It wasn't until the Blood Nurse pushed her out the door that Ya finally dared to breathe boldly.
The scorched, fetid smell peculiar to burnt earth assaulted her nostrils over and over, but to Ya, it was like breathing fairy air.
"So, which direction do we go now?" He looked at Ya in confusion; Jiang Che had already checked in with his family, so he no longer had to worry about not going home and making them anxious.
"This way..." The Blood Slaughter Region was still fairly open. She had just had Jiang Che take her upstairs for a quick look at the area layout.
The Blood Nurse didn't try to stop them. If Ya hadn't done that, she would have looked more suspicious.
Dungeon Nine isn't exactly big, but it isn't small either.
Humans might have arranged meeting points, but to actually meet up, they first need to know where they are themselves.
Ya had given up inside. She never planned to meet anyone else; before entering the dungeon, Red Pearl Mental Hospital did have some little cliques, and those cliques did have prearranged plans, but none of them included a small nurse like her.
The people who could form teams were basically the "rich kids" who'd acquired rare items to fight off evil spirits.
People like her would just be cannon fodder, sent out to die if they did join up with others.
All she wanted was a dangerous place, then she could trick Jiang Che out of his coat and let him get killed. After that, she could grab Jiang Che's doctor's coat, hide somewhere, and figure out how to clear the dungeon.
"This way." Ya walked off in another direction.
She was lucky. Just now, up on the top floor, she'd spotted a few castles outside the evil spirits' domain at a glance.
The moment she saw the castle, her heart started thumping out of control.
People didn't know everything about Dungeon Nine, but they didn't know nothing either.
That castle, for example, was the only place in Dungeon Nine that resembled a human living environment.
Everyone suspected that the exit was there, but anyone who went that way would bizarrely die.
Ya was excited. She hadn't expected to be so close to the castle!
Jiang Che followed behind her, agitated, occasionally straightening his clothes.
He tried to remember what his wife looked like, but he couldn't recall a thing: everything was fuzzy.
Just like with his parents before: just dark shapes lingering in his mind, without a face at all.
Before leaving, Jiang Che brought his own suitcase, which still held the gifts he'd prepared earlier.
Ya watched beside him as he sorted through the suitcase. She'd thought there'd be real treasure inside, but the moment she saw the contents, she couldn't stop a look of disgust from flashing in her eyes.
The suitcase looked expensive, and the dolls and jewelry inside were clearly pricey too.
Obviously, Jiang Che had swiped them from rich folks' districts before coming in.
She sized up Jiang Che's robe and the bracelet on his wrist.
Those two things were really wasted on Jiang Che.
If only she could have them herself.
The corners of her mouth couldn't help lifting; she was lucky—she'd entered the dungeon with Zhao Qi and Wang Bing.
Having companions next to you when you enter the dungeon is a blessing and a curse—good because it increases your survival odds, bad because someone like her would just get sacrificed to boost the rest's survival rate.
But now, the corners of Ya's mouth curled up.
Wang Bing was dead, Zhao Qi was dead.
Now, only this idiot Jiang Che was left, and he still had two top-tier items on him.
They always say, 'When the mantis hunts the cicada, the oriole waits behind.' She thought she was the cicada, but never expected to end up as the oriole.
All the way, Ya could still see human corpses tossed at the roadside here and there. She looked at them with a face full of sympathy.
Dismembered limbs lay everywhere. Ya looked at Jiang Che—night was falling, the silvery full moon above made Jiang Che's white doctor's coat look even more eye-catching.
She was already imagining using Jiang Che's two items to snag the first-clear reward for the dungeon.
"Jiang Che, I'm a little cold~~" Ya hugged her arms, rubbed her nose, and sneezed.
The bracelet, she could figure out later, but she needed to get the coat now.
She'd been following behind Jiang Che with her heart in her throat, terrified they'd bump into other evil spirits.
Night was prime hunting time; Ya didn't think they'd just been lucky.
The only explanation was Jiang Che's doctor's coat.
It was disguising his human scent, making him seem like an evil spirit.
And her? She was just being treated as Jiang Che's prey.
"I'm just fine~" Jiang Che was in a good mood, and couldn't hide the lilting tone in his voice.
He'd felt the temperature drop once it started getting dark, the cold wind scraping his face until it stung. Thank god he had the doctor's robe on.
He only now understood the warmth of 'add more clothes when it's cold out.'
Back in the mental hospital, all you could do in winter was hole up in your room; you didn't dare go out.
The hospital did give them winter clothing, but it wasn't really warm enough.
When the chill wind was stopped by clothing, Jiang Che finally understood the meaning of something he'd heard once,
A mother's thread goes into the traveler's coat.
He sped up. He missed home and didn't want to be away,
But his wife hadn't come home yet.
If he wanted his family together, he'd have to go find his wife and bring her home—that's what a man of the house was supposed to do.
"I'm cold~!!" Ya stamped her foot in anger. Was this nutcase deaf to her hints?
Didn't he know he should untie his coat and wrap it around her?
"So what? It's not like we can't walk," Jiang Che frowned. It wasn't like he'd never felt cold.
The temperature had only dropped a little. Aside from shivering a bit, it wasn't affecting him at all.
Damn!
Ya couldn't help cursing inside. Now she finally understood—this mental case had zero clue what she was hinting at.
"Can you let me wear your coat for a bit? Once I warm up I'll give it back." Ya hugged her arms and looked pitifully at Jiang Che.
The livestream audience was watching intently as Ya tried to scam Jiang Che's coat,
[Who would've thought, out of a group of three, the two strongest men died, and this little nurse picked up the bargain.]
[Look at them, they've gone this far at night with no danger. That coat obviously works. This little nurse is smart.]
[Just grab it.]
[Probably can't snatch it. Jiang Che will get suspicious, and you know mental patients are all strong as hell. Thick skull, strong arms.]
[I agree she should trick him instead—no need to force it.]
[This little nurse really is lucky to have made it this far. If she gets the coat, she might actually walk out of the dungeon alive.]
...
No one thought Ya was doing anything wrong. The audience was even discussing the best approach to scam the coat off Jiang Che.
Jiang Che frowned at her words, reached up and touched the coat's buttons. Just as everyone thought he was about to take it off and hand it to Ya—
He quickly buttoned the rest of them. "I'm cold too."