Chapter 241: White Orchid Rain Festival (Twenty-three)
How to describe it?
The baby looks normal at first glance, but upon closer inspection, something seems wrong.
Her cries and movements were not unconscious like those of ordinary babies, but more like a reaction to fit the image of a baby and what came out of her mouth.
The bright cry suddenly stopped, and was replaced by a pair of overly clear eyes that looked at the people around.
Those residents who vowed to solve the problem as soon as possible before the child was born did not take action immediately even after they found out that the biggest obstacle, Widow Liu, had passed away.
I don't know whether he was shocked by the scene in front of him, or he couldn't bear to do it because the other person looked too normal.
As for Bei Xi and Nan Huan at this time, their attention was naturally on this little baby, but the directions of their attention were completely different.
Like most residents, Nanhuan focused on the small piece of wood carving that fell on the bed and was caught in the baby's hand with seemingly unconscious movements.
Because no matter in terms of shape or appearance, the wood carving in the baby's hand is exactly the same as the dragon-shaped wood carving that Old Man Zhang gave him. Except for being a little smaller, there is no difference. Of course, there are also subtle differences from the remaining wood carvings of Old Man Zhang.
Bei Xi's attention was different from most people's. Her eyes were always on the baby's face. The newborn baby had an overly lively expression and dark eyes. The look he gave to everyone was not just confusion about this new world. Bei Xi felt that she seemed to see something rare, like kindness, in his eyes, which was fleeting.
It wasn't that she suddenly became interested in this obviously abnormal baby, but she had an extremely familiar feeling from the first moment she saw him. Although the baby's appearance and form were very different from Nan Huan's childhood, she somehow always managed to see the essential familiarity through this appearance.
"Kill this kid..."
The first low voice of opinion finally broke out from the silent crowd.
"Even if we kill her, she has a dragon carving in her mouth. She is definitely not a normal human being. She must be an alien. We can't let her stay..."
The rest of the residents quickly echoed the sentiment, as if to find perfect support for their own conclusion, their tone was decisive.
But after all, this is not an easy thing to do. Everyone pushed and shoved, and everyone agreed, but no one stood up.
During the stalemate, the baby wrapped in the bed turned his round eyes and observed the people in the room, without realizing that danger was approaching.
"Then I'll do it," a burly man stepped forward, holding a butcher knife in his hand and approaching the baby step by step.
It's a bit crazy that an eight-foot-tall strong man would be so cautious when facing a powerless baby.
The four players' brows were furrowed. Even though they had witnessed all kinds of tragedy and seen countless terrible wounds in the dungeon world, they still couldn't do anything but watch a baby who had no way to resist being killed in front of them.
The doctor who delivered the baby had gotten up from the ground at some point, sighed, and walked away quietly, as if he didn't want to get involved in this matter, but he felt powerless to do anything for the life that had just been born with great difficulty and was about to die. He could only let out a long sigh.
Just when Nan Huan was hesitating whether to take action or not, and wondering whether this action would also be stopped by the system, someone finally stood up.
"She is just a newborn baby. Look at how she looks. How could she be from the dragon clan?"
He was the first person to drag the doctor into the room. From a close distance, he didn't seem very old, just a little hunchbacked. While explaining, he picked up the child on the bed with his withered hands, as if he was using his actions to prove to others that this was just an ordinary child.
The baby felt the human body temperature and instinctively moved closer, but the wooden sculpture in his hand did not let go.
"Zhang Da, stop meddling in other people's business." The man holding the butcher knife was relentless, somewhat angry that the other party had not expressed his opinion just now, but now rushed forward, "Look at what she spewed out of her mouth, how can she be a normal person?"
"That's Zhang Da. If you hadn't stopped her, Widow Liu would have been completely dealt with. How could it have come to this? Now that the other party is gone, why are you still trying to please her? Besides, this child is not your own, why are you protecting her?"
The woman with a pointed chin and monkey-like face speaks harshly and sarcastically, and her words are meant to put down the other person.
Zhang Da's face didn't turn red because of the other party's words, but it was obvious that he had heard such slanders many times. He patted the baby's back with his hand and said, "Such a young child, aren't you afraid of retribution for hitting him?"
The baby felt very comfortable being patted by him. He lay on his shoulder with his eyes raised, looking at other people. It seemed that he felt that the atmosphere was not very good at the moment, and he showed an innocent smile.
As soon as these words were spoken, the psychological defenses of the man who was holding the butcher knife just now seemed to be weakened a little. After all, the baby is not a real dead pig, it is a living being that can cry and laugh.
"Even if you haven't seen a dragon, you should have heard about it from your elders at home. How can they look like this?"
Zhang Da saw that everyone was wavering, so he stretched out his hand and turned the baby's face to show the others, "Besides, if she really was, then we wouldn't have a chance to talk now, she would have eaten it long ago."
I don’t know if it was Zhang Da’s last sentence that worked, or if the baby really didn’t look like one of those hateful dragons, which made the crowd of people less aggressive in their attitude.
"Then how do you explain this thing in her hand?" The woman kept on asking, whether she had some personal grudge or simply disliked the baby. "How could she be born with a piece of wood in her mouth for no reason? If not a monster, what could she be?"
The woman bit the wood sculpture and refused to let go. Seeing that the others' willingness to take action had weakened, she tried to reach out and snatch the child from Zhang Da's hand, but the other party dodged.
Zhang Da took the wooden sculpture from the baby's hand and threw it to the other party, "Since you think this thing is ominous, just dispose of it..."
The situation reached a delicate balance in the midst of pushing and shoving. The aggressive residents temporarily gave up the idea of directly killing the baby and threw the wood carving into the raging fire instead. Zhang Da temporarily protected the child's safety.
I don’t know if it was because the baby was too young and didn’t understand that she had just been to the gates of hell, or if it was for some other reason, but apart from the cry when she was first born, she didn’t make any other sound and looked extremely calm.
But when the wood carving was thrown into the fire, the baby's eyes fell directly into the fire, as if he was looking at something through the fire.
"Okay, time to go home."
Zhang Da touched her little face with his fingers. The day she was born was too long and full of twists and turns for her. "What name do you like? You must have a name when you grow up."
Zhang Da seemed to love this new life very much. He knew that she didn't understand but still tried to explain to her, "How about calling me Jiusheng? How about living forever?"
Zhang Da was not well educated, but he hoped that the baby who had survived a near-death experience could live longer, so he gave her this name. At this moment, the baby held his thumb and seemed to be quite satisfied with the name.
"Okay, Jiusheng, we're going home."
Zhang Da happily picked up the baby, let her lie on his shoulder, and turned around and left with his people.
In front of the blazing fire, those residents who had come with great interest, after watching the fire spread to the wood sculpture and seeing nothing unusual happen in the end, they all breathed a sigh of relief and dispersed in twos and threes.
Nan Huan and the others were the only ones left standing in front of the raging fire, not understanding what was happening before their eyes.
But before Nan Huan could open his mouth, the fire in front of him suddenly went out in an instant, and the wood sculpture was lying intact in the ashes without even a spark on it.
"Oh my god," President Alice was shocked, "What's going on?"
Then the piece of wood sculpture floated into the air, as if it had been summoned by something. Everyone followed the direction it moved and saw Jiusheng lying on Zhang Da's shoulder, waving his hand.
In such a strange scene, the dragon-shaped wooden sculpture finally followed Jiusheng away.
"What should we do now?" The leader of the workers' guild was also confused. They came here to complete a mission. They were originally supposed to find the pawn shop's customers, but now it seems that they have found the dragon clan. And judging from the situation, the child is not simple. "Should we follow them?"
Bei Xi and Nan Huan fell into a brief silence at the same time, as if they were digesting everything they had just seen, or as if they were thinking of other things.
But within a few seconds, the two of them spoke in unison.
"Not yet."
The two looked at each other and realized that they were thinking of the same question. Bei Xi motioned Nan Huan to explain.
President Alice and the President of the Workers' Association turned their gazes towards Nanhuan like fledgling birds, with a look of thirst for knowledge on their faces.
"While the system is still processing this incident, let's go find the Gambler's Guild President and the Corpse Chaser's Guild President first."
ah?
The jump was a bit too big, so much so that President Alice realized belatedly that their mission was actually a confrontation between two camps.
"But we still don't know who the owner of the pawn ticket is. What's the point of finding them?"
The workers don't need to think too much to know that the Gambler's Guild President and the Corpse Driver's Guild President will not cooperate obediently, and there is no situation in which they can turn against each other at the last minute.
"If we find them, maybe we can find out. At the very least, we can narrow down the scope to a certain extent."
Nan Huan explained patiently that President Alice had already started searching for tools to find people in the mall. After all, Bailan City was not a small city, and if they relied on just a few of them to search, it would be time-consuming and inefficient.
Beixi also started to take action. Nanhuan took a few people away from the campfire and found a hidden place. Seeing that the president of the workers' union didn't fully understand, he asked her.
"Putting aside other interfering factors, do you think this mission itself is fair from a neutral perspective?"
Nan Huan comforted the flower on the back of her neck with his backhand, asking her to calm down. After all, she was a little fussy when the wood sculpture appeared just now. Nan Huan happened to have something to ask her, but he decided to clear up the confusion of the Workers' Union President first.
The president of the workers' union was a little confused by the question. Now she had no clues. She didn't understand why the eldest lady was entangled in the issue of fairness.
But she still followed the other party's question and thought about it carefully. "It's not fair. Not to mention that there is a huge imbalance in the number of people in the two camps, plus you are now the new owner of the pawn shop, and the Gambler's Guild President still owes you a promise. It's not fair no matter how you look at it."
Especially since the Gambler’s Guild President and his men had no chance to go to Old Man Zhang’s place, they certainly didn’t know as much about the Dragon Clan as they did themselves.
"If you think it's unfair, how about the system from the perspective of gravity?"
Nan Huan couldn't help much in finding someone, but she still made a habit of checking on Bei Xi's situation at a fixed frequency in between conversations.
After hearing this, the Workers Guild President finally revealed an understanding expression. "I understand. So the system will balance the fairness or difficulty of the game. Our task is to find the owner of the pawn ticket and figure out the content of the pawn ticket. But for the Gambler Guild President and the Corpse Chaser Guild President, maybe they don't even need to find the owner of the pawn ticket."
"In other words, the system will narrow down the scope for them to some extent, so finding them might provide some clues."
Nan Huan saw that she understood and added a sentence, but his face was filled with worry.
"What's wrong? Is there anything else wrong?"
The president of the workers' union was puzzled. The young lady had obviously found a shortcut, so why did she still look a little worried?
"I am worried about something else now..."
Before Nan Huan could finish his words, he was interrupted by Bei Xi.
"We've searched everywhere, and there are no two of them in Bailan City now."
Bei Xi also frowned, as if he had guessed the meaning of Nan Huan's action, "You guessed right, the worst has happened."
"What's the worst case scenario?" President Alice had originally thought that she could find the two presidents, and she was very motivated. Now that she has found nothing, she is not very happy. "Stop playing dumb, I am already in a dilemma."
"We should be in Bailan City at a different time from the Gambler's Guild President and the Corpse Chaser's Guild President."
Nan Huan did not keep the secret any longer. "Although we have all entered the pawn ticket, as you have just seen, the system can control the different periods of Bailan City that we see."
"The pawn ticket we entered is like a movie, and this movie has countless scenes. The system can force us to enter a certain scene. Of course, it can also let the Gambler's Guild President and the Corpse Chaser's Guild President enter different scenes from us."
Nan Huan was afraid that his explanation was not accurate, so he added, "In other words, the system eliminates the possibility of us cheating. We have to rely on ourselves."
There is nothing more disappointing than finally finding a solution only to discover that it doesn't work.
However, the president of the Gamblers' Guild and the president of the Corpse Drivers' Guild were not as successful as Nan Huan and the others had imagined.
To be honest, the Gambler's Guild President was very surprised when he heard that all the guilds in the alliance had chosen the first camp of the pawnshop owners. He really couldn't understand why the other party did this.
But the given situation forced him to accept this fact.
Fortunately, the Corpse Chaser President did not notice that the Gambler President's personal skills were now in a cooling-down phase. He just thought that even if it was a low-probability event, it still actually happened because of some triggering reason.
After a dizzy spell, the two finally opened their eyes, but the dizziness did not stop.
The gambler's guild president found himself wrapped in a white space, surrounded by soft objects and covered with a hard shell. His entire body was forced to curl up in a strange posture.
"Forehead……"
He opened his mouth and tried to make a sound, but found that he could not speak and could only utter the syllables of a single word. He tried with all his strength to break free from the things that bound him, but failed and made himself dizzy.
The thing wrapped around him was oval-shaped and not very stable. Whenever he moved, it rolled to the side until another hard object was placed on it.
The Gambler's Guild President could only see the white space, and had no idea what the object he encountered was.
Before he could steady the thing that was wrapped around him, he found himself being hit as well.
Could it be the president of the Corpse Driver Guild? He really wanted to communicate with him, but he couldn't make a sound.
What is going on?
Didn't they choose the side of the unknown entity? Shouldn't they meet their alliance first?
Or, in other words, Yizhihua is now exercising his rights on the pawn ticket, but doesn't the agreement state that he has to stay in the pawn shop?
It doesn’t look like this place either.
Just when the gambler's doubts reached their peak, the system finally spoke.
[If you choose the camp of the unknown being, you must first get to know your allies. 】
The system's prompt sound made the Gambler's Guild President regain his composure.
As long as he was not caught by Yizhihua and taken to the pawn shop, there was nothing to be afraid of now. He was also keenly aware of the plural form used by the system - allies, not allies.
But the other party's voice didn't seem that friendly, and it sounded more like someone who was just looking forward to a good show.
【But in a way, you are not the same kind. 】
The word "same kind" made the Gambler's Guild President's nerves jump.
After all, in this copy, there are not many races that can be identified by their own kind.
[The system has provided you with a basic disguise. Please work hard to become one of them and find the unknown being who made a great wish by using the pawnshop. Make sure everything goes according to plan as it has in the past. Then the unknown being can escape the control of the pawnshop.]
[Tip: Once it is discovered that you are not one of them, the special side quest will fail immediately. ]
Compared with the previous vague task requirements, the system's prompts and task descriptions this time are very detailed.
But before the Gambler President could think about it, as soon as the system prompt sounded, he heard a long cry, like a dragon's roar, and the white space wrapped around him began to peel off piece by piece.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com