Chapter 74

Chapter 74

It was now 12:32 a.m.

At the garbage station, a woman in a cleaner’s uniform was sorting medical waste into separate bags.

Her name was Huang Yanmei. Four years ago, she had divorced her husband, and ever since, she had been working as a cleaner at this hospital.

She had a daughter named Zhu Xiangfeng, but she didn’t like the girl. Every time she saw Zhu Xiangfeng, she thought of that abusive husband of hers.

Sometimes, she would shove Zhu Xiangfeng out in front of her, but a little child couldn’t withstand a beating. Her violent husband was also afraid of accidentally killing someone, so in the end, Huang Yanmei was still the one who took most of the blows.

Later, her husband died, and she felt nothing but relief from head to toe. The only thing that made her unhappy was that she had to raise Zhu Xiangfeng alone.

Zhu Xiangfeng was only three. In the future, school would cost money, food would cost money-everything would cost money. Huang Yanmei could barely afford to feed herself. How was she supposed to raise a child?

So while Huang Yanmei worked as a cleaner at the hospital, she often let Zhu Xiangfeng play around the hospital on her own. She had even thought that it might be better if the child simply got lost.

If she got lost, Huang Yanmei wouldn’t have to keep struggling to keep her alive.

Huang Yanmei had considered sending Zhu Xiangfeng to an orphanage, but whenever Zhu Xiangfeng looked at her with those damp, pleading eyes, she softened again.

She was always too softhearted toward Zhu Xiangfeng, Huang Yanmei thought.

Even though she never sent Zhu Xiangfeng to school and rarely saw her.

Zhu Xiangfeng had also learned to speak late. She was almost four before she could say a complete sentence, making her seem slow and foolish all over.

But Huang Yanmei also knew that sometimes, her heart could be very hard.

For example, whenever Zhu Xiangfeng asked her for this or that, Huang Yanmei would always feel irritated. I’ve already gone through so much trouble raising you this far. Can’t you ask me for a little less?

A strawberry cake, a Cloth Doll, lilies-what was there to ask for in any of those things?

Even though Huang Yanmei herself had forgotten that the days Zhu Xiangfeng asked for those things were Zhu Xiangfeng’s birthdays, and had also forgotten that she had promised Zhu Xiangfeng those things when she was in a good mood.

As she cleaned up the garbage station, she fumed over the misfortune of her life.

Especially when she looked toward that window and occasionally saw Zhu Xiangfeng playing and laughing with that little girl, her grief and anger over her own misery only grew stronger.

Even though those emotions should never have been taken out on a little girl.

Huang Yanmei had just finished packing up a huge bag of trash and was about to leave when the piles of garbage stacked at the entrance to the station were kicked aside.

Amid Qin Genan’s cursing complaints of disgust, Huang Yanmei saw a young man in glasses smiling at her in the moonlight. “Hello. Are you Ms. Huang Yanmei?”

Huang Yanmei stared blankly at them.

More accurately, she stared at the little girl the young man was holding by the hand.

The little girl shrank behind him, then poked her head out and called timidly, “M-Mom.”

—

Ning Wang asked, “Why is the Murderer her mother?”

Ning Shuo finished tying the woman up. “Under what circumstances would you usually call someone the Murderer?”

“A case. A Murder Case.”

Ning Shuo nodded. “But in the Murder Mystery Game System, only someone who has killed another person is called the Murderer. This Script, however, is very peaceful. Even though she treated Zhu Xiangfeng badly, that still isn’t enough to call her the Murderer.”

A thought began to push its way through the soil. Ning Wang said, “Her guardian…?”

“Right. It’s still the same issue. When Xiangfeng treated us as her guardians, she said ‘you’ in the singular, not ‘you’ in the plural,” Ning Shuo said. “If Xiangfeng had never seen her father growing up, then using the singular ‘you’ makes perfect sense.”

A dead man, whether in the past or present life of an eight-year-old child, was nothing more than background. Naturally, he would leave no trace.

The age at which people began forming clear memories was usually six or seven. Even if Xiangfeng’s childhood had been bitter, that age could at most be moved forward by a year or two.
Ning Shuo looked at Huang Yanmei. “Ma’am, this may be rude, but may I ask how you became widowed?”

Huang Yanmei’s pupils shrank. “How did you know I was w-”

She stopped herself at once.

Seeing that, Ning Shuo tilted his head and smiled. “How about this, ma’am? Why don’t you tell me how you made yourself widowed?”

“No need to ask how I know.” Ning Shuo adjusted his glasses and began putting on an air of mystery. “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Ning Banxian.”

“You may not know what that means, so I’ll put it simply: it means I can divine anything.”

—

It had backfired.

Huang Yanmei had spent so many years in the hospital, and since the Players had essentially taken over her role in the mission, she did have some understanding of Players.

Not much, but after Ning Shuo introduced himself, her physical condition began to mutate.

After all, no patient would know fortune-telling. Ning Shuo had only been trying to bluff her.

Ning Wang dragged over a metal barrel, covered Huang Yanmei with it, then stood on top. “So we’re just going head-on?”

Ning Shuo said, “Wasn’t going head-on the whole point of this plan?”

He faced everyone. Behind him stood countless deranged doctors, nurses, and patients. “This show is only just beginning.”

—

Qin Genan hefted a cannon barrel she had modified herself. “It’s not a real cannon, but damn, it still feels great! Hahahaha! I never thought I’d get to touch a gun again in any Script outside the apocalypse. Those two really know how to find materials for me! Hahahaha!”

Shen Zhiwang silently mixed chemicals behind her. “No bullets, so we’ll substitute chemical rounds. The Corrosion effect should be good enough.”

The instant the barrel holding Huang Yanmei was about to crack, Yu Qian patched it up without the slightest slackening. “Good thing this Script is as simple and brutal about killing as a zombie apocalypse. If it were like that Rose Castle the Half-Immortal played, where the Murderer could pop out from who knows where, that really would’ve taken years off my life.”

Zhuang Yao shielded the remaining two Players with little combat ability, along with Zhu Xiangfeng. “Xiangfeng, do you like candy?”

[With their own two hands, they turned a wild-concept Script into a life-or-death escape Script.]

[What do we do? I’m still getting System error prompts over here.]

[Same. My screen keeps flashing red on and off. I’ve been in the System for two years, and this is the first time I’ve seen anything like it.]

[They’re… challenging this Script’s threshold…]

[Where are those two?]

Those two were raiding the base.

The red-screen warning kept flashing. But because all their weapons had been assembled on-site within the Script and didn’t count as items brought from the Backpack, even Shen Zhiwang, someone who could mix Corrosion and explosive chemicals, had been matched to the scenario just right.

In the end, the red-screen signal gave up.

Ning Wang was responsible for clearing out every enemy blocking their way. After Ning Shuo confirmed there was nothing in the hospital worth looting, he said, “Blow it up.”

They had set up iron cans throughout the entire building, along with the chemicals they’d specifically requested from Shen Zhiwang. “This should be right.”

Ning Wang picked up a steel rod. “Can’t use a sword, so this’ll have to do for now.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Qin Genan fired a chemical round straight into one of the iron cans. With a boom, flames shot into the sky.

Amid the heat wave and firelight that nearly blotted out the heavens, Ning Wang kicked away a doctor. “How’s that?”

For convenience’s sake, Ning Shuo had already taken off his glasses. A playing card infused with inner force pierced through an NPC’s throat. When its head hit the ground but its body still lunged forward, Ning Shuo kicked it away. “Good enough.”

The building collapsed. In the ruins, before the blaze, Ning Shuo looked toward Ning Wang and met a pair of eyes filled with unrestrained wildness.