IWBL: Chapter 191
The surprise in Shen Chenzhi’s expression was fleeting. He lowered his eyes slightly and then smiled like nothing happened. “What did I do last night?”
Xiao Li hadn’t felt anything wrong when he spoke but after he saw the eyes of Wen Wenwen and the others, he was taken aback and then quickly reacted. He turned around and spoke without changing his expression. “Nothing.”
Shen Chenzhi’s mood became excellent in an instant. He drew closer and looked at Xiao Li from a distance that seemed ambiguous but didn’t go beyond the boundary. He inquired in a low voice, “Is it because you dreamed of me?”
“Didn’t you hear what I said before?” Xiao Li was a bit uncomfortable at such a distance and turned his head slightly. “I didn’t sleep, let alone dream.”
Shen Chenzhi raised his eyebrow slightly but refused to stop. “Then what do I have to do with you being unable to sleep?”
He spoke in a low voice. In particular, the last few words were almost like a whisper in Xiao Li’s ears.
Xiao Li, “……”
He had nothing to say. He couldn’t say that he lost sleep because of Shen Chenzhi. This sounded even more ambiguous than before.
Xiao Li sighed and covered his face with his hands. “…I’m going to sleep. You’re free to do whatever you want.”
He turned and fled the scene. Behind him, Shen Chenzhi’s lips raised with joy and he didn’t hesitate to follow.
Behind them, Wen Wenwen’s facial features were wrinkled up. He looked after them for a long time and felt like a stinky single dog watching a pair of big shots showing affection. But…
This was really the wrong place at the wrong time! He wailed extremely sadly in his heart and turned to Wang Huai. “Old Wang, what do you say? Follow or separate? I’ll listen to you.”
“Follow? Do you want to follow them and sleep together?” Wang Huai sneered at him.
Sleeping together in the instance world wasn’t uncommon. There were some particularly dangerous places. For the sake of safety, many reincarnators would sleep together and even sleep in their clothes for an easier escape. However, once Wang Huai said this, it sounded very lewd.
Wen Wenwen coughed. “Then shall we continue to explore? Will it be a bit dangerous?”
He was known for his steady behaviour and never did anything with a high risk factor. Sherlock’s deeds on the forum were so famous that it was obviously unwise to break away from such a bigshot.
Kesia smiled and spoke slowly in English. “Now that Sherlock wants us to act separately, we should separate. The start is a good opportunity to find news.”
“We will divide into two. One group will check out the specific limits of the town while the other will disguise as people passing by to find the boy in the opening CG.” Wang Huai lowered his head and stroked the skull ring. He said absently, “You are free to form the teams.”
“I’d like to find out the exact range. What about you?” Wen Wenwen asked.
Wang Huai replied, “I’ll go and see the hotel selected by Sherlock. Then I’ll book a room for you for when you come back. First come, first served.”
Wen Wenwen, “……”
If he hadn’t known Wang Huai’s character, he would’ve thought that this person was deliberately making no contribution. Since he did know Wang Huai, he didn’t try to persuade the other person to join the team looking for information. He just waved his hand. “Okay, let’s go.”
It wasn’t surprising that Sherlock acted like this. Wang Huai was also a bigshot and had a certain degree of privilege.
The rest of the reincarnators looked at each other but didn’t protest. He Tian and Jin Handong chose to search for the little boy’s trail while the others went to survey the area of the town.
This small town seemed to be shrouded by a fog that would never disappear. The dust in the air exceeded the standard and it was white all around them. Looking around, they could only see the people and businesses on the street in a one metre radius.
Wen Wenwen noticed that the expressions of the residents were very strange when they saw the reincarnators. Every time a resident passed by, their eyes would stay on the faces of the reincarnators for a long time. There should be no outsiders here because there weren’t any tourist attractions.
He thought this way and silently defined the town in his heart.
There weren’t many merchants along the way. Only a few food stores, clothing stores and pharmacies that supported the basic livelihood were open. Wen Wenwen searched a lot and finally found a miscellaneous goods store. He exchanged glances with Bruce and the others and walked in to talk to the owner.
It looked Westernized so Bruce said hello in English. “Hello, we are first-time visitors here.”
The store owner was an old man with white hair and many wrinkles on his face. He was wearing a pair of old glasses. As the group came in, he was staring at a circle of hemp rope in his hand. The table in front of him was full of incense and essential oils.
The store owner heard Bruce’s words, slowly took off his reading glasses and raised his eyes to look at them lazily. “This isn’t the case.”
The simple word caused Bruce’s muscles to tighten. Half of Wen Wenwen’s foot was already out the door, ready to run at any time.
“Don’t be so nervous.” The old store owner spoke slowly. “I’m just guessing. Why would anyone come here? Young man, this isn’t a good place.”
The old man looked very kind. Kesia got closer and tried to get more words out of his mouth. “Grandpa, we really aren’t here to travel. We came here to get inspiration for a novel. You know, sometimes we can only get creative inspiration through personal experience.”
“Can you tell us some of the secrets of this town?” She was born beautiful, with green eyes that were like pure gems. Her smile made her look like an angel. “We can pay for something. We have money if you want it and other treasures. We also won’t tell anyone.”
The old store owner looked at her indifferently and shook his head with slight amusement. “No, because…”
He put on his reading glasses and stared at the rope in his hand again. His voice suddenly became low as he completed the entire sentence, “You can’t go out.”
Kesia’s smile instantly stiffened but she had a strong psychological quality. “What do you mean by this? Can’t we just go out?”
The store owner shook his head and wrapped the rope around his hand. During the conversation, he refused to talk in-depth. “You will know soon.”
During the conversation, Wen Wenwen had been silently observing the whole store for a while. He found that it sold many things including all types of knives, hemp rope and incense. However, after searching, he didn’t find what he wanted on the shelf. He thought about it and interrupted. “Store owner, do you have a map for sale?”
The old store owner listened to his question and didn’t even look up. “There is no map. The people here don’t need a map. You… don’t need a map.”
The group looked at each other like they had read something from the sentence.
What did he mean by not needing a map? Was it because after entering, they couldn’t go out for the rest of their lives?
The reincarnators present here all thought about the task restriction. Before finding a way out, they would just be obliterated if they left here. It seemed like this restriction had something to do with the town’s secrets…
There was nothing else to talk about now that the store owner had said this. Everyone walked out of the miscellaneous goods store.
Kesia went outside, took out her task book and used a blank page as paper to write down the name of the store.
***
On the other side, Xiao Li didn’t find a hotel.
He walked two streets and looked for the people passing by. Some of them didn’t stay to listen to him and ran away. The only one left shook his head violently and kept saying ‘no, no, no’ before escaping in a hurry.
Xiao Li saw the now empty street and looked up at the foggy sky with a vague suspicion in his heart. Maybe… there were no hotels in the town at all.
Hotels were aimed at outsiders and based on the reaction of these local residents, outsiders were very rare. This was an isolated town. If his thoughts were true then he could only rent a place if he wanted to avoid sleeping on the street. As long as there were people, there would always be someone being born, getting old, becoming sick and dying. There would always be houses vacant.
So the only problem was money.
Reincarnators basically could buy an item in the mall that could be converted into a copy of the world’s money. However, Xiao Li hadn’t bought it before and he hardly needed any money, so he had a large sum of money in his little yellow book.
He fumbled for the little yellow book and opened the mall. He was browsing for the item he wanted when a hand behind him took the little yellow book from his hand. The young man glanced at the little yellow book with a subtle expression in his eyes before he quickly restrained it.
Shen Chenzhi said, “I just bought it.”
Xiao Li, “?”
So fast?
Shen Chenzhi told him, “The house.”
“I don’t know what you like so I picked one. If you don’t like it then I can change it.”
Xiao Li told him, “…As long as I can live in it.”
He wasn’t picky.
The house that Shen Chenzhi bought wasn’t far away. According to him, he used a large sum of money and food and found a store. The boss was impressed by the huge sum of money and supplies and quickly found a vacant house.
It was a small, western-style house. It looked very nice from the outside and was painted with white paint. It shouldn’t be too old. It had two floors and there was a small garden outside. However, all the flowers were dead in the fog.
Inside the small house, all the facilities were available.
The boss was a bit vague when speaking about the origin of this house. He only said that his aunt fell ill and died of illness not long ago. She had no children and left the house behind. He didn’t know what to do with it.
This house would be shared by the reincarnators so Xiao Li didn’t say anything. He nodded and agreed directly. He chose a room at will and wanted to lie down the moment he walked in. It was just that before he could prepare to go to sleep, Shen Chenzhi walked over and held the door with one hand, not letting him close it.
The young man lowered his eyes slightly. The eyes that looked amber in the faint light had a gentle expression. He asked, “Should I accompany you?”
“Since you can’t sleep because of me…” His lips curved up slightly. He was clearly happy but his tone was as serious as possible. “Then I should take responsibility and sleep with you.”
Proofreader: Tofu