Never Marry a Man With Two Tintins

Chapter 27 - Never Marry a Man with Two Tintins

The two of them walked along the main road following a crowd of people who were also going the same way. The scenery in front of them was very different from the dull grayness of the slums. The sky was clear and bright and the mountain and forests teemed with various unfamiliar flora and fauna.

At noontime, they stopped at a cool place to rest. They drank some cold water and ate the millet pancakes they had brought with them. Cheng Nuo insisted that Liu Guang should lay his head down on Cheng Nuo\'s lap and nape for a while. Liu Guang didn\'t want to do it but Cheng Nuo just smiled and said: "Children who don\'t sleep properly won\'t grow tall."

Liu Guang looked at him doubtfully for a while but finally lay down. He half-closed his eyes obediently but remained awake and alert, carefully listening to the movements around them.

The sun shone through the dense canopy of leaves above them, occasionally falling on Liu Guang\'s face. The teenager\'s dewy skin glowed with health and his sleeping face looked quite peaceful. Cheng Nuo thought that Liu Guang was asleep so, smiling, he bent down and kissed Liu Guang\'s forehead then looked up at the sky in a daze. He didn\'t realize that Liu Guang was still awake and that the teenager\'s eyes under his closed eyelids were rolling around in shock. Liu Guang\'s ears had also turned red and his body was as stiff as a plank of wood.

Cheng Nuo saw some large birds with brightly-colored feathers flying in the sky above. This was a novel sight and his first impulse was to wake Liu Guang so he could look at them, too, but Cheng Nuo decided to let him sleep. He guessed that the birds were probably herbivores and wisely chose to stay motionless, waiting for the birds to use their beautiful wings to fly over them.

Just as Cheng Nuo came out of his dazed state, he saw a golden light flash on a tree not far away. Thinking that it was just light reflecting off a spider web, he didn\'t pay much attention to it.

However, though Liu Guang\'s body was still sluggish, he instinctively sensed that danger was near. He jumped to his feet and looked around vigilantly.

Cheng Nuo was shocked by this reaction and said, "What’s wrong? Are there wild animals nearby?"

Liu Guang shook his head and looked around with narrowed eyes. Picking up a branch from the ground, he suddenly threw it up into the air. As it was flung up, the twigs on top of the branch bent as though they had encountered some type of resistance. The branch then fell down to the ground in two pieces.

Cheng Nuo looked at the branch that had been cut in two neatly as though by a saw. He walked two steps forward and said wonderingly: "What happened?"

Liu Guang nervously shouted: "Don’t move! Watch out for those lines!"

Cheng Nuo stopped at once, and his eyes quickly swept the area around the two of them, only to discover that it was full of silken thread.

Those threads were as transparent as silk, so they were almost invisible to the naked eye. They could only be seen when a beam of sunlight hit the threads. In fact, if Liu Guang hadn\'t sensed that something was wrong and seen the threads, they might have rushed out. Then they wouldn\'t fare any better than that piece of wood. The person who put these threads up was really vicious!

"What is that?" Cheng Nuo was so nervous that he didn\'t even realize that his knees had given way and he was currently sitting down on the ground.

Liu Guang shook his head but suddenly thought of Li Yue whom they had met last night. He shouted, "Li Yue, come out now! I know it’s you!"

Suddenly there was a faint shuffling sound. A pretty doll slowly and clumsily walked on a silk thread. Ha! Cheng Nuo wanted to cuss. This was the doll that Li Yue was holding last night! So in the end, once again they were tricked by another perverted child!

In the sunlight, the doll\'s beautiful clear blue eyes shone brightly. Cheng Nuo\'s almost stood on end when he realized that the doll\'s eyes were moving.

The doll suddenly flew towards Cheng Nuo with its hands reaching out for him. Its ten fingers were very lifelike and tipped with metal nails that were as sharp as knives.

Cheng Nuo stepped back two steps in surprise. Liu Guang quickly jumped in front of him. The machete flashed and the doll was pulled back higher.

When the doll stopped moving, they saw that it had been pulled back by a thread. When Liu Guang\'s machete struck a thread, it wasn\'t able to cut it. Instead, the silk thread left a clear line on the edge of the machete. If Liu Guang had been slightly slower, the machete would probably have been cut in half like the piece of wood.

Cheng Nuo quickly took out the short sword he had gotten from Bai Rui and threw it to Liu Guang: "Xiao Guang, use this!"

Even though Liu Guang was reluctant to use it, he knew that this short sword would be more effective. He carefully cut a nearby thread, calmly listening to the sounds around him. Pretty soon he noticed the soft sound of someone\'s clothes rustling. Liu Guang felt very annoyed that he had failed to notice that someone had been following them.

Cheng Nuo said loudly: "Li Yue, we just meet each other by chance, why have you done this?"

Li Yue didn\'t answer and used the silk threads to manipulate the doll which attacked them again.

The doll was small and light, but Liu Guang was still keenly aware of its attack trajectory because of the silk threads in the air. He used a lot of force to cut through silk threads attached to the doll which suddenly fell to the ground, unmoving.

Liu Guang snorted and scolded: "You nasty, sneaky little scammer!"

Aggressively, he stabbed the doll with the short sword and threw it hard at the densest part of the web of silk thread. The doll was instantly cut to pieces and dropped to the ground. Cheng Nuo looked at the wreckage. The doll\'s eyes, cheeks, and other body parts looked just like a corpse of a person. The doll was so human-like that it actually bled red blood!

Li Yue slowly flew down from a tree, his wide sleeves raised high in a graceful pose. He landed firmly on one of the silk threads. Cheng Nuo and Liu Guang wondered what his shoes were made of, to be able to stand on the edge of the sharp silk thread. He stood high above them but didn\'t look at either of the two people below him. His eyes were on the pieces of the doll. Li Yue whispered: "You ruined my Little Nine."

He looked so delicate and beautiful, with his seaweed-like hair covering most of his face, that he looked as pitiable as a wronged child.

Liu Guang snorted again and pointed his knife at Li Yue, saying coldly: "Remove your stuff or you\'ll also end up like this." Although he disdained people who beat up females, Li Yue could never be forgiven for wanting to hurt Cheng Nuo.

Li Yue slowly raised his eyes. The lavender eyes stared at Liu Guang who got annoyed and said: "What do you want to do? If you have the ability, then jump down and fight me!"

"Although Little Nine isn\'t perfect, you don\'t know how difficult it was to find those eyes," Li Yue said calmly. "I just want Nuo Cheng\'s eyes. It won\'t kill him. Why do you have to react so violently? Since you destroyed Little Nine, although I don\'t particularly like your fierce-looking eyes, I\'ll have to dig those out to make a tenth."

It hardly needed to be said that Liu Guang was furious, but even Cheng Nuo was enraged. How perverted can a person be to think that digging people\'s eyes out was nothing to be angry about? He couldn’t help but ask: "Do you use real human eyes for dolls?"

Li Yue nodded. "Yes. I don’t have many eyes. I use my favorite kind of white and red skin for the doll\'s shell. It\'s quite hard to peel off skin without damaging it, but rest assured, your skin is too rough so I won\'t ask for it. Just give me your eyes."

When Cheng Nuo heard those words he shivered all over even though it wasn\'t cold. Instead of growling he laughed angrily and said: "Should I thank you for that?"

Liu Guang said impatiently: "Come and dig my eyes out if you can! Hmph! What\'s the meaning of hiding yourself and staying out of reach?"

Li Yue pulled another doll from his spatial storage bag. This one was taller than the previous one and it was colored red and white. He said softly, "I didn’t expect you to be agile. Now I\'ll let the attack model Little Seven take care of you. Be careful."

The doll wore a full set of armor, with a long halberd in its hand, and its white hair was tied at the back of its head. It was really lifelike.

Liu Guang stared at Li Yue’s hands without blinking. It doesn\'t matter if the doll is more powerful. As long as it’s a puppet being manipulated by a person, then the best strategy is to cut off its strings.

The doll moved quickly, much faster than the one before, and its long halberd seemed to be made of an unusual material. Incredibly, its weapon could take on an attack by Liu Guang\'s short sword without being damaged.

Li Yue was in high spirits and adeptly manipulated the doll with one hand. His cheerful attitude was like someone who was watching someone a sideshow.

Cheng Nuo stared nervously at Li Yue\'s right hand that he wasn\'t using. Li Yue was so powerful using just his left hand, what would happen if he used both hands?

Li Yue noticed Cheng Nuo\'s gaze. The youth smiled and Cheng Nuo. The little finger of Li Yue\'s right hand flicked. Cheng Nuo quickly used his ability to harden his arm and flung it in front of his body as he jumped a step back.

A length of string struck his arm before falling to the ground, leaving behind a thin cut. It took a while before blood started swelling up from the cut. Cheng Nuo gritted his teeth then grabbed two stones and threw them at Li Yue.

Li Yue, his ankles wrapped in the string, turned in a circle to avoid the projectiles. He sighed: "Don\'t be so angry. Your eyes won\'t look good when I dig them out."

"**** digging my eyes out!" Cheng Nuo picked up another stone and threw at Li Yue, yelling, "I\'ve never seen someone as perverted as you! You beast! No, in fact, you\'re worse than a beast!"

Of course, two of the people he met could match Li Yue\'s perversity.

When he was scolded like this, Li Yu\'e expression changed. His eyes flashed ruthlessly.

Cheng Nuo wanted to distract Li Yue to help Liu Guang cut the puppet\'s strings so he kept on picking up stones from and throwing them at Li Yue. He scolded Li Yue even more fiercely.

"Shut up!" Li Yue shouted. He threw dozens of silk threads that formed a fine net big enough to cover Cheng Nuo\'s entire body.

As a result, the doll\'s movements doll slowed down. Liu Guang quickly cut the threads that controlled the doll, threw it hard at the net, then rolled on the ground with Cheng Nuo in his arms, avoiding the net.

With a sneer, Li Yue threw a few more strings at the two of them. Liu Guang calmly waved his weapon left and right to cut the strings but Cheng Nuo thought that his movements were slower than before. Cheng Nuo examined Liu Guang carefully and finally saw that Liu Guang\'s pants had been stained with blood on his left thigh.

Cheng Nuo was very worried and nervous. What should he do now? The main problem was that the silk threads were too sharp and he had no weapon!

Li Yu\'s strings had already been re-attached to doll number seven. It quickly rose from the ground and flew towards Cheng Nuo.

Liu Guang heard the sound of the wind as his short sword was blocked. At the same time, a hand burst from the ground and grabbed Cheng Nuo\'s ankle. Liu Guang was shocked and couldn’t immediately get rid of Little Seven.

"Aah!" Cheng Nuo screamed as he was lifted upside down by an adult-sized puppet that had emerged from the ground.

Li Yue waved his right hand and the puppet doll quickly jumped up with Cheng Nuo.

He smiled as looked at Cheng Nuo and Liu Guang: "This is Little Five."

Notes:

• "You nasty, sneaky little scammer!" – Liu Guang called Li Yue a nasty little sneak but he also said 装神弄鬼 (zhuāng shén nòng guǐ). Literally translated it\'s "dress up as God, play the devil" meaning someone who scams or deceives people.
• Halberd – 戟 (jǐ). It\'s a weapon that is a combination spear and battle-ax.