Chapter 11 You Must Never Be the First to Buy Lunchboxes

Lu Xiaoyao truly could never be the first to buy lunchboxes.

Even with Wang Wenfei leading her earlier.

In the morning, Wang Wenfei had brought Lu Xiaoyao along, but by the afternoon, she was alone again.

At that moment, as Wang Wenfei entered the dining car, she saw Mu Chen already standing in front of Mingmei, holding two lunchboxes.

"Didn't you...didn't you get off to search for spirit stones?"

"Weren't you doing the same?"

Both of them were supposedly off looking for spirit stones, yet they had coincidentally appeared here. Wang Wenfei's suspicious gaze didn't faze Mu Chen in the slightest.

Mu Chen was completely open and aboveboard. He even asked Mingmei for a glass of honey water, to which Mingmei responded with a smile.

Seeing this, Wang Wenfei began to wonder if Mu Chen was just buying lunchboxes because of the NPC's pretty face. However, Mingmei noticed her staring blankly and couldn't help but ask, "Miss, what would you like to order?"

Mingmei's voice pulled Wang Wenfei back to reality. Wang Wenfei quickly averted her gaze and casually mumbled an affirmative before focusing her attention on Mingmei again, saying, "I'd like to buy some lunchboxes."

[Congratulations to the player for discovering the mysterious merchant. Please select your favorite products within the limited time.]

As the system notification sounded, Wang Wenfei's tightly furrowed brow relaxed. She then carefully analyzed the notes on the lunchboxes—forget it, she'd just buy them all.

Next, she glanced at Mu Chen, who hadn't left and was sitting there eating his lunchbox.

She noticed that the patterns on the two lunchboxes he held were different, and he seemed to be eating the "Enhanced Seal" duck blood and tofu stew first.

Since he had chosen the enhanced seal, Wang Wenfei thought for a moment that she could at least trust Mu Chen for now.

After ordering two lunchboxes, Wang Wenfei also chose to eat in the dining car before leaving.

She started with the braised pork ribs lunchbox, with its savory and fragrant ribs, accompanied by dried green beans and versatile potatoes soaked in sauce.

The soft and glutinous potatoes crumbled at the touch of her chopsticks, coating the rice with a soft, powdery texture, along with the braised pork rib gravy. The moment she put it in her mouth, Wang Wenfei didn't even notice the lunchbox's hint about the murderer.

It wasn't until she had completely mixed the potatoes into the rice and devoured the entire portion of rice, meat, and green beans with a satisfied burp that she remembered why she was eating the lunchbox in the first place.

[Their genders are different.]

Wang Wenfei jumped at the sudden notification. Mingmei, who was exchanging glances with Mu Chen, was also startled by her reaction.

"What's wrong?"

Mu Chen looked at Wang Wenfei, but Wang Wenfei noticed that he was also eating the braised pork ribs lunchbox and asked, "What was your clue?"

"What about you?"

Mu Chen didn't answer her question. Instead, he looked seriously at Wang Wenfei, who was picking up her chopsticks, and said, "If you want to exchange information, you need to show your sincerity."

"Their genders are different," Wang Wenfei pursed her lips, hesitated, and then revealed what she knew.

"Oh, so at least the murderer is working in a group, two or more people, and there are both men and women."

Mu Chen deduced the hidden meaning from Wang Wenfei's clue and added, "In that case, having two people guarding the seal might not be enough in the future. What if both of them are the murderers? Wouldn't that be leaving the seal unguarded for them to break?"

After Mu Chen finished speaking, he saw Wang Wenfei asking Mingmei for another pair of chopsticks and taking out the tofu and duck blood stew, promptly choking on the spicy dish.

Wang Wenfei's eyes reddened as she swallowed the rice and said, "Don't worry, we'll just eat more of these lunchboxes."

Mu Chen chuckled softly, "They'll not only kill the teachers, but they'll also kill us."

"Huh?"

"My clue." Mu Chen didn't have the habit of mixing his rice with the other dishes. He took a bite of the dish and then a bite of rice, saying, "My clue is, 'They will not only kill the teachers but also harm lone students.'"

Mingmei watched Mu Chen and Wang Wenfei's exchange, but her attention was already on Lu Xiaoyao and Mandison, who were guarding the seal in the live stream.

Since a while ago, Lu Xiaoyao's bright eyes had been suspiciously glancing at Mandison from time to time.

Mandison, unable to bear it any longer, looked at Lu Xiaoyao and asked, "Why do you keep looking at me?"

"What if you're the murderer and you secretly attack?"

"Attack what? You need evidence to accuse someone of being a murderer, right?"

"But no one knows who the murderer is right now. I can't just completely trust you, can I? I trust you, but I don't trust my luck. I've always been unlucky, so I might just run into the murderer!"

Lu Xiaoyao widened her eyes and looked at him, but her body leaned back defensively, causing Mandison to shake his head.

She was even bringing up luck, something so mysterious and uncertain. What could he say?

"I don't look like a murderer at all, and I haven't done anything to make anyone suspicious, right?" Mandison was puzzled by Lu Xiaoyao's unwarranted suspicion. He stared at her for a long time before suddenly asking, "Did someone say something to you?"

"No, no one said anything. What's wrong with me being suspicious? Why are you so anxious?"

The more frantically Lu Xiaoyao denied it, the more suspicious Mandison became. He stared at her for a long time before she ignored him again. Then, he shifted his gaze elsewhere, silently examining the room where the teacher had died.

The viewers in the live stream were hotly debating the two's conversation and behavior:

[That's why I said, this game is really something. As soon as you enter, you know what other people think of you. Some people eliminate you for no reason at all!]

[Zaizai isn't wrong. They're the only two guarding it, so they still need to be careful. What if the other person really is the murderer? It'll be too late to regret it!]

[If they really are the murderer, Zaizai can just run away. After all, the murderer can target lone players!]

[Holy crap?! The person in front is spoiling the plot!]

[What's there to spoil? Anyone who's met the mysterious merchant would know~]

……

Mingmei watched the comments in the live stream and the performances of Lu Xiaoyao and Mandison, and she felt a strange sense of unease that she couldn't quite explain.

When she came back to her senses, Mu Chen and Wang Wenfei had already left. Before leaving, Mu Chen had taken the opportunity to slip her a note.

It told her to go sell lunchboxes to Lu Xiaoyao.

"So they want me to be an outside helper?"

Although Mingmei complained, she was very willing and pushed her dining car into the view of Lu Xiaoyao's live stream.

Immediately, the viewers in Lu Xiaoyao's live stream exploded again.

[Here it comes! She's coming with lunchboxes!]

[Wuwuwu, I knew it. Merchant Lady wouldn't abandon our Zaizai!]

[I'm just worried that Lu Xiaoyao will find some reason to refuse again.]

[Crap! Don't jinx it! How could my Zaizai do something like that?!]

[She's done it a lot, actually.]

[Don't say it, the more you say, the more depressed I get.]

……

"Excuse me, there were some problems with the restaurant's equipment earlier, so the lunchboxes are only ready now. Do you two customers need anything?"

Mingmei put on a professional fake smile and promoted her lunchboxes to the two people guarding the teacher's compartment door.

"Ah? The bashe can even turn into a chef?" Mandison looked at Mingmei's appearance and thought that since this train was transformed by the bashe, he became even more suspicious of the conductor in front of him.

"You're not some killer disguised to harm us, are you?"

Mingmei almost rolled her eyes at Mandison's question. A killer wasn't an NPC. How could she pretend to be a killer?

What was he thinking?

Then, Mandison thoughtfully added, "We're guarding the seal right now. We shouldn't just eat things from strangers."

Mingmei wanted to roll her eyes, but her professionalism saved her from doing so.

However, when Mandison said this, Mingmei caught a glimpse of speechlessness in Lu Xiaoyao's eyes.

In the end, Mingmei just shook her head and said, "I'm just selling lunchboxes on the train. If the customers don't want to buy anything, don't use words I don't understand to brush me off."

After speaking, she also looked at Lu Xiaoyao. At least everyone had seen each other this morning, right?

However, what caused Mingmei and the live stream viewers' expressions to crack was that Lu Xiaoyao thought for a while and actually looked at Mandison, seriously saying, "You're right. We shouldn't just eat things from strangers."

Mingmei: "..."

Lu Xiaoyao, you're the murderer, aren't you?