After having a conversation that somewhat finally felt like a normal conversation with Lai Yuan, Qi Wei finally heads back to the guest home.
The food are already well prepared on their table when they arrived. A proud Xiao Yi sitting with her hands both on her waist, grins so wide, "Look! I learn to cook all of these today with Huang Peng gege! Peng ge is so good at cooking! Look! Yuan ge, look! I really made all of this!" she chirped.
Qi Wei laughs softly at the sight. Xiao Yi is like an excited puppy seeking for a praise from its owner but too bad the owner just rolled his eyes at that.
"You are so cold hearted," Qi Wei noted as he sat down beside Huang Peng. "Praise the kid, she works hard to impress you."
Being an obedient child, Lai Yuan sighed, "Good job, kiddo."
Although the praise is not at all genuine but it still brighten up the smile on Xiao Yi's face.
"Alright," Qi Wei can't help but smiles at the sight as well, "Let's eat up now or Xiao Yi's teeth will get dry from smiling too much."
The food was indeed good. It is a familiar tastes that Qi Wei does not even realize he have missed. It is mostly the handwork of Huang Peng after all. A man who lives with him and cooks for him for more than a year.
The feeling of longing surfaces on his chest again as he memories comes rushing into his mind.
Back then, whenever Qi Wei finishes work outside, he'd always text Huang Peng that his job is already done and he is on his way home. Huang Peng then would ask him what does he want to eat for the night. Qi Wei is not a picky eater but Huang Peng always hate it if Qi Wei hits him with a 'anything is fine' to the question. So, Qi Wei would have to spend sometime to wreck his mind to think of a simple dish that won't bother Huang Peng so much to cook it.
This happened for a year, Qi Wei favorite food is not an egg drop soup but it was indeed the simplest food Qi Wei can think of to ask for when he knows Huang Peng isn't really in a mood for cooking but just does it for his sake.
To see that Huang Peng cooked up a dish that he thought was Qi Wei's favorite comfort dish made warmth automatically spread all over his body.
The group ate the meal deliciously. Warm rice, egg drop soups and a few fried protein plated nicely in the middle of their table made them forget that they are in a middle of a life-threatening game for awhile.
After sometime of ignorance, they finally get back on track again.
"So, what should we do tomorrow? Do we really teach them school subject?" Huang Peng opens the conversation after going back from cleaning up the dishes with Xiao Yi.
"Why would we do that? What is the use of teaching the NPCs a school subject?" Lai Yuan answered without even paying a glance to Huang Peng.
Lai Yuan then explained that the catastrophe happened due to school bullying. When a school bullying happened it meant that the children are lacking in morals. It is also said that the kids are bullying the victim out of jealousy. So, rather than teaching them about one plus one equals two, it is more important to teach them some morality lessons. "What the victim wants is not for her bullies to strive in school and be happy. The tour guide did say we have to increase the welfare of the villagers but that is not a direct mission. That is clearly just a clue." Lai Yuan said.
"Why didn't you tell us that that wasn't a direct mission all along?" Qi Wei questioned, feeling betrayed for a bit.
"Its hard to explain it with words. But I was actually waiting for you and Huang Peng to realize this all along. Especially you, especially after we have that conversation by the lake. This world is controlled by the creature of death which is the victim of school bullying, she wrecks the village all over because she wanted revenge. If we want to solve the problem wouldn't it to make the villagers suffer even more? But we can't do that, of course, because we are now counted as one of the villagers. The middle way that we can get is to make the bullies realized what they did is wrong and hope that would be enough to please the victim so that we can finally get a ticket to go back to our world." Lai Yuan explained.
What he said make sense, it is indeed weird how he thought making the villagers live a good life is a way out of this situation. Its like he was thinking that the creature of death is their enemy all alone. Why would she be his enemy? She is just a poor kid who fall victim to bullying. It is her that needs justice stands up for her side, not the villagers.
Qi Wei felt a bit ashamed that he was thinking to protect the perpetrator all this time instead of standing up for the victim.
Huang Peng also have the same train of thoughts as Qi Wei while Xiao Yi have already figured out about this since they talk with the lady's children before.
"Gege, sometimes the tour guide will indeed give us direct mission, sometimes it will serves as clue and actually is the opposite of the mission. You need to be careful and analyzes everything in this realm, yeah?" Xiao Yi said.
The other two nodded at her advice. "Thanks, Xiao Yi." Qi Wei said with a small smile on his face.
Their conversation then continue. They try to think up a way to make the children realizes the wrong that they did in the past.
After some time of discussing, they finally come up with a plan that they will do tomorrow.
The day has come to an end. The stars shines brighter than ever and the creature of death might have started lurking around the corner to avenge her death again.
It is time to sleep now. Rest away their worries in a deep slumber.
The lamp is turned off by Huang Peng in the end.
"Goodnight." Qi Wei said as he pulled up his blanket to protect himself from the cold night wind.
"Mhm," Huang Peng answered.