“What’s going on?!”
Cao Youfeng instinctively sprang into action.
Ding!
【Item: Medical Bandage】
White bandages flew from the black-haired youth, scattering like petals in the wind.
Tao Shi and Yu Jia quickly pulled out their items and nervously looked around.
“Hey, hey! Don’t get so worked up!”
They saw "Yu Xiu," with eyes the color of emeralds, holding the body of "his brother," who had the same face as him, standing behind them, smiling brightly.
“It’s you?” Cao Youfeng, with the bandages now back around his body, looked at the handsome man in front of him holding the body and asked, “What are you doing?”
“Of course, I’m taking my brother out for a walk. He’s been cooped up in his room for too long, and he gets bored.” Saying this, "Yu Xiu" even waved the blue-gray arm of the corpse he was holding in a greeting toward the three of them.
The body of Jiang Yan’s husband in his hands looked like a broken doll.
At this point, Cao Youfeng noticed not only was the corpse dressed in an exquisitely embroidered dark green robe, but even the decayed, grayish face had been delicately outlined with golden thread to form a beautiful, albeit eerie, pattern.
Seeing this, Cao Youfeng’s lips involuntarily twitched.
Although the data showed that Jiang Yan’s husband had some peculiar preferences, and they had suffered greatly because of it in the last instance, the fact that this NPC, created entirely by the system, continued to exhibit the same extreme tendencies in every instance meant that this preference was likely ingrained in his very DNA.
There were many twisted characters in the "goose" instance, but this was the first time Cao Youfeng had encountered one who didn’t even realize he was abnormal.
Maybe... it was because he was just a string of data?
“What are you guys doing here? This alley isn’t really for fun,” "Yu Xiu" casually said, gently stroking the face of the corpse.
Cao Youfeng laughed awkwardly, “We were just taking a stroll!”
Tao Shi and Yu Jia nodded in agreement.
"Yu Xiu" smiled meaningfully, “Oh! I just saw my sister-in-law take one of your friend into the alley. I thought you guys were following him.”
“Who’s following me?” Jiang Yan’s voice came from behind them.
They turned around and saw Jiang Yan walking out of the alley, calm as ever, with Jian Hou, who had a serious expression, holding one of Jiang Yan’s roses.
Cao Youfeng quickly smiled and explained, “We were just out for a walk, and since you brought Jian Hou into the alley, we thought we’d come check it out.”
“Oh.” Jiang Yan’s face showed little emotion.
Looking at the three standing with "Yu Xiu," Jiang Yan immediately understood what they were up to.
“Where’s Fang Rui?” Jiang Yan asked.
“He’s inside, looking after Ling Kang,” Cao Youfeng replied.
That made sense. With Ling Kang in his current state, Fang Rui must have been anxious, treating him like family.
But... Ling Kang had already turned into a ghost, yet he had neither been declared dead nor "polluted." What exactly were the elimination rules for this instance?
Jiang Yan pondered this, maintaining his usual calm demeanor.
At that moment, he noticed "Yu Xiu" was holding Jiang Yan’s husband’s body, and it appeared to have... decayed even more?
Jiang Yan’s expression, previously indifferent, flickered with a hint of annoyance, and the corners of his lips twitched.
This guy... no matter how strange this town was, surely it wasn’t to the extent where people could casually walk around with corpses in public?!
“What are you doing bringing him out here?” Jiang Yan’s voice carried an air of helplessness.
The crowd couldn’t help but think: Isn’t Jiang Yan a bit too calm about this?
[So casual about it?! Jiang Yan’s tone makes it sound like "Yu Xiu" is just walking a dog!]
[Damn! I thought it was just "Yu Xiu" who was a weirdo, but now it looks like they’re both into some... darker stuff!]
[Isn’t "Yu Xiu" the younger brother? Isn’t Jiang Yan married to ‘the older brother’?!]
[Actually, Yu Xiu is Jiang Yan’s current husband, and this NPC’s data is based on "Yu Xiu" from the real world. He appeared in the last instance too.]
[Correction: Yu Xiu is Jiang Yan’s ex-husband, they’re divorced now.]
[Wait… shouldn’t the new bride react differently when he finds his husband’s corpse just being tossed around like that?]
[It depends on how the system NPCs interact with him, doesn’t it?]
Not only the onlookers in the game forum but even Cao Youfeng and the others couldn’t help but feel a cold sweat for him.
However, the NPC Yu Xiu, with whom he was acting, didn’t seem to find anything wrong at all.
Yu Xiu waved the blue-gray arm of the corpse toward Jiang Yan, “Brother misses you.”
Everyone: ...
“I’m just out for a walk,” Jiang Yan replied.
“This alley isn’t worth walking around,” Yu Xiu said thoughtfully, then suddenly suggested, “There’s a crematorium ahead! How about we go check it out?”
Jiang Yan smiled, “Sure.”
[Sure???]
[First time hearing of someone going for a stroll at a crematorium.]
Is he planning to take "his brother" there for cremation?
[Okay, these two are seriously messed up.]
This scene perfectly proves the saying: “You can’t have two different kinds of people in the same bed
“I’ve been meaning to go back to my hometown after all these years. Thought I’d take a walk around the town,” Jiang Yan said, then looked at Tao Shi and the others. “Would you like to join me?”
“We’re visiting this town for the first time, so of course, we want to take a look!” Tao Shi said with a smile.
And so, the group followed Yu Xiu as they wandered around the town.
By this time, the morning mist had almost cleared, and the shops along the streets were gradually opening. A few pedestrians passed by, and Yu Xiu casually greeted them.
The people in the town had all lived there for generations, so they naturally knew each other. However, judging by the somewhat awkward and reluctant responses from the passersby, it was clear they didn’t really want to interact with Yu Xiu.
After all, who would want to associate with someone walking around with a corpse?
As they passed by, people’s glances at Jiang Yan and the others were noticeably strange.
"I thought the second son of the Yu family was a freak, and that Jiang Yan, a city girl, would be freaked out by him. But turns out, they can even go shopping together?"
"You don’t get it. City girls have seen all kinds of things."
Two men in qipaos, standing on the street corner smoking, whispered to each other.
“Not bad though, the little sister-in-law from the Jiang family is quite beautiful. Originally thought the Jiang family moved away because, like us…”
“Shut up!” One of the men quickly interrupted, his expression darkening. He kept repeating, “What’s wrong with us? What’s wrong with us?”
The other man realized he had said the wrong thing and awkwardly laughed before stopping himself.
They kept calling Jiang Yan “the little sister-in-law,” so of course, Jiang Yan and the others overheard them. Based on the town mayor’s words, the players could roughly guess that Jiang Yan’s parents had likely lied to avoid the "Red Ghost Woman’s" curse, claiming he was a daughter and raised him as such.
This wasn’t an isolated case in the mirror world.
However, Jiang Yan looked back at the two men in qipaos and wondered why he only saw men cross-dressing but no women cross-dressing as men? This curse was really strange!
He still couldn’t figure out what kind of ceremony or curse could make a town behave this way, nor the mountain god that the mayor mentioned as the source of the Red Ghost Lady's power.
His gaze fell on the corpse held by Yu Xiu, the one with a beautiful golden totem drawn on its face.
At that moment, Jiang Yan remembered the time he and Jian Hou had spent together in the alley.
"This shop is quite good!" Yu Xiu, walking ahead, suddenly said, "Would you like to check it out?"
The group, each with different thoughts, stopped to take a look at the shop Yu Xiu was recommending. They turned and saw a dilapidated paper-mache shop.
Everyone: ...
Why would anyone trust the taste of a freak?
Originally, most of the buildings in the town had white walls and dark roofs, looking quite ancient and well-preserved. But this store seemed much older than the entire town itself!
The four wooden pillars at the entrance of the shop had rotted almost completely, looking very unstable. The sign above the door was unreadable, and it wobbled as if it could fall off at any moment.
However, the two half-human-sized red paper dolls placed on either side of the door were quite exquisite.
The two dolls, with eyes drawn in black charcoal, seemed to be alive, staring at people as they passed.
"Do you want to go in?" Yu Xiu asked.
"Maybe buy some burial goods for your brother?" Jiang Yan replied.
Yu Xiu quickly hugged the corpse in his arms, as if afraid Jiang Yan would take it and bury it: "Of course not, my brother has to be with us forever! And besides, you’re not even pregnant yet!"
Jiang Yan: ...
At this moment, an elderly woman with gray hair walked out of the shop. "Yu Erwa, back again to pick something for your brother?"
"I’m just out for a walk with my sister-in-law and his friends!" Yu Xiu replied, still holding the corpse.
The old lady appeared to be around 80 or 90 years old, small in stature, with a hunched body.
"Hello, Grandma!" The young people greeted her politely.
"Is that so? Are you Yan Yan’s friends?" The old lady asked kindly, squinting her eyes as if her vision was poor. She looked at the young group in front of her.
Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she exclaimed in shock, "Oh no! Yu Erwa! Your friends have had their fate sealed! They are jinxed!"
"What?" Jiang Yan looked at Yu Xiu in confusion.
Everyone looked at each other, equally puzzled.
"The bride!" The old lady said, pulling Jiang Yan's hand, "You and your friends have had your fate sealed!"
"Grandma Zhang!" At that moment, two men suddenly emerged from the paper shop, pulling the old lady away.
They smiled apologetically at Jiang Yan and the others: "Grandma is old; she's just rambling!"
The old lady, with a terrified expression, stubbornly refused to let go of Jiang Yan, her gnarled hand still gripping him: "Bride! Bride!"
The two men half-helped, half-carried the old lady back into the shop, saying, "Grandma! Grandma, let’s go home."
But the old lady’s voice could still be heard, calling out loudly, "Incredible! Bride! You all..."
As her voice faded, likely because she was being pulled into the house, the remaining people stood frozen at the door, staring at the two red paper dolls in the shop.
"What... what does 'having your fate sealed' mean?" Jian Hou asked cautiously.
The five minutes Jiang Yan had spent with Jian Hou in the "Lost Kingdom" alley were the longest five minutes of his life. During that time, he had been processing the information exchanged with Jiang Yan. He had planned to stroll around the town and then leave, but he didn’t expect to run into something like this.
Yu Xiu, holding the corpse, explained, "It’s a Buddhist term. It refers to becoming fixated on external appearances or individual consciousness, which causes one to deviate from the true essence."
Everyone fell silent.
Jiang Yan: "... I didn’t understand, but I’m tired."
They had been walking for over ten minutes, and indeed, Jiang Yan felt tired.
"Then let’s go back," Yu Xiu said.
The group followed Yu Xiu back, with many people still casting strange looks at them and whispering.
Back at the house, everyone returned to their respective rooms.
Jiang Yan followed Yu Xiu to the new room. As soon as he entered, he made a beeline for the bed and buried his head in the soft quilt.
Yu Xiu, who had followed him in, carefully placed the "brother" corpse back into the coffin. He then moved over to the bed and skillfully removed Jiang Yan's shoes.
Once the shoes were off, Jiang Yan rolled into the bed and lay motionless.
Looking at Jiang Yan, who seemed about to fall asleep immediately, 663 sighed: "I just looked it up, in the real world, there are physical exams for your high school entrance exams, and even in college, there are physical fitness tests. How did you pass them?"
Jiang Yan, half-closing his eyes, muttered in a tired voice: "I’m just lazy, not disabled."
663: "... Alright."
"By the way, didn't you talk a little too much with that friend of yours just now?" 663 shifted the subject.
"We've known each other before we were even born," Jiang Yan replied casually. "In this world, aside from my parents and Yu Xiu, the person I trust the most is him."
663 responded, "But he told you he came here randomly. I can tell you clearly, that's impossible."
"Isn't that how I came in?" Jiang Yan asked, raising an eyebrow.
663 was silent for a moment before saying, "I’m just reminding you, in this game, even biological brothers might turn against each other."
Jiang Yan suddenly opened his eyes, his blue pupils darkening, "I suddenly want to know, what is the cost of running this game? Who is your target audience? Or to put it another way…"
"What is the purpose of the 'Main God' you keep talking about in creating this game?"
—
The evening in the old town was beautiful. The setting sun cast a reddish glow on the blue-black walls of the houses, turning them a deep crimson.
After dinner, the players returned to their rooms to rest. Except for Ling Kang, who had already turned into a ghost, there was no unusual behavior from anyone else.
Yu Jia sat in his room, smoking, occasionally glancing toward the door. It was clear he was waiting for someone.
The sky gradually darkened, and the red clouds in the distance were dyed a deep purple. Even his silver hair was tinged with a faint lavender hue.
"Finally, he is here."
Yu Jia exhaled a puff of white smoke, his lips curving into a knowing smile as he said, "Come in."
The person outside pushed the door open and entered.
[Hmm??! What’s going on here?]
[Huh? Do they know each other?]
[Yesterday, Yu Jia gave him his business card. If they knew each other already, there would have been no need for the card.]
[So why is he here to see Yu Jia? Did he finally decide to join the Puppet Workshop?]
Yu Jia looked at the person entering, a trace of mockery in his smile.
He had originally thought this person would take until midnight to come knocking on his door. He hadn’t expected him to make up his mind so quickly.
But it made sense. Although everyone’s mental defenses were different, defenses were meant to be broken through, and that was what Yu Jia excelled at.
The [Puppet Workshop] was called [Puppet Workshop] because every member of the guild would remain absolutely loyal to the "Film Emperor" like puppets.
Yes, loyalty.
Unfortunately, Jiang Yan was still too young!
He didn’t understand that in this world, feelings were the least reliable thing. Only loyalty to profit was truly dependable.
At this thought, Yu Jia’s gaze darkened.
This inferior NPC thought he could replace the Film Emperor? He didn’t deserve it!
Yu Jia’s purpose in entering this instance was never to invite Jiang Yan to join the [Puppet Workshop]—it was to eliminate him!
A bloodthirsty smile appeared on his lips.
In this game, there could only ever be one "Film Emperor"!
He elegantly crossed his legs and sat in the chair, holding his cigarette. The ember glowed orange in the dimly lit room, flickering on and off.
He looked at the man standing in front of him and smiled as he asked, "What did he say to you today, Teacher Jian?"
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