...
She was still in the mood to berate herself for being fine. Seeing that she had relaxed, Shi Jinzhe was relieved and walked with her towards the arched secret room.
Similar to the corner we glimpsed earlier, the secret room was a simple dwelling, with a bed made of wooden planks, and it hadn't been lived in for a long time.
Shi Jinzhe ran his fingertip across the round table in the corner; it was made of the finest wood.
His gaze shifted upwards, and he saw an oil painting on the bedside table, while Sheikh was gazing intently at it.
Some paint smudged on the side against the wall, and the painting was cracked because it hadn't been treated. There was no framed oil painting; only a small oil painting frame sat there quietly.
A portrait oil painting depicts a smiling young girl who looks to be seventeen or eighteen years old.
Her fluffy, soft wavy hair shone with a faint golden light, and her eyes were a light blue, a pure blue, like the sky after a storm, a truly rare clarity.
She wore an elaborately patterned, fitted long robe, the gemstone hanging from her forehead swaying. She turned around with a slightly surprised expression, as if someone was calling her from behind.
Shi Jin folded the frame and examined the painting up close.
The details are rich, and the artist clearly put a lot of effort into the drawing. This girl must be the subject of many dreams, otherwise, the artist wouldn't remember this fleeting glimpse so clearly.
He must have been constantly recalling this moment, which is why his brain was able to gradually refine the various details and repeatedly depict the scene of this instant.
"The artist had deep feelings for the girl in the painting."
Two seconds after Shi Jinzhe finished speaking, Sheh slowly responded.
"When I first saw the girl in the painting, a voice came to my mind. It was a very childish voice, which didn't match the age of the person in the painting. She was a five or six-year-old child. But for some reason, I knew that the voice belonged to her."
Shi Jinzhe's hand, which was clenched behind the picture frame, tightened. Did Shekh remember the portraits that appeared in this world?
He asked, "What did you hear?"
Shekh stared intently at the girl in the portrait. "I heard a little girl ask me, 'Would you be happy?'"
The little girl, still quite young, looked up at her, puzzled, and asked that question.
Sheh couldn't explain why the sentence left such a deep impression on her; in any case, the moment she caught a glimpse of the golden hair in the portrait, the sentence and the image inexplicably popped into her mind.
He clung to her like a dumpling, speaking without much thought, asking questions that reflected his own thoughts.
Shekh felt it very clearly, “Maybe I have been to this world before, and had a connection with the people here, just like Xiao Wu in the post-apocalyptic world.”
She stared at the portrait of the girl for a while, then realized that it must have been a long time ago.
Shi Jinzhe looked at her and said, "Is that all you remember?"
“Well, that’s all, but my gut feeling tells me this is very important to me.” Shekh took the painting from his hand and put it into his spatial ring. “I’ll keep it with me. Maybe I’ll start thinking about something again.”
Shi Jinzhe: "Okay, I'll listen to you."
Shekh: "Then let's move forward. The fact that I have an impression of this place means that Bai Weishuang has most likely left traces in this world as well. We should explore more places."
The arched chamber contained very little, so the two ventured into another secret passage to investigate. This passage was long and had a strong musty smell due to poor air circulation.
"I wonder how things are going with the three of them."
Shi Jinzhe glanced at the props and found that the red dots were moving quickly. One was alone, and two others were still in a team. The three of them were retreating.
"...It seems they've run into a bit of trouble."
Shekh: "You'd better not look or talk."
...
In the lush thicket, Ji Hui gripped a pale purple snake skin tightly as he ran frantically through the manor.
That night, I said the chances of running into Zhou Qiyu's team had decreased, but in the middle of the night, we ran right into their group.
He was speechless. What terrible luck! Even without Yan Ruoying, things shouldn't be this bad.
He had just snatched Shekh's snake skin from the girl who could use omnidirectional positioning when he ran into the five people from his camp who had joined him.
Ji Hui dodged the long arrow shot from behind, and a white talisman stuck to his back. Pu Sheng's voice came from inside, "Find a way to get into the building. Shi Jinzhe and the others are underground. If you are alone, the five of them will definitely chase you relentlessly."
Yan Ruoying followed closely behind and said, "Let's go through the woods, towards the southeast corner. It's less risky here."
Ji Hui immediately changed direction, rolled into the dark shadows of the trees, landed, adjusted his angle, and threw two throwing knives backward.
The rapidly spinning dagger drew an arc in the air, its blade close to the eye, circling twice around the pursuer behind it. After successfully interfering with the opponent, it automatically tracked back to Ji Hui.
Just as the throwing knife had neatly returned to the bushes, a series of clapping sounds emerged from around the corner of the outer corridor.
The twin brothers in Zhou Qiyu's camp paused, forced to stop in their tracks to avoid the patrol team.
After the patrol passed, the two wanted to give chase, but Ji Hui had disappeared into the bushes.
The other three, who arrived late, looked rather grim upon seeing this. That piece of snake molt was extremely important; the entire enemy force that had been wiped out during the pursuit relied on it. Now that it had been stolen, their chance to catch the predator was immediately dashed.
"How was the snake skin stolen?"
The young man with a wolf-tail hairstyle and black-rimmed glasses was the last to catch up, his gaze sweeping over the only female player in the group.
Mu Zhi lowered her head, licked her lips, and then raised her eyes, saying, "I spotted these three people near the fountain and followed them for a while. I noticed they separated, so after some consideration, I chose to follow this man. He seemed to be the most difficult of the three, and he happened to be alone, so I thought I'd locate him directly and have you take care of him, but I didn't expect..."
"I didn't expect to be outmaneuvered and have my snake skin stolen?"
Li Huaizhen coldly continued for her, "Guess why he acted alone when the three of them split up?"
Mu Zhi: "It was my misjudgment, because I thought Zhou Qiyu was also there..."
"Stop." Li Huaizhen took a step forward. "Zhou Qiyu has other things to do. He wants to explore more areas than the enemy camp before you do. He's not here for you to chase after."
Mu Zhi: "...It's my fault, I'm sorry."
Li Huaizhen felt a lump in his throat, and after calming down for a while, he said, "Forget it, things have come to this. Let's investigate the clues first. You three can work in groups, and Zhou Qiyu and I will each do our own thing."
Zhou Qiyu didn't say anything, just nodded in agreement.
As long as he doesn't directly face Shekh, anything goes.
The twin brothers discarded the expired speed-up item and called to Mu Zhi, "Let's go, we haven't finished searching the place where we were robbed yet."
Mu Zhi hesitated for a moment, as if she had something to say, and stood still.
Li Huaizhen asked her, "Is there anything else?"
"Can't this grouping be changed..." Mu Zhi pressed her thumbs together, her knuckles turning red, showing that she was a little nervous. "There are three of us, one with the number four and two with the number six. I don't feel that's good. If either you or Zhou Qiyu had been there, we could have handled that person."
Li Huaizhen's expression remained unchanged: "Who do you want to be paired with?"
"You or Zhou Qiyu."
"impossible."
Li Huaizhen shattered her unrealistic ideas, saying, "Whichever of us you're paired with, you'll be the first one to be abandoned if there's an insurmountable danger. Even if the risk is manageable, you don't have the value or need for two high-level players to protect you."
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