A Night of Terror

A Night of Terror

Mu Sichen spent the night he returned to the real world in extreme terror.

The source of that terror was He Fei.

After Mu Sichen stuffed the octopus plushie into his blanket, He Fei stared at the plushie for a while, then smiled and said, "Forget it. I won't fight you for that little bit of noodles. I'll order takeout."

Before long, He Fei went downstairs and came back with four dishes and a soup. He set them on Mu Sichen's desk and invited him over enthusiastically. "Come on, eat with me. I can't finish all this."

He Fei's family was fairly well-off, and he would occasionally order a few dishes to share with his roommates. Seeing that He Fei looked normal, Mu Sichen assumed that once he stopped looking at the octopus plushie, he had returned to normal.

For a young male university student, one bag of instant noodles was barely enough to get stuck between his teeth. Mu Sichen had not eaten nearly enough. Seeing how enthusiastic He Fei was, he picked up a piece of braised pork belly with his chopsticks.

The moment he put the meat in his mouth, He Fei pressed down on Mu Sichen's shoulder from behind and said with a smile, "Brother Mu, the octopus plushie. Let me look at it again, won't you?"

He Fei normally called Mu Sichen Xiao Mu or Chenchen. When he was teasing him, he would even call him Sisi. When had he ever called him Brother!

Mu Sichen slapped his chopsticks down, turned around, and climbed into bed. With his back to He Fei, he said, "I'm not hungry. I'm a little tired after gaming all day, so I'm going to sleep."

He held the octopus plushie tightly in his arms and covered it completely with the blanket, afraid someone would snatch it away.

All the beds in their dorm were upper bunks, with desks underneath.

He Fei tilted his head up and stared at Mu Sichen's bed for a while, then clicked his tongue. "Fine, don't let me play with it then. It's not like it's anything good. The food is this delicious, so I'll eat it myself!"

His tone was completely natural, exactly the same as usual, and Mu Sichen let out a slight breath.

Mu Sichen lay in bed listening to He Fei. He heard his roommate finish dinner, wash up, turn off the lights, and climb into bed as well.

"I spent all day on a train. I'm exhausted. I'll sleep early too," He Fei said from his bed.

It was only eight o'clock at night, when by rights nightlife was just beginning.

But Mu Sichen was too tired. Time had not passed in the real world, but the physical and mental energy he had spent in the otherworld was very real.

Although he was still somewhat on guard against He Fei, Mu Sichen's eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and he gradually fell asleep.

The real world made Mu Sichen feel safe. The familiar dorm and blanket gave him an immense sense of security. He slept so deeply that night that he did not even dream. It was only in the middle of the night, when he sensed a hand fumbling around under his blanket, that he jolted awake in a cold sweat and seized that hand.

"He Fei?" In the darkness, Mu Sichen vaguely made out the owner of the hand. It was He Fei.

He was in an upper bunk. How had He Fei gotten onto his bed?

Mu Sichen hurriedly turned on his phone. The time displayed was past three in the morning.

He switched on the flashlight, and a beam of light shone across He Fei's face.

He Fei was wearing pajamas. At some point, he had climbed onto Mu Sichen's bed and was rummaging through his blankets.

"It's past three in the morning. What are you trying to do?" Mu Sichen shone the flashlight into He Fei's eyes.

He Fei's eyes were uncomfortable from the light. Squinting, he said, "I woke up in the middle of the night and got a little bored, so I wanted to borrow your plushie to sleep with."

Mu Sichen said coldly, "No. Go hug your own pillow."

"Tch, stingy," He Fei said in dissatisfaction. "Your plushie looks so squishy and sacred. It must be really comfortable to hold, like bathing in holy light."

Mu Sichen: "..."

Could he not put "squishy" and "sacred" together?

"Get down. Don't make me shove you." Mu Sichen put his palm against He Fei's chest.

"Fine, fine, fine. I'll go back and hug my pillow." He Fei obediently climbed down from the bed.

Mu Sichen turned his back and frowned tightly.

He Fei was acting far too strange.

Whether it was his tone, expression, or manner of speaking, everything was exactly the same as usual. Even the awkward look on his face after being caught climbing into Mu Sichen's bed was that normal. Only his attitude toward the octopus plushie was abnormal to a terrifying degree.

Mu Sichen buried his head under the blanket, held one of the octopus plushie's tentacles, and asked quietly, "What exactly is going on?"

He pressed the tentacle to the space between his brows, but received no information from Qin Zhou.

The octopus plushie even had its eyes closed, as if Qin Zhou was asleep too.

In the middle of the night, Mu Sichen could not run out of the dorm building, so he could only hold the plushie even tighter and listen alertly to every sound in the room.

Mu Sichen did not dare sleep. About an hour later, around four in the morning, drowsiness gradually came over him, and his consciousness grew somewhat blurry.

Just then, He Fei's bed creaked softly.

Mu Sichen's eyes snapped open. He felt his own bed tremble slightly. He Fei had climbed up again.

Mu Sichen continued pretending to sleep, not moving at all.

He Fei stood on the bed ladder, his head near the nape of Mu Sichen's neck. He blew softly beside Mu Sichen's ear and asked in a whisper, "Brother Mu, are you asleep? I can't sleep."

Mu Sichen acted as though he had not heard.

He Fei went on, "Brother Mu, will you sell me your octopus plushie? How much?"

Mu Sichen staunchly pretended to be asleep.

He Fei raised his hand and gently reached toward Mu Sichen's neck, saying in a low voice, "No, that's not right. How could such a sacred plushie be bought with money? That would be too blasphemous. Mu Sichen, what would make you give me the octopus plushie?"

Mu Sichen abruptly threw off the blanket and got up. He grabbed He Fei's hand and shoved him off the bed with force.

Because He Fei had been standing on the ladder and had not fully climbed onto Mu Sichen's bed, he was not far from the floor. With Mu Sichen's shove, He Fei only landed on his backside. He twisted his ankle as he fell, but he did not hit his head.

"Ow!" He Fei clutched his ankle and said, "If you won't give it to me, then fine. Did you have to be that harsh?"

Mu Sichen ignored what he said. He jumped nimbly down from the bed, yanked the thin towel blanket off He Fei's bed, and tore it hard into two strips.

He quickly used the two strips of towel blanket to bind He Fei's hands and feet.

Mu Sichen had once worked on a construction site and had learned several kinds of knots. He deftly tied one that would only grow tighter the more He Fei struggled.

"What are you doing, what are you doing? I twisted my ankle. It hurts!" He Fei shouted. "Brother Mu, Xiao Mu, Chenchen, Sisi, Mu Sichen! You injured me like this. Shouldn't you pay a little medical compensation? You don't have to give me money. That sacred octopus plushie will settle the debt."

Mu Sichen could no longer tolerate He Fei at all. He dragged him out the door with force and dumped him in the dorm hallway.

He locked the dorm door from the inside, then moved every desk and chair in the room in front of the door to block it.

Outside, He Fei knocked his head against the door. "Brother Mu, you're too heartless. How can you lock me outside? I'm only wearing a pair of pajama pants. It's so cold, so cold."

Cold, my ass!

Even Mu Sichen, calm as he was, could not help wanting to curse.

It was summer vacation now. The nighttime temperature still reached twenty-eight or twenty-nine degrees. The dorm was somewhat cool because it had air conditioning, but there was no air conditioning in the hallway, which was as hot as a steamer. He Fei could lie there shirtless on the floor all night and still would not get cold.

And it was already past four in the morning. Dawn came early in summer, and the outside was already faintly bright. Leaving him outside would not cause any trouble.

He Fei called from the hallway, "Mu Sichen, open the door!"

Fortunately, all the students had gone home for summer vacation. Mu Sichen was the only one living on this floor, and He Fei was not shouting loudly, so he did not wake the students on the other floors or the dorm supervisor.

Mu Sichen no longer wanted to sleep either. He picked up the octopus plushie, which still held his body heat from the blankets, and asked through gritted teeth, "What did you do to He Fei?"

The octopus plushie seemed muddled with sleep. Its eyes half-opened twice. In its daze, it saw Mu Sichen holding it by the head, and its short tentacles moved. All eight arms wrapped around Mu Sichen's arm, and then it fell asleep again.

Mu Sichen wanted to pick up the thermos and pour boiling water over its head to see whether this thing could wake up.

He Fei was thumping at the door outside, so there was no way for Mu Sichen to sleep anymore.

Luckily, he had gone to bed early the night before. All told, he had slept more than seven hours. Mu Sichen was young and recovered quickly, so by now he was already full of energy.

This dorm was impossible to stay in. Mu Sichen tossed the octopus plushie into the blanket, pulled out his suitcase, and quickly packed some clothes and toiletries.

Once the dorm building opened at six in the morning, he would move out.

If he lived with He Fei for another two nights, Mu Sichen was afraid this roommate might secretly strangle him in the middle of the night.

He Fei was flesh and blood after all. After banging on the door for half an hour, he fell asleep. Mu Sichen could even hear his snoring through the door.

The sky gradually brightened. Mu Sichen sat stiffly for an hour. As soon as six o'clock arrived, he viciously stuffed the octopus plushie into his suitcase, moved the desk and chairs aside, and carried the suitcase out the door.

The moment the door opened, He Fei woke up. He sucked in the drool at the corner of his mouth, opened his eyes, saw the suitcase, and said excitedly, "Plushie!"

Without looking back, Mu Sichen stepped over him and strode toward the stairs.

"Plushie... no, Mu Sichen, where are you going!" He Fei struggled to stand up, but because his feet were tied, he fell again. He simply wriggled across the floor after Mu Sichen.

Mu Sichen only glanced at him out of the corner of his eye while turning the corner. The sight was too much to bear, and he shot downstairs as if flying.

The campus was very large. It took twenty minutes to walk from the dorm building to the teaching building, so many students had bought bicycles. Mu Sichen had one too.

He strapped the suitcase to his bicycle, mounted it, and flew out of campus.

Mu Sichen pedaled the bicycle at the speed of an electric scooter. Very soon, he arrived at a budget hotel far from campus and chose the cheapest room to check in.

Only after tossing the suitcase onto the hotel room floor did Mu Sichen finally breathe a sigh of relief.

He never would have imagined that Qin Zhou had not only followed him into the real world, but could also use the body of a plushie to cause mental contamination in his roommate.

He Fei's state was clearly already somewhat pathological. Mu Sichen did not even know how to help He Fei return to normal.

He opened the suitcase, pulled out the octopus plushie, shook it rudely twice, and said while suppressing his anger, "Stop sleeping!"

Out of respect for a god-class monster, and out of guilt for failing to complete their promise, Mu Sichen had always been very polite and reverent toward the octopus plushie.

But now, after such a night of lingering terror, it was hard for Mu Sichen to have any good temper left for the plushie.

The octopus plushie's soft, bouncy eyes blinked. A trace of sleepiness flashed through its watery big eyes, and then it glared at Mu Sichen, as if it even had a hint of waking-up grumpiness.

"You're mad at me?" Mu Sichen carried the octopus into the bathroom, placed the plushie in the sink, and threatened, "I don't care what method you use. Remove He Fei's mental contamination, or I'll throw you in the toilet."

The octopus plushie immediately stretched out its tentacles and hugged Mu Sichen's arm tightly, refusing to let go. Its watery big eyes looked up at him.

It was actually pretty cute.

Mu Sichen was momentarily fooled, and his anger gradually faded.

Although he did not find the octopus plushie sacred the way He Fei did, he still felt a trace of fondness for it.

This feeling made Mu Sichen even more wary of Qin Zhou. What kind of strength did he have, to be able to cause such terrifying influence on an ordinary person through the body of a plushie?

Mu Sichen pressed his forehead against the octopus tentacle and said in warning, "I'm giving you one chance to explain."

At last, a majestic voice came through the tentacle. "You should know that mortals cannot look directly upon a god."

Mu Sichen brought the plushie back to the bed and asked, "Even if this plushie is only a part of your power, a totem? Even in another world, people still can't resist this power?"

The plushie said, "It was your responsibility to bring me here. Once I return and my power goes back, the influence on him will disappear."

"Fine. Next time, I will definitely fulfill the promise between us." This time, Mu Sichen's guarantee was sincere.

Even if it meant fighting Big Eye to the death, he could not bring Qin Zhou back again.

While the plushie was in his hands, things were still all right. If he accidentally lost it, then with how sinister this plushie was, it might create some kind of urban legend.

For the next three days, Mu Sichen was practically with the plushie whenever he ate or slept. Even when he showered, he placed the plushie to one side, afraid this thing would accidentally get lost or be seen by someone else.

Apart from the frightening mental contamination, the octopus plushie was quite well-behaved.

It slept at night. When Mu Sichen showered, it would also use its tentacles to slowly work its way under the showerhead, as if it wanted to shower too.

Mu Sichen could only scrub its body for it every day.

Even when Mu Sichen was eating, the plushie would take advantage of his inattention and put a tentacle into his lunchbox.

Once, Mu Sichen ordered mala tang for delivery. After opening the lid, he put it on the table and went to wash his hands.

When he came out after washing his hands, he saw that the octopus tentacle was in the mala tang broth, and half its body had been turned spicy pink.

Mu Sichen hurriedly pulled the octopus tentacle out. Who knew it would refuse to leave, clinging tightly to the takeout container with its suckers. In the struggle, the mala tang tipped over.

Mu Sichen: "..."

His financial situation was already poor. He had just saved enough for next semester's tuition, and he still had no source for his living expenses. To avoid He Fei, he was staying in a hotel, which was already a huge expense. Now, the octopus's existence made his already tight life even worse.

He ordered another mala tang, specifically asked for a little extra broth, poured it into a lunchbox, and handed it to the octopus plushie. Only then did he finally resolve this trouble.

The octopus drank the mala tang broth with its tentacles. Its entire body turned spicy pink, and it even spat a red spicy bubble from its mouth.

Mu Sichen watched the octopus with a dark expression.

Through their interactions over the past few days, Mu Sichen had gained a certain understanding of the octopus plushie.

This thing needed to eat and sleep, had waking-up grumpiness, and could not eat solid food. It could only drink soup, and as soon as it drank soup, it would blow bubbles.

When it drank mala tang broth, it blew spicy bubbles. When it drank instant noodle broth, it blew salty bubbles. One time, after secretly drinking half a bottle of Mu Sichen's cola, it blew sweet bubble after sweet bubble.

Mu Sichen pinched the octopus plushie's face and asked, "Are you really an evil god?"

The plushie could not speak. Its round mouth moved, and it spat out a spicy bubble.

Mu Sichen began wondering whether soaking it in soapy water would make it blow rainbow bubbles. It was a little cute, like he had raised a pet that could not talk.

Just then, his phone notification sounded.

Mu Sichen glanced at it. It was from He Fei.

[Mu Sichen, where did you take the God Plushie? Give Him to me! I've searched every hotel near campus. Where exactly are you? I won't fight you for the God Plushie anymore. Just let me look at Him once. I'm begging you!]

Mu Sichen: "..."

All right. This thing really was an evil god. He could not afford to keep it.

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Author's Note:

Qin Zhou (face turned spicy pink): For these three days, we were together the whole time.

Mu Sichen: The three days are finally almost over. Send this plague god away, send this plague god away.