chapter 38
Nuo Nuo leaned close to the screen, as if carefully examining the two Bills, and shook her head regretfully. “Wrong answer.”
Luo Jia Bai’s expression changed instantly. He turned helplessly to look at Lu Li.
“I… I guessed wrong?”
Putting the two Bills back on the coffee table, Luo Jia Bai muttered in disbelief, “So, the income Bill belongs to Mom, and the expense Bill belongs to Dad?”
How could that be?
Wasn’t Dad a well-educated, hardworking, and family-oriented good man?
How could this Bill full of crazy luxury purchases belong to Dad?
Where did it all go wrong?
Nuo Nuo clapped her hands lightly. “You’ve made the wrong choice once. Have you decided who will become a pretty doll to watch TV with me?”
Zhu Yue clenched her palms tightly, her face pale as she stepped forward. “Me.”
Nuo Nuo looked a little disappointed, glancing longingly at Lu Li, but still respected their choice. She pouted and said to Zhu Yue, “Alright, you’re… pretty too.”
A flash of white light swept across the Television where Nuo Nuo was, and then the screen suddenly went black.
Lu Li blinked, his eyes stung by the sudden brightness.
When he came back to his senses, Zhu Yue had already disappeared.
Looking back at the sofa, the seven dolls that had been there were now eight, with two spaces left in the middle, staring at them menacingly.
Luo Jia Bai clutched his hair in pain, his fingers subconsciously digging hard into his palm, leaving marks on the bandages. “So all my guesses just now were wrong, and I chose the wrong Television too? But why? Why was it Dad?”
“You chose the right Television, but your reasoning was reversed.”
Lu Li patted him on the shoulder, comforting him. “Don’t be too burdened. Being able to make a complete deduction is already progress. You’ll do better next time.”
Luo Jia Bai was dejected. “There are still many choices to make ahead, but we don’t have many chances left to make mistakes.”
He dug at his palm forcefully, his mind a mess, trying to sort out his thoughts but failing. He bit his lip and laughed self-mockingly. “I’m really not smart at all. I’m the least qualified to make choices in the team.”
Suddenly, a young man’s cool and determined voice sounded above his head.
“I’ll answer the questions from now on. There won’t be any more mistakes.”
Luo Jia Bai was startled as Lu Li grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up.
Lu Li said, “As long as there’s a chance to make mistakes, you’ll answer first. It’s normal to get it wrong once. If you do, just try again. You need the practice.”
Luo Jia Bai was stunned. “But there aren’t many rounds left in this Instance…”
“Then the next Instance, and the one after that. There are so many Instances in the Necromancer Game. You’ll have plenty of chances to develop your independence.”
Luo Jia Bai’s eyes lit up, his voice trembling. “Are you saying… you’re willing to team up and bind with me?”
He was overwhelmed with joy, pacing back and forth in excitement.
He didn’t know why.
Being recognized by Lu Li made him so happy.
He was a useful person, a reliable teammate.
Lu Li gave a soft “Mm,” let go of him, picked up the two Bills again, and said to Nuo Nuo, “The income is Mom’s, the expenses are Dad’s.”
Nuo Nuo nodded in satisfaction. “Correct answer.”
The screen she was on went black, and the Power Off Button appeared on the Remote Control.
Luo Jia Bai handed the Remote Control back and humbly asked for advice. “You said I reversed my reasoning earlier. How should I have deduced it?”
“The first thing you could have used to confirm right or wrong was actually the weather forecast.” Lu Li spread out Nuo Nuo’s Diary Notes, displaying the first line of each Diary entry. “For these five days, Nuo Nuo recorded the date and weather. The entry for March 29th corresponds to the first weather forecast shown.”
Luo Jia Bai was shocked. He grabbed five Notes and looked them over repeatedly.
He hadn’t expected that such a tiny word could be the key information.
He also recalled the contents of the Diary, which were:
March 3rd, overcast
March 29th, rainy
November 26th, rainy
December 3rd, sunny
December 14th, sunny
“When the neighbors were interviewed, Nuo Nuo was still living with her parents, so we need to pick a related Note from either March 3rd or March 29th. Both are plausible, but neither day was sunny, so March 29th, rainy, is correct.”
Lu Li first made his choice in front of the glowing weather forecast screen. He picked up the Remote Control, turned off the sunny weather broadcast on the left, then turned off the neighbor’s sunny-day comment about the Female Host as well.
The room suddenly went dark.
All four televisions switched off.
“Why did everything go dark?” Luo Jia Bai spun around, scanning the room. Overhead, the two weather forecast TVs lit up again.
But this time, they were showing the weather for February 22nd.
Lu Li was calm. “Because if you turn off the right TV, you turn off all of them.”
In the quiet space, the buzz of electricity could be heard.
While waiting, Luo Jia Bai’s heart thudded nervously until two new televisions lit up directly behind him. He let out a long sigh of relief. “You really got it right!”
The February 22nd weather forecast showed overcast turning to cloudy on the left and sunny on the right.
Luo Jia Bai followed Lu Li’s train of thought as he searched for the Note. “The closest is March 3rd, overcast, so the left TV is the correct one. Now let’s see if the new TV screens display anything related to the weather.”
Lu Li turned around and looked at the TV Wall behind the sofa.
On the screen stood two identical Faceless Men. They wore white lab coats, wristwatches, and had meticulously combed hair, making them look like they worked in a precise profession.
A microphone with a media logo was held up to one of them. The man kept checking his watch and looked somewhat anxious.
“I have surgery in half an hour; I need to get to the hospital. How long is this interview going to take? Oh, you want my impression of that family? I haven’t had much contact with them, but I did operate on the Male Host once-the situation was pretty serious. My deepest impressions are of the Female Host and the Male Host.”
Lu Li paused the left screen.
“The weather’s bad today, visibility is low, and I’m driving slowly, so I’ll just say a few words. I often hear crying coming from their home, but I live upstairs and can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman.
I really think it’s the Female Host! She definitely has a violent temper and mental issues. I’ve long hoped she’d be sent to a psychiatric hospital. After all, when the Male Host was sent to the hospital, I was the lead surgeon. His ear was slashed down to his neck, and after it healed, he suffered severe hearing loss in his left ear. That’s a lot of force! I don’t want to live next to a murderer!”
Lu Li then paused the right screen.
“Move the camera a bit to the left; the sunlight is so bright I can’t open my eyes. That family really is odd. The child is introverted and doesn’t like to talk, and the Male Host is much too timid! He came to the hospital with his head covered in blood, his left ear severely deafened. Later, when his wife arrived, she started screaming at him like a madwoman, and he just listened quietly.
I really think he’s too pitiful! He has to take care of the child, earn money for the family, and even when bullied by his wife, he can’t fight back. He’d be better off just getting a divorce as soon as possible!”
Suddenly, Luo Jia Bai pointed at the coffee table in surprise. “Everything on it has changed!”