Mother Zhou’s chilling words were not taken to heart by the hairstylist.
He showed off the scissors in a 360-degree display, habitually applying psychological pressure to the customer first.
Seeing that Mother Zhou’s hair was still dripping with water, the hairstylist frowned. This dampness would affect his performance; the sound of a dry scalp being torn was much more pleasant. He temporarily tucked the scissors into his waistband and began to blow-dry Mother Zhou’s hair.
“Hiss.”
Pain.
The moment he touched the thick hair, a sharp pain came from his fingertips.
The hairstylist quickly pulled back his finger and found a small red dot on his fingertip.
Mother Zhou smiled and urged, “Why did you stop?”
After repeatedly confirming that there were no sharp objects on the curly hair in front of him, the hairstylist checked the hairdryer again, and finally concluded that he must have scraped his hand somewhere.
His wife was not at ease and had been watching intently from the side, but she hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
Monsters were one more greedy than the other. Her attention quickly shifted to other things. Having been in the hair business for a lifetime, she had never seen such beautiful hair. It looked like it had been permed and dyed, but there was no sign of damage to the hair.
Under the light, the golden strands of hair exuded a dazzling charm.
“It will be mine soon.” A tongue, narrower than a normal human’s, licked his lips. The hairstylist’s wife reminded her husband, “Cut it carefully for me in a moment.”
She wanted a complete scalp.
The customer’s neck skin was not bad either. It wasn’t impossible to peel it down to here and make a head套.
The woman couldn’t help but want to assist, taking out another small knife from the drawer.
The atmosphere invisibly became tense.
Auntie Wang, who had just finished throwing up, was startled when she came back and saw this scene.
She weakly touched her sleeve, her gaze shifting between the hairstylist couple. The small snake hidden under the fabric only occasionally squirmed.
She didn’t know if this snake was poisonous, and how effective the poison would be against monsters.
It had to bite a vulnerable spot.
Her gaze began to become specific, specific to the woman’s carotid artery and the man’s lower body.
But just then, Mother Zhou, sitting in the swivel chair, suddenly spoke, “Their haircutting speed is a bit slow. You should sleep for a while first.”
The face reflected in the mirror had a slight upward curve at the corners of the eyes. Mother Zhou looked as if she couldn’t be in a better mood.
Having been friends for the better half of her life, Auntie Wang thought for a moment and decided to trust her friend. Moreover, when it came to dealing with this strange world, the other party definitely had more experience.
She didn’t do anything extra, picked up on the keyword, sleep.
Then she began to close her eyes and rest.
The players who had originally seen her stand up and wanted to send out a distress signal, saw the person suddenly start to take a nap in the next second, their jaws almost dropped.
They tried to determine the identity of these two people.
One of them looked to be in her forties or fifties, so she couldn’t possibly be a player. An NPC? Then what was this NPC’s role?
Or, were they just here to get their hair washed?!
Large beads of sweat rolled down. Just as the two were about to give up, the hairstylist finally finished blow-drying the hair and actively took out a booklet. “Customer, which hairstyle would you like?”
The booklet was opened, and what was printed was not traditional model hairstyles, but various ways of shaving a head. The popular recommendation was a direct slice to the skull, followed by hand-peeling the scalp and the feeling of having one’s head emptied.
“These three are our most acclaimed works.”
Mother Zhou was not frightened by the bloody introduction booklet and asked, “Are there any repeat customers?”
“Of course.” The hairstylist’s wife, for the first time, became pleasant and, before her husband could answer, opened the display cabinet behind them.
Inside were densely packed skulls and scalps pulled from living people. Some of the smaller brains that were more beautifully formed were even separately stored in jars.
Truly, a returning customer is still a customer.
The players closest to the cabinet were terrified and barely managed not to throw up.
The hairstylist’s wife pointed at the two players and said, “They chose the hot perm. It’s not recommended, as it can’t showcase our true skills.”
Mother Zhou interrupted her flowery words and pointed her fingertip at one of the options. “I’ll choose this one.”
[The feeling of having your brain scooped out.]
Almost at the moment she made her decision, the woman, under her husband’s displeased gaze, had already made a move with the knife.
The thin blade was pressed against the forehead, about to scrape off this layer of skin in one go.
Rarely encountering such an easy head to cut, the hairstylist was also unwilling to be left behind and simultaneously manipulated his scissors.
The two players both couldn’t bear to look and turned their heads away. However, after a few seconds, the expected scream did not come. After a moment of hesitation, the two looked back one after another and almost screamed themselves.
The hairstylist’s wife was now frozen in place.
Looking again, Mother Zhou’s curly, fluffy hair had at some point turned into terrifying small snakes, constantly flicking their brilliant tongues.
The hairstylist was even more unlucky. The lock of beautiful hair he had been holding had all turned into writhing long snakes. He was completely stunned.
“Ah…”
A snake actually detached itself from Mother Zhou’s head and directly crawled onto the hairstylist’s wife’s head. Amidst the woman’s belated scream, the man at the side was struggling to shake off the snakes on his body, but every one of his finger joints was tightly entangled.
The snake’s venom.
Crack, crack.
Every bone in the hairstylist’s proud scissor-hands seemed to be undergoing torture, the sound of bones shattering constantly being heard.
“What the hell is this thing!”
A normal snake would definitely not have this kind of strength!
The hairstylist’s wife was the first to come to her senses. She forcefully cut at the snake on her body with the small knife. In an instant, the thin snake…
Just as the woman’s face showed a hint of joy, the severed snake sprayed out a black mist. Her skin, which had originally been quite elastic, suffered a virus-like corrosion, and small bumps appeared, just like the skin of a toad.
“Ahhhhh!”
Seeing this, the male hairstylist instantly dared not act rashly.
The light tube on the ceiling began to flicker. Mother Zhou looked up, her face under the deathly light as stiff and white as a corpse:
“…Hurry up and cut.”
The thin snakes completely stopped being limited to crushing bones. Several of them began to drill into the man’s flesh and blood. After a sharp pain, a snake head burrowed into his palm.
The hairstylist was in so much pain he was about to suffocate. With his free hand, he grabbed the hairdryer next to him and, aiming at Mother Zhou, expecting the other to reflexively close her eyes, he rushed for the door.
Things didn’t go as planned. The hairdryer, after the switch was pressed, didn’t move at all.
The power cord on the floor had been bitten off at the root at some unknown time. Not only that, but there were also snakes crawling out of the hairdryer’s nozzle. From the ceiling above, more than ten thin snakes were hanging down, and the floor was swarming with a tide of snakes.
In the rest area behind, there weren’t many snakes near Auntie Wang. She only heard the screams.
Anyway, it wasn’t her sister’s scream, so she didn’t have to worry. Auntie Wang tried her best to follow Mother Zhou’s earlier instructions and sleep.
Reason told her that the other would not easily say those two words in a dangerous environment, so it was necessary to obey.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t sleep at all.
“Let it go, let it go…” Amidst the hairstylist’s screams that ascended to the heavens, Auntie Wang chose to sing to distract herself.
It’s not working.
The smell of blood was getting stronger and stronger. She had an uncontrollable urge to open her eyes and confirm the current environment.
“Can, can I open my eyes now?” Crisis was imminent. Auntie Wang kept her eyes closed, fighting against her instincts. Her weak voice was drowned out by the wails and howls.
With a snap, not long after her voice fell, all the light bulbs in the room shattered.
The hair salon had no windows. The lowered roller shutter door blocked the outside light. After losing the only light source, it suddenly fell into darkness.
Mother Zhou’s voice came slowly, “Open them.”
Auntie Wang opened her eyes and saw nothing.
The benefit of darkness extended to the two players who were forced to get their hair permed. Previously, under the hairstylist’s watchful eye, they could hardly do anything. Now that the hairstylist was in a precarious situation and the power suddenly went out, they recovered some strength.
Seeing a chance to live, the two quickly took off their perming caps, wanting to escape. The next moment, hearing the nearby hissing of snakes, their intended running motion stopped.
The movement from the NPCs further dispelled their impulse to escape.
“Go to hell, go to hell!” The hairstylist’s wife, as if mad, was randomly slashing her knife in the air. Every time she hit a snake, she only injured herself more severely.
The darkness concealed her true expression. Under the ferocity was undisguised evil and resentment.
The hairstylist’s wife was unobtrusively approaching the rest area.
She clearly remembered that when the last two customers came, Mother Zhou had asked Auntie Wang to sit and wait on the side, indicating that their relationship was good. As long as she could hold one of them hostage, she would still have a chance to turn the tables.
The plan was well-thought-out, but just as she was about to approach the target, a sharp pain suddenly came from her neck.
A pair of scissors suddenly appeared from behind, aimed at the back of her neck and snipped forcefully. Under the two sharp blades, the flesh and skin were separated.
Mother Zhou had appeared behind her like a ghost, asking sinisterly, “My skills, how are they?”
The woman had no time to answer. “Ugh…”
Her windpipe had been cut, and foul-smelling blood sprayed out like it was free.
Diagonally behind her, the hairstylist had even less of a chance to speak. He was engulfed by a swarm of snakes. The poison paralyzed his nerves, and he was forcibly dragged to the hair washing sink by the snake tide.
After the faucet was turned on, bloodworms scrambled to drill into the wounds on the hairstylist’s face. The heart-wrenching pain, coupled with a weak cry, made the trembling players’ hair stand on end.
[You have successfully killed the owner of the husband-and-wife hair salon.]
[You have obtained the business license for this shop.]
The system prompt reached her ears.
Mother Zhou frowned. “What is this?”
A business license? That was just working for someone else.
She didn’t pay much attention to it, let out a lazy yawn. She could just leave a few snakes behind to manage the business later.
Mother Zhou walked towards the door. As she passed the rest area, she said to her friend, “Let’s go. By the way, if you don’t want to become a vegetarian, it’s best not to look back.”
The floor was covered in bloody mud, some snake skins, and severed snake bodies, mixed together. The impact was slightly strong.
Auntie Wang always listened to advice. The moment the roller shutter door was raised, she quickly covered her eyes.
The other two players were not so lucky. They had only been through two or three instances. After the light pierced the darkness, they almost vomited their bile.
Stepping over the threshold, Mother Zhou suddenly stopped. “You two…”
The two behind her almost stood at attention in fear.
“Come and tell her some things about players,” Mother Zhou then turned her head to Auntie Wang and said, “If you don’t understand, just ask. Just use them as so-called game guides.”
Auntie Wang wiped the sweat from her forehead. “…And you?”
Mother Zhou looked at the clay pot rice restaurant over there, smiled, and smoothed her hair. “I’m going to say hello to the owner of that shop. Aren’t they good friends with the hair salon couple?”
With that, Mother Zhou’s words paused, and she suddenly began to clap her hands to a rhythm.
Auntie Wang had perfect pitch. Zhou Qi’an had even learned vocal music from her when he was a child. Hearing the rhythm, she reflexively sang, “Friends walk together for a lifetime, those days are no more…”
Mother Zhou was satisfied. “Right, they should walk together.”
“…”
Mother Zhou walked across the street. Behind her, the two players supported each other as they walked over. One of them swallowed and asked, “Are you, are you players?”
Auntie Wang nodded. “How long does it take for a player to reach my friend’s level?”
The two who came’s faces changed dramatically.
Are you dreaming? Is that a level a player can reach? It looks like she could be expelled from the human race.
Thinking was one thing, but they didn’t dare to shout at Auntie Wang. After thinking for a long time, they finally squeezed out a sentence: “A once-in-a-lifetime series.”
Just as they finished speaking, a scream erupted from the restaurant next door. The owner of the clay pot rice restaurant crawled out, her hands covered in blood, only to be dragged back by a terrifying force from behind.
The players closed their eyes and rephrased, “Maybe in the next life.”
It can’t be achieved in this lifetime. Maybe in the next life, if you’re reborn as a half-blood monster, you might have this kind of strength.
When Mother Zhou came out again, the smell of blood lingered in the street. Many shops closed their doors during the day, and for a moment, the street was particularly desolate.
Mother Zhou glanced over here. “Just you two left?”
The players said with shame, “It was originally an eight-person instance. Three died, and the remaining few have already left.”
This instance was a typical ‘first to complete the mission, first to leave’.
Mother Zhou nodded perfunctorily and told Auntie Wang to go back to the car and continue sleeping. Only then did she say, “Alright, you two stand guard at the street entrance. Don’t let the shopkeepers escape.”
She had just discovered that someone had actually thrown trash at her family’s car. They were simply tired of living.
“?”
A desolate wind blew. Mother Zhou, her long hair flowing, walked into a nearby shop and kicked open the door.
In just five seconds, screams echoed.
“Ahhh, help, help!”
“It wasn’t me, it was the clothing store next door. I’m reporting them, it was the clothing store next door that threw the trash.”
The scene was extremely shocking. The two players almost huddled together, shivering.
This instance didn’t have a host. The main mission was to successfully walk out of Tianguang Street. However, they suddenly had a mysterious feeling that the ones who wanted to complete this escape mission more were these shopkeepers.
Over there, Mother Zhou had turned into the clothing store.
This time, the heart-wrenching screams didn’t last long. When she came out again, she was carrying a limp corpse. She even dragged the body of the clay pot rice restaurant owner into the hair salon.
After piling all the corpses together, Mother Zhou nodded in satisfaction. “Good friends are reunited.”
As a reward, their inheritance should be dedicated to her.
The clothing store and the restaurant… Mother Zhou looked back. It seemed she would have to leave a few more snakes.
Burning the corpses on the street was a deterrent to the other shop owners, to prevent anyone from getting ideas about her family’s shop while she was away.
Thick smoke billowed. After everything was arranged, Mother Zhou got back on the big bus.
Auntie Wang whispered, “Can I open my eyes now?”
Mother Zhou: “You can, but don’t look at the world first.”
The corpse oil on the street was sizzling.
Mother Zhou continued to drive forward, thinking that this trip had been very smooth. The next step could be to try and bring other neighbors.
The rabbit-headed bus drove further and further away, gradually disappearing at the end of Tianguang Street. The shopkeepers on both sides looked through the cracks in their doors again to confirm that the god of death was gone, and all let out a long sigh of relief.
But when they saw the few thin snakes left on the street, they couldn’t help but be terrified again.
For Mother Zhou, this was just a part of her ordinary life.
Whether it was making money or the rabbit bus, it could only arouse her interest for a moment. After a while, it would be washed away by the obsession of arranging a marriage. So after a few days, she didn’t have much impression of this instance.
The only thing she remembered a little was the name of this street: Tianguang Street.
Tianguang meant the light of day, but that was clearly a black street.
In fact, there were many streets with the same name in the game. Besides Tianguang Street, there was another name: Fengdu Street, which was also the Ghost Market. The Ghost Market was governed by different ghost market managers in separate districts, and it was an instance that even experienced old players feared to encounter.
It had been over a month since Mother Zhou left one of the Tianguang Streets.
A month later, on a day with dark clouds, a six-armed, humanoid monster appeared on the street. There was a crack in the center of its brow.
“Damn you, Zhou Qi’an…”
After being severely injured by Zhou Qi’an’s eye-dotting, the ghost market manager had been in agony for the past month, as if being fried in a pan of oil. The petitions in the temple from the Ghost Market were almost overflowing. Those Ghost Market shopkeepers were about to be driven mad by the poor ghosts with external cameras.
Under the premise of not deviating from the operating rules, the ghost market manager could not illegally deal with the shop operators.
Out of sight, out of mind. It simply went to other jurisdictions under its control to relax.
Due to its serious injuries, the ghost market manager carefully chose a street with relatively sluggish business. Along the way, it did not forget to think about how to take revenge on Zhou Qi’an.
“I heard that beast has a bad relationship with Mr. Si…”
The ghost market manager sneered. It would send an email to Mr. Si to tell him that Zhou Qi’an had memory problems, believing that the other would make good use of this point.
The future was promising. The ghost market manager’s mood instantly improved a lot. Looking at the dark clouds, they even seemed to brighten up.
It began to survey the jurisdiction. This street was even more deserted than imagined, like a dead street, but it was much better than the jurisdiction full of ‘artificial cameras’.
The ghost market manager randomly entered a shop.
“Hiss hiss—”
“Hiss hiss—”
Two snakes at the front desk raised their upper bodies… Welcome.
The ghost market manager was silent for a moment. Wrong place, he had walked into a pet shop.
It immediately exited and turned into the shop next door.
Hearing the footsteps, before the customer came in, the snake in the other shop elegantly stood up.
“Hiss hiss—”
Welcome~
Ghost market manager: “…”
What the hell is this!!
Ahead, a conspicuous sign suddenly came into view. On the sign was a familiar and detestable face. The painter’s sketching skills were good, and the details were in place. Below were a few lines of hastily written blood-red words:
My son, unmarried. Interested parties please contact 192XXXXXXXX.
Before he gets married, all acts of a yellow-haired person sending off a blue-haired person are strictly prohibited. Violators will have their whole family buried with him.
Thank you for your cooperation!
A loving mother, left.
“…”
FMD, YFMD, the ghost market manager could no longer control its emotions and roared at the sky, “Zhou Qi’an, Zhou Qi’an—”
Why are you everywhere!
Your whole family are beasts!!
The howl echoed through the desolate Tianguang Street. For a moment, the shopkeepers on both sides closed their doors even tighter.
