Chapter 19: Ordering Ingredients (1/2)

When they arrived home, it was already 6:30 PM.

The madam and the younger son had already finished their supper, but when the madam asked Su Xiaoqian to bring some dinner over for her older son, she also didn’t forget her loving husband. She especially didn’t touch half of the dishes for her husband, particularly the small rats dipped in sauce that he really loved to eat. Furthermore, when the master was not there with her to enjoy the meal, she was not even tempted to touch her chopsticks and take some of his, only devotedly waiting for him to eat his share.

Despite it being the autumn season, the food was still hot the moment the master had arrived. And after finishing his dinner, he went up to his study to read a book, just like yesterday.

After the master’s departure, Li Hao and the others all gathered into a room and asked, his voice full of uncertainty, “What happened to Liu Kui? How come only the two of you had returned? Where did he go?”

“Liu Kui, he…Liu Kui is dead.” Recalling Liu Kui’s dead and decapitated corpse, Lu Tianyi couldn’t help but choke up from the gory memory. His throat inadvertently closed up as he told everyone with great difficulty, “It was because I couldn’t help him that he was violently killed by the master.”

Lu Tianyi’s emotions were understandably in a stir, so Bai Yan graciously explained to everyone what had happened on behalf of Lu Tianyi.

One by one, everyone’s hearts fell after hearing this tragic story. Yesterday, no one died. They thought that they could peacefully survive the seven days if everyone were careful, but Liu Kui’s untimely death was like a painful slap to the face for all of them, letting them know that people would never be truly safe inside the game.

“By the way, there is one more thing we need to tell you. Lu Tianyi and I heard a lot of information about this family at the club. They all said that the youngest son of this family died a few years ago. An Qing, today, when you went into the young master’s room to tell stories, did you perhaps find anything strange?” Bai Yan asked.

As expected, after their discussion had ended, Zhu Fugui pulled Bai Yan aside as if he had something on his mind, making Bai Yan feel rather down.

What gave him the illusion that I was a kindhearted person that liked meddling in other people’s business?

Despite saying that in his heart, he still needed to know about other people’s troubles.

The survival of the villa staff was directly related to his workload as a butler. When Liu Kui died, he had to temporarily take over as the driver. Zhu Fugui was in a dark state of mind right now and if he died in vain, it would be him who would be handling the dead mice tomorrow!

So, even knowing that he was not a suitable mental trash bin where one could dump his thoughts and worries, Bai Yan warmly patted Zhu Fugui’s shoulder and softly asked him, “What’s wrong?”

“Brother, I don’t know how to explain.” Zhu Fugui’s voice trembled as he spat the words out, making Bai Yan take this a little more seriously.

“Don’t worry and just talk slowly.”

“I… I was preparing the madam’s meal during noon, and when she had finished eating, she called for me and ordered me to contact the delivery company because she owed the delivery company a sum of money. After that, the madam had left me a series of calls that were about the number I should contact and as I returned to the kitchen, I tried to call the number using my phone.”

Speaking of which, Bai Yan noticed that Zhu Fugui’s shoulders were stiff and there was sweat pouring from all parts of his body, seeping out of his slightly damp clothes.

“Lao Zhu, what are you afraid of? What was the problem when you called?” Because Zhu Fugui stopped here and didn’t continue, Bai Yan might as well pat his back to comfort him, slightly urging him to continue.

“Phone…that phone…”

As he was getting to the part of the phone, Zhu Fugui’s face suddenly turned a sickly ash-gray color, “I went back to the kitchen and called the number, telling them that we would be paying them back. But as a result, this person… This person was extremely frightening! I was so scared that I could barely move…This person’s voice was so terrifying!”

“His voice is terrifying? What did he say?” Bai Yan asked intently.

“He, he said…he said, ‘I(1), will, find, you, tonight!'”

Zhu Fugui didn’t speak Mandarin(2), but the strange thing was that he remembered every single word clearly from that phone call. He accurately repeated the words on the other end of the phone, his face filling with absolute panic while trembling nonstop, “He said that he’ll come and find me tonight!”

“After that, I was so scared but I still went to the madam. The madam ordered me to wait by the villa’s gate at midnight and someone from the delivery company will come and collect the payment. To think that the madam didn’t even give me a single cent to hand over! Are they really going here to collect the payment in the middle of the night?”