Chapter 313
Chapter 313
“There’s one more thing,” Jian Fan said, drawing the conversation back on topic.
Qin Nan immediately looked at him. “What?”
“The ghosts’ speed,” Jian Fan said.
Qin Nan nodded at once. “Right. Did any of you notice that they were a little faster than yesterday?”
They had not measured it and could rely only on instinct, but Qin Nan felt certain the ghosts had sped up.
He and Jian Fan were not alone. At his words, the others nodded one after another.
“In other words, the ghosts approached us faster this time,” Qin Weiyi summarized. He then analyzed, “We previously suspected that some restraint prevented them from approaching us directly. Now that they’re moving faster, the obvious conclusion is that the restraint has weakened. As for why, I can think of several common possibilities.”
“First, and in my opinion most likely, a Player died. The increase in the number of grooms weakened the restraint. Second, it may be tied to the number of repetitions. The more times the day repeats, the more the power sustaining the restraint is diminished. That’s also quite possible. A third possibility is location. The farther the ghosts are from whatever restrains them, the weaker its control and the faster they can move.”
The moment Qin Weiyi began, he produced three possibilities.
All three were reasonable and supported by evidence.
For a while, no one could say which was more likely.
Qin Weiyi turned to Jian Fan. “What do you think?”
“Any of them could be true,” Jian Fan replied.
That rather killed the conversation.
After reviewing and discussing everything they had found that day, the group understood their situation somewhat better, but they still lacked clues.
“Anything else to add?” Qin Weiyi asked.
Qin Nan suddenly remembered something.
“One thing,” he said.
Jian Fan looked at him.
“The Zhao girl,” Qin Nan said.
Jian Fan raised an eyebrow slightly.
Qin Nan kept them in suspense. “Guess what her initial Favorability toward me was.”
“How much? If you’re asking like that, it definitely wasn’t zero. Either very high or very low. Could it have been negative? No, probably positive and unusually high?” Yellow Hair guessed.
Qin Nan laughed.
Seeing his reaction, Lin Junruo added, “I think it was negative.”
“Correct. It was negative,” Qin Nan replied.
Everyone stared.
They truly had not expected a negative Favorability score. The problem was that they–or rather, Qin Nan and the Zhao girl–had no grudge against each other. So a negative score… perhaps it was pure chance?
“Guess how far below zero,” Qin Nan asked again.
With their lives secure for the moment, he decided he could drag out the suspense a little longer.
“Tsk. Can you just say it all at once?” Yellow Hair complained.
Yang Zhen chimed in, “Keep this up and you’ll get beaten. Understand?”
Remembering how she had planted her foot on Xia Zeqin’s face without hesitation, Qin Nan straightened his posture and glanced toward Xia Zeqin.
Xia Zeqin stared back.
Why drag me into this when I’m lying here minding my own business?
Qin Nan quickly looked away and stopped keeping them in suspense. “Negative one hundred. Her initial Favorability toward me was -100.”
Everyone stared again.
His answer left everyone stunned, including Jian Fan.
“-100?” Jian Fan repeated.
Qin Nan nodded. “And that’s not all. Guess how much Favorability the flowers earned me.”
“Two,” Jian Fan answered without hesitation.
“Exactly, two,” Qin Nan exclaimed. “Isn’t that ridiculous? She looked so happy when she got the flowers, but she gave me the minimum increase of two. If the item had included zero as an option, I bet the Zhao girl would’ve given me Favorability +0.”
That was entirely possible.
“She really was happy when she received the flowers. From her behavior, I didn’t sense much resistance toward you either. A negative score might be understandable, but -100…” Mu Xin bit her lip, clearly baffled.
She herself was highly skilled at putting on an act, but the Zhao girl’s true feelings were far too different from what she showed.
Unable to find an answer, Mu Xin looked at Zhou Jingying. “What do you think, Sister Zhou?”
As a Best Actress winner, Zhou Jingying ought to be skilled at reading people.
Zhou Jingying shook her head. “I agree with you. There’s probably something strange about the Zhao girl.”
“Could she be an important NPC?” Yellow Hair suggested.
“It’s possible, but wouldn’t that make us a little too lucky?” Qin Weiyi said.
They had chosen Brother Zhao’s house entirely at random. Surely they could not have picked one house at random and immediately found an important NPC inside. Perhaps Brother Zhao’s family had appeared there because the Players did. Or perhaps every house they might have chosen contained an NPC similar to the Zhao girl.
But important NPCs could not be everywhere, could they?
“We’ll look again next time,” Jian Fan said.
Everyone nodded.
They held on to their questions, planning to verify them during the next repetition and find their answers then.
As they discussed the same matters over and over, time passed. The night was much calmer than the previous one.
At some unknown point, the saliva in the room began to recede.
At the same time, sunlight spread outside, gradually dispelling the darkness. Before long, it streamed into the room and illuminated every corner. Once sunlight filled the room, the saliva disappeared completely without leaving a trace.
Yellow Hair breathed a sigh of relief.
“It’s finally over,” he said.
He climbed down from the table as he spoke, and the others returned to the floor as well.
The night had ended, but the danger they faced had not.
They still had a hard battle ahead.
The Security Lock lasted twelve hours, and its duration had not yet expired.
Qin Weiyi walked to the doors and removed the item before pushing them open.
“Let’s go.” Qin Weiyi led the way with Lu Jing beside him.
The two stepped through first, and everyone else followed. The moment they left the room, the scenery changed again.
They had returned to the familiar place.
The same ceremonial archway. The same stone stele.
Before entering the town again, Qin Nan turned toward the scholar-tree grove beyond the bridge.
“I just thought of something,” he said.
Jian Fan stopped and looked toward the grove as well.
“The scholar trees?” Jian Fan asked.