I think Mingzhu is so cute... Even if she points her finger at me and yells "You're the worst!", I'll still be happy.
- ? ? ? You're such a pervert too!
-Just between us, don't you guys think that Shanyu deliberately tried to be alone with Mingzhu a few times today? I reasonably suspect that this scheming eel was also trying to ride on Mingzhu's coattails, but he didn't expect her to be so uncooperative.
-Row
-Strong ranking
-As a result, they broke up. People who like Mingzhu definitely won't go to his live stream anymore. They came back to my Z and, based on the principle that "if I can't have you, I can't let you have me either," they started to smear Mingzhu on Weibo.
- That way, people who hate Mingzhu won't come to my place anymore?
-No, no, let's unbind. Mingzhu isn't a streamer. Just because he doesn't care about the donation rankings doesn't mean I don't care...
“I don’t care either,” Wen Zheng suddenly said.
Shan Yu was reading her diary when she was suddenly interrupted. She looked puzzled and asked, "What do you care about?"
Wen Zheng ignored him, tilted his head slightly, and said to the live chat in front of them, "There's no need to untie him, he's just my friend."
Author's Note: Everyone: We're diligently solving the mystery, and you're just watching the comments! ??
(Sorry for the slow writing pace. The extra update tonight might also be very late, after midnight. Please don't wait up, go to sleep early! Mua!! After finishing this story in the next chapter, we'll be getting closer to discovering Shan Yu's true colors, probably within three to four chapters. This humble author is online begging everyone not to let it get too long 5555)
Chapter 32
"What friends?" Deng Puyue asked, bewildered. "What are you talking about?"
Wen Zheng glanced at him and mumbled, "Aren't you my friend?"
"Huh?" Deng Puyue went berserk: "What, what, I don't want to be friends, you're my own brother and father—" He rambled on while opening the comments on his side of the screen. After a long while, his expression turned strange, and he hesitated, then suddenly declared righteously: "Fine! I'm your friend!"
Wen Zheng: "…………"
The king was completely bewildered: "What's going on?"
Shan Yu said awkwardly, "No, let's continue reading the diary."
With everyone preoccupied with their own thoughts, they turned their attention back to the dungeon.
Although Wen Zheng had been distracted, he still caught the key words and said, "After his adoptive mother died, the male protagonist met a girl who looked very much like his adoptive mother, and they fell in love and got married."
“Yes, they got married.” The storm was brewing. “They lived together here after their marriage, and since they mentioned New Year’s Day, anniversaries and the like several times… if we follow the logic of language, it’s been at least ten years.”
Deng Puyue slammed a piece of paper heavily in the middle: "Then my wife died."
Everyone:"…………"
Having reached this point, everyone has vaguely grasped the essence of this instance.
Deng Puyue laughed: "Last time there was no body in the car accident, and this time it's a campfire. Has his wife faked her death? Will she come back as the male lead's daughter again next time? Because she's immortal?"
The king's expression was strange: "Is the woman a demon?"
Deng Puyue: "Could it be some kind of illness?"
Half an hour later.
The four of them finally managed to shake off the zombie boss once again in the second-floor maze, entered the attic, and saw the second altar with a second portrait on it.
Although... she looks exactly like her adoptive mother's twin, only with a different hairstyle and clothes.
The attic had an inexplicable chill, especially with two identical girls staring at you amidst the rising smoke; it was quite unsettling.
Deng Puyue shakily went to push open the window, and sure enough, it was the same old routine; this time, she was back in the short film.
The male protagonist encounters Xiao Ying, an artistic young woman, at a bookstore. Because she looks remarkably like Yang's mother, he feels a sense of closeness and curiosity towards her. As they spend time together, the male protagonist becomes increasingly infatuated, and eventually falls in love with Xiao Ying.
After marriage, Xiaoying was diagnosed with infertility, but the male protagonist did not feel any distance from her because of this. Instead, he wished to be with her forever.
But when he was forty-five, Xiaoying passed away unexpectedly.
In the Buddhist hall, the male protagonist kneels on a prayer mat and sincerely asks Buddha, "Is it because of my filthy and sinful heart that I will forever lose the one I love?"
The first half is about urban youth, and the second half is about a heart-wrenching romance. After watching the three-minute short film, the four of them returned to the road covered with fallen jacaranda flowers.
Deng Puyue: "It's a monster."
Wen Zheng: "Monster."
A storm is brewing: "It must be a monster."
The king was furious: "How does it resemble a demon at all!"
He rushed forward and kicked the iron gate, yelling, "Come out! You fake demon!"
The woman slowly walked from the end of the road: "Thank you for earlier..."
Deng Puyue rushed forward with a whoosh: "Stop talking, big sister, are you going to become his daughter again? Seriously, this is not good. You've taken his life, he'll never forgive you, it's an obsession! Obsession creates karma, it will haunt you with resentment... You're not going to wait until the male lead dies and then bring his corpse over to keep you company, are you? That's too perverted!"
woman:"…………"
The woman suddenly said, "I can't remember. The person I love is still in the house. I want to find my lost memories..."
…………
Exhausted, the four of them finished searching for the new diary for the third time and sat down in the living room.
The King leaned back in his armchair, lazily closing his eyes to rest. Deng Puyue played with a fuzzy succulent by the window. Wen Zheng sat at the table assembling parts for a ballpoint pen, which the King had broken earlier, and he was fixing it.
A storm is brewing as someone diligently solves a puzzle: "…………"
He calmly asked, "Aren't you all going to read the story?"
Wen Zheng: "You read, and I'll listen."
Bullet comments:
-Just go upstairs and get one later, what's the point of fixing it?
-What do you know? It's different. This is a ballpoint pen that Mingzhu broke.
-Holy crap, the "Life in the Sky" thing is so exquisitely made! The pen can even be broken by pressing it, and you can even take it apart to fix it?
-z What a great man! Does he even know how to fix broken appliances at home?
- Judging from the looks of it, it probably will... right?
Wake up! Is there any appliance you still need to fix yourself?!
The puzzles were so novel, but after trying them three times, everyone got tired of them and lost interest. As the storm was brewing, they finished reading the puzzles on their own and gave a brief summary.
The male protagonist is over fifty years old. Although he is not exactly alone, he doesn't have many close friends or family.
He was an orphan. After his adoptive mother died, he had no elders left. After his wife died, he had no partner left. Some of his friends had their own families. When he got sick, he didn't want to trouble anyone, so he was hospitalized by himself.
An elderly person with a serious illness moved into the bed next to mine. Due to family hardship, the illness had dragged on for too long and had become terminal.
The old man's granddaughter was only sixteen years old when she dropped out of school to work. After the old man fell ill, she took care of him while working, and life was very hard.
The male protagonist was shocked again; this granddaughter looked just like his adoptive mother/wife!
The other three: "Oh."
The granddaughter helped the male protagonist several times when he was unavailable, but he was past the age of passion and only reminisced about the past. One day after being discharged from the hospital, he was eating at a restaurant when he encountered his granddaughter being bullied. After rescuing her, he learned that she had also lost her grandfather and was living alone, with all kinship severed.
The male protagonist felt great pity for her and took her in as his goddaughter. He originally planned to rent a place for her outside, but his granddaughter insisted on living with him and taking care of him, so the two returned to the villa.
The king slightly opened his eyes and lazily touched his fingernails: "You have a misunderstanding about demons."
"This must be a human; no demon would do such a thing. If she liked men that much, she would tell them directly, even if it meant keeping them as pets. Only a hypocritical human would do something so complicated and secretive."
His approach was strange. Wen Zheng said, "This is just a side story; there are no real monsters in the world."
The king became irritated upon hearing this, but not wanting to argue with him, he shut up.
Deng Puyue sat down at the table with the flowers in her arms and asked Shan Yu, "This time, did the female demon...eldest sister fake her death?"
Shan Yu put down the last diary entry: "No, the male protagonist died of old age first, at the age of eighty."
Deng Puyue breathed a sigh of relief: "It seems that the older sister outside is really a person. Then how come she lost her memory again?"
Wen Zheng stood up: "Continue."
Wen Zheng explored every corner of the maze in her second run. The red ribbon hasn't been mentioned in the story yet, but she always carries it around the maze afterward, disappearing as if lost in the vast expanse of time.
This time, when the group arrived at the central room, they all became alert the moment they stepped inside.
This is no longer the lady of the house's bedroom, but a vast sea of flowers.
The jacaranda trees stretched as far as the eye could see, their dazzling blooms almost painful to the eyes. In the center of this sea of flowers stood a massive stone altar, exuding a primitive charm.
"So is she even human? Why is she immortal? And why has she lost her memory?" Deng Puyue murmured, "Could it be some kind of witchcraft or curse, not a monster..."
"Run!" Wen Zheng suddenly shouted at him. Deng Puyue cried out and turned to rush into the flower forest. Four zombie bosses appeared at the same time, each chasing one of them. Suddenly, the roots of the flower trees shifted, and the earth trembled, forming a new maze!
Although Wen Zheng had memorized the map of the room maze, he was momentarily disoriented upon entering the new maze.
If he had entered from the entrance, it would have been easy to tell if it was the same as before, but now it would take a longer time to verify.
But the boss was still hot on their heels.
The flowering tree was off-limits to stepping on or climbing over, so Wen Zheng had to spend more time whittling down the boss. Unfortunately, just after they finished, the team announced that only three people remained, and Deng Puyue was out of the game.
"..." Wen Zheng was panting heavily, and shook the ruler in frustration. He was no longer in a hurry.
Shan Yu is clever, and the king is powerful; he doesn't need to worry about either of them.
After exiting the maze, the altar reappeared before him. The other two hadn't emerged, so he didn't wait and went in first, darkness enveloping his vision. After a brief tremor, rows of candles lit up, revealing a circular hall before him, its walls covered in red runes.
Wen Zheng walked slowly, memorizing the position and order of the runes one by one with his eyes. The irregular patterns required concentration, so much so that he didn't even notice when someone else entered from behind.
After a while, someone behind him laughed and said, "Am I that invisible?"
Wen Zheng was muttering something when he was suddenly startled. He turned around, still somewhat dazed, and said, "Mountain Rain."
"Where is the King?" Shan Yu asked. Wen Zheng replied that he didn't know and that the King hadn't come in yet.
The atmosphere fell silent for a moment. Wen Zheng felt uncomfortable and involuntarily stepped back. He still remembered the first time in the dungeon, when Shan Yu was about to explode but insisted on sharing a locker with him. At the time, he had no choice but to react physically, but the more he thought about it afterward, the more uncomfortable he felt.
It's like someone forcing you to cross your safety line; you might feel a fleeting attraction at the moment, but it never lasts.
“I’ve embedded the sewing kit into the central stone pillar,” Shan Yu said. “Only one is needed; it seems staff reductions are permitted here.”