Chapter 2985: Two Wang Chengrens
"Did my face change?" Xu Huo casually picked up a fan from the dressing table to shield his face, leaning closer to the mirror to observe. He could see his own eyes, and wondered if it was because the lighting was too cold, but he felt the gaze of the person in the mirror was somewhat icy.
The Painting Woman found it strange, reached out and touched the mirror, but after discovering it was just a flaw in the mirror's craftsmanship, she lost interest and turned to leave.
Xu Huo stood in front of the mirror for a moment before also leaving. In the mirror, his figure also moved toward the doorway.
The moment he stepped out of the room, he suddenly turned his head to look back at the mirror. The reflection in the mirror also turned its head in the same motion.
The instance background had almost explicitly hinted that the reflections in the instance were problematic, just not knowing what changes would occur once these shadows were cast.
Not rashly approaching the mirror, Xu Huo closed the door.
Back outside, a portly middle-aged man suddenly emerged from the distant lake. He flailed on the water's surface, screaming, "I don't want to die yet! I don't want to die!"
Xu Huo and the Painting Woman quickly moved over. By the time they stopped at the lakeshore, the middle-aged man had just struggled to the shore. Looking up to see two dark figures blocking his path, he started wailing before even seeing their faces clearly, then turned and fled recklessly toward the center of the lake.
The lake wasn't deep; he couldn't drown anywhere. So Xu Huo and the Painting Woman stood on the shore watching the middle-aged man dash about in the lake, screaming at the stones by the shore, screaming at the hanging branches—in short, he saw danger in everything, completely lost in panic.
Xu Huo figured he probably couldn't provide any useful information, so he signaled the Painting Woman to leave first.
But before they had taken two steps, the man in the lake suddenly had a stroke of inspiration and shouted at them, "Are you players? You're players, right! Save me! Save me! I'm from the Wang family, the master of the Wang Family Manor!"
That's right, this person was Wang Xiaohui's cousin.
"I'll give you whatever money you want, just save me! Wang Xiaohui wants to kill me. I want to get out and report her. What charitable merchant, loyal player—it's all a disguise. She's a murderous psychopath. The players I brought were all killed by her!" Wang Xiaohui's cousin, Wang Chengren, continued shouting.
"Are you sure it was Wang Xiaohui who did the killing?" Xu Huo stopped and asked.
"How could it not be her," Wang Chengren said with disgust and hatred. "I've watched her grow up. That gloomy, pretentious demeanor—I'd recognize her ashes!"
Xu Huo pulled the man out of the lake. "Since she even killed the players, how did you escape?"
"I don't know..." Wang Chengren himself wasn't sure. "I ran to the lake, suddenly slipped, and fell in. When I came out, I saw you two... Do you know Wang Xiaohui? You're not her friends, are you?"
"Congratulations, you guessed right!" The Painting Woman held up her communicator.
Wang Chengren's face turned ashen, but he quickly reignited his fighting spirit. "How much did she pay you? I'll double it, no triple it. As long as you can get me out alive, I'll give you half of the Wang family's assets!"
"Is the Wang family's assets yours?" Xu Huo walked back to the lakeshore, looking at the gradually calming water. The murky mud obscured part of the view, and the lake water was no longer as clear and transparent as before.
"When you fell in, were both sides of the lake like this too?" he asked again.
Wang Chengren looked left and right, his muddled mind unable to recall any details. He only remembered that of the players he brought, only two were with him, and they hadn't taken two steps before encountering Wang Xiaohui coming around the corner. Without a word, she attacked on sight. The two players didn't even have a chance to fight back—they only delayed her for a moment!
"Take me there," Xu Huo said.
Wang Chengren certainly didn't want to, but before he could refuse, the Painting Woman pushed him forward.
Seeing her fierce expression, Wang Chengren swallowed his words. He was soaked through, leaving wet footprints step by step until they reached the end of the corridor.
"There!" Not seeing Wang Xiaohui, he was a bit puzzled, but still pointed out the location to Xu Huo and the other.
Xu Huo looked over. It was a moon-gate doorway, with several rooms nearby. The rooms had leak windows, but these windows were filled with glass. Under the light, mottled spots of light scattered on the ground.
Beyond the moon gate was a small garden with a strange rock formation. The entrance was blocked off, not allowing entry.
"Are you sure Wang Xiaohui came out from behind the moon gate?" Xu Huo squinted.
"I'm absolutely not lying!" Wang Chengren felt the pressure and immediately said, "When I saw her, she had already passed through the moon gate!"
"That means you can't tell whether she actually came from behind the moon gate or from one of the side rooms," Xu Huo said.
Wang Chengren subconsciously looked at the side rooms. "There are steps, and her legs aren't convenient. Going up there would..."
He stopped mid-sentence. Wang Xiaohui, now a player, just couldn't stand up—how could a small step stop her?
"It's just an ordinary tea reception room," Wang Chengren added. "There's nothing valuable inside, just some glass ornaments."
"Smack!" The Painting Woman strode forward boldly and pushed the door open with one hand.
As Wang Chengren had said, the lights in the room were on, the furnishings fully visible. Besides the small couch for tea drinking, various floral-patterned glass vessels were arranged around, specially illuminated by lamps, so the light filtering through was also tinted with color, spreading across the floor like crushed stones.
The Painting Woman tilted her head and took a selfie of the floor.
Wang Chengren's eyes were full of contempt for her lack of worldly experience, but his middle-aged slickness taught him to read the room. He stepped forward and offered to take a photo for the Painting Woman.
"Alright," the Painting Woman said with a smile. "If it doesn't look good, I'll hit you."
A chill ran down Wang Chengren's spine. He immediately put away his petty thoughts and promised to take a good photo.
Xu Huo observed the situation inside the room. Like the moon gate area, there was no sign of anyone having just come or gone.
Fingering the silk cord used as a railing, he inadvertently saw his own reflection on a glass bottle. His figure was stretched into a distorted shape—big at both ends and small in the middle—and his face was hard to make out.
"Smack!" Over there, Wang Chengren got slapped by the Painting Woman for making her look ugly in the photo.
Wang Chengren took the slap for no reason, angry but afraid to speak out.
Xu Huo walked over and looked. In the photo, the Painting Woman's face had a slight alteration.
"Don't take any more photos. The lens is also a mirror," he said.
The three of them walked out of the tea room, passed through the strange rocks, and arrived at another lake view. Just like Wang Chengren's sudden appearance earlier, another figure suddenly burst out from a small path ahead—a portly build, a trembling posture, all too familiar!
Xu Huo immediately moved to grab the person, but this other Wang Chengren looked as if he'd seen a ghost, turned around, and plunged straight into the lake—Xu Huo reached out but missed, and this Wang Chengren disappeared into the water.