Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Shen Yubi whipped the quilt aside and spread the paper-cutting out on the bed.

Following Chu Yue’s lead, he looked directly at the eyes.

Sure enough, the rabbit on the newly purchased paper-cutting had eyeballs.

Comparing the two, the rabbit on the ceiling looked dull and lifeless, whereas the new one was clearly more spirited, appearing almost lifelike.

However, looking at it from another perspective, staring at the rabbit on the new paper-cutting for too long gave one a creeping sense of dread.

The eyeless rabbit was just an ordinary piece of paper, but this one looked as if it might leap off the paper at any moment and stand right before you, flesh and blood.

This was the one that should have been pasted on the ceiling.

Having identified the difference, Chu Yue continued to stare at the paper-cutting. As he watched, he suddenly stepped up onto the bed.

The ceiling wasn’t very high here, and standing on the bed allowed him to get much closer.

Because of this, he noticed another detail.

“Something’s very wrong,” Chu Yue said, beckoning to Shen Yubi. “Come up and take a look.”

“What is it?” Shen Yubi asked, already stepping up.

Chu Yue pointed at the rabbit’s eyes. “Look here. Isn’t this quite strange? The marks don’t look like clean cuts.”

Looking where his fingertip pointed, Shen Yubi’s eyes flashed. “In other words, it’s not that this rabbit didn’t have eyes to begin with, but rather that someone dug them out later.”

“What?” Guan Doujin stood by the bed listening to them, rubbing his arms.

Who the hell would do something so pointless? It was just a paper-cutting, yet someone went out of their way to gouge out its eyes?

“Wait, could it have been the one who died?”

While they were eating in the Hall, she had been complaining about the paper-cuttings on the tables. Maybe when she came back to sleep at night and saw the one above her head, she felt like the rabbit was watching her, so she climbed up and scratched its eyes out.

“The chances are slim. If you’re really that scared, you’d just tear the whole thing down. You wouldn’t bother with such meticulous work,” Chu Yue said. “But the possibility can’t be ruled out.”

Shen Yubi climbed down from the bed. “There’s an easy way to find out. We can just go and ask that man if he knows anything about it.”

This could be a lead, or they could just be overthinking it.

“Let’s go then.” Chu Yue clapped his hands and tucked the paper-cutting away. “Let’s go find him. I wonder if he’s even in the Inn right now.”

“Hard to say. He’s probably following Zhang Duo and the others. With his cowardice, I doubt he’d dare to be alone.”

The three of them searched the Inn but found no sign of the man. There were only two newbies hiding in their room, doing who-knows-what.

This was a survival-duration Instance. Many people who encountered such Instances only thought about coasting to victory. After all, there were no specific tasks or requirements to find clues; as long as you survived for a few days, you would naturally be allowed to leave.

But there was a paradox to that.

If you didn’t go out to gather clues and reconstruct the story’s background, how could you analyze the Death Condition?

Unless you were exceptionally lucky, you simply wouldn’t be able to avoid it.

The rest of the Players were likely out gathering information. The Hall was empty, save for the young Waiter sitting behind the counter, nodding off.

Guan Doujin walked over and tapped on the desk. “Hey. Have you seen that man who was making a fuss about changing rooms last night?”
The Waiter looked up, smacking his lips and wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve. He looked listless. “Didn’t see her. She probably went out? It didn’t look like she came back at noon.”

“Oh,” Guan Doujin replied, then started chatting with him. “How long have you been working here? Are you a local?”

“How much do you make a month? Is the Innkeeper good to you?”

“You still look pretty young. Don’t tell me you’ve already got a wife?”

He stuck to topics the Waiter could easily answer. As they talked, the sense of distance between them began to thin.

As the two got more into the conversation, Chu Yue and Shen Yubi stood to the side, watching Guan Doujin’s maneuvers without interrupting. They understood the logic: it was better to ask questions once they were well-acquainted. Having this chatterbox around saved them a lot of effort.

Moving from personal experiences to idle boasting, Guan Doujin saw that the atmosphere was right and casually steered the conversation toward his real goal.

“Even though you aren’t from around here, you’ve been working here for two years. You must know a lot about this town.”

“Of course,” the Waiter said, patting his chest. “Our Inn is the largest in town. Guests come from all over, north and south. There isn’t anything I don’t know.”

Guan Doujin tossed him a silver ingot. “Get a jar of wine. Let’s drink while we talk.”

The Waiter’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the silver.

Guan Doujin smiled. “I feel like we’re old friends already. No need for change; consider the rest a gift for our first meeting.”

Calling it a “gift” was just a polite way of giving a tip. The Waiter understood this, and he knew the man wanted to dig for information, but he still felt quite pleased hearing it put that way.

He picked up the silver and tucked it happily into his pocket. He paid for the wine out of his own pocket at the counter, then poured a full cup for Guan Doujin.

“Big brother, go ahead. Whatever I know, I’ll tell you everything. I won’t hide a single thing.”

Guan Doujin patted his shoulder heartily. “A man’s word is his bond. We’re all out here in the world; we should help each other out.”

Chu Yue’s lip twitched. What kind of nonsense is this?

Without any further banter, Guan Doujin finally got down to business.

“There’s something I’m not sure if I should ask.”

“Go ahead, big brother.”

Guan Doujin said, “It’s like this. As you know, we’re a group of merchants. We came here to buy your town’s paper-cuts to resell elsewhere, which helps promote your town’s reputation. However, since we arrived, we’ve noticed something strange.”

He continued.

“This is Paper-Cut Town, and I’ve heard of a Paper-Cut Goddess. But we’ve been here for so long, so why haven’t we heard a single person mention her?”

As soon as he said this, the Waiter’s expression shifted, though he quickly regained his composure. He glanced left and right.

After confirming no one was eavesdropping, he leaned forward and whispered into Guan Doujin’s ear.

“I’ll tell you, we really do have a Paper-Cut Goddess here. But that was a long time ago. In recent years, no one has ever mentioned her again. It seems to be related to how the town struck it rich decades ago.

“I don’t know the exact details. It’s become a taboo for the locals. After all, I’m just an outsider.”

The town striking it rich decades ago?

Wasn’t that exactly when Zhou Laoda’s family rose to prominence?