Chapter 280: New Night, Old Dreams

New Night, Old Dreams

Smart villagers all know: never go out at night.

So, the players, having nothing to do, could only wait until the Dark Sun rose the next day to search for Erpuska's tracks, no matter how anxious they were. Thus, how to spend the night became the first problem facing the players.

This wasn't really a problem at all, because players who had experienced various trials could almost rest anywhere—swamps, coffin camps, sewers; as long as there was a piece of ground to lie on, there was space to rest.

But the problem was that some people didn't want to waste this long night and wanted to go out to continue collecting information on the trial.

There were those who wanted to grind, and naturally, there were those who wanted to slack off, so a disagreement arose.

Cheng Shi, as the one with the "greatest" say in the team, gave the plan:

Do whatever you want; I'm going to sleep.

So he lay down on the spot again and once more feigned entering dreamland.

After he rested, Hong Lin and the Puppet Master sat down and closed their eyes one after another. Only the hunter and Zuo Qiu's expressions flickered, and they quietly pushed the door open and walked out.

Clearly, these two still wanted to find some fresh stories in this lightless night.

After the two went out and saw no one outside the door, they looked at each other and went their separate ways.

But not long after, Jiang Wu Mei, who had headed in the other direction, returned. He looked at the direction Zuo Qiu had left in, pondered for a moment, and then turned his gaze toward the room.

"The dark night has arrived; let the good dreams begin."

He muttered to himself, then pushed the door open again and walked in on tiptoe. Seeing the three people in the room resting peacefully, he hesitated for a moment, walked to a spot not far from Cheng Shi, sat down quietly, and closed his eyes to sleep.

And just at this moment, movement came from outside the door again. The historian, who had just disappeared, quietly pulled open a crack in the door, looked at Jiang Wu Mei sitting beside Cheng Shi, and revealed a smile that said "as expected."

"Interesting, Dream-Peeking Ranger!"

Dream-Peeking Ranger, the hunter of 【Memory】.

With this, the hunter who had been disguising himself the whole way finally showed his true colors, but at the same time, he had already achieved his wish.

Because dream-peeking is dream-peeking; what he peeks at are interesting dreams.

As for whether Cheng Shi's dream was interesting, Jiang Wu Mei felt it definitely was. After all, this was a ruthless person who had once toyed with Zhen Yi. A ruthless person's dreams are generally interesting.

So let me see what interesting things are hidden in the Weaver's dream.

Jiang Wu Mei woke up. He found that he seemed to have arrived in an elementary school classroom. In the classroom sat dozens of children who weren't very old, and on the podium stood a middle-aged woman with a face full of fat and a mean expression.

The middle-aged woman was saying something to the children, while the hunter stood at the door of the classroom looking in like an invisible person.

Gradually, his hearing began to recover, and the noisy sounds of toddlers and the scolding of the mean female teacher reached his ears.

"Shut up, all of you! Stop making noise! Sit properly!

Don't blame me for not telling you: the uncles and aunts coming tomorrow don't like noisy children. If you want to have a mom and dad like the kids outside, then all of you be quiet for me and don't cause me any trouble!"

Saying this, the middle-aged woman left while cursing. When she reached the door, she even spat with an envious look on her face.

"Pah, a bunch of bastards. I don't know whose life is so good that they can be picked by such wealthy families!"

Jiang Wu Mei frowned as he watched the middle-aged woman walk away, and he realized in his heart: oh, so this is an orphanage.

"Cheng Shi, orphan..."

He turned his head to look into the classroom, searching for Cheng Shi's shadow, but after searching for a long time, he didn't see anyone with a similar face, until a little girl in the front row, right under his nose, cautiously asked her desk mate:

"Xiao Shi, uncles and aunts are coming to see us tomorrow. Why haven't you taken off your mask yet?"

Mask?

Jiang Wu Mei was greatly shocked. He looked carefully and only then discovered that the little brat right before his eyes was actually wearing a lifelike human skin mask!

No way, how could such a thing appear in an orphanage?

Did the little brat make it himself?

Can a kid this small make such a thing? What did he use to make it? Why didn't I notice it myself!

Jiang Wu Mei was interested by this child for a moment. He gave up looking for Cheng Shi and instead moved closer to examine this little boy.

To be honest, his principle for dream-peeking wasn't to find the protagonist of the dream, but to collect interesting things everywhere. This could satisfy his special hobby and also allow him to offer these interesting stories to his benefactor, which could be described as killing two birds with one stone.

So he began to study the little boy's mask. With this look, he discovered the crudeness and ingenuity of the mask.

This wasn't a lifelike human skin mask, but a disguise made by rolling out dough skin. And this disguise wasn't perfect, but the little boy was very smart; he hid almost all the flawed edges under his fine hair and the shadows of his jawbone. In this way, at a glance, one really couldn't tell that he had something stuck to his face.

This boy, called Xiao Shi, after hearing the little girl's words, directly covered her mouth and whispered "shh": "Keep your voice down. If Rong Mama catches us, my mask will be confiscated again."

"But you're dressed so ugly, you won't be picked. I heard Xiao Qi say that uncles and aunts like pretty children. You clearly look good, why..."

"Hehe, Xiao Qi is lying to you. He went to the office to eavesdrop on Rong Mama. After he came back, he told me that these two uncles and aunts don't like good-looking children. They have money and want to keep a low profile, so the children shouldn't be too pretty.

Look, the new mask I worked all night to make—after putting it on, isn't it not so good-looking anymore?"

"Ah? Why is he like that? Then I want a mask too."

"?" The little boy was stunned. "How can that be? If I give you one, didn't I make it for nothing?"

"Oh, right. Then forget it. I'll leave the opportunity to you. I'll wait for another uncle and aunt who likes pretty children."

"Although that's what you say, what you said is a bit weird..."

The childish talk of the two kids made Jiang Wu Mei want to laugh. He observed for a while and found that this Xiao Shi was very likely the Cheng Shi he was looking for, so he was even happier.

"Cheng Shi as a child, interesting."

Not long after, the children were dismissed. Jiang Wu Mei followed the little boy to the restroom outside the classroom and watched him peel off the thin dough mask on his face bit by bit, a flash of light in his eyes.

It really is him!

Cheng Shi!

These brows and features are exactly the same as the one in the trial!

But clearly, little Cheng Shi grew up to be more refined and cuter. No wonder he wanted to cover his face. With this look, any adopter would pick him at first glance.

If Xiao Qi's information was correct, then he really should hide this face well.

And just after little Cheng Shi took off the mask, the dream gradually dissipated. But Jiang Wu Mei was not surprised by this, because he knew this was the real dream; there would never be a complete dream in a person's brain.

All memories are only reordered in a disorderly way in a scattered manner, and then one scene after another is performed in turn in the consciousness of the dreamer.

Jiang Wu Mei's field of vision sank into darkness along with Cheng Shi's consciousness. When he woke up again, he was already standing downstairs at the orphanage.

Standing in front of him was a couple with a noble appearance. The refined husband in the couple was confirming the adoption details with the orphanage, while the gentle wife was soothing the child's emotions.

This lucky one was a little boy. He was fidgeting with his fingers, seemingly a bit at a loss, but Jiang Wu Mei clearly saw an undisguisable joy in his eyes.

Oh right, this little boy looked very good, but clearly not little Cheng Shi, but the one in the orphanage whose looks were second only to little Cheng Shi.

Jiang Wu Mei had some impression of him, just didn't know what this little boy was called.

At this time, the orphanage had finished explaining all the matters. The director, with a big beer belly, laughed out loud, touched the little boy's head, and instructed the refined husband:

"Since that's the case, Xiao Qi will be left to you two to take care of. Xiao Qi, ah, go to Uncle Du's house, ah no, now you have to change your address to Dad, hahaha."

"Director Hu, don't tease the child. Let's go home and get familiar for a while first. I see this child looks refined and his brows are kind; he must be a good child. The education in the orphanage is very good."

"Hahaha, that's for sure. It's not that I'm bragging, but the education in our orphanage hasn't fallen behind for a single day. Of course, this also can't be separated from the sponsorship of you sponsors. I still have to thank you..."

Watching the two men complimenting each other, Jiang Wu Mei smiled knowingly.

"Xiao Qi, interesting."

He turned his head to look at little Cheng Shi, who was lying on the window upstairs in the orphanage looking down, and suddenly really wanted to know what he was thinking at this moment.

So he jumped lightly, his whole body floating like a feather to the window where little Cheng Shi was, and then he heard the most interesting sentence of the night.

Little Cheng Shi stood by the window, looking into the distance at Xiao Qi, who had been adopted, gently rubbing the dough mask in his hand. He neither cried nor was angry; he was calm, not at all like a child of this age. He just saw him nod as if he had realized something and muttered to himself:

"I was deceived.

Xiao Qi deceived me.

So, lies are used like this." ===== CHAPTER 281 =====