Chapter 32 Returning Home 2: Fengju Village
No wonder most of Mei Su's list disappeared. It turns out that she died on the road, and the list got wet from the rain, so it was naturally invisible. The subsequent plans will become one of the mysteries of this instance.
Wu Wangwang realized that this instance should only be entered by her, Ling Yuanshan and a few other players, the number of people was fixed, and the ghost in the instance was Mei Su.
However, before entering the instance, in order to end the endless pursuit, Wu Wangwang directly brought the murderer in as well, so there was one more person in the group. Moreover, when Wu Wangwang gave the blessing, she did not mention adding anyone in, but said that the murderer would suffer the same sins as Ling Yuanshan.
This statement led to the murderer becoming a limited-time player, just like Ling Yuanshan.
Sometimes, the Ghost Mother's blessing takes priority over items. The substitute item that Ling Yuanshan mentioned should have been used to capture Wu Wangwang and bring him in, but the blessing cut in line. The murderer entered in place of Wu Wangwang first, but the effect of the item cannot be ignored. Thus, Wu Wangwang took the role of the last key character in the dungeon.
Logically speaking, since Wu Wangwang is an extra player, she could have had a non-substitute identity, but she has taken on the identity of the ghost first.
Wu Wangwang suspects that the substitute prop used by the murderer is extremely vicious; otherwise, the game would not have put her in Mei Su's body, which is far away, but would have had her appear in Fengju Village with an additional identity to listen to the referee announce the rules.
With things as they are now, and everything still unclear, it is more important to guard against the murderer in order to save Ling Yuanshan's life.
"I understand. I'll be following the story as a ghost. But how do I complete the game?" Wu Wangwang was quite worried about this question.
After a moment of contemplation, the referee said, "I think you were forcibly pulled in by the props. You weren't originally here. So, here's what we'll do: your task is the same as everyone else's—complete your travel list and go home."
Wu Wangwang took out her list: "But the list is blurry."
The referee simply smiled and said, "You'll be out. If you're okay, I'll take you to Fengju Village in a bit."
Looking at the referee's expression, Wu Wangwang suddenly understood how the list came about; the game's settings are sometimes easy to guess.
The rain was getting heavier, and the small station shed couldn't provide much shelter. Wu Wangwang urged the referee to hurry up and take her there. The murderer was with Ling Yuanshan, and who knew how many more obstacles they would cause? What if Ling Yuanshan died before she got there?
The referee stared at her speechlessly, as if looking at a love-struck fool who wouldn't even eat a zombie, and said, "You can't go. You just wait. Mei Su can't appear until after dark. I'll find another car to pick you up. Mei Su didn't go by motorcycle. Oh dear, I'm unlucky to run into players like you."
Then the referee walked away cursing, repeatedly yelling at Wu Wangwang that she absolutely could not go there by herself according to the navigation, and then disappeared into the rain.
Helpless, Wu Wangwang could only shrink back into the tent and wait for the referee to come over again.
With her phone battery at only 60%, Wu Wangwang didn't dare to play too much. She was extremely bored during the day, and the rain was slowly flooding the roads. Her white leather shoes, which were flat-soled to begin with, were completely soaked as the water rose.
These women's leather shoes were very sturdy, and they became even more tight when wet. Wu Wangwang took off her shoes uncomfortably and stepped into the water with her socks on. It was actually uncomfortable, but she dared not go without them, as there were ditches and woods all around, and who knew what might pop up and bite her.
The human body is too fragile. Even though she won't die, it's best not to take the risk, lest the referee, in a moment of pleasure, send her away.
With nothing to do, Wu Wangwang began to examine the things she carried with her and her own attire.
Mei Su had a beautiful perm, which looked freshly done; it was soft and smooth. Her dress also seemed new, as it had no wear or wrinkles.
After the water level rose, Wu Wangwang picked up her suitcase with one hand holding her shoes and the other holding her suitcase. She shook it a couple of times and realized that it was somewhat empty inside. It contained clothes, a wallet, jewelry, cosmetics, and daily necessities, which were the basic travel gear.
After waiting for ages until the afternoon, the referee finally arrived. He somehow found a beat-up van and drove over, wobbling along.
The car stopped in front of Wu Wangwang, and the referee rolled down the window: "Get in the car quickly, we'll take you there now, and it will be dark by the time we get there—and put your shoes on, apart from divers, have you ever seen a ghost take off its shoes?"
Wu Wangwang picked up her shoes and refused, saying, "These shoes are uncomfortable to wear; they're too stiff."
The referee grumbled and grabbed a handful of his hair: "Fine, fine, you come up first. I'll buy you a new pair when we get to the village, but the style can't be different."
After getting into the car, Wu Wangwang put down her suitcase and shoes. She touched the car window and said, "Referee, your car is so bad. Don't you make money as a referee?"
In the original owner's memory, this kind of van was the worst, only the poor would ride in it, and it wasn't this dilapidated. The referee's van was like a roller coaster, as if it would fall apart if one more person got on.
Wu Wangwang, who wasn't used to traveling by car, felt a little nauseous.
The referee's face darkened in the driver's seat. He glared at Wu Wangwang through the rearview mirror: "No one will think you're mute if you don't speak. Also, your identity is a secret in this instance. Even your husband can't tell you. He has to find out on his own. Understand?"
“Oh…” Wu Wangwang was not happy, then changed the subject, “Since I’m a ghost now, can I use my special abilities to save him?”
“You don’t have any special abilities,” the referee coldly shattered Wu Wangwang’s fantasy. “I’ll explain Mei Su’s character setting to you in detail on the way. Remember, you absolutely cannot break the character setting, or I will immediately send you out of the instance.”
Mei Su is a very insecure person. Her insecurity stems from the suppression she received from her family. Of course, in most families, this suppression is called love. It is a suppressive education done out of love, all for her own good.
Parents use a vicious method to completely deceive their children, making them achieve everything they want: fame, face, money—anything they don't have, they try to get back for them.
But Mei Su was a child with very poor talent. She was born into a well-off family and was an only child. Her family's conditions were already very good for most people, but she was just too poor in talent.
No matter how many times her parents taught her or how many tutors they hired, her grades were still very poor in their eyes.
On average, she wasn't bad compared to other children in her grade; she was just an average person. But her parents hoped she would be like a phoenix, able to take them soaring to the heavens. This was partly due to their genuine disdain for her, and partly due to their suppression of her education. With these two reasons overlapping, Mei Su lived in constant fear from a young age, always worried that she hadn't done something right.
The child who grew up in this environment seemed even more insecure than Wu Wangwang herself. She was timid, believed that everything she did was wrong, and absolutely believed everything her parents instilled in her.
After finishing elementary school, she attended a junior high school assigned by address. Her parents even bought a house in the school district in advance, saying it was all for her. Even her mother quit her job to accompany her to school was for her sake.
Under such pressure, Meisu could not possibly do well on the exam, so she went to an ordinary high school, not the best one in the city. Her parents were so angry that they locked her in her room for two whole months, bringing her food and drink whenever they remembered, and even controlling her access to the toilet and bathing.
Sometimes Mei Su would beg for mercy behind the door because she was so hungry, but she still didn't get forgiveness. A few times she was sick and couldn't hold it in any longer, so she lost control in her room. When her parents found out, they beat and scolded her, saying that she was a good-for-nothing, that she couldn't even control her physiological needs, that she was a defective product, and that it was no wonder she did so poorly on her exams.
After two nightmarish months, Mei Su was somewhat slow to react when high school started. However, her parents' attitude suddenly changed. They became kind and caring towards her, saying that they had completed her enrollment procedures and that she would be attending the second-best high school in the city. She absolutely could not let her parents down this time.
Later, Mei Su learned from her parents' complaints that she had been admitted to that school by paying 1,000 yuan for every point she was short; however many points she was short, she would pay that amount of money to make up for it.
This amount of money was nothing to her family, but her parents kept saying it as if the money had already bankrupted them, putting the blame directly on Mei Su, making her responsible for the money.
When Mei Su entered high school, she was terrified. She studied very hard, sleeping only three hours a day. She studied when others were studying and dared not stop when others were resting, but her grades still did not improve. Even her teachers said that it would be better to relax appropriately, but she dared not, and her parents were not happy either.
After realizing there was no room for improvement at school, I simply stopped attending evening self-study sessions and weekend tutoring, and hired a private tutor for one-on-one lessons.
Later, Mei Su did not do very well in the college entrance examination and only got into an ordinary public second-tier university. She was indeed an ordinary person with no special talents. Other families would probably be very happy if they had such results, but she was humiliated at home again. She even had to go to university by herself because her parents felt ashamed.
After graduation, Mei Su looked for a job, but her parents didn't think it was good. So they spent 200,000 yuan to buy her a position in a company in the city. They also told Mei Su to be good to her superiors, to be observant and do all the miscellaneous work in the company, and to learn how to give gifts, whether to colleagues or superiors.
My parents said that if you do more work, others will think you are diligent; if you give more gifts, others will think you are good. This way, you can get promoted quickly and be more likely to be chosen when there is competition.
This outdated approach will only make Mei Su a target of bullying in the company. Moreover, her parents repeatedly insulted Mei Su with 200,000 yuan, saying that if she weren't useless, she wouldn't even be able to find a job, so why would they need to spend so much money?
Even Mei Su's meager salary wasn't enough to cover the gifts her parents wanted to give, so they had to subsidize her every month so she could give more gifts, believing that if she gave the right gifts, she would be rewarded.
Meisu had been bullied without realizing it until one day she felt unwell and stayed in the bathroom a little longer than usual. Only then did she realize how pathetic she and her parents were.
She was scammed out of 200,000 yuan. Her position was similar to that of a temporary worker, and there was hardly any assessment or interview required. As long as she applied, she could get into the company. If she had applied with her proper qualifications, she could have become a permanent employee and earned a monthly salary of 6,000 yuan plus social insurance and housing fund benefits.
On the contrary, the 200,000 yuan made everyone think that she might have some kind of intellectual deficiency, and they continued to despise her.
If someone isn't mentally unstable, how could they be so stupid as to spend 200,000 yuan to work as a temporary worker earning 1,800 yuan a month?
People in the company even mocked her, saying that she bought her degree. If the degree was real, why would she need to buy a position?
Therefore, her academic qualifications and job title must have been bought; she is a mentally challenged person who doesn't know pain and has a problem with her brain.
As for those gifts and chores, that's a joke. Who would want to throw away money for a gift that costs a hundred or two these days? What chores can't be done by cleaning ladies?
If you want to bribe someone, spend a hundred or two hundred thousand. What's the use of spending a hundred or two hundred? Doing more odd jobs just saves the company money for cleaning staff. One salary gets the work of two people. The company must be laughing all the way to the bank.
Mei Su was in great pain, but she dared not ask her superiors, colleagues, or parents for confirmation. With her personality, she was destined not to dare to resist in any way.
However, a year ago, when she asked her parents for money again, they refused because her mother had been diagnosed with a liver tumor. Her parents wanted to take back the money they had given her each month to pay for her medical treatment, and they once again insulted Meisu, saying that all the money they had spent had no effect and that Meisu must be the problem.
Mei Su has been a good-for-nothing since she was a child. They wasted hundreds of thousands of yuan on her. If they had known she was so useless, they would have kept the money for themselves.
After her mother was hospitalized, her parents continued to verbally abuse and beat Mei Su. She even contemplated suicide. The bullying at work and the abuse from her parents were tearing at her spirit.
Perhaps pushed to the limit, Mei Su finally spoke her mind about what had happened at the company, questioning her parents about why they had done this. She said that if they hadn't presumptuously bought her a position, she could have been promoted and had a normal career path, just as they had hoped.
However, her parents, who had been confident their whole lives, refused to believe it. They thought Mei Su was a good-for-nothing who was incompetent and made excuses. They even tore off a piece of Mei Su's hair during the beating.
After that conflict, Mei Su's parents blocked her first. They felt that Mei Su was not capable of living on her own and that as long as she felt the pain, she would definitely come back and kneel down to apologize.
Without money, Mei Su truly began to grow up. Her previous age and mindset were frozen in infancy. The problem of survival forced her to face the world, and then she finally realized that her whole life had been wrong, wrong from the very beginning.
People don't really change. Once their values are formed in early childhood, they don't change. Mei Su didn't change either. She just wanted to live. A child who didn't commit suicide despite being oppressed to this extent, living was the most important thing in her heart.
So she began to make all sorts of unavoidable compromises just to survive.
For example, she no longer cleans up the company's clutter, so she can save time to deliver food or work as a housekeeper. Since the company stopped giving gifts, she has no money. Her basic salary of 1,800 yuan a month is only enough for her to pay her rent.
Later, she moved to a dilapidated rental room in an urban village for a few hundred yuan, and took the bus to work every day, which was even cheaper.
But this change did not improve her life. She saved some money, but the bullying at the company became more severe. Her parents blocked her, but relatives kept coming to insult her as if she were some heinous sinner.
She took on some responsibilities, but later stopped, which made others feel guilty. This led to bullying within the company. This year, Mei Su couldn't take it anymore. Perhaps she had saved some money and felt more secure, so she resolutely resigned.
When she resigned, her boss threatened her, saying that her position was bought with 200,000 yuan by her parents, and that the 200,000 yuan would not be refunded if she resigned.
Mei Su did not hesitate and decided to leave. Her parents finally contacted her, still with insults and threats, saying that if she quit, she would have to return the 200,000 yuan.
This time, it was Mei Su's turn to block them and delete all related content. She felt like she had never been so carefree in her life, breathing freely, running around, and doing whatever she wanted. She got her hair permed and bought a new dress.
Then, I decided to take a rebirth trip.
Mei Su's short life came to an end.
The referee said, "You're basically an actor brought in temporarily. When you enter the village, be careful. Remember to bring your melancholy, your sense of relief, a little bit of joy, and your anticipation and excitement for the unknown. Don't have a deadpan expression, and don't be love-struck."
Wu Wangwang saw his own perpetually calm face with a hint of a smile in the rearview mirror. Sometimes, a ghostly pity would appear on that face. He could manage one or two ordinary expressions, but the referee made it too complicated.
So the referee and Wu Wangwang's deadpan face met in the rearview mirror.
"...Fine, at least you look like a dead person. I just told you a bunch of things, is there anything else you want to ask?" The referee looked away with some disdain.
“There are two strange things,” Wu Wangwang said, lost in thought. “Mei Su has no friends, so how does she drink, party, and travel with them? She has already abandoned her family, so why is the final condition for clearing the dungeon going home?”
In the distance, the village lights could be seen, resembling a safe haven in the rain, making the weary traveler even more tired and wanting to fall asleep under the warm lights.
The referee drove the car into the village and lit a cigarette: "You must be a very strong person. Generally speaking, it's against the laws of natural evolution for someone like you to have a romantic mind."
Wu Wangwang was silent for a moment: "...Referee, please refrain from personal attacks."
The village was small, and the referee quickly parked near the village's only inn. He pulled the handbrake and turned around: "Because she is insecure and in pain, she thinks that anyone who is willing to drink with her is already a friend. She wants to go home, the key is home, not going back."
Wu Wangwang couldn't understand this answer. Humans always have contradictory thoughts. Even though they can't make logical sense to themselves, they yearn for the beautiful illusion that comes with contradictions and conflicts.
"It's almost time. I'll go find you shoes and an umbrella. Then head to the inn over there; that's the meeting point for this instance. Remember, you can't say anything. Just play your role well. When the instance ends, you'll receive rewards according to the standards for players who have completed it." The referee repeatedly instructed, then got out of the car in the rain to find equipment for Wu Wangwang.
Despite the torrential rain, the referee's cigarette did not go out in the rain.
Each instance's referee has a different personality, and the referee in this instance seems to be quite unconventional, like a country bumpkin.
Wu Wangwang stared at the still-lit hotel in the distance, but couldn't see where the players were. They were probably in their rooms. The hotel was called He Gui, and there was a sign that read "Feel at Home" hanging at the entrance.
Not long after, the referee returned, carrying a new pair of white shoes and a pair of matching white socks for Wu Wangwang.
"Hurry up and put it on, you have five minutes left." The referee kept a close eye on the time on his phone.
What could have been done automatically by the ghosts now requires constant monitoring from the player, for fear of missing the time and causing the dungeon to progress incorrectly.
Wu Wangwang moved quickly as well. She put on her new shoes and socks and stepped in them. She felt that the new shoes were even harder to wear. The conditions were simple, so she couldn't be picky. She picked up her suitcase and walked into the rain. Behind her, the referee kept whispering reminders about things like "melancholy" and "excitement".
Walking in the rain, Wu Wangwang muttered to herself, "Melancholy and excitement are almost antonyms. I'm not an actor, so it would be strange if I could act it out."
Although it doesn't quite fit Mei Su's character, Wu Wangwang is a ghost, after all. She walked in through the rain with an umbrella, her ghostly aura sending shivers down the spines of the players in the inn. Only Ling Yuanshan stood up abruptly and ran to the door, staring intently at her.
Wu Wangwang trudged through the mud and water to the inn's entrance, slowly raising her umbrella slightly: "Young Master, you're still alive."
Ling Yuanshan asked anxiously in a low voice, "Why are you here?"
Before Wu Wangwang could answer, a voice suddenly came from behind Ling Yuanshan: "Who is it? It's not your girlfriend, Ling Yuanshan, is it?"
The voice sounded familiar, and Wu Wangwang quickly realized that the person was the murderer who used puppets in the dance studio to try to kill Ling Yuanshan.
The other party's behavior was extremely malicious. Every player would try to avoid using their real name when entering the instance. Only Wu Wangwang was unfamiliar with the body exchange at the beginning and used her own name. After that, she was careful not to reveal her real name.
Furthermore, the referee stated that the number of players in this instance is limited. Since the number is already limited, why deliberately call out the players' real names?
The referee repeatedly warned Wu Wangwang not to reveal his identity, but before he even entered the room, he probably couldn't be controlled.
Ling Yuanshan turned around abruptly and swung his long knife directly at the murderer, but the man took a step back to dodge. Other players came out and blocked the two of them.
Including Wu Wangwang, there are seven players in this level. If you remove her, Ling Yuanshan, and the murderer, there are two men and two women. One of the tall girls said, "Stop fighting. We've come this far, and you two haven't stopped fighting. We can't find any information. Do you both want to die here?"
The murderer spat and said, "Pah! It's good that he died here! I wish he had died here first."
Ling Yuanshan remained silent, but once again swung his long sword.
Wu Wangwang quickly closed her umbrella and grabbed Ling Yuanshan's sword hilt: "Young Master, let it go, don't bother with him."
“He insulted you!” Ling Yuanshan said angrily.
The assailant pointed at Ling Yuanshan: "Are you fucking crazy? Who insulted her?"
Wu Wangwang squeezed past Ling Yuanshan into the hotel. She shook the water off her head and answered seriously, "First of all, you swore, which is an insult in terms of word definition. Secondly, the word 'girlfriend' is used to insult people. We should have received the same nine years of compulsory education. Have you been studying properly?"
The other players looked at each other, wondering what was wrong with this new girl. She was too sharp-tongued; she had almost driven that boy crazy in no time.
The murderer wanted to say something, but Wu Wangwang ignored him and simply pulled Ling Yuanshan to the counter to register. After getting the room card, she turned around and glanced at all the players standing in the lobby, saying, "Since we don't get along, I can't let some people have it too easy. The information I received is that there is one more person in this instance. Think about it yourself."
After saying that, Wu Wangwang ignored the players' expressions of terror that changed instantly. She pulled Ling Yuanshan upstairs, preventing him from continuing to beat the murderer.
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Author's Note: [End of Chapter]
Wu Wangwang: Humanity's nine-year compulsory education system has a long way to go. [Chin resting on hand]
Ling Yuanshan: My wife is right! [Thumbs up]
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