Chapter 28: What a Hasty Clear

"Yes, yes." Ji Chenling seemed to be in a very good mood. "Eat up, and remember to tell me whenever you like something in the future, Sister."

"Aren't you all eating?" Lu Xi felt that the atmosphere was a bit strange.

Jiang Chen sneered, "You'll have to ask your good friend about that."

Just before Lu Xi arrived, Ji Chenling had come over carrying a basket of eggs, full of enthusiasm as he fried them. Because Ji Chenling usually didn't bother with anyone—in his eyes, people were seemingly divided only into "Lu Xi" and "everyone else"—the others had been surprised, assuming he had come over specifically to help.

It turned out, however, that he hadn't cooked much in the way of noodles, but had instead covered them with an entire mountain of fried eggs. When others wanted some, guess what happened?

He wouldn't give them any. He was quite vicious about it.

"Ji Chenling, don't go too far. This food belongs to Muguan Village; it's a shared resource for everyone." Jiang Chen had been annoyed with him for a long time, so his tone was blunt. "By what right do you get to hog it all for yourself?"

"Hog it?" Ji Chenling raised an eyebrow. "I'm not eating it."

"Then why did you cook so much?" Jiang Chen felt more and more that the guy was deliberately antagonizing him, and his anger flared.

The young man smiled. "For my sister Lu Xi."

"Is she a pig? To eat all of this at once?!" Jiang Chen said with disdain.

The smile on Ji Chenling's face instantly turned cold. His eyes grew icy and filled with malevolence as he said in a low voice, "Who did you just insult?"

Nearby, Ji Yunxuan witnessed this and felt a jolt in his heart. Why did this Ji Chenling feel more and more like the "Ji Chenling" from his memories? The same feeling that he was... mentally deranged.

"What... what are you doing? Don't tell me you want to kill me?" Jiang Chen was pinned by that terrifying gaze and subconsciously felt a chill. This player hadn't been with them for long, and he spent most of his time clinging to Lu Xi, having very little interaction with the rest of them.

"Is that not allowed?" Ji Chenling curled his lips, looking at Jiang Chen with a smile that didn't reach his eyes, as if the person standing before him wasn't a player, but a corpse. "Does it bother you?"

Nonsense! Who wouldn't be bothered by being killed? No, that wasn't the point.

"How can you be like this? You're so petty, so vindictive..." Jiang Chen looked at the figure closing in on him and instinctively glanced toward Ji Yunxuan. The latter was completely lost in thought, ignoring his plea for help. "You kind of player..." Jiang Chen didn't dare to say anything rude again.

However, Ji Chenling knew what he was thinking. He raised an eyebrow, his right hand suddenly shooting out to clamp onto Jiang Chen's neck, his knuckles tightening as he forced him back. Jiang Chen was not as tall as Ji Chenling, and he now realized that his strength was no match for him either.

Ji Chenling looked thin, but no one expected him to be able to easily suppress Jiang Chen with just one hand. Under Ji Chenling’s restraint, Jiang Chen miserably discovered that he couldn't break free at all.

A hint of malice welled up in the depths of Ji Chenling's eyes. "She's not here, so who am I supposed to put on a show for?"

"Alright, you two, stop joking around." Ji Yunxuan finally snapped out of his memories. Seeing Jiang Chen's head turning the color of a pig's liver, he said unhappily to Ji Chenling, "We're all brothers here. Getting physical over a few words? Are you sick in the head?"

Ji Chenling paused, then actually released his grip. He looked at Jiang Chen with a smile and said, "I was just joking with you. You wouldn't mind, would you?"

Freed from the restraint, Jiang Chen immediately scrambled back, clutching his neck and gasping for air. Just a moment ago, he had truly sensed a flicker of killing intent from the other man. How could this Ji Chenling be so temperamental? Could he really be a player with a mental illness?

With the large pot of fried eggs, no one dared to be the first to pick up their chopsticks. They sat obediently around the table, their faces full of sorrow as they waited for Lu Xi to return.

When Lu Xi saw the pot, which was large enough to be a washbasin, she was silent for a moment before decisively picking up bowls to divide the eggs equally among everyone.

"You don't like it?" Ji Chenling tilted his head as he watched her, his eyes full of confusion. "Did I not do it well enough? Are the eggs not fried beautifully?"

Lu Xi shook her head. "No, thank you."

"It's just that I can't eat this much."

"If you can't eat it, just throw it away," Ji Chenling said, his expression serious, not looking like he was joking at all.

Meng Yuanyuan, who had been silent until now, widened her eyes. "That's too much. You'd rather throw it away than let us eat it?"

Lu Xi was equally astonished. She pulled the young man aside and lowered her voice. "It's all extra anyway, why can't you give it to the others?"

Ji Chenling replied almost instantly: "Why should I give it away? It belonged to me. If someone tries to snatch it, I'll keep what I can. If I can't keep it or don't want it, I'd rather destroy it than give it to anyone else."

The shocks this guy brought to Lu Xi were endless. She swallowed hard, trying to calm her emotions, and continued, "But these are Muguan Village's supplies; it's not like the chickens were raised by you."

"It doesn't matter," Ji Chenling replied patiently. "I grabbed them first."

"But what if other players had gotten to those eggs first? Think about it—if everyone acted like you just did, preferring to waste things rather than share with other players, wouldn't we both be left to starve?"

Ji Chenling was clearly taking her words to heart. He lowered his eyes, pondering for a moment, looking entirely serious. Lu Xi felt relieved to see this.

Then, the very next second, she heard him say with a smile, "Don't worry, Sister. If such a day really comes, I'll just snatch everything they have in their hands."

Lu Xi: "Huh?"

Wait, why did this little green tea's worldview seem a bit warped? Could this little green tea really be the main villain from the original novel? Lu Xi’s heart turned cold.

She probed again, "And what if you can't snatch it?"

"Why wouldn't I be able to?" Ji Chenling raised an eyebrow, a cold sneer tugging at the corner of his lips. "Wouldn't it be easier to just kill them all?"

Alright, so her heart wasn't just half-cold—it was frozen solid.

If nothing went wrong, the "little green tea" before her, who called her "Sister" at every turn and loved to flash her a sugary-sweet smile, was indeed the main villain of the novel world. And to think, Lu Xi had always believed he was just a male version of a sweetheart. He was good-looking, loved to cling to her, and called her "Sister" in such a sweet way.

"What are you two whispering about over there?" Meng Yuanyuan shouted. "If you don't come over now, the noodles will get soggy."

Lu Xi sighed. Forget it, let's just take it one step at a time. Who could say for sure what the future held?

Just then, Chen Yiyi pushed the door open. She looked toward Lu Xi, paused, and then looked away.

"Bang!"

A loud noise shook the room. Everyone stood up in an instant, their hearts in their throats.

"That sound seemed to come from the kitchen," Zhang Qiulan said, clutching her daughter's hand. "Did the kitchen explode?"

If it really was just a kitchen explosion, that would be better; the fear was that some new, inexplicable accident would happen in broad daylight. The players cautiously walked into the kitchen one by one...

"The door!" Meng Yuanyuan jumped up and exclaimed. "We can leave!"

Chen Yiyi: "That's great!"

Was the level cleared just like that? It was such a sloppy conclusion.

In the bushes, two rabbits whispered to each other: "This is practically cheating."

"Why did the Great Demon King do that?"

"Who knows? He's always been mysterious and unpredictable. Maybe this time it was just to make that girl happy."

"Sigh, what a pity. I was still feeling a bit hungry and wanted to eat a few more players."

"Forget it, forget it. Let's go eat in another instance world."