Translator: Cinder Translations
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After enduring a series of setbacks, the Fatty suddenly felt like he had come to terms with it. Even if the expired patch was on his neck, he felt it wasn't a big deal.
"Doctor," the Fatty tilted his head and asked, "Is that woman in the qipao your boss?"
"Mm."
"What's her name?"
At this moment, Jiang Cheng also applied a pain relief patch to himself, walked to the opposite side of the Fatty, and sat down. "Lin Wan'er."
The Fatty thought for a moment. Her appearance matched her name, but the methods...
Suddenly, the Fatty shivered and then stared at Jiang Cheng, asking fearfully, "Will she come back after leaving for a while?"
Slowly swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Jiang Cheng raised his head and said, "No," then paused as if reconsidering, and added, "Generally, no."
Mentioning this woman seemed to make Jiang Cheng uncomfortable. The Fatty could clearly feel that the doctor was avoiding the topic of Lin Wan'er, and his gaze seemed distracted.
"Fatty," Jiang Cheng interrupted, sitting up straight, "Have you ever thought about what we can gain from nightmares?"
This sudden question threw the Fatty off. He was still thinking about Lin Wan'er and couldn't process the question right away. He blinked and asked, "What did you say?"
"Is it only white paper and newspapers?"
Jiang Cheng's words sounded like a self-reflection.
The roles of the white paper and newspapers were clear. The former could save a life, while the latter provided clues, but was that really all?
The Fatty fell silent. He looked at Jiang Cheng and understood that whenever the doctor asked such a question, it meant he already had an answer in mind, or at least a reasonable guess.
"Whether it's white paper or newspapers, they only work in the nightmare tasks. The difficulty of obtaining them is high, but there's only one use," Jiang Cheng looked at the Fatty, "Isn't that too harsh?"
"In other words, you worked hard to get these things, and even if you use them all in the next task, you might still die. So... why enter the task?"
The Fatty hesitated before speaking, "Doctor, we can't really choose whether to enter the task..."
At this point, the Fatty stopped abruptly, suddenly recalling how Jiang Cheng had entered the last task.
As long as you carry the clue newspapers, you can activate the corresponding nightmare task!
His eyes became vacant as he finally understood the doctor's words:
So why enter the task?
Actually, the doctor's statement was not entirely accurate. It should have been: 'why would anyone voluntarily choose to enter the nightmare?'
There was no apparent benefit, only the simple advance of the nightmare's arrival. Would anyone really do such a foolish thing?
But if something like this exists, it must have a reasonable explanation.
They needed to consider the motives of those who sought to voluntarily enter the nightmare.
The Fatty's gaze turned subtle.
They must have a purpose, and this purpose would certainly match the risks they were about to face!
People who repeatedly enter tasks are never fools. After all, fools wouldn't last long in a nightmare where not only ghosts can kill you.
"Doctor," the Fatty looked at Jiang Cheng, as if realizing something. He lowered his voice and said, "Could it be that their goal is to collect as many newspapers as possible, or even higher-priority white paper, and then provide them to the wealthy who need them?"
Jiang Cheng nodded. "That's possible, but not all of them."
Then Jiang Cheng proposed his own theory. He speculated that voluntarily choosing to enter the nightmare might reduce its difficulty or extend the time until the next nightmare arrived.
The Fatty nodded repeatedly.
But Jiang Cheng didn't seem to accept these answers. He still believed they were just peripheral issues, and the true core was yet to be uncovered.
"Alright, doctor," the Fatty comforted. "Whatever it is, we'll figure it out one day."
Jiang Cheng looked up, his triangular eyes staring at the Fatty. His head tilted, giving him a comical look.
The easygoing Fatty couldn't help but laugh.
"Doctor," he laughed and asked, "Why are you looking at me?"
"I'll definitely figure it out one day," Jiang Cheng said in a melodious tone, "But can you not be so happy about it? Don't get too ahead of yourself."
The Fatty immediately stopped laughing.
In the following days, the Fatty remained on edge. He feared, as the doctor had said, that he might never see the day when the truth was revealed.
And Jiang Cheng, having scared the Fatty, received his due punishment.
"Fatty," Jiang Cheng said emotionlessly while chewing on sweet and sour fish, "Did you mistake soy sauce for vinegar?"
"Did I, doctor?"
"Try it yourself."
Incidents like this frustrated Jiang Cheng so much that he couldn't even sleep well at night, threatening the Fatty that if it happened again, he'd order takeout, and the Fatty would have to pay for it.
"Doctor," the Fatty said while washing dishes, poking his head out of the kitchen. "Don't think about takeout; we don't have money."
Hearing this, Jiang Cheng, who was researching rich woman Liu Niuma, froze and shouted, "Don't you still have some? I saw them last time, and there were several red ones!"
The Fatty sighed.
Jiang Cheng immediately seemed to realize something and blurted out, "Didn't they get confiscated?"
The Fatty painfully nodded. "They were still in my pocket before Boss Lin came, but after she left, I never saw them again."
Chen Xiaomeng and the others would never have imagined that while Jiang Cheng was thriving in the nightmares, in real life, he was just a man struggling to make ends meet.
"Doctor," the Fatty asked, "After this meal, we'll have to eat frozen food from the fridge. But I just looked, and many of them are past their expiration dates, so I'm not sure..."
"Don't worry about the expiration dates," Jiang Cheng said. "They were expired when we bought them."
"Does Boss Lin not pay you?" the Fatty grumbled.
"She does," Jiang Cheng said. "But I still have to wait a few more days."
"Then what do you do when this happens?"
Jiang Cheng thought for a moment, took out his phone, opened a chat, and formally said to the phone, "Pi Ruan, please reply when you receive this."
Then—
Burp~
The Fatty, holding his stomach, let out a very satisfied burp.
The table was full of seafood shells and various dishes, but all that remained were the empty bottoms.
What pleased the Fatty the most was the fridge, which was now stuffed with all sorts of ingredients, all brought in by Pi Ruan with a single command, directly from the back kitchen of a five-star hotel.
After their meal, the two went to bed.
The Fatty slept in the living room, while Jiang Cheng stayed in the bedroom on the mattress.
While asleep, Jiang Cheng slowly stood up and, as usual, having lost control over his body walked down the stairs to the first floor. A pitch-black door stood in front of him.
After the light and shadow shifted, his feet landed firmly. In the dimness, he quickly recognized he was inside an empty building, and he held his breath as the sound of waves crashing echoed in his ears.
(End of the Chapter)
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Translated 4 Series, 1.5K+ Chapters and 1.78M+ Words.