Chapter 2999: Catch It
Wang Chengren was still immersed in the guesswork and anger that his wife might have cuckolded him, completely ignoring Xu Huo's question. His gaze scraped across the faces of the people in front of him one by one, suppressing his rage as if looking for a punching bag. However, upon seeing that these people still had human forms but were completely different from their own kind, and that their eyes showed no pity for him at all, he suddenly calmed down.
"Impossible!" he asserted firmly. "Nan Nan hates Xiaohui's father very much. She's badmouthed him in front of me more than once. She said that men change when they get rich, and that Xiaohui's father would definitely change for the worse... How could she possibly fancy Xiaohui's father!"
"Not fancy him, but fancy you, right?" the female player snorted. "I'm not trying to put you down, but Wang Xiaohui's father is rich and handsome, highly educated, and capable enough to amass that much money. What outstanding qualities do you have to compare with him?"
"How can you say that!" Wang Chengren shouted excitedly. "I've been completely obedient to Nan Nan. She asks for money, I give her money. So many women outside wanted to throw themselves at me, but I rejected them all. I'm sincere with her!"
The female player paused for a moment. "That is indeed a bit of an advantage."
"Wang Xiaohui's mother," Xu Huo reminded him.
Wang Chengren's mood was a bit low. Clearly, he also felt that his own advantages weren't prominent enough. "Xiaohui's mother has a very good temper. She's gentle with everyone, never says a harsh word to Xiaohui's father. She seems a bit boring, not as lively as Nan Nan..."
"Alright, alright, we know you love your wife very much," the female player interrupted him. "But just acting is enough. Don't fool yourself into believing it. If you really loved your wife, you wouldn't have let her play the role of pressuring Wang Xiaohui. You wanted the Wang family inheritance too, you just let your wife charge ahead."
Wang Chengren didn't seem to hear her words at all. He sat on the ground, muttering to himself. "Xiaohui's father is good-looking, but he's ruthless and stops at nothing. When we first got married, Nan Nan was a bit afraid of him. She didn't even want to eat with him... Nan Nan got along well with Xiaohui's mother. They often went shopping together. She even said that Xiaohui's mother was like her, married unhappily... I really wanted the money, but I never actually wanted to drive Xiaohui to death. She was just a little kid, a few years old. I'm not that heartless. I don't know why she did it either. Maybe it was because Xiaohui looked like her father..."
"Ms. Yao entered the sanatorium last year. Did her illness come on suddenly, or were there signs before?" Xu Huo asked again.
Mental illness—this suddenly reminded him. Ms. Yao might not be a player, but that didn't mean she couldn't have evolved a special ability. Gao Ming, who could perform surgery using spatial power, and Cong Shi, who could trigger temporal power while making clocks, were both typical examples.
Wang Chengren was stunned for a moment. "I thought she was driven crazy by Xiaohui..."
"You haven't even been to see your own wife?" the female player frowned. "You don't even care about her situation?"
Wang Chengren mumbled but couldn't say anything. Clearly, he hadn't spent much time caring about his wife after she entered the sanatorium.
The female player rolled her eyes.
"Going crazy isn't so bad. At least she's still whole," Wang Chengren had his own reasoning. "Better than the others."
Compared to the two sons—one dead, one paralyzed—the missing brother-in-law, the nephew whose hand was cut off, the niece whose face was disfigured, getting a mental illness and going to a sanatorium, where she had food, drink, and care, what was so bad about that?
In the information provided by the Special Defense Department, the details about Ms. Yao were not very thorough. At least, they only covered the surface-level things.
There might still be some matters between Wang Xiaohui and Ms. Yao that hadn't been clarified.
The fact that they still couldn't find Wang Xiaohui herself was also a problem. Whether it was Xu Huo or Wei Mang and the others, they had been through multiple reflection worlds, but none of them had encountered her. This was strange in itself.
Logically, Ms. Yao should be the true core of this instance. Wang Xiaohui was just someone who increased the difficulty of the instance. She shouldn't have completely disappeared without a trace. Even if she were dead, her body should have appeared. In this situation, either she had hidden herself, or Ms. Yao had given her "special treatment."
Could it be that after this place evolved into an instance, the residual energy of Ms. Yao still hated Wang Xiaohui?
"Splash!" There was movement in the lake again. Xu Huo turned to look and saw the Painting Woman emerging from beneath the water. She was dragging a pitch-black figure—it was Wang Xiaohui's reflection person!
He immediately used his temporal power to restrict the shadow's movements, then used his spiritual power to seal off the surroundings, ensuring there was no possibility of any reflection.
As he approached the Painting Woman, he released the temporal power. When he grabbed the shadow's arm, he found that its state was very close to a real person, except that its surface lacked human characteristics.
Unable to be sure it wouldn't collapse like the other reflection people, Xu Huo unfolded a mirror space to cover it. Under the intense pressure, the shadow twitched a few times, and its head actually split open from the middle, revealing Wang Xiaohui's face. But her face didn't last long; it soon split open from the middle again, and Ms. Yao's face appeared!
Unlike Wang Xiaohui's pained expression, Ms. Yao's face was very calm. She gave Xu Huo a cold, sinister look, then quickly sank back into the surrounding shadow.
How could Xu Huo let her leave like that? He materialized a hand and grabbed her head, and his body was subsequently wrapped in the shadow.
Seeing this, the Painting Woman beside him quickly grabbed his other hand and was also sucked into the shadow.
After the two of them disappeared with the shadow, the spiritual world that had been sealed outside was immediately lifted. Sutton and the others standing by the shore were first startled by the empty lake surface, then saw a black shadow shoot out from under the lake, transforming into a wave of water that rushed towards them!
Sutton and the female player didn't say a word; they split up and fled. Only Wang Chengren, whose legs had gone weak with fear, was engulfed. The shadow spread to the small building by the lake and then disappeared, and of course, Wang Chengren vanished along with it.
Xu Huo held tightly to "Ms. Yao," sinking rapidly through the shadow. The reflection worlds around him appeared one after another and then quickly flashed past, as if he were passing through multiple identical manor spaces in an instant. The last time he fell into the manor, the Ms. Yao in his hand suddenly sank into the ground, and he was blocked by the solid floor.
It was still the Wang family manor from over a decade ago. But unlike the previous deathly silence, the Wang family manor was now full of people everywhere. It seemed like a banquet was being held. The aroma of food kept wafting from the kitchen. Guests were either chatting in the garden or in the pavilion, and a few children were running around.
"I'm going to find Sister Xiaohui!" a little boy shouted as he ran past Xu Huo and the Painting Woman, heading towards a small two-story building in the distance.
Xu Huo followed, and from a distance, he saw a cute little girl sitting on the sofa. There were two women beside her—her mother and Ms. Yao. They were sitting on either side of her, trying to make her happy.