Vol 2 Chapter 5.1 (1/2)

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Chapter 5.1

Chapter 5: Contract Between Human and Doll… Part 1—Under the Starry Sky—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespa.s.serby)

Xiao Xue tried her best to keep her face expressionless as she walked toward the abandoned plot filled with cargo containers.

Whether or not they could rescue him, she would face the same result—she had to leave that home for Jiang Jiang to successfully grow up into a real person, but the person who had been kidnapped was Jiang Ziya. He was her Yaya-gēge who had always treated her with kindness. Xiao Xue was still willing to rescue him.

Actually, there was some selfishness on her part as well. Perhaps Jiang Ziya would speak up for her. Maybe, I can stay…

Even if in the end, there really is no other way, and I have to go to Yu Shu’s home, then at least Yaya-gēge would come and visit me every day, right?

With this kind of idea in mind, Xiao Xue walked toward the abandoned plot step by step. The vacant plot only had a lopsided wooden fence surrounding it. Even a little girl could easily find a gap in it to squeeze through. She zeroed in on a hole that didn’t have as many wires tangled around it. Xiao Xue squeezed right through it.

When she lifted her head, she was faced with brightness.

The dirty and messy plot of land, the randomly placed cargo containers—all of it had disappeared without a trace. All that was left was the starry sky and the swaying gra.s.s below it, a beautiful sight.

Xiao Xue stared dazedly at the sky full of stars, but not because she was mesmerized by the beautiful, starry sky. Rather, she felt like she had seen this sight before. But how is that possible?

Ever since XX took her out of the box, she had always been in the city. She had never before seen a night sky filled with stars like this. The lights in the city were too strong. At best, she could barely make out a few stars…

Wait, XX?

Xiao Xue abruptly realized she couldn’t remember the name. It should be Jiang Jiang, right?

But that’s not important right now! Xiao Xue shook her head hard. She had to save Yaya-gēge.

“Is anyone there? Master, didn’t you call me over?” She shouted. She didn’t care who heard her. The kidnapper, Yaya-gēge, or Yu Shu; of course, if it were Fu Taiyi, that would be even better.

“You’ve gotten caught in a barrier dimension.”

Xiao Xue jumped in shock. Then, she remembered and looked down at her chest. There was a necklace there. The pendant was a small, foreign soldier—on the outside. On the inside, it was something that was the same as her.

The illusory familiar was called Hold Keeper. Before they left, Yu Shu had him occupy the necklace, and then had her wear the necklace on her neck.

“I know.” Xiao Xue pouted. “But I can’t do anything about it.”

“You can’t? Then, what can you do?” Hold Keeper asked.

“I can shapes.h.i.+ft! I can s.h.i.+ft into lots of different appearances!”

“Then, can you break the barrier dimension?”

“I can’t!” Xiao Xue complained, “It’s not like I have the kind of eyes Yaya-gēge has. How could I break a barrier dimension? I’m just an artifact demon that hasn’t even become a lie yet. How could I be that strong?”

“What kind of eyes are those?”

“Duh, truth—”

Xiao Xue abruptly stopped. She stared at the necklace in front of her chest, feeling that something was wrong. It was true that she didn’t know whether or not Hold Keeper knew that Jiang Ziya’s left eye was odd, but the other person was clearly fis.h.i.+ng for information. Is this really Hold Keeper’s voice?

“Why did you sud

denly stop in the middle?”

Xiao Xue said without batting an eye, “You know how Yaya-gēge likes to play detective games. His eyes are really good. He often notices a lot of details. Hold Keeper, you’re so strange. How did you forget that?”

“Oh, I thought you were talking about something else.”

“Hold Keeper, how do I get out? Why aren’t you telling me yet?” Xiao Xue purposely asked, “Aren’t you more familiar with this? Master said so and told me to listen to you. Where do we go now?”

“I was still figuring it out just now. I’ve got it now. Look toward the left. Do you see a star that’s very bright? It’s not all that high up from the horizon. That’s the North Star.”

“I see it.”

“Just walk in the direction of the North Star.”

Hearing that, Xiao Xue obediently headed that way. However, she knew in her heart that this had to be a trap, as Hold Keeper couldn’t possibly know how to get out. His power level didn’t even reach hers!

But Xiao Xue didn’t plan to expose him. Rather, she was going to follow what he said because her goal was to meet the person who had kidnapped Ziya-gēge. That was what Yu Shu had told her, that all she had to do was meet the person. She could leave the rest to Yu Shu.

That was why she just had to follow along. She would definitely be captured, and then she would be able to see the person who had caught Ziya-gēge.

Walking toward the North Star, Xiao Xue’s sight was continuously filled with a sky full of stars. It made her feel uncomfortable, but she didn’t know why. There seemed to be some strange, distant sounds drifting to her ears, but she was certain that she wasn’t hearing anything.

Just like that, she gazed at the stars as she walked, her eyes full of stars. Even if she closed her eyes, she would still see those dots of starry light. She didn’t know how long she walked, but she didn’t feel tired…

“Xiao Xue, Xiao Xue!”

Xiao Xue slowly opened her eyes. A familiar face appeared before her gaze. She jumped in shock and shouted, “Yaya-gēge!”

Jiang Ziya forced a smile. From a distance, he had seen Xiao Xue walk over in a daze and felt that something was wrong. He had purposely used his feet to thump the ground, but Xiao Xue hadn’t responded at all. She walked all the way up to him and kept walking. If he hadn’t caught her, he really didn’t know if she would have hit the wall and fallen, or if her body would have kept on walking against the wall.

For some reason, Jiang Ziya felt that it would be the latter. Xiao Xue would keep on walking like this. If she were human, she might even walk until she died.

I found Yaya-gēge! Xiao Xue looked around but only saw several people who were tied up just like Jiang Ziya. She didn’t find anyone that looked like the kidnapper.

This troubled Xiao Xue. I didn’t meet the kidnapper. I directly found Yaya-gēge. Is this okay?

Yu Shu had said that all she had to do was meet the kidnapper. But she didn’t tell her, what should she do when she found Jiang Ziya?

Xiao Xue hugged Jiang Ziya tightly, not wanting to let him out of her sight again. She just had to wait for Yu Shu and the others to save them.

After thinking it over, Xiao Xue removed the necklace Hold Keeper was in and placed it around Jiang Ziya’s neck. Only then did she pounce back into his arms, hugging onto him tightly without letting go.

“Xiao Xue, who is coming to save me?”

“Everyone is coming to save you. There’s Lu Yang-gē, Yu Shu, and even the G.o.d of the Eastern Sky, Taiyi! They will definitely be able to save you—Ah!”

An abrupt squeeze, and Xiao Xue cried out in pain. She raised her head in confusion at Jiang Ziya. The other person was staring right at her, eyes wide, as if he didn’t understand what she had just said.

Xiao Xue froze, overcome with shock. Could this Yaya-gēge be fake, too?

Frantic, she grabbed onto the necklace that Hold Keeper was in. This was her only hope. If this Jiang Ziya before her wasn’t real, then she had to hurry and retrieve the necklace. However, what felt like electricity suddenly ran through the necklace, and pain p.r.i.c.kled across her body. She reflexively shut her eyes and cried out in pain.

The necklace stopped responding after that shock. Xiao Xue was confused, but she didn’t dare put the necklace down. When she opened her eyes again, it was like a layer of fog had been dispelled before her. Only then did she understand that what she had seen just now wasn’t real. It had all been hidden from her view!

Now that she could see clearly, Xiao Xue actually discovered that the Jiang Ziya before her had tape over his mouth. It wasn’t like he could speak.

Xiao Xue was shocked. She had thought that Jiang Ziya had been the one asking the questions. Was the kidnapper the one who asked everything?

“The G.o.d of the Eastern Sky, Taiyi? You d.a.m.n brat. You’re actually in cahoots with Jiu Ge? Hahaha. Like I thought, you’re a super big catch. Too bad you’re too big a fish. I might choke if I try to swallow this down.”

Xiao Xue was so frightened by this voice that she shrank into Jiang Ziya’s arms. The kidnapper didn’t seem to be present. There were probably speakers or the like around them that were projecting his voice.

Why is everything different from what Yu Shu said? I can’t see the kidnapper like this!

Jiang Ziya kept on going “mmph mmph.” Seeing no response from Xiao Xue, he glanced around, looking for something, but in the end could only use his face to nudge her.

Only then did Xiao Xue respond. She rushed to rip the tape off of Jiang Ziya’s mouth. The latter took in a deep breath, finally understanding why that woman and kid had used such beseeching eyes to look at him. Even knowing that they would get a face full of saliva, they had still wanted him to use his mouth to rip the tape off of their mouths.

It really was a terrible feeling having your mouth sealed with tape.

Jiang Ziya used a raspy voice to say, “Xiao Xue, go and rip off the tape from the other people’s mouths.”

Xiao Xue nodded quickly and went to work. However, when she finished, she immediately ran back to Jiang Ziya’s side and held onto him without letting go. This was all she could do now.

“Looks like your artifact demon is not too far from becoming a lie,” Zhang Dongqi said in high spirits.

At first, he had thought that it was just an artifact demon and wasn’t worth the effort. But earlier, he had heard her say that she had the ability to shapes.h.i.+ft and was almost a lie. An artifact demon with the ability to shapes.h.i.+ft becoming a lie—that would so useful!

Jiang Ziya frowned and advised, “You best let us go. The people coming to rescue me are no joke. You won’t be able to win against them.”

Probably.

Truthfully, he didn’t know the abilities on his own side himself. All he knew was that Lu Yang had a sword. As for the other two, it’s Yu Shu and the boss… right? I think Xiao Xue said “The G.o.d of the Eastern Sky, Taiyi” just now, but there’s Taiyi in that name, so she should be talking about the boss, right?

Jiang Ziya found that he wasn’t even sure if it was his boss, yet he was trying to threaten the other party with their strength. This really made him feel unconfident.

Zhang Dongqi snorted and proudly said, “We, the Zhang family, aren’t scared of Jiu Ge.”

He even said the Zhang family! Jiang Ziya wondered just how he had gotten involved in what seemed like a fight between entire families. As someone from a family that only had five members and two of those members weren’t even human, he completely didn’t have what it took to fight family to family with Zhang Dongqi.

“Since you killed Zhang Dongping, you won’t be left off the hook! Even if you have Jiu Ge to back you up!”

I really wasn’t the one who killed him…

Jiang Ziya wanted to cry but had no tears. However, he had no intentions to shove the blame onto the boss either. After all, the boss had called to save him. All in all, even though Jiang Ziya hadn’t dealt the killing blow, it was because of him that the guy had died.

But really, didn’t that guy get killed by his own familiars…

Truthfully, Jiang Ziya wasn’t sure how that guy could have gotten killed by his own familiars. Even though he wanted to explain it away as the boss having the ability to command those familiars to kill the guy, he had been present and had clearly heard the boss. The boss hadn’t instigated those familiars to kill him. He had only said: