I Want Some Face Too

Bang!

The door was slammed shut.

Zhu Yan immediately rose from the table, making sure that 【Everyone Has Their Own Fate】 was active.

He removed his cloak and frantically drifted toward Li Laidi’s room in the form of 【Mist】. On the filthy floor, he barely managed to find a clean spot to stand on before condensing back into human form.

The commotion clearly caught Li Laidi’s attention.

She abruptly raised her head. Her greasy hair, clumped into two strands, swung apart and revealed her gaunt, skeletal face.

She looked terrified and instinctively shrank toward the head of the bed.

“Who’s there?!”

Zhu Yan put a finger to his lips, then shamelessly called out, “Daddy!”

Li Laidi fell silent.

Her mind had already been muddled, and now it was shrouded in an even thicker cloud of confusion. An extremely abnormal joy began spreading from the depths of her heart.

She stared blankly at Zhu Yan and opened her mouth.

“W-what is it?”

Zhu Yan knew this was shameless. He knew this ability was utterly disgraceful.

But he had to clear the instance. There wasn’t a single useful word coming out of that old bastard Li Daochang’s mouth, and he had no other choice.

Zhu Yan observed from inside the puppet body of “Zhu Zeyu.”

Before Li Daochang could enter the Huang family’s house, he hurriedly questioned Li Laidi.

“Daddy, what would happen if I married you? What exactly is the matter with your mother? Where is your mother?”

Li Laidi continued staring at him stupidly.

Two seconds later, Zhu Yan heard the prompt from 【Everyone Has Their Own Fate】.

“Friendly reminder from 【Everyone Has Their Own Fate】: Please do not actively court death by doing shameless things.”

“Please do not claim random relationships, and above all, do not bring up marriage.”

“This will drag you into the abyss of the instance!”

Zhu Yan swallowed and looked at Li Laidi expectantly.

“Daddy, tell me quickly.”

【Everyone Has Their Own Fate】 fell silent.

Zhu Zeyu could already hear footsteps approaching outside the door. At long last, under the influence of the ability, Li Laidi began to speak. Although her words were disjointed, she revealed far more information than before.

“If you marry me, you have to go to the ancestral graveyard. Rules are rules. You have to go to the ancestral graveyard to get married.”

“Friendly reminder from 【Everyone Has Their Own Fate】: If you do not wish to become entangled in karma, please do not go to the ancestral graveyard.”

“Mother is in the ancestral graveyard. Mother isn’t in the ancestral graveyard. Mother is in many ancestral graveyards.” Li Laidi rambled on.

Zhu Yan’s mind short-circuited for a moment. Then, combining all the clues he had seen, he translated her words at lightning speed.

“You mean Mother was divided into many pieces? Some of her isn’t in the ancestral graveyard, while the rest is scattered among different burial grounds?”

Li Laidi smiled, her eyes narrowing into thin slits.

She nodded, and Zhu Yan immediately threw out another question.

“Is going to the ancestral graveyard the only way to find all of Mother?”

“No, not necessarily. Some parts of Mother may not be in the ancestral graveyard.”

She shuddered violently, a look of terror appearing on her skin-and-bones face.

“Mother is inside Daddy’s body. She is inside many people’s bodies. She is many people.”

“She is the people who bought her.”

Zhu Yan understood.

Everyone involved in the transactions—the buyers, in other words—had probably been contaminated.

They might have become low-level 【Walking Corpses】, or perhaps something even more advanced.

…

Next door.

Zhu Zeyu split his attention, keeping watch on the commotion downstairs.

The 【Walking Corpse】 seemed to sense Li Daochang’s arrival. It desperately propped up its limp body, trying to crawl toward the door.

Zhu Zeyu immediately activated the ability 【Humiliation】 and stepped on the 【Walking Corpse】’s wrist.

Veins bulged across Pot Lid’s forehead.

“You…”

Zhu Zeyu glanced at Pot Lid, then at Jin Rongxu.

He had no intention of dealing with Pot Lid. He only wanted to kill Pot Lid, paving the way for getting rid of Jin Rongxu next.

Jin Rongxu stood to one side without saying anything or showing any other expression.

He merely watched everything coldly, as though Zhu Zeyu’s actions had nothing to do with him and did not interfere with his ability to clear the instance.

Seeing this, Zhu Zeyu immediately relaxed.

Jin Rongxu’s lack of objection meant that he could use the team leader’s authority to act recklessly.

“What do you mean, ‘you’?” he said. He grabbed Pot Lid’s bleeding finger and swiftly pressed it onto the yellow paper.

The blood quickly spread across the paper, staining it with an irregular pattern. Pot Lid let out a horrified scream.

“What are you doing?!”

“Just listen to the team leader and press it down obediently,” Zhu Zeyu said carelessly, grinding his foot against the 【Walking Corpse】’s wrist once more.

“Old man, where do you think you’re going? You too—look at our team leader. He isn’t even in a hurry, so what are you rushing for?”

…

Inside Li Daochang’s home.

Zhu Yan asked, “Do you know how to get out of here? Is Li Panlong the only one who can leave?”

Li Laidi seemed unable to understand him.

Zhu Yan nervously glanced out the window, then immediately rephrased the question.

“Daddy, tell me everything you know about Li Panlong.”

Li Laidi widened her eyes.

She struggled to understand what this “son” before her meant, then rambled out everything she knew.

“Li Panlong wants money. He wants things.”

“Mother gives them to him. Mother loves him very much. Mother is crazy, and Li Panlong is almost crazy too. Li Panlong rarely appears. No one knows where he is.”

These lines required no translation.

Zhu Yan nodded, signaling her to continue.

“Li Panlong wants things,” Li Laidi repeated, mulling the words over. “He wants abilities. He wants people. He wants people’s lives.”

“Mother wants to choose someone strong. I marry someone strong.”

Zhu Yan heard another prompt.

“Friendly reminder from 【Everyone Has Their Own Fate】: You have come into contact with part of the truth. The force behind it is of a relatively high level. Please withdraw immediately—especially do not get married, lest you be dragged into the abyss of the instance.”

Aha.

In other words, everything Li Laidi had said this time was true.

He knew it.

How could getting married possibly be enough to clear the instance?

Zhu Yan asked, “If I agree to marry you and go to the ancestral graveyard, will my life and abilities be transferred to your younger brother, Li Panlong?”

“Friendly reminder from 【Everyone Has Their Own Fate】: Player, please do not play with fire.”

Li Laidi struggled to understand the meaning of his words. She stared blankly at Zhu Yan for a moment, then nodded.

Oh. Confirmed.

Li Daochang… No, this old bastard “Mother” had actually been plotting this all along.

…

The lock clicked.

Zhu Zeyu suddenly felt an extreme, bone-chilling pressure bearing down on him. He hurriedly withdrew his foot and watched as Li Daochang burst through the door, then scrambled toward Jin Rongxu.

Li Daochang looked at him ominously.

A few seconds later, it bent down and picked up a sheet of yellow paper from the floor.

“You made things difficult for my neighbor. Since you are a guest, I will let it go.”

“Sign this transaction now.”

Its lifeless eyes swept across the room. Then it raised a hand and pointed at Jin Rongxu.

“The rest of you as well. Except you.”

It looked at Jin Rongxu meaningfully.

“Our transaction can wait until later.”

All right. They could stall for now.

As for Jin Rongxu, he would explain later and deal with whatever came his way.

Zhu Yan let out a sigh of relief and asked Li Laidi about the last thing he was interested in.

“There’s one more thing…”

When Zhu Yan accepted the mission at the 【Narrative Platform】, he noticed a hint about the 【Nightmare Book】 in its description.

The 【Vine-Cage Woman】 had also explained that the 【Nightmare Book】 recorded the origins of certain terrifying creatures and was the lifeline of those creatures.

Since he was already here, Zhu Yan felt it would be a shame not to look for such a rare treasure.

He wondered how much the Li Laidi standing before him knew.

Could she understand what he meant?