Chapter 199
Chapter 199
Halfway over, Jiang Li bent down once.
While the three over there weren’t paying attention to her, she quietly picked up the White Gloves from the floor and hid them in her palm.
This pair of White Gloves had belonged to the Drunkard.
After the Drunkard was sucked dry into a mummified corpse, the White Gloves had grown loose and eventually fallen to the ground.
As for why Jiang Li picked them up…
Jiang Li lifted her head and stole a glance at Ms. Rabbit’s hands.
These gloves were the same as the ones Ms. Rabbit was wearing.
They might come in handy.
When Jiang Li reached the three of them, the Proprietress immediately pointed in Jiang Li’s direction and deliberately shouted, “Ah!! Another Drunkard!”
The instant Xu Haoran heard the word “Drunkard,” his scalp went numb. He instantly turned back on guard to check.
The Drunkard was Xu Haoran’s psychological trauma.
The Proprietress had taken advantage of that.
While Xu Haoran was distracted, the Proprietress seized the chance to slip back into the Kitchen. With a bang, she shut the wooden door, cutting everyone off outside.
By the time Xu Haoran saw clearly that the person behind him was Jiang Li, the Proprietress had already hidden in the back Kitchen and escaped disaster.
Xu Haoran had originally thought that keeping the Proprietress alive might still be useful, so he hadn’t planned to kill her anyway.
Right now, he only wanted to figure out whether the Ms. Rabbit in front of him was Zhao Qingqing or not.
With a crisp shing, Xu Haoran sheathed his sword and turned to look at Ms. Rabbit.
“Qingqing.”
Xu Haoran’s eyes flickered slightly. Suppressing his excitement, he held Ms. Rabbit by the shoulders as gently as he could.
“You’re Qingqing, aren’t you? How did you become like this? What exactly happened?”
Ms. Rabbit was wrapped up extremely tightly.
Xu Haoran reached out and removed the red scarf wrapped around Ms. Rabbit’s head, revealing two long, white rabbit ears.
“I’m not,” Ms. Rabbit said, looking at Xu Haoran seriously as she flatly denied it.
“No! You are!” Xu Haoran’s eyes reddened.
He lifted his fingertips and tenderly rubbed Ms. Rabbit’s fluffy, soft right ear.
“Qingqing’s right ear was injured before, and your ear has the same injury. You are Zhao Qingqing!” Xu Haoran looked at Ms. Rabbit, his tone leaving no room for doubt.
Because Xu Haoran clearly remembered that a few weeks ago, Zhao Qingqing had put on the gold earrings they had prepared for their engagement and gone shopping with her friends when an accident happened.
Zhao Qingqing’s earrings had been snatched in the street by a gang of speeding thieves.
At the time, Zhao Qingqing’s right earlobe had been torn open, and blood had spilled all over the ground.
And on Ms. Rabbit’s right ear, there was also that wound torn down from the earlobe.
Xu Haoran forcibly pulled Ms. Rabbit into his arms, and Ms. Rabbit struggled desperately against him.
Inside the tavern, the guests who had been rocking in their chairs stopped moving once again.
They stared blankly at the emotional man and woman, quietly watching the drama unfold.
“I’m not the person you’re talking about! Let go of me! I don’t know what you’re saying!”
Ms. Rabbit broke free from Xu Haoran and slapped him across the face.
Xu Haoran’s head jerked to the side. His expression wounded, he was a little dazed from the slap.
In the fairy-tale world, the players representing “children” could not lie.
Jiang Li observed Ms. Rabbit for a while.
Ms. Rabbit had said she wasn’t Zhao Qingqing, and she had not broken any rules.
Did that prove Ms. Rabbit was telling the truth-that she really wasn’t Zhao Qingqing?
Jiang Li thought for two seconds.
She sidled up beside Ms. Rabbit and quietly tossed the White Gloves onto the floor.
“Hey, Zhao Qingqing, you dropped something.”
Jiang Li called out and pointed at the White Gloves on the floor.
Ms. Rabbit immediately lowered her head to pick them up.
Almost by reflex, she began to thank her. “Tha-”
Ms. Rabbit realized something, and her outstretched hand froze.
She immediately raised her head and corrected herself.
“N-no. I’m not Zhao Qingqing! And these gloves aren’t mine either.”
Ms. Rabbit shoved Jiang Li and Xu Haoran aside in a panic, then hurriedly ran toward the tavern’s Kitchen.
Ms. Rabbit slapped the Kitchen door and shouted inside.
“Is the boss here? I want to buy chocolate! Is the boss here or not!?”
Xu Haoran stared at Ms. Rabbit’s abnormal behavior and, with a cold expression, was about to step forward and argue with her.
Jiang Li grabbed him by the clothes and yanked him back.
Jiang Li looked at Xu Haoran and shook her head, signaling for him not to go forward and acknowledge her.
Ms. Rabbit was Zhao Qingqing. Jiang Li had already tested it out.
The moment Jiang Li called the name “Zhao Qingqing,” Ms. Rabbit instinctively thought she was being called.
It was a conditioned reflex built up over more than twenty years.
But it was obvious that Zhao Qingqing was restricted by certain rules and could not acknowledge them.
If she could not acknowledge them, then they should not force her.
On the tavern’s round wall clock, the second hand ticked on with a steady tick, tick.
Ms. Rabbit turned back to stare at the time on the tavern clock, the worry in her growing heavier and heavier.
Anxious and restless, she banged on the wooden door with loud thuds.
“Is the owner here? I need the owner! I want to buy chocolate!”
Ms. Rabbit knocked for quite a while before the door to the Kitchen finally creaked open.
A man wearing a Cook’s hat peered out through the crack, his eyes glancing outside.
When he saw that Xu Haoran’s sword had already been put away, and that Xu Haoran himself was being led by Jiang Li back toward their seats, looking utterly lost, he slowly opened the Kitchen’s wooden door.
“I’m the owner. This shop doesn’t sell chocolate.”
The man in the Cook’s hat replied coldly.
Ms. Rabbit looked back at the time again.
On the clock, the time pointed to 00:32.
Ms. Rabbit’s expression grew more and more frantic as she continued arguing with the man in the Cook’s hat.
“Then can you tell me how I can buy chocolate? Yours is the only shop within ten li,” Ms. Rabbit pleaded.
The man wiped his Kitchen Knife and said calmly, “Stay in the tavern for ten full minutes, then ask the Proprietress. The Proprietress will tell you.”
Ms. Rabbit looked like she was about to cry. “I don’t have ten minutes. Please, I’m begging you, tell me. I don’t have time anymore…”
As the two argued, a game notification rang out simultaneously in the minds of every player in the fairy-tale world.
[There are 8 minutes remaining until this round’s “Rabbit Hunt.” Players, please prepare yourselves.]
[In 8 minutes, the entire Rabbit population of the fairy-tale world will launch an attack on you.]
[However, according to the game’s detection, three minutes ago, one player voluntarily gave up their player status and became the “Rabbit Hunter.”]
[Therefore, the hunting method for this round will be changed from “the entire Rabbit population mobilizes” to “the Rabbit Hunter acts alone.”]
When Xu Haoran heard that, he immediately slapped the table and stood up.
One player had voluntarily become the Rabbit Hunter. It was obvious that the player was his girlfriend, Zhao Qingqing!
That was why Little Red Riding Hood Zhao Qingqing had turned into a Rabbit!
Xu Haoran looked toward Ms. Rabbit by the Kitchen and strode over, intending to find her.
But the fairy-tale world’s game notification was still continuing.
[Please note: the “Rabbit Hunter” does not need to obey player rules and cannot reveal their true identity.]
[If the System detects that the “Rabbit Hunter” has admitted their true identity, the “Rabbit Hunter” will be automatically erased by the System.]
Xu Haoran’s steps toward Ms. Rabbit abruptly halted.
He immediately turned around and went back, sitting down obediently in his seat.
Without saying a word, Xu Haoran exchanged a heavy look with Jiang Li, clenched his fists, and continued listening to the game’s next rules.
[In this round, if the Rabbit Hunter successfully hunts down all players, the Rabbit Hunter will survive and gain a chance to leave.]
[If the Rabbit Hunter fails the mission of hunting the players, the Rabbit Hunter will die, while the remaining players will survive and leave the fairy-tale world.]
[Please note: players may not kill Rabbit.]
[This segment was specially planned by Ghost Face Doctor No. 002. We wish everyone a pleasant game~]
Jiang Li’s expression turned grim.
She remembered the conversation between the two men that had reached her ears when they left the castle.
This adventure in the fairy-tale world had originally been designed by the Ghost Face Organization for children.
What the Ghost Face Organization wanted was the children’s Living Heart.
But the addition of adults like Jiang Li had disrupted the order of the game.
That was why Ghost Face Doctor No. 002 had added a new game segment for them.
This segment was aimed specifically at them.
The people of the Ghost Face Organization wanted to stir up infighting. They wanted to see Jiang Li and the others turn on each other and kill one another.