The Great Worm Lich

“Even though an ice hockey game is simple and boring, it’s still a man’s sport after all. Do I have any choice?” Randy asked with a shrug and said with ardor, “Let’s go, brothers and sisters, let’s go to Winter Fantasy!”

 “Hooray!” The young people full of energy in the house got excited and responded aloud. They hurriedly left the mansion and drove three cars out of the courtyard heading towards the new New York C.

 The car tires spun rapidly on the hot concrete road and soon came to the enormous circular archway leading to the dream-like snow kingdom.

 Zhang Lisheng, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, watched the excited crowd in front of the door and became the first who got out of the car as he walked out silently.

 The cost of creating snow in the hot desert was very high. Just one ticket for the ski resort already cost 95 dollars. Most of the people who came to the excursion together would share the cost according to the Westerner’s habits on Earth.

 In the driver’s seat, Joey family’s second son, Robert, who had a height of over 195 centimeters, a height that was rare among Chinese, glanced at his cousin, who had been silent all the way whom he had just got to know, from the rear-view mirror and pulled out his wallet from his pocket before taking out a hundred dollar bill to give to Randy who was next to him. Casually, he said, “Looks like my new cousin is very introverted. Alright, Randy, I’ll go park the car in the parking lot. Can you help me buy a ticket and a cup of ice coffee? ”

 “Can I say no, Robert?” Randy took the bill and joked. Patting Robert’s shoulder, he said with a strange expression, “You’ll find that your new cousin is not as simple as introverted after you get to know him for a long time.”

 Then, he opened the car door and leaped out of the car.

 Robert, who remained in the car, curled his lips in confusion. He did not overthink it and followed behind Beau’s car as he honked and drove as slow as a snail with great difficulty to the lane leading to the parking lot before finally parking his car.

 As he breathed a sigh of relief and was about to greet his brother and Lavin family’s youngest son, his eyes lit up right away. With a wave of his hand, he shouted, “Hi, Amy, Anderina, Hoover! What a coincidence that I’d run into you guys here! Are you guys going to the ski resort with your friends too?”

 “Oh, it’s you, Robert! Aha, and Beau too! We’re here in the parking lot of the Winter Fantasy, so of course, we’re here to ski! Did you come here to New York C for Christmas again?” In the parking lot not far away, an Asian girl shading the blinding sunlight from her face with her hand among the group of six to seven people of different skin color coming down from two SUVs looked at Robert carefully before beckoning loudly.

 “That’s right! Our family just arrived at my grandpa’s house yesterday. I’m here to watch the ice hockey game, and I didn’t expect to meet my old friends here!” Robbert said with a smile and shrug.

 

“Ice hockey game? You mean, the game between New York Lightning Panthers and Chicago Evil Red Dragon? Don’t tell me that you’ve managed to buy the tickets? Even locals like us can’t get our hands on it at all!” The girl said in surprise.

 “No, we didn’t,” Robert shook his head in disappointment. “We plan to try our luck with the scalpers.”

 “Robert, this is the last game before Christmas, and it’s also the game that determines the fate of the New York Lightning Panthers. Do you know how high the price will go if you buy the scalped tickets? Besides, you’re not guaranteed to have one anyway, so why don’t you just follow us skiing instead?” The Asian girl said with a smile.

 When his words left his mouth, a young man with chocolate complexion and handsome face standing beside her wiped the sweat on his forehead and said, “Amy, are you going to just stand and talk in the sun all the time?”

 “Oh, I’m sorry, Bill. Let me introduce you first. This is my friend Robert and Beau, whom Anjuelie, Hoover, and I met in the cafe last year…” The girl showed an apologetic expression to the young black man and started to introduce the Joey brothers. Robert also introduced Harry to their new friends. After getting to know each other, the group of people walked under the sun towards the ticket office of the Winter Fantasy Ski Resort.

 Randy had not managed to buy the ticket yet within the short span of the car being parked. After walking towards the snake-like curved queue and introducing each other to their friends, Robert narrowed his eyes and looked up at the sun. “The sunlight today is really strong! Why don’t we go somewhere shady for a drink and let this lovely Randy bro buy the ticket all by himself? He’s a police officer from New Washington A on a mission to serve federal citizens. ”

 “Serving federal citizens doesn’t include buying tickets for ski resorts…” Randy was immediately annoyed when he heard so. However, when he saw the disappointment in the eyes of the beautiful girls drenched with sweats around him, his momentum weakened right away. “Well, of course, the ladies can go under the shade. As a gentleman…”

 “A gentlemanly police officer shouldn’t be sexist!” Robert interrupted the words of the Lavin family’s second son and made a gesture to collect the money from Amy and others before handing it over to Randy. “Do you still remember? It was me who queued in the line to buy the tickets when we came to this Winter Fantasy Ski Resort two years back. Isn’t it fair that it’s your turn this year?”

 “Humph! You… You’re really…” Randy was rendered speechless, so he took the money and watched the others wave their hands with a smile as they went to stand under a canopy beside the fence of the ski slope in the distance.

 As long as there were one or two young people with a cheerful and humorous personality becoming the ‘blender’ in a group of unfamiliar young people, it would be effortless for them to warm up to each other in a short time. Robert and Harry were precisely these kinds of happy-go-lucky people. While they were waiting, both of them threw up some interesting topics and caused everybody to laugh out loud. At once, the strangeness between them reduced a lot.

 While they were discussing the sensational new work of the nation’s most famous comedy star, Jim Carrey, Zhang Lisheng also laughed out loud, but he suddenly heard somebody whispering to him. “Stop laughing, can you? Don’t you know that your laugh is bizarre and is not sincere at all?”

 “What?” Zhang Lisheng was taken aback. He asked in bewilderment and looked in the direction of the voice at the yellow-skinned girl who did not differ from him too much since she had short hair with a valiant bearing. However, her delicate facial features would never make people misunderstand her gender.

 “I said that your smile seemed to be forced out of your face. It doesn’t look like it comes from your heart at all, so you might as well stop smiling.” The girl said with a shrug.

 “Is that so?” Thinking that it was just a boring pickup line, Zhang Lisheng no longer said anything and merely answered three words out of politeness. Turning his head away, he no longer said any word.

 Over ten seconds later, the short-haired girl who had been watching the young man’s side face suddenly burst into a chuckle abruptly and said, “Is pretending to be cool your trick to attract girls? What an old-fashioned move!”

 

“I’m not as boring as you think,” Zhang Lisheng remained silent for a while and suddenly felt an inexplicable desire to pour out his heart’s content, so he blurted out, “I’ve been thinking about my girlfriend since this morning…”

 He stopped himself from continuing before he could continue.

 “What a coincidence! You were thinking about your girlfriend since this morning while I was thinking about my ex-boyfriend these few days. You look a lot like him, not in terms of appearance but temperament. He often puts on a smiling face quietly when everybody is happy, but in actual fact, he doesn’t feel like smiling,” A cursory sad look flashed across the girl’s face as she asked. “That’s right, where’s your girlfriend? Did she not follow you to new New York C? Don’t tell me the two of you have broken up too?”

 “We didn’t break up. I did something wrong and thought that she went into hiding because she no longer wants to see me, but it turned out that it’s not like this…” Zhang Lisheng could not help but say.

 “Went into hiding because she no longer wants to see you? Ha! It’s a breakup if you two haven’t contacted each other for more than two weeks,” The short-haired girl asked with curiosity as she curled her lips. “What did you do?”

 “Aren’t you sad because of your recent breakup? Why do you still have the mood to ask so many questions?” Zhang Lisheng asked with a frown.

 “It’s because of the sadness of breaking up that I want to talk to people. I don’t want to be alone all by myself. Haven’t you ever felt this way? Like, want to keep talking nonstop forever ’cause only then you’d feel less pain?” The girl smiled. The instant her words left her mouth, Zhang Lisheng, who was next to her, immediately saw Randy, who was drenched in sweats walking towards them, holding a stack of tickets and panting heavily.

 “I rarely feel sad, and when I do, I prefer to be alone, so I can’t understand your feelings. Go talk to someone else then,” The young man shrugged and whispered in the girl’s ears before walking to Randy and saying, “What the hell, man? It’s so hot that I’m on the verge of getting a heat stroke now. It’s already winter now, yet the temperature is still so high! The desert of the Noah World is really terrifying. Get your ticket now, guys. Let us enter the ski resort right away. I’m going crazy with anxiety now thinking about the cooling snow!”

 Then, he took an admission ticket from the police officer and walked towards the massive arch of Winter Fantasy.

 That short-haired girl followed behind Zhang Lisheng and took the entrance ticket from Randy while talking continuously, “All I hear is a consolation when I’m talking to the others or them telling me to cry out loud, but I really just want nothing more than to chat. Besides, both of us have just broken up, so we can understand each other better, and that’s why you’re the best person with whom I can chat with. Don’t be so cold. We’re friends already, aren’t we?”

 She also walked towards the entrance of the ski resort.

 In the modern society in which love had become fast food, it was not surprising for two people of the opposite sex who had just broken up a few days ago to hit off immediately and became a new couple.

 Upon seeing the black-haired young man and woman who were walking away, one front and one back, Amy’s eyes widened in astonishment as she smiled in pleasant surprise. She ran to Robert and asked, “Robert, is your cousin a likable person? Look, he has become so close to Eleanor in such a short time! Here I thought it would take at least a few months for my sister to get out of her sadness!”

 “Even though he’s my cousin, I only met this guy today, so I don’t know anything about him. Then again, he doesn’t strike me as a likable fella,” Robert shrugged.

 “That’s true. Eleanor has always liked eccentric fellas anyway, but your cousin looks very healthy and outgoing. Oh yeah, why are you not familiar with your cousin, isn’t that strange?”

 “That’s because of my aunt …” Robert explained to the best of his knowledge but did not notice that several frisbee-shaped armed helicopters had quietly flown from the distance and had begun to circle continuously several kilometers above his head.