Chapter 85 The old woman in yellow looked more like a piece of something burned by a raging fire...
"Sister, I feel a bit bloated and my stomach is a little upset..."
Gu Keke stood next to Liang Jun, blocking the railing of the drop tower with the others.
"I should have known better than to eat so much roasted meat..." she muttered under her breath, then let out a loud burp. "But the wild pheasants in these mountains are so delicious, I just ate them without thinking..."
"It's the pheasant's fault, not yours," Liang Jun casually comforted her.
When they temporarily left the tent camp, they learned the exact location of the drop tower from Xin Sang, which saved them from taking many detours and allowed them to find the place in just twenty minutes.
At first glance, the equipment on the drop tower looks brand new.
The equipment is painted with a classic three-color paint scheme. The main frame of the drop tower is covered with characters from various cartoons. Some of the older ones are Calabash Brothers and Nine-Colored Deer. Liang Jun might vaguely remember Pleasant Goat and Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit, and there is even that pink pig that loves to roll in the mud.
It seems that all of this is neither too close to nor too far from reality.
The drop tower area was roughly circular. The group walked around the railing twice, but didn't see a single staff member come out to speak.
Has it suspended operations?
As Liang Jun was thinking this, after passing through a blind spot, she suddenly encountered a staff member in a yellow uniform.
This is an elderly woman who is nearly seventy years old.
Her temples were streaked with gray, and dark brown age spots dotted the area near the ends of her temples, forming a dense, dark mass. Her back was no longer straight, and upon sensing the arrival of a player, she hunched over and hobbled over step by step.
Liang Jun instinctively reached out to help her up.
What is the system thinking?
People this old actually want to come in and work?
The old lady was only wearing a yellow short-sleeved shirt, her entire arm was exposed. When Liang Jun placed her hand on it, her first reaction was that she felt like she had placed a piece of firewood on it.
Perhaps describing it as firewood is not quite accurate; it is more like a piece of rotten wood that has been burned by a raging fire, seemingly fragile and fragile, dry and rough.
Perhaps due to old age, the elderly person's perception ability has clearly declined significantly.
She seemed to finally realize that there was someone beside her, and she turned her head slightly with difficulty, her voice like sand washed away by a great wave, with a grainy texture.
"Thank you, little girl..."
She turned her head back very slowly, her cloudy, smoky eyes moving sluggishly. "You... want to ride a drop tower?"
The old woman remained hunched over, her gaze forced to remain fixed downwards. Qi Zhixia, sitting in a wheelchair, had the advantage of being able to converse and communicate with her.
She was worried that the other person might have a common problem among the elderly, namely deafness, so she deliberately spoke much louder.
"Grandma, are you a staff member here?"
The old lady's skin looked burnt, and when she just frowned, Qi Zhixia felt as if her face was about to crack open.
"Children, I can hear you." The old woman took two steps back, feigning disdain. "If you want to ride this attraction, you'll need to buy tickets..."
As she was speaking, she began to reach into her pocket to take something out.
Liang Jun quickly let go of her hand. The old man's withered arm reached into his left pocket like a tentacle and pulled out a stamp whose shape was no longer recognizable.
I knew it was a seal because the blue-green ink stains had already dripped down my dark brown fingers.
It looked as if a heart flowing with blue-green blood had been ripped out, sending chills down everyone's spines.
But the old lady didn't seem to realize this. Ignoring the sticky ink stains on her hands, she let the blue-green marks drip onto the ground. Her fingers, which should have been dull, began to nimbly grasp the handle of the seal.
"Children, who wants to go first?"
The old woman's eyesight had improved considerably by this point. Seeing that no one in front of her was willing to step forward, she grabbed Shao Feng, who was standing in the front row, as if she were catching a chick.
Although the old man's arm looked like nothing more than skin and bones to the naked eye, Shao Feng couldn't shake it off no matter how hard he struggled.
He was brought before the old man, who, without saying a word, habitually spat at the bottom of the seal and then neatly stamped it on the inside of Shao Feng's forearm.
"Ouch! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!"
The old woman seemed to think the stamp wouldn't leave a mark, so she pressed down hard on Shao Feng's arm, making him feel as if his arm was about to break.
"How could a little kid be in pain..."
The old woman muttered to herself as she took off the seal.
Whether it was the ample ink or the old man's added saliva, the moment the seal was lifted, the thick, blue-green liquid on Shao Feng's arm began to flow in all directions.
He instinctively tried to wipe it off with his hand, but it was like a strong dye. Not only did Shao Feng fail to remove the residue from his forearm, he also ended up with his fingers covered in blue and green stains.
"Who's next..." The old woman's choking voice rang out again.
Having learned from Shao Feng's experience, everyone was afraid of being arrested and roughly stamped by the staff again, so they all stepped back in unison, wishing they could stay as far away as possible.
The old lady seemed to have a limited field of vision; she could never see the things right next to her, and naturally, she didn't notice Liang Yan who was always by her side.
Instead of rushing to leave this dangerous area, Liang Xun first asked Shao Feng, "Did you receive the notification that points were deducted?"
"What notification?" Shao Feng asked, bewildered.
"No way, you don't even know this? Then how did you..."
Gu Keke stared at Shao Feng in shock, then her gaze fell on Jiang Zhiling's empty arm.
They don't seem to have any seals.
Jiang Zhiling also seemed to be thinking, "So you have to buy tickets to ride amusement park rides? We always thought they were free..."
The first attraction they experienced didn't require tickets; and after meeting Liang Jun and the others, none of the other attractions they tried required tickets either.
Therefore, they are completely unaware of this problem.
Luo Chuange seemed to have made a connection as well, "That's not right, how did you pay for your treatment when you were at the emergency aid station?"
Treatment costs?
What kind of strange concept is this?
Jiang Zhiling, whose understanding was blank, frowned and was about to ask her question when Jiang Chunhua, who was standing behind her, silently raised her hand.
"I paid for Ling'er's medical treatment."
As she moved, the wide sleeves of her dress slipped slightly, revealing a faint trace of a blue-green seal beneath her arm, which was partially hidden by the fabric.
“At the time, the person asked me for 1,000 points. I was only thinking about saving Ling’er,” Jiang Chunhua added from behind the crowd. “But I thought it was just a matter of paying for treatment and getting a stamp, so I didn’t tell anyone.”
By this time, even Lao Ren, who was usually reluctant to use his brain, could tell that something was wrong.
His expression was hard to decipher. "Young man, you haven't received the system notification yet, have you?"
The arm with the stamp on it was stiffly raised in mid-air. Shao Feng didn't know whether to lift it or lower it, and could only utter two words as if his computer had frozen—
"No……"
Qi Zhixia closed her eyes in despair.
Gu Keke remained optimistic, "It's nothing, it's just a fake seal. All of us except Summer have a fake seal—Director Wang even has two! And we're all doing just fine!"
Shao Feng was caught between a rock and a hard place, staring blankly at the smudged seal.
The old lady is still trying to find the next "lucky one" favored by the stamp.
Just as she was about to step out, Liang Jun grabbed her thin, bony arm.
"Sir, you must have picked up the wrong seal."
Liang Xun couldn't let her continue to use this fake seal to harm everyone. She decided to give it a try. If this was the only type of seal the other party had, then they could simply skip this project.
The staff member caught in the act by Leung Yau was stunned for a few seconds. Whether it was due to the slow reaction that is unique to age or the helplessness of being caught red-handed, the old man pondered for a long time before he began to make a move.
She chuckled twice, intending to sound like a kind old lady, but instead, her laughter sounded terrifying, like someone who had eaten a child.
The old man stuffed the fake seal back into his left pocket and then reached into his other trouser pocket.
The seal that was taken out this time was noticeably cleaner. At least there was no ink leakage, and her other hand wouldn't be filthy either.
The old lady stopped spitting on it and simply rubbed the stamp face down on her pants, leaving a bluish-green mark.
"I'm getting old, my mind is getting muddled—this time the seal is correct."
Obviously, despite what she said, people won't be easily fooled.
But if no one steps forward, they will remain stuck in this stalemate forever.
Wang Jianping released the handles of his wheelchair and walked to the front of the group.
"I'll get it stamped."
The words spoken in the stairwell still seem to echo in my ears.
Liang Yan didn't do much, and everyone tacitly accepted this approach.
They knew that their own shallow views could not sway Wang Jianping's ideas.
As a faint, neatly edged blue-green seal was stamped on the door, Wang Jianping's tightly clenched lips gradually relaxed.
"This time, the point deduction notification is a normal stamp."
Seeing this, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief and gathered around the old lady in yellow, stamping their tickets one by one.
"Alright, let me check it again..."
The old woman craned her neck forward, scanning the stamps on everyone's hands. When she caught sight of Shao Feng's two stamps, one real and one fake, she paused for a moment longer.
After verifying that everything was correct, she put the real seal back into her right trouser pocket, staggered, and pushed open a narrow wooden gate behind her.
"Alright kids, you can go in here to ride the drop tower. I won't go in with you."
After everyone had entered, the old lady managed to lock the flimsy wooden gate and waved to the crowd exploring inside.
"Oh, and children, if you see my grandson inside, please remember to take good care of him for me—"
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Author's Note: There will also be random red envelopes in this chapter!
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