Chapter 207
Chapter 207
Cheng Miao roughly understood the arrangements. Since the five of them were sleeping together, Yang Ke’s room had one empty place.
Shi Biao was sharing a room with Song Guoqiang’s group of three, while the siblings and the couple stayed together.
Something often happened on the first night of an instance, giving them an opening to unravel it.
With a few worries on her mind, Cheng Miao drifted off to sleep.
Qiudong lay on his side beside her. Behind him, Lin Zhu had settled the little doll beside himself. Nobody spoke again.
Cheng Miao slept well that night, so well that she was still a little dazed when she woke the next morning.
Lin Zhu and Qiudong were fetching water, while Qin Musong sat behind Qi Jiajia, braiding her hair.
Rubbing her eyes, Cheng Miao stepped outside. She saw Miao Jie chattering away and the siblings sitting at the doorway to their room.
Then she saw that Song Guoqiang’s group of three and Shi Biao were already treating one another like brothers.
Unease rose inside her. She turned and pounded on the door next to hers, but nobody answered.
Just as Cheng Miao was about to force it open, the door opened from inside.
“Sister Miaomiao, what’s wrong?” Yang Ke rubbed his eyes. Once he saw that it was Cheng Miao, he immediately snapped awake.
Cheng Miao leaned in to look. Freckles was tying up her hair, and Zu Gehan was making his bed. Everyone was there.
Nobody had died on the first night.
That fact settled her heart a little, yet left it shrouded in unease again.
So far, she had encountered very few instances in which nobody died on the first night. Either this one was particularly simple, or its rules were very unusual.
“Nothing.” Cheng Miao shook her head and went to wash her face.
“Miss Cheng seems quite close to you.” Zu Gehan straightened his bedding, watching her leave.
Yang Ke and Freckles might not have been fully awake yet, but he had noticed Cheng Miao’s concern just now.
“Yeah. Sister Miaomiao is wonderful. She may seem cold and distant, but she’s really kind. I’ve been through two instances with her, and I got out of both thanks to her.” Freckles’ eyes lit up at the mention of Cheng Miao. She looked every bit the devoted little fan.
“That’s right. I’ve only done one instance with Sister Miaomiao. If she hadn’t been there, more than half the people would’ve died.” Yang Ke silently added to himself that, in the end, more than half had died anyway.
Zu Gehan watched Cheng Miao’s retreating figure with interest, only to meet Qiudong’s warning gaze unexpectedly.
He smiled softly and looked away.
Breakfast was plain rice porridge made by Qin Musong and eggs boiled by Lin Zhu. Tan Ge and Tan Wu brought over some of the fruit from yesterday and received two bowls of porridge and two eggs in return.
Zu Gehan seemed detached from such earthly concerns. They didn’t know whether he had eaten last night, and he hadn’t mentioned food this morning either.
Cheng Miao found this player rather interesting and gave him the last bowl of porridge.
Zu Gehan smiled softly and thanked her. Only at such close range did Cheng Miao realize that although his features were ordinary, his eyes were truly captivating.
They did a lot for his looks.
But they resembled the eyes of a robot in a science-fiction movie. What looked like crisscrossing laser lines divided the crystalline structure into countless spaces.
It wasn’t noticeable ordinarily. Only up close did it suddenly become apparent.
That made those beautiful eyes even more mysterious.
Cheng Miao instinctively felt this must be one of Zu Gehan’s abilities too. What normal person’s eyes looked like that?
Song Guoqiang, Zhao Jiangong, and their companion clearly already counted Shi Biao as part of their team. Whatever Shi Biao had told them, they all looked at Zu Gehan warily.
The four of them slipped into the kitchen. After clattering around for ages, they eventually produced some plain porridge too, although the scorched patches on top didn’t look particularly appetizing.
Miao Jie and her boyfriend had thought of this problem yesterday and taken a flatbread the size of a face from a villager’s home. Now they sat in the courtyard, broke it in two, and ate it in small bites.
Only Zhu Cong’s team had no food left. After Fang Jing’s outburst yesterday, players who had originally thought Zhu Cong was strong enough to be worth winning over had lost interest.
Fang Jing, unfortunately, had no such awareness. Her eyes kept straying toward Qiudong as he drank his porridge.
To be fair, Fang Jing really had been lucky. Her first instance was relatively simple, and the experienced players there had enough attention to spare to look after a woman as pretty as she was.
After a few instances, she had become a stupid beauty who knew only how to cling to veteran players.
Unfortunately, as the instances grew harder, anyone with a little ability was unlikely to risk their life just to please a woman.
Just when Fang Jing had come close to failing to get out, she met Zhu Cong.
He was the strongest veteran player she had ever met, and the most good-tempered.
She could tell he truly liked her. It wasn’t simply lust at first sight.
That understanding, combined with his tolerance and honest nature, led her to test his limits little by little.
Each time Zhu Cong gave ground, Fang Jing grew more unrestrained.
At first, she had been polite to Ma Yang and Kong Fan, even a little eager to please them. Not long after joining their team, however, she had begun shouting orders at them.
Her attitude toward Zhu Cong had deteriorated considerably too.
Once she realized he wouldn’t get angry even when she threw a tantrum, she stopped treating him pleasantly at all.
You could say Fang Jing had enjoyed a very smooth journey. She could clear instances without having to contribute much herself.
She had spent two or three months in the low-level Dormitory, since merely scraping through instances earned her hardly any Travel Coins.
But since teaming up with Zhu Cong, she had no longer needed to think about money or supplies and could stay in high-grade Hotel rooms.
Now, however, she wasn’t satisfied. Zhu Cong was dull, ordinary-looking, and his teammates disliked her.
Qiudong was handsome and powerful. Besides, she had overheard that they were already Grand Hotel players.
Fang Jing didn’t want to stay at the Hotel anymore. She wanted to see somewhere higher up.
If she could attach herself to Qiudong the way she had to Zhu Cong…
As she ate the cookies from Zhu Cong’s backpack, her eyes darted about. She didn’t hear Ma Yang and Kong Fan quietly pulling Zhu Cong aside to speak with him a short distance away.
“Brother Zhu, that woman is looking for someone higher up to latch onto again. I knew she couldn’t be trusted. Last night, she was even complaining that we always stay at the Hotel. As if she’s in any position to complain, after spending months in the low-level Dormitory.”
Ma Yang disliked Fang Jing most of all. A woman’s underhanded tactics were even harder for another woman to stomach.
“Exactly. She doesn’t even consider that if we weren’t always carrying a dead weight who contributes nothing, we wouldn’t still be stuck in Hotel rooms.” Kong Fan was full of anger too.
“Brother Zhu, you really need to think about this. That woman isn’t your wife. Your wife wouldn’t want you to use someone like her as a replacement either.”
Seeing Zhu Cong keep his head lowered without speaking, Kong Fan steeled himself and pointed out the heart of the problem.
“Enough. Don’t say any more.” Pain flashed through Zhu Cong’s eyes. Neither of them wanted to upset him, so they fell silent.
Zhu Cong sighed and looked back at Fang Jing, who was still sizing up Qiudong. Then he lowered his gaze.