Chapter 60: Road Trip Tips
The woman's sharp nails were forced to stay on the side of her shoulders a few centimeters away.
The toilet plunger was pushed across the front, making it impossible to move in any further.
As soon as she touched the toilet plunger, the restaurant owner immediately retracted her hand with a hiss and fearfully retreated into the shadow of the door.
Tang Xinjue turned the toilet plunger, as if it was just a slight block, raised her eyes and asked: "Boss, are you okay?"
The muscles on the woman's face kept twitching, but she didn't take action again. She only squeezed out a stiff smile: "It's just a joke, xiao guniang, don't take it to heart."
After saying that, the woman really stood motionless inside the door, as if she wanted to watch Tang Xinjue leave.
——As long as she left the restaurant, she could no longer be attacked?
Seeing the restaurant owner's nails return to normal, Tang Xinjue remained motionless, largely due to her stance at the door, "Boss, aren't you going to send me to the highway? It's my first time here, and I'm afraid of getting lost."
The convertible was parked on the edge of the road, about five steps away from her.
"..."
The restaurant owner’s face looked ugly, and finally she reluctantly said, "You are on the highway now."
Once someone left the building and was on the road, they would also be subject to highway regulations.
Tang Xinjue nodded: "It seems that the requirements of the "Road Trip Tips" are not only valid for passengers, right?"
The other party avoided talking about this and continued bluntly: "As for getting lost… Xiao guniang, don't worry, Grandma Mayas will pray for you."
In the shadows, the woman raised a strange smile again, "No one will get lost on this road, everyone will find their destination. Grandma Mayas is waiting for you at her home..."
"Oh. Then bring me a lunch box." Tang Xinjue interrupted her and said matter-of-factly: "Remember to heat it up, it should be enough for one day, and ask Grandma Mayas for reimbursement then."
Restaurant owner: "..."
The middle-aged woman turned around angrily without speaking, picked up the child and walked into the kitchen. The scolding was accompanied by the sound of a spanking: "Did I ask you to run outside and run wild? You didn't do your homework and didn't know how to help. You can only give me more trouble… it would be better to give birth to barbecued pork than to give birth to you..."
After spanking the child, a few minutes later, the boss came out holding a lunch box, while the faceless child quietly poked his head into the door frame behind her.
"Here's the lunch you asked for, have a nice trip."
She bit the last four words quite hard and stared at Tang Xinjue until her figure was left far behind the highway by the car exhaust.
After twenty minutes of driving, the convertible began to slow down and slowly stopped on the side of the road.
Tang Xinjue let go of the steering wheel, suppressed the tingling pain in her mind and the discomfort in her stomach, and took two deep breaths.
Having just blocked the restaurant owner's attack, her right palm that was holding the toilet plunger slowly opened, revealing that the tiger's mouth* inside had burst open and blood was flowing freely.
*虎口, lit. tiger’s mouth, acupuncture point between thumb and index finger. The name is a reference to the ability of the thumb and index finger to open wide like a tiger’s mouth, where the point is located in between
The power of ghosts should not be underestimated. Even if the toilet plunger was not damaged, the human body was often unable to bear it.
If she got into a fight with that NPC in the restaurant, even if there were all four roommates together, they would inevitably suffer some hardships.
The restaurant owner's obviously fearful expression appeared in Tang Xinjue's mind, and her eyebrows knitted together again.
The restaurant owner was lying, from start to finish.
The watch belongs to Guo Guo, and the two NPCs, whether the older one or the younger one, had traces of fighting. Her perception did not capture any dangers or traps in the restaurant, and the only sense of danger came only from the NPC when she was angered.
Moreover, the restaurant owner had an inexplicable fear of her… a fear mixed with hostility.
While she wanted to attack her, she seemed to be hesitant for multiple reasons, and finally gave up in the face of highway rules.
Both the action logic and the reactions implemented in the details were very strange.
Even if the coat of the faceless child was in hand, it could pose some unresolved restrictions on the NPC. This walk around the restaurant was too safe.
The safer it was, the more unreasonable it was.
This exam instance couldn't be without danger. The coffee shop was safe, the restaurant was barely safe, and the highway was also safe... So where was the danger?
Tang Xinjue lowered her eyes, and the scenes she experienced on the highway were dismantled and replayed in her mind, including waking up from the car, getting on the road, parking the car, and the conversation with the NPC... Every detail was magnified repeatedly, trying to find out what entry point could be cracked.
The sense of abnormality was getting deeper and deeper, but it seemed that there was a layer of fog covering the sea of consciousness, and it was impossible to break through it and capture the truth.
Tang Xinjue rubbed her eyebrows.
If this was the only information that could be collected, there would be no way to determine the location of the roommate.
The only clue about the roommate was that Guo Guo had been to the restaurant, probably had a conflict with an NPC, and left a watch behind. However, after her observation, there was nothing familiar either inside or outside the restaurant or on the nearby highway.
She ignored the injury on her hand and turned on her phone. She could see from the [Dormitory Member Status] that except for her, who was slightly injured and lost two points of health, the other three people all had perfect scores.
This was even more abnormal.
Even if she only briefly threw her hand, she would still be injured. If the traces of fighting on the two NPCs were caused by Guo Guo or other roommates, then their health bars would not be intact.
What exactly was the problem?
The gurgling sound from her stomach broke the silence, and Tang Xinjue decided to clean up and eat first.
She sprayed on hemostatic spray and simply repaired the injured palm with a large band-aid. Tang Xinjue opened the lunch box and couldn't help feeling reluctant when she smelled the smell.
It was not that the food smells bad, but that when hunger reaches a certain level and the blood sugar level was too low, nausea and vomiting would naturally occur.
It was now four o'clock sharp, less than an hour since she had just finished a cup of hot coffee. But her stomach seemed to have been emptied, and the feeling of hunger spread throughout his limbs.
Tang Xinjue calculated the time in her mind: when driving on this road, the speed of physical exertion was about ten times that of normal.
Therefore, although she had only driven for an hour, it felt like she had been driving for six consecutive hours, and her hunger increased rapidly.
From this point of view, there was a reason for the NPC to "gift" her food - without this food to fill her stomach, it was impossible for ordinary people to persist on the road for more than two hours, let alone get to "Grandma Mayas" home before dark.
If this reason was established, then the next logic would follow:
Grandma Mayas wanted her to succeed in her mission.
The NPC entrusted by Grandma Mayas also has a certain common purpose and must not refuse the candidates' request for help to complete this journey.
There was no obvious danger in front of her, but Tang Xinjue's eyes became darker and darker.
What was more disturbing than the indefensible ghosts was the elusive sense of unknown due to the lack of information.
It was as if there was an invisible hand covering her eyes. Even though the road was clear, she felt like she was walking alone in the fog, unable to determine the direction.
The pain in her head lingered, as if it wanted to remind her of something. Whenever Tang Xinjue wanted to grasp it, she was distracted by chaotic thoughts.
After a while, she put away the half-eaten lunch box. After confirming that her strength and satiety had been restored, she suppressed her chaotic thoughts and continued driving.
…
When the third building appeared, Tang Xinjue quickly identified it without any hesitation.
Because it was exactly the same as the first two, with oil green paint everywhere.
This was a gas station.
The steering wheel turned, and the car drove into the gas station and stopped steadily. After accelerating all the way, the fuel gauge slipped into the dangerous zone where refueling was urgently needed.
Everything seems to have been carefully calculated and arranged to ensure that the car can keep driving on the road.
The gas station was very quiet. Tang Xinjue honked the horn. The green door next to her was pushed open, and a yellow figure wearing a special uniform walked out.
This time it was a thin young man with pale skin and messy hair. He didn't have the exaggerated smile on his face like the first two NPCs, but was instead very cold.
The young man came over, looked at the cars first, then glanced at Tang Xinjue, and weakly raised his lips: "How much?"
Tang Xin Jue: "Fill up the whole tank."
The young man pulled off the refueling gun without saying a word, stood in front of the gas tank and started to refuel.
Within two seconds, he suddenly said: "Yeah, it's broken."
What's broken? Tang Xinjue subconsciously turned her head, but when the sense of danger hit her, she quickly reacted and bent over——
The refueling gun passed over her head and hit the ground ten meters away. A trace of scorching black gas rose from it.
The young man walked over slowly, checked it a few times, shrugged and said, "The refueling gun is broken, let me replace it for you."
After that, he walked into the green station building and closed the door.
The coolness of the gas gun flying by still lingered on her neck. Tang Xinjue raised her head. The long years of fighting and chasing in nightmares allowed her to almost imitate the action of a young man throwing a gas gun.
Just "broken"?
She didn't get angry or ask any questions, and there wasn't even the slightest wave of emotion on her face that she had just escaped danger.
She had no friends around and no one to communicate with. For a moment, the expression on her face was almost exactly the same as that of the young man just now, so indifferent that she didn't show any emotion.
Turning around, she saw a line of words printed on the door the young man entered: Non-employees are not allowed to enter.
In this exam, everything marked with a forbidden symbol gave her a strong sense of danger and rejection.
Looking away without interest, Tang Xinjue opened the door and got out of the car, measuring the gas station step by step.
The gas station was about two or three times the size of the restaurant. There were no other vehicles or people, and the outside was surrounded by trees covered by fog.
After a quick walk around, there was still no new discovery, and the young man still hadn't come out of the station building.
Tang Xinjue gently turned her wrist and was about to knock on the door when her footsteps suddenly stopped.
In the peripheral vision, a small figure sneaked out from the bushes.
He suddenly turned around, and before the little figure could run away again, Tang Xinjue had already grabbed the opponent's hat.
It's the faceless child!
"Why did you come here with me?"
Finally seeing something new, Tang Xinjue asked with great interest.
The faceless child who was grabbed by the hat felt like his vital part was being strangled, and was turned around without any resistance. He was very weak and helpless.
But his arms were still fluttering, trying to grab the things in Tang Xinjue's pockets.
Following the direction the child was trying to reach with his hands, Tang Xinjue raised her eyebrows: That was Guo Guo's watch.
"You have stolen or even snatched things from others, and you still have the right to ask for them?"
Tang Xinjue felt a little funny, but then she was startled, and a guess she had never thought of suddenly appeared in her mind.
Catching a flash of intuition, she asked directly: "Did someone proactively give you this watch?"
The child stopped flopping and nodded.
"Who gave it to you?"
A few seconds later, in Tang Xinjue's field of vision, the little boy slowly raised his hand and pointed at herself.
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