Chapter 71
Mrs. Qiao scooped the dead infant out of the pot and cradled it in her arms, rocking gently.
“My child… the fruit of my love…”
She hummed a tuneless song.
It sounded like a lullaby meant to soothe a child.
“You may now go anywhere in the house,” Mr. Qiao said, taking a drag of his cigarette. “Tell the maid your destination, and she will take you there.”
“Red Coral?” Feng Shan repeated, focusing on the key detail as he gathered his teammates. “Weren’t there two Red Coral chairs in the hall we entered yesterday? The ones they were sitting on!”
Yu Ying patted her head. “I kind of remember.”
Feng Shan asked the maid, “Can you take us back to the hall?”
The maid bowed in invitation. “Guests, please follow me.”
“Looks like we chose correctly,” Song Changrong said approvingly to Feng Shan. “Even without Mr. Lyle, you’re doing very well.”
Feng Shan’s expression dimmed. “My Master replied to me yesterday. He said the Instance I’m in is very special, with severe communication delays, and he can’t sync my visuals from his end.”
He glanced at Lu Li in the distance and sneered, “They’re still running around like headless chickens. Let’s go first. I admit Lu Li has some skill, but his choice in teammates isn’t great.”
“As for Mirella,” Feng Shan’s face instantly darkened. “I’ve tried so many times to talk to her nicely, and she always treats me like air! It’s infuriating! When she’s begging for mercy after dying in the Instance, I’ll toss her aside!”
The maid was already heading toward the hall. Feng Shan followed and waved to his three teammates. “Let’s go.”
Yu Ying hesitated, her eyes darting between Feng Shan and Lu Li.
She shifted the Gold Brick on her back and chose to follow Feng Shan.
–
“Feng Shan’s group ran off-and in a hurry. Did they find the answer?” Luo Jia Bai wondered aloud. “When we came, we walked along that lavish golden path, and there were all kinds of colored Coral inside. Should we go back?”
“Fake,” Lu Li said. “The Coral was dyed. The hall is filled with White Coral.”
Luo Jia Bai was surprised. “So that’s dead Coral? No wonder Mrs. Qiao was rambling like a madwoman earlier. Mr. Qiao is so rich but still couldn’t find her the Red Coral she wants, so he needs us to look for it…”
“The house is so big. Where should we go?”
Luo Jia Bai touched the bandage on his arm, thinking. “We don’t even know what places are in his house!”
Lu Li asked the maid, “If not the front hall, the main hall, or the corridor, where else can you take us?”
No matter how you guess at unknown options, there’s always a margin of error.
But ruling out the known options makes things much clearer.
The maid bowed and said, “Guests, please follow me to visit the masters’ rooms.”
Nearby, Mirella was also talking to a maid.
But the maid shook her head regretfully at Mirella, pointed to Lu Li and Luo Jia Bai, and said, “Guest, your destination is the same as theirs. One maid can only go to one place. Please follow them.”
–
The maid opened a door for the three of them.
The room was tiled everywhere.
Thick white mist hung in the air, making it impossible to see what was inside.
The sound of water echoed continuously, damp and resonant.
On the tiled wall to the left hung certificates and medals of all sizes, gleaming gold:
Model Couple of the Rich District.
Top 3 Most Enviable Couples in the Rich District.
Annual Nominee for Most Affectionate Couple in the Rich District.
…
On the right hung portraits, wedding photos, and commemorative pictures of Mr. Qiao and Mrs. Qiao, arranged upward in chronological order. The higher the photo, the older Mrs. Qiao looked-her wrinkles deepening, and no amount of precious jewelry could hide them.
They remembered every special day with remarkable clarity-
The 1,000‑day anniversary photo of their first time holding hands.
A commemorative portrait for the 9,999th day of their marriage.
…
Luo Jia Bai looked around. “Is this Mr. Qiao and his wife’s… Love Exhibition Hall? Their love has gained a lot of recognition from others.”
“Recognition?” Lu Li asked, puzzled. “Does love have to be judged by others?”
Does love need to be scored again and again through comparisons, or does it have to be constantly recorded as a reminder?
It seemed that in this instance he might not find the kind of love he wanted to see.
“So fake,” Mirella commented simply.
She patted the Black Bird on her shoulder. “It’s too damp here. You’d better go back. I don’t have enough Points to buy you a hair dryer for your feathers.”
The Black Bird jumped irritably, tore open a space, and darted back in.
Suddenly, the sound of surging water filled their ears again.
Murky water rushed to their feet.
The white mist grew denser and denser.
Lu Li took two steps forward and turned to look at the third wall.
The wall was entirely occupied, with only one thing on it.
A mirror.
There was no white mist in the mirror.
They could clearly see what was actually in the room.
Mr. Qiao lay on his back in the bathtub, his fat piled up like mountains, surrounded by more than twenty slender maids reclining on their sides.
Countless graceful, slender hands were massaging Mr. Qiao.
Mr. Qiao closed his eyes in enjoyment. Golden, viscous fluid flowed from his limbs, and the maids scrambled to catch it in their hands.
As they scrambled, the water kept overflowing from the bathtub.
Lu Li said, “This is a bathroom.”
Mr. Qiao’s voice came from the mirror.
[Her father has already passed away, and the inheritance worth over a hundred million was squandered this year. She is careless and sloppy, never keeps accounts, and has no idea that I quietly transferred over ten million to my own account-she only knows how much I love her!]
[I’ve been sick of her fat body for decades! I can’t even stand lying in the same bed with her at night! How could she ever compare to you? You’re young and beautiful…]
Mr. Qiao stroked a maid’s cheek, and the maids giggled coquettishly.
Mr. Qiao laughed as well.
[There’s a rule in the Rich District: you can’t get divorced for thirty years after marriage. I’ve already been married for twenty-nine years. Every day I count down the days… Let me see how many are left… Three days! Hahaha, just three days left! I’ll finally be free!]
After checking the date, Mr. Qiao sank heavily back into the bathtub. Water splashed fiercely against the tiled wall. He sighed:
[Thank goodness we never had children. Thank goodness that child died.]
He tapped the maids’ bodies with his hand. [Who did this good deed? Was it you…?]
Mr. Qiao’s voice suddenly stopped.
He sat up and looked down toward where Lu Li and the other two stood.
[Who allowed you in here? You Little Mice!]
Lu Li stepped forward and looked downward.
Feng Shan’s team was stumbling out of a door.
Feng Shan’s door was much lower than theirs.
As soon as the Players entered, they were submerged by the bathroom’s water.
A male Player choked on water. “Swim up! It’s all water here! We can’t drink this water, right?”
Yu Ying was still complaining, “All the coral has faded-they’re fake! Feng Shan, are you sure this is really the right place this time?”
Mr. Qiao craned his head up again and shouted loudly:
[Oh, there are three more Little Mice above.]
Lu Li turned to look at the mirror.
Because they had entered the bathroom,
they now appeared in the mirror as well.