Chapter 288: Joyous Union 09

Chapter 288: Joyous Union 09

Lu Cheng's eyelids twitched violently.

Although Ge Yanghui was facing away from him, Lu Cheng could see everything that happened at the table clearly.

He saw Ge Yanghui speak to the air and then shakily place the tray in his hand on the nearby table.

Then, he suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood!

In just a few seconds, the once-living body seemed as if it had been stuffed into a vacuum machine, all the air sucked out of it.

In Ge Yanghui's player channel, countless comments flooded the interface from the moment the male servant wearing a hat appeared.

In the distant live-stream hall, exclamations of shock rose one after another.

Unfortunately, none of these sounds reached Ge Yanghui's ears, and he would never hear them again.

Ge Yanghui turned into a colorful paper figure, flat and light, gently floating onto the table, soaking in the pool of blood he had just spat out.

Looking around the entire courtyard, all the servants were girls with two thick braids; there was no man in sight.

Lu Cheng raised his hand to wipe his face, returning his grimacing expression to normal.

Damn, that was terrifying! Thankfully, he wasn't the one who drew that unlucky role.

Two teams of servants with red headbands entered the courtyard from both sides and quickly cleaned up the blood on the table and ground, along with the half-melted Ge Yanghui.

The courtyard fell silent again, no one talking or laughing, as if nothing had happened.

Even now, Lu Cheng still hadn't determined his seat.

Fortunately, the freedom of being a guest was greater than that of a servant. No one came to urge him, and he didn't feel any abnormality.

He tried to observe a few players who had already taken their seats but couldn't find any pattern.

Also,

Where did Xiao Qin run off to?

The banquet hadn't started yet, and all the players were on high alert. Lu Cheng released his vines again, this time aiming for the table near the door.

The wooden table was surrounded by flowers made of red silk, and an NPC sat behind it.

Lu Cheng maneuvered his vine around the NPC, getting a clear view of what was on the table. It was a stack of guest registration forms for the wedding banquet. Next to it was a pile of red paper.

The red paper was neatly stacked, and Lu Cheng couldn't see the content underneath, but his intuition as a player gave him a hunch: this stack was likely the rule paper.

Since it was placed there, it was probably meant to be given to guests entering the door.

But Lu Cheng hadn't seen any red paper on any of the tables earlier.

Of course, people might not necessarily keep it on the table.

Lu Cheng changed his approach and aimed his vine at the pockets of the NPCs.

Checking the coat pockets, nothing.

Switching to the trouser pockets.

Not far away, an NPC stared blankly, waiting for the banquet to start, completely unaware of something rummaging through his clothes.

Lu Cheng quickly stole a square-folded piece of red paper.

His innate skill could hide the vine itself, but not other things. He carefully rolled the red paper towards himself, creating the illusion that it had fallen from an NPC and blown over by the wind. Even if discovered mid-way, no one would suspect him.

In just a few meters, no NPC noticed, but it didn't escape the eyes of the players.

Nearby, a player by the locust tree watched Lu Cheng thoughtfully for a while before stealthily reaching out.

The person stood behind the locust tree, using the trunk as cover, directly reaching into the pocket of an NPC facing away from him and successfully taking a piece.

Lu Cheng's lips twitched.

There were indeed many capable people in this ghost story.

Ignoring the other players, he focused on the red paper in his hand.

It was indeed a rule card.

"Joyous Union | Courtyard Banquet: Guest Rules"

The Red Mountain Tulou Wedding Banquet is scheduled to take place on the first floor of the Tulou, in the courtyard. We have prepared light refreshments to welcome your presence.

1. This wedding banquet is a mixed seating arrangement. Upon entering the courtyard, you may choose your seat on a first-come, first-served basis.

Before the official start of the banquet, guests are free to move around the courtyard. Once the banquet begins, please do not leave your seat without permission.

2. All service personnel at this banquet are female servants of the Tulou family. There are no males.

If you encounter unfamiliar faces during the banquet, please do not panic. A polite smile and friendly greeting will bring you good luck.

"Do not talk to them!!!"

3. You can drink ——, but cannot drink ——

In this rule, two key words seemed to have been scraped off the paper with a knife tip, leaving only rough blanks.

The word "drink" is special; it should refer to what is consumed at the table, right? Lu Cheng kept this in mind.

Four: Please ensure that you have a red item on your person.

If you do not have a red item, once discovered, we will ————

Lu Cheng's frown deepened. The rules were chaotic and contradictory, with gaps everywhere.

Five: At the banquet: /@/&——no——does not exist——

"You can't see him! You absolutely cannot see him!!!!"

A series of bright red exclamation marks were alarming to behold.

There were two additional boxed texts on the rule card, both in handwriting different from the main text.

The main text was printed in standard font, while these two sections were handwritten in a dark red color, as if someone had written them with blood.

Lu Cheng felt overwhelmed.

What couldn't they see?

In any case, the first rule seemed trustworthy for now. After all, there were only five rules; it couldn't be that none of them were complete and correct, could it? That would be too unfair.

Without hesitation, Lu Cheng walked toward the table next to Mi Yang.

There was still an empty seat at Mi Yang's table, but Lu Cheng didn't sit down.

He wasn't sure what might happen next. If there was a setting where players at the same table had to kill each other and only one could survive, he'd be dead.

As Lu Cheng moved, several other players in the courtyard followed suit.

Soon, everyone was seated.

Lu Cheng and Mi Yang sat back-to-back, very close. He secretly reached out and slipped the rule paper into Mi Yang's hand.

Despite their proximity, they didn't dare speak.

Although the rules didn't explicitly state it, no NPC in the courtyard had made any unnecessary sounds so far.

But this didn't deter the players.

Lu Cheng wrote directly on Mi Yang's hand with a vine:

"Xiao Qin?"

Mi Yang gently stomped his foot twice.

This was a common signal among players: once for "yes," twice for "no."

Given the context, Lu Cheng understood that Mi Yang's answer was probably "I don't know."

He felt a bit discouraged.

The content of the ancient painting was the courtyard banquet. If Xiao Qin wasn't in the courtyard, where else could he be?

The waiting felt particularly long. The start time of the banquet on the rule card was scratched out, leaving the players to wait aimlessly for something to happen.

The sky gradually darkened from afternoon to evening, with clouds gathering and dispersing.

A strong sense of anxiety spread among the players in the courtyard.

More than one player began to wonder:

Had they missed a step somewhere?

Was this kind of waiting really correct?

The strange tale lasted only three days, and they had already wasted an afternoon inside the painting.

If finding an item required entering a painting, players would need to enter at least six paintings.

Would they have enough time?

A servant with two patches of blush on her cheeks entered the courtyard, unnoticed by the players.

Throughout the afternoon, countless NPCs like her had come and gone, some serving tea and dishes, others just walking around before leaving.

However, this NPC seemed different from the previous ones.

Unlike the others who kept their heads down, she constantly looked around, as if searching for something.

When her gaze fell on a player, her eyes suddenly lit up, and she quickly approached.

Lu Cheng and Mi Yang felt a sudden unease.

They sensed that someone was about to be in trouble.

It was a player who had been sitting in his seat the whole time, dressed in black clothes and shoes.

He seemed to have no companions and hadn't even made eye contact with anyone else.

Although he had carefully observed his surroundings, his position was too far off, causing him to miss many details.

For example, he was likely the only player in the courtyard who hadn't touched the rule card.

The servant approached the player, and the sudden closeness made him wary.

He frowned and looked at the NPC, saying nothing.

The servant approached the player, their faces almost touching: "Give me the wedding item."

The player's pupils constricted.

What was it? He had no idea!

If he had read the rules, he could have easily guessed that the NPC's words corresponded to Rule 4: Please ensure you have a red item on you.

High-level players' personal storage spaces were filled with all sorts of miscellaneous items and props, making it not too difficult to find one or two red items.

But this player hadn't seen the rule card.

He was completely clueless.

Those few seconds felt endless.

"Pfft—"

The NPC didn't give the player another chance to answer. She pulled out a knife from her sleeve and slit the player's throat in one swift motion.

The artery was severed, and blood sprayed several meters away.

"Red," the servant's smile widened as she muttered, "On such a joyous day, there must be red..."

The other players turned pale at the sight. How could you call this joyous?

"The auspicious time has arrived—serve the banquet—"

Before the blood on the ground had even dried, a faint voice came from upstairs.

Two red silk ribbons, tied into flowers at the ends, rolled down from the third floor. The servants lined up in the courtyard and began serving dishes to the guests.

One by one, the tables quickly filled with food.

The wedding feast was excellent, offering a variety of delicacies, both land and sea, with vibrant colors and enticing aromas.

The players stared intently at the dishes on the table.

After repeated exposure to bloody scenes, everyone's negative imagination had reached its peak, fearing that the dishes might suddenly turn into piles of bloody or rotten things.

This was standard fare in these scenarios.

The moment all the dishes were served, every NPC in the courtyard simultaneously raised their chopsticks.

The players were forced to follow suit.

Lu Cheng's scalp tightened as he mimicked the NPC beside him, picking up a piece of cold dish with his chopsticks.

Good, no blood dripped.

Good, no maggots crawled out.

Good, good, maybe this scenario wasn't so cruel...

Until the food entered his mouth, Lu Cheng's expression involuntarily twisted.

What the hell is this?

Lu Cheng chewed with a grimace.

He had picked up a plate of cold tofu skin mixed with coriander and chili oil, but it tasted bland and flavorless.

It was also extremely hard to chew, tough and without any elasticity, like chewing on a stack of paper.

Paper!

Lu Cheng realized.

This entire table of food was probably made of paper.

Would eating it cause digestive issues...

The poor player wanted to cry but had no tears.

He dared not spit it out, even though the rules didn't explicitly forbid it.

Only inexperienced players would do something so suicidal.

Lu Cheng suddenly envied Qin Fei, who wasn't present.

...

Qin Fei, whom Lu Cheng was thinking about, stood at the edge of the second-floor corridor, looking down, taking in everything happening in the courtyard.

Although standing, his posture seemed oddly unbalanced, his body's center of gravity strangely off.

As if...

he was being tightly held in the arms of an invisible person.