Chapter 347: Ping An
She was a quiet-looking girl, the kind who would put people around her at ease. She stood away from the crowd. Her eyes were calm. She was less scared but more dull.
“Come over.” Banana Wolf waved at her, “Being alone here is very dangerous.”
“Oh.” The girl moved over with small steps. When she was close, the rest realised that despite her small stature, she had good proportions. She had curves underneath the loose-fitting casual clothes.
Jiang Cheng’s eyes lit up.
The strange thing was once she joined the group, she appeared more uncomfortable than before. “My name is Wan Xiaoning,” She introduced as the travellers watched her. They waited, but she didn’t continue. She appeared to be socially awkward. When other people’s gazes were on her, she became uncomfortable. She was not used to being the centre of attention. Compared to the sudden appearance of Wan Xiaoning, the travellers were more worried about the mission's difficulty.
So far, there were already twelve players.
Fatty was expressionless, but he panicked inside. Jiang Cheng was the exact opposite. Despite his evident fluster, his gaze kept wandering between the few ladies. His heart burned.
He eventually met someone’s eyes. While he openly studied the others, a woman was also studying him. It was not a gaze of admiration. There was a trace of confusion… like she had seen him somewhere before. Chen Yi stared at the handsome but salacious man. She raised her brows and searched through her mind. She was a policewoman. This was her professional habit. She believed she had seen this face before, but she couldn’t remember where.
She belonged to the public management department. Her job scope was broad. She managed things from crowd management to raiding KTVs. A lot of things were within her job details.
After sharing the look for two seconds, Jiang Cheng seemed to remember something. The next second, he quickly looked down and stopped talking. He ceased looking around. He was so obedient that it confused Fatty.…
A strange intermittent sound travelled over. It sounded like something heavy was being dragged on the ground. Everyone became nervous. Slowly, a figure appeared from the dark.
It was an elderly man. When they saw the elder, Chu Jiu’s eyes froze, and his breathing raced. His fingers on Chen Yi’s arms tightened. The old man held a staff. His left leg started to twist around the calf. It was invalid. The tip of his shoe dragged on the ground. The sound of friction was the sound they heard earlier.
The most discomfiting thing about him was his face. He only had one eye. Flesh folded out of his empty socket to reveal a horrible hole. He also lost part of his nose and lips. The right side of his face was heavily burnt. However, this probably happened a long time ago. His scabs had fallen off. Only a patch of discoloured skin remained.
The old man had no brow. The hair on his head was limited. However, a small bush grew out of his missing ear. There was a scar that stretched from the top of his eye socket to his nostril. His face looked like it had been chopped and then tossed into the fire.
The one eye looked from left to right. The elder uttered slowly, “Are you… the ones who called to book the rooms?” The man’s speech was unclear because he didn’t have his front teeth. His voice sounded like sandpaper.
Fatty subconsciously rubbed his arms, which were covered in goosebumps. For a moment, he thought the old man was the ghost.
“Indeed.” Banana Wolf was the first to answer, “That was us.”
The old glanced at him and turned around. He shuffled back. “Come with me to take the keys,” he said with annoyance.
Everyone shared a look and understood that the mission had started.
“Since we’re not newbies, I won’t waste time.” Liu Guo said rapidly, “I just want to remind everyone that the difficulty of this mission will not be low considering the size of this group. If we fight among ourselves, we’ll get wiped out easily.”
“You don’t need to worry about that.” Someone countered, “As long as I’m alive, this team will not be wiped.”
Fatty turned instinctively to the Doctor. When the Doctor stared innocently at him, Fatty realised it was not Jiang Cheng who said those things.
Instead, it was Wei Jingting. His groaning and complaining didn’t stop. In the end, he was shut down by Banana Wolf.
No one thought the infighting would happen so soon.
Liu Guo didn’t explode, but the way he looked at Wei Jingting changed.
At the same time, Lu Huaxu, who wore the silk stocking on his head, giggled twice. It frightened Hua Luo, who was beside him so much that he picked up his skirt and ran away.
This was a narrow corridor. The floor was clean because someone cleaned it often. However, the place was old.
There was an oil lamp on every stretch of the road. The light was yellow, like lightbulbs that hadn’t been changed for decades.
The old man finally stopped. He pushed open a door with green paint. Once the door opened, the travellers were hit by a blast of cold wind.
This was a small room. The window that faced the door had a large hole. The chilly wind surged through it. A few red planter boxes sat on the windowsill.
There was a decrepit table with a glass surface. The glass had several pieces of paper and photographs under it. One side of the glass was cracked and taped together.
Other than an old electrical phone, there were no other electrical devices. There was a pile of flyers.
A teacup that was brown from usage and age was placed in a conspicuous spot. There was a tin can of tea leaves beside it. The lid was casually tossed to the side.
A white plastic bag was left open. There were clear squares inside. They looked like rock-sugar.
A red television set sat in the corner. It was covered in a thick layer of dust. Standing at the door was meaningless. Liu Guo, Jiang Cheng, Fatty and Banana Wolf entered the room. The rest waited outside. After all, not all of them trusted the old man. They had experienced missions where the NPCs turned into ghosts before.
The elder didn’t even need to make up to present himself as a ghost.
Jiang Cheng held a flyer in his hand. He yanked it off the wall earlier. The most eye-catching thing about it was a large building.
The name Ping An Apartment was written on the flyer in auspicious red.