The Beloved Heiress's Dark Side (21)
Jian Tanxi and the other two were extremely surprised.
Zhang Dayong said, "No, the mission isn't over yet, how could it have failed? We've already obtained the Health Pills and are about to save all the wounded. From the beginning until now, we haven't made a single mistake..."
Knight John said, "This instance is the A City instance, and none of you can leave A City. One of your tasks is to find out the truth. Now that the mastermind has left A City, you have no chance of completing the mission. Therefore, judging the mission as a failure is not a problem."
Zhang Dayong asked, "Who's the mastermind behind this? Ou Bao'er?"
"That's no longer important."
Meng Yuening said, "Wait, didn't you say that this mission has no time limit? Even if the mastermind really leaves, who knows when he might come back?"
Sir John asked, "If you do something big in City A and have a chance to escape, will you come back?"
Meng Yuening: "..."
Jian Tanxi said, "Since the punishment will come in three hours, does that mean if we catch the mastermind within three hours, we will still be considered successful?"
Sir John: "Of course not."
"Why doesn't it count? This game has no time limit, so we haven't lost yet. You think the mastermind won't come back, but that's just your opinion. What if the mastermind does come back? Wouldn't that be a misjudgment? Can the referee do that?"
Knight John said, "The mastermind won't be coming back; that's a foregone conclusion. Since you still want to make a last-ditch effort, I'll give you one more chance. Tell me who the mastermind is now. If you're right, I'll give you three more hours to capture the boss, but you absolutely cannot leave the area of City A."
If you say the wrong thing, the game is over. If any of you dare to leave City A, you will be electrocuted.
Meng Yuening said, "You're making things difficult for us! How are we supposed to know who the mastermind is?"
Jian Tanxi patted her on the shoulder, signaling her to calm down.
Then, Jian Tanxi said to Knight John, "The mastermind is Ding Zhelan."
Sir John asked, "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
Meng Yuening and Zhang Dayong looked at Jian Tanxi in shock, seemingly surprised that she had given the answer so easily, as if it had been a bit hasty.
To everyone's surprise, Sir John said, "You're right. You have three hours left. After three hours, punishment will come, and you will suffocate and die, forever resting in City A."
After saying that, Sir John disappeared.
Meng Yuening and Zhang Dayong couldn't believe it.
They asked Jian Tanxi in unison, "Why Ding Zhelan?"
Jian Tanxi said, "Let's talk in the car. Let's drive to the nearest overseas office now."
Meng Yuening asked, "What would you do at an overseas mission?"
"Intercept Ding Zhelan."
Although Zhang Dayong and Meng Yuening were full of doubts, they didn't dare to waste any time and quickly got into the car.
Zhang Dayong was still driving, with Jian Tanxi and Meng Yuening sitting in the back.
In the car, Meng Yuening continued to ask the same question.
Jian Tanxi explained, "I suspect Ding Zhelan for several reasons. First, none of the Ou family members saw what the person who drugged them looked like, nor did they know what happened before they lost consciousness. Only Ding Zhelan could clearly say that Ou Bao'er drugged and imprisoned her, and Ou Bao'er even stated the reason: she didn't want her brothers to get married, so she did it."
These words seem reasonable, but if Ou Bao'er has the ability to secretly knock others unconscious without being seen, why is it that Ding Zhelan is the only one who can see it? Ding Zhelan is neither exceptionally strong in martial arts nor did she foresee Ou Bao'er's plot in order to take precautions, so this is simply illogical.
Moreover, according to Ding Zhelan's account, she directly saw that Ou Bao'er had turned evil, went to her room, and knocked her unconscious.
When Ou Bao'er was knocking out other people, she was very meticulous. Why did she just walk in so brazenly when it came to Ding Zhelan, without any fear of exposing herself?
The second reason is to reflect on the experiences of the Ou family.
Meng Yuening asked, "What happened to the Ou family?"
"That's right. Have you noticed that the women of the Ou family are all fine, just imprisoned, while only the men of the Ou family had their brains removed and turned into zombies?"
"Yes."
"So, we can make a reasonable assumption: this behind-the-scenes boss hates the men of the Ou family, but not so much the women. She thinks the men of the Ou family are all brainless, so they don't need brains and might as well just dig them out."
"you're right."
"Sister Meng, do you remember how the young masters of the Ou family treated Ding Zhelan when we were working as nannies at the Ou family's house?"
Meng Yuening suddenly realized: "I remember... the young master of the Ou family not only bullied the nanny, but also Ding Zhelan. Although they doted on Ou Bao'er, in their eyes, everyone had to pave the way for Ou Bao'er and become her foil. At that time, we were often angry for Ding Zhelan because she was always being bullied, which resulted in reducing our own life points."
Jian Tanxi said, "That's right. We only stayed at the Ou family for ten days, and what we saw was just the tip of the iceberg. As the beloved daughter of the Ou family, Ou Bao'er's favoritism was achieved by making others suffer as a foil. And the one being trampled on was Ding Zhelan. After all, the young masters of the Ou family can't bully the ladies, who are, after all, the elders."
During our time as nannies, we didn't see any men from the second generation of the Ou family. But it's easy to imagine that they usually valued Ou Bao'er the most, while neglecting or even bullying Ding Zhelan.
If this continues, how can Ding Zhelan not turn to the dark side?
Furthermore, as a dungeon, "The Beloved Heiress" is likely to be frequently open to various players. In other words, everything we experience and see in this dungeon may be repeated endlessly.
For us, the 'Beloved Heiress' instance is just a game; once we've cleared it, we don't need to go back.
However, for the NPCs in the instance, each time the instance opens, they have to relive the previous events.
Therefore, Ding Zhelan is very likely to be trapped in a cycle of being bullied by the men of the Ou family and mistreated by Ou Bao'er. The women of the Ou family, however, have never actually bullied Ding Zhelan, so she has only imprisoned them.
Meng Yuening said, "She's so pitiful... Let's not even talk about her, just hearing about her makes me want to turn evil."
Jian Tanxi said, "That's why I believe that Ding Zhelan controlled Ou Bao'er, making Ou Bao'er turn the men of the Ou family into zombies. And she herself was locked up with her two other fiancées, creating the image of a victim."
Moreover, two other details made me suspicious of her.
"Which two points?"
"First of all, when we found Ding Zhelan and the others in the underground chamber, Qu Chen was running around with that little sword and accidentally knocked his other two fiancées away. Do you remember that?"
"Yes, I remember."
"At the time, the three fiancées were together. Is it possible that Qu Chen accidentally stabbed all three of them with his sword?"
"Probably not, because Ding Zhelan wasn't deflected by Qu Chen's sword."
"She wasn't bounced away, but that doesn't mean she wasn't poked. Uncle Zhang, when you were in that room, didn't you say you smelled barbecue?"
Zhang Dayong said, "Yes, I was wondering about that at the time, because there was no barbecue there."
Jian Tanxi said, "It wasn't there at first, but it appeared later. I smelled it too because of that barbecue smell. Do you remember, Qu Chen's sword, if it pierced an ordinary person, that person would be thrown back; if it pierced a mutated person, someone with evil energy, that person's skin would be burned?"
Zhang Dayong said, "That seems to be the case... I remember Xiao Chen once stabbed a zombie with a sword, burning several pieces of its skin..."
Meng Yuening said, "So, you mean that in the underground chamber, Qu Chen's sword actually pierced Ding Zhelan, but Ding Zhelan's reaction wasn't to be bounced away, but rather that the skin on her hand was burned, which is why it smelled like barbecue?"
Jian Tanxi said, "Yes. I hadn't thought about it this way before because I thought Ding Zhelan was just an ordinary girl with no problems. But now that I've connected all the clues, I've discovered something."
Another detail is that the talisman that Fan Siqi kept was lost. I initially thought it was lost accidentally, but now that I think about it, it must have been Ding Zhelan who used the transformation talisman to turn Master Ou's brain into a walnut tree. Later, when we met Ding Zhelan, the transformation talisman recognized its owner and returned to Ding Zhelan's side.
Otherwise, given Fan Siqi's level of caution, it's impossible that she wouldn't have noticed something was missing from her bag.
Meng Yuening nodded: "You're right... However, I have a question. After doing all these things, why didn't Ding Zhelan run away immediately, but instead stayed in the Ou family and waited for us to find her?"
Jian Tanxi said, "I guess she wasn't doing whatever she wanted; she must have been subject to some kind of restriction. Since the aliens let us enter this instance to find the truth, they certainly wouldn't let the culprit, Ding Zhelan, leave so quickly. Otherwise, wouldn't we have no time to react and fail as soon as we entered?"
Ding Zhelan was just an ordinary girl. Where did she learn how to turn people into zombies, and how did she manage to drug so many people? Where did she get her craniotomy tools and her transformation talismans? And how did she have the ability to turn Ou Bao'er into this grotesque state?
I suspect that all these abilities and items were bestowed upon her by the alien leader. The leader made a deal with her: she could use these superpowers and items to take revenge, but she also had to transform City A into a dungeon suitable for players.
As the final boss, she must remain inside the instance for a certain period of time before she can leave.
"Hmm, I think this explanation makes sense... Since she hid the brains of Grandpa Ou and the others in various places, why did she put the brains of the last five young masters together? It was very difficult for us to find the brains of the first few, but it was very easy to find the brains of the young masters."
"I don't know either... Maybe we'll have to ask her when we catch her."
Zhang Dayong said, "Perhaps the alien leader stipulated that Ding Zhelan must use different methods to hide her brains, and not repeat the same methods as before. She couldn't think of any more ways to hide them at once, so she put the brains of the five young masters next to her for the time being."
Jian Tanxi said, "That's the only explanation..."
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