When the dancers gathered, the merchant's face turned green when he saw that Lu Xiaoyao was missing. How could one be missing?

"It's alright, His Majesty won't notice the difference."

Some of the dancers were already comforting the merchant, seemingly trying to say that their group was fine and that the loss of one person wouldn't affect the overall situation.

As Lu Gui watched the dancers cheering on the merchant, he felt a lump in his throat.

That was the laxative he wanted to give to stop these dancers and merchants from blindly throwing their lives away. Who knew that when he went out for some fresh air under some pretext in the evening, Lu Xiaoyao had eaten it all.

A serving of snacks for more than ten people!

That's enough for more than ten people!

He wanted to speak, but he didn't dare.

After all, what he did was not ethical.

Originally, his output wasn't much; at most, he'd have to go to the toilet a few more times. But...

Lu Xiaoyao did everything by herself, and Lu Gui was no longer sure what was going on.

His sister won't die from dehydration, will she?

If Lu Gui were to die from diarrhea, he would suddenly start thinking about how to cheer Lu Xiaoyao up again.

Such an undignified way to die is something that anyone would laugh at!

...

Julian, who had just met with Lu Gui that afternoon, also looked towards the dancers waiting outside the banquet. However, he was stunned by what he saw.

Didn't they give me a laxative?

That's right, the medicine in Lu Gui's hand was provided by Julian.

According to their thinking, there shouldn't be many dancers present tonight.

But now, why are there so many dancers?

What made his eyelids twitch the most was that his girlfriend wasn't among this huge crowd!

Just then, Lu Gui and Julian's eyes met unconsciously in the air. Immediately afterwards, for some reason, a sense of guilt arose in their hearts, and they tacitly looked away from each other.

Lu Gui: I didn't drug Lu Xiaoyao on purpose.

Julian: I never expected this medicine to be for Lu Xiaoyao.

"Hey, what are you looking at?"

Seeing Julian constantly looking outside, Madison noticed that the NPCs behind him were completely drawn to Julian's actions.

So he stretched out his arm and called Julian back to his senses.

"Ah, it's nothing, I was just watching the dance performance over there..."

Julian subconsciously took a sip of wine and then looked at the tyrant above him, whose complexion wasn't good and who hadn't eaten anything the whole time, while also assessing the other's injuries in his mind.

It seems that although the tyrant did not die this time, his injuries were quite severe.

Julian used his wide sleeves to cover his vision, turned his head to look at the Chu Rong soldiers behind him, each of them looking fierce and menacing, but their hands were not on their scabbards.

The atmosphere at the dinner party seemed much better than when he used to play.

At least the soldiers no longer looked like they were ready to kill anyone at any moment.

But this change isn't exactly good.

Julian pondered. If the tyrant had previously thwarted an assassination attempt, there would have been a climate of fear and unease. Even if they were received late, there would have been strict security to prevent any possibility of anything happening. But tonight—

"Oh no."

Julian's soft gasp did not escape Madison's notice. Madison turned to look at Julian and asked him in a low voice what he was doing and what he had discovered.

"The insectoid creatures... left behind... should be in Chu Rong..."

Julian's forehead was already covered in a thin layer of sweat, and he couldn't help but look at Lu Gui again, secretly worried: Tonight, will we become the scapegoats?

Thinking this, Julian felt like he was suffocating. His gaze drifted back to the tyrant and to Mingmei, who was guarding the tyrant.

...

Julian is watching us both.

Mingmei was very sensitive to other people's gazes, and Mu Chen was no less so. He hummed in response but didn't make any significant movements.

"He seems nervous about something..." Mingmei couldn't help but say, looking at Julian. "Really? This isn't his first time playing this game. Why does he seem overly nervous?"

"Perhaps he thought of something."

Mu Chen glanced at the drinks and food on the table, but showed no intention of touching them.

"Hmm?" Mingmei didn't have Julian's perspective and didn't know what the other was worried about, but it was clear that something had happened to him.

Following Julian's perspective, Mingmei couldn't help but glance at Lord Cui beside her, whose demeanor and bearing remained impeccable.

However, the other party didn't seem to touch the drinks and food on the table much.

Is there something wrong with the food?

Mingmei turned her head and looked at the food on the seat in front of Mu Chen. Thinking about it, she asked Gui Gui to start the scanning mode and check the food in front of Mu Chen.

As a result, [Host, it really exists...]

Gui Gui was equally incredulous at the results of the examination.

What kind of poison is it?

[Data Virus.]

Bright and beautiful: ? ? ?

What kind of poison is this?

[This will destroy the character's game data.] Gui Gui's tone suddenly turned serious. [Fortunately, Mr. Yan Hui upgraded and protected the students' game pods; otherwise, if a player accidentally ingested this, it could easily leak into the student's mind and damage their mental energy.]

Mingmei was stunned and quickly asked, "You mean, all the other players here had this in their food?"

Mingmei was furious when she received Liu Liu's affirmative answer. If she had noticed it sooner, the two people over there probably wouldn't have fallen for it.

When Mingmei saw that most of the people on the field were eating and drinking, it was quite obvious that Lord Cui and that old man with the braided hair, Gesang, were not eating much.

It was obvious that Lord Cui also sensed that Mingmei was looking at him, and he turned his head to meet her gaze.

Mingmei: "..."

Caught red-handed, Mingmei gave the other person an awkward smile. The other person smiled back at Mingmei before turning away and watching the grassland song and dance performance with a smile on their face.

"I heard that a group of dancers from the capital have been presented to us."

Julian was carefully examining the Chu Rong officials opposite him, trying to figure out if they were hiding some Zerg data or traces left by the Zerg, when he was startled to hear Lord Cui say something like that.

"Yes, it seems to have been placed at the end as the grand finale."

"not good."

Lord Cui tapped his finger lightly on the table and said, "The other party doesn't look well and needs to rest. A banquet that lasts this long must be quite exhausting. If they really need to rest and keep enduring it, it'll be fine once the dance is over. Otherwise, when His Majesty explodes, they might become the tool for His Majesty's emotional outburst tonight."

Those who can't survive will simply die.

Lord Cui spoke as if his words carried a hidden meaning, as if he were certain that these dancers from the capital were highly likely to cause trouble. (cascoo.net)

Julian couldn't accept this.