chapter 19

Zhao Liang dragged the basin in front of Cheng Miao, wiped the sweat from his forehead, still panting a little, and spoke in a rather ingratiating tone, “You guys walked too fast. I just stopped to get some water and you were gone.”

Bai Jiang turned around, clearly not intending to talk to Zhao Liang. Zhao Liang felt uneasy; when he pushed Tong Qian out earlier, he hadn’t considered the consequences. Now, realizing he’d been isolated, he was a bit panicked, eager to prove his worth so the team would accept him again.

During the initial introductions, Zhao Liang hadn’t mentioned it, but in fact, among this group, the one who had cleared the most Instances wasn’t Bai Jiang-it was Zhao Liang himself.

He was lucky; every time, he managed to escape by following the experts. The only problem was his own lack of skill-it took him four Instances to save up enough money for the Intermediate Dormitory, and this was his third Game in the Intermediate Dormitory.

In real life, Zhao Liang was unpopular, harboring thoughts inappropriate for children, though he’d never dared act on them.

He’d spent his life as a bottom-rung employee in a small company, barely noticeable, always swallowing his grievances and putting up with whatever came his way.

When someone like him entered the Survival Inn, where the law was imperfect, the evil side of his nature was magnified without limit.

He’d caused the deaths of people-many people.

But dead was dead. Those who knew what kind of person he was might beat him up, but wouldn’t kill him.

Cowardly hypocrites!

To him, what happened to Tong Qian was just routine-he blamed it on the woman’s bad luck.

As for women, no matter how pretty, Zhao Liang had no interest. The only one he found remotely interesting was Qi Jiajia, but her temper was so bad… she deserved it!

Cheng Miao calmly caught the flash of ferocity in Zhao Liang’s eyes. “Why did you get water?”

Zhao Liang snapped back to himself, a hint of contempt in his eyes, but his tone remained submissive. “What else would you use to Water Flowers if not water? But this stuff smells awful. I’ll handle it later, no need for you guys to get involved.”

Zhao Liang could act against Tong Qian, but he didn’t dare target Bai Jiang or Cheng Miao.

The reason was simple: he was weak and needed the experts to help him clear the Instance.

Zhao Liang hadn’t been around when Cheng Miao and the others were working on the exercise book, and when Tong Qian was washing dishes, his attention was on the fish. He didn’t realize that every small task could hide a trap.

Bai Jiang raised his eyebrows and stepped back decisively. “Go ahead, then.”

Cheng Miao stood silently to the side, watching Zhao Liang with no trace of emotion.

For someone who always stabbed others in the back and treated human life as worthless, Cheng Miao knew she couldn’t become a butcher with blood on her hands like him.

But when it came to Zhao Liang’s eagerness to court death, Cheng Miao had no intention of playing the saint.

Zhao Liang didn’t notice the thoughts of the two experts. He gave a low grunt, face flushed, and poured the water from the basin onto the Flower Root.

The thick liquid clung to the stem, seeping in very slowly.

Bai Jiang, glancing at the Notebook spread open at his feet, was surprised to see the words “Watering Flowers” gradually disappear. “Whoa, it really works!”

Zhao Liang, feeling smug, patted himself down. “You young people, sometimes you just overcomplicate things.”

Cheng Miao, sharp-eyed, saw a leaf on the flower stem twitch. She quickly ran aside with Bai Jiang, who had also sensed something was wrong.

Zhao Liang looked at the two suddenly running far away, utterly confused. He instinctively turned to look behind himself, still muttering, “What’s going on? Jumping at shadows…”
The brightly colored Tulip-shaped flower behind him bent its stem in a comical way, just like in a cartoon, bringing its petal containing the stamen right up to Zhao Liang’s face, as if trying to get a clearer look at the person who had watered it.

Zhao Liang was stunned by the sudden change. Seeing that the Tulip only bent down to look at him and didn’t do anything else, he relaxed and even had the leisure to shout to Cheng Miao and Bai Jiang not far away, “See, I told you it’s not as complicated as you thought… Ah!”

The Tulip spread its layers of petals, revealing a golden heart inside.

Cheng Miao squinted, trying to see more clearly.

“That’s not the stamen…”

“Mm,” Cheng Miao agreed with Bai Jiang’s comment, “those are teeth.”

Layer upon layer, densely packed teeth crowded inside the Tulip’s bud, undulating and writhing in a regular pattern, making Cheng Miao’s skin crawl even from a distance.

Suddenly, the Tulip bit down on Zhao Liang’s arm, and the loud chewing sound was accompanied by Zhao Liang’s screams.

Hiss, just hearing it made one feel the pain.

Unexpectedly, the Tulip didn’t swallow Zhao Liang whole, but bit down on that section of his arm, swinging its bud up and down, and forcibly tore the entire arm off Zhao Liang’s body.

“Bang.” Zhao Liang fell to the ground, so much in pain he couldn’t speak, and his strong survival instinct made him crawl and wriggle forward on the ground.

The Tulip feasted on Zhao Liang’s arm, each chew accompanied by bright red blood flowing out of the bud.

In no time, the Tulip shook itself, then stood straight back among the flowerbeds, swaying in the wind as if it had never moved at all.

If you ignored the blood winding across its petals, that is.

Cheng Miao was almost immune to such disgusting scenes by now. Not far away, Zhao Liang passed out after using his vest to roughly staunch the bleeding.

Cheng Miao walked over and felt Zhao Liang’s neck. “He’s still alive.”

Bai Jiang nodded nonchalantly. The sooner this troublemaker died, the better.

“There are no new tasks in the Notebook. Not sure if there aren’t any, or if there’s a rest period.” Bai Jiang fiddled with the Notebook, checking again and again to make sure no strange new tasks had appeared.

“There won’t be any today.” Cheng Miao gestured for Bai Jiang to look at the sun, which was almost below the horizon. “Daytime is over. Night is for resting. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow for new tasks.”

Hearing this, Bai Jiang breathed a sigh of relief. Even he couldn’t withstand such high-intensity, high-density tasks. Having some rest time was nice.

“What are you dreaming about?” Cheng Miao shook her head. “Night is when we complete the final task. Otherwise, during the day, just doing the tasks in the Notebook is exhausting enough. You still want to look for Baby Bear’s toy?”

Reminded by Cheng Miao, Bai Jiang finally realized that their goal wasn’t to complete the tasks in the Notebook, but to find Baby Bear’s toy and clear the Instance.

It had to be said, this Instance was very cunning, setting up many small tasks to distract the Players.

If a Player only focused on resting after finishing the day’s tasks and missed the best time at night when no tasks appeared, then until sunset the next day, they probably wouldn’t be able to spare any time to look for the toy. By then, they might not even know how they died.