Chapter 17: Haunted Houses in the Republic of China (Seventeen)
In Xiaolu and Changyue's room, as night gradually fell, someone lit a candle, and the flames illuminated the two people sitting at the table.
The atmosphere in the room was a little stagnant. Ning Hanqi took a sip of the cold tea and gave Chang Yue enough time to consider his proposal.
They had talked for a long time before this.
Chang Yue frowned, and his expression hidden in the shadows showed obvious struggle and entanglement.
The story began today when she saw Miss Ning coming back with the deer on her back.
Wang Po, who used to come out every day to make trouble and make her presence felt, had disappeared. No one saw her for most of the day and she hadn't been assigned any work. When she washed and hung up the clothes that she had casually washed before, Wang Po still hadn't shown up.
It was not until the afternoon that a new NPC came whom she had never seen before. The old lady who looked quite old assigned them a normal workload. Then she did not make things difficult for Chang Yue nor did she ask where Xiaolu had gone. She just left after giving instructions, like a machine that was specifically designed to issue tasks.
Just when she was about to go find someone to come back to work, she saw Miss Ning, with a cold and somewhat scary look, carrying someone back. The guy was in a coma and could not be woken up at all.
Miss Ning, who was "partial" to her, stopped herself from using violence to wake the deer. After they worked together to carry the silly roe deer back to the room, Miss Ning helped the deer complete today's work.
Chang Yue always felt that Miss Ning was a woman who looked harmless on the surface but was actually very thoughtful. She could not be a good person who helped this and that... She always felt that she had other motives.
Sure enough, when they were washing clothes together, this person started chatting with her and made her a very tempting invitation to cooperate.
"I know a prop that's relatively easy to obtain. If you're willing to cooperate with me, I'm 90% sure I can get it. We can then split it equally. Are you interested?"
At that time, Chang Yue was drawing water from the well. When he heard these words suddenly, he was almost dragged into the well by the bucket in his hand.
Because of their scarcity and difficulty in obtaining, even if they have more or less side effects, any ordinary and useless item can be traded for a high price outside the dungeon. If it is an item with some special abilities, it can be sold at a sky-high price that Chang Yue could hardly imagine.
A 90% chance of success was already quite high. In this place, who could say they were 100% sure of getting an item from a ghost? If it was useful, they could use it to save their lives. If it was useless, they could sell it for money to cover their school expenses.
I have to say that Chang Yue’s heart was moved for a moment.
But after the heartbeat, she warned herself that she should not trust the words of a bad woman! It was more important to get out alive.
But before she could refuse, Ning Hanqi asked her to think about it carefully.
"Don't refuse hastily. You don't work as a hunter, and you look young. Are you an adult? Are you still in school? You seem to be frugal, so your financial situation should be average and cannot support you to buy expensive props. The dungeons will only become more and more difficult in the future. You have to think carefully..." Every word of Ning Hanqi's gentle voice touched Chang Yue's fragile heart.
Chang Yue's wide eyes twitched slightly. For the first time, the usually gentle and reserved man showed a little aggressiveness. Indeed, Chang Yue, who was still a few days away from adulthood, was a little overwhelmed.
"Are you sure you don't want a tool that has no side effects and can save your life at a critical moment?"
No side effects? Chang Yue's heart started beating violently when she heard Ning Hanqi's words.
We can't let this bad woman continue talking, otherwise she really might not be able to help but agree on the spot!
A life-saving item without side effects is worth Chang Yue's risk, but she has to consider more than just the benefits.
At least... she had to leave herself a way out.
So Chang Yue said that she would think about it, and this dilemma lasted until evening. Night had fallen, but Ning Hanqi showed no intention of leaving.
Chang Yue was just about to say that she would get an answer tomorrow morning, but now it was already after 6 p.m., so for safety reasons, she should go back quickly.
But before she could say anything, the person sitting opposite her looked slightly gloomy.
"By the way, I came here to ask you for something."
She didn’t know if it was Chang Yue’s illusion, but she felt that the smile on Ning Hanqi’s face seemed a little colder.
"You said, as long as it is within my ability..."
"I want to stay overnight."
"Ah?" Chang Yue was hallucinating. "You want to...stay overnight?"
"Yes." Ning Hanqi nodded, "I plan to move out for one night."
Chang Yue took a deep breath in her heart. Just as she was about to ask what happened, a scream came from the bed next door.
The little deer woke up from a nightmare and rolled to the ground. She could no longer distinguish between reality and dreams. She touched her heartbeat and breathed a sigh of relief when she found that she was still alive.
After hearing that Ning Hanqi saved her and that she helped her finish her work for the day, Xiaolu burst into tears and said that even her own mother was not that good to her.
Ning Hanqi wanted to stay? She immediately moved out her old bedding. She could sleep on the floor, but her savior had to sleep on the bed!
Chang Yue sighed in her heart, this was all she could do.
But the temperature seemed to drop quite a bit tonight, and she felt a little cold in her thin clothes.
As the night deepened, although the three of them agreed to take turns keeping watch, it seemed like no one got much sleep.
Xiaolu was very energetic because he had "slept" for too long today, while Chang Yue had been thinking about the cooperation with Ning Hanqi and accidentally stayed up all night.
Perhaps because she had too many things on her mind, Chang Yue did not notice when the temperature in the room gradually returned to normal. When she got up the next day, as soon as she opened the door, she found a food box on the ground. The workmanship of the food box was very exquisite, and it was obvious that it was not prepared for them, the "servants".
She picked up the food box, and the yin energy that had not yet completely dissipated froze her so much that her hands trembled and she almost dropped the food box.
The strange thing was that although the air outside was frighteningly cold, the food in the food box was still steaming, as if someone was holding the food box and waiting for them to open the door. The food box contained chicken porridge, dumplings, etc., and the aroma was very rich. Compared with the servants' meals, it was completely different.
After a while, an NPC brought breakfast to Chang Yue and Xiao Lu, which was a bowl of white porridge and a bun as usual.
Chang Yue habitually broke open the bun and checked it, and today it was filled with pure meat...
"Wait! Don't eat it!" She immediately slapped the bun out of Xiaolu's hand.
She found a tiny bone in the minced meat, just the size of a mouse joint.
"Do you want to check your dumplings?" Chang Yue's face looked grim. No wonder there was no movement last night. It turned out that he had prepared such a big "surprise" for them in the morning. There had been no problems with their diet in the past few days. If the players relaxed in this regard, they would most likely be infected today.
Vicious! So vicious! The little deer kicked the bun that had fallen to the ground far away.
Ning Hanqi knew who delivered his breakfast, but he still opened the meat dumplings one by one to check. The soup in the dumplings flowed all over the plate, and the aroma was enough to arouse one's appetite.
It's just that the temperature in the air suddenly dropped.
"It's okay, the dumplings are fine, you guys can eat these." Ning Hanqi shared her breakfast with them. After eating, she asked Chang Yue if she had considered accepting her invitation.
"You won't be shortchanged in your reward."
Chang Yue keenly noticed that some of Ning Hanqi's words had undergone subtle changes, and the temperature in the air was very abnormal, as if there was a large refrigerator standing behind her.
There's something behind her!
"...I agree." Although the temperature was cold, Chang Yue, who was forced to do something, broke out in cold sweat on his forehead.
"Thank you." Ning Hanqi's calm and composed demeanor made people feel that she was confident. Chang Yue looked at her gentle smile and felt as if she had fallen into a spider web and had been entangled since she met her yesterday.
That day, Chang Yue felt like he was on edge.
It is not easy for humans to hunt ghosts. As an old player, Chang Yue is taking this risk for the first time. After Xiaolu knew their plans for tonight, she took the initiative to help Chang Yue take on today's work and let them prepare well.
The trap was set, but how could they lure the prey over?
"We can wait by the well in the evening, and let it see us first after 6 p.m., so that it will definitely chase us." Ning Hanqi made a suggestion that is very feasible and has a high success rate, but it is easy to fail.
"..." Chang Yue
"Just kidding." Ning Hanqi chuckled. "Seeing you're so nervous, I wanted to lighten the mood."
...After calming down, she became even more nervous!
"Don't worry, we still have time. If we can't wait today, we can wait until tomorrow. If not, the first half of the seventh night will be fine." Ning Hanqi looked very calm, as if she was not the one who was anxious during the day.
“…” Chang Yue didn’t understand and could only wait with her.
Until suddenly, the ethereal music of a bamboo flute was heard from somewhere. The next second, the sky suddenly darkened and the air became extremely humid. Something seemed to be wriggling in the shadows in the distance. An indescribable pressure accumulated on the human heart.
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