Artifact Report

Chapter 76 Mai Minghe: Escape from Death and Get Chestnuts from the Fire

Mobile phones are really amazing nowadays. Even the image in the mirror is bright and clear, just like what you see with the naked eye. Mai Minghe looked at the photo a few more times and was finally convinced: in the reflection of the mirror, the female guest wearing glasses did have a pair of black eyebrows.

But... she remembered that when she first saw the lady wearing glasses, she clearly had a pair of light brown eyebrows.

Compared with its own appearance and the reflection in the mirror, there was a difference in the color of its eyebrows... Mai Minghe could only think of one reason to explain this difference.

Between the two pairs of eyebrows inside and outside the mirror, there is always one pair that belongs to the woman who is putting on makeup.

The black eyebrows in the mirror, not to mention that it is a reflection, can always follow the woman with glasses, as if they can't be taken out; judging by the color, they can't belong to a woman who is putting on makeup.

The piece of toilet paper in Mai Minghe's pocket, with the instructions written on it, was still stained with light brown handwriting—the very same handwriting she'd written with the eyebrow pencil a woman might use when applying makeup. Logically, someone with thick, dark eyebrows wouldn't use light brown eyebrow pencil when applying makeup, right?

Therefore, it should be that the female guest wearing glasses somehow "worn" the eyebrow patch of the woman who was putting on makeup on her own forehead; the different colors reflected in the mirror should be a clue.

It makes sense intellectually, but that doesn't mean you can relax.

Mai Minghe took two deep breaths, but did not relax at all. Instead, sweat oozed out of his palms.

Who can guarantee that this matter is not a bomb containing "death" that will blow her into pieces if touched?

She glanced again in the direction of the wife.

"Are you scared?" A few steps away, the wife twisted in her seat and whispered to her, "It seems you guessed it right. Guessing it makes you scared. It's okay. Think about the rules carefully. Go quickly."

...Using your own life to test the scope of application of that rule?
Interestingly enough, the illusion on her body gave her a second life, but it also tied her to a high-altitude sling.

A vast and unfamiliar world unfolds before your eyes, but the ground beneath your feet is shaky and precarious, and every step is between life and death.

Perhaps she should have considered herself dead a long time ago.

I just want to be reborn, but I dare not and am unwilling to die first, so how can I be "reborn"?

Mai Minghe had made up her mind, but before she acted, she still carefully looked at the faces of every diner in the restaurant, just in case: among the diners, some had black eyebrows, some had dark brown eyebrows, and there were several pairs of light gold and orange eyebrows, but the only pair that matched the color of the eyebrow pencil of the woman putting on makeup was the pair on the face of the woman wearing glasses.

It seems that no matter what, we have to take risk.

She walked straight to the other end of the restaurant without looking around, not even at the three female guests who were looking forward to her.

You can't touch diners' faces... If you break this rule, you'll probably end up like Xia Tian.

So, what she is going to do next is both simple and difficult.

Mai Minghe lowered her head and pretended to look at her phone, fiddling with it for a while. Outwardly, she might look no different from any other young person looking down at their phone, but in reality, she only felt that the screen was a blur with a cold sweat on the edge. Her palms were wet and hot, and she had to hold the phone carefully to prevent it from slipping.

At some point, she rushed out without any warning.

The phone made a "bang" sound when it hit the ground, nailing the end of that second to the ground where she started; that second stretched forward with her rushing footsteps, becoming particularly long.

The action she had been rehearsing over and over in her mind turned into a blur of white. When Mai Minghe was about to run past the seat of the female passenger with glasses, she suppressed her timidity of wanting to just run straight past and do nothing, and in the sound of the wind, she reached out her hand to the female passenger with glasses.

With a "pa" sound, Mai Minghe slapped the other person on the forehead.

Then, she pinched her five fingers inward.

From suddenly throwing away her phone and running away to slapping the bespectacled female customer on the forehead, it actually only took a breath - because Mai Minghe knew that her only chance of winning was limited to one word, "fast".

Once the woman with glasses realized what was happening, as long as she turned her head slightly and touched her hand with her cheek, she and her second life would be over.

Between his clenched fingers, Mai Minghe felt as if he had grabbed something.

She didn't dare look at the table at all. She raised her arm and kept moving until she was about to hit the bar at the other end, then she finally braked.

Bending down, the restaurant, bar, and waiters were all swept to the other side of the world by the noisy white noise.

She listened to her heartbeat, which was getting faster and faster, and didn't know which beat would be the last one. However, after waiting for a few seconds, the lingering fear slowly subsided and she was still standing on the ground.

Mai Minghe didn't dare look back at the three female guests at the table; she slowly stood up, raised a slightly trembling hand, and lowered her head.

A piece of forehead skin with two eyebrows lay in the palm of the hand, slightly wrinkled, almost like some kind of stage prop.

...Found it, the third face.

The wife hadn't lied to her; it wasn't a "bomb."

Even if she had made the decision to take the risk herself, Mai Minghe still found it incredible that she was still alive.

Mai Minghe urged her two legs that seemed to have been boned, and walked into the bathroom with each soft step, leaving her forehead to the woman who was putting on makeup; when she came out again, she met the wife's gaze and walked to their table.

"I never thought you were such a courageous person. So what? Do you believe me?"

The wife smiled and said, "The rule is not to touch the faces of diners. If you only touched something they were wearing, then it certainly doesn't count as touching their face, so it's not a violation. If you don't believe me, go there again and take off their glasses."

How could she possibly try again? She could barely stand.

The faces of the three female guests were staring at her in her peripheral vision; although they didn't say a word, Mai Minghe could still feel their gloomy and rolling displeasure.

"I told you we can protect you. When the time is right, I'll tell you the locations of the last few pieces of your face. That way, everyone's happy. Isn't that great?"

For the first time, Mai Minghe finally considered its proposal positively.

"What do you mean 'about time'? I don't want to delay it too long. I want to get out quickly."

She put one hand on the table and couldn't help but lean her weight a little higher.

Now that she thought about it, she had not stopped since she fell back into Blackmore City in the early morning. She was either walking or running away, without even a chance to close her eyes.

Young people can't stand this kind of torture.

"By the end of the second hour, I'll definitely let you out." The wife seemed very confident. "We're not the only ones trying to take advantage of the situation to encroach on its home. As long as someone takes the lead, they'll all follow. It won't be long."

"Then how can you protect me?"

The wife thought for a moment. "We can't leave our seats for the third hour and a half, you know?"

"I know."

"If you're walking around the restaurant, even if I keep an eye on you, there will definitely be times when I can't keep an eye on you. We just discussed it and decided that the best solution is for you to stay with us."

Mai Minghe was stunned.

During the third and a half hour, no one could leave their seats, so if she stayed by the Hantou couple's side, no one would have a chance to cause her any trouble—assuming, of course, that they didn't attack her at the start of the fourth and a half hour. "I have one condition," Mai Minghe hesitated for a moment, then said tentatively, "Before the fourth hour begins, I'll leave you and hide at the bar. If you really want to protect me, don't let any diners near the bar."

She really needed to rest for a few minutes, and she also had to think carefully about what clues the remaining faces might contain - she certainly couldn't put all her hopes on a pair of residents.

The wife and husband looked at each other. "Yes, if it makes you feel more at ease."

It seemed to have finally convinced the husband; he stopped complaining and even pulled out a chair, motioning towards Mai Minghe: "Then you can sit here, in the middle. If anything happens, we can both take care of you."

Mai Minghe responded, took a step forward, walked around to the front of the chair, and was about to sit down.

Something clicked deep in my mind.

It was as if a missing link was finally filled in. In an instant, Mai Minghe suddenly saw the full picture of the "bomb" in front of him.

Her body was already sitting down, as if she was falling into a deep pool of icy water. She knew that falling would mean death, but she had already missed the opportunity to stand up again.

At some point, the Hantou couple both poked their heads toward the center of the table, turned their heads and stared at her with huge smiles and round eyes.

As if looking forward to it very much.

...I absolutely cannot die here.

The regrets of the previous life have not yet been made up in this life.

In a flash, Mai Minghe reached out and grabbed the edge of the table; she was not afraid of falling to the ground, she was only afraid of sitting on the chair, even if it was just a little bit - while she held the edge of the table tightly and twisted her body hard, she swung her arms and swept back desperately.

With a "bang", the chair was swept to the ground by her; Mai Minghe staggered and was tripped by the chair leg again - she finally lost her balance, the world turned, and her entire back hit the ground.

She felt one of her feet still hanging on the chair, and in a panic, she kicked it away; the chair slid a step or two across the floor, making a startling noise in the suddenly quiet restaurant.

Mai Minghe hurriedly got up from the ground. Without even looking at the other diners, he raised his head towards the central round table not far away.

There were originally two chairs at the central round table, but now there is only one left.

She stared blankly at the empty space where a chair should have been placed; then she looked at the chair on the ground that she had kicked over.

In the arrangement of placing a pair of chairs on each side of the dining table, there should not be a chair in the middle of the table for the Hantou couple.

The white, blood-losing fear was interrupted by a burst of angry shouts - "She's almost on it, she's almost on it, why hasn't she sat on it yet! Why!"

Mai Minghe was shocked.

The husband's face flushed crimson with blood. He fell back on his chair and kicked the table legs hard, hitting his wife's legs several times. She still didn't feel anything and just howled like a child: "You said this plan would work! You said it! And you let her find her face in vain! I almost asked her to sit down, but why didn't she do it!"

Mai Minghe climbed up from the ground with weak hands and feet, still unable to believe that he had escaped the consequences of violating the rules at the last moment.

She still thought too shallowly.

"No one is allowed to sit at the central round table." This rule probably includes two points: one, you cannot sit next to the central round table; two, you cannot sit on the chairs at the central round table.

After all, no one would sit at the restaurant table, so if there was anything that could not be sat on, it would naturally be the two chairs.

Probably while Mai Minghe went to the bathroom to have a facial, the Hantou couple dragged one of the chairs to their table - probably asking the waiter to do it - and tricked her into almost sitting down.

"I need to pack some food to bring on board when I go out to sea. If she doesn't die, I'll eat whatever I want!" The husband continued to howl, not knowing if it was directed at his wife or at Mai Minghe. "Planning our anniversary activities is so hard, why won't you die? Why ...

The wife sat there motionless, letting her husband kick her around, staring at Mai Minghe with her round eyes, as if she wanted to pierce into and cut her open with her gaze.

"...Everything you just said was a lie?" Mai Minghe was still in shock. "But didn't the woman who was putting on makeup say the same thing? She's lying to me, too."

The wife's analysis just now sounded reasonable; but the reason why it did not use a method that seemed to maximize its interests was probably because there was a message hidden in it that Mai Minghe did not know - it would be truly beneficial if Mai Minghe died.

"Do you want to know about the nest?" The wife turned her face and smiled. "When your body is dissolved by the nest and you become many residents, won't you know everything?"

Mai Minghe turned his head and looked around.

She didn't dare look at the table of three women; at this moment, every face at every other table was turned towards her.

The young man at the party table looked at her from above the messy table full of cups and plates; the man with earrings and his boyfriend looked at her face to face, without blinking, as if they had even forgotten that they had not touched the taco; the man looking at the computer showed a pair of eyes from behind the screen, like two dark black holes.

...These residents are indeed untrustworthy.

She had to get out of here as quickly as possible; the next piece of face, she had to find the next piece of face...

There are still four face pieces missing: two cheeks, one eye, and a mouth.

What are their hints?
Mai Minghe thought that her courage for the day had been squeezed out; no, perhaps it really had been squeezed out, so she was too tired to feel afraid.

When she was looking at the taco in front of the man with the earrings, an idea suddenly came to her mind. It seemed as if only a very small and distant voice was reminding her that the products of the "Cowboy Sanchas" company would kill anyone who touched them.

Under the gazes of many residents, she walked over step by step and picked up the plate with tacos.

Not dead, she didn't die instantly.

He should be grateful to his wife for reminding him; he only touched the plate and not the taco, so it should not be considered a violation of the rules - if the taco on the plate is really a product of "Cowboy Sanchas" company.

As soon as Mai Minghe flipped the plate, the two tacos fell to the ground, splashing the meat filling and sauce all over the floor; the crust "popped" on the ground, like a soft open hand.

There are countless fine and dense pores on the inside of both "pancake skins".

"Even though there's not much to chew, you still won't eat the two tacos that were given to you... because they're not products of Cowboy Sanchas."

Mai Minghe squatted down and picked up the "pancake crust".

...She's still alive.

"You always hide the answer in places that look like they'll kill you if you touch them. You residents are really quite cunning."

Only two faces left.

There are still ten minutes left until the end of the third half hour.

　Why are my posts getting longer and longer? But 4,000 words a day is really my limit. I only exceed it when writing chapters that I feel particularly excited about. But then I usually feel tired for a long time and need to rest for a few days...

　　Oh, by the way, grandmas, I plan to take a day off every Saturday from now on. You should all know...? Have you all approved it...?
　　PS: When summer comes I want to freeze my head in the freezer.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)