The elderly people were eating slowly. Those with good hands could use chopsticks, while those with poor hands would lower their heads to the tray and use spoons to scoop food into their mouths.
They seemed completely unaffected by Li Qiusheng's words, and continued to slowly stuff food into their mouths.
An elderly man with weak wrists had been keeping his head down for too long, and his head slumped, causing his chin to hit the corner of the table hard.
"Hiss..." Bu Yi gasped and rubbed his chin.
Wang Yan teased her, "Feeling the same way? It looks like it's really painful."
Bu Yi argued, "No, it really hurts. I was really hurt just now, and it still hurts a little now."
Xia Chuhe looked at Bu Yi, then at the old man who had just bumped his chin. Bu Yi was her caregiver.
Xia Chuhe suddenly remembered that on the second day after entering the instance, when he had just obtained the old man's information, Li Qiusheng felt a sore neck. The old man that Li Qiusheng was responsible for taking care of had been beaten up by Sister Ye the day before.
Xia Chuhe wasn't the only one who thought of this. Li Yue squeezed the old man's shoulder hard, and then a slow, dull pain came from her shoulder.
The game binds the pain of the elderly and their caregivers together.
“If that’s the case, if the old man dies…” Li Qiusheng pondered, “should we choose a less painful way to do it?”
Xia Chuhe: "..." This child is hopeless.
Xia Chuhe assigned Li Qiusheng a task: to track down the other four evolved individuals, see what they would do, and what consequences their actions would lead to.
To make it easier to watch the live broadcast, Xia Chuhe pointed out the hummingbird to Li Qiusheng.
The group of four didn't have much patience. After obtaining the documents, two of them wanted to harm the old man, but were stopped by the other two.
While they were digging for wild vegetables, Li Qiusheng overheard their "experiment".
"Let's get started quickly, boss. The caregivers' attitude is very clear."
"When we were bullying those old men, the other people were almost cheering."
"No, it's probably not that simple."
"Boss, don't wait any longer. There are too few resources in this dungeon. The faster we act, the more rewards we'll get. We've encountered dungeons like this before. Wasn't the dungeon last month the same? We could get out by killing the corresponding monsters."
"Let me think about it some more..."
...
The result of their "thinking" was that they decided to observe for another day and take action tomorrow.
Li Qiusheng and Hummingbird brought back the whereabouts of the four-person group, and no one spoke first.
Xia Chuhe said, "Tell me your thoughts."
Li Qiusheng said, "Tomorrow, after they make their move, if they can successfully escape the instance, and we don't have any clues about the instance's core, I think..."
Her meaning was clear: she wanted to emulate the behavior of the four.
Li Yue said, "I don't care. If you're worried about the danger, I can be the first to come."
Lu Dangui said, "That's unreliable. Let's wait until the last day to talk about it."
Bu Yi and Wang Yan shared the same attitude as Lu Dangui, and Xia Chuhe also agreed with Lu Dangui's idea even more.
Xia Chuhe gave Li Qiusheng a wary look: "Don't try it rashly."
"Okay," Li Qiusheng muttered.
Xia Chuhe didn't make any more demands, fearing that the more she said, the less obedient Li Qiusheng would become.
Night falls.
Xia Chuhe lingered in the elderly's living area, refusing to leave. When other teammates came to ask, she gave them all vague answers.
After everyone had almost left, Lu Dangui said, "I'll stay with you."
"It's too dangerous." That's why Xia Chuhe sent the others away.
“I know.” If it weren’t dangerous, Lu Dangui wouldn’t have chosen to stay.
Just as Xia Chuhe was about to say something more, an announcement suddenly came from the corridor: "There will be a dedicated caregiver on duty tonight. Please do not linger in the building."
The announcement was broadcast three times, each time louder than the last, the last time almost right next to Xia Chuhe's ear.
Just as Xia Chuhe was looking for a place to hide, a scene flashed before her eyes, and she and Lu Dangui were ejected from the living area. The cold iron gate ruthlessly blocked her way.
The instance left no loopholes for exploitation.
With no other option, Xia Chuhe had to go back.
Xia Chuhe lay in bed, his eyelids growing heavier and heavier...
A tingling, itchy sensation spread across my face, and a gust of wind swept away my sleepiness.
Xia Chuhe turned his neck, feeling stiff all over, especially his legs, which he couldn't muster any strength for. His facial features were also strange; his ears felt sticky and heavy, as if filled with water, and he could only hear very faint sounds.
A burly figure drifted to Xia Chuhe's bedside.
Xia Chuhe tried to roll over to avoid it, but her body wouldn't obey her commands, and even rolling over was difficult.
The person beside the bed pinched Xia Chuhe's armpits and lifted her to sit on the edge of the bed: "Open your mouth."
Xia Chuhe gritted his teeth, but when he did, he realized that his mouth was leaking air and he couldn't hold on.
Seeing that Xia Chuhe was uncooperative, the man grabbed her chin, threw the capsule into her mouth, roughly closed her jaw, pushed her head up, and shoved it down her throat. Only after feeling Xia Chuhe swallow once did he release her.
Xia Chuhe vaguely heard the words "old codger".
After the man left, Xia Chuhe shakily raised his hand and pried out a capsule that showed signs of melting from his back teeth.
Xia Chuhe carefully put the capsule away, only to discover that the room had completely changed, becoming a room in the elderly living area. Her arms were covered with age spots, and her leg muscles were atrophied.
Xia Chuhe touched his hair; it was short, dry, and rough.
She grew into an old woman.
Xia Chuhe opened the bedside table, and the contracts, meal cards, and other items inside were in the exact same positions as this morning.
She became the elderly person she used to take care of.
He is old and frail, and has a disability in both legs.
Even his superpowers were unusable, and the farm was completely inaccessible.
Xia Chuhe forced herself to calm down; she was certain this wasn't a dream. If she became an old woman, what about the old woman? What about her body?
Xia Chuhe recalled what she had discovered that afternoon: the caregiver and the elderly woman shared the same feelings. She pounded her legs hard, since they were useless anyway.
Xia Chuhe made quite a commotion, and the person who had just given her the medicine returned.
"Fine, you're not taking your medicine properly again!"
The man grabbed Xia Chuhe's cheek and roughly shoved the medicine down her throat. He watched as the medicine was swallowed before leaving again.
Xia Chuhe's eyelids grew heavy again.
When she regained consciousness, it was broad daylight and the door was wide open.
A young man named Xia Chuhe stood by the bed and poured her a glass of water: "Have some water first. No one is bringing food today, is there? I'll go get some."
The young Xia Chuhe took the elderly people's meal cards from the bedside table one by one and left.
The elderly Xia Chuhe clenched his fists weakly. Who was impersonating him? Would she kill him? Were his teammates alright?
Countless questions lingered in Xia Chuhe's mind. She could only deduce from the words "today" and "also" that time was still passing normally and that today was the fourth day since she entered the instance.
Xia Chuhe didn't know if she would be able to escape the instance after seven days.
It's even more uncertain whether she will survive to the seventh day.
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