Chapter 43 (Second Update)

The Chinese-style pearwood round table is retro and heavy, with four blue and white porcelain round plates placed on it.

Crushed ice was compacted into a small mountain, and the surface was covered with different kinds of sashimi, with cool air curling up and bright colors.

"Boss Hong, you've arrived just in time. This is the sashimi Captain Li just sent over, shipped all the way from Ghost Island. Look how fresh it is."

Sister Hong's smile was bitter.

In the past, if she had such precious food in front of her and sat at the same table with the most powerful people in the town, she would have been laughing and talking.

But not long ago, she was nearly pissed off, feeling like she was trapped in an icy cellar. Now her account balance was completely gone, so how could she possibly have the heart to eat something so cold?

However, despite what the mayor said, Sister Hong still bit the bullet and took a piece. Suddenly, her teeth started to ache from the cold, so she quickly swallowed it whole.

"It's... delicious." She covered her cheeks and smiled awkwardly.

"Looks like Boss Hong isn't having a good time." Heng Batong shook his head and suddenly exclaimed, "Captain Li, I heard there's high voltage electricity in the sea off Ghost Island. Could it be that these fish aren't afraid of lightning?"

Across from Sister Hong, the refined and elegant man smiled and explained, "Of course they're afraid. Ghost Island has a way of making money. Someone brings in seawater and fish fry from the open sea and raises them on the island, which is considered artificial breeding. However, these on the table are treasures salvaged directly from the open sea."

"Oh? Isn't that even more scarce?" Heng Batong hurriedly picked up another piece of salmon.

At this time, Tian Rui walked in, took a quick look at the people at the table, and leaned over to report to Heng Baitong in his ear.

Heng Batong shook his chopsticks and the salmon fell on the table: "Run away?!"

Sister Hong's heart tightened and she looked over quickly.

Heng Batong met her gaze and smiled again: "It's okay. She's just a little girl, Boss Hong, don't worry. Eat, eat."

At the same time, his eyes swept over the other two people.

Captain Li stood up and left the table, clasping his fists. "Mayor, Brother Tang and I have some things to attend to, so we'll take our leave now."

Heng Batong waved his hand nonchalantly and said to Tang Lang with a smile, "Boss Tang has just arrived in Zhongsu. You need to visit more often in the future to avoid getting acclimatized."

Yinlai Gang leader Tang Lang wasn't used to being polite with NPCs, so when he saw Captain Li's eye contact, he learned to clasp his fists and said, "Of course. I'll have to trouble the mayor to look after the Yinlai Gang from now on."

In the fourth courtyard, there is a special chess and card room in the side wing, which is magnificent and has a warm stove and incense.

An Rou stood by the mahjong table, hesitated for a moment, and sat down to the left of the mayor's wife.

She looked at Heng Bobao: "Ms. Heng..."

Heng Bobao sat down on the sofa and picked up a piece of cake. "I don't want to play mahjong. What's the point of playing mahjong? Mom, I wanted to show An Rou around my room. Why did you insist on dragging her to play mahjong? I heard that when An Rou played mahjong with Sister Hong and the others, she lost everything every day! You can't bully her!"

The mayor's wife showed a half-smile again.

"Really? I heard that Boss Hong and the two girls, Meiling and Meiqian, lost 3,000 gold to Anrou in one go? Also, it's said that Anrou also paid the rent for the Nianfeng Steamed Bun Shop this season..."

An Rou's scalp was about to explode.

How on earth had this little thing I'd done reached the ears of the mayor's wife? And that "card buddy"...

She suddenly remembered: Meiling and Meiqian?!

In the original owner's memory, the Shuangmei sisters and Heng Bobao were not close friends, but they did have contact after all!

I had planned everything, but I never expected that we would intersect here.

An Rou's hand trembled, and she "accidentally" knocked over a few mahjong tiles. The crisp knocking sound interrupted the mayor's wife's words.

"Madam Mayor, are we short of two people?" An Rou changed the subject.

The mayor's wife looked at her with an inexplicable look and chuckled, "No, we're not short of people. They'll be here soon."

Speak of the devil, and there comes a knock on the door.

"Come in," said the mayor's wife.

Two tall men walked in.

An Rou's eyelids twitched.

Unexpectedly invited to the mayor's house, and not by Heng Bobao, she immediately suspected it was related to Sister Hong. So, she assumed one of the two missing sides of the mahjong table must be Sister Hong.

Unexpectedly, there were two players!

【Dawn Darkness Lv66 (Gold)】

【Mantis Lv71 (God)】

——They are still two high-level players!

"Captain Li, Boss Tang, you are finally here. Please take a seat. I have been itching to do it until now." The mayor's wife greeted them.

Captain Li? He's the head of the Zhongsu branch of the Orli Guild?

And there's also the Mantis Gang Leader... An Rou silently recited this awkward name in her mind, and suddenly realized: Mantis, Tang Lang! In the eyes of the town NPCs, the Yinlai Gang Leader!

As my mind raced, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my lower abdomen.

An Rou lowered her eyes and saw blood stains on her purple cheongsam. She looked up in shock and looked across at the opposite side.

Captain Li attacked her without saying a word.

Fortunately, it wasn't a lethal sneak attack, or from the player's perspective, it wasn't really any damage at all. After all, she, an NPC with only 100 health points, was still alive.

But why did he do that?

An Rou forced herself to calm down, not forgetting to lower the other party's favorability.

[An Rou's favorability -30%, current favorability 25%, hostility.]

Captain Li's gaze lingered on the light screen for a moment, his expression unchanged, his gentle and warm smile still on his face.

"Sorry for being late, ma'am, shall we begin?"

"I'm sorry, is there any life..."

An Rou was just halfway through her words when she was interrupted by the mayor's wife: "Okay, let's get started. I heard that An Rou is very good at cards. I can't wait."

She started shuffling the cards first.

But she clearly saw the blood on her clothes.

An Rou closed her eyes tightly.

The situation was too sudden and too complicated to imagine. But one thing gradually became clear: this was a test.

Sister Hong might have been the trigger, but the real reason was still the source of the previous chaos in Zhongsu Town: a player disguised as a beautiful NPC, stealing quests and killing members of the Ouli team. It was highly likely that Chiqian Yiming's missing blue weapon was also in her possession.

An Rou used the tiger skin that was revealed a moment ago to scare Boss Lin and Sister Hong, and now she has brought the matter to the mayor, and the news has reached the ears of the Ouli Guild - everything happened naturally.

She was too careless.

"An Rou?" the mayor's wife called out.

An Rou showed a bit of fear, but overall she remained calm and resolute, and replied with a "sorry".

Start coding.

She didn't touch the wound; her hands were clean. The wound was still bleeding, but fortunately it wasn't too serious. Even without the life-saving potion, it wouldn't be life-threatening for the time being.

What An Rou didn't know was that ten kilometers away, at the edge of the farm, the huge body of the rich man suddenly rose from the ground.

The terrified face was turned upside down, the mouth was wide open, and a deafening roar came out.

In the bungalow, An Younian was so scared that he staggered and was helped up by Paopao.

"What, what happened? Ghoul?!" An Younian's face turned pale, and he couldn't help but think of the tragedy that happened on this land several years ago.

"It's okay, it's okay, Uncle An. It's just the Chosen One practicing martial arts nearby!" Paopao lied in a panic, "Uncle An, you stay here. I'll go take a look. Don't come out. Many Chosen Ones don't take human life seriously!"

An Younian didn't dare to go out, he didn't even dare to open the window, he just sat in the chair without moving.

Paopao used his Swift Wind Step to run out. Outside the bungalow was a newly dug pond. The sky was cloudless and the ground was empty except for the unprocessed mounds of excavated earth.

He went around to the west side and suddenly saw Bao Fu's majestic body as big as a mountain rushing towards Zhongsu Town.

The roars continued.

It’s over, with such a big commotion, we’ll definitely be exposed!

Paopao turned his head and looked at the city wall - fortunately, there was no one on the top of the wall where there were always people guarding it.

The second thought popped into my mind: the boss is in danger, so I remotely summoned Baofu to come and rescue him!

Paopao used the Wind Step to catch up.

The mayor's house.

"Thirty thousand." An Rou picked up a mahjong tile and placed it on the table.

The mayor's wife: "Eat."

…

An Rou: "Eight points."

The mayor's wife: "Bang."

…

An Rou: "Twenty thousand."

The mayor's wife: "Bar."

She picked up a card from the end of the deck and smiled broadly, "Hu, a big win. An Rou, this has happened several times in a row. If I hadn't drawn a card every time, I would have suspected you were deliberately feeding me cards."

Her smile was superficial, but her eyes were filled with speculation.

An Rou openly spread out her cards and smiled slightly: "No, it's just that Madam is very good at playing cards."

Not only the mayor's wife, but even Captain Li and Gang Leader Tang carefully looked at her cards.

Everything is in order, and they are indeed aiming for a winning hand.

This is interesting. Either the system has given this NPC a cheat, making him a card-counting god, or this NPC is just born with bad luck. If it were a player, their destiny value would also be so low that they would have bad luck every day.

Captain Li spoke carefully: "Miss An..."

"I told you An Rou had bad luck. Otherwise, she wouldn't let those three bully her every day." Heng Bobao leaned on the sofa, yawning boredly. "Mom, who said An Rou won a lot of money from them? They must be lying!"

She paused and saw her mother take the chips handed to her by An Rou.

"Mom! Do you really want to win An Rou's money? Her family is so poor that they have to set up a street stall and they don't even have a shop!"

NPCs only care about their own interests, and in many cases, they don't mind being generous to others.

Blood flowed down An Rou's legs, making her face paler and paler. However, An Rou did not show her vulnerability, hiding her fear in her eyes.

"It's okay, Miss Heng." An Rou said softly, "I have some money and can afford it. Otherwise, it would be a bummer if one of us was missing."

Captain Li finally got a chance to interrupt, hinting, "Oh? From what I know, even if Miss An's bun shop is still around, it's only a meager business. The minimum bet here is at least 1,000 gold. Miss An must have lost at least 50,000 gold, right? So much money—"

He narrowed his eyes: "I wonder how Miss An got here?"

"50,000 gold!" Heng Bobao jumped up in shock and rushed to An Rou's side. "An Rou, why do you look so bad? Did you lose so much?!"

She glared at her mother in dissatisfaction: "Mom!"

The mayor's wife remained unmoved and said calmly, "I'm curious too. The number of people in this town who can afford to lose that much money can be counted on one hand."

An Rou bit her lip and said nothing.

In the entire chess and card room, all the attention turned into pressure and fell on her.

Fortunately, there was Heng Bobao: "What are you doing? Money is something so important, but it was a private matter back then! Would you tell others where the money in your pocket came from?!"

Unexpectedly, Captain Li replied lightly, "Of course, the source of the Ouli Gang's wealth is naturally the ghouls."

Gang Leader Tang also said, "Indeed, the Yinlai Gang was able to build this family business because the gang members bravely killed ghouls without fear of life and death."

Even the mayor's wife patted Heng Bobao's hand and said, "Baby, your father has so many businesses under his control, and every penny of our family's money is clean."

Good man, he pushes people to this extent.

An Rou wanted to delay a little longer, but her knees started to hurt again.

Captain Li actually attacked her again!

The blood loss made An Rou dizzy. She didn't care about anything else and significantly lowered her favorability towards the two players.

One hand slid weakly from the table and fell on the thigh.

Through the thin silk cloth, she could clearly feel the subtle lines on the blade of the Seven Souls Sword.

A second-tier blue weapon with a basic attack power of 2000 points. If I catch them by surprise, I wonder if I can kill these two bastards in one blow.

I guess it won’t work.

Gold players had a minimum health of 5,000 points. Even without considering their armor, a stab to a vital part like the throat or temple wouldn't necessarily kill them.

What's more, this Gang Leader Tang is a great god, with a health volume of 7,000 points.

What's more, she had lost too much blood and it was lucky for her to stay conscious, let alone attack through the table.

"The mayor is the head of the town, needless to say. Our Ouli Gang and Yinlai Gang, as the only two gangs in Zhongsu Town, also bear the responsibility of maintaining public order in Zhongsu." Captain Li said slowly, "If someone secretly steals ill-gotten gains..."

"I say!" An Rou finally broke down, her almond eyes blurred and tears streaming down her face.