Chapter 403: This plot prop looks familiar

The three women in the dressing room were each busy with their own things, no one had time to attend to Ying Duo.

Xie Jingyan's makeup artist was spraying setting spray onto her hair, Qi Ran's makeup had already been touched up and she was having the hairstylist adjust the cowlick at the back of her head, while Xiao Huiyu, after the initial curiosity had passed, had been quietly reading a book.

Ying Duo's gaze lingered on each of the three women in turn, and in the dressing room he saw a few scattered glints of gold.

The system's mission interface was, as always, clean, without even a hint.

His system wouldn't tell him what to do, only give a direction, the rest was up to him to figure out.

The rewards the game system gave out weren't anything essential; rather than a mission system, it was more like a fun system?

Whenever there was fun to be had, it would send him a task; whether he wanted to go join in the fun was purely voluntary.

This mission's title is "Strange Idol Group"; what's strange about it? Is it that Qi Ran smokes? Or that Qi Ran is on the phone telling someone to "keep an eye on the person"?

An idol smoking, making a phone call, and conspiring about something—what's that in a wasteland world?

It's nothing more than either sabotaging teammates out of jealousy, or being threatened and doing this and that; usually it's just these tropes.

Ying Duo truly hadn't taken this mission to heart; mainly because he was just idling around, so he needed to finish the mission here before Yang Yichen came back to find him, or simply give it up.

Time is tight, the mission is heavy.

If this mission really is just Qi Ran having some conspiracy, shouldn't he have just pointed a gun at her earlier to force her to explain the situation?

Just now I was still being greedy, mainly wanting to see if I could find some gold light search points; I found the gold light, but there was simply no way to investigate it.

Basically every spot of gold light is near those few girls; he couldn't possibly draw his gun now and herd them all to one side just to search the dressing room, could he?

For such a measly mission reward, it's really not worth it.

Ying Duo had already begun to consider whether to give up that little reward; when he went back to find Yang Yichen, someone at the door happened to shout:

"Neon-X, come backstage to get ready; we'll explain the procedure for today's meet-and-greet!"

Xie Jingyan opened her eyes, glanced at Qi Ran in the mirror, then glanced at Ying Duo in the corner.

"You want your brother to wait here for us to come back?"

Qi Ran blinked, then nodded quickly.

This kind of thing usually doesn't keep them away for long; basically it's just explaining the venue arrangements for the meet-and-greet, after all they've held many such events, only the venue differs.

"Mm, he's not in good health, can't stay in crowded places, so let him wait here for us to return."

She wasn't afraid that Ying Duo alone left here could cause any trouble; given Ying Duo's Aberrant Arts, if he wanted to do harm, no one could stop him.

There aren't any valuables in the dressing room anyway; even if Ying Duo emptied the place, it wouldn't be a loss.

Xie Jingyan didn't say anything; she turned and walked toward the door, wearing a pair of black short boots with thick soles, yet her steps were surprisingly quiet.

Xiao Huiyu followed behind her, her pace neither hurried nor slow, landing exactly half a step behind.

Qi Ran walked last; as she neared the door she turned her head and glanced at Ying Duo, her lips moving as she silently said two words:

"Don't run around."

The door closed.

The dressing room fell silent, and Ying Duo's gaze instantly locked onto a few spots with gold light—Xie Jingyan's vanity table, Xiao Huiyu's book, and Qi Ran's coat pocket.

He first walked to Xie Jingyan's vanity; the tabletop was full of things, all sorts of bottles and jars of cosmetics, Xie Jingyan's wallet was casually tossed on top.

Ying Duo opened it and took a look; since he was hardly short of money now, he simply skipped over it, but a photo inside caught his attention.

Hmm, an ordinary family portrait of three; the little girl on it, judging by her hair color, should be Xie Jingyan herself.

【Plot Prop: Family Portrait】 (purple)

【Explanation: That was a warm memory—sunshine, balloons, amusement park—a beautiful time no one would want to forget.】

【Note: The most fragile thing is also beauty.】

This thing is another purple plot prop, but the description makes it look increasingly familiar to him.

Ying Duo silently pulled from his backpack a certain photo that had been left so long it was almost covered in dust—this was still the one he had scavenged from Qi Hengyu.

Back then he was still poor; he not only pocketed Qi Hengyu's pitiful few bills in full, but also directly took away that person's damaged family photo.

Although he hasn't used this thing now, it's still a high-quality plot prop no matter how you say it.

In short, pocket it first and worry later.

There are truly so many broken families in the wasteland.

Ying Duo hasn't really pursued Qi Hengyu's storyline; he only knows that Qi Hengyu fell out with his brother, so which member of Xie Jingyan's family did she fall out with?

Xiao Huiyu's side had nothing special, but the metal feather she used as a bookmark was exceptionally sharp, classified by the game as a thrown weapon.

As for Qi Ran, there wasn't much; Ying Duo only turned up the cigarette butt she hadn't had time to toss away.

"Where's security?! Security, come quick!"

Someone in the hallway was shouting something; Ying Duo thought it was Qi Ran, as soon as she went out, telling the outside people about his situation.

He walked to the door, pushed it open a crack, and saw the hallway outside was a chaotic mess, but it seemed unrelated to him here.

A man wearing an earpiece-style communicator ran past Ying Duo's face, his complexion deathly pale as he shouted into the earpiece.

"Security! The backstage passage needs security! Black fans have broken in——"

Ying Duo shoved the door open and walked straight out.

Strictly speaking, his outfit looked suspicious to the extreme, but outside people were coming and going in a rush, so nobody noticed him.

He went with the flow of people and saw the source of the chaos.

Xie Jingyan leaned against the wall, her silver-gray performance outfit bearing a dark stain that looked like blood splattered on her.

At that moment she was pressing down on a person wearing a black hoodie, face down, arms twisted behind the back, with a pair of blue‑glowing energy shackles clamped on the wrists.

Beside them stood two security guards in black uniforms, one holding that person down, the other speaking low into a walkie‑talkie.

Xiao Huiyu stood to the front‑side of Xie Jingyan, while Qi Ran carefully shielded her; Xiao Huiyu's left hand hung at her side, her sleeve slit open from elbow to wrist, the torn fabric revealing the skin underneath.

A long wound, blood kept seeping out, trickling down the forearm; the gear hairpin that had been in her hair fell to the ground.