Marry the NPC with Money, Wife Comes Knocking - Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Xinrou was intimidated by the killing intent hidden in Ye Susheng’s gaze, and for a moment she didn’t dare ask anything.

Hua Suihe raised her hand, hooked Ye Susheng’s pinky, and gave it a gentle tug. “Ye Zi, sit down. Let me lean on you.”

Ye Susheng put on a masterful instant face-change, beaming as she sat down beside Hua Suihe. “Lean on me, Hua Hua.”

Xinrou hesitated before asking, “Are you two… a couple?”

Ye Susheng lifted her brows, delighted and smug. “Of course. It’s obvious at a glance.”

[Congratulations, player. You have completed Task Two: ‘Talk with butler Su Sheng and obtain relevant clues about the dungeon.’ Please keep it up. Survive for four days to clear the dungeon Rose Manor. You are encouraged to continue striving, with completing the main quest as your goal.]

Just like that, Xinrou received the System’s task completion notification, and she was still a little stunned.

That kind of question counts as a dungeon-related clue?

She’d dithered forever, and it turned out to be this simple.

Xinrou pressed down the smile threatening to rise. “Then I won’t disturb you two. Miss Hua, please get some good rest.”

Hua Suihe traced her index finger across Ye Susheng’s palm, unable to hold back her laughter. “Were you about to get mad just now?”

“She could clearly tell you weren’t feeling well, and she still insisted on coming over to bother you.” Ye Susheng was the one assigning tasks-of course she knew what that girl’s repeated probing was for.

“She didn’t have any bad intentions. Maybe she was just curious about my identity as the Legendary Second Miss.” Hua Suihe amused herself with that, lowering her head and laughing for a bit. “Oh wow, oh wow. They actually gave me such a heavy-hitting role. I’d better perform properly.”

“Hua Hua, helping me put on my gloves every day is you taking the task seriously.”

Hua Suihe suspected Ye Susheng had gone easy on her with the task, but she had no evidence.

“Ah! Someone’s dead! Someone’s dead!!”

A sudden commotion erupted in the hall. Someone screamed in terror, drawing everyone’s attention.

Hua Suihe looked over. All she could see was a crowd packed tight at the entrance; whatever happened must’ve been outside.

She stood up, her expression turning grave. “Let’s go see. What happened?”

Ye Susheng grabbed her hand and stopped her. “Hua Hua, it’s just the script…”

Hua Suihe carried herself like the Second Miss. “Butler Su Sheng, go ahead and take a look.”

Ye Susheng’s lips moved, but she didn’t refuse. Walking in front of Hua Suihe, she pushed through the crowd. At once, she had the bodyguards cover the corpse-its death grotesque-with a white cloth, disperse the onlookers, and set up a cordon to surround the dead.

“What about the one on the ground-what happened?” The man who’d found the body first was so scared he’d gone limp, sitting on the ground.

By the time Hua Suihe arrived, she could only see a white cloth covering the rose bed by the doorway, the faint outline of a human shape visible beneath.

“I don’t know, I don’t know anything… The moment I stepped out, I saw him. The moment I stepped out, I saw…” He was so frightened he couldn’t speak straight, but he still couldn’t offer any useful information.

Hua Suihe stopped beside Ye Susheng, forcing down the urge to lift the cloth and look.

Ye Susheng was afraid Hua Suihe’s curiosity would get the better of her and she’d go examine the prop, so she tugged Hua Suihe two steps back. “The smell of blood is strong, Miss. Stay farther away. Someone will handle this filth.”

Ye Susheng’s words made her sound like a cold, ruthless, black-hearted butler who treated human life like dirt.

Hua Suihe hesitated as the bodyguards found a stretcher and carried the covered prop away.

“What’s going on? Why are you all gathered at the door?” A robust voice rang out-it was Mr. Zhuang’s assistant.

Leaning on a cane, he walked over. His gaze locked straight onto Hua Suihe, his eyes clouded and murky, a hypocritical smile hanging on his face.
“My little sister comes to her big brother’s Flower-Viewing Banquet and doesn’t even tell him ahead of time so I can send someone to pick her up, huh?”

“Tsk. Who ruined my flowers?!” The moment he spotted the human-shaped dent in the rosebed, Mr. Zhuang’s eyes narrowed. The messy bloodstains around it barely registered for him, as if he simply couldn’t see them.

“I have to report back home to you now?” Hua Suihe lifted the brim of her cap. The baseball cap still hampered her expression a bit. “A guest you invited got into trouble at your banquet. You’d better think about how you’re going to handle that.”

“Trouble? What trouble?” Mr. Zhuang glared toward the gathering crowd. “Did any of you see something happen, huh?”

“No one saw a thing, hehehehehe…” Mr. Zhuang stretched his lips into a sinister grin and sauntered toward the rosebed. He plucked a blood-splattered rose; the petals, wet with fresh blood, looked even more vividly red.

“He just went to enjoy the flowers. What’s this about trouble?” The rose slipped from his fingers. He ground it under his heel and swept his gaze over everyone. “What are you all standing around for? Break it up. Go admire the flowers if you’re here to admire flowers, socialize if you’re here to socialize. I, Mr. Zhuang, wish everyone a delightful time.”

That arrogant, punchable smirk on his face really deserved a beating. Hua Suihe rolled her eyes right in front of him. “Nothing I hate more than a poser.”

Ye Susheng’s gloomy gaze locked on Mr. Zhuang. Her red lips parted slightly. “Same here.”

The black mist darted to the back of the bald man’s head, pressing itself flat against his scalp. With Hua Hua here, it wasn’t good to start anything bloody, so they’d wait until he walked farther away-then they’d teach him properly who was really in charge.

After Mr. Zhuang finished putting on his act, the back of his head suddenly felt chilly. He raised a hand to scratch it and shot Ye Susheng a sideways glance. That powerhouse wasn’t planning to come after him, was she?

Once Mr. Zhuang headed into the main hall and started up the spiral staircase to the second floor, a sudden mental assault shattered his human form. He silently cursed Ye Susheng for being a heartless bastard, then could only scramble to gather up his own scattered pieces and duck into an empty room.

As for the others present…

Mr. Zhuang had blatantly brushed off the dead guy, pretending nothing had happened, and in front of so many people reversed black and white, saying the man had “just gone to enjoy the flowers.”

He was that brazen, yet no one at the scene dared step up and contradict him. Even the young man sitting on the ground in a daze no longer dared mutter “someone died” under his breath.

Hua Suihe took off her cap and ran her fingers through her hair to smooth it out. She focused her gaze on the rosebed, petals scattered everywhere in a chaotic mess.

“Hua Hua.” Ye Susheng reached over and pinched Hua Suihe’s cheek. “Hua Hua and I are together.”

Hua Suihe nodded. “Four days, right? Dream on if you think you can take me out.”

“I’ll take Hua Hua back to rest first,” Ye Susheng said. “I’ll stay with Hua Hua. I won’t let anything happen to her.”

After standing there a while, the dull ache in Hua Suihe’s lower abdomen was starting to creep back.

Still, she thought this script was pretty fun. It felt like a murder-case mystery dungeon she could really get into.

If Mr. Zhuang had set up this entire Autumn Banquet just to kill her, then her role in this scenario was basically on par with a main character.

Ye Susheng escorted Hua Suihe back to her room and had Hua Hua lie down to rest.

“Hua Hua, sleep easy. I’ll wake you up at lunchtime.”

On her period, Hua Suihe practically fell asleep the moment she touched the mattress. Within minutes her breathing had gone slow and even.

Ye Susheng separated a portion of black mist to stand guard by the bed and protect her, then walked out of the room herself and closed the door.

A not-quite-humanoid bald figure was shedding pieces left and right as it crawled toward her with grim determination. Its vocal cords had gone missing somewhere along the way, so when it spoke, only air came out:

“Ye Susheng, I know I was wrong, I was wrong…”

The black mist’s brutality was unmatched. Thriller had wanted to create a new set of rules, but in doing so it created an uncontrollable Ye Susheng-making the freshly established rules of Thriller teeter on the brink of collapse.