Artifact Report

Chapter 73 Mai Minghe: The First Face
Ten minutes later, Mai Minghe found the fourth rule.

This rule is not easy to find; but finding it does not require any reasoning, just a little carefulness.

The fourth rule was hidden deep on the last page of the menu, at the bottom of the page below the various drink items. In ant-sized, thin, light, similar-colored font, it read: "Please do not touch diners' faces."

If Mai Minghe hadn't put her nose almost to the menu and looked at it carefully inch by inch, she might have missed it.

The next line of the rule is the definition of the face - "the guest's forehead including two eyebrows, a whole nose, left and right eyes, left and right cheeks, from the philtrum to the chin."

The seven faces she was looking for were the parts of the diners that couldn't be touched... which was quite relevant.

This also seems to explain why the diners look normal - if they looked like waiters, who knows whether the fleshy buds extending from their eye sockets would be considered part of their "face"?
Mai Minghe wrote down four rules on the slip of paper in his hand:
First, people are not allowed to sit at the central round table (?);
Second, you must eat when a diner invites you to eat (otherwise you have to pay a price, which is unknown. Considering that even Xiao Wei is unwilling to pay, it is best not to take the risk), but it seems that you cannot eat the food that the diner invites you to eat (so when Xiao Wei was invited to eat painful meat, she chose "broccoli"?);
Third, humans cannot touch Cowboy Sanchas products, otherwise they will die on the spot;
Fourth, you are not allowed to touch the faces of diners.

The rules were found, but Mai Minghe still didn't know what the hints and clues were, let alone guessing the hiding place of the seven faces.

Is there anything missing?
"What if I missed a clue because I didn't have enough time?"

She hurried back to the bathroom, opened the door, poked her head in, and asked loudly, "After all, I'm alone, and I have to question seventeen people—"

The back of the woman putting on makeup stood motionless in the corner of the bathroom, still holding a bright red lipstick in her hand.

"No, you haven't missed anything. All the clues have been given to you." It whispered, "Why, you can't even find a face?"

"...I'll find it." Mai Minghe wasn't sure if this was good news, so he asked, "After an hour and a half, can the diners attack me directly?"

"can."

Mai Minghe's heart trembled.

"Didn't I tell you? The longer time passes, the freer their movements will be. Starting from the fourth thirty minutes, all diners can move freely and attack you directly... I really want to see what that scene looks like." The woman who was putting on makeup smiled gently.

"So, I'd better find my face within the next hour?"

"If you want to live."

"What if I only found a certain piece of face after the fourth thirty minutes started, and they took it away? How would I resist and protect myself?"

Mai Minghe couldn't imagine the sight of the diners in the restaurant standing up to face her. She didn't even have a stick, and in such a small restaurant, there was nowhere to hide.

The woman in makeup and she, a community of interests on the same side, right? She deliberately used her face to make a fuss, perhaps the woman in makeup could provide her with some means of self-protection?
Mai Minghe had a good idea, but the other party's answer disappointed her.

"Don't worry about that. Now that the face is in your hands, the rules recognize it as your find. Just bring it back to me, because I need to start eating as soon as possible." The woman who was applying makeup whispered, "As for how you can protect yourself... Aren't you a hunter? Do you have to ask the residents for protection every time you enter a nest?"

She really wasn't a hunter—but Mai Minghe didn't say it.

"But aren't you afraid that I'll die outside before I can find my face?"

"If you die, the restaurant rules will be lifted, the mission will be canceled, and I can still reclaim my face." The makeup woman smiled softly. "Your death will be a huge source of nutrition. However, after the mission begins, we must all abide by the rules. Before you find your face, other diners can attack you, but after you find your face, they, like me, cannot kill you. Instead, they must send you off safely."

"So no matter what happens to me, you'll still be able to make a profit?" Mai Minghe smiled bitterly.

"The longer you spend looking for your face, the longer I'll be hungry. I'm working hard too," said the makeup woman. "You've already wasted five minutes. Wasting time is extremely disadvantageous to you. Why don't you go out and find your face quickly?"

Mai Minghe, who didn't even have the energy to curse, turned around and left without saying a word.

It turned out that the entire restaurant mission was a trap that trapped her.

For her, there are minefields and dangers everywhere. She has to rack her brains and take every step carefully. All she can earn is her own life, which is the best outcome. However, for the residents, the worst result is just to return to the original state.

She had encountered countless unpleasant things in her life, and this was probably in the top ten.

The world is unfair, and the nest is unfair too.

Mai Minghe quickly circled the restaurant several times, looking under tables, under chairs, and in every corner. She couldn't find a face anywhere. Although she knew the diners couldn't attack her just yet, she still avoided the table with the three women. While searching, she squatted down from the other side, looking under their tables from a distance.

After all, in the entire restaurant, they were the only table with only one fish.

If her second deduction was correct, then once the ladies invited her to eat fish, she was finished.

At that point, she is in a situation where she has to violate the second rule: she can neither not eat nor choose another food to eat.

Judging from the current situation, the consequence of violating the rules should undoubtedly be death; in other words, "the female guests invited me to eat fish" is basically a dead end, a checkmate.

So Mai Minghe not only stayed far away, but also avoided the gazes of the female guests and did not make any eye contact with them; but when she looked under the table, she saw nothing except six human legs.

...Half of the second thirty minutes has passed.

She took out the piece of toilet paper on which she had written the key words with an eyebrow pencil in the bathroom, compared the light brown handwriting with the black pen handwriting for a while, and put it away without a clue.

Otherwise, how about taking a look at the decorative wall?
Mai Minghe put away the note, walked across the dining area, and headed towards the decorative wall covered with photos and magazine clippings.

I don’t know what’s going on, but the food on some people’s tables is weird and disgusting, like the fish and “broccoli”; while the food on other people’s tables is not only normal, but even smells fragrant - like the plate of steaming tacos in the waiter’s hand.

"It took so long," the man with the earrings complained as the waiter placed six tacos on three people's plates.

At the table next to them, the Hantou couple fell into silence, one looking at one wall and the other at the other. Mai Minghe followed his wife's gaze and found that she was looking at her own reflection in the mirrored wall, with a lonely and somewhat melancholy look on her face.

Under the watchful eyes of the two waiters, Mai Minghe came to the decorative wall again.

As if to emphasize his relationship with celebrities, the faces of celebrities in every photo are clear and enlarged.

Most of the photos were taken when celebrities were dining in this restaurant, and the backgrounds were very familiar; names and dates were noted under the photos - of course, Mai Minghe didn't recognize any of them - many of the names were not even written in human language. When he looked at them, it was as if countless dark and twisted things were crawling from his eyeballs into his brain.

She didn't dare to look any further, her gaze resting on the human characters. Generally speaking, if a name is written in human language, the celebrity's appearance is similar to that of a human:

The photo, labeled "Pet shop owner, taken on June 2024, 6," shows a gloomy-looking middle-aged woman. The camera only captures her chest, making it unclear whether she is holding a pet.

In the photo titled "Robert Selges, Jr., Christmas Day 2025," a curly-haired man in his forties is seen putting his arm around a waiter's shoulder and smiling at the camera.
In the photo "Robbie Margaret, taken on August 2023, 8," a brown-eyed woman with a slender neck and delicate hairstyle tilted her head, smiling and clinking glasses with another non-human thing;
"Summer, died on September 2026, 9" - In this photo, a girl with a tense and pale face is sitting at table number four, about to reach for a taco on the table in front of her.

Watching it again, I still feel uncomfortable. They actually took a picture of the moment before Xia Tian died and posted it on the wall...

The clippings repeatedly mentioned "like" and "regret", and each word was tinged with twisted pleasure, as if her death was something that the residents of the nest could savor, play with, and relish forever.

Are all these disgusting things in the nest actually originated from humans?
Mai Minghe really didn't want to look any longer, so she turned around to leave; but before she took a step, she suddenly stopped and turned back.

Didn't the makeup woman say that things can be taken at will? Does that include photos?
Mai Minghe looked back at the waiter.

Behind the bar, those two uncomfortable faces were now staring directly at her, but they didn't say a word to stop her until she peeled off the photos and put them in her trouser pocket.

As expected...paper and pen can be taken away, and photos can be taken away too.

Since we can't bring Xia Tian's body back to Blackmore City, let her take this photo away.

Even if it is just the last image of his life, Xia Tian must want to go home.

Mai Minghe turned around again.

This time, she was about to take a step when she suddenly stopped.

…She found the first face.

　I'm so sleepy! I haven't slept well all week... I have to get up early tomorrow morning to catch the bus. Yes, I'm not taking the train, I'm taking the bus instead. I'm a migrant worker returning home because the music festival is in a remote place...

　　I'm taking a day off and won't be updating tomorrow. If you guys want to chat, that's fine. I'll try to finish a chapter the day after tomorrow morning before I go to the music festival!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)