Qi Yan followed Mrs. Xu to the corridor on the fourth floor, the corridor is located in the center of the floor, standing at the entrance of the corridor and looking at both sides, there are three rooms on the left hand side, four rooms on the right hand side, the bathrooms are distributed on both sides of the corridor, and there is a walkway between the kitchen and the living area.

It is a very old-fashioned apartment building layout, and the sound insulation effect is not particularly good at first glance.

Mrs. Xu led Qi Zhen to a suite on the innermost side on the left-hand side, with faded Spring Festival couplets and upside-down "Fu" pasted on both sides of the door.

On the door with peeling green paint hangs a poster of the girl group in the style of the end of the century, on the poster, the girls' faces have been cut off, the edges are very uneven, and the potted green has become the faces of the girl group, their eyes seem to be hidden in the mottled and chaotic green paint, secretly peeping at the guests' every move.

Everything in this apartment building seems calm and ordinary, but in the midst of it, you will find that the sense of order that belongs to the daily life has been broken, and these small details full of cult meanings attack the pleasure of travelers.

With a "creak", the door was pushed open, and the five travelers who were waiting silently in the room looked at the aisle in unison, and one of the young men who was white and pure suddenly stood up, and he looked at Qi Yan with wide eyes in disbelief: "Brother, why are you...?!" ”

The moment he saw Qi Xiaonian, Qi Yan breathed a sigh of relief, and he smiled casually: "It's a pity that I also came in." ”

Qi Xiaonian, who was looking at Qi Jiu, wanted to speak again, although he didn't want to see his brother being involved in the copy, it was undeniable that the moment he saw Qi Jiu, the uneasiness that had been hanging in his heart disappeared.

For those who have worked with Qi Research, Qi Research's existence itself is already a sign that can be reassuring.

In addition to Qi Xiaonian, there were four other players in this room, and judging from their worried looks, it seemed that they were all accidentally involved in the dungeon by a system bug.

Mrs. Xu's gaze fell on the old yellow calendar hanging on the wall, and her deep-set eyes narrowed slightly, and finally froze.

"I remember..."Suddenly, she said a word without warning, and at the same time hurriedly walked towards the old yellow calendar, and the sound of the paper being turned over made everyone puzzled-

"Fifteen, fifteen on the night of the reunion, they will come back..."Mrs. Xu's fingers stayed on the yellow calendar of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, her fingers trembled because of the emotional fluctuations, she turned her head to look at Qi Yan, "I remembered." ”

"If you hadn't asked a single question, I would have almost forgotten something so important... Thanks to you for bringing it up," muttered Mrs. Xu, tugging at her hand.

She answered the previous question, "I would like to ask when your family will come back."

Just when all the players were confused, the main quest of the system had been activated by Qi Jiu-

[Main quest update: Please help Mrs. Xu fulfill her wish and help her family return home before the fifteenth day to reunite]

Everyone was even more confused, because this mission was different from the previous time-limited survival book and faction confrontation book, and the main line sounded very warm and everyday, and even a little out of the style of the "rule book".

But after thinking about it, this task reveals an indescribable sense of weirdness, does the so-called family really exist? Just like this self-decaying apartment that is detached from reality, are Mrs. Xu's family still "safe and sound"?

Is the so-called "family" real family?

Mrs. Xu's eyes became hollow when she looked at Lao Huangli, but the corners of her lips raised a somewhat stiff smile: "Although they can only come back in fifteen, with your company, this year will be very lively." ”

"But the Chinese New Year is very busy, and a lot of work was done by children before, but now they are not there, so I can only trouble you."

As she spoke, Mrs. Xu opened the cabinet in the room that was painted light blue and took out seven pairs of Spring Festival couplets that had been dried: "I will leave the matter of pasting Spring Festival couplets to you." ”

"But, because this staff apartment is too old, there are more rules, and there are a few precautions in the process of pasting Spring Festival couplets, you have to be careful——"

"First, the Spring Festival couplets must not be crooked, and the upper and lower couplets must not be pasted in the wrong order, and the word blessing must be upside down, otherwise it will destroy the feng shui of the house and bring a whole year of bad luck."

"Second, the couplets must be posted in the right room, and sticking them on the door of the neighbor without permission will cause them to be angry, which will destroy the harmony of the neighborhood."

"Third, all apartment rooms must not be entered, even if it is the correct room that can be affixed with Spring Festival couplets, and it is not allowed to enter without the permission of the owner."

"Fourth, it's 1:40 p.m., starting at 2 o'clock, and the work of pasting the Spring Festival couplets must be completed within three hours, that is, it will end within 5 o'clock."

"Fifth, a room that has already been pasted with Spring Festival couplets does not need to be posted again, even if it is the "correct" room."

"Sixth, I don't need to post my room, I have to do it every year for me, it's the same."

"Seventh, there are two other groups of guests who are also busy preparing for the New Year, I hope that the guests can focus on the work at hand and not engage in ineffective communication, they don't need to know your work, and you are the same."

"Got it?" The old chaotic eyes rolled around the bones, and Mrs. Xu slowly looked at each guest.

Everyone didn't dare to pick up, and Qi Ji took the initiative to stand up: "Don't worry, we will definitely abide by the rules and prepare for the New Year, but I take the liberty of asking, I'm a little thirsty, where can I get something to drink?" ”

Mrs. Xu, who was in a trance, finally came back to her senses, and she patted her forehead: "Look at my memory, I said before to pour water for you, do you want room temperature water or hot tea?" ”

Qi Jiu: "Hot tea, thank you. ”

He deliberately chose a drink that required some work clothes, and temporarily supported Mrs. Xu to gain time for discussion.

"I'll go get ready." As she spoke, Mrs. Xu walked towards the kitchen.

Qi Xiaonian was busy with Qi Xiaonian, who arrived first, to confirm the situation of the copy, and Qi Xiaonian concisely introduced the currently known clues: "Before you came, fifteen players were indeed involved in bugs here, and we were placed in three rooms in groups of five, which is estimated to be related to the preparation of Chinese New Year's Eve." ”

"And based on what we've learned before, Mrs. Xu seems to own several properties here, and I guess she and her so-called family are scattered across different floors of the apartment."

"This old apartment has a total of five floors, and there are seven rooms on each floor, so there are a total of thirty-five rooms, and the rules mention that you can exclude the rooms that have been posted with Spring Festival couplets, but in fact, only our three rooms are pasted with Spring Festival couplets, excluding the guest rooms, there are still thirty-two rooms to be confirmed." Qi Xiaonian spoke quickly but methodically, and synchronized the information he had already mastered to Qi Ji in the shortest possible time.

"So we have to find out as soon as possible what Mrs. Xu meant by "correct room." Another player suggested.

Qi Jiu: "Mrs. Xu mentioned that the act of posting Spring Festival couplets without permission will cause anger among neighbors, so the meaning of "correct" should mean that Spring Festival couplets can only be pasted on the door of Mrs. Xu and her family's house. ”

"Actually, this task is quite good, as soon as it came up, it directly allowed us to identify the room coordinates of Mrs. Xu's family through the Spring Festival couplets, which greatly improved the efficiency of the pass." Qi Yan seemed to be very satisfied with the task he received.

Qi Xiaonian: "But how can we quickly confirm which rooms belong to Mrs. Xu's family now?" ”

Qi Yan looked at the back of Mrs. Xu, who was busy in the kitchen: "She has a bunch of keys in her pocket, since the family lives in an apartment... It is likely that Mrs. Xu has the spare keys for everyone. ”

"So if you go to test the door through the key, what you can open is Mrs. Xu's family's room, which is what she called the "correct" room!" Qi Xiaonian instantly understood what Qi Zhen was referring to, but he quickly said worriedly, "The rules mention that all rooms must not be entered, and it doesn't matter if you insert the key to try the door?" ”

Qi Jiu: "It's not a big problem, the rules only mention "no rash entry without the permission of the owner", and there is no prohibition on unlocking, as long as we don't step into the room without permission." ”

"Xiao Nian, when you were in Exile No. 1, I remember that you had stolen props, and you behaved very well at that time." Qi Yan turned to Qi Xiaonian and smiled, "I don't know if your technology has improved." ”

When he was exiled to No. 1 Middle School, Qi Yan obtained the identity of a faculty member, and the student players, including Qi Xiaonian, carried out a key theft plan against Teacher Qi, and Qi Yan also played all the student players with bad taste, Qi Xiaonian still remembers this vividly.

"I understand, I'll leave the task of stealing the key to me," Qi Xiaonian immediately understood what Qi Yan meant, and nodded, "I can give it a try." ”

"But you'll have to help distract Mrs. Xu, and preferably make her willing to take the key off her body, so that the success rate of stealing will be greatly increased."

Qi Jiu: "Don't worry, I still like to do things for NPCs." ”

As he spoke, he took out his mobile phone, I don't know if it was because of the bug, the phone was not "confiscated" by the copy, but fortunately it was put in his pocket.

Qi Zhen flipped through the call log, and just a few minutes ago, he was "invited" to enter the copy through Mrs. Xu's call, rounding off, he had Mrs. Xu's personal phone number.

The previously unknown number showed a strange string of characters in the call log, and Qi Zhen tried to press the call back button.

"Beep-" came from the phone.

At the same time, there was a rapid telephone ringing of "jingle bell, jingle bell" from the other side of the apartment corridor, because the sound insulation of the old house was really bad, and the telephone ringing almost alarmed the entire apartment.

Mrs. Xu, who was making tea in the kitchen, was stunned, then hurriedly wiped her hands and trotted towards the room where the phone was ringing.

I saw Mrs. Xu hurriedly take out the key in her pocket and insert it into the door lock of room 401 written at the end of the corridor on the right, and with a "click", the door opened.

The phone kept ringing, and Mrs. Xu didn't even have time to unplug the keychain on the door, so she hurriedly entered the house and connected the phone: "Hey? Hello? ”

Qi Yan on the other end of the corridor held the phone and didn't make a sound.

"Hello? Who are you looking for? Mrs. Hui did not immediately hang up the phone when she received no response, and for her, contact with the outside world seemed to be important, and she was reluctant to cut off this strange call.

At the same time, Qi Xiaonian had already acted swiftly, he first copied the key by duplicating props, and then easily put the keychain inserted outside the 401 door into the inventory inventory.

Through this dialing, Qi Yan also confirmed that room 401 is likely to be Mrs. Xu's own room, and there is no need to paste the house number of the Spring Festival couplets.

"Hey, can you hear me?" Mrs. Xu asked cautiously.

It wasn't until Qi Xiaonian and Qi Ju exchanged glances and signaled that the keychain had arrived, and Qi Ju immediately changed his voice: "Sorry, I made a mistake." ”

With that, he hung up.

But after successfully getting Mrs. Xu's keychain, everyone was stunned again.

Because there are a total of nine keys on the keychain, even if Mrs. Xu's room is excluded, there are still eight left.

But they only need to put Spring Festival couplets on the doors of the seven rooms.

Why an extra key? Isn't one of the keys used to open the door?

Or... Is there a room that is a trap for them?

Chapter 184: Year (3)

Everyone didn't have time to think about it, and time pushed them forward, and in a blink of an eye, it was already two o'clock in the afternoon.

[The main quest has officially begun: Please follow Mrs. Xu's requirements to paste the Spring Festival couplets in the right way]

[Mission duration: 3h (...?) ）】

Behind the task panel that shows the duration, there is a string of garbled characters, and the players sense that something is wrong.

The old-fashioned wall clock on the wall struck twice, Mrs. Xu put down the phone and brought tea into the house, and after looking at the time, she smiled silently at everyone: "The winter day is short, everyone hurry up and work, it will be inconvenient when it gets dark." ”

"Tick, tick..."

The room was completely silent, and the sound of the minute hand turning was particularly abrupt.

"Why doesn't the flow of time look right?" One of the young men with pink and white hair looked at the clock dial and wondered.

The smile on Mrs. Xu's face expanded: "So I said that the winter days are short, and the daytime is very precious, so please stick these seven pairs of Spring Festival couplets outside the correct apartment door as soon as possible, Chinese New Year's Eve will come soon." ”

【Please note! The system has detected that the time flow rate of the mission point has been modified by the dungeon, so please use the time in the dungeon to complete the task on time.

"Brother, the speed of time here is six times that of normal time." Qi Xiaonian observed for a few seconds and said in a deep voice, "In other words, the three-hour mission time is actually only half an hour. ”

"And the order of these couplets is messed up, and the writing order of the horizontal batches is not uniform, some are from left to right, and some are from right to left, which is related to the left and right positions of the upper and lower couplets." One of the female teacher-looking teammates frowned.

Qi Zhen nodded and proposed, "Let's go our separate ways, one person is responsible for sorting out the order of the couplets, and the other five people will find out the other eight rooms except Mrs. Xu's room first." ”

The players agreed with Qi Yan's proposal, so the six of them began to act separately, among which the female teacher-like teammate was responsible for sorting out the mixed couplets in order, and then found the left and right correspondence through the writing order of the upper couplet, and the remaining five people were each assigned a key in their hands, and each looked for a room that could be opened in this apartment, of which Qi Xiaonian and Qi Yan were assigned two.

Mrs. Xu, who was wearing a red cheongsam, stood under the ticking wall clock, her hands folded in front of her, and her dry and sagging cheeks were stacked together because of her smile: "Thank you for your hard work, pay attention, try not to make too much noise when pasting Spring Festival couplets, this building is old and doesn't like to be disturbed." ”

So everyone had to tiptoe quickly to the staircase, and with the lightest movements, the fastest speed to find the door that matched the key.

The apartment building has five floors, a total of 35 rooms, the door is uniformly painted with gray lacquered wooden doors, the bathrooms on both sides of the corridor are pasted with white tiles, although because of the long service life, the tiles of the bathroom have been mottled and peeled off, but it is rare that the bathroom is dilapidated but very clean, and does not even emit any smell.

Not only the bathrooms, but also the entire apartment building, whether it is the gray-green painted doors, window frames and guardrails, or the cement corridors plastered with various small advertisements and missing person notices, all present the unique gray-green background of the buildings of the last century.

Cheap and exaggerated plastic daily necessities are scattered all over the apartment, making this gray-green apartment brightly decorated at once, and the original high-saturation cheap plastic color has become the most unique symbol of that era.

The dead apartment building is dilapidated, but the surroundings are very clean, and it seems that someone has been cleaning it.

There are neatly stacked cans everywhere in the walkway, it seems that a resident is collecting waste and is about to sell it for money, there are several pots of hardy plants growing vigorously on the terrace, and toys belonging to children are also packed up in the corner of the walkway, and the traces of life are mottled, as if this is not an abandoned old building, but the residents of the building have evaporated overnight.

And the players who are racing against the clock to insert the key into the door lock are like a group of absurd intruders for a moment.

Time is pressing, no one wants to talk nonsense, and there is a sound of rustling upstairs at the same time, it should be the other two teams of players mentioned by Qi Xiaonian who have started their mission.

The sound insulation of the old building is poor, and Qi Ji, who is performing tasks in the building, hears all kinds of trivial and noisy sounds, and the sound of pots and bowls colliding, chopping meat and entering the water is particularly distinct, and Qi Ji guesses that the task of a team of players should be to prepare the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner.