Chapter 294
Chapter 294
Yang Zhen spoke up. “Miss Xie’s Favorability is 10?”
“Yeah, it’s 10. Is something wrong?” Qin Weiyi asked, puzzled. He then looked at Lu Jing for confirmation.
Lu Jing nodded. “It’s 10.”
Yang Zhen: “???”
“Why is mine only 5?” Yang Zhen exclaimed in shock. “Is it just because I didn’t compliment her?”
Shi Chen quietly added, “Mine is only 5 too. I didn’t compliment her either.”
Yang Zhen: “…”
“What’s everyone’s current Favorability?” Jian Fan suddenly asked.
“Mine is 10. I got it from giving her those flowers,” Qin Nan replied. He looked at Jian Fan. “What about you? These characters seem to have a base Favorability.”
For instance, when Qin Nan first gave Brother Zhao flowers, Brother Zhao had started with a base Favorability of 10. Qin Nan had assumed that all NPCs started at 10 by default, but now it seemed Miss Xie’s initial Favorability toward him had been 0.
“30,” Jian Fan replied.
Yellow Hair clicked his tongue. “Mine is only 10 too, so your base Favorability must be higher than ours, Jian Fan. It’s not that surprising, though. Didn’t Miss Xie take a liking to you before? Of course your base Favorability would be a little higher than ours.”
Lu Jing waited until everyone had finished talking, then cleared his throat. “Um…”
“What is it?” Qin Weiyi looked at him.
“My current Favorability is 40,” Lu Jing replied.
Jian Fan’s base Favorability was 20, yet Lu Jing’s was actually 30?
Miss Xie had clearly taken a liking to Jian Fan because of his face. As for Lu Jing, when they thought of his display with the whip just now…
“So Miss Xie admires strength even more than good looks?” Qin Nan immediately realized.
Lu Jing scratched his head. “What does Favorability actually do? Can I use it to negotiate with her like I did today and get her to spare me for the time being?”
Qin Weiyi gave Lu Jing a pitying look. “Not necessarily.”
Lu Jing: “?”
“She’s willing to let us leave and raise our Favorability now because none of our Favorability scores are very high. We’re still expendable, so she’s willing to play along with us. But if someone’s Favorability reaches a certain level, she might just snatch that person away and make him the Groom,” Qin Weiyi explained.
Simply put, the higher their Favorability, the greater the danger.
Lu Jing: “?”
Why did it have to be him?
Shouldn’t Jian Fan have a few more Points than him?
Still, a Favorability of 40 could be considered high, but it could also be considered low. It probably wouldn’t cause any problems for now.
Qin Weiyi frowned. “You can’t keep using flowers to raise your Favorability.”
Otherwise, if it kept climbing, Lu Jing really might lose his life.
But if they didn’t raise their Favorability, how were they supposed to deal with another situation like today’s?
That was another difficult problem.
“What do you all think about this world so far?” Jian Fan didn’t seem particularly concerned about who had the highest or lowest Favorability.
Qin Nan immediately answered, “At first, I suspected this world might be centered around ghost marriages, but clearly, it’s even more absurd than that. This is an entire nest of ghosts having a grand celebration, with weddings and funerals held one after another. If this world really has a theme, then I guess it would be… ghosts? The supernatural?”
Naturally, it couldn’t be that simple. But based on what they could infer from the current situation, that was the only thing they could be reasonably certain about.
“I think we can use the Xie Family Wedding as our starting point and look for clues from there,” Qin Weiyi said, turning his attention back to the matter at hand.
Mu Xin agreed. “We may not know what this world’s theme is yet, but one thing is certain. The main story should revolve around what happened to the Xie Family.”
“Miss Xie has been married many times. I think that’s worth investigating,” Yellow Hair added. “Did every previous Groom die?”
Lin Junruo thought for a moment, then timidly raised her hand. “I have a question.”
“Go ahead,” Yellow Hair replied before anyone else could.
“According to your earlier theory, whoever dies will become Miss Xie’s Groom. But… what about us?” Lin Junruo asked.
Yellow Hair paused, then said, “Let’s not get too hung up on gender.”
Lin Junruo fell silent.
“That reminds me of when Squire Xie greeted us at the entrance,” Qin Nan said. “If our theory is right, then he really was evaluating potential matches for his daughter.” He frowned as another thought occurred to him. “That would mean all the ghosts in town send outsiders to Squire Xie’s residence. If someone they bring is chosen, the ghost who delivered them receives some sort of reward from Squire Xie. Doesn’t that mean we aren’t the first outsiders to come here?”
Jian Fan nodded. “Right. Brother Zhao mentioned that too.”
“He said outsiders arrive every so often, and that they wear the same kind of clothes we do,” Qin Nan added, pointing out the crucial detail.
Qin Weiyi rubbed his chin as he analyzed the situation. “Our clothes change to suit the setting we’re placed in. So in this world, the people of this town really are living in ancient times, but our identities should still be those of modern people. The modern era and ancient times are somehow overlapping…”
“Could a group of modern people have accidentally wandered into a ghost realm that happens to be set hundreds or even thousands of years in the past?” Lin Junruo immediately suggested.
She had read plenty of novels with that kind of premise.
Qin Weiyi nodded in agreement. “That’s very possible.”
“If that’s the case, then could the key to leaving this world be escaping this place and returning to the modern era?” Qin Nan wondered, following Qin Weiyi’s train of thought.
Qin Weiyi shook his head. “We can’t be sure about that. After all…” His eyebrows rose suddenly. “We might not be alive, either.”
Qin Nan stared at him.
What kind of dangerous line of thought was that?
Still, he had to admit that Qin Weiyi’s suggestion was possible.
They could be newly dead ghosts who had wandered into this nest of spirits.
Qin Weiyi had only made the suggestion in passing and had little evidence to support it, so he quickly set it aside. Turning to Jian Fan, he asked, “You found something else, didn’t you?”
“You must have noticed it too,” Jian Fan said.
Qin Weiyi considered what they had yet to discuss and quickly understood.
“Those ghosts want to eat us, but something must be preventing them from doing so?” he asked.
Jian Fan nodded.
“Speaking of that, why are they all dressed head to toe in red?” Yellow Hair asked as another detail came back to him.
Clearly, no one had an answer to that question.
But just because they couldn’t answer it didn’t mean they couldn’t come up with all sorts of theories.
Everyone chimed in with their thoughts. They still didn’t have many clues, but after talking it through, they managed to make at least a little progress. Meanwhile, time continued to pass.
Before they knew it, it was around five in the morning.
The sky was still dark, but dawn was drawing closer.
Once the sun rose, they would be safe for the time being.
Just then, however, a sudden commotion came from outside the door.
“I can smell them.”
“They smell delicious.”
“I’m so hungry.”
“…”