Chapter 38 Platinum Joy Supermarket: Mistaken Wife
The streets at night are no different from those in the real world. Under the deep blue night sky dotted with stars, cars speed by on the wide asphalt road, traffic lights at intersections diligently perform their duties, shops along the roadside are brightly lit, and pedestrians walk in twos and threes on the sidewalks under the streetlights.
Shi Yu didn't have the currency of this world, so he couldn't take a taxi and had to walk there. Fortunately, the distance from the Lu's Hotel where they were staying to the Platinum Supermarket wasn't far.
He didn't tell everyone that there were two reasons why he went to investigate alone. First, he wasn't sure if the direction of the investigation was correct. Second, since entering the game, everyone's investigation had been focused on factors such as "business warfare," "wealthy families," and "the Lu family," and they had put in a lot of effort for it. Asking them to abandon their original investigation direction now would be somewhat unacceptable.
Unless he has evidence to prove that his new investigation is on the right track.
Platinum Supermarket is open 24 hours a day.
Shi Yu entered the supermarket without much trouble.
Shi Yu remained quiet throughout the journey, but the live stream chat was noisy and chaotic.
My wife has left the hotel! Where is she going? It's dangerous for someone as beautiful as you to go out at night! There's a big bad wolf outside! Come back quickly!
[Wife went to the supermarket? Why go to the supermarket in the middle of the night? Is she hungry? Luckily, I have some late-night snacks: spicy crayfish, garlic crayfish, and seafood noodles.]
[Hahaha, stop talking about late-night snacks! You guys should go to the live stream, it's hilarious! He mistook Lin Feng for Shi Yu!]
What? Who mistook my wife for someone else?
[Oh wow, mistook my wife for someone else? Such an absurd thing! I have to go see this!]
.
At the same time, in hotel room 1506.
Lin Fengbai followed Shi Yu's advice, took a shower, and sat on the sofa in the living room. He stared at the black screen of the TV, quietly waiting for Shen Su to come to find Shi Yu. Then, he would tell Shen Su what had happened that day on Shi Yu's behalf.
There was a notebook next to his legs, containing a Morse code conversion chart that Shi Yu had written for him. He had learned how to use Morse code after watching Shi Yu and Shen Su transmit it over the television these past few days, but he wasn't quite familiar with Morse code yet, so he was a little slower at deciphering and replying.
Around 10 p.m., the TV turned on by itself.
Lin Fengbai didn't touch the remote control, so it was Shen Su, who was in another space in the same room, who turned it on. Lin Fengbai grabbed his notebook, opened the Morse code chart, and stared intently at the TV.
Shen Su quickly relayed the first message.
"I'm so tired today."
Lin Fengbai: "?"
How should I answer this?
Lin Fengbai hesitated, while the person on the other end, growing impatient, asked again, "Why aren't you saying anything? Are you there?"
Lin Fengbai replied, "Yes."
Lin Fengbai thought for a moment, and decided to politely express his concern when Shen Su said he was "tired": "You've worked hard."
There was a long silence on the other end.
"Why are you suddenly so concerned about me? Do you miss me?"
Lin Fengbai belatedly realized that these words were definitely not directed at him, so he quickly clarified: "I am not Shi Yu."
On the other hand, Shen Su completely interpreted these words as "Shi Yu is concerned about his image and accidentally let slip his concern for him, so he blurted out that he is not himself."
Shen Su understood perfectly: "Oh, okay, okay, you're not Shi Yu."
The comments section was so funny I almost died laughing:
To be honest, Chen Su seems like the foolish son of a wealthy landlord.
To be fair, Chen Su doesn't act like this in front of others; he only acts this way in front of Shi Yu.
Ah, so the absurd thing of mistaking one's wife for another really happened to Shen Su.
[How long do you think it would take for him to realize his 'wife' isn't actually his 'wife'?]
It didn't take Shen Su long; about ten minutes later, he recognized that Lin Fengbai was not Shi Yu.
Because Lin Fengbai's speaking style is completely different from Shi Yu's, mainly because his reply speed is too slow, like looking up words in a dictionary on the spot.
"If you're not Shi Yu, then who are you?"
Lin Fengbai briefly told Shen Su about what happened in Dungeon 3 today during those ten minutes, and also told Shen Su that Shi Yu was not at the hotel and had gone to Platinum Supermarket.
Then Lin Fengbai looked at Shen Su's question and was somewhat puzzled.
Didn't he tell Shen Su from the beginning that he wasn't Shi Yu?
As for who he is?
Shen Su probably didn't know of his existence yet, and he wasn't sure if Shi Yu wanted to reveal it. So in the end, he gave a rather conservative answer: "I am Shi Yu's assistant."
Shen Su asked again, "Are you in his room?"
Lin Fengbai: "Mm."
Chen Su: "You're sleeping in the same room?"
Lin Fengbai thought about it and realized that they were indeed staying in the same room. Although the VIP suite had two bedrooms, it was indeed the same hotel room, so what Chen Su said was correct.
He answered, "Yes."
Lin Fengbai waited for a while, but there was no response from the other end.
The reason there was no response.
It was because Shen Su left room 1506 after receiving this answer.
At the elevator entrance, Chen Su ran into Mu Zhuo and two other people who were returning from a late-night snack. Seeing that he was in a hurry, Mu Zhuo asked, "Where are you going so late?"
"Let's have a midnight snack," Chen Su said casually.
A gust of wind blew by, and the person entered the elevator, after which the elevator doors closed.
A boy behind Mu Zhuo whispered, "Is he that hungry?"
Another guy chimed in, "Aren't you hungry too? To be honest, having a pro carry you around without having to think makes you hungry easily, unlike last time in a dungeon where I was on edge every day, I couldn't even eat..."
.
Shi Yu arrived at Platinum Joy Supermarket at 10:30 p.m.
Platinum Joy Supermarket is about the same size as a Carrefour or Walmart supermarket in the real world, and the types of goods sold are also similar to those in ordinary supermarkets. There are quite a lot of people shopping in the supermarket at this time, but most of them are young people. After all, most of the middle-aged and elderly people are asleep at this time, while young people have to go to work during the day.
Shi Yu pushed the shopping cart and strolled around the supermarket.
The last time Shi Yu observed the supermarket was when they were first teleported in. After that, their attention was focused on the business battle and the Lu family. It wasn't until today that Shi Yu seriously observed the supermarket for the second time.
Shi Yu noticed that there were no sales staff or cashiers in the supermarket, but there was a row of self-service checkout robots at the checkout counter—it was an unmanned supermarket.
Shi Yu casually grabbed a bottle of soda from the shelf, and the empty space was quickly filled by sodas pushed up from behind. He tried to grab other things, and the shelf would automatically restock them as well.
— Not only do we use self-service checkout robots for payments, but we also use self-service replenishment machines for stocking.
The dungeon's storyline was peaceful, and so were the comments:
Since you've all read this far, I won't hide it anymore. Yes, my job is to sit on the supermarket shelves and restock. There are two people sitting on one shelf, and three people sitting on a long shelf. When we're bored, we sometimes eat sunflower seeds or something.
So, is it going to be impossible to hide the fact that I count money in bank ATMs?
[That's nothing! Ever seen a job where you install sesame seeds on strawberries? That's me!]
[I don't believe you... Wait! Are the instances going to overlap? I think I saw Shen Su in Shi Yu's livestream???]
I just saw Shi Yu in Shen Su's live stream too! I thought I was seeing things...
...
After leaving the beverage section, Shi Yu pushed her shopping cart and followed the crowd.
The supermarket was even more crowded now, especially the snack and beverage section. There were many families with children, and people were packed together. Those pushing shopping carts could only move forward at a snail's pace, giving the feeling of everyone shopping for New Year's goods before the Lunar New Year.
Amidst the sea of people, Shi Yu vaguely spotted a familiar figure.
How did Chen Su end up here?
This was Shi Yu's first reaction.
My second thought was that Shen Su couldn't possibly be here.
Shen Su loves all kinds of long, fitted trench coats and overcoats. His clothing style tends to be simple yet expensive and able to highlight his temperament. In layman's terms, he wants clothes that can make him look cool, but not too cool, otherwise he will look stupid.
For example, the person he just saw, although his build was similar to Chen Su's, was dressed in a cool rock punk style outfit, with rivet decorations on the collar of his motorcycle leather jacket... not Chen Su's style.
When Shi Yu looked in that direction again, the figure was no longer there.
Either he's seeing things.
Even if I'm not seeing things, that person wouldn't be Shen Su.
The supermarket was so crowded that Shi Yu could no longer shop along the route he wanted. He was pushed by the crowd to the frozen and refrigerated section, and then to the yogurt shelf.
With no way to move forward and nothing to do but stand still, Shi Yu carefully selected the yogurt in front of her and finally settled on a six-bottle pack of plain yogurt.
As he reached for it, another hand snatched it away first.
"What a coincidence."
Lu Chengjing leaned against the shelf with a smile, watching him, and casually put the carton of yogurt into his shopping cart.
Shi Yu's gaze followed the yogurt, then the hand into the shopping cart, and back to Lu Chengjing's face. A moment of surprise flashed in his eyes, then he nodded: "Mr. Lu is so clever."
"Why are you eating this?" Lu Chengjing grabbed a piece of bread from his shopping cart, frowning in displeasure. "This isn't nutritious. I'll take you out to eat."
"No need." Shi Yu didn't forget his persona as a poor but strong male college student. "Don't trouble yourself, Mr. Lu. This will be fine for me."
"It won't be a bother," Lu Chengjing said leisurely, arms crossed. "I've been in meetings for four hours straight today and haven't had dinner yet. I'm starving. Could you join me for a late-night snack?"
It has to be said that scumbags really know how to say things that are hard to refuse.
However, Shi Yu did not intend to refuse.
Lu Chengjing is unrelated to the main quest, and Shi Yu originally didn't want to spend any more time investigating him. However, since the other party had come to him, he didn't mind getting more information out of him.
Shi Yu pretended to hesitate for a moment before reluctantly saying, "Well... okay."
Lu Chengjing's mood instantly brightened. The crowd around him began to disperse. Lu Chengjing took Shi Yu's shopping cart and helped him push it. Walking beside Shi Yu, he asked as they walked, "What else do you want to buy? I'll go with you."
"Do you want that? I'll get it for you... Is one enough? How about taking one of each?"
"This brand of product isn't good. Take this one; it's imported."
[Lu Chengjing is acting like he's paying for everything! He's forgotten that I, Yuyu, am a poor male college student. Buying so many snacks, and only picking the expensive ones—where would I, Yuyu, get that much money?]
[Yu Yu isn't short of money; he simply doesn't have any on him! Besides, how could Lu Chengjing possibly let him pay?]
[Oh, so Yuyu knew Lu Chengjing wouldn't make him pay? He's treating this NPC like a sucker?]
What do you know? They're having a blast being sucked out!
What you said makes so much sense that I can't refute it.
.
As I walked through the crowded supermarket, I couldn't understand why there were still so many people in the supermarket at such a late hour.
Is the huge daily turnover one of the reasons why the supermarket doesn't go bankrupt?
Shen Su pushed the shopping cart forward with the crowd, his eyes scanning the surroundings.
Shi Yu and Mu Zhu both speculated whether the multi-dungeon setting might lead to dungeon overlap. The fact that the TV shared by the two dungeons in room 1506 of the hotel suggests that there is some kind of connection between the different dungeons in this game.
So when he heard that Shi Yu had come to the supermarket, he also wanted to try his luck there.
Shen Su has always had good luck.
He actually spotted Shi Yu in the crowd.
But Shi Yu wasn't the only one.
A man was also with Shi Yu, a few centimeters taller than her, and looked somewhat like Lu Boyue. He helped Shi Yu push the shopping cart.
The two walked side by side, chatting as they went, and looked very happy.
Crack.
The plastic handle of the shopping cart is of poor quality; it breaks easily with a light squeeze.
Chen Su dropped the shopping cart and strode forward.
The crowd suddenly became congested again, with more than a dozen shopping carts blocking the way. Chen Su struggled to squeeze to the other side, but Shi Yu and the man had disappeared.
They were nowhere to be seen around.
The supermarket was so crowded that they couldn't possibly leave in such a short time, nor could they suddenly disappear.
There is only one possibility.
The instances did overlap just now, perhaps at the moment the crowd surged, but the overlap was very brief.
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