Chapter 144 – “Passing Hats” Game Cleared
“… Mom, calm down, your voice is too loud, everyone around me can hear you,” Ren Suo said.
Ren Suo took a glance around him. Beside him, Zhao Huo had dropped his spoon, and Dong Chengling, Gu Yueyan, and Lin Xianyu who were sitting at the table opposite suddenly stopped eating. Ren Suo felt like there was going to be an earth-shaking change in their impression of him—from him being a “single dog” to a “horrible scum”.
He continued the call outside the canteen. He said, “Mom, I’m your son, do you think I am such a person?!”
His mother said, “I used to think that Xiao Jiu was a good boy, but didn’t he make the virgin girl from elsewhere pregnant too? He even acted as if he had not done anything wrong when he returned home!”
Ren Suo replied, “I already told you before to send Xiao Jiu for neutering! Haven’t you had enough of him being raunchy!”
The purr of a cat sounded from the other end of the line. Ren Suo’s mother said loudly, “Look at you, Xiao Jiu has been with you for so many years, how could you be so cruel to him and want to cut away its balls (testicles)? You are cruel to Xiao Jiu, and so are you to your girlfriend, is that not the case!”
Ren Suo was bewildered. He said, “It’s cruel too to suggest that you neuter the cat… Just listen to how the cat is screaming every day, what would you do if it affects Sister’s revision?”
His mother was slightly stunned and remained silent for a moment. She said, “… I will let our neighbor Lao Zhang take care of Xiao Jiu for the next few days.”
“Mom, let me tell you, Sister also loves Xiao Jiu and loves her dearly. She would not say much even if she is affected by the cat. If you had sent Xiao Jiu to be neutered earlier on, she might have been able to score higher for the college entrance examination…”
“Don’t change the topic!” His mother obviously started feeling guilty and quickly diverted the topic. She said, “Your classmates have been calling over the past few days and said that you made a girl abort her child, is that true?”
Ren Suo replied, “Even if I really did such an immoral thing, I will not tell that group of dorkheads who only goes to our house to play with the cat, is still single and do not know how to phrase their words nicely!”
His mother said, “But Xiao Sanzi said that you asked for advice in your QQ chatroom. You said that you have a friend who broke up with his girlfriend and made her abort their child, but is regretting it now after everything. He wants to start afresh but has inadequate reason to do so…”
Ren Suo said, “… I indeed asked such a question.”
His mother immediately became furious. She roared, “I knew it! Did you think I still don’t know you inside and out? Saying that ‘you have a friend’ just refers to yourself! How could you be so immoral?! Hurry up and apologize to the girl, then bring the girl home to let us have a look!”
Ren Suo said, “But it’s really just a friend of mine! He asked me what to do and I had no idea either, so I asked in my senior high chatroom and university class chatroom.”
His mother retorted, “What nonsense, if someone did such an immoral thing, why would they tell a dorkhead like you who only knows how to play with the cat, is still single, and do not know how to phrase your words nicely?!”
Ren Suo was temporarily at a loss for words, after being brutally shot down by his mother with his own words.
It was not after a long while before Ren Suo thought of another reason. He said, “Alright, to be honest, I am actually a big brother of the people in Lianjiang and many people come to me for advice and to rant. I am well-liked by many young people who are at crossroads in their life… Anyway, I swear that if I committed any immoral act, I will change my surname! Phone calls are expensive, we should continue talking another time.”
As Ren Suo’s mother put down her mobile phone, his younger sister, who was serving the food to the table, noticed the strange experience on her mother’s face. She asked, “What’s wrong? Did Brother make you angry again?”
Ren Suo’s mother had this expression = _ = and said, “Nothing much, he said that he is very popular amongst men in Lianjiang.”
Speechless, his sister blinked, “…”
Ren Suo’s father who was watching television commented, “… Genetics is amazing…”
…
When Ren Suo returned to the dining room, he felt an inexplicable atmosphere lingering in the air as soon as he sat down, so he told them the same excuse that he had just told his mother.
Ever since Gu Yueyan started eating with Dong Chengling, Zhao Huo realized that Ren Suo and Dong Chengling were not enjoying their “quality time” together, so he also joined in. Lin Xianyu appeared to be food and drink buddies with Gu Yueyan and followed her to the third floor of the dining hall to “leech” off the relatively rich Gu Yueyan.
Zhao Huo said, “Tch, I actually have another friend who often used ‘his friend’ to cover up for his ugly behavior. Tch, although I cannot really blame him on the surface, I will ‘tch’ him a few times to express my displeasure.”
The others still looked skeptical as well. Ren Suo took out his mobile phone and showed them his messages, “You see, I can’t possibly be a scumbag who made my girlfriend go through an abortion at one moment, then suddenly become a high school student who wants to apologize to a friend, right?”
Zhao Huo and the rest passed Ren Suo’s mobile phone among themselves and found that Ren Suo had indeed asked many questions in various QQ groups over the last few days. The age range relevant to the questions he asked was from 13 to 20 years old, and the content ranged from family relationships to friendship, to love, and he even asked about various trivia.
Zhao Huo asked, “Could you have become a special writer for a public account specializing in relationship advice?”
Gu Yueyan said, “Who knows if you are actually trying to hide your own questions amongst the rest of them…”
Lin Xianyu said, “Brother Ren is so amazing, are there so many people who go to you for advice?”
Dong Chengling looked at Ren Suo’s plate and asked, “Do you still want to eat your roasted chicken wing?”
“Of course! I am not full yet!” Ren Suo exclaimed.
At that time, however, Gu Yueyan stared at Ren Suo and pretended to ask casually, “Teacher Ren, although I also want to trust you, it seems that you often wanted Lin Xianyu to sleep in the treatment room… Xianyu, am I right?”
Gu Yueyan used the prop “Attack of the Salted Fish” to cause ruin the reputation of the “pervert”.
Lin Xianyu nodded and said, “Yeah, I stayed up too late one night to play games on my mobile phone, and I had a good sleep in the treatment room the next day.”
“Yeah, so it is true,” Gu Yueyan said as she nodded. She asked, “But I’m sure Teacher Ren did not do anything to her?”
As Ren Suo held the chicken wing in his mouth and chewed, he said, “Nothing much, I just touched her head for five minutes.”
Lin Xianyu stuck out her tongue and said, “You really bear grudges for a long time, I merely touched your head for a while the last time and you even started wearing a cap after that, hmph.”
Ren Suo used “Frank Pervert” and successfully avoided reputation damage.
Gu Yueyan: 1, Ren Suo: 1.
After dinner, Ren Suo walked back to his dormitory as he stretched his body—after that two days, he was exhausted.
When Ren Suo reached home, he brought his laptop to the living room and went straight to his QQ chat groups. He found that people had answered his questions in the relationship advice chat groups which he newly added.
After he had an epiphany talking to Gu Yueyan, Ren Suo realized that relying on his own life experience might not be sufficient to successfully persuade the owners of the red hats to carry out what they needed to do and disregard the seemingly logical excuses which the girl shrouded in the black mist told them.
As such, Ren Suo decided to search for answers on the internet, and if he could not find an answer, he would ask questions in each of his QQ groups and gather more answers. He believed that at least some of his classmates would have experienced the same troubles as that of the hat owners, and that was the case indeed.
Asking one or two of such questions was fine, but when he asked more questions, no one in his chat groups bothered to reply. Hence, Ren Suo opened a secondary account and added various counseling chat groups to ask his questions directly. Although he garnered many answers that were irrelevant or not useful, there were also numerous replies with words of encouragement that managed to untie the knots in the hearts of the hat owners.
Ren Suo felt like a student who brought a mobile phone into the examination hall. With such a tool to “cheat”, he managed to convert 11 hats in two days. The time he needed could have been less if he had not needed to gather more resources through the automated plot sequence.
Moreover, most of the skills acquired after the red hats were converted had no practical significance, although they had various extraordinary effects in the trials: confession, apology, comfort… The Seeker, who obtained those special effects, would then be able to pass the effect on to the owners of the red hats, freeing the beguiled owners from the enchantment of the girl shrouded in the black mist.
Ren Suo summarized the best answers from the groups providing relationship advice, and opened “Passing Hat” to continue his quest to complete the trial of the 19th hat!
That was the last hat to convert, and it was also the second last day before the game closed!
Ren Suo was not interested in waiting until tomorrow when the 20th hat appeared before he cleared the game!
He was going to complete the treacherous game that very day!
——————
Li Dan, who was in the nutrition cabin, looked at the man sitting on the metal throne. Although he could not speak because his lungs were overloaded with nutrients, he knew that the man on the throne could read his lips. He asked, “Have you ever hated fate, too?”
After a brief moment, the man on the throne replied, “I lost all of my family just over half a year ago. Believe me, the hatred I felt in the past half of the year is much more and much longer than all the hatred you felt in the past.”
Li Dan nodded and said, “Indeed, the Bloodline of the Champion. We have all been granted a new start because of the rejuvenation of Reiki, but at the same time, we have suffered.”
Ren said, “When you fall asleep, ‘Number 236’ will metamorphosize, and the first person who comes into contact with ‘Number 236’ would become its food and energy source. This item is not exactly real, as it is actually a projection based on the matter around it. It can be moved but it cannot be destroyed.”
Li Dan was slightly confused—Ren had not explained in such detail before.
“I can guarantee that it would be kept and observed in this perfectly safe environment. With my strength, it will definitely not be able to affect me, and I will not let your sacrifices go to waste,” Ren said seriously.
“…Thank you,” Li Dan said.
Li Dan turned his head to look on his left and right. There were the nineteen other team members who were sleeping in physical and biological body preservation machines in the same aqueous environment as he was.
They had just met each other, and Li Dan had only been supposed to be temporarily transferred to the team, who was responsible for searching for the earth elves.
However, they did not imagine that they would become the best of brothers who would depend on each other in times of life and death. They were going to walk into their graves together.
“I hope that when I go down, the wine has not gone bad and the dishes have not turned cold.”
Li Dan closed his eyes, thinking that he would finally not have to wake up again.
It was truly exhausting to be able to see everything, hear everything, and know everything…
Even when he closed his eyes, he could still hear the deafening sounds of blood flowing, the heart beating and the internal organs working in the man named Ren, who was sitting on the throne far away; he could hear the nutrient solution flowing upwards from below; he could hear the beating hearts of the other team members who had fallen asleep, and he could even hear the sounds of their mouths opening…
Eh?
Li Dan turned his head to see Cheng Xiao, who was about to turn cold, open his eyes. Then, he raised his hand to cover his mouth as he yawned!
On his right, Wen Junjie rubbed his eyes and looked around blankly. He looked down to see that he was wearing only his underwear and crouched into a fetal position.
Li Dan was stunned.
Ren, who was sitting on the metal throne was also stunned.
At that moment, a new message popped up on the computer in front of Ren. He glanced at the screen and his eyes widened!
“The female lead from ‘A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters’ has… reappeared?!”
At the same time, at Anshun High-speed Railway Station, a passenger who did not purchase a ticket bypassed the security check and sneaked into a north-bound train…