Hearing the shout, Yin Xiu fell silent, glancing at Li Mo out of the corner of his eye. Li Mo also shook his head silently, unaware of what had happened.
The two crouched low and quietly approached Ya Ya's room, only to hear another angry shout from inside: "You wretched Hei Qiqi! Give me back my Princess Yin! I will never allow you to elope with him!! Today I will settle things with you!!"
"Clang! Crack! Bang! Bang!"
Then came a bunch of random onomatopoeic words.
Yin Xiu peeked out and saw that Ya Ya had found several rag dolls from somewhere. One doll was wearing a princess dress with the character "Yin" pasted on it and a big red ribbon tied around its head with a bow. Next to it was an ugly black doll with the character "Li" written on it and a bow tied around its neck.
Ya Ya herself held a doll wearing a red dress and a bow in her hair.
Three ordinary rag dolls are fighting with pencils, accompanied by Ya Ya's earnest and emotional narration. Ya Wa and Hei Wa are especially fighting back and forth with their pencils, while Princess Yin sits on the side watching the fight.
Yin Xiu stared at the three bows tied to the doll, remembering that they were the strange props he had taken from the monster and given to Ya Ya. Their effect was to turn inanimate objects into living things, but he never expected that Ya Ya would use them in this way.
"Ah—! Prince Ya was successfully defeated by the black doll and escaped the royal city with Princess Yin!" Ya Ya lifted the black doll and struck the Ya doll, then took Princess Yin, forced the two dolls to hold hands, and placed them in front of her.
"The beautiful Princess Yin and the ugly Blackie lived happily ever after and got married. Now, Blackie, please kiss your lover!"
The black rag doll, its head being pressed down, writhed, seemingly unwilling, as Ya Ya forced its head close to the Yin doll. "Chirp—!"
After playing, Ya Ya happily removed the red ribbons from their heads and put them away, planning to go downstairs to eat her mother's cookies.
As she turned around, holding the three dolls, her gaze met that of the two people standing silently in the doorway, and the room fell silent.
"Brother, brother...when did you get back?" Ya Ya was sweating profusely and her ears were bright red. She really didn't expect that the person she was acting out with her dolls at home would see her like that.
Yin Xiu stared at her silently, pondered for two seconds, and then replied calmly, "Just now, I came upstairs and saw you tidying up your dolls. What's wrong?"
"It's nothing, it's nothing." Ya Ya shook her head, relieved that her brother hadn't heard her strange game.
The girl standing to the side looked puzzled. "Boyfriend, we clearly—"
Then Yin Xiu covered her mouth and said, "Let's go downstairs and eat some pancakes."
"Yay! Let's eat cookies!" Ya Ya immediately put away her doll and happily went downstairs with her brother to eat cookies, trying her best to forget what had just happened.
Yin Xiu's trip was neither too long nor too short for this area. Ya Ya missed her brother at times, so her mother suggested that she could make some dolls of her brother to play with when she was bored. Since Ya Ya liked dolls, she immediately made some herself, showing her strong hands-on skills.
The doll dressed in a princess dress is the most exquisite, followed by the doll representing herself, Ya. As for the last one, that dark and ugly thing, it looks like it was made randomly at first glance, twisted and abstract.
Yin Xiu calmly examined himself in his princess dress, then looked at Ya Ya's doll, and finally stared at the dark blob. "Li Mo's doll looks very similar."
Few people can recreate the abstract form of the black, tentacle-like ball of flesh; Ya Ya is a genius.
"Right! I also think the black one is the most realistic!" Ya Ya happily hugged the ugly black thing and munched on her biscuit. "They said that the world of rules will be peaceful from now on, and no more new people will come. So, my brother won't be able to enter the dungeon anymore, and he won't be able to see me anymore?"
Yin Xiu reached out and ruffled Ya Ya's hair. "I'll go into dungeons for you and take you to play in other dungeons."
"Yay!" Ya Ya waved her hands happily, completely oblivious to how awful the other dungeons must be.
"However, brother needs to rest in the town for a while and finish dealing with things there before he can go into the dungeon. Ya Ya will have to wait." Yin Xiu looked up at Li Mo. When the monsters stopped being wary of Li Mo, the seal that had blocked Li Mo from going to the town disappeared, and the entire world of rules was unified.
This means that Li Mo will be living in the town, and he needs to prepare some living necessities for Li Mo so that he can live like a person by his side.
"Okay, Ya Ya will go play in other dungeons whenever she has free time, no rush." Ya Ya nodded, munching on a cookie while glancing at Li Mo and then at Yin Xiu.
I always feel that after my brother went out and came back, his relationship with Hei Qiqi became better.
If she hadn't heard from other monsters about how Blackie had been imprisoned in a seal, she wouldn't have given her brother to Blackie.
"Once you've finished dealing with things in town, brother, we'll pick a challenging dungeon to play." Yin Xiu lowered his eyes and patted Ya Ya's head. For them, dungeons were just places to explore; they could clear them anyway, so they just went to see how other players did it.
"Okay!!" Ya Ya happily jumped into Yin Xiu's arms, blinked at Li Mo, and said, "You have to protect your brother when I'm not around."
"Of course." Li Mo smiled. "My boyfriend's life is my life."
Literally, they are indeed now bound by fate. Although the rituals of God and High Priest have not yet begun, it does not prevent them from regarding each other as their own life.
Ya Ya frowned, feeling melancholy at the endless stream of sweet words coming from Hei Momo. If it's like this now, what will it be like in the future?
After saying goodbye to Ya Ya, Yin Xiu went to see his aunt and teacher. The school's instance was being restarted, so they were selecting new monster students. The teacher and aunt were busy. When they saw Yin Xiu coming from afar, the monster students turned pale. Only his aunt stepped forward and greeted them generously.
"When will you come to our school again?" Auntie asked Yin Xiu with a smile. "Auntie will cook you something delicious again."
"I'll come whenever I have time." Yin Xiu nodded, glancing up at the strange students. "Is the instance going to restart?"
"Yes, as the Deep Sea Academy instance is restarted." Auntie nodded with a smile, looking at the teacher carefully selecting a teacher not far away, "This time, don't kill all her students, or you won't even have the chance to come in and see Auntie next time."
Yin Xiu pondered for a moment, then said, "I will try my best."
"If you ever have any troubles, you can come in and talk to your auntie, or... if there's anything you don't understand." Auntie's gaze swept between Yin Xiu and Li Mo. "If Auntie can't answer, the teacher can. Your experiences are still incomplete, and you will definitely have troubles in the future."
Yin Xiu had no idea what his aunt was referring to, so he could only nod in agreement.
"Deep Sea Academy welcomes you anytime. From now on, we're all family." Auntie was as gentle as ever, treating both Li Mo and Yin Xiu very well. The teacher's attitude was much milder, but she still seemed nervous when she saw Yin Xiu and the students appear together.
Yin Xiu didn't stay long. He gave a quick greeting and went back, knowing there would be plenty of time to meet in the future.
After the general principles of the rules-based world were established, there were still some minor issues left for Yin Xiu to resolve on his own.
Firstly, it concerns how the covenant between God and the high priest was established.
Secondly, there's the book that Li Mo keeps turning to the corner to flip through; how should he deal with that?