CH 32

Xiao Lan got up quickly when he heard the knock on the door. Instead of the tuxedo, which was a pain to clean, he changed into the same clothes he had worn when he entered the game, washed up, and left the room with Luo.

At the door, Xiao Lan notices that Luo keeps staring at the door of the room next to him, the room to his left is Luo and the one to his right is an unknown player.

“What’s wrong?” Xiao Lan asked, his eyes also looking towards the area where Luo’s eyes were.

At this glance it became clear that a greyish-white mark, somewhat large and irregular in shape, had been left on the door, and it was difficult to tell at a glance exactly what it had been left by.

Luo reached out and ran his hand over the mark, a little white mark left on his glove.

Turning to Xiao Lan, he said, “This is lead powder, which was once used by women in make-up to bring the complexion to a ghastly white in keeping with the aesthetic of the time.”

“Such makeup was mostly popular with the aristocracy, who generally believed that only labourers possessed a dark complexion and that pale skin was a sign of status.”

“Lead? Isn’t that stuff poisonous?” Xiao Lan has a deep admiration for the courage of women in the past in their quest for beauty.

Now that he knew that it was used on the face, or that the nobility liked it. Xiao Lan once again examined the mark on the door, and the more he looked at it, the more it looked like it had been left by a face on the door, which he did not recognise at first because it was so large and the structure looked different from ordinary people.

There is only one person on the estate with a face that big and with a different structure.

In other words, after the players had returned to the room, Madame Bella had come to the door of one of them and pressed herself against it to listen to the room, without the players being aware of it.

This is so strange.

How is it possible that if Lady Bella’s footsteps were so heavy, none of the players would have heard them if they were in the corridor. Did Madame Bella have a way of masking her footsteps, or was there something wrong with the players’ room?

” Luo , do you feel any unusual movement?” Xiao Lan asked.

Luo shook his head, “No, everything was fine in the room I was in.”

He had stayed in Xiao Lan’s room and nothing wrong had really happened in there, but as for the others, he hadn’t cared.

Since there were no clues at the moment, Xiao Lan had to knock on the player’s door and tell him about what had happened at his doorstep to his distraught eyes.

As to whether that player would lose sleep, that was out of his hands.

Xiao Lan decided to look for directions to the kitchen first, so that she could find something for the servants to eat, but if not, she could look for ingredients that had been stockpiled, so that Mrs. Bella wouldn’t have to get her hands on these basic ingredients as well.

Xiao Lan and Luo slowly descended to the ground floor, dodging the maid on night duty. They searched the ground floor and finally found what appeared to be the kitchen.

However, just as they were approaching their position in the kitchen, the sound of singing came from inside the closed kitchen door.

It is a love song that speaks of love for the beloved.

With its lush, melodious tune and a singer with a beautiful voice, the song does sound very beautiful in all conscience.

With the sound of the kitchenware clashing inside, one can imagine a woman who is good at singing preparing a meal for her beloved, which should be a heartwarming image.

But Xiao Lan recognised the voice, and it was – Mrs Bella.

As it is, Mrs Bella is in the kitchen, singing and having a great time with her dark cooking.

Xiao Lan, on the other hand, is not so happy. Madam, are you a little too passionate about dark food? You don’t even want to waste your bedtime?

Mrs Bella’s wide shadow is visible through the doorway, and it seems that tonight’s plans for a night visit to the kitchen will have to be put on hold.

Changing direction, they started looking for the location of the warehouse.

The warehouse was not exactly hidden and the door was conspicuous. Although it was padlocked, this old-fashioned lock was not at all difficult for Xiao Lan to use and in a few seconds they were inside.

As luck would have it, this warehouse happens to be stocked with ingredients.

Along with the food were two figures, Wang Taidi and Wang Ke. They were crouched together around what looked like a pot, but turned back together at the sound of the door opening.

“Xiao Lan! Fei Luo!” Wang Taidi’s face looked like he had seen a saviour as he dropped the suspicious looking black object in his hand and waved towards the two men.

Wang Ke also turned his head to greet them with a nod.

Xiao Lan greeted them and was a little confused as to what was going on.

As he got closer he realised that there was more than one pot in front of the two Wang Taidi brothers, four or five identical pots lying upside down, all filled with black, unidentifiable objects.

It just looks like a tragic rollover scene.

Wang Taidi’s eyes shone with hope: ” Xiao Lan, can you cook?”

Xiao Lan took on the task of cooking after Wang Taidi’s eager anticipation. It is then that he learns that these identical-looking pots are all props whose only function is to cook without fire, but the final product depends entirely on the skill of the cook.

Wang Taidi is delighted to see Xiao Lan skillfully chopping ingredients into the pan.

His brother’s level of cooking was his childhood nightmare. Unexpectedly, after entering the game, his brother’s cooking has evolved because of the thousand and one strange ingredients, and it can be called an alchemist’s experiment.

While she was cooking, Xiao Lan chatted casually with him, “How did you get in? I just saw no marks on the lock.”

Wang Taidi pointed to a window high up in the warehouse: “The window was removed to get in.”

Xiao Lan looked up and saw that a piece of glass had been removed from the window, which was very high above the ground, and was bleakly exposed to the wind, and had a new appreciation of Wang Ke’s style.

Xiao Lan was a bit curious: “Do you get system alerts when you remove windows?”

Wang Taidi thought for a moment, “You mean the one about increasing the boss’s attention? That level of damage is actually quite safe, especially since the estate is so large that it might take several floors to tear down to get Lady Bella’s attention.”

There is no mention of poverty value at all, so it seems that Xiao Lan is the only one who receives a poverty value alert, while other players do not seem to become poor by destroying props.

“What do you think the game prompt means this time? It doesn’t always feel like we’re really being asked to seduce Lady Bella.” Xiao Lan suddenly thought of this.

Wang Taidi, staring into the pot with unblinking eyes, said, “Boss hints are sometimes traps, and the later you get the fewer bosses that give you clear hints, and when they don’t you need to follow the clues.”

Xiao Lan nods thoughtfully.

It wasn’t long before Xiao Lan’s food was ready, and after distributing it into the bowls Wang Ke had brought with him, he buried himself in his food.

Wang Taidi looked at the bowl of paste and was lost in thought and doubt about life and the universe, what had just happened? Is there any difference between this and what Madame Bella made? What comes around must come around.

No, no, no. How can you be so superficial? You can’t eat food just by looking at it, it might be super tasty. Wang Taidi had the courage to scoop up a spoonful of the unidentified object in the bowl and put it in her mouth.

Three seconds later, Wang Taidi’s eyes glazed over and he suddenly felt that Mrs Bella’s dinner was not so terrible.

Poverty has honed Xiao Lan’s ability to survive, but has notably failed to illuminate his culinary skills, and perhaps robbed him of his sense of taste.

Wang Ke eats quickly without changing his face, but his hands are gripping the bowl so hard that they are showing veins.

Only Luo finished his bowl gracefully and smiled at Xiao Lan, “It’s delicious.”

Human food is very special, as it can be cooked in such a way that it has nothing to do with the ingredients, thought Mr Luo, who had eaten human food for the first time.

Then he was rewarded with admiring looks from the other two.

Dude, it’s a tough one!

After this imaginative dinner, the four left the warehouse.

Xiao Lan doesn’t feel sleepy now because he slept early, so he and Luo join the Wang family brothers and the four of them move around the estate.

It was late in the evening and the whole estate was silent and lulled into a hush, with only the occasional flicker of a maid walking past in the corridor carrying a candlestick.

A room lit by a faint glow attracted their attention.

On approaching, they found the room occupied by the serious-looking housekeeper who had received the players earlier, still meticulously dressed, with not even a hint of disarray in the hairdo on her head.

The housekeeper seemed to be studying something, leaning over the table and scribbling carefully, yet there was only faint candlelight in the room and they were so far apart that they couldn’t see what was inside at all.

The identity of the steward is important to the estate and what she is writing may be a very crucial clue.

Xiao Lan whispered, ” Luo …… fee Luo , can your skill detect what the butler is writing?”

He almost forgot that Luo uses the fake name Fei Luo when facing players.

Luo immediately grasped Xiao Lan’s meaning and nodded, “Yes.”

He reached out with a black gloved hand and pressed it gently against the wall, and an invisible black shadow of the Wang family brothers spread out into the room, gradually covering what the butler was writing in front of him, and quickly retracting it a moment later.

The whole time, the housekeeper was oblivious and she even took the time to have a cup of coffee.

“It’s the plans for the manor house.” Luo says, “The place seems to be getting ready for renovation.”

Xiao Lan : “Is there anything unusual inside?”

Luo recalls, “There was a room that was crossed, and judging by its size and location it would have been a very nice room that might have originally belonged to someone of higher status.”

Xiao Lan: “An estate of this size is usually inhabited by a whole family. It seems strange that there is only one owner here, Mrs Bella, could it be that there were many people living here and that the room had an owner?”

Wang Taidi raised her hand: “I think it’s very likely, and have you noticed that not only is there no other master here, there isn’t even a manservant.”

A manservant …… They might be right next to you, Xiao Lan thought of the suspected maid with the throat knot seen in the cloakroom.

Xiao Lan turns to Luo and asks, “Can you redraw what you just saw?”

Luo nodded, “No problem.”

A few people quietly went back to the player’s floor and they entered Luo’s room.

Luo found a pen and paper, lit a candlestick on the table and drew out, stroke by stroke, the drawing he had just seen.

Wang Taidi gave a like: “Fei Luo, you’re great!”

Luo smiled, “It’s nothing, it’s just something to do with my skills.”

He deliberately doesn’t go into detail, only classifying his abilities as skills. Wang Taidi doesn’t press the issue – after all, for players, skills are a matter of life and death, and most people don’t want to be known, except for Wang Taidi, who reveals himself.

Xiao Lan offered to explore the room.

Wang Taidi nodded in agreement.

Wang Ke watched them all without saying a word, not interfering with his brother’s game choices, like a guide who was watching him grow and only intending to step in when it mattered.

According to the drawings, several people came to a corridor.

Where the drawing shows a room there is now only an ornate wall, but this wall is also in a really strange position, narrowing the corridor out of nowhere and making the pattern seem very odd.

Xiao Lan reached out and snapped his hand against the wall, which was solid to the touch, but not thick, judging by the sound. It seemed that the room was still sealed with masonry, which was a problem.

Xiao Lan had thought that the room would simply be locked and he could easily unlock it and enter. But the masonry would have to break down the wall, which would make a loud noise, and unless the whole estate was deaf, it would be impossible for them to sneak in quietly.

Looking at Xiao Lan with a frown, Wang Taidi asked, “What’s wrong?”

Xiao Lan said, “The sound of the destruction of the wall was so loud that it would probably have alerted many people.”

Wang Taidi sighed with relief: “It’s no problem, look at me.”

With that he closed his eyes and searched through his stash. A few moments later, a potted plant appeared in Wang Taidi’s hand and he said to Xiao Lan, “This should work, the noiseless roo, when it grows up the sound in the area it covers will be completely blocked out.”

Wang Taidi placed the soundless vine on the wall and tapped the pot. The transparent light green vine instantly shuddered and grew at a speed visible to the naked eye, climbing up the wall and eventually breaking through the wall to grow into the air.

A few moments later, the space where Xiao Lan and the others were was already enclosed by it, like a transparent cocoon, a leaf gently sweeping across the back of Xiao Lan’s hand without bringing any touch.

Looking at Xiao Lan, Wang Taidi explained, “It’s a plant without a physical body, with only one effect, soundproofing, and is a very common prop in certain intermediate fields.”

Thinking about his storage space with nothing but envelopes and reverse chronicles, Xiao Lan felt a kind of gulf between free players and kryptonite players.

Wang Ke stepped forward and a long, blood-red blade appeared in his hand, which he positioned against the wall in a draw-and-dash stance.

“Wait.” Xiao Lan hurriedly stopped him, “I’ll do it, I can walk through walls.”

Tear down the wall! This is a great opportunity to gain poverty value in name only!

Xiao Lan’s heart was on fire when he thought of the experience of gaining poverty value for tearing down a brick in his last copy, and then looking at this gorgeous and inviting wall.

Without saying a word, Wang Ke put away his knife and stepped aside.

Seeing that Wang Taidi was still standing by the wall, Xiao Lan raised his hand to indicate, ” Taidi , you go farther away, the wall-piercing technique is more powerful.”

“Ohhh.” Wang Taidi took small steps and ran behind her brother, waiting to see the wall-piercing technique.

Xiao Lan was seen taking a few steps back, sprinting at a trot to accelerate, then leaping up and kicking the wall.

“Boom…”

The wall collapsed in response, revealing the elaborate wooden door inside.

Wang Taidi, hiding behind her brother : “……”

It’s still a fucking physical skill ……