Shen Yuan said flatly, “Sai Lulu and Yu Fuling had already mentioned about this on the first day.”

Sai Lulu and Yu Fuling? Were this the names of the two women?

Xiao Tangqiu paused for a moment before responding. Compared to a grown man, it was quite normal for women to notice it first thing. He scratched his face, “Is that so? It turns out that you’ve already noticed, I only noticed it when I was taking a shower earlier… 

“It’s good to pay more attention to the surrounding environment,” Shen Yuan lowered his head and continued to read. “We’ll pay close attention to this matter.”

Xiao Tangqiu nodded, and went back to the bathroom to clean up. After that, he returned to the room.

Shen Yuan had put away his book. He was lying down, apparently ready to sleep.

“Your hair isn’t dry yet. Aren’t you going to dry it?”

Shen Yuan closed his eyes and said, “I can’t be bothered.”

“If you don’t dry your hair before you sleep, you might catch a cold.” Perhaps because the atmosphere at the time was too relaxed, Xiao Tangqiu subconsciously spoke as if he was talking to Meng Xinghe, “How about I dry it for you?”

As soon as he blurted out that sentence, he realized that his tone seemed too intimate, and immediately corrected himself. “I’m sorry. Just pretend you didn’t hear anything.”

Shen Yuan opened his eyes and gave Xiao Tangqiu a faint look. Moments later, he said, “Okay.”

Xiao Tangqiu almost suspected that he heard wrongly. He froze for a few seconds until he noticed that Shen Yuan had sat up in bed. Only then did he react. He cautiously walked over and stood behind Shen Yuan, carefully took the towel that Shen Yuan had casually handed to him, and gently began to towel dry his hair.

Clearly, he was the one doing Shen Yuan a favor, but why did he get the feeling that he was the one being flattered and receiving his favor?

“By the way, about the two men earlier… Is it ok to just let them off like this? What if they steal our candle when we fall asleep?”

Shen Yuan closed his eyes and said, “They won’t.”

Xiao Tangqiu was still a little worried about the matter, but when he heard Shen Yuan say so, he suddenly relaxed. Perhaps it was because he was too comfortable with Shen Yuan by his side. He gradually relaxed his strung up nerves and soon began to feel sleepy.

As his movements became slower and slower, Shen Yuan suddenly opened his eyes and said, “That’s enough. It’s fine like this.”

Xiao Tangqiu perked up at once and continued to towel Shen Yuan’s hair. “A little bit more. I’ll be done soon.”

Shen Yuan froze for a second and kept the same position.

After Xiao Tangqiu was done drying Shen Yuan’s hair, the latter thanked him and lay down to sleep.

Xiao Tangqiu yawned and collapsed in bed.

Tang Mianmian nodded, “Yes, the middle-aged woman is dead.”

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly froze. “The middle-aged woman?”

Although he had expected someone to die last night, he never expected that the it would be the middle-aged woman… How could it be the middle-aged woman?

Tang Mianmian had a grave expression on his face. “Let’s go and have a look.”

Xiao Tangqiu looked around. “Where is Shen Yuan?”

Tang Mianmian looked outside. “He’s gone over there as well.”

Xiao Tangqiu washed up in a hurry and followed Tang Mianmian to the middle-aged woman’s room.

Sure enough, her door was wide open. The other old players stood at the door to look at the situation inside. Xiao Tangqiu moved past the crowd and suddenly froze. The scene in the room was too gruesome.

The body of the middle-aged woman didn’t even look human anymore. Her head was a bloody mess, and her body was split open in the middle, exposing her guts. Her organs and intestines were completely mangled. The floor was full of bits and pieces of her insides and coagulated blood. The walls around the room had been splashed with flesh and blood.

Not only that, countless familiar cracks had appeared on the floor and walls, and the furniture in the room also had the same web-like cracks.

Xiao Tangqiu instantly recalled the dwarf puppet from last night. He choked back the nausea and left the room. He was going to ask Shen Yuan about the situation when the young man and the middle-aged man came out of their room.

When the two men saw a group of people gathered in front of the middle-aged woman’s room, a trace of uneasiness flashed across their faces, but they soon turned back to normal and even took the initiative to walk towards the crowd.

“What happened? Someone died again?” When the young man walked to the middle-aged woman’s room and saw the horror inside, he immediately showed an angry look, “That’s too cruel! We have to get the hell out of here!”

The middle-aged man also sighed and pretended not to know anything. “Although this woman was a human trafficker who deserves to die, to die like this is really too cruel…”

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly noticed that the candles at the door of the two men’s room were lit up, as if it had never been extinguished.

He turned his head and looked at the candle at the middle-aged woman’s door  and sure enough, it had gone out.

He understood in an instant what happened last night.

Xiao Tangqiu looked at the young man coldly. It seems that last night after these two failed to steal their candle, they came up with the idea to target the middle-aged woman instead… And they succeeded.

Now, with the exception of the young man, the middle-aged man and the little boy, all the newbies in this mission were dead. The rest were all experienced old players, all of whom had experienced strong winds and waves. Who couldn’t understand what happened last night?

However, no one opened their mouth to expose the obvious lies of the young man. Duan Hongzhen fiddled with his flying knife as if he were watching a play.

“It’s really cruel,” sighed the young man, still pretending. He suddenly remembered something and turned to the little boy. “Don’t let the little boy see such a bloody scene. Take him away quickly!”

“Kid, what’s your name? Older brother will take you to breakfast.” He stretched out a hand to try to hold the little boy’s hand, but the little boy dodged him with a straight face.

The young man’s hand froze awkwardly in mid-air, but he soon returned to normal and casually dropped his arm.

Xiao Tangqiu turned to look for Shen Yuan within the crowd and walked towards him, trying to find a conversation topic, “How did you sleep last night?”

Shen Yuan looked at him impassively. While Xiao Tangqiu was wondering if his question was too abrupt, Shen Yuan replied, “Not bad.”

Xiao Tangqiu laughed dryly, “I slept pretty well too.”

Shen Yuan added faintly, “Let’s go and have breakfast.”

Obviously, this sentence of his was not only aimed at Xiao Tangqiu, so Duan Hongzhen and the other two women turned to leave as well. Xiao Tangqiu quickly pulled Tang Mianmian to catch up. 

When the crowd came to the dining hall on the first floor, there was no one there yet, but breakfast was ready and still piping hot. The number of servings was just right for the amount of players that was left – no more, no less.

“Where did the people in the castle go? What about the housekeeper and the maids?” Tang Mianmian curiously asked Xiao Tangqiu. “We’ve not seen them for several days, right?”

Xiao Tangqiu nodded. “Yes, we haven’t seen anyone in the castle… including Lippinobert.”

The crowd sat down at the dining table and buried themselves in their food that had been prepared by God knows who.

Xiao Tangqiu quietly observed the others on the table while eating breakfast. Most of their expressions looked normal. Only the young man and the middle-aged man hardly touched their breakfast, eating only a little because of their guilty conscience.

After breakfast, Shen Yuan got up to leave, followed by Duan Hongzhen and the others. Xiao Tangqiu pulled Tang Mianmian to follow up. The little boy hesitated but ended up going with them as well. They went to the front door, ready to return to the underground chamber through the secret passage behind the sculpture again.

Right when Duan Hongzhen pushed the door open, the young man suddenly caught up to him and asked, “Are you going to Daemon Town again? Take us with you!”

Duan Hongzhen raised an eyebrow and said, “Are you together?”

“Yes! Take us with you! We want to help too!” The young man seemed to have switched personalities all of a sudden and became extremely proactive and enthusiastic. “Let’s find a way out of this terrible place together!”

The middle-aged man also said, “Unity is strength. If we all work hard together, we’ll be able to find a way to leave…”

Xiao Tangqiu subconsciously felt that something was wrong, but as a temporary teammate of this team, naturally, he didn’t have any qualifications to express his opinions and could only look at Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan seems to have sensed Xiao Tangqiu’s gaze. He glanced fleetingly at Xiao Tangqiu, quickly withdrawing his sight and said coldly to the two men, “I don’t trust you.”

The young man choked up at once. He opened his mouth and seemed to want to say something else, but Duan Hongzhen interrupted him. “Our captain doesn’t like you, so get out of here, or else…” He grinned with his flying knife in his hand, the implication of his threat was apparent.

The young man had seen Duan Hongzhen’s abilities before and took a step back subconsciously, but when he saw Shen Yuan and the others preparing to leave, he seemed unwilling to just leave like that. However, in the next second, Duan Hongzhen turned around and gave him a sinister smile. The young man immediately hid inside the castle again.

“Tsk, tsk, timid as a mouse.” Duan Hongzhen turned to look at Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian, grinning as he said, “Only you two are so courageous and shameless.”

Xiao Tangqiu, “…” Was this counted as a compliment?

After leaving behind the two men, they found the secret passage behind the statue and returned to the underground corridor once more.

Although it was daytime, the corridor was still shrouded in darkness, completely devoid of any light. Xiao Tangqiu took out his flashlight and lit the way for everyone. He seemed to have become the go-to-guy for lighting up the way.

Shen Yuan reminded them in a heavy tone, “Be careful.”

Thinking back to the dwarf puppet they met yesterday, Xiao Tangqiu immediately became extremely anxious. Then again, thinking that they seemed to be getting closer to the truth, he was suddenly enthusiastic and eager.

They slowly approached the underground secret chamber, taking great care along the way. But to their surprise, nothing happened at all – no unforeseen incidents, no dangerous situations. Everything was calm and went well.

……..So calm that it didn’t feel right.

It was just like the calm before the storm.

~~~

P.S. I would like to thank adjit and unluckypuppy13 for the ko-fis. Currently, I’ve only set a goal for my other novel. To thank you guys for the support, I will release an extra chapter from time to time, when I receive ko-fis, so there’ll be an extra update tomorrow ❤