It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

“I don’t need anyone’s help,” Holly finally said. “I’ll sit here and rest for a while, and then I’ll walk over myself when I’m ready.”

"Really not going?"

"No."

"Get on top, or I'll really rape you."

"Oh......"

Under duress, Holly finally gave a reluctant reply, but she still seemed unwilling. She slowly put her arm around Li Cheng's shoulder, but hesitated to put her weight on him, as if she was still struggling with her decision.

"I even doubt whether you really want me to rape you."

Li Cheng was both amused and annoyed: "Slow down like that, are you really not afraid at all?"

"Please...please, don't force yourself on me."

Forget about being shy anymore, Holly pressed herself against Li Cheng's back with such force that the two hemispherical objects were somewhat deformed.

Why bother?

As Li Cheng sighed, he began to suspect that the little maid was actually a masochist, or rather, the kind of masochist who was particularly good at imagining things.

......

With this extra troublesome burden, Li Cheng carried Holly back to the dining table with a disgruntled expression.

Two large plates of freshly grilled skewers were already on the table, with big chunks of meat and fresh vegetables skewered on top. Under the sunlight, the oil glistened with tempting spots, making one's mouth water.

The delicious food was right in front of them, but the three people sitting at the table hadn't touched it yet. They were all staring at the direction Li Cheng had left in, and now he was returning the way he came, along with the little maid he was carrying on his back who was almost too embarrassed to show her face. Each of them had a slightly different expression...

Annie, the culprit, stood by the table with one hand on her hip and the other holding a skewer of grilled meat. She gnawed on it while glaring at Li Cheng, looking every bit the righteous messenger.

Li Cheng, under the watchful eyes of the four people, carried Holly all the way to the dining table and tossed her into his chair.

"As you can see."

After doing all this, Li Cheng calmly explained to the four people, "This is Princess Veronica's maid, Miss Holly. She just twisted her ankle, and I carried her back. We have no relation whatsoever—hey, say something too."

As he spoke, he patted the little maid on the shoulder.

Holly, being stared at by several people, hesitated slightly, but still followed Li Cheng's words quite generously: "Well, that's about it. I accidentally twisted my ankle, and thankfully Mr. Li Cheng carried me over."

With this explanation, which was not problematic, the subtle glances from the other three, except for Annie, became much more normal.

Anne glared at him and said, "You're lying! I clearly saw her leaning against you!"

Li Cheng ignored her. Anyway, given Annie's carefree personality, she wasn't very trustworthy in everyone's eyes. Besides, he was indeed upright and had nothing to hide. So he washed his hands in the basin of water next to the table and grabbed a skewer from the plate to start eating.

At the same time, he reminded Holly, "Eat it yourself, don't be shy, there's plenty over there."

Newton nodded in agreement, adopting the air of a deputy host: "If that's not enough, we can have someone else bake more."

She had originally planned to just grab the wooden skewer and gnaw on it, but then a customer suddenly appeared. At that moment, the customer was pretending to use a knife to pick off small pieces of meat and put them into her mouth, taking a sip of the milk tea on the table in between, acting like a very ladylike and well-mannered person.

In stark contrast, Louise and Lavoisier seemed unconcerned, happily munching on their skewers.

Seeing that the little girl had been busy for a long time before taking a small bite, Li Cheng shook his head, reached out and plucked a large piece of meat from his own skewer, and threw it directly into her plate.

As a result, he was glared at fiercely.

Miss Newton seemed quite displeased with Li Cheng's extremely uncouth behavior when guests were present. Although she usually acted this way herself, it was different when guests were around. She needed to project an air of authority and not be fed like a child.

Seeing that none of the others were paying attention to her, Annie finished her skewer out of boredom and then turned around to continue working with Susie and the others.

Holly was quite reserved, and suddenly started barbecuing, and she wasn't very familiar with anyone except Li Cheng.

However, the thought that she could stay for just one day and then Li Cheng would return to the front lines with her the day after tomorrow to find her beloved princess rekindled her motivation, and she even forgot about her embarrassing behavior just now.

Chapter 384 Werewolf, Open Your Eyes

No matter how you eat barbecue skewers, it's never elegant. The most satisfying way to eat them is to hold a large glass of beer in one hand and a skewer in the other.

For things like lamb legs, it's more satisfying to just tear off a piece with your bare hands.

Holly had been by the princess's side for a long time, and although she was just a personal maid, she was used to the proper dining etiquette and was clearly not used to this way of eating.

Faced with a steaming skewer of grilled meat, she tucked her hair behind her ear with one hand, held the skewer in the other, opened her lips, and carefully bit a corner of the meat with her pearly white teeth, pulling it out little by little until it was off the skewer before putting the meat into her mouth.

The whole movement was done very carefully, trying to avoid getting oil on her cheeks.

The others (aside from the pretentious Miss Newton) were far less cautious than she was. For example, Lavoisier, like Li Cheng, had a beer in one hand and a skewer in the other. He would chew a couple of bites of meat on the skewer, then clink glasses with Li Cheng and gulp down a beer, quite mastering the essence of kebabs.

Louise, on the other hand, stuffed too much food into her mouth at once, making her cheeks bulge, and the way she ate made her look like a hamster hoarding food.

In comparison, Holly, the little maid, seems more like a young lady from a wealthy family, invited to a friend's barbecue party.

That won't do.

Li Cheng noticed this, put down the teacup he was using to prevent the hamster from choking, and instead poked the maid's hand with the back of a wooden skewer: "That's not how you eat barbecue, you should relax a bit."

"I'm fine now."

Holly shook her head and replied cautiously.

Li Cheng stared at her calmly for two seconds.

"Okay, I understand."

Holly wailed and reached for the plate of roasted chicken legs. Ignoring all manners, she grabbed a greasy chicken leg and stuffed it into her mouth, asking indistinctly as she did so, "Is this alright?"

"It'll have to do."

Li Cheng nodded reluctantly, continuing to monitor the hamster's situation while also trying to find topics to discuss. He eventually managed to steer the conversation towards Holly, prompting the three girls to begin asking her questions. They inquired about Holly's life as Princess Veronica's personal maid, and what kind of person the princess was.

This topic is indeed very interesting, and Holly is very happy to share the glorious image of the princess with outsiders.

"Her Highness's daily life...Her Highness is usually very busy, with a lot of work and social engagements, especially now that it's wartime on the front lines, there's even more work to do, but she takes every important matter seriously. Even when she's too busy to handle everything and needs to delegate to others, she'll review the process afterwards."

"Entertainment... Your Highness enjoys watching plays and operas, and occasionally reads chivalric novels, but Your Highness usually reads them secretly, afraid that no one will find out, which is quite cute."

"Huh? The changes after marriage... um, um, Your Highness, Your Highness and your husband treat each other with utmost respect... in short, they have a very good relationship! They never argue! Prince Philip hasn't had any ambiguous relationships with other women, nor has he had any mistresses or anything like that!!!"

When asked the last question, Holly answered hastily, trying her best not to give herself away.

The barbecue ended with a pleasant Q&A session.

After the meal, because there were many people, and Holly was an additional guest, Li Cheng gathered everyone around the table to play board games.

In a broad sense, board games, including Go, have been popular since before the Common Era, often emphasizing strategy and gameplay. However, in a narrower sense, board games, with Monopoly as their earliest representative, have only recently gained popularity in China as a social and entertainment activity, while foreign countries have a long history of development in this area, experiencing rapid growth primarily during the two Great Depressions.

To make it more fun for Holly, who was playing for the first time, Li Cheng chose Werewolf.

Werewolf, a board game that once swept across China, was something Li Cheng played with his classmates during breaks in high school. At that time, most of the male students in the class would go to the cafeteria at noon to buy a rice bowl with toppings, gather outside the classroom, and then play Werewolf while eating their rice. Because they were worried that the identity cards would be confiscated by the homeroom teacher, the identities were all verbally announced by the host, which was quite perfunctory.

However, after graduating from high school and having more resources, he didn't play it much anymore. Firstly, it's only fun with familiar people, and secondly, mobile phones and computers are just too appealing.

Now, in the 17th century, a time with little entertainment, Li Cheng, having gained many new acquaintances, naturally picked up this pastime again.

It has to be said that fun games like Werewolf are incredibly appealing to kids; no child can resist their allure—and if one can, then add even more fun games.

Li Cheng initially firmly believed that his relationship with Louise was purely platonic, because he thought it was because the things he brought were so fun, and Louise liked fun things more than anything else, just like how he greatly admired the older neighbor who installed games on his computer when he was in elementary school...

Of course, after spending more than a year together, that doubt has completely vanished...

"Werewolf, please open your eyes."

Lavoisier, who was chosen as the host, read his prepared lines.

In a game with 7 players (2 werewolves, 3 villagers, and 2 gods), Li Cheng slowly opened his eyes, glanced around briefly, and saw Louise beside him with her bright black eyes looking at him happily—clearly, the cute red-haired girl in front of him was his werewolf partner in this game.

Okay, it seems he was in charge this round.

"Please choose the target you wish to kill," Lavoisier continued reciting his lines.

In typical Werewolf games, werewolves usually eliminate top-tier players like Li Cheng, Lavoisier, and Freya in the first round, with an elimination rate as high as 70%. Only then will they consider eliminating normal players like Newton and Susie.

As for Anne, Louise, and Agnes, they are basically not within the scope of the wolves' consideration, unless a wolf suddenly decides to give Anne a kill to prevent her from talking nonsense and causing trouble.

Currently, Lavoisier is the host, Li Cheng himself is the wolf, and Freya is not participating.

There were no high-risk targets who needed to be attacked. After thinking for a couple of seconds, Li Cheng smiled slightly and deliberately poked the soft face of the little maid next to him, who was playing Werewolf for the first time and was nervously closing her eyes.

"what!"

Holly gasped in surprise and opened her eyes wide.

Having just learned the rules of Werewolf, her eyelids were already twitching because she had her eyes closed so tightly.

Li Cheng's unexpected attack startled her so much that she opened her eyes. As a civilian, she found herself facing the eyes of Li Cheng, who had a wicked grin on his face, and Louise, who was full of curiosity.

Chapter 385 Witch, Please Open Your Eyes

Pitiful, weak, and helpless.

Only the above description can perfectly capture Holly's state of mind at this moment. As a novice and a villager, she was assassinated on the first night by a werewolf poking her cheek... Perhaps this should be considered an open assassination, and she was so frightened that she opened her eyes and made eye contact with two werewolves.

Holly GG.

"Werewolf, please close your eyes."

"Prophet, open your eyes... Prophet, close your eyes... Witch, open your eyes... Witch, close your eyes..."

"It's dawn, everyone please open your eyes."

"The first person to die is Holly... Due to violating the rules, she will not be able to leave a death message and will proceed directly to the daytime process."

Lavoisier read his lines calmly, a touch of sympathy for Holly in his heart.

As a newbie to Werewolf, on my very first game and the first night, I encountered a devilish werewolf named Li Cheng. Not only was I eliminated from the game by the first kill, but I was also subjected to such a despicable act of humiliating myself by poking my face. Furthermore, my right to make my last words on the first night was directly taken away for violating the rules by opening my eyes. The game experience was absolutely terrible.

Holly, the person involved, had her eyebrows twitching wildly, while secretly clenching her little fists under the table.

That familiar feeling of irritability.

That familiar urge to punch someone.

Back when Li Cheng was far from making a name for himself and was imprisoned in the dungeon of Veronica's castle, Holly often experienced this feeling of irritability—but amidst the irritability, she also gradually developed a sense of closeness to this interesting man.

But as Li Cheng grew up and even became involved with the princess she admired, Holly realized that the gap between their statuses was widening, and this sense of closeness gradually disappeared.

Previously, when Li Cheng joked about his personal maid's bedchamber duties in the dungeon, Holly would only scold him angrily and even slap him a couple of times; but in the grove, because of the loss of intimacy, she genuinely began to worry and be afraid. And it was precisely because of this that she felt somewhat restrained during the meal earlier.

However, right now, this familiar feeling of irritability has returned, along with a sense of closeness.

We're back. Everything's back.

Just as Holly's anger reignited and she clenched her fists.