Chapter 130 The Sound of Suonas Brings Joy and Sorrow to the Mountain "I'm going to help with poverty alleviation. You all go..."
Xue Chao had already taken the opportunity to slip away.
He could control the game remotely; there was no need for him to get involved in the mess on-site. The other players noticed, but they were too preoccupied at the poker table to pay him any attention.
After a while, Zhuo Yi still followed.
Xue Chao showed neither surprise nor rejection, while Zhuo Yi remarked with a touch of emotion, "You and Lao Lü are somewhat alike."
"Are you referring to your tolerance level?" Xue Chao asked indifferently. "You're still considered normal."
He had seen real lunatics, and compared to some evil gods, Zhuo Yi's level was simply "likable".
Zhuo Yi: "...Is this a compliment or an insult?"
He put his hands behind his head and said, "I wanted to play a little longer. It's my first time playing mahjong, but those guys from the Five Poisons gang ran away really fast, and the other team wasn't very interesting. I also heard from Lao He that the shops were almost empty. No wonder they ran away so fast. Where did the Five Poisons get their stolen money?"
He looked at Xue Chao, who scoffed, "Don't try to trick me."
Zhuo Yi joked, "Should I try to persuade him again?"
"If you want to know what I'm going there for, I'm going to help the poor. You're all at the card table, and some of you haven't even finished your starting hands yet. As the host, I have a duty to supervise these players who are playing passively," Xue Chao said. "You can take a psychology test to see if what I'm saying is true."
Zhuo Yi had guessed the same thing. They had seen them in the north and east, but there was no news from the west, and they were heading west.
"These intractable diseases are all divine weapons, aren't you afraid of dying?" Zhuo Yi said with a smile. "Didn't you almost get killed by a divine weapon in the last dungeon?"
Xue Chao glanced at him, and then the system message arrived that the popularity value had broken through the 60-point mark. The player's special ability was unlocked, and the camera sharing was turned off one after another.
"I'm not afraid anymore," Xue Chao said lazily. "They can kill me now."
Zhuo Yi was taken aback, then laughed out loud: "You're really fearless, you should be a good friend."
"Really?" Xue Chao said casually. "I thought players all disliked hosts."
Zhuo Yi nodded without hesitation: "Who would be happy to be watched by rats in the dark? Even if there is no threat, it's still disgusting."
"So if I were a player, I wouldn't like the host either." Xue Chao yawned lightly. "Just like if I were the host, I wouldn't like you players with superpowers."
The further west they went, the fewer people they saw, but the villagers became even more welcoming. Perhaps because there were only a few households, they often visited each other and ate together from the same pot. Following the smell, they found the group with the chronic illness.
Three expressionless men sat to one side, having already finished eating. A disheveled uncle, still holding a bowl, sat between the older woman, the older man, and the child, his eyes filled with tears. He ate and praised the food as if he had been rescued by kind people and witnessed the "true kindness in the world."
Xue Chao sat down opposite him without paying attention. Several families who had seen him before offered him a bowl of rice, but he had already eaten and politely declined.
The dejected middle-aged man only then noticed him, his eyes widening as if he had met a high-ranking leader, and he became a little reserved: "Oh, you're Shou... indeed, a handsome man indeed, a pleasure to meet you, want something to eat?"
He pushed the pastries aside, and Xue Chao casually placed the bowl of chicken blood syrup next to the pastries. The sugar coating solidified again, mixing with the chicken blood, like jade mixed with red impurities.
The middle-aged man smelled the blood: "...Who upset you?"
"The chicken didn't provoke me." Xue Chao handed the bowl of blood to an older woman, whispered something, and then she left.
Zhuo Yi glanced at the egg feast on the table and understood: "The chickens she raises?"
From the distant courtyard, the sounds of roosters crowing rose and fell.
The middle-aged man ate his food like a starving ghost. Xue Chao watched him eat with relish, then shifted his gaze to the three statues standing beside him: "Wasn't the mission to kill me? I'm here, what are you waiting for?"
His gaze returned to the dejected middle-aged man: "Wait until you finish eating?"
Zhuo Yi, who was watching the show from the side, raised an eyebrow.
The dejected middle-aged man coughed from the choking noise, inwardly lamenting, "Is this the kind of deadly style of picking fights these days? Can't everyone just pretend for once?"
But on the surface, he still had a fawning smile: "The mission was to cut in line and cause trouble, and we've already accomplished that... As for whether you cracked it or not, and what to do next, that's our little boss's business. We don't just do missions; we also have to meet our targets. Being a weapon isn't easy these days!"
Xue Chao remained expressionless, his thin, fierce eyes slightly raised: "I believe your teammates only follow programmed commands, but you seem like a smart person. Even if you're making a weapon, you should be able to read your master's mind, right?"
"Otherwise, how could you have become a team leader so quickly?" Huang Haitao chuckled twice and leaned closer. "But understanding the boss's thoughts isn't about overstepping your bounds. The one you encountered before... isn't that a cautionary tale?"
Upon hearing this, Xue Chao also curled the corners of his mouth, but his blue eyes flickered. The sea is always in motion, and its calm and turbulent sides are like two sides of the same coin, not easily discernible.
The dungeon only had five players, and another person involved was dead. Everyone knew all this so clearly; the intelligence network of a major guild is indeed extraordinary.
"You really won't kill me?" Xue Chao released the subtle pressure.
"You're my big boss's student, how could I dare?" Huang Haitao slapped his thigh, his mouth running wild. "After a few words, we'll hit it off immediately! You better kick that guy off! We'll follow you from now on!"
The big boss is Holder, and the boss who hired him this time is Marco Polo. Zhuo Yi chimed in, "If he dies, how will you explain it to Marco Polo? Those three are always willing to answer any question, right?"
“Anyone can die in a game. If one dies, we’ll deal with it. Everyone’s fine now, so let’s be optimistic. If things really get bad, I’ll just go and apologize.” Huang Haitao is optimistic. “Since we can’t be human, we might as well follow someone we get along with.”
Zhuo Yi gave a thumbs-up: "Philosophy."
Huang Haitao chuckled foolishly.
Xue Chao, however, was unimpressed: "To say you're siding with me means you're deliberately avoiding exploring the anomalies and slowing down my progress?"
"I came here to see you!" Huang Haitao said bluntly. "I need to see what all the candidates are like in person before I can choose someone with a promising future!"
Zhuo Yi interrupted, "He would definitely say the same thing if he saw a sausage."
Xue Chao: "I know."
He twirled the lighter and asked, "Have we gone into the house in front of the west gate?"
Seeing that they knew each other, the villagers went about their own business, eating and chatting. Just as they were talking about the morning's battle to wash the God of Wealth and laughing together, they heard "the house in front of the west gate" and immediately fell into an odd silence.
Huang Haitao slapped his thigh as if on cue and complained exaggeratedly: "I get angry just thinking about this. You lock the door at night and lock the door during the day. If you want to promote rural development, I think this is a good place to be a resort. You have to be open and hospitable. How can you keep it closed? Look at Sister Wang, she gave us food and a place to stay. She's so kind!"
The homeowner, who was being praised, quickly waved his hand with a smile and replied with a couple of warm and witty remarks, but did not respond to the comment about "the house in front of the west gate".
Huang Haitao gave Xue Chao a helpless look, and Xue Chao knew that he had tried to extract information several times without success.
Just like before, when the house was mentioned, the people on the west side kept quiet.
Not just the west side, but the whole village, which is neither too big nor too small, is where everyone knows each other. People living in other directions are quite superstitious and simply won't answer.
The villagers quickly got back to work with renewed enthusiasm. Xue Chao leaned back lazily and said in a voice that was easy for the three of them to talk in, "You're all old players, don't you know how to pick locks? We've been waiting for a whole day and night, and you still haven't spared a single effort."
"It's not that I lack strength, it's that I'm a coward... Those three are like mannequins, only slightly better than ghosts. Going with them, I don't know if it's to bolster my courage or to increase the horror level of my game."
Just then, the older sister returned with a bowl: "Hey, you were right, it really is our chicken! The bucket we put in it when we slaughtered it this morning is gone!"
She stepped through the door and noticed everyone looking behind her. Turning around, she saw a disheveled beggar hesitating at the doorway, his dirty hair obscuring his eyes, revealing only his filthy mouth, which seemed to be murmuring something, or perhaps it was too dry, causing him to unconsciously move his lips.
The eldest sister's initial enthusiastic and slightly surprised expression vanished instantly, and she looked at him with an unspeakable expression, just like the others.
An eerie atmosphere spread, and no one spoke until an older man, with a stern face, picked up two steamed buns and forcefully shoved them into his hand, telling him to leave quickly.
The beggar took the steamed bun and immediately started eating it, inching his way away. The older brother and sister, not wanting to see him, turned back.
The older woman was still holding up the bowl, revealing the gold bracelet on her wrist. In the instant she turned around, the bracelet was snatched away from behind her, the bowl shattered on the ground, and blood splattered all over her.
She was pulled down, and her older brother went to help her up. A crowd gathered around, and an old woman started cursing: "You filthy beggar, you steal things every day, you deserve to starve to death!"
Following the direction of the cursing, Xue Chao deduced the beggar's movements, changed his route, and blocked the beggar's path. The beggar tried to escape in fear, but Xue Chao subdued him with a single move.
Zhuo Yi lagged behind, and seeing that the suspect had been caught, he took it upon himself to interrogate him. He leaned over and asked, "I gave you a steamed bun, but you insisted on gold. Don't be stupid once, don't be stupid a second time. Answer my questions. What's the story with the house in front of the West Gate?"
The villagers didn't just dislike the beggar; they also felt a familiar sense of dread. The beggar must have some connection to the house in front of the west gate.
The beggar whimpered, tears streaming down his face, but he wouldn't say anything no matter how you asked. He just kept crying louder and louder, attracting the footsteps of other villagers. Xue Chao impatiently chopped him to sleep with a chop to the neck, and Zhuo Yi agreed.
Huang Haitao, who arrived a step late, exclaimed "Ouch!" His temper was so bad, it was his turn to argue and get clues!
The large house in front of the west gate was sealed off. Xue Chao checked the lock but found no signs of forced entry.
It's not that difficult. The group of divine soldiers that Holder raised shouldn't be unable to handle it. They just don't want to and are waiting for him to come.
A fortune-telling container was tied to the door. Huang Haitao said, "I came here specifically this morning to stake out the place. This place is considered 'auspicious' today. If there are fortune sticks, there must be people here. It's not empty... But I think you should reconsider. If this is the lair of ghosts and monsters, then we're just walking into their trap!"
Zhuo Yi took a few steps back and sniffed, "It smells of flowers. Did you plant flowers in the yard? Won't they freeze to death in this weather?"
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