readytorunbook Chapter 148 Unconventional Couples That Can't Be Shipped
Chapter 148 Unconventional Couples That Can't Be Shipped
Zhou Jue: "As you all have probably seen, Zhu Qingya fell into the Qingxi River and was never found again. Ninety-nine percent of the losers in the third round will also be swallowed by the Qingxi River."
“Chi Xuan is our teammate who fought alongside us. No matter who wins between you two, I don’t want anything to happen to Chi Xuan. I think you both feel the same way.” Zhou Jue glanced at Jiang Lin, then at Jing Kang.
“Of course!” Yang Yizhou said solemnly, “Ningning is also our comrade-in-arms.”
Guo Xinwen and Wang Bo both looked grim; one had lost her teammate and was in grave danger, while the other had lost her lover.
Zhou Jue nodded: "So I was thinking, could we come up with a way so that, apart from the winner, the other participants in the third round of the competition, even if they are eliminated, will not die?"
“It’s difficult.” Su Yuning spoke again, the short-haired girl always speaking the truth sharply.
“Yes, but it’s not like there’s no chance.” Zhou Jue said with a firm look in his eyes, “In Jiang Lin’s group, none of the four men were originally able to participate in the Fan Beauty Contest. I think this was an accident. Since it was an accident, it means that according to the original course of the game, even if they didn’t participate in this contest, there was still a way out.”
"As long as we dare to find a way out before tomorrow night, I think we have a chance to save Chi Xuan, Guo Xinwen, and the loser between the two of you."
Chen Jiangqiao: "But how can we trust each other?"
Trust is always the most difficult aspect of this game.
Zhou Jue shrugged: "All I can say is, it depends on how much you want your teammates to survive."
Chen Jiangqiao looked at Ji Xingyi. The man still seemed very tired. He had only been sitting for a short while when he leaned on Jiang Lin's shoulder.
Jingkang and Yang Yizhou both clenched their fists. Before the final round was over, they were not absolutely certain that Su Yuning could win.
“I’m willing to cooperate.” While Yang Yizhou was still hesitant, Jingkang made the decision directly: “A game is just a game. I need to protect my teammates. A win-win situation is a very good solution.”
Guo Xinwen was the person everyone most wanted to cooperate with; a sword was already at her throat, and her two teammates were courting death. After Jingkang nodded, she immediately agreed.
Wang Bo naturally agreed.
Zhou Jue looked at Jiang Lin.
Jiang Lin: "Okay."
Chen Jiangqiao wanted to ask for more details, but Jiang Lin agreed immediately.
Wang Bo couldn't help but interject, "Qingya, is there any hope for her?"
The room fell silent upon hearing this.
Zhou Jue offered words of comfort: "Until the body is found, it's not 100% certain."
Wang Bo's eyes lit up as if he had grasped at the last straw.
"Let me make this clear from the start: everyone has secrets to some extent. You can hide information if you want, but everything you can share must be true!"
Zhou Jue scanned the room and solemnly warned all the players: "You can hide things, but you can't use misinformation to mislead everyone. If we can all reach this consensus, our cooperation will officially begin!"
After Zhou Jue pointed this out, everyone's doubts were dispelled, and the fact that the information could be concealed was a way to give everyone some breathing room.
After all the players nodded in agreement, Zhou Jue's teammates immediately brought over tables, and more than ten people sat around two square tables to officially begin their discussion.
Only Ji Xingyi closed her eyes and leaned against Jiang Lin to rest. Her body, mind, and even soul had reached their limits without her even realizing it.
Jiang Lin's eyes flickered slightly. She reached out and put her arm around the man, lost in thought, unconsciously squeezing Ji Xingyi's shoulder.
Zhou Jue took out a pen and paper and began to sort out the timeline of the entire Qingxi Town from the beginning.
Looking at the crooked map that looked like a chicken claw, Yang Yizhou hesitated for a moment, but after Jingkang nodded, he immediately took out a self-made map and showed it to everyone.
Yang Yizhou's map uses modern cartographic methods, making it simple and clear, with all roads and major target locations clearly marked.
"Great stuff! Where did you get this?" Zhou Jue's eyes lit up. While everyone was distracted, Chi Xuan quickly put away the drawings she had made.
Chi Xuan: This is so embarrassing, waaaaah.
"Where else could it be? I ran around for a whole day and night, and I drew it myself!" Yang Yizhou rarely puffed out his chest and took the opportunity to show off.
He works in surveying in real life, and he never expected to be able to return to his old profession in the last death instance.
Jingkang chuckled and patted Yang Yizhou on the back of the head: "Sorry, please excuse my poor performance."
"No! With this map, our thinking becomes much clearer!" Zhou Jue exclaimed sincerely, "It's amazing!"
When Chen Jiangqiao saw that Jingkang's team had taken out maps, he showed his sincerity and revealed the clues he had just collected: "The winner of the Fan Beauty contest will be sent to Jin Lushan's mansion on the night the competition ends."
"The villagers in the town all say that the former fan-shaped beauties either died or left Qingxi Town. If they were asked where the bodies of the deceased were buried, they all said in the eastern suburbs, as if they had all agreed on the same story."
Chen Jiangqiao: "I suspect that they went in that night and never came out of Jin Lushan's house."
At this point in the conversation, Guo Xinwen frankly told everyone the whole story of her two teammates' disappearance.
Zhou Jue frowned: "They went into Jin Lushan's house and haven't come out since?"
Guo Xinwen nodded: "Our habit when running dungeons is to explore as many dangerous areas as possible during the early, safer time in the game. These two aren't newbies; they're always very sensible. They agreed to only explore the outer perimeter and not go too deep, but something still happened."
Su Yuning crossed her arms and rested her chin on her hand: "Actually, there's another possibility: the person didn't die, but was just imprisoned by Jin Lushan?"
"Oh, keeping a mistress hidden away?" Wang Zhe blurted out out of the blue, and everyone turned to look at him.
Wang Zhe scratched his head: "Did I misspoke? Aren't they all beauties...? Maybe he wants to collect them?"
Upon hearing this, Su Yuning confidently patted her chest: "Then it seems I won!"
“What if he wants a change of pace?” Wang Zhe glanced at Su Yuning’s chest, which was practically flat, then looked at Ji Xingyi’s face and muttered, “He’s getting older, it’s normal for him to want a change of pace, right…?”
Zhou Jue, Jingkang: "..."
Chen Jiangqiao silently distanced himself from Wang Zhe; we weren't on the same team.
"No way! I won't allow it! I can't ship any of these weird couples!" Chi Xuan imagined Jin Lushan and Ji Xingyi and immediately got excited, looking like she was going to defend the light of righteousness.
Zhou Jue awkwardly pulled Chi Xuan back and quickly started the next topic: "What exactly did the four of you experience underwater? What dreams did you have? Besides dreams, what else happened? There must be some very important information hidden in this."
“The dream I had was about my experience when my father passed away,” Chi Xuan sighed.
She was young then, and she was clamoring for candied hawthorns. On her way to buy them, her father was hit and killed by a drunk driver. Even after more than a decade, it remains Chi Xuan's most painful shadow.
Guo Xinwen: "When I was in elementary school, I was bullied by older female students for a year, which is something I don't really want to recall."
Su Yuning pursed her lips, and a look of frustration appeared on the face of the usually resolute short-haired girl: "I dreamed about the scene of my teammates dying in the last dungeon."
Jingkang's team was a four-person team before this instance, but because one of them died, only three people participated in the "Beauty Fan" instance.
"Ningning." Yang Yizhou looked surprised. Su Yuning's performance had always been excellent. He had always thought that Su Yuning had accepted this matter. He never expected that this would become Su Yuning's nightmare.
Finally, it was Ji Xingyi's turn, and everyone looked at the man leaning against Jiang Lin.
Chen Jiangqiao immediately thought of Shen Wangshu and quickly refused on Ji Xingyi's behalf: "Let's forget it. Anyway, it's just everyone's most painful memory."