All eyes in the ancestral hall were focused on the couple causing a rift, and everyone couldn’t help but gasp in shock for Jiang Yan.
At this moment, Jiang Yan was still in his husband’s arms, and his husband was an “undead” system NPC.
It was unclear whether this NPC had any aggressive tendencies, but Jiang Yan had openly provoked him. If he was an aggressive NPC, he could easily tear Jiang Yan apart, who was playing the role of his wife!
[What the hell? Why has Jiang Yan suddenly become so bold?]
[Wow, Jiang Yan has become more daring! He’s creating drama for himself!]
[Why does he always add drama at the most dangerous moments? Is he doing it on purpose, or does he not understand the risks?]
[No matter whether it was intentional or not, right now, he was definitely the center of attention.]
[Wait… did someone just say Jiang Yan could leave the instance for five minutes? Could that really be true?]
[The upstairs people are crazy, right? Yu Jia said this is absolutely impossible!]
Jiang Yan slightly raised his head, calmly holding his husband, but something felt off. He had the strange feeling that his husband, Yu Xiu, who was decaying, seemed to have worsened?
Everyone held their breath, waiting for Yu Xiu’s next reaction.
Yu Xiu’s gaze darkened as he looked at his husband in his arms. Compared to his younger brother beside him, his green eyes had lost their life’s shine, now replaced with a chilling, ghostly aura.
He let out a low chuckle, his laughter carrying a hidden danger: "Now that you know the curse of the town, Jiang Yan, you should also know…"
His voice suddenly turned cold: "What you just said will lead to my death and Xiao Xiu’s."
As soon as Yu Xiu finished speaking, a dark green aura surrounded him.
“What... What is happening?!” Jian Hou exclaimed in disbelief.
“Teacher, step back!” Tao Shi quickly pulled him behind.
“Ding!”
[Item: Hidden Card]
Blue data flickered in Cao Youfeng’s eyes, and in the next second, he widened his eyes in shock: "Boss! S+!"
“S+?” Tao Shi was stunned. “Does the main system have a problem? Why does it keep assigning Jiang Yan these S+ level husbands?!”
“What about Jiang Yan…” Cao Youfeng asked with concern.
The other players watched Jiang Yan with bated breath.
Jiang Yan remained nestled in his husband’s arms, his expression unchanged, even showing a hint of amusement in his eyes.
[Wow! Didn’t expect this to cause smoke!]
Under the flickering candlelight, two pairs of eyes, one green and one blue, stared at each other.
In the next second, the deceased Yu Xiu reached out and grabbed Jiang Yan’s chin—
“Jiang Yan!”
Cao Youfeng shouted, white bandages flying as he rushed toward them: “Get away from him!”
“What…”
Jian Hou was startled by Cao Youfeng’s sudden actions and instinctively took a step back.
Still confused, he suddenly heard Yu Jia’s quiet laugh from the corner: “He’s dead for sure.”
Yu Jia’s eyes gleamed with a satisfied madness: “Cao Youfeng’s Hidden Card can detect all players’ and NPCs’ data in the game. Jiang Yan’s husband is an S+ system NPC, and if he angers this undead NPC, he’s as good as dead!”
“Not necessarily.” Jian Hou replied.
“Hah! Do you think he has an S-grade item to protect him?” Yu Jia mocked. “Even with an S-grade item, he’s just a C-level NPC!”
“Not necessarily.” Jian Hou said firmly.
Yu Jia looked at him in confusion.
At that moment, the seemingly harmless man with slightly curly brown hair, who had appeared panicked earlier, now composed himself and turned to Yu Jia with a low voice: “I don’t know the game’s rules or NPCs, but I know Jiang Yan and Yu Xiu.”
Yu Jia was still confused.
Jian Hou continued: “Let’s not even mention that this NPC is made up of most of Yu Xiu’s genetic data—just the fact that he carries even a single hair from Yu Xiu… If the instance’s task is to kill Jiang Yan—”
“Then that strand of hair would strangle him first!”
Yu Jia’s expression darkened, and his right hand moved slightly, causing the invisible thread above Jian Hou’s head to twitch.
“I don’t like the way you’re speaking to me Teacher Jian.”
Yu Jia, sensing his discomfort, relaxed his grip and lightly patted his shoulder before retreating back to the corner.
At this point, Tao Shi and Cao Youfeng were fully focused on Jiang Yan, not noticing the tension behind them.
Seeing Yu Xiu’s face becoming even more decayed and the golden totems on his face becoming more glaring, Tao Shi nervously said, “Jiang Yan! Let go of him!”
[This NPC… Could it be controlled by some powerful force?]
[S+ doesn’t necessarily mean it’s stronger than S… Can that puppet be controlled?]
[Jiang Yan, watch out! S+!!]
Jiang Yan looked at his husband, whose eyes were cold and whose sharp fangs were visible, but he remained unfazed.
As Yu Xiu's sharp fangs neared Jiang Yan's Adam's apple, Jiang Yan let out a soft laugh, swatting away Yu Xiu's hand and lifting his chin, taking control of the situation.
"J..."
Cao Youfeng's second call of "Jiang Yan" was immediately stuck in his throat.
Right in front of everyone, Jiang Yan held his completely zombified husband's chin and gently kissed him on the lips.
The ghostly aura around Yu Xiu immediately vanished, and his dim eyes suddenly lit up with surprise and joy.
The crowd, both players and NPCs, froze in place.
"What...?" Yu Jia stared, his eyes wide in disbelief.
Tao Shi and the others sighed in relief.
Cao Youfeng, shocked, said, "This actually works?!"
[What the hell?! This works?!]
[What is happening here?!]
[Is this the so-called beauty trap? Does it even work on system NPCs?]
Tao Shi chuckled: "I guess he's really that good"
Everyone stood still for a moment, and it was the younger brother, standing by, who first broke the silence.
"Sister-in-law!"
He quickly pulled him out of his brother's arms, his gaze burning: "I want one too."
Everyone: "???"
Jiang Yan: "..."
"Sister-in-law!"
Yu Xiu tightly embraced him, unwilling to let go until he received a kiss.
At this moment, Jiang Yan’s husband seemed to be lost in the surprise of the kiss, not noticing that his wife was being kissed by his biological brother.
Jiang Yan realized he couldn't rely on his husband, and unable to break free from Yu Xiu's grasp, he kissed him back quickly.
Satisfied, Yu Xiu released Jiang Yan and, expressionless, Jiang Yan was pulled back into his husband’s embrace.
"Alright, alright!" The mayor, who had been silent up to this point, finally spoke, "Everyone, take a break. We'll continue tomorrow..."
"Father," Jiang Yan, nestled in Yu Xiu's arms, interrupted the mayor, "You still haven't answered why your family has two sons."
[Ha! Still asking?]
[This is exactly how an NPC should behave. If you don’t clarify this, the plot can’t continue!]
[This is making me anxious.]
Everyone turned their attention to the mayor, while his wife anxiously watched him.
The mayor closed his eyes for a moment, then slowly opened them, his eyes weary with age. "Jiang Yan is right. Originally, my family was supposed to have one son and one daughter. In fact, Xiao Xiu and the others had an older brother and sister."
"Twenty years ago, my beloved and I, like every other couple in the town, were married for four years and had two children. They were very cute, sensible, and lively. The older one was about to start first grade, and since the town's school wasn’t good, we planned to send them to study outside the town."
Hearing this, the mayor's wife’s eyes filled with tears again. But unlike the previous fear, this time her eyes were full of melancholy and nostalgia.
"During that summer, when we were busy with farm work and also had to handle the matter of transferring the two children to another school, we had little time to spend with them. However, the children in the town were all raised well, and over the years, there hadn’t been any major issues."
"Who would have thought that one afternoon, they went up into the mountains holding hands and never came back?"
As the mayor spoke, his voice began to choke up. The mayor’s wife, leaning on him, cried uncontrollably.
"The entire town helped us search for them. In the end, we found them in a pile of hay in the deep mountains. When we found them, they were tightly holding each other, as if they were just sleeping..."
"Were they taken by the mountain god?" Jiang Yan asked curiously.
"They were taken by wolves," the mayor sighed deeply. "When we found them, their stomachs had been ripped open."
At these words, everyone couldn’t help but sigh in sympathy.
Jiang Yan complained to 663, "Why is the story of this instance so tragic? It’s making my heart hurt."
"Hey! Don’t be so dramatic! Do you think this is just a game?" 663 replied.
Jiang Yan said slowly, "For real NPCs, isn’t the instance just like playing house?"
Suddenly, Jiang Yan recalled that when he was young and playing house, none of the boys wanted to play "wife." So, with his delicate and gentle appearance, he always ended up playing the role of the "wife."
Unexpectedly, after entering this game by some strange twist of fate, the character he was assigned was still the "wife."
Jiang Yan turned to look at Yu Xiu, who was holding him. Sensing his gaze, Yu Xiu looked down and smiled at him.
Their eyes met, and Jiang Yan frowned slightly. He felt something was off but didn’t dwell on it. Instead, he continued asking the mayor, "Then what happened next?"
"Afterward... my wife and I never managed to get over the loss of our children. We couldn’t conceive again. There’s no doubt we broke the town’s rules and fell victim to the red ghost lady's curse. We started developing the red ghost's marks on our bodies, just like now." The mayor’s tone dragged on, heavy with emotion.
"My wife was deeply affected, and every day she went to the mountains to cry next to the haystack where we found the children. At the time, we thought, 'Why not? Why not become the ghost, become a servant of the red ghost lady? It wouldn’t be so bad.'"
"But then, that night, two moons appeared in the sky."
"Two moons?" Jiang Yan glanced at the mountain god painting.
The mayor lifted his head, tears in his eyes, filled with reverence. "Yes, two moons—those were the mountain gods! The entire sky was filled with them!"
"The next day, we hadn’t become the ghost because I was pregnant," the mayor’s wife continued. "And after that, Xiao Xiu and his younger brother were born
“They are gifts from the mountain god, so the red ghost lady have never interfered with them.”
“They are the most special beings in the town, not bound by any curse, not threatened by the red ghost lady or the other ghost. They can even control paper figures by nature.”
“Paper figures?”
Everyone looked toward Fang Rui, who was still kneeling on the ground, pinned by the towering paper figures.
"Ding!
[Instance: "Qingshi Town" Instance Progress: 55%]
[Total players: 6, Remaining Players: 6]
[Real NPCs: 3, Polluted NPCs: 31]
[Main task: Attend the wedding and leave the town alive]
[Side task: Find the mountain god’s well and break the curse]
Everyone's gaze turned toward Jiang Yan and Yu Xiu.
“So, is that why Yu Xiu can still move and speak even though he’s dead?”
After saying this, the mayor sighed deeply. "Alright! Everyone, take a rest! It’s been quite a day."
As soon as the mayor finished speaking, Yu Xiu whistled lightly. The paper figure that had been holding Fang Rui immediately released him, and like an eel, it slithered back into the underground temple.
At the same time, Yu Jia relaxed his grip slightly, causing Fang Rui to fall to the ground.
Seeing this, Jian Hou quickly stepped forward to help him up and sat him against the wall.
Tao Shi walked over and grabbed Jian Hou. "Don’t get too close to him. He’s been affected by Yu Jia’s 'puppet threads.'"
At that moment, Yu Jia approached them. Tao Shi glanced coldly at him. "Why?"
Yu Jia took a drag from his cigarette and acted nonchalant. "What do you mean, why?"
Tao Shi didn’t bother continuing to argue with him. Instead, he led Jian Hou and Cao Youfeng to a corner of the temple to sit down. He needed some rest and time to organize his thoughts.
Clearly, the others had the same idea.
Yu Jia sat next to Fang Rui, while Cang Rou and Ding Wanyu leaned against each other. Jiang Yan was nestled between his husband and his scheming brother-in-law, who had him in a tight embrace.
“Such chaos! Such chaos!” Cao Youfeng muttered, wrapping the bandages around his body in a messy fashion. His frustration was palpable.
It was unclear whether he was referring to the bandages or the instance’s information.
“Calm down,” Tao Shi softly reassured him.
His gaze swept across everyone in the temple as he spoke slowly, “Let’s sort things out.”
“How should we sort it out?” Jian Hou asked.
“First, remember that in the game, the most important thing is completing the instance.”
“So?” Jian Hou asked.
“So, we should put aside all the messy things between players and real NPCs. Let’s focus on what’s going on between Fang Rui, Jiang Yan, and Yu Jia,” Tao Shi replied.
“By the way, why did Yu Jia want to kill Jiang Yan? Was it an order from Sang Luan?” Cao Youfeng asked, tying a knot in the bandage on his neck.
“Sang Luan is the strongest real NPC in the game, He is a 'Shadow Emperor'," Tao Shi answered. “Let’s not focus on that for now. We need to look at the current instance storyline.”
“First, our tasks are two: 1. Attend the wedding and leave the town alive; 2. Find the mountain god’s well and break the curse.”
“But doesn’t the wedding require the bride to be pregnant? Jiang Yan...?” Jian Hou said, glancing at Jiang Yan, who was wrapped in his husband’s dark green robe, nestled in Yu Xiu’s arms, looking drowsy.
Jian Hou lowered his voice, “Jiang Yan is a man! How could he get pregnant?”
“So, from the beginning, this main task could never have been completed according to the town’s rules and customs,” Tao Shi said.
“What do you mean?” Jian Hou asked.
“It means that from the start, we were bound to fall under the curse!” Cao Youfeng finally finished wrapping his bandages. Afterward, he turned to face the darkened altar, muttering a prayer. Then, he leaned back against the shelf holding the altar tablets, finally relaxing.
He continued explaining, “The main task’s focus is to leave the town alive. We have to attend the wedding and leave because of the curse in the town. If we fall under the curse, we won’t be able to leave the town alive. So, the ideal situation is to not violate any town taboos, wait for the bride to get pregnant, and then leave quickly.”
“But the bride is a man. From the very beginning, this main task couldn’t have been completed by waiting for the bride to get pregnant.”
“Then... how do we leave?” Jian Hou asked.
“Find the mountain god and break the curse,” Cao Youfeng continued. “Once the curse is lifted, we can leave whenever we want! We won’t need to worry about whether the bride is pregnant.”
“So, from the beginning, we only had one way to go: complete the side quest to break the main curse,” he explained.
“Find the mountain god and break the curse?” Jian Hou asked.
“Yes!”
“The red ghost lady and the town mayor both encountered the mountain god in the mountains. Shouldn’t we go up the mountain tomorrow?” Jian Hou asked.
“If it were that easy—just wandering around the mountain to find it—then this wouldn’t be an S-level instance,” Tao Shi said.
“Then how do we find it?” Jian Hou asked.
“According to the system’s pattern, the mountain god must be hiding among us!” Tao Shi turned and smiled at him. His blue hair stood out vividly in the dark, ancient temple. “And haven’t we already found the closest medium to the mountain god?”
Cao Youfeng added, “Jiang Yan’s husband and his brother-in-law—those are the only two people in the town who aren’t affected by the curse.”
He turned to Tao Shi. “So, where is the god?”
Tao Shi smiled but didn’t answer.
"...."
“But he was already the boss in the last instance. How could he be the boss in this one again? This... this isn’t possible!” Cao Youfeng exclaimed.
“It is impossible for any other player or real NPC, but...” Tao Shi’s eyes darkened. “He is Jiang Yan.”
[Jiang Yan! Another boss card?]
[Talking about science in an instance? Have you lost your mind]
“It’s true! For anyone else, it would be impossible, but it’s Jiang Yan,” one of the players said.
It seemed that the others also realized this, as everyone’s eyes once again fell on Jiang Yan.
663 noticed it too and quickly tried to wake his half-asleep host. “Hey! Hey! Hey! Everyone’s looking at you!”
“So what if they’re looking? I guess I’m considered one of the good-looking ones?” Jiang Yan replied lazily.
“Are you serious?!” 663 exclaimed. “Clearly, everyone’s wondering if you’ve got another boss card.”
“I don’t!” Jiang Yan answered flatly.
663 sighed. “Exactly! You don’t! But now, everyone’s eyes are on you, and you don’t have the boss card!”
“Wait! This is an opportunity!” 663 suddenly changed his tone. “Jiang Yan! Everyone thinks you’re the boss now. If you manage to summon the boss, your points and rank will double!”
Jiang Yan said coldly, “Finding the boss is the players' job. I’m just an NPC.”
“Hey...!” 663 was momentarily speechless. “Just when you show some ambition, it fades away?”
“I’m not interested in this task,” Jiang Yan said.
“Then what are you interested in?!” 663 asked, frustrated.
“663, I discovered a bug,” Jiang Yan said calmly.
“A bug?” 663 was confused.
Jiang Yan slowly opened his eyes, his blue irises reflecting the two beautiful faces of Yu Xiu in front of him.
One face was green, the other white. One was alive, the other dead.
“So, why did Yu Xiu knowing the instance information, pass it to Cang Rou to say?” Jiang Yan asked.
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