Chapter 44
Chapter 44
“305.”
Cheng Miao stopped outside her door and looked both ways. The location was good, neither too near the stairs nor too far. Noise would not easily reach her, but the route remained convenient.
She had observed the building on her way up. There was no telling how many rooms occupied each floor. At a glance, the corridor stretched like a train carriage. With her sharp hearing, Cheng Miao caught people talking and eating behind the doors, along with the snores of sleeping guests.
She unlocked her room. Inside was a compact space with a five-foot-wide bed covered in white sheets. A lamp and telephone sat atop a small cabinet.
The room also held a television, with a yellowed electric fan on the floor beside it. A round glass table and a wicker chair stood against the wall.
The bathroom was extremely narrow. Anyone showering had to be careful not to trip over the squat toilet. The sink and mirror were inside, with a note taped beneath the mirror: DISPOSABLE TOILETRIES AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT THE FRONT DESK.
Cheng Miao inspected the room’s towel. It was yellow and smelled strangely of mildew.
To her delight, the room did have a window. She walked over and looked out at the road she had arrived on and the endless rice fields. Mountains seemed to rise at the road’s distant end, creating a surprisingly picturesque rural landscape.
Her keen eyes spotted a somewhat dazed figure on the road. Smiling, she locked her room and went downstairs.
When Cheng Miao reached the front desk, Brother Parrot had already talked Lin Zhu scarlet. His head hung so low it almost touched his chest.
“I hate sniveling cowards more than anything. Tell me, why are you afraid of me?”
“I-I’m not…” Lin Zhu looked close to tears. Most players feared Front Desk attendants. Those who did not still treated them with wary distance.
How was he supposed to know that flinching when Brother Parrot suddenly appeared on the road would earn him a lecture all the way inside?
Cheng Miao listened from the stairwell for three minutes as Brother Parrot mocked Lin Zhu without repeating a single line. She finally understood why she found the bird easy to talk to, yet so few players chose its Guesthouse.
It treated anyone it liked extremely well and anyone it disliked to a merciless tongue.
Even the curls on Lin Zhu’s head had wilted lifelessly. Cheng Miao quickly stopped Brother Parrot’s tirade. “That’s enough, Boss. Have mercy. He’s my teammate.”
Brother Parrot had talked itself thirsty and was dipping its beak into a personal cup. Cheng Miao’s voice immediately revived it. “It’s you. But really, why did you choose such a dull teammate? He’s timid, rude, and…”
“Enough. He’s so good-looking, and you’re still criticizing him?”
Cheng Miao had mostly grasped Brother Parrot’s temperament. It was contrary. The more someone feared it, the less it liked them. If they joked with it casually instead, it felt at ease.
At her words, Brother Parrot finally stopped. It tilted its tiny head and twisted around to inspect Lin Zhu’s lowered face.
“Hmm. Fairly handsome. Why is his personality so wooden?” It waved one wing in distaste and flew behind the counter to register his room.
Finally freed from the bird’s nagging, Lin Zhu understood how much concern had been contained in Grandpa Myna’s rare backward glance when he returned to Myna Guesthouse and announced his transfer. The look had clearly been reserved for an idiot.
Brother Parrot tossed a key carelessly, then flew onto Cheng Miao’s shoulder. “You can now activate team mode. If you want to enter an instance together, register at the front desk. People who register together form one team and use a single Instance Pass. If you don’t want team mode, register separately, but there’s no guarantee you’ll enter the same instance.”
Brother Parrot did not mind sharing extra information with people it liked. If this young woman died too soon, it would lose the only person willing to chat. Still young itself, it had no desire to become an old relic like Grandpa Myna.
Cheng Miao nodded and bought daily necessities from the Grocery Store. Her remaining Travel Coins would cover at most three more days. Lin Zhu had even less.
“Let’s eat first. Would you like to join us?” Cheng Miao invited Brother Parrot out of courtesy.
A strange gleam flashed through its tiny eyes. “No, thanks. I’ll have something to eat soon.”
No one could help players who failed the Game. Cheng Miao was powerless to change that. She led Lin Zhu, whose face had gone pale at the unpleasant memory, toward the cafeteria by following the sign.
Steaming food filled several stainless-steel pots. There was no cook in sight. The great containers sat silently in the center of the cafeteria, creating an eerie atmosphere.
Lin Zhu had barely eaten during the Game, and a boy his age was still growing. He was ravenous.
“Sister Miaomiao, the meal prices are over here.” At Lin Zhu’s call, Cheng Miao walked to a table holding an open register.
A plastic price sign stood on the tabletop: ONE DISH OR SOUP, 5 TRAVEL COINS. ONE SERVING OF RICE, 3 TRAVEL COINS. RECORD YOUR OWN ORDER.
Cheng Miao wrote down one dish, one soup, and one serving of rice. Lin Zhu looked from the food pots to the prices, face reddening. She smiled. “We’ll share what we get. Pick whichever dish you want.”
Lin Zhu knew she was helping him. He scratched his head, scribbled several words in the register, then tugged Cheng Miao toward the food.
Her sharp eyes caught his order: three servings of rice and one soup.
The cafeteria served ordinary home-style food, reminding Cheng Miao of her university dining hall. The label might promise stir-fried pork with chili peppers, but the dish was always almost entirely peppers.
The plates were not large. Cheng Miao used every skill she possessed to pile her food into a peak, turning one portion into what looked like two.
At her urging, Lin Zhu ate small bites of the dish while silently vowing to earn more money and never become a burden.
“How much money do you have left?” Full at last, Cheng Miao sipped her soup while Lin Zhu continued battling the final mouthfuls of rice.
It was pork-rib and radish soup, though she could find few ribs. The broth was bland, but drinkable.
Lin Zhu swallowed a tiger-skin pepper with rice. His face burned bright red, and sweat beaded across his skin. Sniffling from the spice, he answered, “One hundred and twenty Travel Coins.”
Then he added awkwardly, “I haven’t been at a Guesthouse for long. I’ve cleared four instances, but I haven’t saved much.”
Cheng Miao understood. She had noticed a pattern: an Inn’s room fee was generally close to the base reward for clearing an instance. Without earning extra contribution rewards, a player might not even make enough to eat.
Lin Zhu had still saved enough to transfer to another Guesthouse. That proved he was capable.
“Can teammates pay each other’s room fees at a Guesthouse?” Cheng Miao calculated her balance and frowned irritably. She did not have much money either. Whether in reality or the Game, poverty was a formidable obstacle.
Lin Zhu lowered his head, deeply embarrassed. “Members of the same team can.”
Cheng Miao did not notice his private thoughts and discussed the situation frankly. “My remaining money is only enough to cover one more night for both of us. We have to enter another instance by noon the day after tomorrow at the latest.”
Lin Zhu raised both hands in alarm. “It’s all right, Sister Miaomiao. I was planning to enter an instance by myself tomorrow.”