CH 19

Chapter 19 – The washerwoman

“No way, pretending to be an NPC actually worked?”

As they carried the chickens on their way back to the beggar boss, Long @ Aotian listened to Qingyue recount what had happened, his expression filled with disbelief.

Aotian hadn’t agreed with Dugu Zhuo about following the veiled group at the beginning because he had thought that even though the other party was also on the main questline, they just needed to be one step ahead of them and snatch the first completion. When time was so contested, what kind of person would spend it tailing people instead of completing tasks?

But somehow, Dugu Zhuo had actually successfully tailed them, and also duped the other team into messing with the yamen.

“I don’t get it though,” Aotian said. “How did they mistake you for a quest-giving NPC? Normally when an NPC assigns a task, party members who aren’t there will get an audio notification, and even if the ones who are there won’t, they would see it on the mission scroll. If they went to the yamen without any sort of notification, aren’t they a little too easy to dupe?”

“You can only see the mission scroll if you open it,” Ye Zhou said. “Even back in the PC game, we would forget our missions and have to open up the log.”

“I guess so,” Aotian said, still not quite believing it. “Then what’d you do to the original NPC?”

“They didn’t see any NPC, they just assumed I was one,” Dugu Zhuo said very briefly.

This was certainly a possibility in such a tricky VR game as this one. After all, if one couldn’t distinguish between players and NPCs, upon encountering someone who seemed completely unlike a player, it was quite likely one would think they were an NPC.

Black Cat stroked his whiskers. “I thought they were on the same missions as us, but it turns out they were actually putting yin energy in the tofu. They’re basically poisoning it, aren’t they? We’re actually doing two completely different things.”

“Do you even have to ask?” Aotian said. “They’re trying to poison the old monk. He told us to buy tofu, so when we come back with some poisoned tofu, we’re probably going to end up fighting. I need to buy some more medicine.”

Typically, the main storyline would, on top of item-finding and people-finding quests, have designated combat stages. Aotian had been thinking all along about where they might get into a fight, and this seemed like an opportunity.

“Not necessarily,” Dugu Zhuo said, remembering the temple attendant’s words. “Let’s first find the pure yang child’s blood.”

They found the beggar in order to make the beggar’s chicken. He roasted the ten, kept three for himself, and sent each person one which they placed into their storage items, leaving the remaining two for giving to the fortune teller.

The beggar’s chicken could boost stamina and health, as well as being delicious. After hearing that eating in-game could satisfy your cravings without gaining you weight, Qingyue had already decided to have the chicken for lunch.

They received plenty of experience from the beggar boss, and after giving the chickens to the fortune teller, they received more experience and some silver. After completing this chain of tasks, Ye Zhou and Dugu Zhuo both rose to level 12.

After eating the beggar’s chicken, the fortune teller stroked his long whiskers and, after calculating on his fingers, said, “It’s the child of the washerwoman at the east side of town.”

They then set off to find the washerwoman. Furrowing her brow, Qingyue asked, “Does taking the child’s heart blood mean we’ll have to kill him? Isn’t this task a bit heartless?”

“I just knew that you didn’t read cultivation novels,” Aotian said. “Heart’s blood refers to blood from the tip of the middle finger, since the fingers are connected to the heart. It’ll hurt a lot when we take the blood, but he won’t die.”

Qingyue let out a breath. “I see. In such a realistic-feeling VR game, I wouldn’t have been able to do such a thing even if I knew it was a game.”

“Don’t worry,” Ye Zhou said. “If the game actually had a storyline like that, it wouldn’t have been able to pass inspection. The fact that it’s been published means everything must’ve been above par. Even if we have to fight a boss, it’ll probably be something inhuman or we’ll have to subdue instead of kill them.”

As they spoke amongst themselves, they arrived at the east side of town, and after asking around, finally found the washerwoman at a riverbank, washing clothes.

She was dressed like a married woman. Her face was filled with hardship, but despite that they could see that she was only around twenty-five and her looks were actually quite attractive. If she was dressed up, she would be better-looking than Widow Yang.

Squatting by the riverbank, she was washing clothes one by one, with great difficulty. At the start of spring, the river water was still icy cold, turning her hands bright red from the chill.

As Aotian was about to speak to her, Dugu Zhuo said, “Make me team leader.”

Dugu Zhuo was truly more suited to being the leader than he was, so Aotian transferred leadership without complaint. Dugu Zhuo walked forward and sat at the washerwoman’s side. He took the clothes from her hands and said quietly, “Let me help you.”

The washerwoman stared blankly at him for a moment. She waved her hands cracked from the cold and said, “No, young hero, you needn’t bother with such lowly people’s work.”

“You aren’t lowly,” Dugu Zhuo said.

He was strong and the washerwoman feared the clothes would rip if she tried to fight over them, so she could only let Dugu Zhuo wash them.

His party members never could’ve imagined he’d help an NPC with their chores either. Black Cat questioned, “Do we first have to win the NPC’s goodwill before we can complete the mission?”

“Who knows?” Qingyue said. “My gut tells me that we should probably follow him.”

Due to the strength and powerful analytical abilities Dugu Zhuo had displayed all along, everyone trusted him and had complete faith in his sudden decision to help the washerwoman with her clothes.

Ye Zhou took a look at the small mound of clothes near the washerwoman and said to the party, “Who knows how long it’ll take one person to wash all of these? Let’s all help out.”

Thus, the entire party joined together in using the most primitive method to wash clothes. Modern people were already used to having washing machines, and none of them had scrubbed clothes by hand at a riverbank like this. Today, this video game gave them a reason to appreciate the world they lived in.

The players had plenty of stamina and with their pain blocked off, didn’t feel the water’s chill. They went through the washing at a swift pace.

Even though Ye Zhou had his pain sensitivity at 50%, he didn’t feel the water was freezing, only cool enough that it felt nice to soak his hands in.

Without a human form, Black Cat couldn’t help with the washing, but he felt awkward to be doing nothing while everyone worked. He hopped into the washerwoman’s lap and said haughtily, “Put your hands around me.”

She held the cat, who curled up and used his warm and soft body to help warm her ice-cold hands. Lifting his head, he said, “Look how cute I am. You’re one lucky NPC.”

Qingyue and co: “…”

There was nothing cute about this cat’s attitude, so stuffed up with confidence in his own appearance. Was this the joy of being a cat?

Using their speed-up function, the four finished washing the mound of clothes in less than half an hour. Dugu Zhuo wrung each one dry and folded them properly, replacing them in the washerwoman’s basket, then helped her lift it.

“I… thank you so much for your help, young heroes,” the washerwoman said, releasing the cat. “I cannot hope to repay your magnanimity. I…”

She clutched at her skirt, looking truly at a loss.

“Dashen, the task, the task!” Aotian saw Dugu Zhuo stand staring at the washerwoman for a long time without speaking, and couldn’t help poking him in the back and reminding him.

Dugu Zhuo finally said, “You can repay us right now. We need a drop of blood from your son’s fingertip.”

The washerwoman looked clearly reluctant, so Dugu Zhuo explained the general situation to her. Upon hearing that it was for saving a child, the washerwoman said, “Then of course I will help. Young heroes, please do draw the blood gently. My Xiao Bao is scared of pain.”

“She immediately agreed without any other conditions!” Aotian said passionately, after being driven to headache by all the item collection tasks. “So that’s why dashen wanted us to wash the clothes. Since the NPC is in debt to us, she won’t make any other requests. This saves so much time and effort!”

“We can buy him candied hawthorn,” Dugu Zhuo said. “Does he like that?”

“He does. If he can have candied hawthorn, I’m sure Xiao Bao won’t complain.” The washerwoman let out a breath.

Hearing this, the party opened their mission logs and found a task for buying candied hawthorn.

“This… is dashen a designer for this game?” Qingyue asked Ye Zhou, bewildered. “How did he beat the NPC to assigning a task?”

Qingyue thought that since this Yi Ye Pian Zhou seemed to get along so well with their dashen, they must be longtime acquaintances, so Ye Zhou must know more about him.

Ye Zhou shook his head. “I don’t know either.”

If Dugu Zhuo was a designer of the game, then why had he been assigned his master?

“We’re not in a rush,” Dugu Zhuo said. “Let us help you bring the clothes back.”

The washerwoman wanted to protest again, but she couldn’t win against Dugu Zhuo’s strength, so could only bring the group back to her leaky little thatch hut.

Zhulong Town looked prosperous, yet the washerwoman had only this bare one-room house. She didn’t even have a straw mat, only piling some blankets over a bed of straw and sleeping on it.

Seeing how poor she was, the group gradually fell silent.

The washerwoman also felt awkward. “I don’t have chairs. Let me go roll some bundles into cushions you can sit on.”

“No need.” Dugu Zhuo walked up to the stove and saw that a plate of freshly-made tofu had been placed on it.

“Huh? Where’d this tofu come from?” the washerwoman asked upon seeing it. “Did Xiao Bao buy it? Lately, Xiao Bao has been helping grind beans for Widow Yang. She must’ve sent it over.”

Looking at the piece of tofu which was still fragrantly steaming, the washerwoman’s eyes grew hazy all of a sudden. As if Dugu Zhuo and the group weren’t present, she picked up the plate and said, “This tofu looks delicious. I still haven’t had breakfast.”

She was about to eat the tofu when Dugu Zhuo grabbed her. “This tofu isn’t good. I have beggar’s chicken for you.”

He pulled the plate of tofu out of her hands and retrieved the chicken the beggar boss had roasted from his storage item. Its fragrance immediately suffused the room.

However, the washerwoman acted like she couldn’t see the chicken. With only the tofu in her mind, she tried to take it back from Dugu Zhuo.

“No way, this isn’t right,” Aotian said. “What person would only want to eat tofu when there’s roast chicken in front of them?” His mouth watered as he looked at the chicken Dugu Zhuo held.

Seeing that Dugu Zhuo couldn’t hold her off with a plate of tofu in one hand and a chicken in the other, Ye Zhou flashed behind him and took the tofu, stuffing it into his storage item to prevent the washerwoman from getting her hands on it.

With the tofu gone from her line of sight, the washerwoman came back to her senses. Seeming to have forgotten all about what had just happened, she delightedly accepted the beggar’s chicken. “Many thanks, young hero,” she said gratefully. “There’s no need to buy candied hawthorn. If he can eat this meat, I’m sure Xiao Bao would let you prick all ten of his fingers without complaining.”

The group shared a glance, all being sure of one thing.

This plate of tofu must be the one the veiled team had placed yin energy in.