TEFSCBSS Chapter 72

Chapter 72: I’m Not Leaving—The Earth Temple Is My Home

“Huh? What are you all standing there for?”

After eating his fill, Zhao Si patted his belly and looked at them with a confused expression.

“Uh, Zhao Si? Do you remember what just happened?”

“Of course I do. You guys asked me to bring you to Shan Stone Village, so I let you rest here, and we’re going to see the village chief later,” Zhao Si replied, puzzled about why they were asking him this.

“Do you remember the big fire?”

“Do you remember me beating you?”

“Do you remember asking me to dig a grave?”

Zhao Si looked at them even more strangely. “What are you talking about? Are you planning to beat me again?”

“No, no, no,” Zhao Wen quickly shook his head. He turned to look at Wang Bokao and Gu Qing, both of whom had the same innocent look in their eyes.

Something’s off!

They whispered to each other.

“What do we do now?” Zhao Wen was at a loss.

“Go out and follow him? See if it’s the same as before?” Gu Qing thought they should stick to the script.

“I agree,” Wang Bokao said, closing his folding fan and tapping it in his palm. “Let’s see what the plot is and check if what we just went through was a prophetic dream!”

“It wasn’t a dream,” Gu Qing rolled her eyes. They didn’t have that kind of luck to have a dream like that.

“Then what do you think is going on?”

“Probably there are more clues in the village. Let’s look around more carefully this time.”

“Okay.”

The three of them decided on a plan and whispered their thoughts to the other three players.

Seeing their sneaky behavior, Zhao Si outside the Earth Temple was getting impatient. “What are you all doing, dragging your feet? Hurry up and come out!”

Wang Bokao sized him up and teasingly asked, “Why don’t you come in?”

Hearing this, Zhao Si’s smile began to fade. His expression grew colder, and a dark aura seemed to surround him. Then, as if realizing something, he quickly put on a smile and spoke with forced enthusiasm, “Oh, I didn’t want to waste time by going back and forth. You guys come out and walk with me, and we’ll be done. No need for me to go in again and waste time.”

“Hurry up, I’m on a tight schedule to report to the village chief!”

“The villagers are waiting at home for you! I’m fine, but do you think they’re going to wait on you like this?”

Zhao Si spoke more naturally as he went on, rolling his eyes in disgust at their lack of manners.

However, for some reason, Wang Bokao seemed to get more excited. He sat down on the ground, twisted his head, and said, “If you come in, we’ll go out!”

“Then come in, if you have the guts!”

Seeing that Wang Bokao wasn’t giving him any face, Zhao Si’s smile froze. It was already harder to smile than to cry, but now, his expression turned cold and menacing, like he might scare a child.

“Come out!”

“I won’t! If you have the guts, you… wuwuwu…” Wang Bokao’s sentence was cut off when Zhao Wen quickly covered his mouth.

“My goodness, didn’t we agree to go out? What are you doing here?” Zhao Wen held him tightly, covering his nose and mouth.

He turned to Zhao Si, smiling awkwardly, “Please don’t be angry. We’ll come out right now, we will.”

While speaking, he continued holding Wang Bokao’s mouth, signaling Gu Qing to help him drag Wang Bokao out.

Behind them, Wan Niang and Li Tiechui were speechless. “Is this how the young masters interact with each other? Learned something today.”

Watching as the group stepped out of the Earth Temple, Zhao Si once again flashed a smile. “Alright, hurry up and follow me. I’ll introduce you to Shan Stone Village… Huh? Wait a minute, where’s the other person?”

Everyone turned around and saw Jiang Liang holding a small bundle, about to crawl under the altar of the Earth Temple. Upon sensing someone watching, he stopped, and turned around cautiously.

“Uh, uh,” he swallowed nervously. “I… I’m not feeling well, my legs are sore, and I’ve got a stomach ache. I’m not going with you guys. You all go ahead, don’t mind me~”

The more he spoke, the less confident he sounded, growing more and more guilty. Finally, he stopped trying to explain and just ignored them, crawling under the altar and covering himself with the tablecloth, pretending like no one was there.

Well, if you ignore the altar that was shaking nonstop (the incense burner on top was about to fall off).

The others were at a loss for words. This is it? And they’re paying for this as part of the script? This job is too easy. Wouldn’t it be better if they just gave the money to them and let them do it behind the scenes?

Zhao Si hadn’t expected someone to be this scared. When the boss told him that horror stories might have people like this, he didn’t believe it.

At this point, all he could do was feign anger. “Why isn’t he coming out?”

The others quickly distanced themselves from the situation.

“It’s not my problem.”

“We don’t know him!”

Zhao Si furrowed his brows. “I remember he came with a bodyguard. Where’s the bodyguard? Go drag that guy out here!”

The bodyguard?

Everyone looked toward Wang Bokao, but at that moment, Wang Bokao was struggling to breathe, his face turning red. He looked like he was about to pass out.

He weakly slapped Zhao Wen’s hand that was covering his mouth, gasping for air. If he didn’t get it soon, he was going straight to the underworld!

“Ugh—sorry, sorry! Breathe! Geez, why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t breathe?” Zhao Wen said apologetically yet with some reproach, causing everyone to stare in disbelief.

Wang Bokao: … Heh, just wait until my grandfather gets a hold of your dad!

Zhao Si: … Well, the boss never mentioned how to handle this situation. What should we do if the players are trying to kill each other?

“Forget it, just you guys, come with me!”

…

In the end, they followed the same route from the previous round and were placed in the same villagers’ homes. However, this time, they noticed some differences.

For example, the couple who had “taken in” Zhao Wen and Gu Qing turned out to be Wan Niang’s parents. Wan Niang was the first to recognize them, successfully pushing Zhao Wen out, and when Zhao Si wasn’t looking, she locked the door behind her.

Now, the first pair of people arranged was Wan Niang and Gu Qing.

Next, Li Tiechui was assigned to a separate room in a different villager’s house.

When it was time for the next single-room assignment, Zhao Si insisted that one person had to stay behind. Wang Bokao and Zhao Wen, displaying the impeccable manners of young masters, both insisted on giving way to the other, each taking a step back. Eventually, Zhao Si, citing Wang Bokao’s need for rest due to his earlier physical discomfort, forcibly pushed him into a villager’s house. This was the same room Wan Niang had entered in the previous round.

Finally, only Zhao Wen was left.

Zhao Wen felt a chill in his heart. No teammates left, just Zhao Si, who he knew was a ghost and an unknown room. He dared not speak, trailing behind Zhao Si, his eyes constantly scanning for an escape route.

However, Zhao Si didn’t take him to any villager’s house. He suddenly stopped, spinning around 180° and staring at Zhao Wen with a blank expression.

“Have you seen that strange stories book?”