Ita Era

Chapter 124 Buying a Life
Regardless, Ding Shi had obtained the information he sought: a year ago, Madam Wang married into the Wang family, and her relatives from the same village began to die one after another because she had used the lives of blood relatives as sacrifices. With the help of an evil god, Madam Wang regained her youth. Now, a year later, Old Master Wang is preparing to use the descendants of the Wang family as sacrifices.

The more people die in the inner courtyard, the happier Old Master Wang will be. But as a contender for the inheritance, Ding Shi also hopes that as many people as possible die in the inner courtyard. Could it be that he and Old Master Wang are actually allies?
The rain was still falling lightly, but the sky looked even more gloomy. Thick, dark clouds seemed to be hundreds of meters above, or perhaps wild beasts were lurking within them, constantly churning and billowing.

Back in the inner courtyard, he saw the girl with the twin ponytails from before. She tossed her head and gestured with her eyes. Ding Shi and she walked to the side. The girl with the twin ponytails glanced at Ding Shi's waist again and asked, "Handsome, aren't you wearing a waist tag?"

Ding Shi asked in return, "Is there something you need?"

The girl with twin ponytails said, "I want to buy your waist tag."

Ding Shi asked, puzzled, "Don't you have any?"

The girl with twin ponytails said, "Never mind that, I'll buy your waist tag for 20 dollars."

Ding Shi: "I don't want money, tell me why I bought the waist tag."

The girl with pigtails said, "I need to see the waist tag first."

Ding Shi said, "Come with me."

The two went to the Bamboo Courtyard together. Ding Shi greeted Zi Qing and Niu Lang, who had just returned from the meeting, and went into his room with Shuangmawei. He threw the waist token to Shuangmawei, who saw that the waist token read "Bamboo Courtyard, Part 1" and said, "I'm a bandit. I need a waist token to bring my brothers into the inner courtyard. Don't worry, we're not targeting you."

Ding Shi: "Do bandits also get a share of the money?"

Twin-tailed girl: "Let's split it! We're also descendants of the Wang family." The player who drew the bandit role didn't receive an invitation. Their scenario involved bandits infiltrating the Wang residence beforehand, and they didn't take the public bus, only having their outer courtyard badges. Twin-tailed girl drew the role of a spy within the bandit camp.

Ding Shi asked, "Are waist tags rare?"

The girl with twin tails said, "I originally thought it was common, but what's strange is that everyone who died had their waist tag missing. Or rather, they died because they didn't have their waist tag." Like number two, he wasn't wearing his waist tag before he was poisoned and died. Everyone thought he died because he wasn't wearing his waist tag, unaware that he was cursed by it.

The girl with twin ponytails looks at Ding Shi and asks, "Why are you allowed to not wear a waist badge?"

Ding Shi replied, "You can too."

The girl with twin ponytails tossed down the waist token in her hand and said, "Thanks, bye-bye."

After speaking, she opened the door and left, receiving two probing glances as she went out. The girl with pigtails didn't care and walked out of the bamboo courtyard toward the outer courtyard. Passing by a corridor, she saw a row of green bamboo on the right. The girl with pigtails noticed a red envelope hanging on a bamboo branch. The envelope was open, revealing two fifty-yuan bills.

The girl with pigtails was pleasantly surprised. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, she took out the red envelope and saw that it indeed contained one hundred dollars, which could be directly deposited into her bank account. She deposited the hundred dollars into the bank and put the red envelope back.

"Someone has died." A commotion came from outside the courtyard, and someone shouted into the bamboo courtyard.

Ding Shi and the other two exchanged glances. Many people had died so far, but most of them had died in the courtyard, so there wouldn't have been such a commotion.

The three of them left the courtyard, turned left and walked for a while before seeing the scene, where there were already many players.

The girl with twin ponytails lay in a pool of blood, a sharp stone lodged in her throat, blood still flowing out.

A female player sitting on the ground cried as she said, "It's true, I saw her give me a very eerie smile, and then she raised a stone and stabbed herself in the throat. Even after that, she was still smiling at me and walking towards me step by step. I was so scared. Waaah! You have to believe me, I really didn't kill her."

Male player A said, "She wasn't wearing a waist tag."

Male player B said, "He has a waist tag in his pocket." He squatted down, reached out and hooked the waist tag string with his fingers, pulling the waist tag out of the pigtails' pocket.

Male player B: "Zhuyuan Pianyi, isn't she from Juyuan? Who is Zhuyuan Pianyi?"

Ziqing and Niulang glanced at Ding Shi beside them, and neither of them said a word. But male player B saw Niulang and asked, "Er San, who lives in the corner of your courtyard?"

Ding Shi finally spoke: "I am Zhu Yuan Pian Yi."

Male player B: "Why was your name tag on the deceased?"

Ding Shi: "Give me money, give me money and I'll tell you."

The male player immediately became annoyed: "You're fucking arrogant."

Ding Shi: "You think it's arrogant to not tell you? Well, I am indeed very arrogant." He puts one hand on his hip and shakes his leg.

Male player B stepped forward, but was immediately pulled back and told, "You can't hit him." Hitting someone will get you punished.

Male player A: "It seems he didn't attend the meeting just now."

Ding Shi remained indifferent: "Give me the money, and I'll participate. If you don't give me the money, I'm leaving."

A 20-dollar bill appeared in front of Ding Shi. Ding Shi turned his head and saw the Eight-Legged Barrow. The Eight-Legged Barrow looked to the side. Ding Shi took the money and walked to the side with the Eight-Legged Barrow, explaining: "She asked me to buy a waist tag. I said I didn't want the money, but asked me to tell me why she wanted to buy the waist tag. She said she was a bandit and needed to let people from the outer courtyard into the inner courtyard. She took the tag and left the bamboo courtyard. A little while later, I heard someone shout: Someone died."

The myna bird asked, "How did she die? She died less than fifty meters after leaving the bamboo grove."

Ding Shi shook his head: "I really don't know, I can only say it has nothing to do with me."

The myna bird said, "I think her death is related to everyone. Did you do some kind of mission involving a waist token, which turned into an ominous object? You didn't wear it, and she took it, and that's when she died."

Ding Shi said, "For the sake of the Ita coins, I'll tell you that what I just said was the truth."

"Another person has died, near the North Courtyard."

Everyone rushed to the North Campus, where they found a male player had stuck his head into a small, decorative pond. The pond was 30 centimeters deep and 40 square centimeters in area. This tiny puddle had somehow managed to drown the man.

Unlike the twin-tailed girl who died, this male player didn't have a waist tag. Just as the myna bird was about to step forward to search him, the butler arrived with his men: "Make way, everyone."

Ding Shi was puzzled. The scene with the twin ponytails was much more lively and closer to the inner courtyard gate, where a dispute had broken out and the players lingered for a longer period. Why hadn't he seen the butler there? Yet here, the butler arrived as soon as the players arrived.

There's only one reason: to cover up a secret.

Ding Shi stepped forward and said, "Steward, he borrowed my matches. Let me feel them myself."

The butler gave a signal, and the guards immediately stopped Ding Shi.

The butler explained, "Desecrating a corpse is a crime, everyone please make way." The subtext: Violating basic rules will result in punishment.

The myna bird sensed something was amiss and stepped forward: "Butler, let us see our brother off and sing him a song."

A player shouted, "Hey, he took something." They were referring to the butler.

The butler retorted, "Don't talk nonsense, I didn't take it."

One player said, "I saw it. He reached into the dead man's pocket, clenched his fist, took it out, and put it in his own pants pocket."

Guard A: "Get out of here, get out of here, if you cause any more trouble we'll have to take action."

Player: "Hand over the items. We need to know what killed him."

Seeing that the player refused to give way, at the butler's signal, Guard B decisively blew his whistle, and soon the guards from both the front and back yards rushed over. Ding Shi had already left; although he didn't know what the butler had hidden, he could guess it was something like gold ingots.

Ding Shi was about to return to the Bamboo Courtyard when he saw a man dressed as a servant emerge from the courtyard. Ding Shi wasn't sure if he was a player or an NPC, but he knew he wasn't from the Bamboo Courtyard, and demanded, "What are you doing here?"

The man took off running, and Ding Shi immediately gave chase. Even without the boost of his Force, Ding Shi was still incredibly fast. However, the man ran desperately, never slowing down at any corner, using his body to slam into walls to navigate bends, maintaining a consistent distance between them. But Ding Shi's body had been optimized, giving him greater stamina than the man. Just as he was about to catch the man, a maidservant suddenly cut in from the side. Ding Shi couldn't brake, sending the maidservant flying several meters. This brief delay allowed the man to disappear from sight.

Before Ding Shi could speak, the little maidservant preemptively cried out, "Help! Someone help!"

Then the steward of the inner courtyard arrived and believed that Ding Shi's running had caused the maid's injury. So he offered a solution: pay 10 stabs, receive 10 lashes, and be locked in a dark room for 1 hour.

Ding Shi chose to pay, and only then did the onlookers arrive. Once the excitement subsided, they dispersed. Zi Qing whispered in Ding Shi's ear, "I saw this little maid on the bus that came to the Wang residence."

Ding Shi realized this, confirming the twin-tailed theory: not all the players went to the backyard; some remained in the front yard. Further speculation suggests that perhaps Zhu Da and Zhu Er weren't NPC servants, but rather players themselves.

Ding Shi suddenly realized that there really wasn't any difference between players and NPCs. He needed to change his mindset and treat all NPCs as people, or he would get himself killed sooner or later.

……

Lunchtime is a good time to count heads, since many people don't eat breakfast. Ding Shi counted 30 people.

There was no news at 7 PM today. I didn't know what was edible or inedible, so I could only quietly observe and eavesdrop. After a round of observations, all I learned was that I couldn't eat vegetables. Can you believe it? Can't eat vegetables? Could it be that too many people are getting diarrhea, causing vegetable poisoning?
Finally, like many others, Ding Shi ate plain white rice. As they predicted, many more people contracted the disease, this time experiencing convulsions and temporary blindness.

Ding Shi was the only one who survived without wearing a waist tag, which drew considerable criticism. Many people wanted to inquire about him, but they were all scared off by Ding Shi's offer of $100.

After lunch, as Ding Shi stepped out of the outer ancestral hall, he clearly felt that it was getting darker. Although the dark clouds were not pressing down, they spread outwards, covering most of the sky. The servants, having received instructions, hung lanterns at the entrance of each courtyard, in the main hall, and at the crossroads.

Ziqing came out of the outer ancestral hall and saw Ding Shi looking at the sky. He asked, "What do you see?"

Ding Shi said, "Today is the last day of the year, which should be the preparation time given by the system, but I haven't prepared anything. Have you found the secret passage leading to the East Courtyard?"

Ziqing and Dingshi said as they walked, "The meeting yielded no results."

Ding Shi asked, puzzled, "Why?"

Ziqing said, "What else could it be? Everyone has their own perspective. However, I've noticed that the wives' opinions are basically the same. Whenever someone proposes an attack plan, one of the wives points out its shortcomings and naivety. Hmm... someone dropped money."

Ziqing bent down and reached for the 100-dollar bill on the ground. Ding Shi, lost in thought, snapped out of it and saw Ziqing about to touch the money. He instinctively grabbed Ziqing's hair and pulled it upwards.

Ziqing was in so much pain that she questioned the meaning of life and let out a scream: "Ah..." which immediately attracted the attention of many people.

Ziqing angrily asked, "What are you doing?"

Ding Shi immediately knelt down on one knee: "I was wrong."

Ziqing quickly said, "Get up."

Ding Shi: "No, I was wrong, I won't get up."

Ziqing looked around and pleaded in a low voice, "Please, get up quickly."

Ding Shi: "You go first."

Ziqing looked suspiciously at the ground and realized, damn it, the money was gone.

That scoundrel! He must have used his knee to hold down his money. You can lie to my feelings, you can lie to my body, but you can't lie to my money. Ziqing shoved Ding Shi to the ground, but didn't see any money.

Bystanders offered words of advice: "Brother, you can't buy love with knees. A man should be strong!"

Ziqing was both ashamed and angry. She pushed Ding Shi, who had just returned to kneeling on one knee, down again and quickly left.

Ding Shi struggled to kneel to one side to avoid blocking traffic: "Everyone, go about your business. I'll kneel for a little longer."

A girl was moved and knelt down beside him, encouraging him, "I don't know what you did, but I think you're a good man."

Ding Shi said, "I think your opinion is wrong."

Get down on your knees!

Damn! Where's the standard answer?

Ding Shi, in a fit of despair, yelled, "Get out of here, you ugly bastard!"

Left hand seal.

"Whatever, no one can tell anyway." The girl stomped her foot angrily, turned around, and left.

Ding Shi lay down on his side, his knees really hurting. Watching TV dramas, they're always kneeling in the ancestral hall for days on end; I can't even stand kneeling for three minutes. No wonder they say a man's knees are worth gold—it's so painful!

Lying on my back watching the dark clouds, as long as I'm not embarrassed, it's others who are embarrassed. Every single one of them here, if we encounter them in the next instance, we'll have to kill them all to silence them.

As for the money Ziqing saw, if Ding Shi wasn't mistaken, it was probably something like "life-saving money" or "marriage money" from folk customs. Otherwise, he'd have to explain how Ziqing ended up throwing digital currency on the ground. After all, even the heavens don't give free meals.

A pair of shoes walked up to Ding Shi, and Niu Lang's large face quickly approached as he squatted down. Niu Lang asked, "Are you cursed?"

Ding Shi stubbornly denied it: "No."

The cowherd picked up Ding Shi's left hand and shook it; it was quite amusing.

Realizing he'd been seen through, Ding Shi stopped pretending and asked, "Can you carry me back?"

The cowherd hoisted Ding Shi onto his shoulder, head behind and legs in front, and complained, "Damn, he's so heavy! It's my first time carrying a man, I almost hurt my back. Why don't you go back and lie down?"

Ding Shi said, "I can tell you what curse I'm under when we get back."

"Alright." The Cowherd strode forward, passing an archway. A girl at the entrance bowed and handed him a red envelope with both hands. The Cowherd took it casually as if accepting a flyer. After taking a couple of steps, he stopped and asked, "Can you help me see who that person by the archway is?"

Ding Shi straightened up and looked over, his body trembling. Wasn't that the cheongsam-clad girl who had hanged herself this morning? Her face was covered in a thick layer of powder, and her eyes had turned white. When she saw Ding Shi looking at her, she grinned at him, the corners of her mouth splitting open.

Ding Shi asked, "Did you take her things?"

The Cowherd replied, "Yes, a red envelope."

Ding Shi was speechless, then said, "Quickly give the red envelope to someone else."

Then Ding Shi felt a hand being stuffed into his pants. Ding Shi was speechless for a second: "What about the trust between people?"

The cowherd said apologetically, "I'm sorry, brother. It's better for you to die than for me to die. I'll treat you to a drink next time we meet in the dungeon."

Ding Shi sighed, "You have to accept these things willingly; forcing them on me won't work. You might as well transfer the red envelope to your account to minimize your losses."

The Cowherd didn't answer. He threw Ding Shi aside, yelled "Ah..." and sprinted ten meters before crashing his head into a landscape stone. The Cowherd turned to look at Ding Shi on the ground, red and white substances gushing out of the hole in his head. He gave Ding Shi a happy smile before collapsing and dying.

Ding Shi turned around to look at the woman in the cheongsam, but she was nowhere to be seen.

(End of this chapter)