Chapter 3002: Encounter
The past scenes of the estate came to an abrupt halt here, as if a faint, dim halo had flashed by, and the estate returned to its original stillness.
"Ms. Yao and Wang Xiaohui were good friends." The Painting Woman raised her communicator.
Wang Chengren looked at her with a complicated expression. Good friends?
That word could never be applied to those two.
But...
"So she didn't really want to drive Xiaohui out after all..."
Even as slow as Wang Chengren was, he understood that Yao Nan was consciously teaching Wang Xiaohui. Simply giving her a comfortable life wouldn't help her live better. Losing her parents too early, coupled with her physical disability, might cause her to suffer even greater losses when she grew up.
Yao Nan had been in a difficult situation since childhood. Her childhood experiences made her unfortunate, but they also made her extremely clear-headed. She used her own way to tell Wang Xiaohui that anyone who approached her might have ulterior motives, and that she should be wary of everyone, even those who seemed well-intentioned.
This was the survival method of the weak.
"Someone died. How did she handle it in the end?" Wang Chengren was simply puzzled. That person had worked at the estate, and if they disappeared, someone would definitely come to investigate. He hadn't received even a hint of news.
Xu Huo looked at the estate that had returned to calm. Wang Xiaohui's shadow was gone again.
However, based on what he had just seen and heard, it was difficult for him to directly link Yao Nan to the formation of this instance.
No matter how cold Yao Nan was, her thoughts were understandable. The formation of an instance required the right time and place. If Yao Nan had truly undergone abnormal evolution and had reached a level where she could influence the formation of an instance, whether passively or actively, she should have become a player.
Both the Special Defense Department and Wei Mang's information clearly stated that she was not a player.
Thinking of this, Xu Huo looked at Wang Chengren. "You lived together day and night. Didn't you notice any change in Ms. Yao at all?"
Wang Chengren had been kept in the dark. Even before the evolution began, he hadn't felt that his wife was any different. If his wife had evolved, how could he have known?
He only knew that during those unsettling days when Evolvers appeared, Yao Nan was more patient with him than before and often comforted him.
Afraid of being attacked by Cannibal Players, they basically stayed in the estate. The security guards they hired had to supervise each other to prevent anyone from suddenly developing an appetite for humans.
She was a bit worried when Wang Xiaohui disappeared... At that time, Wang Chengren thought she was worried that Wang Xiaohui would become a player like others and come back to take revenge on them. Now it seemed, the opposite was true.
After Wang Xiaohui became a player, she directly entered the Wang family company and, relying on Wang Can and Wan Yajun's will, seized absolute power—during this process, the deterrent power of a player played a significant role.
After that, Wang Xiaohui was busy with her own affairs. It was a long time before she came back to deal with them.
When it came to dealing with him, it was actually just making them move out of the estate. Wang Chengren even still held a position in the company, though he had to endure some humiliation.
By this time, Yao Nan was still normal, but compared to her previous harshness towards Wang Xiaohui, she had become much quieter.
In fact, as Wang Xiaohui gradually grew up, Yao Nan no longer spoke with such sarcasm as before. More often, she maintained a cold attitude and would scold her for minor things.
This transition, at least, Wang Chengren didn't find anything wrong with it.
Parents gain power from their children and enjoy the process, but as the ignorant child gradually grows up, the parents' power slowly diminishes. When the child develops a stable sense of self and the parents can no longer fathom what's in their heart, they begin to treat them as a real person, even showing weakness to maintain the relationship.
Anyway, as Wang Xiaohui grew up, Wang Chengren saw her more and more as Wang Can, and a bit of fear began to sprout in his heart. After all, Wang Can was a formidable character. Even if his daughter only resembled him in appearance, it was enough to keep people awake at night.
As for Yao Nan entering the sanatorium a year ago due to mental illness... he just thought it was revenge.
"She just talks less." Wang Chengren could only give this conclusion after much thought. He even felt that Yao Nan was gentler than before, since she no longer liked to say those cold, harsh words.
"You're useless." The Painting Woman gave her assessment.
Wang Chengren didn't dare to refute. He was sure he was at the bottom of the Wang family.
"Yao Nan might indeed have some mental abnormalities," Xu Huo said. Unfortunately, the shadow had run away. After the confrontation just now, it probably wouldn't appear again easily.
"Let's look for Wang Xiaohui."
No one had encountered Wang Xiaohui yet. She was likely more deeply trapped than the others, and they might run into her here.
The three walked around the estate but didn't find Wang Xiaohui. Instead, they found two Wang family employees.
The two were hiding in a cabinet—or perhaps they had just appeared in the cabinet. When the Painting Woman opened the cabinet door, the two were nearly suffocating themselves.
Because they felt shadows were pervasive, they had stuffed all the gaps in the cabinet with clothes and were huddled back-to-back inside.
The Painting Woman exclaimed in surprise, "Couldn't you leave a gap to breathe?"
"Where there's light, there are shadows." The two were sweating profusely, speaking with terror. "Those shadows will chop up the people they catch and make dumplings out of them!"
"Stop, stop, stop!" Wang Chengren quickly interrupted them, stepping back a few paces to the wall, turning his back to them and covering his ears.
Only then did the two continue speaking.
They didn't know if they were lucky or unlucky. They had witnessed the Shadow People catching people three times in a row. The kitchen wasn't a good place. The first to die was the chef. After separating from the others, they hid in the storage room. Unexpectedly, the Shadow People immediately caught someone who usually liked to spend time in the storage room and brought them over.
Then they witnessed the most horrifying scene of their lives. The Shadow Person first threw that person to the ground several times in a row, then picked up an arm-thick wooden club and beat them with it. No matter how the person cried, wailed, or begged, it was useless.
"That Shadow Person was laughing while beating them, just like... just like a pervert!" The two couldn't describe the Shadow Person's expression, so they used "pervert" instead.
They thought it would be over once the person was beaten to death, but the Shadow Person didn't stop until all the person's bones were smashed to pulp. What flowed on the ground wasn't blood, but bloody mud...
The two had to cover each other's mouths to keep from vomiting. They hid in a daze for who knows how long, and then they were invited out to eat. What was placed on the dining table was dumplings.
"I bit half a tooth out of a dumpling..." The other person was in tears, on the verge of a breakdown.
"Did you see Ms. Yao?" the Painting Woman asked. "We're looking for her."
The two nodded repeatedly. Ms. Yao was still at the dining table, making sarcastic remarks, and her temper was worse than before. She would even throw utensils at people. If she was slightly displeased with someone, she would fly into a rage. In one meal, four people were dragged away, including a player who failed to escape.
"That was an A-level player." The two hugged each other in fear. "He said before that he had a way to deal with the Shadow People, but not long after he ran out of the dining room, he was caught and brought back!"