Chapter 123
Chapter 123
The next morning, Cheng Miao invited Qiudong into their suite.
When Qiudong sauntered inside, the four of them were sitting ramrod straight in the living room. A bowl of milk had even been placed on the table.
One glance at Cheng Miao told Qiudong that the milk was her doing. Indulging her, he jumped onto the table and slowly lapped it up.
Cheng Miao watched him with starry eyes for a moment before speaking. “We’ve discussed it. Welcome to the Looks Are Justice Team.”
Qiudong raised his head. His ice-blue eyes swept in turn over the somewhat nervous Qin Musong, the grinning Lin Zhu, the nonchalant Qi Jiajia, and Cheng Miao, whose face plainly showed how badly she wanted to pet him.
He inclined his head. “Mm.”
Qiudong watched a huge smile spread across Cheng Miao’s face. Something stirred faintly inside him, and he added, “Choose your next inn. After you clear the instance, I’ll meet you there directly.”
“Huh?” Cheng Miao asked. “You’re not entering the instance with us?”
Qiudong swished his tail. “Not this time. I still have something to take care of.”
Only then did Cheng Miao remember that Qiudong was still the receptionist of Black Cat Hotel. If he left with her, arrangements would have to be made for the Hotel.
She nodded and propped her chin in her hands as she watched the black cat drink his milk. “Our next inn should be a Grand Hotel, right? What Grand Hotels are there?”
Qiudong licked the bowl clean. As he elegantly washed his face with a paw, he said, “Quite a few. The recommended ones are Peacock Grand Hotel, Panda Grand Hotel, and Golden Lion Grand Hotel.”
Cheng Miao thought it over. It seemed Grand Hotels all had large animals as their receptionists.
She leaned closer. “Is there a Pallas’s Cat Grand Hotel?”
Qiudong shot her a sidelong glance. He didn’t even need to think to know what was going through her mind. “Pallas’s cats are assigned to Hotels.”
Cheng Miao lowered her head in disappointment, only to hear Qiudong say flatly, “That fellow has a terrible temper, but if you want to meet him, you’ll have a chance eventually.”
“I’ll still get a chance?” Cheng Miao had thought that once she moved on to a Grand Hotel, she would no longer be able to meet Hotel receptionists.
Brother Parrot and the Cockroach Brothers only visited because they knew one another. How was she supposed to meet a receptionist she didn’t know?
An inscrutable light flashed through Qiudong’s eyes. “As long as you clear the Game, you’ll be able to meet them all.”
Cheng Miao narrowed her eyes. Feigning nonchalance, she asked, “After clearing the Game, will we learn the secret behind it?”
Qiudong gazed at her for a long moment, then gave a meaningful nod. Under Cheng Miao’s faintly excited gaze, he jumped down from the table and headed for the door.
“I forgot to mention that I’m only along for the ride and the scenery. You’ll still have to rely on yourselves to clear instances.”
Cheng Miao nodded. That was within her expectations.
He was a receptionist. She might not know what awaited him inside an instance, but there was no doubt he was powerful. If he became their main fighter, it would be no different from using a cheat.
“By the way, you have visitors. Hurry up and get them out of here. Looking at them makes me uncomfortable.” Leaving those final words behind, Qiudong vanished in a flash.
Visitors?
Looking at them made him uncomfortable?
The corner of Cheng Miao’s mouth twitched. She exchanged a glance with Qi Jiajia. She had a feeling she knew who the visitors were.
Sure enough, Cheng Miao had barely made it downstairs when she heard a buzzing sound, accompanied by Ah Zhang’s noisy complaints. “A fancy inn really is something else. You know, us brothers spend every day guarding that lousy Dormitory. What a miserable life.”
As sparing with words as ever, Ah Lang replied, “Mm.”
Cheng Miao was terrified of insects, but she didn’t have a bad impression of the Cockroach Brothers.
During those early days when she had first entered Survival Inn and felt utterly helpless, the Cockroach Brothers’ presence had eased much of her anxiety.
Later, she had learned that most Dormitory receptionists couldn’t even be bothered to explain the basics. They simply tossed players into instances and left them to figure everything out for themselves. As a result, many players lost their lives before they even understood what was happening.
By comparison, the Cockroach Brothers were practically shining beacons of virtue.
Cheng Miao waved, a genuinely happy smile appearing on her face.
“So these are the Cockroach Brothers? They’re really so… cockroach-like.” Lin Zhu had often heard Qi Jiajia talk about the pair. The star student wasn’t afraid of insects, but even he felt a little traumatized by the sight of such enormous cockroaches up close.
Qi Jiajia seemed to remember something. She gave Lin Zhu a mysterious smile. “You know how terrified Cheng Miao used to be of insects? Later, she even dared to take liberties with those two.”
Lin Zhu and Qin Musong shared the same thought: The Game really toughened people up.
Ah Zhang and Ah Lang looked like two country brothers visiting relatives in the city, complete with large and small bags of local specialties.
“We don’t have much where we live, but there’s no shortage of big steamed buns.”
Cheng Miao was deeply moved. They had delivered steamed buns from a thousand miles away. The gift might be humble, but the affection behind it was priceless.
That afternoon, the group took the brothers sightseeing around the shopping district. After Cheng Miao and Qi Jiajia vehemently refused to carry them, the two brothers had no choice but to perch on Qin Musong. Their eyes brimmed with curiosity about the big city.
As Cheng Miao waited in line to buy candied fruit skewers, she tried to coax some information out of them. “You’re all receptionists, so how did the two of you end up with such a rotten assignment?”
Ah Zhang sighed. “That’s because we used to be ordinary dea…”
Ah Lang suddenly broke into a violent coughing fit. “Ahem, ahem, ahem, ahem!”
Ah Zhang immediately realized that he had said something he shouldn’t. He raised a slender foreleg and patted his younger brother, awkwardly changing the subject. “Be careful. Are you all right?”
Pretending she hadn’t heard a thing, Cheng Miao distributed the candied fruit skewers she had bought. She popped a whole strawberry into her mouth as she mulled over Ah Zhang’s unfinished sentence.
Dea… Had he been about to say “dead spirit,” or had he actually meant “player”?
It was obvious that everyone avoided this question. The last time she had asked Brother Parrot, he hadn’t answered her directly either.
She couldn’t rush this. She would have to take it slow.
The day ended after Cheng Miao’s group took the Cockroach Brothers to an amusement park, visited an aquarium, and treated them to a lavish meal.
Watching the two cockroaches reluctantly wave their little legs in farewell, Cheng Miao felt a trace of reluctance to part with them as well.
No matter how many players Survival Inn had claimed by now, the memories and bonds she had formed inside the Game were real.
Over the following days, Lin Zhu visited the counseling room from time to time, while Cheng Miao trained in hand-to-hand combat with Qin Musong.
Spurred on by Baili Qianqiu, Cheng Miao swore she would properly improve her fighting skills. As a result, Qin Musong left her black and blue in the gym every day.
One day, they had just left the gym and were discussing what treats to bring back for the two younger members of the team when Cheng Miao suddenly bumped into someone.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Are you all right?” Cheng Miao felt terrible. She hadn’t been watching where she was going.
The person she had bumped into was a man in a casual shirt and gold, square-framed glasses.
They were the same sort of gold-rimmed glasses, but while Baili Qianqiu looked like a refined scoundrel in his, this man exuded a very different kind of restrained, ascetic appeal.
The man smiled slightly to assure her there was no need to worry. His voice was deep and mellow, with the elegant timbre of a cello. “I was the one who bumped into you. My apologies.”
Cheng Miao waved with a beaming smile and left with Qin Musong, privately marveling that Survival Inn really did have an abundance of handsome men.
The man remained where he was and watched Cheng Miao walk away. A smile rose to his lips as he murmured, “It’s rare to find someone living so cheerfully in a place like this.”