08.
After I ran outside, I thought I was finally safe.
Who knew the baby who'd crawled out of the pot of soup would chase after me!
My four rabbit legs ran like crazy.
Its four human legs chased after me just as fast, nimble as could be.
“Bunny, bunny! I want to eat the bunny!”
The blood-red little brat babbled that he wanted to eat me, then giggled.
He was having the time of his life chasing me.
I was about to say he didn't even have teeth yet when I turned around and saw a mouthful of jagged, pointed teeth.
Me: “!!!”
He chased me all the way to the riverbank.
Thick white mist shrouded the river, and I couldn't see the other bank.
There seemed to be someone bathing in the river.
The blood-soaked brat was still chasing me, so I had no choice but to jump into the river.
Only after jumping in did I remember that the brat wasn't afraid of water!
He'd been boiled in a pot of soup and been fine, so why would he be afraid of water!
At the thought, my blood ran cold.
I was afraid that the moment I opened my eyes, I'd see his smug, delighted face right in front of me.
A long time passed, but I didn't hear anything jump into the water.
There weren't any other sounds, either.
Everything was utterly still.
Given the situation, silence wasn't a good thing.
I couldn't hear anything or guess what the little monster would do next, and I had no idea what to do.
The water was freezing.
Moonlight filtered through the water and fell on me.
It was as if I were shrouded in a layer of mist.
Only when a pair of slender hands lifted me out of the water did I feel as if I'd come back to life.
The person who fished me out was a handsome young man.
If I had to describe how handsome he was, I'd say he looked exactly like my boyfriend!
I was so excited I could have cried.
It was Gu Mochi!
In this instance, he had blood-red eyes and razor-sharp teeth.
A heavy, ominous aura radiated from him.
But I wasn't afraid at all.
He lifted me by one ear with a single hand, his face expressionless.
I couldn't help kicking him in the face.
How dare he pick me up by the ear! I'm mad!
Gu Mochi bared his teeth.
I quickly pulled my foot back.
My boyfriend was a flesh-eating zombie now. What difference would rabbit meat make?
He was much stronger than the monster that had chased me.
As expected, he was the boss of this instance.
His icy, razor-sharp teeth were still pressed intimately against my belly. I was so frantic I was almost able to speak.
Gu Mochi, if you dare eat me, we're breaking up! We're breaking up!
Unfortunately, he couldn't hear me.
At the decisive moment, I suddenly turned back into a person.
The zombie man stared at me in shock, his blood-red eyes gradually turning deep black.
09.
I really tried.
But I couldn't shake my boyfriend, who had just turned into a zombie.
Every time I thought I'd left him behind, he'd appear right behind me again.
“You can't get away from me.”
The final boss spoke in that dark, sinister voice of his.
His eyes were so black they looked like bottomless pits.
But whenever he looked at me, I felt there was a glimmer in his eyes.
“You can't come home with me.”
The night was so cold, and it was even colder in the forest. With no other choice, I crawled inside Gu Mochi's oversized coat and rubbed my hands together.
I said, “It's so cold. Once I've warmed up, we can each go our own way.”
The final boss silently raised his hand, and a small flame appeared in midair.
As if it had a mind of its own, the flame danced down onto a dry branch.
The branch caught fire, warming us.
I watched, utterly fascinated.
Gu Mochi raised his hand again, and another ring of fire appeared, surrounding us.
It was just like those scenes in movies where the hero and heroine are surrounded by blazing flames and have only each other to rely on.
Though our situation wasn't quite that dire.
The chill faded, and I relaxed quite a bit.
I coyly tried out a sweet tone on the zombie beside me and said I was hungry.
Before long, we were sitting in the middle of a blazing ring of fire, casually roasting fish.
Gu Mochi wasn't used to it; he didn't flip the fish until it was burnt.
Seeing the charred fish beside me, I couldn't help laughing.
It was as if time had gone back to when I first started living with Gu Mochi.
I used to work overtime every day and get home very late, while he stayed home learning to cook and experimenting with food.
When he was just learning, his cooking was so awful it was painful to look at.
Yeah, it matched his sense of aesthetics.
He could even cook a bowl of porridge until it turned black.
He was also obsessed with making his food look a certain way.
I don't want to say much about those dishes that looked just like biological weapons.
Fate must have brought Gu Mochi and me together and made us fall in love.
With his strange sense of aesthetics, he could scare people to death just by showing them something.
“Gu Mochi, the fish is burning!”
I reminded him, took the fish from his hand, and showed him how to roast it. “Look, this is how you roast fish.”
“Don't look at me. Look at the fish in my hand!”
Those dark eyes didn't even blink as they stared intently at me.
“Gu Mochi…” He murmured the name again. “My name is Gu Mochi?”
The distant flames seemed to enter his eyes, lighting up their deepest reaches.
And there, my reflection was held.
My heart skipped a beat.
The fish in my hand nearly fell into the fire.
Actually, it did fall, but the flames lifted it back up to me.
We were clearly in a horror-game instance, and just hours ago I'd been running for my life.
Yet now everything was so peaceful and warm, even the ghostly flames seemed strangely considerate.
He was still looking at me.
Just looking.
I couldn't help kissing him.
10.
In the end, I still brought the horror-game final boss back to the escort agency.
But it wasn't time for the final boss to make his entrance yet.
At my insistence, Gu Mochi transformed himself into a rabbit.
A black rabbit.
I rubbed my temples. “Tuck your teeth in.”
What kind of rabbit has razor-sharp teeth!
Quite a few of the players had already returned to the escort agency. If anyone spotted a rabbit with sharp teeth, I wouldn't know how to explain it.
The black rabbit obediently tucked away its sharp teeth, then comfortably nestled itself in my arms.
I pinched its tail.
When I saw its eyes growing redder and redder, I quickly let go.
“Khương Tảo!”
Lu Yi had just finished a delivery. Looking utterly disheveled, she fixed her hair as she came over to me.
She complained:
“Listen, I ran into yesterday’s female ghost while making the delivery. She holds a grudge—she chased me for two whole miles.”
“You managed to lose her?”
She shook her head. “I ran and complimented her the whole two miles. She was so happy she stopped chasing me.”
Me: “…”
Sometimes, language itself can be a weapon that saves your life.
“Hey, what are you holding? A rabbit?”
Lu Yi reached out to pet it, but I stepped aside.
“I’m kind of tired. I’m going back to my room to rest.”
With that, I went back into my room.
Lu Yi called after me, “Hey, hey, hey, Khương Tảo! Don’t bring little animals back without asking! They’re not actually weak, adorable little creatures!”
She wasn’t wrong.
A creature like the big boss really wasn’t a tiny, adorable animal at all.
11.
I’d completed the two previous delivery missions.
One more delivery, and I’d complete the mission and clear the level.
Given the instance’s difficulty, the last few days would be extremely volatile. The big boss would have to make an appearance and stir things up.
Right now, I was being tormented by the big boss.
Under the covers, a pair of domineering masculine hands lay across my waist.
His face was pressed to my neck, rubbing against it again and again.
My lips had been kissed numb.
“That’s enough, that’s enough. Let go—you’re holding me too tight.”
Gu Mo Chi gave an unhappy little snort, then pulled my arm around his waist, turning it into me hugging him.
I could barely keep from laughing.
What was I supposed to do about my clingy boyfriend in this instance?
Moonlight fell across his face. He opened his eyes, and we found ourselves face-to-face.
His Adam’s apple bobbed.
I knew it was a hint.
I lowered my head and kissed Gu Mo Chi.
He brightened at once, his usually cool expression softening noticeably.
The big boss’s lips were cool and soft.
But his kisses were forceful and persistent.
We struggled together for a long time.
“You smell so good.”
The tentacles lurking in the shadows finally couldn’t stay hidden any longer. They rushed toward me, fighting to wrap around me.
At that moment, I experienced firsthand the terror of having the big boss take the initiative to declare his love.
I couldn’t tell yet whether he meant that I smelled nice or that I smelled delicious.
I decided to take it as the kind of nice smell a girlfriend has.
As our kiss grew passionate, I caught the scent of flowers filling the air.
“How romantic.”
I hooked a finger under my man’s chin.
The big boss paused, then lifted his head to look out the window.
His gaze turned toward the old locust tree in the courtyard.
I asked, “What is it?”
The big boss smiled faintly and kissed me.
“It’s nothing. Let’s continue.”