CNC: Chapter 67

Mosaic School (18)

Tang Yu was startled by the woman’s overreaction and stood there at a loss. “I’m sorry… I didn’t know you hated paradise fish. I bought it without permission.”

She took all of the responsibility to help Chi Nan get rid of any blame. Chi Nan wanted to open his mouth, but she hurriedly shook her head.

After all, from the role perspective, the key to gaining favorability lay with Chi Nan. She must fully cooperate with her companion.

The maid hurriedly brought out a special vessel and crouched down to clean up the paradise fish on the carpet.

She whispered a reminder as she passed by them, “The madam hates this type of green-eyed creature. Remember it.”

Chi Nan’s eyes twitched.

The madam held her chest and gasped for a while before calming down. She waved her hand at Tang Yu with a pale face. “You didn’t mean it. This ghastly place sells such unlucky fish all over the streets.”

The acting class system clearly reminded them that the green-eyed paradise fish was an important prop to enhance the relationship between the protagonist and his relative. Why was the effect counterproductive?

Could it be that they messed up some steps? Or did the system lie to the students?

Chi Nan thought about it. He felt that both possibilities were very unlikely, but he couldn’t come up with a better guess at the moment.

The two of them were wondering about this when the female teacher’s voice was heard.

[Congratulations to students Chi Nan and Tang Yu for their ‘sadness’ themed performance. They have gained 5 points of favorability.]

Chi Nan: “……” It seemed that the system didn’t deceive people.

Tang Yu: “???” Wasn’t the madam frightened? Why was the favorability increased?

At this time, the madam had poured herself a glass of strong wine. She fell down on the sofa and took two sips to calm her mood.

“Nan Nan, come and sit with your mother for a while.”

Chi Nan sat next to her but was silent.

For him, a mother was an incomprehensible concept. The only mothers he had met were Bai Yingzhi and Rui Rui’s mother. The contrast between the two mothers was so great that it confused him.

How to get along with a mother and even enhance their relationship was a blind spot in his knowledge.

The script didn’t give any lines and he was worried he would say the wrong thing, which wasn’t helpful to the task of enhancing feelings. Therefore, he just sat quietly and observed the layout of the entire room.

The whole floor apartment was a standard three bedroom, two public rooms layout. There were three bedrooms in the west and a dining room and kitchen in the east. It was a north facing south layout.

There seemed to be no air conditioning in the entire apartment. A huge ceiling fan swirled overhead and the large freezer in the center of the living room made a rumbling noise.

After this little episode, the apartment instantly returned to an eerie silence.

“I’ll take you to see your father later,” the madam stated while drinking the wine in the glass.

Chi Nan wondered, “Isn’t Father already…”

The madam was stunned for a moment before showing a comforting smile. “Rest assured, his soul will always protect this home and always protect you and I. He won’t leave easily.”

Tang Yu and Chi Nan looked at each other simultaneously. They were sure that this woman was mentally abnormal.

“It is a few days before the burial and your father is still living at home for the time being. Once you have time, you can have a good chat as father and son.”

The woman stood up and walked toward the freezer. “Come on. You haven’t been home in 11 years. Come and say hello to your father.”

She opened the freezer door with her well-maintained hands. Her slow, methodical movements seemed like she was showing off her proudest work of art.

Tang Yu already had a hunch in her heart. The moment she saw the blackened male corpse lying in the freezer, she couldn’t help turning around and covering her mouth to prevent herself from throwing up.

As a ‘girlfriend,’ she couldn’t make the madam dislike her.

Chi Nan stared at the man’s body in the freezer. The freezing was very timely so there were no obvious corpse spots after four days of death.

The body with black hair was covered with a thin layer of white frost. There were obvious stitch marks on the neck and the body that should’ve been contaminated with blood was scrubbed clean.

His head should’ve been sewn up after death.

“What happened to Father?” Chi Nan asked his mother. The system only provided a rough background and didn’t give a specific explanation on the cause of death.

She sighed heavily and turned to point to the sofa where they had been sitting just now. The old ceiling fan was still spinning. “Your father was lying on the sofa and reading the newspaper when the ceiling fan suddenly loosened and smashed down. The high-speed rotating fan blade happened to hit his neck as it fell down and cut off his head directly. He died on the spot.”

Tang Yu’s face turned even paler after hearing this. She had imagined the plot of the ceiling fan smashing down and cutting off her head countless times, but she didn’t expect that someone really died because of this…

Chi Nan silently looked at the ceiling fan that was still working and the madam added, “Rest assured, I got someone to repair it. There will be no such accident again.”

“After that, Mother Chen and I used a lot of effort to stitch together your father. After staying at home with him for seven days, we will send him to be buried…” She suddenly looked at Chi Nan sadly. “There will only be the two of us in this family from now on. Please forgive me and accompany me to live in Gongcheng.”

She paused and added, “Your father’s soul will protect this home.”

Chi Nan knew the main purpose of the acting class and responded with the purpose of testing the rules.

The system responded and gave him 5 points of favorability.

He was a bit surprised since it was so straightforward.

The madam smiled with satisfaction and finally closed the door of the freezer. “Okay, the two of you must be exhausted after crossing the ocean. You can rest in your room before it is time for dinner.”

“By the way, our family has never had any guests and there aren’t many rooms. Miss Tang can live in the same room as me,” the madam added another sentence.

Tang Yu’s face froze instantly. “Ah this… It is too presumptuous.”

No normal person wanted to live in the same room as a mentally disturbed NPC.

The madam smiled apologetically. “Miss Tang and Nan Nan are only in a girlfriend and boyfriend relationship. Our family is very traditional and you absolutely can’t live together before marriage. I don’t want anyone to break the rules. There are servants, but it would be rude to let Miss Tang live in the maid’s room.”

Tang Yu tugged at the hem of her skirt with embarrassment. She looked around anxiously before finally biting her lip. “But…aren’t there three rooms in the house?”

The house wasn’t very big. There were three bedrooms and a living room with a large garden structure. In addition to the master bedroom and the bedroom for the young master, there was a locked bedroom on the innermost side.

The woman’s expression froze. “That room is full of clutter and it is difficult to clean it out for the moment. It isn’t convenient for Miss Tang to stay there.”

“Leave my room for Miss Tang,” Chi Nan bluntly stated.

Undisguised joy flashed in the woman’s eyes. “Then do you want to sleep in the same room as your mother?”

“No,” Chi Nan refused without hesitation, “I can stay in the living room.”

The radiance in the woman’s eyes faded and she looked at the ceiling fan with a cold smile. “It might’ve been repaired and I can guarantee that it won’t fall down during the day, but it is difficult to say at night. Are you sure you want to sleep on the sofa by yourself?”

“Yes.”

The woman’s expression sank, but before she could become angry, Chi Nan added, “You just told me to chat to my father more. My father is sleeping in the living room and I will accompany him.”

This was so reasonable that the woman couldn’t refuse. She was stunned for a few seconds before replying, “Okay, there is nothing I can do if you want to do this.”

“Thank you.”

Tang Yu looked gratefully at Chi Nan.

The woman told Chi Nan, “You’re dusty after coming all this way. Mother Chen has already prepared toiletries and a change of clothes. Go take a shower and relax.”

The weather was too hot on their way to the house, and now Chi Nan’s body was cold as he was sweating all over. He wanted to take a shower immediately.

Then he entered the bathroom with a change of clothes and found that something was wrong.

The mirror above the bathroom vanity was sealed with layers of black tape. The messy tape seemed to be sealing an evil spirit and there was a strange sense of ritual.

The fact that the bathroom had a mirror showed that the madam had been using it. There was also no dust on the tape, showing it had been temporarily sealed before he came.

Chi Nan suddenly became interested. He locked the bathroom door and started to patiently tear off the tape layer by layer. Finally, he wiped the glue on the mirror with a towel.

The mirror didn’t seem to be anything special. It clearly showed Chi Nan’s current appearance. His eyes were black and there were no teardrop moles at the corners of his eyes.

Chi Nan stared at the mirror for a moment. He thought that You Yu would look like this if he was still alive.

After all, green eyes and the teardrop moles were his private property and weren’t from You Yu.

Chi Nan took off his glasses and started to wash his face carefully. Then, as he was washing his face with water, he felt a pair of eyes watching his every move from top to bottom.

He was sure that he was the only one in the locked bathroom and the bathroom window was covered with an anti-theft net. It was impossible for someone to climb into the room while he was washing his face.

The feeling of this gaze was so strong that Chi Nan felt like he was being burned by it.

Even so, Chi Nan wasn’t flustered. He methodically tightened the faucet and the sound of water stopped. He picked up the face towel that was next to him to dry his face and opened his eyes to see his ‘self’ in the mirror staring directly at him.

The air froze in an instant.

His reflection in the mirror also had his hair and face wet with water. He had green eyes and two teardrop moles. This was the appearance that Chi Nan was more familiar with!

What happened? Did his eyes turn green again or was there another self in the mirror?

Chi Nan stared into the mirror for a moment and the mirror also looked back.

It wasn’t until the green-eyed Chi Nan in the mirror slowly smiled like Ye Chang that Chi Nan’s mind returned.

The mirror contained 229’s illusion!

Why did he change into Chi Nan’s original appearance? What was the meaning of him appearing at this time?

Chi Nan had just blinked when the mirror image with green eyes disappeared without a trace. His appearance with black eyes and no teardrop moles returned to the mirror.

Chi Nan touched it and the water on his hand stained the surface of the mirror. It looked like a very ordinary mirror.

But…229 seemed to be monitoring his performance through the mirror or participating in the performance out of a bad taste, becoming one of the important clues of the entire story.

Chi Nan couldn’t accurately judge for a while.

He was still confused when the system made a notification.

[Congratulations for successfully triggering the condition for increasing favorability in the ‘sadness’ theme. Favorability has increased by 5 and you now have 15 favorability points.]

Favorability increased by 5? What did he do? It was just a mirror…

Rather than guessing without any ideas, Chi Nan decided to have a hot shower to get rid of the accumulated fatigue in his body.

Then he found some strange changes to his body when he took off his shirt.

There was a long and deep scar on his left shoulder. It probably went from his lower neck to his shoulder. The neat ‘centipede feet’ were obviously stitch marks. It was as if he had undergone a major surgery on his shoulder.

Due to age, new pink flesh filled the stitched scar and the porcelain white skin slightly bulged.

The old scar on his shoulder reminded Chi Nan of the man lying in the freezer. It was because this scar was similar to the stitching marks on the man’s neck.

Chi Nan confirmed that there were no more changes on his body.

What did black eyes, the disappearing teardrop moles, the scar on his left shoulder, and his green-eyed self in the mirror reflection imply?

In addition, the woman hated green eyes… Chi Nan believed that 229 could never give them a real family story. Maybe this was more perverted than the various school rules.

Chi Nan looked at himself in the mirror again and suddenly had a clue.

***

“Young Master, Miss Tang, dinner is ready. Please come to the dining room to eat.” The maid finished her explanation and led them to the dining room.

The madam was already sitting in her seat. She smiled gracefully and motioned for Chi Nan and Tang Yu to sit on either side of her. “You have crossed the ocean and must be exhausted and starved. Come here quickly and have dinner.”

Then she nodded to the maid. The maid understood, bowed, and opened the silver cloche placed in the center of the table. The smile on the madam’s face became even prouder. “Our family has a habit of drinking soup before dinner. Mother Chen specially cooked fish soup for you. It is delicious and not greasy. You will like it.”

The strong smell of fish hit them as Mother Chen took out three white porcelain bowls and large soup spoons. She scooped one spoonful of the soup into the bowls one after another.

Tang Yu’s face paled when she saw what was in the porcelain bowl and she couldn’t help standing up from her seat. “Excuse me, I’m sorry…”

Then she rushed to the bathroom and threw up.

The bodies of the paradise fish floated in the white soup. Their green eyes had been gouged out and their colorful bodies lost their vitality. They were frozen in the broth covered with green onions.

Mother Chen had calculated the portions. There were a total of 12 fish and each person’s bowl contained four, not one more or one less. This way, the guests and host would be happy.

“What’s wrong with Miss Tang? Is she pregnant?” The madam looked at the vomiting Tang Yu in a worried and disdainful manner.

Chi Nan choked up. “It is just heat stroke.”

The madam nodded with a heavy heart and placed the fish soup in front of Chi Nan with an expectant expression. “Others aren’t important. You are the most important one to me. Nan Nan, you haven’t eaten at home for a long time. How about having a good meal today?”

The woman saw that Chi Nan didn’t respond and continued to push the soup bowl forward to persuade him, “What’s the matter? Don’t you like the food at home?”

Her voice cooled down and the anticipation in her eyes gradually changed.

According to the normal system task logic, they couldn’t go against her expectations if they wanted to increase her favorability. This bowl of fish soup had to be drunk, no matter how disgusting it was.

However, Chi Nan didn’t panic. He lowered his eyes and looked at the fish soup. This was giving him a chance to test his conjecture.

Proofreader: Kat

 

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Ketkai
Ketkai
1 year ago

Lmaoo this acting class be giving mc backdoor points left & right. He can survive even without tears and feeling sad 😭😂

Ritsuka
Ritsuka
1 year ago

I always thought only the eyes were Chi Nan’s but unexpectedly the tear drop moles were his too! I think Chi Nan has taken on You Yu’s appearance…Is You Yu finally gonna reveal the truth

Nanairohana
Nanairohana
1 year ago
Reply to  Ritsuka

Yes.. since Chi Nan now “fully You Yu”, then I guess the real plot is that this mother hated her son secretly, just like Bai Yingzhi. You Yu really enjoyed the teasing of “I know you are evil spirit that took my form” lol. It should be Chi Nan the “sly fox taking others form” but honestly You Yu is much more like a fox youkai 😂.

And I wonder if it is possible that the pocket watch that You Yu hold actually contained the picture of himself and the time stopped at 0020. That is why he can’t show it to Chi Nan yet.

Hua Cheng's Bitch
Hua Cheng's Bitch
2 months ago

It’s just fish tho? With all the vomiting drama, you’d think they were human body parts or something