“As the innkeeper, you’re feeding us this?”
Yao Nana was still wrapped in her large mink coat. Even with heavy makeup, she couldn’t hide her somewhat haggard complexion—it seemed she really hadn’t slept well last night.
Wen Di stepped forward. “Didn’t you check the weather forecast? The mountain will be snowed in for the next two weeks. The inn is running low on food. Eat it if you want, or don’t—it’s up to you.”
Regardless of whether Yao Nana ate or not, Wen Di was hungry. Looking at the golden-brown sandwich with a hint of char, he picked one up and was about to take it outside to eat.
Unexpectedly, Yao Nana suddenly felt a surge of resentment. She rushed over and knocked the sandwich out of his hands!
“This lousy inn—not only can’t we sleep well, but there’s barely any food either!”
Wen Di froze in shock, anger rising within him. Just as he turned around to scold her, Lu Jieyang rushed into the kitchen, frowning. “What happened?”
He was holding a pair of fluffy black gloves.
Before Wen Di could speak, Yao Nana ran up to Lu Jieyang, grabbed his arm, and said with a pitiful expression, “Look at what he made for us—it’s burnt! I even saw him staring at bugs in the backyard earlier. Who knows, maybe he wanted to put bugs in our food to harm us! This innkeeper is up to no good!”
Wen Di had initially been simply angry, but upon hearing this, he felt a twinge of guilt.
He really hadn’t expected to be seen.
Just as he was about to defend himself, another voice came from behind. “So lively this early in the morning? What’s going on?”
This gentle, jade-like voice couldn’t help but calm the agitated atmosphere.
Wen Di turned around and saw Shen Wangqing walking in through another door. He wore a long gray coat, his features handsome, his shoulders broad, his legs long, and his posture graceful.
He walked over to Wen Di, his eyes gentle.
Wen Di blinked. Seeing Yao Nana about to speak, a mischievous idea suddenly struck him. He quickly put on a pitiful expression, his voice hoarse:
“I woke up early this morning specifically to make breakfast for you all, but they said what I made was fit for dogs! They even deliberately knocked it to the ground! The inn already doesn’t have much food because of the snow, and they’re wasting it like this.”
He hung his head, his black hair obediently covering his forehead. As he spoke, he raised a hand to rub his eyes, looking as if he had been bullied to the point of tears.
It made one want to lift his face and see what he looked like when bullied to tears.
His eyes must be red-rimmed, making him even more pitiful.
What fault could there be with a little ghost who fears the cold, wrapped tightly in fluffy cotton clothes, waking up early to make breakfast for them?
Shen Wangqing looked down and could only see a bundled-up head. Looking further down…
He gently took Wen Di’s hand and, to the other’s surprise, removed his own cotton gloves and put them on him. “You didn’t wear gloves to wash the vegetables and cook?”
The jade-like, delicate little hands were red from fingertips to palm from the cold. A single touch revealed how icy they were, eviting pity.
Wen Di felt sorry for his own hands, so he nodded even more pitifully.
Yao Nana stood to the side, stunned. Furious, she put her hands on her hips, completely disregarding her ladylike image. “What? He just made a sandwich—how much could he have used his hands? Isn’t everything ready-made? The bread slices were cold, and there was even a snail on the lettuce—did he even wash it? The only thing he cooked was the egg, right? And he burnt it?”
Wen Di looked up at Shen Wangqing with teary eyes, as if frightened.
Shen Wangqing patted his shoulder reassuringly and said to Yao Nana, “Boss Wen has already explained that due to the heavy snow, the inn’s food supplies are limited. Resources may not always be readily available, and serving bread slices without heating them is a way to conserve resources. We’re here as visitors, and as long as the food fills our stomachs, that’s enough. We shouldn’t demand too much.”
“Besides, even if resources were abundant, you shouldn’t casually waste food by knocking it over. You should apologize to Boss Wen now.”
Yao Nana was stunned, and Liu Yajun beside her was equally shocked, exclaiming in disbelief, “What did you say? Apologize to an NPC?”
Wen Di was also taken aback.
But deep down, a faint sense of satisfaction welled up inside him. The feeling of having someone stand up for him was truly wonderful!
Shen Wangqing calmly looked at them and said, “What are you talking about? I don’t understand. He is Boss Wen, and we are staying at his inn. We should be polite. Boss Wen has been kind to us, yet you rudely knocked over the food. Shouldn’t you apologize? Or is this kind of disrespectful behavior normal for you?”
Yao Nana’s face turned pale, then flushed red with anger, her cheeks trembling.
Liu Yajun, observing the situation, approached Yao Nana and whispered into her ear, “Shen Wangqing is an old fox. Have you forgotten his ranking on the leaderboard? How could he genuinely side with an NPC? He must have discovered something and is putting on a show for the NPC. Asking you to apologize might actually be helping you. Until we figure out the NPC’s patterns, it’s best not to provoke them. Why don’t you just apologize?”
Compared to Fu Zhen, who secured the top spot on the player leaderboard after only eight Instances, Shen Wangqing was a more experienced player who had survived eleven Instances.
Unlike Fu Zhen, who was decisive and ruthless, Shen Wangqing’s playstyle sent chills down people’s spines—he seemed to enjoy the horror of the Instances. As a result, he was never in a hurry to clear them and didn’t care about rankings.
There were rumors on the forums that he had once married a ghost bride in an Instance, sharing a bed with her for seven days. The ghost bride was the Instance BOSS, and in the end, she became so infatuated with Shen Wangqing that she willingly destroyed herself, allowing him to leave the Instance.
Though Yao Nana was furious, upon further reflection, she found Liu Yajun’s words reasonable.
After all, Shen Wangqing was a man. It was unlikely he would ignore a beauty like her and inexplicably help an insignificant little NPC.
Perhaps he had discovered something and was deliberately speaking this way to help her?
Yao Nana had recognized both Shen Wangqing and Fu Zhen the moment she entered the Instance yesterday afternoon. No player would ignore the leaderboard rankings.
Although her old flame Liu Yajun had survived several Instances, he had always scraped by, falling far short of these two.
At the time, she thought, if she could get involved with these two, wouldn’t victory in this Instance be practically guaranteed?
With this thought, Yao Nana’s anger dissipated considerably, and she even felt a bit pleased—she hadn’t yet figured out how to approach Shen Wangqing and Fu Zhen, but Shen Wangqing had taken the initiative to help her.
So this little kid… had indirectly helped her.
Her anger inexplicably vanished. Yao Nana lifted her chin, raised an eyebrow, and opened her red lips with an air of arrogance, “Sorry, little brother. I didn’t mean it. Please forgive me~ I really didn’t expect that to be something fit for people to eat.”
Although it was an apology, it was clearly laced with another jab.
However, Wen Di hadn’t expected this person to actually apologize. Was Shen Wangqing’s word really that effective?
Wen Di glared at her, then angrily bent down to pick up the overturned sandwich. But before she could touch it, her wrist was grabbed.
It was Lu Jieyang, who had somehow walked over to her side, wearing an inexplicably grim expression.
“Don’t pick it up with your hands. I’ll go get a broom.”