Reborn as the Henchman Who Protects the Villain novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: The Asking
Duan Linxiao had heard the thing under the floor breathe every night for three hundred years.
It had never spoken.
It had never once said a word, and now it had said one, and it had not said it to him.
"Reader," it had called, in a voice of rain on stone.
Shi Wen had stopped on the stair with his hand in Duan's, and every muscle in his arm had gone tight.
"It knows," he said. His voice was small.
"It knows what you are," said Duan.
"It said Reader," said Shi Wen.
"I heard it," said Duan.
"How can it."
"Later," said Duan. "Keep walking."
They went down.
The stair turned and turned in black stone.
The silver light grew with every turn until Duan could see the grain of the wall.
At the last turn there was a landing.
He had seen it before, many times, on the few nights he went down to stand at the edge of the dark.
A shallow niche was cut into the wall on either side of the stair.
In each niche stood a lamp of black stone, round and plain, no taller than a man's hand.
The left lamp burned with a low silver flame that had never gone out in his lifetime.
The right was dry and dark, and thick with dust.
Below the landing the stair ended in a door of black stone, shut.
Fists were beating on the other side of it, and a voice he knew was telling someone to be patient.
Duan had always thought the lamps were a decoration.
Now Gu Yan's words stood in his head, bright and plain.
A lamp for two hands.
He stopped.
Shi Wen stopped with him, and looked at the two lamps, and then at the door, and then up.
"That's what it means," said Shi Wen, softly.
"Yes. The Gate opens to two lamps. His stair brought him to a door that only the bearers can open."
"The second one is for me."
"It is for whoever chooses to carry it," said Duan.
His hand tightened on Shi Wen's, and he made himself turn and look him in the face, in the pale moving light.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Reborn as the Henchman Who Protects the Villain are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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