The teenager took in everything and left nothing behind, swallowing even the bones.
Pei Kanyan took a deep breath, saying: “Spit it out!”
Mu Li closed his ears, refusing to listen, and chewed the bones with crunching sounds before swallowing them down with a loud gulp.
Pei Kanyan decided not to care anymore, leaning his head back against the chair and letting the teenager sweep through the food on the dining table at an eerie speed.
“Are you full?”
Mu Li scratched the back of his head and chuckled: “Hehe.”
A single meal increased his health by three points, and it refused to go up any further. Although it was very little, it was still better than nothing, right?
“Tonight, you will sleep in the study.” Pei Kanyan cleared out a room and pushed Mu Li inside, emphasizing right before closing the door: “Also, do not even think about touching the master bedroom.”
Mu Li nodded vigorously twice and made an okay gesture.
The master bedroom!
Mu Li grew alert, pricking up his ears. He only heard a crisp click as the man outside seemed to pass through the living room, unlocked a door, and then fell silent.
He immediately flicked off his shoes with a kick of both feet, cracked open the study door just enough to peer out with both eyes, and scanned his surroundings. Ah, there was no one in the living room.
Then, he tiptoed to follow closely behind.
Just as he approached the master bedroom, the system suddenly popped up a prompt:
[Player has entered the effective range of a mysterious item. Health value +1, effect continuously active.]
Ah, ah, ah, ah!
Mu Li felt a wild surge of ecstatic joy inside.
He just knew that locked rooms definitely contained what players wanted.
Who could have imagined it would actually be a health restoration item?
That was something that could save lives both now and in the future!
The player’s paws began to itch with anticipation.
Mu Li inched closer, carefully pressing down on the door handle. Just as he was about to open the door, someone patted him on the shoulder.
It startled him into springing straight up on the spot, his back flattening against the door like a frightened hamster as he stared in shock at the man behind him.
“What are you doing?”
Pei Kanyan looked with a half-smile at the sneaky teenager lingering by the crack in the door.
He already had an extraordinary grasp of the teenager’s personality; this person would never settle down.
Absolutely never!
Mu Li laughed guiltily, but then reacted, looking from Pei Kanyan to the master bedroom:
“Didn’t you just go inside? Could it be that you can teleport too?”
“Hoh.”
Pei Kanyan slowly stepped forward, pinning Mu Li against the door and whispering softly in his ear: “If you ever dare covet my room again, you will never leave.”
The teenager’s ear was tickled by the exhaled warm breath, and he involuntarily shrank his neck.
The moment he thought of the combat power of the NPC in front of him, he immediately covered his mouth, squatted down stealthily, slipped out from between Pei Kanyan’s arms, retreated several steps, and waved his hands frantically:
“I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare.”
Not to mention the man in front of him was still a yellow-named NPC; even if he were a green-named NPC, without enough bonds, unlocking the map was impossible.
As expected of a special item, how could a player obtain it so easily?
“Go to sleep. The business with the music box is not over yet, and we still have to investigate tomorrow.”
Pei Kanyan grabbed Mu Li by the back of his collar, tossed him into the study, turned off the lights, and locked the door all in one fluid motion.
The study was large, but Mu Li had zero interest in exploring it.
The apartment was dead silent. Figuring that Pei Kanyan should be asleep by this hour, Mu Li sneaked out again.
He stared at the master bedroom door for a little while, and then he made his move.
He lay down right on the spot.
If he could not get inside, could he not sleep outside?
It would still increase his health!
Go AFK and log off.
Early the next morning.
Dressed neatly, Pei Kanyan opened his bedroom door as usual, his foot suddenly kicking against a soft, plump object.
“!”
Looking down, he was surprised.
It turned out to be Mu Li, curled up into a ball.
The teenager was hugging his knees and cowering in front of the door, shrinking himself as much as possible. Perhaps due to a lifelong lack of a sense of security, his brow was tightly furrowed, unable to sleep peacefully, and he kept mumbling something under his breath.
Pei Kanyan leaned against the doorframe in silence for quite a while, almost thinking he was still half-asleep. He squatted down and tapped the teenager lightly on the forehead: “Get up.”
Is he a stray puppy? Sleeping so pathetically right outside the master’s door.
Mu Li whined as he opened his eyes, letting out a yawn. Seeing his increased health pool, he snapped awake instantly and flashed a brilliant smile:
“I did not go inside, so that does not count as breaking the rules, right?”
Pei Kanyan: “Whatever.”
Whatever, he had decided to shelter the teenager for just this one night anyway.
Pei Kanyan took out a pair of sunglasses: “Put these on.”
Mu Li knew his eyes could not be explained to ordinary people either. He put on the sunglasses, and his cocky tail immediately shot straight up: “How is it? Am I handsome?”
Pei Kanyan sighed lightly, his gaze filled with pure helplessness as he pulled Mu Li’s hand to head out the door.
“Hey, hey, hey, I am not going out.”
Mu Li clung desperately to the master bedroom door and refused to move; his health bar was not full yet.
“Hoh, as if you have a choice?”
Completely ignoring Mu Li’s objections, Pei Kanyan forcibly dragged him out of the apartment.
“Ah, ah, ah, ah!”
The teenager was extremely uncooperative, beginning to wail and howl wildly while flailing his limbs frantically in the air and twisting his waist into an S-shape in an attempt to break free, though he was mercilessly suppressed.
Pei Kanyan directly ignored the teenager’s resentful gaze, buckled his seatbelt, and set off.
Even when they reached the school gates, the teenager could still be heard grumbling and cursing endlessly.
However, as soon as they entered the school, they were drowned out by the head teacher’s booming voice:
“Mu Li, you actually dared to skip class! Skipping class is one thing, but you even dared to steal the anatomical model from the infirmary. You have got a lot of nerve!”
Yet, the moment he saw the teenager wrapped entirely in bandages, his anger instantly subsided, and he asked with cautious deliberation: “Who bullied you again?”
Pei Kanyan stepped forward, flashing a flawless smile: “It was merely an accidental fall. I have already treated this classmate’s wounds, so please do not worry.”
“This child, why is he so careless?” The head teacher’s mind settled; thankfully he was not bullied. Wait, he still could not rest easy. How could he just fall so badly out of nowhere?
He then looked at Pei Kanyan, a stir of emotion arising in his heart.
Other teachers’ gazes always carried a hint of disdain, but the man before him was different. The look he gave Mu Li was one of absolute equality.
“You must be the new teaching assistant. Thanks to you, I am almost ready to retire, and I will have to trouble you to look after things from now on. Mu Li, you must listen well to the teaching assistant. Wait, where did he go?”
In the blink of an eye, the teenager had vanished without a trace.
The two men froze for a moment, then looked around in all directions to search for him.
The head teacher suddenly choked out in horror: “Stop right there!”
He took his eyes off him for one second, and this jinxed kid was actually digging through the trash can.
Digging through the trash can!
[Player is exploring…]
Mu Li fished out half a piece of cake and shoved it straight into his mouth, followed by half a cup of cola, which he poured right down his throat as well.
Pei Kanyan stepped forward and pried open the teenager’s hands, causing Mu Li to let out a wailing cry while managing to steal a couple more bites.
He needed to gain health!
The player’s food had been snatched away, and the player looked at the NPC with an expression full of condemnation.
“Am I starving you or something?”
As a result, the teenager’s lips poked out high into the air, looking completely unyielding and defiant.
Pei Kanyan tightly shut his eyes for a second. Fearing that the teenager might go back to digging through the trash, he specifically bought a few bread rolls and shoved them into his arms.
Then, he dragged the teenager toward the dance studio.
“Wait…”
The head teacher wanted to say something else, but looking at the two figures walking away into the distance, he ultimately sighed and left with his stack of textbooks.
Pei Kanyan knocked on the door: “Is Yu Lili in?”
A female student currently practicing leg stretches answered: “I am here.”
She walked toward the door, and the moment she laid eyes on Pei Kanyan, visible panic registered on her face. Suddenly, she shoved the man in front of her aside and bolted toward the exit.
The two men exchanged glances.
Something was wrong.
Mu Li randomly stuffed a piece of bread into his mouth and took off in hot pursuit, his words slurred: “Stop right there…”
Yu Lili hurried down the stairs, cold sweat breaking out across her back.
Mu Li halted his pursuit, tilted his head to think for a moment, and then turned around to leap straight down from the teaching building.
Passing students covered their mouths in gasping awe.
“Oh my god!”
They looked down toward the ground below, but instead of seeing the bloody scene they had imagined, they saw that the student ran off toward the staircase the exact moment he landed.
“He fell from that high and is completely fine?!”
As Yu Lili ran, she glanced back over her shoulder and saw that the person behind was no longer chasing her, a flash of triumph rising in her heart.
The moment she looked up, the boy who had been with the teaching assistant was blocking her path ahead.
Mu Li had been waiting for her at the stairwell for quite a while: “Spill it. What do you know?”
The teaching assistant would not look for an innocent NPC for no reason.
Yu Lili covered her ears with a look of being completely uncommunicative: “What are you people doing? I do not know anything!”
Meanwhile, Pei Kanyan emerged from the corner with his hands in his pockets, leisurely walking down the stairs to block her escape route upwards as well.
“This is the surveillance footage from yesterday’s underground parking garage. Do not tell me the girl in it is not you.”
He took out his phone and played a surveillance clip for the female student.
Mu Li also stretched his neck to look.
In the video, a female student was hunched over, sneakily placing a music box on a car, attaching a small card beside it, and then fleeing out of the camera’s frame once she saw no one was around.
Yu Lili caught her breath. With so many students and teachers around, they would not dare do anything to her: “So it is me, what of it? Is it a crime to place a music box?”
“It is not a crime, but you should know that whoever gets entangled with that music box meets a miserable death.”
“But aren’t you still fine?”
Mu Li abruptly pulled off his sunglasses, revealing his blank eyes, and closed in on the female student with a smile: “Do you think I am fine?”
Yu Lili was startled by the teenager’s blank eyes, bending backward to avoid his gaze and not daring to look directly at him:
“It has nothing to do with me! The monster told me to place it, or else the one losing their eyes would be me.”
“Hoh.”
“Whose music box is it?”
“I do not know.”
Mu Li’s patience was gradually running out. He had never been interested in these game plots, especially when dealing with such a dragging NPC.
He pulled the music box straight out of his cross-body bag and thrust it right in front of the girl’s face: “If you do not talk, I will let her haunt you forever.”
“Ah!”
The moment Yu Lili raised her eyes and saw the music box practically pressing against her face, goosebumps erupted all over her skin. Terrified out of her wits and turning pale, she collapsed to the floor, screaming:
“Do not come closer! It is Xu Yueke! The music box belongs to Xu Yueke!”
Mu Li squatted down to press further: “Where is she?”
Tears hung on Yu Lili’s eyelashes as she sobbed and wiped away her tears, looking delicate enough to evoke instant pity:
“She is from the sculpture department. I really do not know where she went. She disappeared three years ago, and no one can find her.”
Unfortunately, one of them here was a player focused entirely on clearing monsters, and the other was a bigwig focused entirely on completing quests; neither of them felt any pity for her.
Could not find her?
Mu Li assumed the investigation was about to stall when he heard Pei Kanyan speak: “Take us to the art gallery.”
The art gallery?
Upon hearing that, Yu Lili stared sharply at the teaching assistant standing on the stairs: “How do you know?” The moment the words left her mouth, she realized her slip, lowered her head, and clamped her mouth shut.
Mu Li hoisted the music box and closed in on the girl again: “Move.”
With her eyes closed, Yu Lili waved her hands blindly: “Take it away, take it away! I will take you there.”
The boy in front of her was purely collateral damage. If she caused him to be blinded by malice, he would definitely drag others down with him. Putting herself in his shoes, he would genuinely let the female ghost haunt her.
She had no choice but to lead them to that place she had tried so hard to avoid.
The art gallery was housed inside a separate teaching building.
The ceiling was made of interlocking refractive glass with a strong artistic aesthetic, and displayed there were prize-winning works from previous years.
Yu Lili brought them to the entrance of the art gallery, her footsteps hesitating: “I am not going in.”
Mu Li said indifferently: “Fine, then you can go home and wait.”
Hearing that, Yu Lili did not dare to leave.
Moving with a sense of purpose, Pei Kanyan walked up to a particular painting.
Artist: Anonymous. Painting Title: The Girl in a Wheelchair.
Fumbling along behind them, Yu Lili stopped a safe distance away from the painting, not daring to step any closer as she pointed with a trembling finger:
“That painting depicts Xu Yueke.”
Mu Li examined the painting in detail.
The center of the painting featured a girl in a wheelchair, with an unfinished music box placed beside her hand. The carving pen in her hand was carving a dancing figurine, and the figurine’s eyes had not yet been carved onto it.
In the background was a group of proportional human sculptures stacked together in a chaotic mess, and in the corner sat an anatomical mannequin, which looked just like the one used by students for reference in the infirmary, very much like the one in the medical room.
The girl in the painting and the dancing figurine on the music box bore a striking resemblance; unless they were twins, she had been carving herself.
Mu Li noticed a yellow name tag marked above the painting and blurted out:
“She disappeared, so she went inside the painting.”