CH 31

Xiao Lan stared at the dark dish on his plate, “I made this for you with my own hands”, as Mrs Bella had just said. Even Luo couldn’t tell what was in it.

In short, the food at the banquet looked like it was untouchable.

Xiao Lan looks at the vegetables on the side of the plate as a garnish, and says it’s better not to touch even this, just to be on the safe side.

I don’t know how many days this game will last, and if it’s obviously not realistic to be unable to eat all the time, then there should be other ways to get food here.

A very odd atmosphere ensued at the banquet.

The maids brought up the rest of the meal in turn, the dishes were almost all mushy dark dishes and it was hard to tell what these were made of.

The two players who had previously eaten Mrs Bella’s dishes were raving about each one, praising them with exaggerated adjectives while taking them into their mouths with a happy smile.

A normal chef would probably love a guest who is not picky about things and can blow rainbow farts.

None of the players on the other side of the table made a move on the food, observing the two men who were behaving unusually, occasionally whispering, and no one even touched the accompanying wine that had been placed aside, allowing a dish to be served and removed.

The two sides are clear-cut, like a boring comedy and a hard-to-amuse audience facing off.

In the face of this spectacle, Madame Bella seemed to have no interest in feeding each of them another sip herself, and she just sat there with a smile on her face, sipping her wine while listening to the two players’ praise and praise of her.

The normal sized glass looked especially petite in her huge hands and she was able to drink the entire glass in one gulp before the maid stepped aside to pour her another drink in time.

The party drew to a close in such a bizarre atmosphere.

Just as the players were about to breathe a sigh of relief, Lady Bella straightened up and clapped her hands.

At the sound of voices, oddly painted maids fishtailed in and replaced the players with new glasses and poured a new wine, a richly scented, crystalline amber liquid that glistened charmingly in the delicate glasses.

During this time an imaginative looking female …… maid, who was perhaps not a female, even came close to Xiao Lan and took the opportunity to whisper in his ear, “If the guest is feeling lonely tonight, why not come to me, so we can spend the evening together.”

Xiao Lan’s face was expressionless: “Thank you, no need.”

The maid giggled, “Don’t be shy, guest~”

Xiao Lan : “……”

Don’t you know whether I’m shy or not!

After the maids have left.

Lady Bella smiled and raised her glass as she looked around at the players with their different faces: “Thank you all for coming today, and here’s to our meeting.”

This ill-timed toast silenced the players for a moment.

They already knew what would happen if they ate Madame Bella’s love meal, but what about this unexpected drink? What was her purpose?

Xiao Lan stared at the glass of wine he was holding, he had just noticed as the maid poured the wine that it was packaged in a uniform manner, the name of a winery on the bottle and the vintage clearly marked, it didn’t look as if Madame Bella had made it herself in private.

Although, with Madame Bella’s wealth, it wouldn’t really be difficult to set up a winery of her own. But it stands to reason that the game shouldn’t allow the boss to screw all the players right out of the gate, right?

The likelihood of alcohol being safe is still high, and perhaps not drinking is where the danger lies.

Xiao Lan had just reached for his glass when he saw Wang Ke standing up, grabbing the glass and drinking it down.

It’s better to see than to hear, Wang Ke, what a great guy!

Wang Ke finished his drink and then sat straight back down, continuing to speak without saying a word and not looking out of place.

When he saw how decisive his elder brother was, Wang Taidi understood in a second and picked up his glass and drank it too, giving Xiao Lan a wink to join him.

Xiao Lan lifted the glass, the wine was silky smooth in the mouth and mellow in taste, a unique aroma slowly dispersed in the mouth with a special aroma of wood showing layer by layer, making him feel …… so much like drinking coke ah.

Wang Taidi also put down her glass and said quietly to Xiao Lan, “I still like orange juice.”

Xiao Lan’s serious face: “It’s better to have a Coke.”

Two poor people with no appreciation.

At this point everyone else in the room took a drink from their glasses, except Qi Ning who stood out with his tight beak mask still in place.

Madame Bella noticed this too and her asymmetrical eyes turned to her and her tone was a little dangerous: “What is it this guest, is my wine not to your liking?”

The players all looked at the mysterious player who was like an epidemic doctor when they heard the words.

What will happen if you disobey Mrs Bella?

Qi Ning remained calm as he rose to his feet and gave a gentleman’s salute to Madame Bella, his voice muffled with a sense of weakness: “Beautiful lady, your beauty is as bright as the moon and as gorgeous as a rose, and I have no time to be distracted from your beauty to taste any kind of food, so please forgive me for my rudeness. ”

That serious nonsense shocked the crowd. Don’t look at this man’s noble and cool demeanour, but he turned out to be so decisive in dropping his modesty, and he looked exceptionally skilled, not knowing how many times he had experienced it.

It’s amazing how far you can go to keep your mask off! Don’t your lower limits as a senior player hurt?

Or maybe there is no such thing as a lower limit for any player who can become a senior player.

“Hahahaha, you’re a delightful guest for me.” Madame Bella smiled and laughed at this, her huge body hitting the table and starting to shake, obviously too pleased with the quality of the compliment to care about the truth of the content.

To the dumbfounded surprise of the players, she just let Qi Ning go.

It seems that accurate judgement of the boss’s character and needs will be of considerable help in getting through the level.

After the banquet, the steward took the players away and arranged rooms for them.

The players’ rooms are on the highest floor of the manor and the corridors are guarded by maids, nominally to serve the guests in a timely manner, but in reality, I’m afraid, with no small amount of surveillance.

In this way, any entry or exit of the players will be in the sight of the estate servants.

The highest floor is four storeys below and far from any other rooms that might hold clues, making it more difficult for players to sneak out at night to forage for food.

Xiao Lan surveys the structure of the corridor and meets Wang Taidi, who opens the door opposite.

Wang Taidi looked a bit woozy: “This door doesn’t look very solid.”

Xiao Lan turned around and squeezed the door panel, which was made of solid wood and was actually of good quality, although it was fragile in the face of the ghost’s strength.

He reassured, “It’s no use being sturdy, they have the key anyway, in fact our door is just a psychological comfort.”

Wang Taidi : “……”

This comfort is so desperate.

Xiao Lan noticed that the steward didn’t say that one person had to share a room this time, but the players still chose to share a room. He raised this question with Wang Taidi.

Wang Taidi seems to have suddenly remembered something: “I think I forgot to tell you before, if there are more players together, the greater the chance of encountering danger. That’s why players usually team up with two or three people to look out for each other, if there are the kind with seven or eight, they are most likely to use the others as cannon fodder.”

Xiao Lan wondered, “Then why don’t you go and sleep with your brother? Wouldn’t it be better for two people?”

Wang Taidi drops his head: “My brother hates me for both grinding my teeth and kicking the covers and chewing on his hair in the middle of the night ……”

Xiao Lan : “……”

What kind of life is Wang Ke leading?

Wang Taidi scratches her curly hair: “But I’ve gotten pretty good at dealing with the dangers of the night, so I usually just keep quiet and don’t die, and if I can’t solve a problem I can use props to sneak right up to my brother.”

He leaned closer to Xiao Lan and asked softly, “What do you think will happen if that Mrs. Bella sneaks up on me at night and tries to attack me at night?”

Xiao Lan thought about Lady Bella’s stature: “If you sleep so hard you can’t wake up from her footsteps, you can pretty much just bury it.”

Wang Taidi : “……”

Our friendship boat has leaked!

Back in the room.

Xiao Lan looks around at the room, which is as luxurious as ever. The bed looks big and soft enough for four or five adult males, and with a sofa and coffee table by the delicate window, it looks a million times bigger than the shabby little rooms in the players’ quarters.

A vase with a handful of white roses with dewdrops sits at the foot of the bed.

Next to the vase is a letter with a huge lip print, and it is not necessary to guess who the owner of this lip print is; apart from Madame Bella, there is no other mouth of such a large and curious shape here.

Xiao Lan reached out and opened the letter, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that it was a love letter. It told of how much she missed him and how happy she was to see him, and wished him a good time at the estate, but the whole time it was addressed as “my little sweetheart”, which seemed like a mass email.

The handwriting on the love letter was beautiful and delicate, as if it had come from a well-educated aristocratic woman, nothing like Madame Bella’s dreadful appearance – was it a case of “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, or had it been written by someone else?

It was still early and the maids were still active on the estate, not a good time to be out looking for clues and food.

Xiao Lan sits on the sofa beside the bed, and the tea service in the guest room is of a distinctive shape, with a jade-like colour that seems thinner and whiter than ordinary porcelain, and even slightly translucent.

He had little regard for making tea, so he casually poured himself a cup of cold water.

Xiao Lan had just put the glass to her lips and was about to drink it when her shoulder was pressed.

“Sir.” Luo’s voice came from the direction of the window.

Xiao Lan turns his head to see Luo sitting at the window, smiling, the night sky twinkling with stars behind him. He had come directly from the direction of the manor’s outer wall, surprisingly without making a sound.

Luo withdrew his hand, “I noticed in the room that the tea set sitting here by the sofa was bone china, and since the composition of human and most vertebrate bones is the same, I have some doubts as to what kind of bone it was made of.”

Xiao Lan looks at the cup in her hand and feels a little tingly.

In case this is human ……

Luo stepped down from the window and skilfully walked towards the cupboard in the room, the layout and arrangement of items in it that he had long since familiarised himself with in his own room, and took a new tea set out of the cupboard, “Please wait while I re-prepare a pot of tea for you.”

A few moments later, a cup of aromatic black tea is handed to Xiao Lan.

Xiao Lan sipped her black tea and reminisced about Coke as she discussed with Luo what to do next, “I’m going to take a nap and wait until late at night after the maids have rested before going out to look for clues.”

Luo said seriously, “Sir, I don’t need sleep, I can keep watch over you all night and keep you safe, just leave the dangerous stuff to me.”

Xiao Lan shook his head: “This is a game that belongs to me, I have to get through it on my own, I can accept your help, but I can’t leave all the dangers to you to deal with.”

“Besides, I’d feel like a shady boss sleeping by myself with you guarding the side or something.”

“Go back and rest, you can come and wake me up when it’s time and we’ll go together.”

“Yes, sir.” Luo replied with a smile.

“Oh yes, don’t go through the windows either, it’s not safe.” Xiao Lan added.

Luo nods and closes the door.

Afterwards Xiao Lan extinguished the candle flame and lay down on the big soft bed, falling into a deep dream in total darkness.

And after Xiao Lan’s breathing had become completely even, a pair of pale golden eyes suddenly appeared in the darkness, reflecting a faint light in the light moonlight. He watched in silence, stopping even to imitate human breathing and heartbeat so as not to disturb Xiao Lan, like a silent, dead thing growing in the shadows.

At this moment, he missed the black cat form that didn’t work well, at least black cats don’t get kicked out ……

It is getting late in the evening and it is getting quiet on Madame Bella’s estate. Most of the maids have gone back to their rooms to rest and only a few are still working on night duty.

A sneaky figure advanced through the manor, carefully avoiding the few night maids on duty, seemingly knowing the interior of the manor well, and thus creeping up to the floor where the players were, step by step.

One, two, three …… The man silently counted the rooms where the players were located one by one and finally found his target.

The sneaky figure, his heart wild with joy, pulled a spare key from his pocket and was about to put it into the lock hole.

“That’s very rude, Sister Xiao .” A low male voice suddenly sounded behind her.

The maid had a horrified look on her face, how could that be!

She clearly didn’t feel anyone behind her.

Didn’t the maid on shift say that the guests had gone back to their rooms and hadn’t come out at all? Then where did this person come from?

The maid turned around with a jerk. If Xiao Lan had been there, she would have recognised that this was the maid who had poured him a drink at the party and asked him to spend the evening with her.

After turning around, however, she found that there was still no sign of anyone.

Before the maid could say anything, the next thing that came was the touch of a sharp object against her neck.

The maid was stiff and was now completely afraid to move a muscle.

“Will you please leave my master alone?” A cello-like tone whispered in her ear, followed by a sharp pain in her neck, “Otherwise, although it is a little rude to a lady, I will have to ask you to enter into a permanent rest.”

A chill ran straight up her spine, and the sense of crisis like being targeted by a vicious predator in the shadows dared the maid to make the slightest movement, and she could only say softly, “Yes, yes ……”

Then the sharp touch on her neck disappeared and a hand nudged her behind, “You can go now.”

Not daring to object, the maid left with quick little steps, not daring to look back to confirm who was actually behind her.

She hadn’t realised that the dagger she had hidden on her body had been removed in the brief encounter just now.

With a glance at the dagger in his hand, Luo took it into his pocket. Then, gathering the cold, murderous look on his face, he put on the gentle smile Xiao Lan knew best and knocked gently on the door of Xiao Lan’s room.

“Sir, it’s about time.”

The author has something to say.

Wang Ke Mini Theatre.

Usually in player quarters: wear as high as you want, I’m the prettiest pup in the crowd.

Coming soon to the copy: five centimeters …… Hmm, might do it or three centimeters, flat bottom no! Absolutely not, never wear a flat bottom until it’s a matter of life and death!