My chat group is full of female losers

Chapter 367 Unable to handle

Inside the imperial study, Chu Lu dismissed his attendants and sat down alone, his expression slightly annoyed.

The unexpected departure of Tian Shu, and the new crisis lurking around Xie Gu Hong... one trouble after another, like spider silk, fell on him, trying to trap him.

Unfortunately, he's not the female lead and can't solve problems by cursing, otherwise he would be spewing profanities right now.

"Ha..." Chu Lu let out a long breath, calming his agitated mood, and then began to think seriously.

After a moment, he said to Qin Su in his mind, "Going directly to Xie Guhong's place is still too dangerous. After all, Fei Wu is nearby, and she won't let us leave. Let's think of a safer way."

"What method?" Qin Su asked.

Chu Lu stood up and paced back and forth in the hall, trying to clear his mind: "Why don't we focus on finding Tian Shu first, and deal with that female lead after we've maxed out our correction value? Anyway, the fragment is on the Longevity Lock, not the baby itself. Even if something happens to him, as long as we can find out where he is, it'll be fine."

"No." Qin Su's tone was grave. "We don't have time. There are no clues about Tian Shu right now. How long will it take you to find it at your own pace? And although the fragment is on the Longevity Lock, can you guarantee that you'll find it once it's lost? If the clues are lost, even if you can defeat Fei Wu, how much time will it take you to find the fragment?"

The organization isn't paying attention to this instance right now because Fei Wu wants to claim all the credit, so she's keeping it a secret for us. Once Fei Wu suffers a crushing defeat, she'll have no need or ability to hide it anymore. How will you ensure that you find the fragment before the organization notices anything amiss then?

"Chu Lu," Qin Su emphasized again, "we don't have time."

Chu Lu stopped and proposed another plan: "Then send someone else? Let Huo Qi lead a team of elites to infiltrate... No, that won't work."

Before Qin Su could speak, he rejected the idea himself: "Huo Qi is, after all, a native of the dungeon. It's impossible for him to win against the female lead."

He fell silent. After a long while, he slowly exhaled a breath of stale air and said, "So, there really isn't a better way?"

“Hmm,” Qin Su said, “That’s all. Immediately head to Xie Guhong’s territory, rescue the baby, and obtain the fragment. As for the correction value, obtain it from Xie Guhong. As the protagonist of the instance, he is sufficient to replace Tian Shu. This is the only way to break the deadlock.”

Chu Lu closed his eyes and remained silent for a while, then slowly opened them and said without hesitation, "Since that's the case, let's do it that way."

Although the plan was set, new problems immediately emerged.

Chu Lu sat back down at the table, his brow furrowed. "But even if I were willing to take the risk, things wouldn't be that simple. First, I need a reason. I am the emperor, and it would be too unusual for me to suddenly request to leave the capital for the frontier. I need a suitable reason. Of course, this isn't difficult; I can just make one up. Now that things have come to this, the ministers naturally wouldn't dare to disobey me."

"The question is, is Fei Wu willing?"

That's the crux of the problem. If he acts rashly, he might not even be able to leave the capital before being killed on the spot by Fei Wu.

Qin Su's expression turned serious when she heard this question.

"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated." Chu Lu took a deep breath. "Qin Su, tell me everything you know about Fei Wu."

"My knowledge of ministerial-level figures is very limited." Qin Su's tone was somewhat helpless. "I can only tell you some basic information. Fei Wu is the female protagonist of an extremely long transmigration novel. She has experienced many worlds, and her ministerial-level female protagonist aura is far stronger than others. In terms of ability, she can almost be described as omnipotent."

"As for her personality, she is quite different from the other leading ladies we have encountered before."

"What's the difference?"

“She’s closer to… a gender-swapped version of the so-called sexually intense male protagonist in old-fashioned romance novels.” Qin Su gave a strange description. “The rest, I really don’t know.”

"Gender-swapped male protagonists in female-oriented novels?" Chu Lu was stunned for a moment, completely unable to imagine what that was.

However, he quickly came to his senses and thought that since Qin Su was no good, he would have to do it himself.

He immediately summoned Huo Qi and ordered him to dispatch his most elite spies to find out Fei Wu's whereabouts and daily activities in the capital without alerting the target.

Huo Qi was extremely efficient, and Fei Wu didn't seem to be making any effort to conceal her whereabouts. Within two days, a detailed report was presented.

Chu Lu unfolded the secret report, and the more he read it, the stranger his expression became.

The report stated that Fei Wu occupied the most luxurious villa in the east of the city, but she seemed to only spend half an hour a day eliminating dungeon characters, and the rest of her time was spent... hunting for beauties everywhere?
From dashing young noblemen to valiant imperial guards officers, and handsome young scholars, she visited almost every man in the capital with a modicum of good looks. Her audacious style and frivolous words left even the secret agents on her watch speechless.

She dressed up in a flamboyant way that morning, her figure radiating youthful energy, which attracted the attention of the Imperial Guard captain. She then teased him with a smile, saying, "Brother, don't look. I'm really not wearing anything underneath. Don't tell anyone, okay?"

At noon, she recited poems with the young scholar, her fingertips brushing against the back of his hand, her face beaming with smiles.

In the afternoon, they took out hemp rope...

I won't say more, but in the end, without exception, they all ended up in bed together.

"What kind of nonsense is this?" Chu Lu slammed the report on the table, feeling his worldview shattered. "What is she even here for? What's going on in her head?!"

"I already said it, she's a gender-swapped version of the male protagonist in female-oriented romance novels," Qin Su calmly retorted. "And that's exactly what those male protagonists are like."

"They're all so greasy they're terrifying. If you randomly grab one of them and juice them, the oil produced could probably equal the world's annual oil consumption. Even mold would drool over them."

"They're either having sex or flirting all day long, it's even more exaggerated than male-oriented harem novels, and Fei Wu is naturally in the same style. That's why it took her so many days after arriving in the capital to kill so many people."

"If she were focused on her work, she would have come here to kill you long ago."

Chu Lu's eyes twitched as he listened, finding it both outrageous and bizarre.

However, no matter what, this kind of character setting for Fei Wu is actually a good thing for him.

So he endured his discomfort and began to think of a solution.

After much deliberation, he decided to be on the safe side and test Fei Wu's bottom line first.

He secretly summoned a vice minister of the Ministry of Works and gave him a secret mission—to go to the south to investigate the accounts of a gold mine.

The order was somewhat abrupt, but not particularly outrageous. After receiving the order, the official left the capital with his entourage the next day.

However, Chu Lu received a report the following afternoon.

The official's carriage was found on the official road outside the city. The official and his more than ten guards were all brutally murdered, and not even a single intact piece of their clothing could be found.

When the news reached the palace, Chu Lu looked solemn and remained silent.

“Simple and crude methods just won’t work,” Chu Lu said to Qin Su. “We have to cover it up.”

How to cover it up?

"Let's try using a stunt double first."

In the following days, Chu Lu secretly summoned three ministers, gave them three different secret missions, and arranged several teams of doubles in an attempt to confuse the public.

However, the result was still a crushing defeat.

The three ministers and their doubles were wiped out not long after leaving the capital.

Fei Wu seemed too lazy to distinguish between real and fake, and simply eliminated all suspicious targets.

"Report the details." After learning the results, Chu Lu ordered expressionlessly, "How they were discovered, how they died, and any unusual occurrences in the surrounding area—not a single detail can be missed."

After these contents were presented, he read them carefully, trying to deduce Fei Wu's abilities from them.

However, there was no clue. The wounds on the deceased's body were too bizarre to deduce how they were inflicted, and there were no signs of a struggle nearby.

As for how to find their trail, there are absolutely no clues.

Fei Wu seems to have an ability to easily spot anyone trying to leave, then easily chase after them and kill them one by one.

"What the hell..." Chu Lu rubbed his temples, his head aching. "How did she do that? What kind of cheat code does she have? Qin Su, don't you have a single clue?"

"No..." Qin Su paused, then explained, "Many female protagonist novels probably aim to uphold the idea that women are born strong and do not need external forces, so they often do not have particularly obvious cheat codes, but are closer to the idealistic halo of getting whatever they want."

For example, in school, even someone with a poor foundation can become a top scorer in the middle school or college entrance exams just by casually studying. Practicing a little Taekwondo makes you invincible, and even more absurdly... do you remember Sae-bae?

“I remember.” Chu Lu immediately recalled, his expression subtle. “The first female lead I met. I still can’t understand it now. How could an ordinary person catch a bullet with her bare hands and smash a car with one punch? That’s too ridiculous.”

Qin Su explained, "Yes, that's one of the characteristics of a strong female lead. She gets whatever she wants. Logic doesn't matter. Sha Pei wanted to be Superman, so she became Superman. Fei Wu is the same type, and then there's the fact that her story is a long, fast-paced transmigration novel; she's experienced many worlds and situations, so naturally she wants many abilities, and therefore..."

Chu Lu added, "So that's why you don't know what her abilities are?"

"Ah."

"Ha." Chu Lu sighed, but then patted his face and cheered himself up. "But sitting here waiting isn't a solution. Let's keep probing; maybe we'll discover some flaws or weaknesses."

Over the next few days, he tried various methods. He had spies dig tunnels out of the city, disguised himself as a laborer transporting swill to sneak out of the city gates, and smuggled himself across the border on cargo ships...

Without exception, all of them failed.

Inside the imperial study, Chu Lu looked at the pile of secret memorials on the imperial desk and felt a sense of powerlessness.

"What are you planning to do next?" Qin Su asked worriedly.

"Let's stop for a while," Chu Lu said, leaning back on the dragon throne. "Continuing like this will only be a waste of lives."

Meanwhile, at the South City Villa.

Inside the luxurious bedroom, gauze curtains hung low on the warm jade bed. A handsome man lay on the bed, his face flushed, his breathing rapid, and he was bound in a shameful position with hemp rope.

Fei Wu, draped only in a thin, gossamer-thin veil, leaned lazily against the window, holding a glass of scarlet wine and gently swirling it.

"That little mouse seems to have calmed down these past few days." She looked out the window at the moonlight and smiled knowingly.

She was naturally referring to Chu Lu. She had already noticed his repeated attempts to send people out of the capital these past few days and had roughly guessed that there must be a hidden reason behind it.

However, she didn't care at all.

"It would be best if things just calmed down completely." She downed the wine in her glass in one gulp, a hint of impatience flashing in her eyes. "Otherwise, if you annoy me and ruin my enjoyment of the beauty, then I'll have no choice but to kill him first."

Setting down her wine glass, she turned to look at the man on the bed, her eyes becoming alluring again: "My beauty, I'm here."

########
Late at night, in the royal palace bedroom.

Chu Lu tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.

Finally, he simply stopped sleeping and sat up.

"Qin Su, are you still awake?" he asked.

"What's wrong? What do you want to say?" Qin Su asked.

“You said before that this was the only way,” he said. “But we can’t even leave the capital now. Is this really more reliable than going to find Tian Shu? When you made that suggestion, did you consider Fei Wu’s blockade?”

“Of course there are, but the problem is that Tian Shu may not necessarily be in the capital,” Qin Su explained. “If he escapes to another place, you still need to find a way to break through Fei Wu’s blockade. The result will be the same.”

Qin Su's explanation was quite reasonable, and Chu Lu couldn't refute it, so he could only sigh. He walked to the round table, casually picked up the secret reports he had brought from the Imperial Study, and muttered to himself in bewilderment as he read them: "This is really bizarre. What kind of ability is this? The female lead can get whatever she wants... But what kind of female-oriented plot would she have to go through to want this kind of ability? To prevent the little sun male lead she imprisoned in the basement and forced to love from escaping..."

Suddenly, his voice stopped abruptly, and his brows furrowed tightly.

“No…” He sat up straight and carefully compared the several secret reports in his hand. “No, no, no!”

"What's wrong?" Qin Su asked in surprise upon seeing this.

"The death toll is wrong!" Chu Lu said. "I compared the previous counts and carefully counted them, and I found that one person is missing!"

"Among the group that dug the tunnel, one of the men who was responsible for keeping watch on the outside has disappeared! His body was not found, and the secret report did not explain his whereabouts."

Qin Su was stunned upon hearing this.

The two then looked at each other and realized how important this was.

"Someone come here!" Chu Lu immediately put on his outer robe and rushed out of the palace.

The young eunuch on night duty was startled and immediately knelt down.

Chu Lu remained expressionless, speaking rapidly: "Immediately! Right now! Summon Huo Qi! Tell him to come see me!"

A moment later, Huo Qi rushed over.

Chu Lu told him what she had discovered and asked in a deep voice, "What exactly is going on?"

Huo Qi was naturally unaware of this, and he was shocked, repeatedly admitting his dereliction of duty.

"This is not the time to talk about this!" Chu Lu ordered. "Go and investigate immediately! At all costs, find out where that missing person went! Whether he is alive or dead!"

"Your subordinate obeys the order!" Huo Qi accepted the command and quickly withdrew.

After Huo Qi left, Qin Su said impatiently, "Chu Lu, this might be a breakthrough."

"Well, but don't get too excited yet." Chu Lu returned to his palace, having regained his composure. "It might just be an accident. We should wait for Huo Qi to investigate first."

However, although Chu Lu spoke calmly, he took off his coat, lay down on the bed, and stopped tossing and turning, seemingly trying to fall asleep as soon as possible.

Huo Qi was extremely efficient. By the afternoon of the next day, he had figured out the situation and even found the survivor, and came to report to Chu Lu.

After listening to Huo Qi's report, Chu Lu's expression was extremely strange. He asked Huo Qi, "What you said... is it all true?"

Huo Qi, with an expression that said, "This is indeed outrageous, it's normal if you don't believe me," nodded solemnly: "Your Majesty, it is absolutely true."

Chu Lu leaned back in his chair and recalled Huo Qi's report.

His story was simple. The surviving handyman was named Wang Ergou, and he survived purely by luck. When the tunnel was discovered, the spies in charge of the operation died instantly, but Wang Ergou, being lazy, secretly hid in a corner, covered himself with a straw mat, and took a nap.

To be fair, the hiding place was rather rudimentary, and a few more glances would have revealed it. However, Fei Wu seemed to be in a great hurry and left in a rush without checking much.

As for the reason for her departure, Huo Qi made a bold guess based on the reports from the spies monitoring Fei Wu. The reason Fei Wu was in such a hurry to leave was because she was having sex with a handsome man in the villa at that time, and she took the opportunity to kill someone in the middle of it, so naturally she was in a hurry to go back and continue.

After recalling everything, Chu Lu had only one thought in his mind.

—Is this idiot addicted?
However, Chu Lu felt a sense of relief at that moment.

He couldn't help but wonder: if that's the case, could we take advantage of this?
He immediately decided to try again.

Chu Lu ordered Huo Qi in front of him: "Make the arrangements again. The reason is to transport a batch of classified military equipment to the border. Prepare a very inconspicuous freight wagon, and set up a hidden compartment at the bottom of the wagon. It must be well concealed so that no flaws can be seen from the outside."

“Pick another pawn and have him hide in that compartment. Tell him he must not come out, and he must not make a sound. He should act as if he were dead.”

"We will set off when the time comes to choose the concubines for a final, decadent feast."

Although Huo Qi was puzzled, he still accepted the order and left.

Chu Lu waited anxiously in the imperial study.

The next day, the good news arrived!

The soldier responsible for hiding survived! Just like last time, Fei Wu was too lazy to carefully check the scene and left in a hurry.

"It actually succeeded..." Chu Lu's expression was very strange at this moment. A strong sense of absurdity welled up from his heart, as if he had encountered a big white-browed tiger in the wild and thought it was going to be a fierce battle, but then suddenly heard someone call it Gong Baiwan.

“These female protagonists are really…” Chu Lu paused, seemingly searching for the right word. After thinking for a long time, he finally uttered two words, “Outrageous!”

"I thought Fei Wu was different, but it turns out there's no difference. They're all idiots!"

At this moment, Qin Su urged, "Chu Lu, there's no time to lose. Now that we've found a solution, let's act as soon as possible."

Chu Lu nodded and was about to give the order to prepare, but the moment he stood up, a strong sense of unease flashed through his mind without warning.

—It's going too smoothly. Too smoothly for some reason.

He suddenly realized something and stopped moving.

"No," he said to Qin Su in his heart, "I need to test her one more time."

He sat down again and instructed Huo Qi to make the arrangements once more.

“This time, let’s change the person in charge of hiding,” Chu Lu said. “Let’s change it to…”

Chu Lu consulted Qin Su in his mind and then suggested a character with a relatively large role in the original work.

Huo Qi immediately accepted the order and carried it out.

After Huo Qi left, Qin Su couldn't help but ask in confusion, "Why do we need to test her again? Haven't we already confirmed it? If we test her too many times, it might alert Fei Wu and cause her to change her strategy!"

Chu Lu did not explain his guess, but vaguely said, "I still feel it's not safe enough. I'll confirm it again for peace of mind."

You're overthinking it.

"I hope so," Chu Lu said softly. "Anyway, we're just waiting for this one. If we pass smoothly again, then I won't think too much about it and will go myself. But if we fail, then we'll be in trouble..."

However, what Chu Lu feared happened.

The next day, Huo Qi came to report with a solemn expression.

"What's wrong?" Chu Lu's heart sank when he saw this.

Huo Qi spoke with difficulty: "Your Majesty, everyone has perished, even those hiding in the interlayer were not spared."

"What?!" Qin Su exclaimed in surprise.

Chu Lu remained unusually calm. He waved his hand, signaling Huo Qi to leave first.

After Huo Qi left, he slowly leaned back in his chair and said softly, "Just as I thought."

"What exactly happened?" Qin Su asked anxiously.

"It's actually quite simple," Chu Lu explained. "Fei Wu isn't as stupid as we think. She always knew she'd missed someone. It's just that those she missed before were all insignificant little people, so she was too lazy to go back and finish them off."

"This time, we changed to a character with a bit more weight, and she took the opportunity to deliver the final blow."

Qin Su was stunned, then filled with regret: "How could this happen..."

“That’s more like it.” Chu Lu accepted it readily. “Otherwise, I would find it hard to imagine that a female lead at the ministerial level would have such low intelligence. It would also be hard to understand why she could easily spot any group trying to leave the capital, but not someone hiding so clumsily.”

“But…” Qin Su rallied from her frustration, “No matter what, there’s no doubt that she’s a lecher! We can think of other ways to break through…”

"I'm afraid it's too late," Chu Lu interrupted her.

Qin Su was taken aback: "Why?"

“Since she’s not stupid, after these tests, she must have realized that I’m determined to escape the capital, and she must have also discovered her existence long ago.” Chu Lu’s thinking was very clear. “If nothing unexpected happens, she should come to find me tonight… no, she might even be on her way now.”

"Even if she has OCD, or underestimates me too much, and still wants to follow her pace and slowly kill the other characters, there's not much time left. We've already spent a lot of time figuring out how to escape, and a lot of people have died in the process. It's about time it was my turn."

Chu Lu paused for a moment, then continued, "So, either today, or at most in two days, we should officially meet Fei Wu."

Qin Su was stunned; she was only now realizing this.

"Wait, then," she said, somewhat flustered, "what should we do?"

"Unless we can suddenly think of a better solution, we'll probably just have to deal with whatever comes our way." Chu Lu answered without hesitation, clearly having already considered this issue.

"Her goal is to force out the group owner. So when the time comes, as long as we find a way to make her believe that killing me is more effective than using me in drawing out the group owner, we might be able to avoid a direct conflict, and then... we'll see when the time comes."

"This is the only way," Qin Su said worriedly. "Hopefully, I can fool her as easily as last time."

Their conversation came to an end.

Afterwards, Chu Lu waited quietly for Fei Wu to arrive, but she did not appear even after waiting until evening.

As night deepened, he didn't want to wait any longer, so he stood up and returned to his palace alone.

After changing his clothes and lying in bed, he didn't actually intend to fall asleep.

After all, Fei Wu could appear at any time, so falling asleep was no different from suicide.

Moreover, although Chu Lu was limited by the emperor's body and could not fully display his cultivation strength, he still had more than enough energy to not sleep.

However, as soon as he lay down, an unusually strong drowsiness suddenly rushed out, grabbing the unsuspecting Chu Lu and pulling him into sleep.

Chu Lu didn't even have time to struggle before his consciousness began to fade.

Just as he was about to fall into darkness, a familiar pulling sensation came again.

Chu Lu was startled.

—Wait, this is…a dream? That strange dream about Xie Mingshu! No, why is it here tonight?

In the past, this dream would only appear when he had dealt with a powerful female lead and his mind was slightly relaxed. But now, he was in the most dangerous moment, so why did it come uninvited?

But before Chu Lu could figure it out, points of light appeared in front of him, and the dream began to unfold.

(End of this chapter)