After the secret marriage to my top star partner

Chapter 35

Editor: Princess

Cheng Han walked with large, confident strides, completely different from Mu Nan’s crouching edge-hugging style. He walked with such imposing dignity that he might as well have been carrying a megaphone announcing their arrival to the butcher.

Mu Nan tugged at him from behind: “Hey, aren’t you being a bit too bold?”

Without turning his head, Cheng Han said, “I’ll lure him away. You take the chance to rescue her.”

“Huh?” Mu Nan was stunned, but Cheng Han had already walked ahead.

Duan Shi was more fortunate, as she wasn’t locked in the basement but tied to a chair outside. Above her head was a large countdown timer, its numbers ticking away.

Cheng Han walked straight toward her with great fanfare, as if seeing through the butcher’s “body-guarding” strategy. He walked directly toward the butcher, intending to rescue Duan Shi.

But this was blatant provocation. With someone right under his nose, the butcher would be failing his duty if he didn’t act.

He raised his bone saw to strike Cheng Han, but Cheng Han suddenly came to an abrupt halt and nimbly turned to run back.

The butcher subconsciously gave chase, but then remembered the person tied to the chair and returned.

Seeing the butcher return, Cheng Han boldly came back to attempt the rescue again.

This repeated three times, while Mu Nan, hidden in the tall grass, had already crept behind Duan Shi. He was growing anxious, because in this back-and-forth, Cheng Han’s stamina was being depleted.

As for the butcher, although nobody knew who the high-level player behind the mask was, his athletic stamina allowed him to chase six people without any decrease in speed.

In his anxious state, Mu Nan finally got his chance. During a new attempt by the butcher to chase Cheng Han, a sudden explosion boomed from nearby, startling everyone due to its proximity.

In that momentary distraction, Mu Nan acted decisively. He rushed to the back of the chair in three quick steps, grabbed a rope end he had already spotted, and pulled hard.

The rope binding Duan Shi’s hands came loose. Mu Nan grabbed her and ran away without looking back.

But they ran straight toward Cui Zhixing, who was struggling at a question station. Seeing them run toward him, his face showed both surprise and fear.

“Why did you come here?” He hesitated, torn between quickly running away or staying to finish the questions.

Mu Nan glanced at the sign: “Music Questions”. This was his area of expertise. He l stepped up to the screen hurriedly: “I’ll answer these. Help Duan Shi.”

“Oh.” Cui Zhixing hesitated but agreed and began unlocking Duan Shi’s ankle shackles.

These music questions were child’s play for Mu Nan.

How many beats does an eighth-note rest equal? Which of the following is a composition by Wolfgang Mozart? What is the mode and key of the following melody?…

In less than three minutes, Mu Nan had completed all the questions, and by then, Duan Shi’s shackles had just been removed.

“Thank you both so much.” Duan Shi said, still shaken. “We originally wanted to rescue Sister Du Ling, but everyone got injured.”

As she spoke, she reciprocated by helping unlock Cui Zhixing’s shackles.

But having completed the questions, Mu Nan was eager to leave: “I’m going to find Cheng Han. He’s all alone.”

“Where’s Sister Qian Qian?” Duan Shi suddenly asked.

Yes, where was Ai Qian Qian? Mu Nan realized that from the beginning until now, he hadn’t seen Ai Qian Qian once, nor heard any news about her.

All he knew was that she was still alive. Mu Nan had no energy to think about her.

“You two hurry and answer the questions. I’ll go find Cheng Han first.”

But after walking back about ten meters, Mu Nan suddenly realized something. Why couldn’t he control his own legs? Hadn’t he decided to stay away from Cheng Han? Why was he now going to find him?

Mu Nan came to an abrupt halt, standing in the middle of the path, his face conflicted.

His camera crew and the director were confused, seeing him standing motionless in the middle of the path, not knowing what he was trying to do.

Actually, Mu Nan wasn’t thinking that deeply. He was simply conflicted. He had already announced he was going to find Cheng Han, but then remembered his determination to keep his distance. If he went to find him, he would feel guilty about breaking his own resolution, but if he didn’t go, he would feel bad in front of the audience.

Why had he dug himself into such a deep hole?

Suddenly, he heard the butcher’s heavy footsteps in the distance. He quickly snapped back to reality, took the GoPro from the director, and hid in a nearby locker, telling the cameraman and director to hide elsewhere.

However the moment he opened the locker door, he was face-to-face with someone.

In that instant, Mu Nan’s heart nearly stopped from fright. He stumbled and almost fell backward.

But the person in the locker covered his mouth with one hand and pulled him into the locker with the other.

Then the door slammed shut, and everything went dark.

“Shh.” Cheng Han’s deep voice sounded by his ear. “Don’t make a sound.”

“It’s you!” Mu Nan pulled his hand away, carefully turning to face Cheng Han in the cramped locker.

“What are you doing here?” Mu Nan asked in surprise.

Cheng Han didn’t answer, just looked at him silently. He first turned off his own chest microphone, then turned off Mu Nan’s.

At this distance, even with just a sliver of light coming through the crack, they could clearly see each other’s eyes.

Mu Nan saw that Cheng Han’s gaze was both ice-cold and burning hot.

Such contradictory feelings appearing simultaneously in one person’s eyes didn’t seem strange to Mu Nan.

—He had never carefully observed Cheng Han’s eyes before.

Cheng Han’s grandmother was European. She married his grandfather but died early, so Cheng Han never met her. But genes worked in mysterious ways. Cheng Han’s mixed-race mother didn’t show many European features on her face, but Cheng Han inherited quite a few.

Skin so white it was almost transparent, a high bridge of the nose and prominent brow bone, lips as thin as a line.

The shadow cast by his brow bone always shrouded his gaze in mystery. No one could see through him, no one knew what he was thinking.

But the more Mu Nan tried to penetrate that thin mist, the more intently he looked. And the more intently he looked, the closer he got.

The locker in the scene was designed for one person, but now two grown men stood shoulder to shoulder, making it extremely cramped. Mu Nan only had to move slightly to touch Cheng Han’s skin.

They were both sweating profusely. The perspiration was carried away by the evening breeze, taking with it the surface temperature of their skin. Mu Nan’s forearm touched Cheng Han’s skin, which felt cool, pleasantly cool.

Because of this comfort, he didn’t immediately move his arm away.

But at this moment, Cheng Han said in a low voice: “You’ve been avoiding me.”

It wasn’t a question or an accusation, just a simple statement. Yet it made Mu Nan’s heart skip a beat.

“I… I haven’t.” Mu Nan hurriedly looked away, but then felt that made him look guilty, so he raised his face to look back.

After all the scrambling around, Mu Nan was somewhat disheveled, like a little cat with a dirty face.

The corner of Cheng Han’s mouth twitched slightly upward. In the narrow space between their bodies, he raised his hand and wiped away a smudge of dirt from Mu Nan’s forehead.

Seeing him suddenly raise his hand, Mu Nan froze on the spot. He even forgot to move, just staring blankly as Cheng Han’s hand came toward him and landed on his face.

Only after Cheng Han had wiped the dirt from his forehead and withdrawn his hand did Mu Nan ask stupidly: “Why did you touch me?”

Any romantically charged atmosphere was broken by Mu Nan’s question. Even someone as capable as Cheng Han could only smile helplessly.

“So, why have you been avoiding me?” Cheng Han asked again.

Seeing that Cheng Han had raised this topic again and seemed impossible to avoid, Mu Nan racked his brain and stammered: “I… I was embarrassed to see you. I distanced myself from you because of what others said…”

These words sounded unconvincing even to himself that he swallowed nervously.

Cheng Han certainly didn’t believe him either, but kindly didn’t expose the lie, he just looked at him with a smile. But this smile showed he saw through everything, and to Mu Nan, it was a kind of silent pressure.

Just as Mu Nan was about to crack under this pressure, he heard Cheng Han say: “I don’t blame you.”

“Huh?” Mu Nan was stunned.

“When have I ever blamed you?”

Mu Nan felt relief at first, but then immediately realized something was wrong.

His guilt toward Cheng Han was just an excuse he made up to distance himself; the real reason was unspeakable. But now Cheng Han said he didn’t blame him, which meant he had no excuse not to interact with Cheng Han anymore.

When Mu Nan finally caught on and looked back at Cheng Han’s eyes, he finally noticed the barely perceptible mischief in them.

“You!” Mu Nan raised his hand to hit him. But the locker was too small, and Cheng Han easily caught his wrist.

Unlike the coolness of his skin, Cheng Han’s palm was burning hot. The heat traveled from Mu Nan’s wrist all the way to his chest, making his breathing quicken.

Cheng Han’s hand moved, pulling Mu Nan’s hand closer to himself, though its destination was unclear.

This brought Mu Nan even closer to him. Mu Nan tried to convince himself it was because the locker was too small. But under this gradual encroachment, even their feet were now standing interlaced.

Suddenly, with a creaking sound, the locker door was pulled open, and the harsh searchlight from the night shone directly in. Mu Nan instinctively shielded his eyes from the blinding light.

Not good, his heart sank. It seemed the butcher had found them.

But when his eyes adjusted to the bright light, he heard a woman’s voice: “So you two have been hiding in here all along?”

This affected voice made Mu Nan frown. It was Ai Qian Qian, who had been missing the entire time.

Her accusatory statement almost made Mu Nan laugh with anger. It was more likely that she had been hiding in various places, contributing nothing. Now when she tried to hide here and happened to find them, she was turning the tables.

So she simply accused them of being the ones who had been hiding all along.

Mu Nan took a deep breath, calming his emotions that had been disturbed by Cheng Han. Then looking at Ai Qian Qian with a confused expression, as if he didn’t understand her words, he said: “Not all along. Cheng Han and I each solved a question station and rescued Duan Shi. What about you? Why haven’t we heard anything from you?”

Ai Qian Qian had been dodging around the whole time, so of course there was no news about her. She knew Mu Nan was doing this on purpose but couldn’t refute him.

“I wanted to contribute too, but I just couldn’t find an opportunity.” She said rather shamelessly.

Cheng Han, who had been silent all this time, gave her a cold sideways glance: “You hiding well is your biggest contribution to us.”

Cheng Han and Mu Nan left to find a new question station. Ai Qian Qian hid in the locker, listening to the butcher’s footsteps outside. Once again, she escaped capture.

Just then, her foot moved and suddenly kicked something hard.

“What’s this?” She crouched down to look, and found a discarded GoPro camera.

Before her, in this locker, there had been…

She peered through the crack of the locker, but Cheng Han and Mu Nan were already out of sight.

Gritting her teeth, she removed the memory card from the camera hurriedly, and clutched it tightly in her palm.