Chapter 54: A Realm Within a Realm

Lu Rong woke up to the realization that he had become a deer, and looked as if he had been struck by lightning, his four hooves gripping the ground nervously. After a breathless silence, his rusty brain finally started to turn, his eyes glancing to the side, trying to hide behind the bottle of spice with the cleaner in it.

He envied the cleaner at this point, wishing he could get in there, so he could hide himself from Shen Jize’s eyes.

Shen Jize sensed his thoughts, just after the white deer moved a small step to the side, he suddenly said, “Don’t move.”

Lu Rong shivered, the white hair on his body stood up, but he stood still, not daring to move to the spice bottle.

Shen Jize’s face was expressionless, neither joy nor anger nor any other emotions could be seen on his face. Seeing the white deer look at himself with a frightened face, he ordered again in a light tone, “Come here.”

Lu Rong took two steps forward with trepidation, stumbled and paused in place, then tentatively moved two steps forward and paused in place again.

Shen Jize sneered, “Am I that scary? More frightening than those ghosts and monsters?”

Lu Rong didn’t dare to dally any longer, and with small steps forward, his hooves seemingly stepped very fast with a crisp da da da da, when in fact, it was more like he was stepping in place.

Shen Jize also didn’t urge, just looked at him with his arms crossed in front of his chest, the expression on his face seemed to say, let me see how long you want to dawdle.

Lu Rong finally scuttled in front of him, stood still and looked left and right, the silver horns on his head also followed left and right, but didn’t look at the person in front of him.

Shen Jize began to look at him carefully, and circled around him at a slow pace.

Lu Rong also didn’t dare to look around, only stared stiffly at his right front hoof, as if concentrating on the pattern on it. But his eyes kept glancing at the pair of shoes beside him, watching him turn around and then stop in front of him.

“Shall I call you Little White? Or should I call you Rong Rong?” Shen Jize suddenly spoke.

Lu Rong held his breath and didn’t say a word.

“By the way, you can’t seem to make a sound when you turn into a deer.” Shen Jize said slowly again.

Lu Rong thought, I can still make a deer call when I turn into a deer, but I don’t dare to speak at this time.

The fake cleaner in the spice bottle next to them was banging on the bottle, cursing loudly and sneezing. The spice bottle was shaking from side to side and thumping as he hit it.

Shen Jize tsked, took a toothpick and went over to the bottle and swung the stick at it a few times. The sound of the impact echoed in the spice bottle, like ringing a bell, and the sounds coming from inside finally stopped.

He walked back with the toothpick and continued to circle around the white deer, sighing, “No wonder every time in the illusion, as long as Little White was there you weren’t there. I was sorry you two never met, so this was why.”

Lu Rong was both weak and worried at this point. He was worried that after Shen Jize found out that he was Little White, he would start to fear him and reject him from the bottom of his heart. If that was the case, it would upset him more than anything else.

“Raise your head and let me see.” Shen Jize spoke again soflty.

Lu Rong slowly lifted his face and met Shen Jize’s dark, deep eyes. He didn’t know that his eyes were full of pleading and panic, looking very pitiful.

Shen Jize slowly crouched down, and was at the same height as Lu Rong, as he reached out to gently touch the silver antler on top of his head.

Lu Rong’s body shook, reflexively moved the antler away, and instantly reacted, hurriedly putting his head back. Seeing how Shen Jize kept his hand hanging in the air, he adjusted the angle again, and carefully, little by little moved the antler back into his hand.

He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but he seemed to hear Shen Jize give a low laugh.

“Not a potato horn, ah, or a tree branch, it had such power even when you were a child.” Shen Jize touched his horns, and then went to touch his pair of ears.

The pointy little ears were very sensitive and when Shen Jize’s hand touched them, they immediately curled up like a mimosa and rolled into a tiny ball.

Lu Rong heard Shen Jize make an inhalation sound and hurriedly looked up to see. Seeing that he still had no expression, he silently dropped his head again.

After touching Lu Rong’s whole body, Shen Jize said, “Come on, let’s go find the passage first, we’ll settle other things when we find it.”

Lu Rong knew that this other thing referred to the fact that he was Little White, and didn’t dare to resist, as he hurriedly picked up his pajamas scattered on the ground, tied it into a small bundle, wrapping it around his neck.

He wasn’t sure whether he would encounter danger, so he simply kept his deer shape first, Shen Jize already knew anyway, so it didn’t matter.

As he was absentmindedly thinking, he didn’t notice that when he sat on the ground and skillfully tied the clothes into a bundle, Shen Jize was watching him with a complicated look on his face.

When he finished tying the bundle and turned his head to see Shen Jize still crouching, Lu Rong stopped in confusion and tilted his head. Then it dawned on him that maybe turning into a deer made Shen Jize uncomfortable, so he was waiting for him to change back?

But before he could change into an adult, Shen Jize stood up and said, “Come on Little White, it’s fine, no need to change back.”

Lu Rong’s heart calmed down for the moment and followed him towards the edge of the cabinet.

When he got to the edge of the cabinet, Shen Jize stood on the side with the sunken pattern and looked down, then looked at Lu Rong’s hooves and asked, “Is it easy for you to go down like this? Do you want me to carry you?”

Lu Rong tucked his hoof under his body and shook his head vigorously, saying that it was easy for him to go down and that this wasn’t a problem at all.

Shen Jize said, “Okay, then go down. If it’s not easy to walk, let me carry you.”

Lu Rong got his approval and immediately leaped out in front of him. He flicked his hooves in the air, landed on the handle of the cupboard door in mid-air, then swung back and leaped, as light as a feather, flying in the air for a while, and then landed firmly on the ground.

He stood firmly and immediately looked above the cabinet, saw Shen Jize was hanging above, having just stepped with one foot on the pattern, expressionlessly looking at him below.

Lu Rong rolled his eyes and immediately pretended to be unsteady on his feet, grunted, swayed a few times and sat on his butt.

Shen Jize, satisfied, turned around and continued to climb down.

Both of them got off the ground safely and headed towards the foyer.

Shen Jize looked sideways at Lu Rong, fiddled with the bag around his neck and said, “No wonder when I met you in that vision of the ghost couple worshipping when I was a child, you had a bag tied around your neck. I thought you were in danger and had to go to the village to find you… so that’s what happened…”

Lu Rong turned his head sheepishly, pretending to be looking around and not listening.

Shen Jize saw that he was nervous, so he laughed lightly, and continued with other topics, “Although this house is large, there aren’t many rooms, we can check everything. If there’s nothing unusual, then the passage should be on the upper floor, in other words, the rooftop.”

They soon arrived at the foyer, where there was a staircase to the top floor. For their current size, this level of stairs was a story high, and it would take a lot of effort to climb up. The good thing was that the lower edge of the handrail next to it was smooth, so they could go straight up.

Lu Rong jumped up to the handrail quickly and waited for Shen Jize to come up as well, then he stepped ahead and led the way, with Shen Jize following behind him.

The handrail was very long, twenty steps was equivalent to climbing more than twenty floors. One person and a deer walked in silence, and didn’t make a sound.

Lu Rong was silent, he didn’t want to make a deer cry in front of his beloved, but Shen Jize also remained silent, so he felt unusual, and stopped to peek behind him. He didn’t want Shen Jize to look at him and at the moment of eye contact, he calmly averted his eyes.

Lu Rong didn’t find anything unusual, suspiciously turned his head and continued to walk forward, but the more he walked, the more strange he felt, and without any warning, suddenly turned back.

Now he caught the smile on Shen Jize’s face that he couldn’t hide in time.

The smile flickered, and if not for Lu Rong’s sharp eyes, it wouldn’t have been detected.

Shen Jize saw him stop and didn’t say anything, only raised his eyebrows to show a questioning look of surprise, his eyes sincere and innocent.

Lu Rong and he looked at each other for a moment, thinking that he was probably imagining things, turned around and continued to walk up the road, only to ponder in his mind.

After two steps, a thought flashed through his mind, and the whole deer suddenly froze in place and turned into a statue.

He kept crawling in front of Shen Jize.

His butt was always facing Shen Jize.

And after he turned into Little White, he wasn’t wearing pants.

Lu Rong: !!!

The white deer stopped as if frozen, the tiny tail quickly pressed down and clung to the rounded buttocks, blocking a certain part.

He clenched his hind hooves and slowly turned around to face Shen Jize, his two ears twitching and quivering, his wet round eyes looking at the ground, and then looked up at him quickly. A clear-eyed deer face was shy and timid, pink under the pale fleece.

Shen Jize’s face had a very strange look, silently watching the white deer with his front hoof holding a fence, tiptoeing on his hind hooves to squeeze past him, then standing behind.

He didn’t ask Lu Rong why he had suddenly adjusted his position, only to turn his head to continue walking up.

After two steps, Lu Rong saw his shoulders twitching twice and suspected that the man was laughing, so he gently pushed his horn against his thigh.

Shen Jize turned around and raised his eyebrows a little suspiciously, “What’s the matter? Something wrong?”

Lu Rong saw that he was all right and stuck out his pink tongue a bit awkwardly, licked his black nose, and shook his head again.

“Hmm.” Shen Jize indifferently answered, turned around and continued up.

The bottom of the handrail was attached to a silver-white decorative tape, reflecting his figure. Lu Rong stared at the white deer reflection, thinking that he really was overthinking, Brother was not that kind of person.

He moved forward along the decorative tape and peeked at Shen Jize’s reflection. The man reflected was tall and upright, emitting hormones that made people weak at the knees, and he couldn’t take his eyes off him.

He secretly admired Shen Jize’s body, his eyes slowly moved up. When it came to the man’s face, his whole deer body froze again.

In the reflection, Shen Jize was silently laughing with an exaggerated grin, that handsome face smile almost deformed.

Lu Rong: … 

Shen Jize was laughing when he suddenly noticed that there was no more clattering of deer hooves behind him. He put away his laugh and turned his head to see the white deer taking two steps back, lowering its head towards him and flashing its two silver horns like tree branches.

“What are you doing? What are you trying to do?”

He had a bad feeling and turned around and ran wildly up the slope, but the sound of deer hooves followed behind him, quickly catching up.

Shen Jize exploded his hidden potential, running downhill on the upward rail, the back of his T-shirt drummed by the wind, his head hair raised in the air, his temples gurgling and throbbing.

But Lu Rong was faster, running behind him, with his horns quickly picking up the hem of his shirt, and with an upward flip of the head, Shen Jize was flying in the air.

The white deer leapt up after him and held him on his back as he fell, landing smoothly on a flight of steps. Then he laid the man flat on the floor and stretched out his hoof to pluck his clothes.

Lu Rong was ashamed and annoyed, thinking that he must also strip him naked, so that he was also naked, and then he could stare at him too.

Shame on him.

He held Shen Jize down with one hoof to prevent him from struggling, and lifted the hem of his T-shirt with the other hoof and pulled it off over his head. This wasn’t very convenient, the T-shirt was piled up at the neck, and it didn’t move even after a few tuggings.

He didn’t expect Shen Jize to lie still and not struggle at all, and could even say that he was very cooperative. Seeing that Lu Rong couldn’t take off the T-shirt, he even turned his arms and head to facilitate Lu Rong’s movements.

Lu Rong threw the stripped T-shirt aside and stretched out his hoof to touch the waist of his pants. Shen Jize didn’t have a trace of nervousness and looked at Lu Rong with a smile in his eyes, and leisurely put a hand on the back of his head.

He was so eager to be stripped naked that Lu Rong suddenly couldn’t move his hoof.

The hoof trembled and stopped in the air, unable to move up or down. He could only touch his pants waist threateningly, nose fluttering while snorting, meaning I’m very aggressive, I want to strip you now.

Shen Jize lay down and raised his hips, indicating that it would be easier to get it off that way.

Lu Rong lowered his head in frustration, pondering how to solve this dilemma. The tip of his nose touched a row of firm muscles and he found himself facing Shen Jize’s bare belly, turning his head back in a panic.

Shen Jize suddenly burst into laughter, smiling to reveal white teeth, full of pleasure. He rolled over and sat up, swept the white deer into his arms, flicked him on his silver horn and asked, “Not taking it off? Should I take it off myself?”

After saying this, he reached down to the waist of his pants and made a move to pull them down.

Lu Rong panicked and hurriedly held his hand down with his hoof, telling him no with his eyes.

“Don’t you want me to take off my clothes too? Why don’t I take them off for you?” Shen Jize continued to strip down.

Lu Rong held his hand down for dear life, shaking his head frantically.

Shen Jize looked at his watery round eyes, the teasing on his face slowly disappeared and a gentle look emerged.

“Okay, okay, I won’t take it off. Let’s go, let’s continue up.” He said in a soft voice.

Lu Rong wasn’t very convinced and only stared at him suspiciously.

Shen Jize suddenly came over and gave him a quick kiss on his wet black nose and said, “Let’s go, we have to hurry to find the passage, what if the passage is not up there?”

Lu Rong was caught by surprise with the kiss, making him a little shy and very happy, and then let go of the hoof holding his hand down.

The two of them went up the fence, this time Lu Rong walked behind, and soon climbed to the end of the stairs and went to the top floor.

As they climbed up to the top floor, they saw a soft bright light mass in front of them, quietly hanging in the air, in which there were countless points of light flowing.

Lu Rong moved his nose and smelled Uncle Bai’s scent, gentle and reassuring.

“The exit appeared probably after that black-robed ghost died.” Shen Jize stroked his head and said, “Rong Rong, let’s go find your Brother Tu and see if we can find any mysteries near the passage.”

Lu Rong nodded vigorously, the corner of his head following.

The rooftop was large, and to the left was a sunroom, half-covered by an arched glass curtain roof, as large as an airfield for the two men now. From a distance, they could see the thick shag carpeting inside, half a person high. There were also several small mountain-like cushions randomly thrown around.

There was some gym equipment to the right, and a small swimming pool, but otherwise there wasn’t anything different.

“Let’s start from the right.” Shen Jize walked towards the pile of fitness equipment, “I’ll go to the fitness area, you check out the pool.”

One man and one deer headed in their respective directions, Shen Jize toward the treadmill and Lu Rong toward the pool.

A few minutes later, Lu Rong stood by the huge lake-like pool, his black nose sniffed in the air from time to time. But after half a day of sniffing, he could only smell the moisture with the water.

He trotted along the side of the pool, a moment later suddenly stopped, his two ears abruptly perked up, and kept twitching.

He caught a faint smell, very faint and ethereal, fading in an instant. But just for a moment, he could distinguish it, which carried the fishy stench of the illusionary realm.

No, there were illusions around here.

Lu Rong’s eyes widened.

But this piece was so big, in full view, there was nothing else but the swimming pool.

Could it be underwater?

The white deer walked towards the lake, stretched out his front hooves and touched the surface of the water, then darted back.

Hiss, a little cold.

Lu Rong jumped down a step into the water, where a shallow layer of water was already rippling, and although it was summer, the pool water was still a bit cold at night.

——Every time he was taken into the water to swim by his grandfather, his grandfather would pat his chest with water, saying that he wouldn’t want his heart to be excited.

After patting the water, he hugged his upper body and winced, then took a deep breath and leaped down the steps into the water.

The pool of water was like a vast lake, and Lu Rong swam around with some doubts in his mind.

More than once he could feel the fishy smell, but there was no fixed point, as if the smell was distributed in all directions in the pool water.

But this couldn’t be… 

After surfacing once again, Lu Rong finally swam back to the shore, dripping wet, his white fur plastered on his body, dripping water.

He didn’t have any psychological burden, shaking his body like a dog, throwing water beads everywhere.

When his fur was shaken half-dry, he turned his head and quietly looked at the lake water.

The moonlight fell on the still rippling surface of the lake, broken into silver dots, a moment later returned to its original state, the reflection of the moon was bright and round.

Lu Rong looked up at the sky, saw that the full moon in the sky had been covered by dark clouds, only a small half was missing.

The reflection was different! So this was the problem!

He took two steps forward and raised his right front hoof, and the red stripes on the hoof suddenly glowed brightly, and a complex pattern emerged into the air for a brief moment. Then he pounded his raised right forehoof into the water.

Shen Jize jogged to check the gym equipment and just turned around to see the white deer in the distance with its front hooves glowing like a light bulb of several kilowatts. At the same time the wind was blowing on the flat ground, the sound of the wind whistling sharp, forming a swirling wave of air around the deer, the top straight up to the sky, covered with vertical and horizontal lightning.

The scene was spectacular, the wind and waves blowing against him, he struggled to maintain body balance in the gale, watching the direction of Lu Rong.

The white deer stood steadily in the center of the eye of the wind and smashed its front hooves into the lake as a thunderbolt landed.

Shen Jize narrowed his eyes at that moment, waiting for the overwhelming sound of tremors and waves.

However, the expected thousand white waves didn’t come, the lake could be said to have no ripples, as calm as if a small pebble was thrown in.

Only a very light flutter.

The white deer with hooves smashed the lake, not caring that he used a big move to solve the problem, his round deer eyes stared at the lake.

The wind stopped and the waves calmed, covering the surrounding with dead silence, so quiet even the air had stopped circulating.

At that moment, he suddenly heard a slight crack. Like snow falling off branches, or glass cracking, although the sound wasn’t loud, it was unusually clear in this quiet environment.

Immediately after, he saw the pond of water in front of him, cracking apart like ice, the reflection of the moon breaking into two halves.

Crack, crack, crack.

Connecting several sounds, the entire pool surface was breaking, covered with spider web-like cracks. Then, like a mirror broken into millions of pieces, dissipated into the air.

The surrounding scenery began to distort at the same time, forming water ripple-like fluctuations.