprinted away faster still.

"All right, all right, let’s get moving now. He’s already run off somewhere. I’ll happily support you chopping him up the next time we meet, but for now we really do need to hurry back to the shelter."

"Poor guy, honestly. He really didn’t stand a chance."

Lin Yun took a couple more steps forward as she spoke.

Song Xizheng shot one last glare in the direction the man had fled, then fell into step behind Lin Yun.

"Sister Lin, back there on the ride, I could’ve sworn I heard a kitten meowing at some point?"

He glanced toward Lin Yun’s shoulder but found no sign of Sang Biao there at all.

Sang Biao’s little cat head, however, still hadn’t been pulled back inside — it remained poking out in plain view.

"He’s in the bag." Lin Yun reached over and gave the cat’s head a gentle pat.

This time Song Xizheng spotted him and exclaimed, "How did you two manage that? I wouldn’t have noticed at all otherwise."

"You didn’t happen to toss out that balloon the clown NPC gave us last time, by any chance, did you?"

Song Xizheng went quiet for a moment before the memory came back to him.

Right — that clown NPC still retained fragments of his old memories, and seemed to harbor lingering goodwill toward fellow survivors.

He recalled how the clown had inexplicably handed them balloons earlier, and if Lin Yun hadn’t brought it up, he’d have forgotten entirely.

"I kept it safe. I’ll go dig it out later."

Here’s another Chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it⁦(⁠◠⁠‿⁠・⁠)⁠—⁠☆⁩