ICSST Ch1: Setting Sail [Arc 1]

In an unremarkable little house, a woman’s impatient voice kept emerging.

“Auntie Wang introduced you to so many nice girls; how come you haven’t liked any of them?”

The speaking woman narrowed her eyes dangerously. “You’re not planning on being fashionable and staying single, are you?”

Her slightly curly hair moved mysteriously even when there was no wind, like wriggling little snakes.

Zhou Qi’an didn’t know how he could have come up with such a terrifying comparison for the mother who had raised him, but he forced a smile. “How could that be?”

Mother Zhou was getting a bit impatient. “So, what kind of girl do you want?”

Zhou Qi’an openly spread his hands and said, “Someone who can handle both the parlor and the kitchen; no matter how late I come back, she can cook for me; she must be hardworking without complaint, selflessly dedicated, and never ask about my relationships with others, even if they’re ambiguous.”

Just then, his boss called. Zhou Qi’an answered immediately, sounding ingratiating: “Hello, boss…”

“The client still prefers the first version of the proposal. To be safe, make another version over the weekend and send it on Monday to show our utmost sincerity. That way, they won’t have any grounds for complaints…”

Zhou Qi’an agreed repeatedly. After finally ending the call with his boss, he continued talking to his mother. “In short, if you can find someone who meets those conditions, I’ll marry her immediately.”

After speaking, he didn’t wait for his mother’s response and turned to go back to his room.

Once inside, Zhou Qi’an let out a long sigh of relief.

If a normal girl heard these demands, it would be good if she didn’t explode her own head. How could she still come for a blind date?

With such a scumbag speech, he should be able to get some peace for a while.

Zhou Qi’an was indeed a non-marriage believer. His mother had sensed it before, but both of them tacitly avoided the topic.

But everything changed after a heavy fog three years ago; those originally tiny hopes were magnified into obsessions. Once you went against these people’s obsessions…

Zhou Qi’an couldn’t help but shiver, trying not to let certain memories surface.

Fortunately, based on his observations, only a very few people were like this. Most citizens were still normal.

At night, Zhou Qi’an worked overtime on the proposal. Around one o’clock in the morning, there was a knock on his door.

His mother came in with a cup of hot milk, smiling. “Working late must be tough.”

Zhou Qi’an had just picked up the cup of milk.

“I’ve found the ideal partner for you.”

“Cough, cough…” Zhou Qi’an almost choked. He instinctively checked the time; it had been less than five hours.

Mother Zhou said, “Get some rest. Find some time to get married tomorrow.”

She said it as casually as a boss asking for weekend overtime.

Zhou Qi’an was about to speak, but his mother gently interrupted: “The other party has no objections. Let’s just hold the banquet and collect all the gifts we’ve given over the years.”

“Marriage isn’t child’s play…”

At this moment, Auntie Wang, his mother’s good friend who lived downstairs and often chatted with her late into the night, walked into the room.

Auntie Wang looked at Zhou Qi’an and hinted: “Qi’an, getting married early will fulfill your mother’s greatest wish.”

Zhou Qi’an instantly understood the hint.

Once married, his mother’s obsession might be resolved, and she might return to normal.

As long as they didn’t get an official certificate, he could talk to the girl and see if he could hire her to perform for the day.

With this thought, Zhou Qi’an agreed to this absurd marriage.

Before going to bed, he couldn’t help but wonder which girl was out of her mind, agreeing to marry him after hearing his demands.

·

The groom was told about the wedding the night before, and all the guests received electronic invitations around two in the morning. The bride… Zhou Qi’an hadn’t even seen her by the time he arrived at the hotel the next day.

Calling it a hotel was generous; it was more of a large restaurant, with neither the decor nor the facilities matching a hotel’s scale.

“Could there be a more hasty wedding?”

In an old, small room, Zhou Qi’an, dressed in a dark, crisp suit, muttered to himself.

The mirror reflected a slightly resigned face.

The young man had brows like distant mountains and long, silver-blue hair. This hair color might look strange on most people, but his pale, thin frame suited it well.

His eyes were the highlight; upon closer inspection, his pupils seemed to have a faint layer of frost, giving him a detached, otherworldly air.

“Qi’an, hurry up; the wedding’s about to start.” A voice urged him from outside the door.

Zhou Qi’an sighed, tied his hair with a band, used a wig to cover the odd silver-blue color, and finally put on thick glasses.

The fake bangs were long, almost covering one eyebrow, and his thick lashes habitually drooped, making him look perpetually tired.

The demonic youth was instantly transformed into a humble office worker.

Zhou Qi’an tried smiling harmlessly at the mirror.

Since that heavy fog three years ago, he hadn’t changed completely; for instance, his hair often grew crazily and changed color. Zhou Qi’an had once disguised himself to get a medical checkup, but the report showed all indicators were normal, so he could only attribute it to a postnatal mutation.

“Mom.” Zhou Qi’an opened the door, smiling standardly. “Isn’t it a bit early?”

Who gets married at seven in the morning?

This wasn’t just eagerness; it was like chasing the wind.

“I specifically asked someone to pick this time.”

Zhou Qi’an’s mouth twitched.

Looking on the bright side, marriage wasn’t all bad. At least he could take some wedding leave; he hadn’t had a vacation in three years.

He even sent an electronic invitation to his boss, tactfully suggesting that the boss didn’t need to come but the gift money and leave would be appreciated.

Sheep’s wool comes from its own back, after all; he might as well get something back.

“Is the bride ready?” Zhou Qi’an asked.

His mother had previously mentioned that the bride was a bit shy and didn’t need him to pick her up.

“Of course,” his mother said. “I personally helped with the makeup.”

She led Zhou Qi’an downstairs.

Three minutes later, Zhou Qi’an stood in the banquet hall, facing a hotel pillar with peeling paint that revealed gray-white plaster. A few lazy waiters were arranging tables and chairs. Nearby, Auntie Wang sat at a small table, handling the gift money.

With an hour left before the wedding, there were hardly any guests. Only a colleague who had just finished a night shift came over with dark circles to congratulate him.

“Congratulations on your wedding. Where’s the bride?” The colleague looked around.

Good question.

Zhou Qi’an wanted to ask the same, so he looked at his mother with the same curiosity.

His mother said, “On the table.”

There were only some meat snacks and other tidbits on the table. Zhou Qi’an and his colleague shivered, the colleague waking up instantly from the shock.

His mother pointed to the front round table.

All the wedding chairs had white gauze bows, so initially, he didn’t think much of the object tied with white gauze. Now, he noticed there was a rice cooker wearing a wedding dress on the front table.

Incongruous and ridiculous.

His colleague was speechless. Who brings a rice cooker to a wedding table?

Zhou Qi’an’s expression changed several times, as if realizing something. He struggled to speak: “Mom, that can’t be…”

His mother nodded. “The bride.”

Zhou Qi’an’s face shifted. “Are you joking?”

His mother suddenly became serious, repeating his words from last night: “Marriage isn’t a child’s play.”

“But you can’t marry a rice cooker!”

Mother Zhou said calmly, “You wouldn’t be the first person in the world to marry a rice cooker, not even in the top three. Our house mortgage won’t be paid off for another thirty years, and with all your demands, who else could meet them but the rice cooker?”

Zhou Qi’an argued, “It’s a rice cooker, and I’m a human.”

“So what?”

“…”

Her self-righteousness made his colleague gulp.

Mother Zhou’s gaze turned sharp. “Young man, don’t drool over someone else’s bride.”

Colleague: “S-sorry.”

After a few words of advice, Mother Zhou went to greet more guests. The colleague tugged on Zhou Qi’an’s sleeve and immediately said, “If your boss sees your bride, it’s all over.”

It looked like a farce, and the boss would end up wasting money on a gift for a joke.

The two employees first considered their boss’s reaction.

Zhou Qi’an looked at the rice cooker with two red blushes painted on it, and his eyelid twitched. “The boss probably won’t come.”

Colleague: “…But I see his step count is increasing.”

He was on his way.

Having worked in the service industry for a long time, the colleague had seen almost everything but ghosts. He calmly suggested, “Why don’t you elope with your ‘bride’ first?”

“…” Elope with his own bride at his own wedding, now that’s a genius idea.

At this moment, a few more guests arrived, and while giving their gift money, they chatted with Aunt Wang about the bride.

“Why aren’t there any photos outside?”

“Old Wang, didn’t you say at the beginning of the year that Qi’an didn’t have a girlfriend?”

“She must be so beautiful to have made such a steady child rush into marriage.”

Aunt Wang, feeling guilty, said, “Beautiful might be an overstatement, but she’s great at cooking.”

“Wow, that’s impressive! Many young people don’t cook nowadays.”

“…” Zhou Qi’an finally walked silently to the rice cooker. “Maybe eloping isn’t a bad idea.”

If word got out, it would only be about a disappearance at the wedding. That was better than walking on stage holding a rice cooker and bending down to put a ring on its cord.

As for his mother’s “illness,” Zhou Qi’an figured there was no cure.

She hadn’t just crossed genders; she’d crossed species. Such an obsession definitely couldn’t be fixed by just getting married.

Just as Zhou Qi’an was considering how to secretly take the rice cooker and leave, a faint fishy smell wafted in from the window, the unique stench of a seafood market making him almost gag.

This hotel’s hygiene was terrible.

His colleague suddenly stood straight and motionless, looking out the window in surprise. “It’s foggy.”

Zhou Qi’an also looked up.

It wasn’t a normal color fog. The air seemed to contain some special fluorescent agent, giving it an unnaturally bright glow.

Because the smell was so bad, the waiter quickly went to close the window.

However, the fog rolled in faster than the waiter’s speed.

In an instant, the entire banquet hall was enveloped in a white mist.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know; can someone turn on the light?”

“What’s the point of turning on the light?”

At first, Zhou Qi’an could still hear people anxiously asking what was happening, but then those voices eerily disappeared.

The world became frighteningly silent.

He felt like a night-blind person groping through the fog. Gradually, he couldn’t even touch the tables and chairs. The fog almost completely enveloped him, and the more he walked, the more he felt a sense of weightlessness.

Something even more absurd than marrying a rice cooker had happened—getting lost at his own wedding banquet.

After stumbling for an unknown amount of time, the fog finally cleared a bit. Zhou Qi’an breathed a sigh of relief and tentatively called out, “Mom, Aunt Wang… where are you…”

“Mom—”

Not long after calling his mother a second time, a voice suddenly came from above:

“Whose mom? I’m male.”

A huge rabbit face appeared in front of him.

Zhou Qi’an was so startled that he nearly fell. He bit his tongue to stay clear-headed, squinting, trying to see through the thick fog at the creature that had appeared.

Before him stood a man in a suit with a rabbit’s head, standing over two meters tall. After bending down to look at Zhou Qi’an for a few seconds, it grinned: “Look, the last lucky player has arrived.”

As it spoke, the fog completely dissipated.

Zhou Qi’an’s first thought—a quirky rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

But reality was clearly not a fairy tale.

Besides the odd rabbit-headed person, there were five others here, not counting him. 

Three looked calm, while one sat on the ground and another tried hard not to shake.

“Hey, look, no big reaction. Is the last newcomer scared stiff, or just that calm?”

Following the voice, Zhou Qi’an saw that it was one of the calm people speaking. According to the strange rabbit, they could be called players.

The rabbit hopped to the center of the area and bowed gracefully. “This instance has three new players and three veteran players.”

“As a qualified veteran, I will first explain the content to the new players. First, let me introduce myself. You can call me Mr. Si.”

“Don’t worry, all the instances I participate in are joyous!”

It comically spread its noodle-like thin arms wide. “I am committed to creating joy for everyone.”

“There are many instance staff members like me, but each has different focuses…”

“Some of my colleagues are keen on joy, some on sorrow, and some… only on the aesthetics of violence… They will keep upgrading the difficulty of the instances.”

Zhou Qi’an listened quietly, summarizing from Mr. Si’s exaggerated tone:

First, he had been chosen to participate in a game.

Second, all instances would be accompanied by a staff member.

The themes of the instances could be summarized as sad, happy, alternating, and escalating.

“You came in during the hour of the rabbit, so I’m in charge.”

The theme element of the instance depended on the time the players entered.

Players entering during the hours of the rat, ox, and tiger would participate in primarily sad-themed instances, while those entering during the hours of the rabbit, dragon, and snake would have the opposite. Players entering during the hours of the horse, goat, or monkey would experience a mix of sad and happy themes.

The first nine hours were manageable; sadness and joy were not fixed. But if someone entered during the hours of the rooster, dog, or pig, they were in for bad luck, as the instance difficulty would increase by one level.

The twelve double-hour periods of a day were represented in the game as “Heaven (天)”.

Zhou Qi’an’s mouth twitched; he knew getting married at seven in the morning wasn’t reliable!

The auspicious time had indeed arrived.

The strange rabbit’s big red eyes swept over the three new players. “Being selected to come here proves that you all have the qualifications. It is also your honor.”

The latter part of the sentence was debatable, but the first part was true.

Normal people suddenly appearing in such an unfamiliar place might easily panic and even collapse if they were slightly timid. But at least the three new players managed to remain relatively calm.

Mr. Si said with a smile, “Newcomers will all receive a big gift pack!”

When he said this, Zhou Qi’an keenly noticed that the expressions of the veteran players changed slightly. Some had sarcastic smiles, some were gloating, and some were just watching the show.

Among them were a pair of siblings. The sister was tying her hair and whispered, “Brother, there are so many newcomers in this instance. That’s great.”

All the veteran players knew what “that’s great” implied. When necessary, they could push the newcomers out to take the hits.

Using newcomers as shields has always been effective.

Mr. Si bent down again, his thin arms gathering the three new players together. “The next choice will directly affect how many newcomer benefits you receive. Remember, you must give something to get something.”

He then shifted his tone. “There are three great joys in life: meeting an old friend in a distant land, the wedding night, and passing the imperial examination… All of you have recently been experiencing one of the happiest moments of your lives.”

He turned to the middle-aged man. “If you were to give up an old friend…”

The middle-aged man’s face changed. Mr. Si then looked at the soon-to-be college student and said, “If you were to sacrifice your mentor…”

The soon-to-be college student clenched his fists tightly.

Finally, Mr. Si looked at Zhou Qi’an and said, “If you were to kill your bride…”

“I would.”

Before even hearing what the choice would bring, Zhou Qi’an answered immediately.

Mr. Si was taken aback, and even the veteran players looked over.

Zhou Qi’an, as serious as if exchanging wedding vows in front of a priest, repeated himself when he didn’t get an immediate response.

“Not just kill; I could dismember her too.”

The soon-to-be college student and the middle-aged man, probably never having seen someone so ruthless, were stunned, their jaws dropping.