The Trial Game of Life – Chapter 123

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 123: Hot and Sour Noodles 

The relationship between Scarlet and Jiang He had Meng Yufei frightened to the core.  Although he had been in a state of ‘either chased by Jin Cheng or stuck in jail’ this whole year, still, he did hear about Jiang He’s affair. 

The second-in-command of Heaven’s Will, Chong Yanzhang’s right-hand man cum personal tactician called ‘The Mist Assassin’ might look very ordinary, but he was, in fact, very resourceful. It was said that he stayed with Chong Yanzhang because he had a favour to return. When Jiang He and Heaven’s Will parted, most of the public took pity on Jiang He and ridiculed Chong Yanzhang.

But what else?

Meng Yufei suddenly found out that he didn’t know anything about Jiang He. What did he do before joining Heaven’s Will? Was his past really as ordinary as his face?

“We have nothing to do with each other, Scarlet.” Jiang He acted like a young monk sitting still in the center of all drama. Even with a gorgeous, tempting lady leaning on his chest, he remained utterly unmoved.

“Then what about my ‘thing’? If we have nothing to do with each other, you shouldn’t be holding on to it as a keepsake to remind yourself of me?” Scarlet smiled, her slender fingers gently resting on his neck like a lover’s touch, but they also seemed to be ready to sever his arteries any moment now.

“Your ‘thing’ is no longer with me.”

“Do you think I’ll believe it?”

“Scarlet, if I want you to die, I would’ve handed over the phylactery a year ago.”

“Good point.”

Suddenly, Scarlet sneered coldly and stood up: “I actually don’t understand why you take shelter under Chong Yanzhang’s wing. Lin Yandong and he wanted to kill me, but you put your life in his hands?”

Jiang He: “Others may not know why, but do you also not know?”

As he said so, Jiang He’s expression finally changed. He stood up, looking directly at Scarlet’s eyes, his face a tad more solemn than before: “It was you who wanted to kill me. If it weren’t for Chong Yanzhang who happened to pass by and save me, I would’ve never expected that — one day, I would almost die under your very hands. Even so, I still haven’t exposed the location of your phylactery. Scarlet, I always offer you my best.”

This sentence seemed to gravely provoke Scarlet, so much so that her face twisted a little: “Is that so? But in the end, didn’t Chong Yanzhang also abandon you? You’re just like a mourning dog, aren’t you?”

“You’ve been abandoned once, then abandoned twice. No one really takes you to heart.”

Scarlet’s words slammed like a sharp, terrifying awl. Even Meng Yufei, an outsider, felt crushed by them. He spotted Jiang He’s knuckles on the table turning all white, showing how hard the man must be exerting his force.

It was also the first time Meng Yufei had seen him so lost.

Scarlet hadn’t finished speaking yet. She smiled once more, her face alluring yet cruel at the same time: “And you also don’t know, it was Chong Yanzhang who let me out. In the end, he still chose me. Everything you care about will eventually run away from you. Do you still want to say this to me now? ‘Since we’re of different paths, we should go our separate ways’.”

Jiang He finally showed a trace of pain and slowly closed his eyes. He knew that Scarlet wanted to see him grapple in agony and had been prepared for this moment, but when all his wounds were ripped apart with such viciousness, he found that he was nowhere as strong-willed as he had imagined.

“Scarlet.” His voice became hoarse, and when he opened his eyes, all the emotions inside had been pulled back: “Don’t let me hate you so much.” 

As the four eyes met, Scarlet’s mocking smile continued, but in Jiang He’s calm eyes, her expression was icy cold and no more words left her lips. In complete quietness, the two stood there, caught in a stalemate. The atmosphere in the store almost froze, making the outsider Meng Yufei feel as though he was sitting on pins and needles.

He didn’t even dare to make a sound. As the usual trope would have it, people who knew too much would often be silenced.

At this moment, a cheerful voice eagerly broke the stalemate. The auntie of the hot and sour noodle shop came over with a fresh bowl of hot and sour noodles and placed it on the table: “Young people, sit down and talk slowly. Everyone is trying hard to scrape by in this Yong Ye City. Today we may live, but tomorrow we may die. Is there really something from the past that can’t be forgiven? Let’s eat a bowl of hot and sour noodles first.”

Meng Yufei: “…”

Scarlet laughed out loud again, and the atmosphere in the shop finally became relaxed. She raised her chin towards Meng Yufei. Meng Yufei could only react half a beat later and immediately gave up his seat.

Scarlet sat down in Meng Yufei’s seat, then Meng Yufei next to her and Jiang He opposite him. Seeing both of them standing, she supported her cheek with one hand and tapped on the table with her other hand: “Sit down, let’s eat hot and sour noodles while they’re still hot.”

Not wanting to sit, Meng Yufei stole a glance at Jiang He, trying to see what he would do. But Jiang He only remained silent for a short moment before sitting down, so Meng Yufei could only sit down with him.

The three people simply went on eating hot and sour noodles. The atmosphere was so strange that Meng Yufei wanted to kill himself.

Along with the time that flowed by slowly, the murderous intent that lingered in Yong Ye City got heavier and heavier. As a large number of players chose to enter the dungeon in advance, the game hall was filled to the brim.

Similarly, all kinds of news were brought here by the players, and they continued to ferment. Among them, the most mentioned name, beside ‘Scarlet’ and ‘Jin Cheng’, was ‘Black Hat’.

“Have you all heard of it?”

“Black hat?”

“Hush.”

“Hush what hush, what is it that you can’t say?”

“Is the 2nd Movement actually in Black Hat’s hands? How did the news spread with so many details? But if the 2nd Movement really is with him, how come he still hasn’t used it now? Earlier, he used two in a row.”

“How do you know what Black Hat is thinking? He’s the one who shortened the forced mission time limit to one week. Surely he doesn’t have any good intentions!”

“That’s right, what good things can Black Hat do?”

“I think it’s very likely that he’s cooking up another evil plan!”

Similar arguments were boiling at all corners of the game hall. The players clumped their heads together and whispered, thinking what they discussed was very clandestine. But in reality, everyone else had spread the same information.

After the news about Black Hat rippled, the news about the ‘The Second Law of Thermodynamics’ card also fanned out rapidly. The players were afraid that Scarlet would actually use the 2nd Movement to rule over Yong Ye City, so except for those that went to hide in the dungeons, they unanimously kept a close watch on all happenings in the city, scared stiff that if they blinked just once, something would be missed.

“I know, someone saw Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo go to Black Hat Miscellaneous Store just now!” Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted.

Everyone here wasn’t stupid. If they connected the two pieces of news just a little, Black Hat was automatically pushed to the forefront. Regardless of the facts, there must be a problem with Black Hat.

More and more people turned their gaze to the Miscellaneous Store, and quite a few daring men even directly broke into it. In any case, Black Hat was a civil servant player. In the event that they failed to deal with him, he couldn’t directly attack them anyway. At least their safety was guaranteed.

Even if this would end up in a confrontation, they had to find Black Hat.

This Black Hat had tried to hurt them once, would he still bother to hurt them a second time? Isn’t that getting too full of himself!

“He might be on the same side as Scarlet!” Intermittently, screams broke out from the crowd, pushing their emotions to the climax.

The entire game hall became heated like a frying pan, where many people who originally wanted to hide in the dungeons retreated and turned to discuss with their teammates, their eyes drenched in rage and chagrin.

Including Yu Yiyi.

After Yu Yiyi arrived at the game hall, he didn’t enter the dungeon immediately. In any case, a legendary-grade weapon wouldn’t be easily snatched by ordinary players, so it shouldn’t be much of an issue if he went in a little later.

He and his teammate put on a light disguise and stood watching in the corner, pulling the chaos of the entire game hall into their eyes. After watching over and over, they decided to drop the idea of ​​entering the dungeon for now.

“Black Hat has gotten trouble onto himself. Let’s just wait for the fun show.” Yu Yiyi stroked his chin and smiled gloatingly.

“He really doesn’t have the movement, right?” The teammate was truly curious.

“Who knows for sure? Look, there are so many bugs jumping around.” Yu Yi’s sense of danger and sensitivity to whatever situation he was in had always been exceptional. The man felt that if he hadn’t ended up in Yong Ye City, he would’ve been fit to become a high-ranking official. I’m just cool like that.

As he said so, his eyes patrolled the crowd for a while more, especially near the door. Very soon, he spotted someone quietly withdraw from the crowd, carefully glance around and quickly take his leave.

Soon, this person headed back to Zone E, returning to An Ning with a fair bit of excitement and thrill bubbling in his heart. What he didn’t know was that right after he left, several waves of people also hurriedly left the game hall and scattered to various zones.

One of them came to the neighbourhood where Qian Wei was.

Qian Wei was still stuck in the room where he had been hiding, with his ears pressed against the door, his heart jumping up and down and his stomach full of flapping butterflies. He had been hiding here since Zheng Yingying left ten minutes ago to the second floor, disguised as another man using her magical red cloak.

As for the real person himself, he was unconscious, stuffed under the bed by Qian Wei with his hands and feet tied up.

15 minutes ago, the two suddenly opened the door while that person was walking by, and their ambush smoothly took place.

At this moment, with Zheng Yingying not here, Qian Weiwei could directly leave, but after several times of walking to the window and putting his hands on the window sill, he still stepped back.

No matter how daring and evil Zheng Yingying was, Qian Wei always remembered that she was a young, skinny girl, and that she rescued him in the dungeon [Realm of Mortals]. Qian Wei couldn’t simply abandon her and flee.

But should he only keep waiting? 

Qian Wei contemplated finding Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo for help, but was afraid that Zheng Yingying wouldn’t be able to find anyone else upon her return and become flustered. At this point, a player happened to pass by the window and a gleam of light suddenly flashed in Qian Wei’s head. He rapidly opened the window, waved his hand and softly called out to the man.

“Hey, buddy! Buddy, over here!”

At the same time, when the two-hour limit as agreed was up, Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo returned to the Ruby Bar to meet the others.

Chi Yan and Lilith arrived on time, and Leng Miao also rushed there through his [Mega Rift], but the whereabouts of the people they were looking for, whether it was Wen Xiaoming or Rong Yi, remained unknown.

As Lilith frowned and wondered where Wen Xiaoming would be, Tang Cuo asked: “Where is Miao Qi? Did anyone see him?”

The group looked at each other and shook their heads. After waiting for another ten minutes, Miao Qi still didn’t turn up.

Incredible. The lost guy was still not found, and now they lost another one.