Gong Liang, An Ruo, and Xia Rong searched the performance hall on the third floor for a long time but couldn't find any tool to open the wooden chest.
The three stood in the backstage lounge, An Ruo and Xia Rong staring blankly at the large wooden chest, while Gong Liang scanned every corner of the room.
Suddenly, he turned and walked towards a metal rack that seemed to be used for storing things.
"What are you doing?" Xia Rong had just asked when he saw Gong Liang detach a piece from the rack with his bare hands. Fortunately, the rack didn't collapse.
Gong Liang weighed the half-piece of iron stand in his hand and smiled, "This is good."
With that, he directly threw the iron stand to Xia Rong, "I've got the tool. The job of opening the chest is yours. Any objections?"
"No, no objections."
Even if he had any, looking at Gong Liang's wicked smile, Xia Rong could only turn "any" into "no."
Xia Rong gripped the tool Gong Liang gave him, took a deep breath, and cautiously approached the wooden chest. An Ruo followed behind Xia Rong, taking a step back for every step forward.
Gong Liang turned and leaned against the back of a nearby sofa, not in a hurry, just quietly watching the two of them.
After Xia Rong got close, he first tapped the wooden chest with the iron stand in his hand, then lowered his head to look for a place to pry.
"Here it is."
With that, he inserted the tool into the gap he had found, not too wide, not too narrow, just right.
Xia Rong glanced at Gong Liang out of the corner of his eye, making sure the man had no intention of helping. He sighed softly as if resigned, and then forcefully pushed downwards.
However, the result was that even though Xia Rong believed he had used all his strength, the wooden chest didn't budge.
Afraid to call upon Gong Liang, who looked like a demon king, Xia Rong had to ask An Ruo for help.
"Xiao An, can you come and give me a hand? This wooden chest is really tight."
"I..." An Ruo hesitated for a moment. "Alright, then."
This was not their first instance, and An Ruo knew very well that to pass, they couldn't do nothing. Otherwise, they would be the ones to die the fastest.
Swallowing hard, An Ruo mustered up his courage and quickly walked over, holding the iron stand together with Xia Rong.
"I'll count to three, and we'll both push together."
"Okay."
Whether it was An Ruo's strength or some other reason, Xia Rong felt that he hadn't even exerted much force before the wooden chest creaked open.
The lid of the wooden chest sprang open with a bang, and a strange smell assailed their nostrils.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
The two of them coughed as they retreated, their brows furrowed tightly.
Seeing that the wooden chest was open, Gong Liang walked over unhurriedly. He approached the chest, looked down, and his brow furrowed immediately. Then, he bent down, picked up the iron stand they had used to pry the chest, and poked out a piece of red cloth from inside, further confirming his guess.
Gong Liang only looked and said nothing, so An Ruo and Xia Rong had to lean in themselves to examine the contents of the wooden chest.
"Ah!"
An Ruo cried out and quickly covered his mouth.
Inside the wooden chest was a corpse, lying face down, with its face up. Its limbs were strangely twisted together, its eyeballs bulging outwards, and its mouth wide open. Two dark worms crawled out of its mouth, each circling the body.
This corpse in the wooden chest left not only An Ruo speechless, but even Xia Rong was stunned into silence.
Only Gong Liang remained composed. He even poked at the corpse a few times with the iron stand. However, the space in the wooden chest was not enough to flip the body over.
Before, they didn't know what was inside the wooden chest and didn't dare to smash it carelessly. But now, it was different.
Gong Liang curled his lips in disdain. He suddenly swung the iron stand in his hand and smashed it towards the wooden chest.
"What are you doing!"
Xia Rong tried to stop him, but it was too late. By the time he reacted, Gong Liang had already smashed the wooden chest to pieces in a few blows. The corpse inside rolled out as the chest broke, scaring An Ruo into retreating repeatedly.
Gong Liang didn't even glance at the two of them. He walked forward, squatted down, and began to examine the corpse.
Xia Rong looked around. Seeing that nothing strange happened after Gong Liang smashed the wooden chest, he finally relaxed and walked over to observe the corpse with Gong Liang.
A small iron piece fell from the corpse. There seemed to be words on it. Xia Rong squatted down, lowered his head, and squinted his eyes. Although the characters were a bit blurry, he could still discern their shapes.
"Ling Ou Art Troupe prop master, A Mo." Xia Rong read out the words as he examined them.
·
Fang Chao stared at the sleeping person on the bed for a while, then slowly lowered his head and whispered into the person's ear, "Sleep soundly. I'm going out to look for clues with them. Don't worry, I'll definitely get you out of here."
The person he had always dreamed of had finally become his last night. Fang Chao's lips curved with an undisguised smile. He now had one more reason to succeed in leaving the City of Death.
Therefore, in the instance, he had to be more proactive and find ways to take the initiative.
Adjusting his mindset and expression, Fang Chao tiptoed out of the room.
As he closed the door, Fang Chao's gaze swept over the nameplate on his door, which bore his name. He suddenly remembered that before they checked in yesterday, the hotel owner, Hu Feiyan, seemed to have hinted that only one person could stay in a room.
"What nonsense! Luo Xi is in my room, and we're doing just fine, aren't we?"
Fang Chao sneered dismissively and turned to leave, intending to find Jing Minghe and the others.
Just as he reached the staircase, he suddenly heard voices from upstairs. It was the voices of two women, but they didn't sound like any of the players.
Guessing that it might be related to clues, Fang Chao changed direction and headed upstairs.
He cautiously walked to the fifth-floor stairwell before he could clearly hear what they were saying.
"Avi, can you stop eating from the pot while looking at the pan? Flirting with one person while keeping another hanging, what's so great about that?"
"A Mo, you can eat anything, but you can't say anything you want."
"Humph, whether I'm speaking nonsense or not, you know best yourself."
"What do I know best? If you want to accuse me, provide evidence. Who am I flirting with? Who am I keeping hanging? Be clear."
"You know your own mind as clearly as a mirror. Why do you need me to say it? If I say it, none of us will have any face left."
"A Mo!" a man's voice suddenly intruded, "What nonsense are you talking about! What time is it, and you're still not coming down for dinner!"
Hearing that they were coming downstairs, Fang Chao quickly headed down. When he reached the fourth floor, he didn't go further down but walked a section along the corridor. Listening to the footsteps of the three people coming down, he slowly approached the stairs, pretending he had just come out of his room.
If he wanted to take the initiative, at this time, he shouldn't hide, but create opportunities to interact with the instance NPCs.
Not too fast, not too slow, Fang Chao reached the stairwell just as the three people from upstairs descended.
One man and two women. The man walked at the front. Upon seeing Fang Chao, he greeted him proactively.
"Hello there."
Fang Chao was about to greet the man naturally when his peripheral vision caught sight of the two women following behind the man. One of the women had no face. To be precise, it wasn't that she had no face, but that her face was a black hole, a bottomless black hole.