Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Pleasant Surprise Amid the Unexpected
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When the waiter’s gaze fixed on his feet, Ye Feifan, watching the dream, could not help shuddering. How had he failed to notice the man’s presence at the time?
If the waiter had launched a surprise attack then, Ye Feifan was certain he would have had no chance of dodging it.
Was it because the man had been uncertain of his identity?
As the dream continued, the waiter decisively removed the door bolt when Ye Feifan left through the back door, then quietly slipped into the old alley and firmly secured the rear entrance with another metal bolt.
Without the slightest hesitation, the waiter ran to the back door of the brothel, where he found two pimps sitting nearby.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, the waiter suddenly said, “The writing is crooked.”
One of the pimps’ eyes changed. His cloudy gaze became sharp and shrewd as he replied in a low voice, “Then the blade will break.”
Together, their words formed the character Liu. Ye Feifan realized that he had learned their secret password exchange. He might have use for it later, so he hurriedly wrote it down in his little notebook.
“My master told me to summon the leading courtesan.”
“The leading courtesan told you to follow me.”
One of the pimps left, while the other continued to mind his own business.
The waiter followed the pimp into a room. The door was shut, and the pimp even set up a soundproofing formation.
“Speak. What happened?”
“The plan has been exposed. We have a mole.”
“What do you intend to do?”
“Kill him.”
“Who is with him?”
“Only him. But we cannot rule out the possibility that members of the Zhang family are hiding nearby.”
“The Zhang family’s hidden agent sent back word that this man is no ordinary person.”
“You cannot kill him?”
“Go tell the leader yourself.”
The pimp took out a black iron token and handed it to the waiter. He then turned around, removed the formation, and left the room, returning to his former seat.
After waiting for a while, the waiter left the room.
“Ah, I must have eaten something bad. Thank you, old man.”
Grinning and clutching his stomach, the waiter walked out through the back door of the brothel.
A few minutes later, he returned to the Guesthouse through its rear entrance, then left through the front door and came to the brothel’s main entrance, where he found a maid guarding a secluded corner.
“Kill a chicken.”
The maid poked her head out and glanced behind the waiter before asking softly, “Dead or alive?”
“Dead.”
“Room Three.”
The waiter gave an almost imperceptible nod, avoided the crowd, and slipped into Room Three.
The room was empty. Bookshelves lined all four walls. The waiter found the largest bookshelf, located a physical blue book titled Number Three, and pressed it down with all his strength.
Although the book was already pressed as far as it could go, it sank into the wall. With a click, a door appeared behind the bookshelf. The waiter entered, and the door closed automatically behind him.
Following the dim passage, the waiter emerged into a secret underground chamber.
The chamber contained only an altar table, a large conference table, and several chairs. On the altar stood a Buddha statue dressed in a red robe—the same robe as the one on a certain plot card someone had used. The statue’s features were extremely blurred, as though deliberately obscured. From a distance, it appeared to have no face at all.
What an enormous surprise!
Ye Feifan was somewhat shaken. The faceless Buddha statue had an inseparable connection to the side quest. His opponent had hidden himself deeply, and Ye Feifan could not quite understand the Liu family’s series of maneuvers.
After offering a stick of incense to the statue, the waiter sat down in a chair. Several secret doors opened, and a group of men in black emerged.
“You want to kill him?”
“Martin Xiao’s existence is unnecessary. I may already have been exposed…”
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After hearing the waiter’s account, the leader of the men in black nodded.
“Where is he?”
The waiter pointed to the map on the conference table, focusing on Shaba.
“I tampered with him. Zhang Da was rescued by him, and human curiosity will certainly drive him to investigate Shaba. We only need to intercept him at Little Stone Bridge, and then we can eliminate the problem for good.”
The leader in black took out a compass. Its needle turned very slowly.
“He has taken the bait.”
“Kill him!” Murderous intent flashed in the waiter’s eyes.
The leader in black offered three sticks of incense to the Buddha statue, then gently placed his hand on its head. A small raised lump resembling a strand of hair was pressed down, and a secret door appeared behind the altar.
“Move.”
The group followed their leader through the secret door. The door closed behind them, and footsteps echoed through the darkness.
No one knew how long they walked. Eventually, they emerged from the hidden passage. One member crawled out of a stove wearing a black iron pot over his head, while the others climbed out after him. The waiter restored the door and stove to their original state.
After leaving the kitchen, they arrived at a familiar place: a private residence beside Beichen Tea Pavilion.
“He has left.”
“Split up and pursue him!”
…
At Little Stone Bridge, the group of men in black regrouped.
“He fled from here?”
“Yes, my lord. He must still be nearby.”
“You cannot even deal with one man. Useless. This is your only chance.”
“Understood. He is connected to the Zhang family. I believe they are plotting how to deal with us.”
“Have you discovered what the servant took?”
“No. A Zhang family expert was waiting in secret, and we were unable to seize the item.”
…
“You are all useless.”
“He came here in the middle of the night. He was probably heading to the Shaba outpost. Return to the Guesthouse now. The Zhang family may send someone over. Find an opportunity to strike and force the information out of them.”
“Understood.”
For some reason, the waiter did not linger. After receiving the leader’s order, he ran into the darkness, coldly watching the group of men in black.
“Go on. All of you can go die!”
With a cold smile, the waiter returned to the brothel’s secret chamber and silently studied the map.
“Let me see… the Wasteland of Remnants…”
He placed the token over the map of the Wasteland of Remnants, then left the brothel.
The instant he stepped outside, the scene collapsed. Ye Feifan, covered in blood and wearing a ferocious expression, lunged forward with a dagger.
“Ah…”
The dream vanished. Ye Feifan’s expression darkened.
The dream had revealed the plan behind the ambush he had suffered last time. He had never expected the Liu family to possess such a terrifying talent.
The waiter had first engineered the death of the superior he resented, then deduced Ye Feifan’s escape route. Such intelligence was frightening.
If Ye Feifan had not been able to see through other people’s dreams, he might still have been completely unaware of the identity of his opponent. The Liu family’s higher-ups had never acted against him at all. Everything had been the waiter’s plan.
The brothel was closely connected to the Weeping Heart. That faceless Buddha statue was the breakthrough point. The Liu family’s influence had infiltrated both the brothel and the Guesthouse. If Ye Feifan had remained in his room at the Guesthouse last time, he would have been in danger.
Under the effect of the basic Dream-Inducing Incense, the waiter soon fell asleep, and his dream was drawn over as well.
“Kid, being too swollen with pride is not a good thing.”
After attaching a little dream bait, Ye Feifan swung the Rod of Causal Dreams, and the dream hook fell into the dream filled with black mist.
Faint light flickered. The waiter was still at Beichen Tea Pavilion, but now a badly wounded man stood before him.
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The leader of the men in black who had fallen at Shaba!
“My lord… you…”
“You betrayed me and joined the Zhang family! I barely fought my way out alive. I’m going to kill you!”
The leader snarled ferociously, yet collapsed helplessly onto the ground. He repeatedly swung the long sword in his hand, trying to hack the waiter to death.
“Kill me?” The waiter’s eyes were bloodshot. His expression was strange, and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “You cannot even hold your sword now. How are you going to kill me? Or perhaps I should send you to hell myself!”
The waiter advanced step by step. The leader seemed intimidated and retreated in fear, blood pouring from his entire body.
“My lord, my good lord. Who would have thought you would ever end up in such a sorry state?”
“Do you know? I have been putting up with you for a very long time!”
“Go to hell!”
Enjoying the exhilaration of driving his victim into a corner, the waiter continued closing in. The leader began to collapse emotionally and swung his sword wildly.
“Stay back! Are you trying to defy your superior? The family master will never spare you…”
“Spare me? We will see whether you have the ability to do that!”
The waiter coldly pounced forward and seized the leader’s sword, but a wave of fear suddenly rose within him.
An evil smile spread across the leader’s face. His body transformed into a hook, while the sword became a barb on it, trapping the stunned waiter.
“A guaranteed profit from the moment it takes hold. This dream bait is quite the actor—I nearly believed it myself.”
Amazed by the dream bait’s performance, Ye Feifan finally relaxed. He swung the rod and severed the connection between the dream fish and the dream, then tossed the dream fish formed from the waiter into the Drunken Dream Bamboo Basket. The dream fish went limp in a daze and fell silent.
“Got you.”
“Congratulations, host. You have caught a nightmare infected by sinister energy. You have received five hundred points!”
The system’s notification piqued Ye Feifan’s interest. The waiter was a fat sheep indeed. He hurriedly asked, “System, what happened?”
“The target has long dealt with the dead and frequently encountered ominous things. He has been entangled by sinister energy, and after committing so many evil deeds, even his dreams have become tainted by it. There is a high probability that nightmares will arise. This is a normal phenomenon.”
A normal phenomenon? The time to farm points had arrived!
“Congratulations, host. You have caught a nightmare infected by sinister energy. You have received five hundred points!”
…
“Congratulations, host. You have caught a nightmare infected by sinister energy. You have received five hundred points!”
…
“Congratulations, host. You have caught a nightmare infected by sinister energy. You have received five hundred points!”
…
Ye Feifan frantically farmed points, while the waiter at the Guesthouse experienced something entirely different. He could be said to have endured an unforgettable night.
The entire night passed in alternating bouts of waking and sleep. Each time, the waiter was jolted awake by a nightmare, yet he could never remember what he had dreamed of. He assumed it was merely the result of excessive tension.
After waking three or four times, he began to sense that something was wrong. He was certain that he had been drugged with an enemy’s hallucinogen, perhaps as part of an enormous trap.
He had intended to take his weapon and circle the area around the Guesthouse to see whether anyone suspicious was lurking nearby. But the moment he got out of bed, his entire body became weak. He collapsed heavily to the floor, his head striking the ground, and lost consciousness in an instant.
A person in a coma was not likely to wake easily. Ye Feifan continued fishing in his dreams and frantically farming points. He used many of the things that caught his eye, even placing the dreams of the Zhang family master and the others into the waiter’s dreams. He also scattered quite a bit of basic Philosophical Medicine.
If his guess was correct, Zhang Da’s father would fly into a rage the next day, and the waiter would certainly be targeted. Unfortunately, with the Liu family’s influence keeping matters in check, he would not die for the time being.
“I hope you can give me a little surprise next time.”
His energy beginning to fail, Ye Feifan could only stop fishing for dreams and turn instead to refining the dream fish.
“Eight Tribulations Realm: Nightmare × 11…”
“Eight Tribulations Realm… it can still be destroyed. Big Yellow can crush it… Forget it… let’s begin refining the dreams…”
Human energy was limited after all. That night, Ye Feifan focused only on fishing for the targets with the highest point yields. At last, Zhang Da’s father and the others were able to enjoy a peaceful philosophical dream without worrying about their energy being drained.
P.S.: Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony; freedom, equality, justice, the rule of law; patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendship.