“That is…”
In the wide open night sky above Li Ran, there floated a giant lantern, drifting in the air like a released sky lantern.
In normal understanding, a sky lantern is made of bamboo strips forming a square fra, covered with paper, with pine resin burning at the base. When lit, it rises into the air on hot air.
But the lantern before him was no ordinary sky lantern. It was made from an entire human skin stretched over bamboo strips. The limbs were twisted and bent like boneless appendages, perfectly fixed at the base. The face had been fully stretched flat and pressed onto the top of the lampshade, and from a distance, it looked like a squashed human face eerily grinning at you.
If you lived in a high-rise building, and opened your window late at night to find sothing like that floating outside… you’d probably be scared out of your soul right on the spot.
“Could this be what Uncle Ge ant by ‘lighting the sky lantern’?”
Uncle Ge had ntioned that on the fifteenth night of the instance, there would be a “Night of Madness,” with events like dragon dances, sky lantern lighting, river lantern floating, riddle guessing…
Back then, Li Ran had interpreted these as normal festive traditions.
But now, faced with this grotesque human-skin lantern, he suddenly realized how narrow-minded his thinking had been.
He didn’t even dare imagine what the other lanterns or dragon dances would look like.
Thankfully, that thing didn’t seem hostile to him.
After returning from the back street, it was already 8 PM.
Li Ran hurried ho. The later it got, the eerier everything felt.
From the park’s lawn, the laughter of children chasing each other could be heard—yet looking from afar, there wasn’t a single human-like figure in sight.
At that mont, a ball rolled to Li Ran’s feet.
“Hey, toss the basketball over here.”
On the nearby court, a tall guy—about 1.8 ters tall, wearing a basketball jersey—shouted at him.
“Basketball?”
Li Ran looked down at the “ball” at his feet and frowned.
What basketball? It was clearly a human head!
Li Ran ignored it. Things like this were best left untouched.
Even if it wasn’t a head—still, don’t touch it.
Seeing Li Ran ignore him, the guy ca charging over from the court, blocking his path with an overbearing attitude. “What, too cool to talk to people?”
In the real world, there were people like this too. Ignore them and they say you’re acting tough.
“Do I really look that easy to ss with?” Li Ran thought.
He glanced at the guy, and his gaze sharpened slightly.
(High Schooler: Han Jiangdong)
(Class B ntal Infected)
(Eerie Power: 900)
(Just confessed to a girl and got rejected. He's venting his anger on the court. At this ti of night, even a passing dog would catch a beating.)
(You’re not supposed to be here right now. He was just looking for soone to lash out at.)
(He’ll challenge you. If you refuse or piss him off, he’ll use your head as a basketball.)
(Hint: You can’t win on the court. Beat him off the court.)
Upon seeing the prompt, Li Ran finally understood—he’d assud this guy had so ntal issues.
Turns out, it was just a broken heart and a need to vent.
And he just so happened to walk by. Wrong place, wrong ti.
“You think you’re hot stuff, huh? Dare to go one-on-one?” Han Jiangdong glared angrily, clearly not planning to let him walk away that easily.
“One-on-one” was a type of one-on-one matchup in three-person basketball gas.
“Sure,” Li Ran replied with a faint smile.
[Task Triggered: One-on-One]
[Reward: 50 Eerie Power, 500 Points]
Li Ran could’ve easily refused. With his current eerie power level, he had nothing to fear from having his head treated as a basketball. If he wanted to, he could squash the guy into a basketball.
But doing that would definitely stir up a scene. And their standoff had already drawn a crowd of local residents curious to watch the fun.
If he refused the challenge, those locals would try to find ways to stall him anyway.
“First to five.”
“Alright.”
Li Ran replied calmly.
Han Jiangdong picked up the “basketball” from the ground and headed to the court.
Li Ran followed him onto the court.
Without the hint of the golden finger, he originally wanted to beat Han Jiangdong.
After all, his basketball skills were not weak.
But now, he just wanted to finish the task and hurry ho to cuddle his wife.
If he kept getting ho this late every night, his wife would definitely start thinking he was fooling around outside.
And he really didn’t want Su Bingyao hypnotizing him and checking his phone again.
“Honey!”
At that mont, Su Bingyao appeared at the edge of the court and called out to him.
“What are you doing here?” Li Ran asked, surprised.
“You weren’t ho for so long, I got worried and ca down to check.” Su Bingyao walked up and held his arm, her gaze sweeping over the crowd of locals, as if saying: This man is mine.
Those still swarming toward the court like a pack of hunting beasts froze upon seeing this. As though the prey had been taken away, they suddenly looked lost.
Li Ran was a little taken aback. “Is my wife… protecting ?”
Seeing her bright and radiant smile, he patted her small hand and said, “Wife, give a little ti, okay?”
“Go get ’em, hubby!”
Han Jiangdong, now unexpectedly fed a mouthful of dog food, had his expression darken.
“I’m gonna destroy you!”
He shouted furiously and launched his attack, and to Li Ran’s shock, he dribbled to the three-point line, jumped, and perford a two-handed aerial dunk.
As he landed, Li Ran noticed those kangaroo-like muscular legs—pure explosive power.
A dunk from the three-point line? How the hell do you even defend that?
Okay, maybe he’d been talking a little too boldly earlier.
Han Jiangdong, with a human head and a kangaroo body, was completely unstoppable—flashing his way past Li Ran while pulling off all kinds of flashy dunks, earning loud cheers from the sidelines.
5:0
A ga with zero suspense.
A one-sided massacre.
Just as Han Jiangdong was about to walk over and gloat, he saw Li Ran approach the edge of the court and say to Su Bingyao, “That dude’s insane. He totally wrecked .”
Hearing that, Han Jiangdong grinned proudly. At least this guy knew his place.
“You’ll always be the best in my eyes. Now let’s go ho, you’re drenched in sweat.” Su Bingyao pulled out a tissue and began gently wiping the sweat from his forehead.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Han Jiangdong, overhearing that, walked over with a sneer. This guy? Best? Please.
Just as he was about to deliver so sarcastic remark, he suddenly heard Su Bingyao whisper:
“Tonight, I’ll wear a similar jersey.”
BOOM!
Han Jiangdong froze on the spot as if struck by lightning.
At that mont, he realized just how completely and utterly he’d lost.
—
With Su Bingyao’s “protection,” Li Ran returned ho without further trouble.
That ga with the “basketball” had stirred things up, and even after finishing Han Jiangdong’s challenge, there would’ve been more locals trying to hassle him.
Especially at night, the locals would find all sorts of ways to stall him and keep him from returning ho.
But Su Bingyao hadn’t just co downstairs to walk him back. Her words and actions all carried a tone of shielding him.
And thinking back to the night before—how she and Li Ziyang had stayed up all night battling that damn brat just to let him sleep peacefully, cleaning the house in the middle of the night—
Su Bingyao’s behavior had completely broken the mold of an NPC.
Could it be… she was becoming self-aware?
(End of Chapter)
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