Free Web NovelChapter 453: Chapter 389: Tong Han, Speak Some Fair Words
Her head buzzed, and she clearly remembered the building was three stories high; she had climbed two sets of stairs sequentially.
An inconceivable notion took shape in her mind—the Ginseng Essence was nearby, camouflaged as the third floor of the building, the very floor she had just hidden on!
In that instant, the numerous doubts she had earlier suddenly made sense. No wonder the Resentful Infants had pinpointed her location so accurately—it must have been the Ginseng Essence leaking her whereabouts.
Upon clarifying these thoughts, Tong Han dared not delay. She immediately turned and walked back inside the building, heading straight to the third floor. At this moment, her focus was on the ceiling overhead. She soon realized something—the floor she was on differed from the lower two. Raising her head, she couldn’t make out the ceiling at all, as if a layer of mist obscured it.
She took a lantern and held it high. As the light dispersed the fog, a satisfied smile finally appeared on Tong Han’s face. Hanging from the ceiling was a thick quilt, embroidered with a large red flower.
Who would hang a quilt like this at home? It was clearly disguise, and a very rudimentary one at that.
Tong Han didn’t alert it. She turned and walked toward the staircase. After stepping on the staircase, she suddenly turned around and shouted, "Mallet!"
In an instant, the third floor began to tremble, then slowly shrank. The surrounding walls tore like paper, exposing the pale, skin-like textures inside. Tong Han bit through the Red String on her wrist and quickly tied the string to the wooden handrail of the stairs before turning and running downstairs. Her steps became increasingly unsteady, as if the entire building was floating. Her consciousness blurred bit by bit until it vanished completely.
After an indeterminate amount of time, when Tong Han next opened her eyes, she was lying in Mi Shu’s arms, surrounded by everyone once again, and a new cycle had begun.
After a brief rest, Tong Han quickly recounted the events. Even Cheng Cha displayed a look of disbelief upon hearing that the Ginseng Essence had disguised itself as an entire floor. After a moment, his expression turned grave—the situation had developed far beyond his expectations, and their current predicament was more complicated than that of their teammates from before.
To use a somewhat inappropriate term, the town seemed to have evolved in some unknown way; not only had the previous loopholes been mended, but even the Ginseng Essence had become more difficult to contend with.
"Call for cards and play, count the bowls for additions, sing of the Red String, wealth comes from all directions, ladies and gents, don’t miss out as you pass by, honor us with your presence, let the celebrations begin!"
With this drawn-out cry, the fog before their eyes cleared, and the bustling street appeared once again in front of them, crowded with people at a variety stand under the archway—a familiar scene tinged with eeriness.
"Let’s hope we’re in for some good luck," Yang Xiao took a deep breath, and the group headed toward the variety stand. Following the method Sui Chengguo had proposed earlier, they were gambling on their luck in hopes of fetching the cheapest toy, the pellet drum.
When the bowl was lifted, everyone held their breath, and fortunately, this time Lady Luck was on their side—the pellet drum was indeed beneath the bowl.
After obtaining the pellet drum, everyone’s joy was uncontainable, and although even obtaining the toy didn’t guarantee the success of their plan, it at least offered them hope.
As they walked to the gambling house, Yang Xiao brought up his recent observation. According to him, there was no clear pattern to the three bowls of toys, but the three bowls containing Gold, Silver, and Copper Coins followed a traceable pattern. Cheng Cha nodded in agreement and explained that the sequence in which the bowls were uncovered hinted at the respective values of the three types of currency at the money house that day. For instance, if a silver ingot was revealed first, followed by a gold ingot and then copper coins, the sequence was respected as silver most valued, then gold, with copper last.
"So you’re saying we can manipulate the value of these three items?" Yang Xiao recalled the events at the stand and sought confirmation once more.
"Yes, but that point is moot, because the money exchanged can only be spent at the cloth store. Apart from the cloth store, there’s nowhere else in town that accepts cash. No matter the value of the three currencies, the woman running the cloth store only recognizes the middle value currency—one currency for one garment," Cheng Cha explained.
"Only the cloth store accepts cash, is that certain?" Tong Han inquired from the side.
"It is. We’ve conducted several experiments in the past, which even angered the townspeople and cost us two teammates," Cheng Cha said, his expression tinged with regret.
Soon, the group halted—the gambling house was before them.
According to the pattern summarized by Cheng Cha’s earlier team, this play would also result in a draw, losing them half. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
Indeed, when the dice cover was opened, the result was large, but their bet didn’t hit. A man with a Fu Manchu moustache screeched in a voice resembling a eunuch from a TV drama, "Draw!"
The moment of witnessing a miracle arrived. The pellet drum they’d bet was taken away, and everyone’s heart jumped to their throats. But soon enough, a chubby young man who looked to be an employee of the place hurried over, respectfully handing over a half-ticket with a strange smile, "Sir, please take this."
The ticket was much smaller than the last one; it was only about half the usual size. When Cheng Cha and Yang Xiao saw the ticket clearly, their eyes twitched. The next second, they were stunned. The ticket depicted half a pellet drum.
Indeed, just half, because the ticket itself was incomplete.
One could imagine that the ticket had originally depicted a whole pellet drum, but had been torn in half at some point, leaving only one half.
Upon seeing that Cheng Cha, Yang Xiao, and the others were neither speaking nor leaving, the attendant was all smiles, gesturing toward the door with a welcoming hand motion, "Fair play, may you always be financially fortunate, surely you aren’t thinking of reneging on the bet, are you?"
Seeing this, the group could no longer stay and had no choice but to leave the gambling house. Yang Xiao couldn’t help but frown tightly, "This gambling house is getting more and more peculiar."
"Exactly, they can even issue a note for half a pellet drum. What kind of mess is this?" Mi Shu said with a distressed look on her face.
"No, I’m not talking about that, but the attitude of the gambling house’s attendants. Don’t you think these guys are improving very fast?" Yang Xiao lowered his voice, "They’re becoming more and more like humans."
As soon as he said this, the expressions of Cheng Cha, Tong Han, and the others changed immediately. Indeed, as the cycles of reincarnation increased, whether in the gambling house, money house, or cloth store, the "people" working there were visibly progressing, becoming more agile and more human-like.
The first time they saw them, they were merely NPCs who could barely engage in conversation. But now, they could observe expressions and even speak some contrived auspicious phrases.
The rate at which these fellows mimicked human behavior was faster and faster, which was undeniably frightening. Once these guys completely turned into "humans," they would be in big trouble.
Originally, everyone had held a glimmer of hope, since, after all, the note was only half. Perhaps the money house wouldn’t accept it. But this hope was quickly dashed, as the money house readily accepted the note and exchanged it for 5 silver ingots.
"Please take care, and do visit us again." The plump manager of the money house said warmly as he saw them out the door.
According to the sign hanging outside the money house, today one pellet drum was worth 10 silver ingots, so half naturally equaled 5 silver ingots — absolutely fair, deceiving neither old nor young.
The cloth store was also a smooth and seamless experience. During a pause while handing over clothes, the store’s matron even pinched Yang Xiao’s shapely buttocks and threw several flirtatious glances his way, scaring Yang Xiao terribly. He seriously doubted what sort of torment he would endure if he fell into the matron’s hands. This made him even more resolute in his decision to escape.
Stepping out of the store, Sui Chengguo breathed a deep sigh and looked at Yang Xiao with a complex expression, "Mr. Chu, next time you might try to establish a deeper connection with the matron. If sacrificing a bit could help us escape, I’m sure you’d understand."
Yang Xiao was about to retort when Cheng Cha cut in, immediately placing a metaphorical high hat on him, "We’d also like to take some of your worries, Mr. Chu, but alas, our abilities are limited. The capable should bear the burden; we’re counting on you."
"We’re counting on you, Mr. Chu!" Mi Shu chimed in with a nod.
At this moment, Yang Xiao was greatly vexed, knowing that these people were half-serious and mostly joking, but he still had to clear himself, "Tong Han, say something fair!"
After hesitating for a moment, Tong Han suddenly laughed, "This Resentful Infant really has peculiar tastes."
Yang Xiao: "..."
The previously tense atmosphere quietly dissolved at that moment. Although the pressure they faced was immense, maintaining a calm mind was key, and at this moment, Yang Xiao had already thought of a plan.
"Next time, we’ll take a cloth tiger," Yang Xiao suggested. ƒrēewebnovel.com
"And then?" Cheng Cha asked curiously.
"First take the cloth tiger, then at the juggling stall, we’ll manipulate the other three bowls, arranging the currency order as Silver Copper Gold, or Copper Silver Gold, but in any case, gold must be last," Yang Xiao emphasized.
"According to the rules, if it’s a draw again at the gambling house, we lose half, and we’ll receive a note depicting a wooden spinning top. We’ll take that note to the money house and exchange it for money. This time, we only want gold."
"Gold?" Mi Shu was puzzled for a moment, "But according to what you said, gold is useless, the cloth store doesn’t even accept it."
At this moment, Tong Han Cheng Cha’s faces brightened, seeming to grasp Yang Xiao’s intent. Cheng Cha couldn’t help clapping, exclaiming aloud, "Brilliant! Yes, we’ll exchange the note for gold!"
Tong Han also became excited, "Exactly, we’ll convert according to the order of Silver Copper Gold. Losing half a cloth tiger equals one wooden spinning top, one wooden spinning top worth 5 pellet drums, 5 pellet drums worth 50 silver ingots, 50 silver ingots worth 500 copper coins, 500 copper coins worth 50,000 gold ingots. Assuming one ingot of gold weighs three taels, that’s 150,000 taels of gold. I don’t believe that a godforsaken little money house in this town can have 150,000 taels of gold in stock!"
At this moment, Mi Shu finally understood. She remembered that there was an unchanging rule in town: aside from the "townspeople," everything that existed was real — houses, shops, and the items within them, like the cloth store that only had 494 items in stock, not one more, not one less, no matter how many times reincarnation occurred. The gold, copper coins, and silver ingots also really existed.
There was what there was, and there was not what there was not.
