After walking for some distance, the Bai Manor that Ju Jingyi wanted to see didn't appear; instead, the Suspension Room appeared not far away. However, according to the map in her hand, the Suspension Room and the Bai Manor were not on the same road. Well, she was lost again.
But she wasn't discouraged by this. Her teammates were right ahead, and her navigator was also inside, even though he had already been eliminated. Asking them for directions shouldn't be against the rules, right?
She walked to the Suspension Room in a few quick steps. Yi Xing was the first to notice her approaching, thinking she had also been eliminated.
He picked up his phone to check if he had missed any messages while chatting with the person next to him, but he didn't see a notification for Ju Jingyi's elimination.
"Xiao Ju, why are you here? Don't tell me..."
"Don't say it!"
Ju Jingyi seemed to know what he was about to say and immediately cut him off. She didn't want to expose her poor sense of direction on the big screen. Her suddenly raised voice startled everyone else, making them look over.
"Alright, alright, I won't say it. Where are you heading now?"
"Bai Manor."
"Bai Manor, huh? Let me check the map." Yi Xing lowered his head and flipped through the map in his hand. Seeing so many locations written on it, he couldn't help but sigh.
He hadn't been to any of these places before he was caught. He wondered if there would be a revival later. As he thought about it, his mind gradually drifted, but he was called back by a sentence from the person in front of him.
"Are you even looking?"
"I am, I am." He snapped back to reality, carefully studied the map, and planned a safe route for Ju Jingyi.
"You'll turn around and go back, then turn left at a fork in the road. After walking a bit further, you'll see the Bai Manor."
He had different methods for giving directions to different people. The simplest was to use front, back, left, and right. A slightly more complex way was to use clock directions.
But the latter only applied to people with a good sense of direction. For even more complex situations, one would have to use longitude and latitude, but he had never encountered such a case.
Ju Jingyi listened intently, firmly remembering his words, and nodded to show she understood: "Then I'll go do the task now!"
"Wait a moment, quickly hide behind me. There's a hunter coming your way, and he hasn't spotted you yet."
Just as she was about to leave, Yi Xing grabbed her hand. She turned her head, heard what he said, and looked in that direction. Sure enough, a hunter was advancing on her inevitable path.
Following his instructions, she silently hid behind the Suspension Room, using it for cover to perfectly evade the hunter's sight. Only after the danger had passed did she resume her journey to the Bai Manor.
"Remember, turn left at the fork in the road, then go straight!"
Walking on the road, Ju Jingyi heard the reminder from behind and showed a sweet smile. Even though she heard it, she didn't respond. Soon, she arrived at the entrance of the Bai Manor according to the route.
As soon as she entered the gate, she saw a scholar holding bamboo slips. She immediately stepped forward, cupped her hands, and asked, "Excuse me, are you Young Master Bai Zihua?"
"I am. May I ask what business this young lady has with me?"
"Can you come with me to the Ye Manor?"
"May I ask what for at the Ye Manor?" Bai Zihua cupped his hands and asked, perplexed.
"There's a great beauty waiting for you there, one who would make fish sink and geese fall, and the moon hide and flowers blush. She greatly admires your talent and wishes to make your acquaintance, Young Master Bai." Ju Jingyi was truly giving her all, saying anything to complete the task.
"Oh, is that truly so?"
"Indeed it is."
"In that case, this young lady and I are truly a perfect match, a match made in heaven! I shall go with you to the Ye Manor to propose marriage right away."
She hadn't expected this NPC to be even more shameless, capable of saying such things. She had underestimated the actors' commitment. If it were her acting, she would probably burst out laughing. She covered her mouth, forced her laughter back, and then spoke again.
"Alright, then let's go!"
While she was completing the proposal task, the others weren't idle either; they were all busy earning money.
However, the results weren't very significant. So far, everyone combined had only 19 coins, still a bit short of the 40 coins mentioned in the task.
The journey there was a stumble, but the return trip was much easier. Ju Jingyi, with her task objective, followed the path she had taken back. There were no traces of hunters along the way, and she safely arrived at the Ye Manor.
"Miss Ye, I've brought Young Master Bai. He rushed over as soon as he heard your name."
She had originally intended to introduce the two of them, continuing her role as a matchmaker.
Who would have thought that Miss Ye, upon seeing Bai Zihua, nearly pounced on him, scaring him into taking a few steps back. He looked with pleading eyes at the person who had brought him.
"May I ask who this auntie is?"
As soon as he spoke, a louder voice rang out: "Mother! He called me an auntie!"
"No, no, he said 'mother,'" the woman who was called 'mother' quickly said. She couldn't wait for her daughter to get married soon; having her at home annoyed her.
"Miss, this person is completely different from what you described! I suddenly remembered urgent matters at home and must take my leave now."
The others, who had been watching the drama from the side, rushed out with a "whoosh." Ju Jingyi wasn't the only one there; others were also present, and they had been waiting, not leaving, after hearing she would bring Bai Zihua back from the Bai Manor.
Da Zhang Wei and Huang Qishan were the first to rush forward, firmly blocking his path, giving Bai Zihua no chance to leave. The remaining three, Pan Binglong, Chen Ou, and Tian Liang, stood around him. Five people completely surrounded him.
After much persuasion (and unreasonable entanglement) from the crowd, Bai Zihua finally compromised and temporarily agreed to the marriage. Miss Ye, hearing this, rushed up and hugged him tightly.
He looked up at the sky with a bitter expression, a clear tear rolling down his cheek. If he had known this ordeal awaited him, he would have never agreed to play this role.
With everyone's combined efforts, they finally gathered the 40 coins needed to buy the hairpin. Yi Xing, who was in the Suspension Room, was bored watching the others play Dou Dizhu.
He had originally been in the game, but when someone discovered he could count cards, he was unceremoniously kicked out and forbidden from participating again later.
It was his fault that he was the only male there; he couldn't even find someone to stand on his side.
He stood quietly watching for a long time, feeling a bit sleepy. His phone, placed nearby, rang. He synchronized the current information with the three people who were playing enthusiastically.
"【Through the efforts of Huang Xiaoming, Jia Nailiang, Ju Jingyi, and others, the time reduction device has been successfully activated. Game time has instantly decreased by 20 minutes, and victory coins have increased by 120,000.】"