ACIFITFDB – Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Help! Murder!

This punch directly cleared Lin Qizhi’s eyes, and his body quickly shrunk back to normal.

He covered his aching jaw and curled up on the ground for a long time before he could barely speak.

With teary eyes, he said, “I’m sorry, Brother Qin. It’s my fault. But can you go a little easier next time?”

Qin Xian asked, “You want a next time?”

Lin Qizhi shook his head frantically, “No, no, no, no!”

He clutched his jaw and got up from the ground, trying to get closer to Qin Xian for a sense of security.

But Qin Xian shifted half a step to the side.

Lin Qizhi: Whimper.

It wasn’t that he was timid. As he sobered up, the “colleagues” in the office, who had seemed like normal people, all stood up. Just moments ago, their faces had held lifelike expressions. Now, there was only emptiness, like puppets.

“No loud noises in the office…” one of them slowly opened their mouth. The others stiffly took a step forward, muttering similar phrases.

“No slacking off, deduction of performance points…”

“Two hundred deducted for each idle chat…”

“The company doesn’t want people who lie flat…”

Qin Xian turned to Lin Qizhi and said, “It seems you have a lot of resentment towards working.”

Lin Qizhi gave an awkward laugh, “Our lousy company is too much of a PUA trap. Who would want to come to work? But why are you, a big shot, here at such a trash company?”

Qin Xian didn’t reply. Did he have a choice before? Inexperienced from university, he had the bad luck to stumble into such a broken company and desperately needed money.

“Find something to defend yourself with. A reminder, even though this is a dream, if you die here, you’ll become an idiot in reality.”

Lin Qizhi’s scalp tingled, and he immediately prepared to crawl under the desk.

Qin Xian sneered, “Fine, fine, the dog is going into its cage. Just block the exit and you can catch it alive.”

Lin Qizhi immediately withdrew his action, but a colleague had already lunged at him. He screamed in fear and quickly ran around the desk.

Qin Xian couldn’t be bothered to manage or protect him. He picked up a chair and staged a dramatic scene of a colleague being beaten up in the office. Of course, it was him beating them all up.

Regardless of whether the faces were familiar, Qin Xian swung a chair directly at their temples. His expression grew colder amidst the splashing blood.

While dodging colleagues, Lin Qizhi stole a glance and almost wet himself. The scene of Qin Xian slitting the general manager’s throat yesterday was replaying, but this time it was even more brutal. Looking at the bodies on the ground, Qin Xian was as cold as a murderer.

Fortunately, these “colleagues” didn’t maintain their human forms for long. They sprouted ant-like limbs, their faces contorted like tangled yarn, and their unknown vocal cords emitted sharp screeches. They swarmed forward, but crashed into each other due to Qin Xian’s evasive maneuvers. The flesh-colored lines on their heads were scattered and intertwined, resembling tangled data cables in a drawer.

Qin Xian stepped back and looked down. The countless lines on the ground suddenly shot up like snakes, rushing towards his neck and torso, trying to bind him. With so many lines attacking from all directions, it was impossible to avoid them. These lines were soft yet resilient, and physical attacks were ineffective. Unless something could cut them, or… perhaps fire.

Qin Xian quickly rushed to Lin Qizhi’s side and whispered, “Find sunscreen, air freshener, or alcohol.”

Before he finished speaking, he violently flipped over a nearby table, pinning the charging ropes to the ground. Qin Xian jumped up and stomped heavily on the table, urging, “Hurry!”

“Ahhh, who has these things?! Wait!!” Lin Qizhi scrambled towards his seat, pulling out two cans and throwing them at Qin Xian.

Qin Xian caught them and saw they were portable liquefied petroleum gas canisters for a camping stove. This was much more effective than sunscreen. The office prohibited high-power electrical appliances and open flames. He wondered when Lin Qizhi had hidden them.

The table under his feet trembled. Qin Xian’s weight was no longer enough to hold the enemies down. He simply jumped away, and the lines from under the table angrily surged out. Then, he was met by Qin Xian holding up an LPG canister and a lighter.

Qin Xian flicked open the safety buckle on the LPG canister with his right hand, ignited it, and threw it fiercely at the tangled mass. With a boom, flames erupted. The flames ignited the flesh-colored lines, which began to melt and writhe.

“Low-level things really have many weaknesses,” Qin Xian carefully stepped back and lit another LPG canister, throwing it over. The monsters in the flames struggled, but still had the strength to resist, extending several lines to entangle Qin Xian out of desperation.

Qin Xian added fuel, scattering all the printed documents near the printer onto the flames. Lin Qizhi followed suit, flipping out reports, data, and bid documents, throwing them into the fire as if purely venting his anger. A fierce fire raged in the middle of the office. A strong, pungent odor immediately filled the air. Qin Xian said to Lin Qizhi, “Cover your nose and mouth, we should go.”

With that, Qin Xian kicked open the office door and dragged Lin Qizhi out.

“Screeeeeech!!!!” The monster roared and rolled towards them like a ball of fire.

Lin Qizhi screamed, “What the hell, this thing is so hard to kill!!”

The next second, too slow to react, his ankle was entangled by the burning lines. He was dragged along the ground, rolling twice, and was unceremoniously pulled towards the fireball.

“Ahhh! Brother Qin, save me!!”

Qin Xian turned back and, with a “pulling a radish” motion, grabbed Lin Qizhi by the upper body and pulled with all his might. Lin Qizhi screamed in pain, but his leg was successfully freed from the entanglement of the lines.

“Brother Qin! My leg seems dislocated, ahhh!” Lin Qizhi cried out.

Qin Xian remained indifferent, picked him up, and rushed down one floor, then jumped directly out of the opened stairwell window.

Lin Qizhi shrieked, “Brother Qin!!! This is the third floor!!!”

Qin Xian’s voice was terrifyingly calm, “This is a dream. Either you wake up, or you experience the feeling of falling to your death.”

Lin Qizhi was completely speechless, screaming as he plummeted.

The next second, Lin Qizhi woke up in a cold sweat. He sat up abruptly and frantically patted himself down. No injuries, no monsters. He was inside a tent. Qin Xian, sitting beside him, also opened his eyes.

Lin Qizhi stared blankly, “We… we just solved it like that? Is it dead? Burned to death?”

Qin Xian’s black pupils quietly watched him.

Lin Qizhi nervously touched his arm and cautiously asked, “What’s wrong, Brother Qin? Didn’t we kill that ghost?”

But in the next instant, Qin Xian, who was still sitting quietly, suddenly lunged forward, his immense strength knocking him to the ground. A pair of icy hands brutally choked his neck. Lin Qizhi instinctively grabbed Qin Xian’s wrists and struggled with all his might.

Qin Xian lowered his head. Under the shadow of his bangs, his eyes were calmly terrifying.

“Help, help me!” The suffocating sensation made Lin Qizhi’s survival instinct explode. He reached out, scratching at the tent, and kicked his legs wildly. This commotion finally attracted the attention of others. A flashlight beam shone into the tent, and a security guard abruptly pulled open the flap. Seeing the murder scene inside the tent, the guard was startled and yelled, “What are you doing!? Stop it! Do you want to kill someone!?”

Qin Xian ignored him and increased the pressure on his hands. The guard immediately pulled out a stick and lunged at Qin Xian, but was kicked to the ground by Qin Xian. The commotion here alerted others. Two passersby also rushed over, screaming and raising their phones to call the police.

“Hello! 110!? Someone is killing people here, the address is Bianjiang Park!”

“Let go! Do you know what you’re doing!?”

“Help! Someone is killing people!!!”

The passersby’s screams reached his ears. Lin Qizhi was also making his last struggle. His lips began to turn purple, his expression already hazy, but he still stared intently at Qin Xian with his eyes.

Qin Xian let out a cold snort and said, “Stop acting. I won’t let go.”

Lin Qizhi’s expression changed, turning sinister. The passersby beside him vanished in an instant.

“You… how did you know…” the grotesque being forced out a few words.

Qin Xian smiled, “Dream within a dream is your usual trick. I haven’t fallen for it for a long time. Was it fun acting? Thank you for taking on Lin Qizhi’s appearance, it made him easier to kill.”

The grotesque being panicked, its struggles becoming more violent, almost flipping Qin Xian over. The force was vastly different from before. But Qin Xian gave it no chance, using ten-tenths of his strength. With a crack, he snapped “Lin Qizhi’s” neck.

After a moment of dizziness, Qin Xian opened his eyes. He saw the inside of the tent, and he was still sitting on the ground, with Lin Qizhi sleeping beside him.

“Mom!” Lin Qizhi suddenly let out a loud cry and sat up. Seeing Qin Xian sitting beside him, he cried out again, wrapped himself tightly in his blanket, and frantically rubbed himself away from Qin Xian until the tent bulged outwards, then stopped. Seeing Qin Xian sitting there looking at him speechlessly, without moving, Lin Qizhi shakily said, “Brother Qin, you… you’re amazing, to have seen through the illusion created by that monster.”

Qin Xian replied, “It seems you felt everything that just happened.”

Lin Qizhi rubbed his phantomly aching neck and nodded cautiously, “Yes… As soon as I entered the dream, I felt like I was being sleep-paralyzed. I could see my body moving and speaking, but I couldn’t control it. Watching him approach you, I knew he must have possessed my body. I was terribly anxious, afraid you wouldn’t see through it and be harmed by the monster. I didn’t expect…”

He paused, sounding a little wronged, “Brother Qin, when did you see through it? From the beginning?”

Qin Xian replied, “When we were in the tent. I didn’t have a weapon in my hand, so the best way was to strangle you. I apologize if I scared you.” Although he said sorry, his tone didn’t convey any sincerity…

Lin Qizhi shivered again. After a moment, he overcame his fear of Qin Xian and obediently thanked him, “Brother Qin, thank you for saving me. How much do you want? Five hundred thousand? Don’t worry, even if I don’t have the money, I’ll borrow it for you!”

Qin Xian stood up and rubbed his leg, replying, “No need. Give me your salary for one month. And, do me a favor.”

“What favor? I’ll do my best!”

“If I have to go out for something, please help me feed my dog at home.”

Lin Qizhi had already recovered from his fright. Qin Xian’s request moved him deeply. He saved his life and only asked for such a small reward, plus something that friends would do for each other. Brother Qin, although sometimes he seemed like a murderer, was actually a good person!

Lin Qizhi readily agreed, “No problem! I’ll go to your place and provide the best service for your dog! Not only feeding, but I can also clean, groom, and walk the dog!”

Author’s Note:

———————-

Lin Qizhi: I can groom, feed, and walk the dog!

Tangyuan: I’ll bite you to death.

…

To clarify, when Qin Tangyuan is in its grotesque form (dog), the pronoun used is “it.” In its human form, it is “he.”