Chapter 135 – Shh, He Found You – Countdown to Escape (13)
The remaining players felt their hearts sink — they had made the wrong guess.
Pan Quan found an identity card on the man — Villager.
On the field now remained a bunch of gods, two villagers, and one werewolf. If another day passed and the werewolf managed to kill a human, the game would be over.
Bai Tang was nervous. He was the only werewolf left. If he wanted Yu Hongbo to leave safely — or escape himself — the werewolf side would have to be completely eliminated.
Yu Hongbo interlaced his fingers with Bai Tang’s uninjured hand. “Put that idea away. Don’t do anything foolish.”
He was truly afraid — he couldn’t lose Bai Tang, absolutely not.
“Mhm.” Bai Tang nodded absentmindedly, clearly not listening.
Yu Hongbo sighed, gazing at the deep blue sky in the distance, and murmured to himself, “The helicopter should arrive tomorrow, right?”
After the vote, there was no longer any need for everyone to stick together.
In the eyes of Hu Peng, Zheng Yao, and the others, while the current situation seemed disadvantageous for the good guys, in reality, the one who should be most anxious was the werewolf. Even if a villager died tonight, as long as Bai Tang — whose villager identity was known — remained, the werewolf would still lose.
The game no longer posed a real threat. Yu Hongbo took Bai Tang for a walk around the deserted island to relax.
They sat by the shimmering sea, staring at the horizon where water met sky.
“Don’t overthink, Tang Tang. We’ll figure something out.”
“What could we possibly do? Either all the werewolves die, or all the good guys do.” Bai Tang buried himself in Yu Hongbo’s arms. “I don’t want you to die…”
Yu Hongbo held the emotionally crumbling boy. “We won’t. Neither of us will die.”
After a long while, Bai Tang’s soft voice emerged from his embrace. “It’s okay. We’ll see each other again in the next world.”
Yu Hongbo thought Bai Tang was talking about the afterlife. Suppressing the panic rising in his chest, he hurried to comfort him, “Don’t say such silly things. Of course we’ll be together in the next life — and in this one, too.”
That night, Bai Tang told Yu Hongbo he wanted to take a bath and went into the bathroom alone.
After closing the door, he took out the caowu (Aconitum), which he had picked earlier that afternoon while foraging in the wild.
Caowu — known as “heartbreak grass” — was extremely poisonous.
Bai Tang stared at the dark lump in his hand. As long as he died, everything would be over. Yu Hongbo would be able to return home safely. They would meet again in the next world.
Thinking this, Bai Tang shoved the caowu into his mouth and started chewing. The bitter taste, so harsh it brought tears to his eyes, spread through his mouth.
Very soon, the boy collapsed unconscious, knocking over the toiletries on the sink as he fell.
Outside, Yu Hongbo’s eyelids twitched violently — a wave of dread rising in his heart.
Tang Tang!
When Yu Hongbo burst through the door, his beloved boy was already lying motionless on the floor, his face mottled with an uneven grayish hue.
“Tang Tang, Tang Tang, no… no…” Yu Hongbo’s trembling hand reached out to feel for Bai Tang’s breath — but there was none.
At that moment, a notification sound came from the monitor in the villa’s first-floor hall:
[All werewolves have been eliminated. The game is over.]
Everyone waiting in their rooms for the werewolf to strike again froze — then quickly realized what had happened and were overjoyed.
They weren’t going to die. They could go home alive.
Yu Yi and Pan Quan rushed to Yu Hongbo’s room. Could it be that Yu Hongbo had committed suic*de?
But when they burst into the room, the scene wasn’t what they expected at all. Instead, they saw a despairing Yu Hongbo cradling a dark-faced Bai Tang. The medicine in the test tube was spilling from his shaking hands as he desperately tried to pry open the boy’s mouth to feed it to him.
“Tang Tang, please drink it. If you drink this, you’ll be okay… we’ll go home…”
Others passing by the room were drawn in by the anguished wails coming from within.
Seeing Yu Hongbo holding Bai Tang and crying in agony, they finally understood.
So, the last werewolf had been Bai Tang — the one they had thought was a good guy from the beginning. But in the end, he had chosen to take his own life for the sake of the one he loved.
The person was already gone. The dead could not return.
There was nothing more they could say.
This game was always destined to be a matter of life and death — kill or be killed. Can you really blame the werewolves for murdering? If they had drawn the werewolf cards, wouldn’t they have done the same to survive?
“Yu Hongbo, Tang Tang is already gone…” Yu Yi, seeing Yu Hongbo drowning in madness and despair, tried to comfort him, hoping he wouldn’t be too heartbroken.
“No, the witch’s antidote can cure the poison — it has to work. Tang Tang is just asleep. Don’t make noise…” Yu Hongbo’s eyes were bloodshot as he glared at everyone in the room with hatred. “Get out. You’re disturbing Tang Tang.”
Yu Hongbo cradled Bai Tang and whispered softly into his ear, “Tang Tang, wake up. The helicopter is coming to take us home soon. Didn’t you always want to try my stir-fried chestnuts? If you don’t get up soon, I’ll be breaking my promise…”
Outside the door, Yu Yi sighed. She had never expected that Bai Tang would turn out to be the last werewolf card. Now that he was dead, it was as if he had taken Yu Hongbo’s soul with him.
The game had ended, and the organizers sent a helicopter.
The rhythmic thumping of the rotor blades echoed above as Zheng Yao and another surviving man rushed out of the villa and waved from the clearing.
The people onboard exchanged glances and lowered the climbing rope.
One of the men eagerly took the lead, scrambling up the rope. But just as he reached the helicopter, someone on board pushed him off. Zheng Yao watched in horror as the man fell past her and died on the ground below.
She didn’t dare climb any further. She quickly backed away. Realizing her hesitation, one of the people in the helicopter drew a knife and cut the rope. Zheng Yao met the same fate as the man before her — a red bloom of blood spread across the hard concrete ground.
Hu Peng had been leaning against the door, thinking about Yu Hongbo and Bai Tang and reflecting on human nature. Because of this, he didn’t follow Zheng Yao and the others immediately. But when he witnessed the bloody scene at the helicopter, he instantly realized something was wrong.
The organizers hadn’t come to rescue them — they’d come to kill them. It made sense. They had never intended to let anyone leave alive. Otherwise, there would have been no need to go to such lengths to host a murder game. If any survivors escaped and reported them, the whole operation would be exposed.
In a flash of realization, Hu Peng turned and bolted back into the villa.
The people in the helicopter, seeing no one else emerging, exchanged looks, dropped the rope again, and jumped down.
Hu Peng reached the fourth floor and found Yu Yi and Pan Quan standing at the stairwell, nervously peeking toward the room.
Yu Yi asked, “The helicopter’s here. Why aren’t you going?”
“Zheng Yao was killed. The organizers have no intention of letting us leave alive.”
The news Hu Peng brought was catastrophic. Yu Yi and Pan Quan had just graduated from college and had barely entered society. Faced with this kind of situation, they had no idea how to cope.
Before they could say anything more, the sound of intruders came from the first floor.
“Hide,” Hu Peng decided instantly, suggesting that everyone split up. If they stayed together, they’d be too easy a target. Whether or not they were found, whether or not they survived—it would all depend on their own abilities.
Hu Peng ran toward another staircase, while Yu Yi pulled Pan Quan along, sticking close to the wall to avoid casting any shadows that might alert the intruders below.
“Yu Hongbo, someone broke in downstairs! Hurry, or we’ll all die here!”
Yu Yi and Pan Quan slipped into the room and saw that Yu Hongbo was still holding Bai Tang in his arms. There was no time to hesitate—they rushed forward, trying to separate the two.
But Yu Hongbo acted as though he hadn’t heard them, holding Bai Tang motionlessly.
Footsteps echoed from the second floor. It was clear the intruders were searching room by room. If they delayed any longer, the fourth floor would be next, and they’d be found.
Seeing Yu Hongbo in a half-dead, unresponsive state, Yu Yi panicked. She slapped him across the face.
Urgently, but in a hushed voice, she said, “Tang Tang traded his life so you could live. Is this how you repay him?”
At the mention of Bai Tang’s name, Yu Hongbo finally reacted.
His lips parted slightly as he pressed a kiss to Bai Tang’s lips. His voice was hoarse: “You go. I’ll stay with Tang Tang.”
D*mn it—no matter how they tried, they couldn’t reason with him. Yu Yi was both angry and anxious. She couldn’t just stand by and watch her friend die.
All the rooms had their lights on, and this one was no exception. Pan Quan kept an eye on the hallway, occasionally glancing at Yu Yi and Yu Hongbo to check how things were going.
Outside, the sound of gunshots rang out, followed by the crash of someone knocking over objects—likely someone being chased.
Time was running out. Pan Quan turned around to urge them to hurry, but then he saw something—something faint and white glowing on Bai Tang’s chest. It was barely visible under the bright room light, but it was definitely glowing.
“Hey… you guys, look at Bai Tang…”
The dark discoloration on Bai Tang’s face visibly faded, replaced by a healthy, rosy color.
“Tang Tang, Tang Tang…” Yu Hongbo and Yu Yi called out in hopeful voices.
“Ah Bo…” a faint cry escaped the boy’s lips.
Yu Hongbo was overwhelmed with joy and held the boy tightly, whispering, “I knew you wouldn’t leave me.”
“Ah—” Bai Tang suddenly cried out from a burning sensation. He pulled open his clothes and saw that the amulet hanging on his chest was glowing red-hot.
Yu Hongbo quickly removed the amulet, and the small triangular charm spontaneously combusted in his hand.
“Don’t waste time—Hu Peng is dead,” Pan Quan said, having seen through the door crack that two heavily armed men on the third floor had shot Hu Peng dead.
“How are we supposed to get out? The exit is blocked,” Yu Yi asked.
Bai Tang was still not fully conscious, his body weak, leaning entirely on Yu Hongbo for support.
As long as Bai Tang was alive, Yu Hongbo’s will to survive had returned.
He quickly calmed down, scanned the room, and looked toward the curtains fluttering in the breeze. “Tear the bedsheets and curtains into strips and tie them into ropes. We’ll go down from the balcony.”
It was indeed a good idea—trying to exit through the front door would risk running straight into the enemies.
Pan Quan stopped guarding the door and quietly moved a bean bag chair behind it as a barricade. Thankfully, the thick carpet in the room muffled any sound.
Yu Yi and Pan Quan found scissors and began cutting the curtains into strips to make ropes.
“How could you try to kill yourself? Do you know how scared I was…” Yu Hongbo said to Bai Tang.
“I’m sorry, Ah Bo…” Bai Tang lifted his hand to wipe away the tears on the young man’s face. He truly hadn’t thought of any other way to solve the problem.
“The game’s over, but the organizers still won’t let us go…” Yu Hongbo quickly explained the situation outside, making sure Bai Tang understood that acting on his own judgment without knowing the full picture had almost cost him his life for nothing.
Thank goodness Qiu’er gave me the amulet, Bai Tang thought, still shaken.
He had believed that dying would send him back to the system space and into the next world to meet the male lead—but he hadn’t realized his death had nearly driven Yu Hongbo to the brink of collapse.
Yu Hongbo didn’t sit still—he quickly dressed Bai Tang and used the fabric strips to tie him securely to his own back.
“You’re not allowed to move. Don’t think that dying yourself will save everyone else. If you do that again, I’ll die with you.”
The fourth floor wasn’t exactly high, but it wasn’t low either. If luck wasn’t on their side, the fall could kill someone—or at the very least, leave them crippled. The short-haired girl had already proven that.
The curtains and sheets were long enough. Yu Yi and Pan Quan managed to make two escape ropes and tied them securely to the balcony railing. After confirming the knots were tight, they began climbing down the ropes.
To descend quickly down the rope, Yu Hongbo untied the bandage on his right hand.
Bai Tang obediently wrapped both arms around Yu Hongbo, watching helplessly as the wound, which had finally stopped bleeding, began to tear open again. The white bed-sheet rope was stained with a trail of blood. He felt both heartbroken and guilty, but didn’t dare to speak out to avoid distracting Yu Hongbo. Instead, he just held him even tighter.
Author’s Note:
Some of the sweet readers have already guessed the male lead’s identity—he is the witch. You could say that Tang Tang didn’t die because he had the protective amulet from the system, as well as the witch’s antidote.
This world will wrap up very soon, probably tomorrow.