Chapter 33: Since Things Have Come to This, Let's Eat First

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Things had come to this, and she really could not bring herself to abandon the young heiress.

Thus, amid the crowded tide of students leaving school, a tricycle slowly made its way through the throng, standing out like a sore thumb.

Fortunately, Xu Yiliu had a thick skin. Ji Xianxing merely sat there with a blank expression, no one knew what was going through her mind, while Huo Zhiye directed Xu Yiliu as though nothing were amiss.

“Turn left after leaving the school. Yes, yes, right there. Stop there. You drive so well…”

Xu Yiliu had initially worried about being stopped by traffic police, but relaxed when she saw that the shop Huo Zhiye mentioned was right by the school entrance. She hesitated when parking the tricycle in front of a space.

“Are we allowed to park here?”

Huo Zhiye replied grandly, “I bought this parking space. Park.”

After getting out, Xu Yiliu glanced at Ji Xianxing and guessed that she already regretted getting on the tricycle with Huo Zhiye. She had lowered her eyes and seemed lost in thought.

Huo Zhiye appeared entirely unaware of this—or perhaps simply did not care. She led the other two into a secondhand bookstore.

Xu Yiliu found this rather strange, until Huo Zhiye asked a woman who looked like the owner, “Is upstairs ready?”

The woman said, “It is.”

Huo Zhiye gave an imperious nod. “Come with me.”

Ji Xianxing shot Xu Yiliu another cold glance.

Xu Yiliu coughed awkwardly. “Come on, let’s go.”

They were already here. Surely they could not simply turn around and leave.

The two followed her inside and went upstairs. Only then did they discover that the second floor concealed an entirely different world: it was a fully furnished little apartment, utterly at odds with the plain bookstore downstairs.

In the center of the living room stood a table laden with dishes that looked, smelled, and tasted delicious.

Huo Zhiye sat down grandly. “Sit.”

Xu Yiliu could not help asking, “Is there some reason you invited us to eat?”

Could she have realized that the two of them were cleaners?

Huo Zhiye pouted and answered with surprising frankness, “My sister told me to build a good relationship with you two. That is what I am doing. Can’t you tell?”

For a moment, Xu Yiliu did not know how to respond. Ji Xianxing was even more silent.

As she went to wash her hands in the bathroom, Huo Zhiye muttered, “I asked my sister to find me some cleaners to take me along, but she misunderstood. She heard that I had two roommates instead. So annoying…”

Xu Yiliu thought, Your two roommates are both cleaners.

She had never been a particularly coy person. Now that she had gained some understanding of the heiress’s temperament, she simply followed Huo Zhiye to wash her hands as well.

A free meal was not to be refused.

Ji Xianxing remained silent, seemingly not hungry. She merely stood beside a bookshelf against the wall, looking at something no one could tell.

When Huo Zhiye came out of the bathroom and saw her holding a book, she curiously went over.

“What are you reading?”

Xu Yiliu saw Ji Xianxing’s hand tremble slightly and immediately knew that she, too, was unaccustomed to Huo Zhiye’s coquettish tone. Xu Yiliu found it amusing.

Ji Xianxing showed the book’s cover to the heiress.

Xu Yiliu glanced at it as well.

It was a fantasy novel set in the Middle Ages, apparently involving vampires.

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Ji Xianxing said, “I read one chapter. It has no scholarly basis whatsoever. It is a horror novel wearing the skin of Western fantasy, with a tedious core.”

Huo Zhiye asked in surprise, “You could tell that after reading only one chapter?”

Intelligence score of ninety-eight, Xu Yiliu thought.

Ji Xianxing said nothing. She seemed to have lost interest in the book, so she returned it to the shelf and reached for another.

Xu Yiliu’s gaze swept along the shelves. To her surprise, the novel had no fewer than twenty volumes.

She could not help marveling at how prolific the author was.

The writer must be making a fortune.

Ji Xianxing paused and did not take another book.

Huo Zhiye muttered, “Come eat, come eat. Stop reading. You already said it was bad. These are all my sister’s books. She likes this sort of thing, so they are probably all similar.”

“I do not like reading novels,” Ji Xianxing said.

Huo Zhiye asked in confusion, “Then why were you reading that one?”

Ji Xianxing replied, “I like finding fault with things.”

Xu Yiliu and Huo Zhiye fell silent.

It was not easy to be that honest.

Urged on by Huo Zhiye, the three of them finally began eating.

The bookstore owner came upstairs once to bring them drinks and happened to overhear part of their conversation.

She looked at the three of them, her feelings somewhat complicated.

Boss Huo had asked her to keep an eye on the young lady’s friends. Seeing that the three girls had completely different personalities, she would have put it more plainly as three strange people.

She had assumed that she would have to rely entirely on the taller, more sociable one to keep the conversation going. Yet, unexpectedly, the three of them managed to trade remarks back and forth, and the atmosphere was even fairly harmonious.

It was just that their topic was rather strange.

To the bookstore owner, who was not a cleaner, Huo Zhiye kept muttering about game companions and paid assistance, Xu Yiliu responded with vague laughter while eating, and Ji Xianxing answered whatever she pleased without truly engaging.

For example, there was this exchange.

Huo Zhiye: “I want to pay someone to help me complete a cleaner’s mission—to carry me through the game. How much do you think would be appropriate?”

Ji Xianxing: “The market rate for cleaning work should be clearly listed.”

Xu Yiliu kept her head down and ate.

After listening for a while, the bookstore owner went downstairs with a complicated expression.

In reality, Huo Zhiye did not know that the two girls were also cleaners. However, she knew that the system blurred information related to cleaners. Since she had never cared much about other people’s opinions, she simply spoke carelessly.

Ji Xianxing knew this as well. Taking advantage of Huo Zhiye’s ignorance regarding the words substituted by the system, she made things up as she pleased while maintaining a perfectly serious expression.

Xu Yiliu thought the food was delicious.

Although Huo Zhiye looked somewhat foolish, Xu Yiliu still rather liked her.

Simple-minded and generous, with thoughts that were easy to discern—at the very least, outside of missions, someone like her would not cause Xu Yiliu any trouble. She was easy to handle.

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Ji Xianxing had probably reached much the same conclusion. Otherwise, she would not have gone along with Huo Zhiye from the beginning.

When one’s life was not at stake, and the matter itself was unimportant, most people acted according to their mood and were not domineering at all times.

Besides, they would be sharing a dormitory for four years. There was no need to refuse such a small gesture of goodwill. The more intelligent a person was, the better they usually understood such boundaries.

Huo Zhiye complained about the cleaner’s mission for quite some time, and in the process revealed a fair amount of information to Xu Yiliu and Ji Xianxing.

For instance, Huo Zhiye had already completed one mission. Her previous mission had been a C-rank red mission.

Xu Yiliu and Ji Xianxing both became much more attentive when they heard this.

Although they had each cleared high-level missions, they had yet to encounter a red mission area. Everything they knew about such areas was merely speculation, with no firm conclusions.

Unfortunately, they had been hoping to obtain some useful information from Huo Zhiye, but she never got anywhere near the crucial points. She only kept cursing the system.

Xu Yiliu found her so simple-minded that she could not help wondering how the heiress had managed to clear her mission.

Even if the teammates assigned to her had been powerful, judging by the danger level they believed red missions possessed, it should not have been possible to survive unscathed simply by relying on others.

After cursing the system to her heart’s content, Huo Zhiye looked up and saw the other two staring at her with complete concentration. Feeling uncomfortable, she turned her face away. Then, as inspiration suddenly struck, she looked at them one after another.

“Do you know about cleaners?”

Ji Xianxing: “Hmm?”

Xu Yiliu’s ability to play dumb rose to another level. “What?”

Huo Zhiye muttered to herself in disappointment, “I suppose not. I have been talking about it for ages, and neither of you reacted…”

The two pretenders harbored their own thoughts. Since mission assignments were entirely random, neither wanted to reveal their identity as fellow cleaners to Huo Zhiye at a time like this.

After all, the heiress had no filter. If she ever mentioned their identities to another cleaner, it would be impossible to guard against the consequences.

The three exchanged a knowing smile with remarkable understanding.

Then all three of their expressions changed drastically.

Because—

[Mission rank assessed as A. Mission area color assessed as red…]

In an instant, the scene transformed. The dining table that had been there a moment earlier vanished, replaced by an entirely different setting.

There was still a dining table, but unlike the modern wooden table from before, the one before Xu Yiliu was long and massive. An ornate tablecloth covered it, and a candelabrum stood in the center as decoration. Thirteen people sat around it: six along each of the two long sides, and one person in the center of the short side at the head. In front of every person lay a polished round plate and a set of cutlery.

Yet what Xu Yiliu least wanted to face was something outside the mission.

The two people directly opposite her were none other than her two roommates.

Huo Zhiye stared wide-eyed at Xu Yiliu, then at Ji Xianxing beside her.

Xu Yiliu and Ji Xianxing: “…”