Chapter 98: I've Been Looking for You
Seeing the messages in the chat group, Wen Nan looked helpless.
The blond brother he had brought into the guild—was his way of thinking somehow different from ordinary people?
Ignoring the other man’s wildly off-base guess, Wen Nan stared at the chat window floating before him and fell into thought.
In truth, Gu Jinxing’s line of reasoning came closest to Wen Nan’s own:
The real clue to this mission was hidden in Ailin’s answer, while the other five addresses were all wrong.
First of all, Wen Nan’s date with Guan Ailin at Crown Cinema was a purely personal choice made out of his own pocket as a player, and it had nothing to do with the main quest or any side quest. In other words, under those circumstances, even if Guan Ailin—like the other攻略 characters—had some built-in misleading answers, she theoretically had no need to follow any preset script when she was in the theater.
After all, that was her off-duty time. At the time, she had even abandoned her actual job of cooperating with Wen Nan’s romance and thrown herself entirely into the movie, unable to pull herself away. In that state, Wen Nan was inclined to believe her answer was genuine.
Inside the theater, she did not want to lie to Wen Nan, but because of certain rules binding her, she also could not state the correct answer outright. So she had spoken that line: that you can never trust a beautiful woman’s words, not even a single word.
And behind that sentence, the thoughts Wen Nan heard through Mind Reading were the closest hint she could give to the truth:
“Whatever your eyes see, your ears hear, your hands touch, and your feet tread upon… none of it is worth trusting.”
“If you must trust anything, trust your own subconscious.”
That subconscious...
First of all, it was certainly not, as the blond brother guessed, some supposed source of Wen Nan’s own gratification.
That was pure nonsense.
Wen Nan was a man with countless films under his belt, theory and practice both in hand, and a remarkably broad range of tastes. The things that pleased him were far too many to count.
As for the key clue this time, Wen Nan felt the detail lay in that line about eyes, ears, hands, and feet, while the real point was... in the word “you” in the second sentence.
Thinking of that, Wen Nan continued sending messages in the guild chat:
[Nine: Why did Ailin’s inner voice use “you all” instead of a simple “you”?]
[FireFireFire: Is there a difference between those?]
[Xiaofu: There is. They’re both second person, but one is singular and the other is plural]
[FireFireFire: (°°)]
[FireFireFire: Do you think I look stupid?]
[Yao: Pretty stupid, yes]
[FireFireFire: Get lost]
[FireFireFire: No, I mean, what’s the big deal about singular or plural? It’s normal to blurt something out wrong in everyday speech, isn’t it?]
[FireFireFire: Sometimes I even say, “My little brother and I both think this is really satisfying.” That doesn’t mean I’m talking about two people, does it?]
[Yao: Your brain is smaller than the head on your little brother. Don’t compare yourself to some big-shot CEO]
[FireFireFire: Damn it, can we not have a proper conversation?]
[Jinxing: Does the chairman mean that this line from Ailin does not refer to the chairman himself, but to the group standing behind him?]
[Nine: Yes]
[Yao: The group behind the chairman? Which group?]
[FireFireFire: Who else could it be! Obviously it’s our Sure-Win Guild, hah! Idiot! Your brain is smaller than mine!]
[Yao: Idiot]
[FireFireFire: Who are you calling an idiot]
[Yao: You.]
[FireFireFire: Then you’re admitting you’re the idiot]
[User “yao” has been muted by the group owner for 1 minute]
[User “FireFireFire” has been muted by the group owner for 1 minute]
[Nine: I think she wasn’t talking only about our guild. She was talking about all players.]
[Jinxing: The place players most want to go in their subconscious?]
[Nine: Exactly]
...
...
While Wen Nan was sending messages in the guild’s core chat, he slowly walked out into the center of the living room.
When he looked up and glanced around, he realized his rented apartment’s living room could honestly be described as bare as a pauper’s hut.
Was it really this empty the last time he came here? Not a single piece of furniture?
After sweeping his gaze over every corner once more, Wen Nan instinctively looked for Yu Shujun, but found no sign of him.
It seemed that ever since the date at the cinema began, he had not seen that person’s shadow again. Who knew where he had run off to, or whether he was hiding somewhere in the dark and unwilling to appear?
Wen Nan shrugged and did not take it too seriously.
He simply sat down cross-legged on the floor, pulled the chat group back up from the system, and looked over it—then froze.
He had laid so much groundwork just now, analyzed everything so thoroughly, only to drop a single “yes” at the end and say no more, deliberately keeping them in suspense.
On the one hand, it made him seem deep and unfathomable as a chairman. On the other, he wanted to see how the others would react, to test these newly recruited members and see whether anyone could work out the answer from his hint.
And yet when he pulled up the chat log, he discovered that the conversation had stopped at his final “yes.”
After all that time, not a single person had responded?
That made him look pretty foolish.
Forget it. He might as well just say it himself. There was not much time left in the mission anyway, and he had no time to keep dragging things out.
His attempt at looking impressive had failed, but Wen Nan did not care much. He shrugged and quickly posted in the group:
[Nine: Whatever your eyes see, your ears hear, your hands touch, and your feet tread upon... none of it is worth trusting.]
[Nine: If that is the case, then we should look for that hidden place only when we cannot see with our eyes, hear with our ears, touch with our hands, or step on it with our feet.]
Just as Wen Nan had revealed most of the answer and was about to type the final sentence, a flicker at the edge of his vision caught sight of a figure suddenly appearing in the doorway.
His hands paused in mid-typing. Wen Nan turned his head toward the figure, and then his entire body went rigid.
...
...
At the headquarters building of the Ailin Group, in the spacious reception hall, Gu Jinxing and Hu Jiayao sat side by side on the sofa, staring at the Sure-Win Guild chat group with grave expressions.
Hu Jiayao suddenly sprang to his feet from the sofa, paced back and forth, and finally let out a frustrated howl.
Gu Jinxing glanced toward the front desk, then looked back at Hu Jiayao with warning in his eyes. “If you attract an NPC now, deal with it yourself.”
Hu Jiayao immediately quieted down. He sat back on the sofa, grumbling irritably:
“What exactly does the chairman mean?
“After sending that final ‘yes,’ he vanished like a ghost and never replied again?
“Is he keeping us in suspense, or is he testing us?
“Even if he’s testing us, shouldn’t there be some limit?
“It’s been over three hours already! Not a single message!”
At that, Hu Jiayao opened his system and checked the remaining mission time again, only to become even more agitated.
“There are only 43 minutes left before this mission times out! If the chairman still doesn’t show up, we’re going to fail!”
Listening to Hu Jiayao’s complaints, Gu Jinxing said nothing, but his expression grew darker and darker.
...
...
In the living room, Wen Nan sat on the floor, head tilted back, staring blankly toward the doorway.
A woman stood there.
Her skin was fair, her frame slender, and she wore a white dress with her long hair falling over her shoulders. A smile rested on her face as she walked slowly toward Wen Nan.
“You...”
Wen Nan opened his mouth and managed only one word before falling silent.
The woman knelt down before him and said softly, “I’ve been looking for you all this time.”
At the end of the previous chapter, in the photo section, and at the beginning of the chapter before that, some content was removed because it involved sensitive material.
My apologies.
End of chapter