Chapter 241
Chapter 241
Fang Kang wallowed in despair for a while.
Only for a while.
He soon rallied.
He would never become a frog who simply lay down and surrendered. He would rise!
Fang Kang sprang upright and was about to leap off the shoe when–
“Ah! A frog!” A scream suddenly erupted around him, and countless gazes fell upon him.
Fang Kang did not care.
What was wrong with a frog? Had they never seen one before? What a bunch of ignorant fools.
Fang Kang looked utterly disdainful. However… once the owner of the foot realized a frog was lying on his shoe, he screamed as well and violently kicked forward.
Caught completely off guard, Fang Kang went flying.
He flew an astonishing distance before landing with a splash.
There was an enormous fish tank at the ball. Standing directly on the floor and roughly as tall as a person, it contained aquatic plants and swimming goldfish. It was merely part of the ballroom decor, but now–
Fang Kang had landed inside it.
Before he could gather his thoughts, several mouthfuls of water flooded him.
Fortunately, he recovered quickly and began struggling upward.
The tank was large, but not filled to the brim. Fang Kang soon broke the surface, then began laboriously climbing the glass wall.
He climbed and climbed.
Climbed–
Qin Nan stopped walking.
He glanced around in confusion, then looked at Jian Fan. “I think I just heard someone shouting about a frog. Was it Fang Kang? Did you hear that?”
Jian Fan gave a quiet sound of confirmation.
Fang Kang was not their teammate. Jian Fan plainly did not care where he had gone.
Seeing this, Qin Nan said nothing more.
Zhou Jingying had also heard the scream about a frog.
She was not far from the commotion. After considering it, she walked toward the disturbance.
“That terrified me. Why would a frog appear at a ball?” The speaker still sounded shaken.
“Good heavens, a frog!”
“Oh, my. Where did it go? I can’t bear the thought. How revolting.”
“…”
After listening nearby, Zhou Jingying more or less understood what had happened.
Fang Kang had been kicked away and was now missing.
But Fang Kang was not truly a frog, and Zhou Jingying did not believe he would die so easily. Besides, she did not care whether he lived. If Fang Kang died, she would not mourn him; she would celebrate with an entire string of firecrackers.
Yang Zhen knew Fang Kang was a murderer. Zhou Jingying knew too.
Yang Zhen had learned through the Assassination Bounty List. As for Zhou Jingying…
The moment she thought of Fang Kang, a cold smile curled her lips. She had never hated anyone as deeply as she hated him. Fang Kang bore the full weight of all her hatred.
She had searched for him for a long time without success. Zhou Jingying had never imagined she would encounter him in the Realm of Death.
So the Realm of Death was not entirely useless.
Zhou Jingying lowered her gaze and slowly suppressed the hatred rising within her. Once her emotions steadied, she left and continued searching for clues.
Clues, however, were difficult to find.
Feeling tired, Zhou Jingying went to the lounge area and sat in a chair.
Her gaze slowly swept across her surroundings as she tried to identify something useful, but she failed.
Her attention gradually fell upon the basket in her hands.
It contained several matches. After thinking, Zhou Jingying took one out. An idea crossed her mind, and she reached toward the matchbox to strike it–but stopped just as the match touched the box.
She could not be sure that lighting it would reveal a clue.
Perhaps it would, but it might also cause the Realm of Death to erase her.
The Little Match Girl had died after burning all her matches. That might also be the rule imposed by the Realm of Death.
Zhou Jingying feared death.
She could not die before finishing what she wanted to accomplish.
Even if the matches might conceal a clue.
She withdrew her hand and returned the match to the basket.
Abandoning the idea, she soon stood and resumed searching.
Lin Junruo and Yellow Hair were not idle either.
Their pairing attracted plenty of attention.
A beautifully dressed princess accompanied by a Dwarf–the important point being that the princess was not Snow White. The sight certainly invited speculation.
The guests merely stole glances and whispered curiously, however. No one made trouble for them.
Yellow Hair walked beside Lin Junruo.
He had once needed to look down at her. Now he had to tilt his head upward slightly to meet her gaze.
“Any ideas?” Yellow Hair asked.
Lin Junruo lowered her head and met his eyes.
She was not clever, but since Mu Xin’s encouragement, she had begun learning to think through problems, even if her ideas could sometimes be naive. She was embarrassed to volunteer them, but since Yellow Hair had asked…
Lin Junruo pursed her lips. “I have an idea, though it might be immature.”
“Let’s hear it.” Yellow Hair genuinely wanted to know.
Lin Junruo was not as useless as she imagined.
Her intelligence did not stand out among their group, but she possessed an advantage the others lacked: an understanding of emotions.
At first glance, that seemed of little use. Yet in worlds involving feelings, Lin Junruo was more likely than the others to discover clues.
They might be in a fairy-tale world, but fairy tales contained many stories about Princes and princesses. That barely counted as relevant to romance and emotion, did it not?
In any case, Yellow Hair wanted to hear her thoughts.
Encouraged by his expression, Lin Junruo relaxed and explained.
“I think we’ll encounter plot events from our fairy tales,” she said.
Yellow Hair raised an eyebrow.
“Qin Weiyi used the Sea Witch’s potion to regain his legs. Lu Jing wore nothing because of The Emperor’s New Clothes. Mu Xin, Fang Kang, and you all transformed because your characters’ physical traits are too important. Since we’ve been assigned character backgrounds, we should enter the stories and encounter events arranged in advance.”
“But…” Lin Junruo frowned. “I don’t know whether we’re in the genuine fairy-tale world or an altered version.”
“Altered?” Yellow Hair grew interested.
Lin Junruo nodded. After some thought, she asked, “Do you read novels?”
Yellow Hair nodded. “I do. What does that have to do with this?”
“This is like entering a book, except several books have been mashed together and all the characters placed in one world. Setting those details aside, we’ve still entered a story. The question is which one. We assume it’s the original fairy tales, but fan culture has produced countless derivative works.”
“Have you ever heard of shipping Voldemort with Lin Daiyu?” Lin Junruo stopped and stared at Yellow Hair with complete seriousness.
Yellow Hair: “???”
Who with whom?