Chapter 4

“It’s just a Butcher Knife. You can just buy a new one.” The always-silent Shen Yubi suddenly spoke up.

Chu Yue lowered his head to look at him, a little surprised.

Li Ergou refused. “No way. That’s my ancestral treasure knife, passed down from my grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa. That’s the only one that feels right in my hand.”

Curled up in Chu Yue’s arms, Shen Yubi tried again in a small voice. “Once you get used to it, any knife is the same.”

This time, Li Ergou ignored him and turned around, showing him his backside.

Head tipped back, Shen Yubi tattled, “Brother, look at this guy.”

Chu Yue: “…”

Maybe he’d completely misread this kid’s personality.

Li Ergou said, “My knife was definitely stolen by someone. You have to help me find it in the next few days.”

When he finished, everyone fell silent. Li Ergou also went quiet.

In the end, it was Wang Meng who had no choice but to ask, “May I ask where you lost your knife?”

Li Ergou shot him a baffled look. “How would I know? Isn’t that what I called you here to investigate?”

Wang Meng: “…”

He swore this was the most infuriating NPC he’d ever met.

He could think that all he wanted, but without any clues, the event couldn’t progress. They still had to ask.

Forcing himself to be patient, he continued, “Then what does your knife look like? And what were the circumstances when you discovered it was missing?”

“My knife is about this big.” He held up his hands, index fingers marking a length. “Brown handle, with the character ‘Li’ carved on it.”

This time, Li Ergou didn’t snap back at him.

He thought for a bit. “At the last market fair, I set up my stall to sell meat. Some damned old woman just had to pester me, saying the meat I sold her was bad quality, that it stank, and she demanded I swap it for another piece.

“I was already about to pack up for the day, but she kept yammering and yammering. Ugly as sin, but sure knew how to dream.

“Like I wouldn’t know what she was up to-she just wanted to take advantage of me.

“I, Li Ergou, have been slaughtering pigs and selling meat for years. Who in this town doesn’t say my meat is fresh? How is it that only hers is supposedly rotten?”

“I refused to exchange it, so she started pressing herself up against me. Heaven damn it, she’s a sallow old hag and she actually dares to rub up on me? I have a wife, you know.

“My wife is tall and slim, with fair skin and a good-looking face. Why would I ever go for her?

“So I just kept pushing her away…”

Everyone: “…”

Wang Meng cut in, “Brother Li, let’s just get to the point.”

Li Ergou glared at him, wiping his hands on his apron out of habit. “I’ve been on the point the whole time!”

Wang Meng shut up. Important NPC-keeping him happy was what mattered.

“I got tangled up with her for so long that I ended up getting home half an hour later than usual.

“I walked in the door and ‘thump’-I dropped straight to my knees. But my wife still got mad. When she gets mad, she likes to beat me with the rolling pin.

“Hurts like hell.”

“But I don’t dare hit back. My wife’s so pretty-so I take a few smacks, big deal. It’s not like I’ll lose a chunk of flesh.

“After the beating, I went and ate some leftovers. Then I tried to get into bed to sleep, but my wife kicked me off and told me to go sleep in the living room.

“Sleep there, sleep there. She’s my wife-what can I do about it.”

Lying in Chu Yue’s arms, Shen Yubi yawned and muttered quietly by his ear, “Why does this NPC talk so much.”

“But it was just that one night!” Li Ergou suddenly raised his voice. “Just that one night!

“I remember my knife was still there when I finished at the stall. After that one night passed, my knife was gone!”
“My wife says I can’t even keep an eye on my own eating utensils. She packed up and ran back to her parents’ place in the middle of the night, said she won’t come back until I find that knife!”

“That damn vicious shrew, it has to be her who stole my knife. I knew it-she’s always trying to take advantage of me and lusting after my good looks.

“She just wants to piss my wife off so she can get her out of the way and hook up with me!”

Everyone: “…”

Chu Yue couldn’t help tugging at the corner of his mouth. He hadn’t expected someone who looked so honest to have such a wild imagination.

Li Ergou stepped forward, grabbed Wang Meng’s hand, and almost burst into tears.

“Bro, everyone, you have to help me find that knife before the gathering starts, or my wife really won’t want me anymore.”

“Of course, of course.”

With that reassurance, Li Ergou straightened up, and the tears in his eyes vanished at once.

“Then I’ll leave it to you all.”

Without a beat of hesitation, he turned and walked out of the building.

The Hall fell silent for a moment.

“Li Ergou didn’t give us much to go on,” Wang Meng said. “Everyone split into pairs and go ask around in town, see if you can dig up any leads, anything useful at all.”

This was easy enough to arrange: people sharing a dorm were grouped together, and the two people left on their own automatically paired up.

As he watched everyone file out the door one after another, Chu Yue stayed seated in his chair, not moving.

Shen Yubi also kept his eyes lowered, fiddling with the silver ornament hanging on his chest.

Soon, only the two of them were left in the Hall.

“Pretty Brother,” Shen Yubi said softly, “can I sleep in the same room as you tonight?”

Chu Yue looked at him but didn’t answer.

Shen Yubi’s eyes immediately welled up. “I can’t?”

“You can,” Chu Yue said.

The instant the words left his mouth, the tears in Shen Yubi’s eyes vanished.

After seeing it happen twice in quick succession, Chu Yue suddenly remembered a line his good friend liked to throw around: “He’s probably a drama queen.”

He couldn’t say for sure whether Shen Yubi was a drama queen, but he definitely wasn’t some socially anxious shut-in.

“You’re curious too, aren’t you,” Shen Yubi said, “about the people in this building.”

Chu Yue glanced at him. He was curious. Up to now, he hadn’t seen anyone else inside the building aside from their little group.

Especially with all that noise on the 4th Floor-yet not a single person had come out to check.

He stood up and picked a random room on the 1st Floor whose door didn’t have a padlock on it.

Scooping Shen Yubi up at his feet, he peered in through the little window in the door.

The curtains inside were drawn, the light dim. From outside, he could only make out the general layout.

The beds were in the same positions as in their own room, placed symmetrically, one on the left and one on the right.

There was a railing in the way, so Chu Yue couldn’t see clearly, but he could vaguely make out a small mound on one of the beds.

As if someone was still lying there, not yet awake.

They shifted their bodies to the side and moved on to the next room.

It didn’t look much different from the previous one. Almost all of them had two people to a room.

The two of them headed upstairs, checking the 2nd Floor and the 3rd Floor as well.

They didn’t examine every single room, but the ones they did look at were all pretty much the same.

“They’re all asleep?”

Chu Yue and Shen Yubi stood in front of Room 417, both puzzled by what they were seeing.

They had expected some kind of secret to be hidden in there, but it turned out the people inside were just… sleeping?

That wasn’t exactly not creepy, but it did mean they had no one they could actually question.

Their interest dampened, they were just about to head downstairs when the door beside them suddenly swung open.