Gu Rong hopped and skipped, finally reaching the other side of the ditch. Lin Lu easily leaped back to the opposite side.

Gu Rong huffed, flapped his little arms, and suddenly did not want to scare this player anymore.

But thinking about the food he could buy from the system store, and his little tummy still rumbling gugu, he had no choice but to turn back, continue hopping, trying to scare Lin Lu.

Lin Lu was also quite dense. Seeing Gu Rong’s little face already showing signs of anger, he still thought the cub was just playing a game with him.

Gu Rong strenuously hopped back to the other side, and Lin Lu, with a single stride, leaped back again.

Gu Rong was thoroughly infuriated now, already starting to glare, trying to glare the other person to death!

One person and one cub circled the small ditch back and forth.

Lin Lu only needed to take a light step, but Gu Rong had to hop all the way around the ditch, back and forth. He was hungry, angry, and tired. Tears welled up in his big eyes, just needing a trigger to fall.

006 said: [Little host, this player is clearly messing with us! Let’s stop chasing him. At worst, we just won’t do this task.]

Gu Rong’s small voice was choked with sobs: [Zaizai’s tummy is hungry!!!]

006: […] Okay, for a bite to eat, the little host is putting in the effort.

Gu Rong was a strong little cub. Although he wanted to cry, he forcefully held back his tears, continuing to hop after Lin Lu.

After more than half an hour, Gu Rong still hadn’t caught up. He finally couldn’t hold back, crying while hopping, wiping his tears with his small hands.

Seeing the Little Jiangshi cub pitifully wiping tears, Lin Lu was stunned, then rushed forward in a single stride and picked Gu Rong up.

“Okay, okay! I’ll stand right in front of you and let you scare me, alright!”

Seeing Gu Rong cry, Lin Lu was genuinely scared; his fear value increased by two points. “Don’t cry, don’t cry! It’s Big Brother’s fault.”

He took Gu Rong’s soft little meaty hand and patted his own face with it: “Want to play slap face?”

006: […]

Livestream Chat: […]

You’re really something else!

[How shameless.jpg]

[On the track of coaxing Zaizai, there’s always someone stronger! [Gift Points]]

[However, with Zaizai’s soft and cute appearance, it’s really difficult to scare people, lol crying]

Gu Rong retracted his small hand. He had only been silently shedding tears before, but now his little body was shaking with sobs, looking incredibly wronged, pitiful, and deserving of affection.

Gu Rong rubbed his eyes and said in a milky voice: “Zaizai wants to scare you, not hit you!”

Only then did Lin Lu belatedly realize: Could it be that this little cub received a task to scare players?

He had watched Gu Rong’s other instances. Gu Rong had scared players before to obtain points. Perhaps scaring him now was also for a task.

Lin Lu put Gu Rong down, squatted in front of him, keeping their eye level the same, and decided to personally coach Gu Rong on how to scare him.

“Don’t worry, Big Brother will teach you a few scare tactics, guaranteed to frighten people.”

Gu Rong humbly accepted the teaching, nodding vigorously: “Okay! Thank you, Big Brother!”

Seeing this cub being so obedient and polite, Lin Lu’s heart completely melted.

Finding a flat stone, Lin Lu sat down and began teaching Gu Rong how to scare people.

Lin Lu: “First, show me the tricks you already know, so Big Brother knows how to teach you.”

Gu Rong didn’t hesitate and immediately started demonstrating: making a grimace, pretending to be a little monster going “Awoo,” “Awoo,” acting like he was about to bite.

His little face looked fiercely cute, like a ferocious little kitten – utterly meng, nothing but cute and adorable.

Lin Lu coached for a long time. In the end, he could only pretend to be scared by Gu Rong: “Good, very good! Hold that pose! It’s already two points scary!”

Gu Rong couldn’t hear the system prompt, so he stomped his little foot: “Hmph, you liar!”

Lin Lu: “…” Heavens! Maybe just play slap face instead!

Seeing he couldn’t scare Lin Lu, Gu Rong knew he wouldn’t get that meal. Angrily, he turned and ran, even forgetting to hop.

After running a distance, he knelt on both legs, spun, and fell to the ground. Like a little doll, he lay on the ground, giving up completely.

Lin Lu: “…………”

Gu Rong hadn’t been lying there for long when he heard the system prompt, but it wasn’t about the increase in fear value, it was about Little Jiangshi’s role-playing mistake.

[Warning, Warning! Little Jiangshi roleplay error, Little Jiangshi roleplay error! Deducting 8 points!]

Gu Rong flailed his little legs, rolling on the ground. Unfortunately, the ground he was lying on was sloped. With one roll, he started rolling directly downhill.

Lin Lu was startled. Without thinking, he rushed forward and scooped up the rolling Little Jiangshi cub from the ground.

[Ding! Player Fear Value +5. Total Fear Value 8. Congratulations Little Jiangshi, task complete!]

Gu Rong’s eyes lit up, his little face finally turning from anger to joy.

But he didn’t scare this brother? How was the task completed?

006 said: [Little host, he got scared seeing you almost roll down the slope. He felt fear because he was worried about the little host’s safety.]

Hearing this, Gu Rong immediately hugged Lin Lu with his small hands and thanked him sweetly: “Thank you, brother!”

Lin Lu, seeing the Little Jiangshi finally happy, breathed a sigh of relief and said generously, “Big Brother will treat you to yummy food!”

Lin Lu paid out of his own pocket, redeeming a large bag of delicious food from the system store and giving it to this Little Jiangshi cub.

Gu Rong had completed the task, allowing him one food purchase from the system store. It wasn’t strictly required to use his own points.

Since Lin Lu bought it for him, he didn’t need to buy it himself.

Finally getting to eat, Gu Rong found everything pleasing to the eye, happily shaking his head. The yellow talisman on his little forehead swung back and forth, and the little braid behind his head also swayed. He even hummed a song in his milky voice.

There was too much food. Gu Rong put the leftovers he couldn’t finish into the system backpack to eat slowly later.

–

Lin Lu carried Gu Rong to rejoin the others.

The big Jiangshi, under Gu Rong’s mental command, had fled after completing the task of luring the group away. However, two unlucky Jiangshi were caught.

These two Jiangshi had chased Huang Daoren and Zhao Jiuquan, respectively. Unfortunately for them, both men were highly skilled, and catching one Jiangshi was completely manageable.

Lin Lu carried Gu Rong, who was holding a bottle of milk. After finding the group, they saw seven Jiangshi standing in a row with yellow talismans on their foreheads.^[1]T/N: The raws said 7, despite saying 6 was captured earlier. Will follow 7 based on this part.

Seeing the appearing Little Jiangshi cub, being held and leisurely drinking milk, everyone was speechless for a moment.

Zhuang Yu and Shen Hanxiao were relieved to see Gu Rong unharmed.

Wu Sandeng, however, looked at Gu Rong thoughtfully, his single eye cold like a winter pond.

When this Little Jiangshi cub was absent, the captured Jiangshi had their teeth intact. When this cub was involved in the capture, the Jiangshi teeth went missing. What did this mean? Could it really be this Little Jiangshi cub who took the Jiangshi teeth? But why would he take the teeth? And how did he do it under everyone’s watchful eyes?

Wu Sandeng said in a deep voice: “Guard these two-toothed Jiangshi closely. Except for Daoist Priest Huang, no one is allowed near these two Jiangshi.” Looking at Gu Rong, he added, “The Little Jiangshi are also not allowed near.”

006 said: [Little host, could Mayor Wu have discovered that we stole the Jiangshi teeth?]

Gu Rong asked: [Then what do we do? How can Zaizai steal the Jiangshi teeth?]

006 analyzed: [Mayor Wu not only wants to catch these 20 Jiangshi, but also cares so much about the Jiangshi teeth. And the little host’s task is also to retrieve the teeth. This means the teeth must be very important. Could it be related to those gold bars?]

Gu Rong had another task: to investigate the relationship between the Jiangshi and the gold bars.

006 continued analyzing: [Could there be some gold mine on Yin Mountain? And maybe these Jiangshi or their teeth are needed to open some mechanism? Could it be a tomb? Tomb raiding?]

Gu Rong listened, his little face confused, his milky voice honest: [Bu ji dao ya.] (Don’t know.)

006 was also unsure. Five days of the instance time had already passed; only the last two days remained.

The sky turned completely dark. Traveling the mountain paths at night was difficult. Wu Sandeng could only order everyone to rest.

Gu Rong still slept on his stomach on the small blanket, right next to Lord Devil’s coffin.

Since he had been starving all day and had slept most of the time in the bamboo basket, he could not sleep now. He wiggled back and forth on the blanket.

The babysitting trio sat nearby. Zhao Jiuquan was still silent. Zhuang Yu and Shen Hanxiao took turns telling the cub stories.

Listening, Gu Rong eventually stopped moving on the blanket. His small figure faced the coffin, his back to the others, already drifting off into dreamland.

Zhuang Yu peeked over and couldn’t help but smile.

It seems like telling bedtime stories to children really does have some merit.