Tokyo Fall Guys beats up the supernatural

Page 31

Upon hearing this question, Lu Zizhen's arm went limp, she put down her phone with a thud, sighed, and stared at the ceiling.

"Sigh... how should I put it, a bunch of fools, stubborn and awkward, but admirable fools."

"What do you mean?" Dou Tang frowned.

Lu Zizhen remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "I don't really want to talk about it."

Dou Tang shook his head helplessly.

Chapter 57 Small Warmth

After settling in and unpacking, Lu Zizhen said she wanted to take a bath, so they went to the open-air bath in the back.

Although it's called an open-air bath, it's actually inside a glass enclosure. To prevent peeping, curtains and a fully automatic ceiling screen can be drawn. It's the middle of the day, and Lu Zizhen can only take a bath in the fully enclosed backyard with the light bulb on, which feels a bit redundant.

Dou Tang went out for a stroll with Huai Yin and picked up the food that Lu Zizhen had ordered.

This residence is located in the suburbs of Nagano City. Although it was during working hours, the area was still bustling with activity, as many elderly people strolled around the streets, highlighting the serious aging population.

Young people live in cramped conditions in the city, while the closer you get to the suburbs, the more elderly people there are.

Dou Tang and Huai Yin arrived at the door of a small shop called Xian Dian Xuan. They didn't know why Lu Zizhen chose this shop, as she seemed to be very familiar with it.

In fact, it was as if there were no unfamiliar places for her. It was the same before. Wherever Dou Tang went with her, Lu Zizhen would exorcise evil spirits and then take him to eat and drink in the local area.

Dou Tang lifted the curtain and opened the door, saying "Excuse me" before ducking under the low doorway and slipping into the shop.

The shop is simply furnished, with the kitchen and bar on the left, small tables for two on the right, and larger tables further inside, giving it the feel of an izakaya.

The elderly chef, who was chopping vegetables in the kitchen, glanced at Dou Tang, narrowed his eyes, and said, "Welcome. What would you like to order?"

Dou Tang pulled Huai Yin along and said, "I've come to pick up the food that Miss Lu Zizhen ordered."

The chef pointed his palm toward the restaurant and said, "Please have a seat for a moment, it will be ready shortly."

"Sorry to bother you." Dou Tang nodded in acknowledgment and pulled Huai Yin to a table to sit down.

A short while later, four young men suddenly opened the shop door and walked in. They were dressed like a group of photographers or something similar.

They went into the shop and sat down at a large table inside. One of the men, wearing a fisherman's hat, took it off and fanned himself, looking exhausted. He slumped in his chair and said, "Ah, we've been searching for half a month. Does that godforsaken place even exist?"

A slightly more stylishly dressed guy grumbled, "Just to keep getting channel subscriptions, I guess I'll have to put up with this... Damn it, if it weren't for that damn pink idiot..."

Pink idiot?

Dou Tang raised an eyebrow; this sounded somewhat familiar.

It seems a side quest has been triggered.

He smiled slightly, but Huaiyin pouted when she saw it. She was very familiar with Dou Tang's subtle expressions. Whenever he smiled like that, it meant he was interested in something.

A few people nearby continued talking, and one of them, a woman wearing glasses, sighed while resting her chin on her hand, "There's nothing we can do... Fall Guys' special effects are just too good. It's the most perfect tokusatsu I've ever seen. And those supernatural makeup effects are so realistic. How can a small-budget supernatural website like ours compete with them..."

Oh, so it's someone I've driven to the brink of unemployment.

Dou Tang shook her head helplessly, but Huai Yin laughed when she heard those words. Clearly, she was happy to hear Dou Tang being praised.

"Are we going again this afternoon? I'm tired, let's go back to the hotel!"

The group continued their conversation.

"Let's call it a day for now. We'll head into the mountains first thing tomorrow morning and keep looking. That place is definitely there! I've collected a lot of photos!"

"...Have you thought about what would happen if those rumors were true? Would we be in danger?"

"This is our last chance to beat Fall Guys! Otherwise, we'll have to make a different kind of supernatural adventure show... Come on, I still have car loans to pay! Where will we get the funding if no one watches?"

It seems like life isn't easy for anyone...

Dou Tang didn't remember this little incident and returned to the house after taking the food.

When the two returned, Lu Zizhen had already taken a bath and was sitting upright in the living room, wearing a kimono that she didn't know where it came from, but it was loosely dressed, as if it might expose her at any moment.

"Ha...you guys are finally back, otherwise I would have fallen asleep." Lu Zizhen yawned without caring about her image, her whole body exuding the freshness of someone who had just come out of the bath, her hair still wet.

The food was placed on the table, and the restaurant used a red lacquered wooden box to hold it, which showed great care.

"This restaurant was recommended to me by my friend. These dishes are all their signature dishes, hehe..." Lu Zizhen couldn't wait to open the lunchbox.

After taking out the food, Lu Zizhen turned on the TV. The old TV was still usable, but the color tone of the picture was a bit distorted. Dou Tang listened to the sound from the old stereo, looked at the antique scene around him, and then looked at Lu Zizhen wearing a kimono. He felt a sense of time and space distortion.

However, Lu Zizhen's next words instantly shattered his illusions.

"Hey, did you know? We've surpassed 100,000 followers on Twitter."

This person really knows how to ruin the mood.

Lu Zizhen tugged at the collar of her kimono, revealing her fair, jade-like chest, which annoyed Huaiyin. However, Dou Tang didn't care at all and continued eating.

"Ah, the kimonos in this shop feel damp, like corn chips that've been sitting in a closet for ten years."

Dou Tang decided to quickly end the topic and asked, "When are we going to look for that mansion?"

"Hmm... um... let's do it tomorrow, haha... I'm so sleepy, really so sleepy, I'm going to take a good nap this afternoon."

Lu Zizhen looked like she was about to fall asleep at any moment, which puzzled Dou Tang. He had never seen Lu Zizhen so tired before, and this fatigue was definitely not due to driving earlier.

After dinner, Dou Tang went to return the lunchbox, but the four people in the restaurant were gone.

After buying a lot of things at the convenience store, Lu Zizhen was already asleep in the guest room on the first floor, while Huaiyin didn't seem to want to go out either. She changed into her pajamas and sat in the living room watching TV.

Recently

All three of them had irregular sleep schedules: Huaiyin had many dreams, Doutang had very little sleep, and Lu Zizhen seemed to be exhausted.

Sitting down next to Huaiyin, Huaiyin leaned her little head over and rested it on Doutang's shoulder.

"You haven't been sleeping much these past few days, have you? Why don't you get some rest earlier?"

At the age when she is growing, and having eaten a big lunch, Huaiyin closed her eyes and gave a cute nasal "Mmm".

"Shall I carry you upstairs?"

Huaiyin grabbed his sleeve and said, "No...don't go to the room. If you go to the room, you won't be able to...it's fine here."

Indeed, it would be hard to explain if Dou Tang continued to sleep in the same room with Huai Yin after going upstairs, but it wouldn't be so outrageous if the two of them took a nap in the living room.

Huaiyin snuggled into his arms. Dou Tang had just turned off the TV when she pushed him backward. The little girl rested her head on his arm, her hand on his chest, her eyelids fluttered, and she quickly fell asleep.

Dou Tang lay awkwardly in a half-reclined position, maintaining this somewhat difficult posture.

If Huaiyin were awake, he would never tolerate her clinging to him like this, but... but as long as she is asleep, it would be okay for him to pamper her a little, right?

Clinging to a small sliver of hope, Dou Tang lay down and closed his eyes.

Chapter 58 Mr. Ren

A brand new dream came to Huaiyin.

For Huaiyin, afternoon naps were always safe, as long as the vengeful spirits and evil spirits wouldn't disturb her sleep or cause her to have those strange dreams about death and pain.

But this rule was broken by the person closest to her. A dream about Dou Tang slowly eroded her, making her deeply immersed in it even though she was nestled in Dou Tang's arms.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a simple courtyard, where someone was practicing shirtless.

He was a very thin boy, but what was surprising was the numerous scars covering his body, which made his otherwise handsome physique ugly and horrifying.

One after another, they connected and covered each other, making the body look as if it had been pulled out after rolling through a mountain of knives, making one wonder in fear what it had gone through.

Huaiyin recognized the face that was losing its childishness; it was Dou Tang, Ren Dou Tang.

He let out a long breath, sweat slowly dripping down the raised parts of the wounds, making Huaiyin feel both heartache and helplessness. She wanted to reach out and touch the wounds but couldn't.

He seemed to be practicing some kind of boxing technique, his fists flying around, making a whooshing sound in the air, and the force of each punch made the sweat on his arms bounce off.

The courtyard was simply furnished. Apart from the bungalow at the back, there was only a flower bed in the yard. There were no flowers in the flower bed, only a tall tree and a deep tree pit.

It seems there used to be two trees here, but now only one remains.

Yellow leaves fell from the trees, scattering across the flowerbeds.

Red bricks and green tiles, a desolate autumn scene—everything here was so unfamiliar to Huaiyin, reminding her time and again that Ren Doutang's past didn't even belong to the land that gave her birth.

Just then, someone knocked on the door. The heavy iron door was being knocked on, and the person sounded anxious and flustered.

Dou Tang let out a long breath, stretched out his fist, stomped his foot suddenly, and threw a punch with a loud bang. Then he said, "Please come in."

The iron gate was pushed open, and a woman wearing a simple suit came in. She stood at the doorway, not daring to approach.

Dou Tang turned around, jumped on tiptoe, took a towel from a tree branch, wiped the sweat off his body, and asked, "Who are you?"

The woman was clearly shocked to see Ren Doutang covered in wounds, and then asked, "Excuse me, is Mr. Ren Zhanyi... here?"

Ren Doutang frowned, wiping his sweat, and said, "My father died not long ago while fighting against evil spirits. I am his son, Ren Doutang. You can talk to me about anything."

The woman asked in surprise, "Mr. Ren is dead?"

Ren Doutang paused, wiping his sweat, and probably understood the woman's purpose. He said somewhat forlornly, "There is no Mr. Ren left, and you won't find what you're looking for here. Please leave."

“Since Mr. Ren is dead, then…” The woman lowered her head, her voice becoming fierce and cold.

Ren Doutang sighed.

The woman's eyes seemed to glow, and a scarlet, evil light shone forth, causing Huaiyin to involuntarily take two steps back.

"Then, little guy, you probably don't know why he died."

Ren Doutang slowly shook his head.

"Evil spirits cannot be eradicated. There will always be people who fall into demonic ways, people who think they can challenge human ethics and morality, and people who think that doing whatever they want against the righteous path is a form of power."

The woman's body gradually changed, and a whip emerged from her slender sleeve, seemingly composed of blood-red veins, which reminded Huaiyin of something like a monster.

In Ren Doutang's original world, there also exist monsters and evil spirits... And judging from what he said before, it seems that his family is engaged in the work of exorcising evil spirits and monsters.

My brother... he had been exposed to these things before... so how did he gain that Fall Guy power?

The woman brandished her whip and lashed it at Ren Doutang.

"Someone will always have to send you to your death, you reckless fools."

Ren Doutang gritted his teeth and replied, his waist suddenly twisting, his legs bending, and he flung the towel out with one hand.

The glistening water droplets pierced through a curtain of light in the air, accompanied by an explosive shockwave.

With a muffled "bang!", the blood-red, forked whip was snapped in two by an ordinary towel, shattering into brittle pieces of jade that fell to the ground and crumbled into pieces.

"You!" The red-eyed woman gritted her teeth, her mouth full of broken teeth bursting out, her face contorted with rage.

Ren Doutang casually tossed down the towel and said, "Raising ghosts for your own use, it seems you're not a good person either. Since you know about my father's affairs, then I don't need to hold back anymore."

"Do you know why the Ren family is hated by so many evil spirits, even though only a brother and sister remain in the family?"

Ren Doutang slowly moved forward, his lean body seemingly growing taller and more imposing, his aura rising with each step, and even an unknown vortex appearing around him.

His world was absolutely different from the world he was in now... In his world, evil spirits and monsters were more rampant, but people were also more powerful, Huaiyin thought to himself.

The red-eyed woman... no, the monster, seemed to want to run away, but Ren Doutang was faster than her. He picked up a broken brick with one foot, kicked it out with a whip kick, and the whole brick flew out and smashed into the iron gate, causing the gate to slam shut at the same time.

"The strongest things are easily broken, Your Excellency. Everyone knows this principle, but only the Ren family does not. And only the Ren family has passed down this tradition for so long. Do you know why?"

Ren Doutang slowly approached the red-eyed woman as if chatting with an old friend. Looking at this terrifying monster who could stop a child from crying, he slowly reached out, lifted a lock of the red-eyed woman's hair, and gently rubbed it.

“Because the Ren family is not just Zhigang.” He let down his hair and slowly placed his hand on the red-eyed woman’s head.

"Crackling sounds..." The immense force in her hands caused the red-eyed woman's body to emit a series of eerie bone-grinding sounds. She involuntarily knelt down, trembling in pain.

"And it's also because every generation of the Ren family carries a boundless hatred for people like you who willingly degenerate..." Ren Doutang said through gritted teeth, his eyes fixed on the monster kneeling in front of him, every scar on his body slowly filling with light.

His voice began to sound weathered, becoming not just his own voice, but also that of many other voices, some old and some young, speaking alongside him.

"I am a walking tomb, the nemesis of evil spirits, the nightmare of monsters, the epitome of all spirit tablets, do you understand?"

"I am the new Mr. Ren."

He pressed his palm down, and the red-eyed woman's body shattered into dust before him. Then, the hideous-looking man turned around and looked into the void.

Huaiyin was suddenly frozen in place by the overwhelming fear, because she suddenly realized that she had met his gaze.

My eyes met those of Ren Doutang from my dream?!

Chapter 59 Kicking down the door at the slightest disagreement!

Huaiyin woke up with a start and sat up abruptly.

She then discovered that she and Dou Tang were covered with a blanket.

She was still in shock, and Ren Doutang's cold yet somewhat surprised gaze made her feel like she was doing something wrong.