Fortune Star Matchmaking (12): Then All That Was Left Was to Wait for the End of His Shift

Based on Wu Nianfang's account, Li Qing could now more or less pinpoint the reason for this dungeon instance's abnormally high death rate.

The bosses in this dungeon instance were currently all converted from bride players who had died in previous rounds, and the instance had misidentified the bosses, allowing the dead brides to occupy player slots.

What was more, there might be more than one such case.

Li Qing asked, "Among the current brides, who else is a Fortune Lady?"

Wu Nianfang looked at him indifferently. "I don't know."

"Don't you remember every round of the instance?"

"There are so many Fortune Ladies here, but only six brides are chosen each round to start the game. How can you guarantee I'll be selected every time?"

Although Wu Nianfang had accepted that she would soon vanish completely, she couldn't muster the slightest goodwill toward an administrator of this terrifying instance system. She merely watched the two of them with malicious amusement.

"It's perfectly normal for us not to know each other. Don't you have the ability to check people's identities, Administrator?"

Li Qing didn't take her attitude to heart. He thought for a moment, then nodded. "You're right. Besides, I've finished investigating the cause of the incident. I'll process all the data here in one go when the time comes, so identifying which ones are Fortune Ladies and which ones are players won't serve much purpose now."

Gong Yao finally spoke up. "Maybe you could check for me?"

Li Qing said, "No. That would be cheating."

Gong Yao's brows drooped, and he looked at him with a hint of hurt. "But you just said you'd help me."

"Help you leave the instance? That's simple. You only need to make sure I'm your partner on the last day, and you'll be able to leave without a problem."

Gong Yao shrugged. "That's true... but I have a question."

He tilted his head, smiling at Li Qing.

"If I don't marry you on the last day, Qing, and you marry an NPC instead... will you, now that you have to follow the player rules, be trapped in this instance forever like the other players?"

Li Qing said nothing.

He wasn't particularly sure of the answer.

After all, a blunder as serious as the system mistaking him for a player had never happened before. Although Li Qing had other means at his disposal, he had still largely followed the rules of his assigned identity and hadn't triggered any guaranteed-death conditions.

That sly fellow Gong Yao must have noticed how restricted he was long ago. That was why he acted with such impunity.

Gong Yao chuckled, wearing an "I knew it" expression, and didn't press him further. "See? Our goals line up this time. I'm not asking you to help me cheat, either. Just give me a heads-up before you do anything."

Li Qing's investigation was essentially complete, and he had now fully settled into waiting for his shift to end. Naturally, he could agree to Gong Yao's request.

After receiving his answer, Gong Yao nodded in satisfaction and stretched.

"Relaxing times are always so brief-my stream cooldown is up. Time to go live again."

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Qing's admin interface once again notified him that a livestream signal had been detected.

Gong Yao stood, dragged his cushion closer to Wu Nianfang, then plopped down beside her. He draped his other arm over Li Qing's shoulders and smiled, waving at the miniature camera in the air.

"Hi, everyone! Long time no see! Come on, you two, say hello to everyone."

Li Qing: "?"

Wu Nianfang: "..."

The moment Gong Yao went live, a barrage of comments exploded across the entire screen.

[Can someone tell me what happened over the past hour? A system malfunction?]

In a rare move, Gong Yao turned on his chat and immediately replied, "That was premium content. Can't stream it."

[Aaaaah, Lord Gong Yao is interacting with us!]

[What could possibly be off-limits to me? [Spaceship] ×1]

[Wait, isn't that the female ghost from earlier beside him!?]

[Oh my god, I thought the stream cut out because Gong Yao died. Why is he sitting so peacefully with the female ghost now?]

"That's a secret."

[Why is pretty little Li Qing there too? Wasn't he dead already?]

"You got here late, huh? We already covered that part. Li Qing didn't die. He was kidnapped by bad guys."

[? Do you know how jarring it is to hear 'kidnapped by bad guys' in a death instance livestream...?]

[To be fair, the NPCs in this instance really do qualify as bad guys!]

[Bleeergh, I'm all for ghost sis tearing them limb from limb! (Please spare Boss Gong and Li Qing!)]

[So what's your plan now, Lord Gong Yao?]

"My plan now?" Gong Yao tilted his head, looked at Li Qing, then at Wu Nianfang, and asked, "We've made it through tonight's crisis, right?"

Naturally, neither of them answered him.

So Gong Yao took their silence as agreement and said cheerfully, "Now that we don't have to run for our lives anymore, it's time to move on to sleeping."

The chat immediately filled with comments like [Padding the stream].

Gong Yao... was indeed padding his stream. But his earlier willingness to interact had already dispelled the viewers' displeasure over the interruption, and his enthusiastic fans once again flooded his stream with gifts.

Gong Yao had already turned off the chat. He leaned contentedly against the wall behind him. "Good night, you two."

With that, he closed his eyes.

Meanwhile.

In the still of the night, the moment Gong Yao brought his stream back online, it shot straight to the top of the trending rankings.

As a top player known to practically every livestream viewer, Gong Yao was famous for his habit of turning off his stream when he slept at night.

If his stream was still running at this hour, something exciting must have happened.

And so, casual viewers who had just come online immediately clicked into the famous player's stream...

...only to see Gong Yao asleep against a wall, his left arm around a beautiful young man dressed in white, with a girl in bridal robes leaning beside him on his right. All three had their eyes closed and were sleeping soundly.

[...What's going on? Has Boss Gong Yao finally decided to have one on each arm?]

[Get lost! Don't make my Gong sound so sleazy! Their relationship is nothing more than innocently sleeping together!]

[Huh? So he's streaming himself sleeping? You can get to number one just by streaming yourself sleeping???]

[They may look like they're just sleeping together normally, but what would you say if I told you one of them is a confirmed female ghost?]

[A female ghost!? Exciting, exciting! Let me see what this ghost is going to do!]

The night passed.

Aunt Liu's voice came from outside, calling everyone to breakfast, and Gong Yao slowly opened his eyes.

Li Qing's brows furrowed, and he woke as well, wriggling out from under Gong Yao's arm. His hair was a little messy, and his eyes were blank. Clearly, he hadn't booted up yet.

Wu Nianfang sat up straight, her expression so calm that it was impossible to tell whether she had slept at all.

Gong Yao yawned and stretched like a big cat, then waved at the empty air. "Good morning, everyone."

The viewers who had stayed up all night: ...

The ghost's midnight attack they'd been waiting for hadn't happened at all!

Had the three of them really just slept peacefully through the entire night?!

The three straightened their clothes and headed to the dining hall together.

Gong Yao and Wu Nianfang had survived a night locked in the ancestral hall, and Li Qing, who had disappeared for an entire day, had also reappeared. Everyone looked shocked.

Yuan Sisi and Zhou Qing were visibly relieved, while Wan Yingjun narrowed his eyes as he studied Gong Yao, a cold glint flashing in his gaze.

The three took their seats, and Aunt Liu appeared with breakfast, greeting everyone with a smile.

"All twelve of you are up early today. Let's have breakfast a little earlier, then."

After speaking, she set the breakfast she was carrying on the table.

Twelve steamed buns and twelve bowls of thin rice porridge.