It was said that they were going to the Shengfang Manor, but in reality, Gu Chi brought Ling Mao to a café.

In theory, imperative sentences should not be within the scope of lies, but just to be safe, Gu Chi felt it was better to lie.

Life is not about giving birth, it only happens once.

Dividing the troops into two routes will also increase efficiency.

Gu Chi ordered two cups of coffee and looked at the information in his hand.

It included Ms. Cui Sili's personal information and a photo of her daughter.

According to the criminal records, Ms. Cui Sili used to be a painter.

A staunch "anti-weirdism" painter.

Most of her paintings express hatred and disgust towards Weird Rules - which is not a problem in itself, who in the City of Intrigue doesn't hate Weird Rules?

But not everyone has her courage. Anything related to Weird Rules, people will avoid it.

Her paintings couldn't be sold, and her once good family situation declined, gradually becoming impoverished.

But she still persisted.

Cui Sili's artistic talent was extremely high, to the point where it could be described as "genius". And geniuses and lunatics are often separated by a thin line, and Cui Sili perfectly exemplified this.

At the age of 27, her husband died of withering, just because he accidentally said he loved her.

This sentence caused more pain than any other truth, and for a loving couple, it was the most fatal blow.

Since then, Cui Sili developed a paranoid and crazy hatred towards Weird Rules. The genius turned into a lunatic, and she has been insane for forty years.

Neighbors and friends understood and sympathized with Cui Sili's experience, but they didn't dare to get too close to her. The only thing they could do was to help Cui Sili and her daughter from starving with money.

Until one day, Cui Sili sought revenge.

She suddenly approached her friends and asked them to speak in the Blood Mist Zone, cry in the Spirit Realm, and speak directly in the Withered Zone.

A quick look at tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w will leave you more fulfilled.

She even used those suggestive paintings as posters and flyers, distributing them everywhere in the name of promoting freedom.

This incident caused a huge uproar at the time.

Regardless of freedom, this behavior undoubtedly incited others to die.

As expected, Cui Sili was soon arrested for intentional homicide and endangering public safety.

In the detention center, Cui Sili didn't listen to advice, didn't repent, and even tried to seduce the guards. She was ultimately sentenced to death and later sent to the Andrew Hotel in the Blood Mist Zone as a shadow experiment.

The information in the file is about this much. It gives a general idea, but it's not detailed.

That's why Gu Chi brought Ling Mao to the café instead of going back to the hotel.

Cui Sili's daughter, Daisy, works in this café.

As for the Shengfang Manor, it's left to Dr. Chen and Huang Ya.

Tian Tian is handling things, and Gu Chi is at ease.

Ling Mao supports her head with one hand and stirs the coffee in her cup with the other, looking at Gu Chi as if appreciating the scenery.

As a fool, Ling Mao doesn't dare to speak casually or disturb Gu Chi's thoughts in any other way. She is so quiet, obedient, and sensible. It shouldn't be excessive to reward her with more opportunities to look at Gu Chi, right?

Ling Mao tried to find some flaws in Gu Chi, but after searching for a long time, she couldn't find any. She only saw Gu Chi's strengths and advantages. It seems that only she has any shortcomings...

Before long, a middle-aged woman who had gone out shopping returned to the café.

She looked around forty years old, wearing heavy makeup, but it couldn't hide the exhaustion and indifference between her eyebrows and eyes. Her expression seemed to be smiling, but there was not much vitality in her eyes. It seemed that she was forcing herself to appear in a good mood because of her profession.

Gu Chi compared the photo in his hand, looked at the dazed Ling Mao, lightly tapped the table, and walked towards the counter.

Ling Mao snapped out of it, her cheeks slightly red. She quickly cleared her mind and followed Gu Chi.

"Hello, are you Miss Daisy?" Gu Chi asked.

Daisy turned around, looking at the unfamiliar man in front of her. "No."

Gu Chi smiled, "Can we chat?"

Daisy instinctively wanted to refuse. She didn't have the habit of chatting with strangers, even if the other person was handsome - she didn't think there was anything about herself that could attract such a man.

But when Daisy saw the black bracelet in Gu Chi's hand, she swallowed her refusal.

A wave of emotions suddenly surged in her calm and indifferent eyes. A hidden sadness flashed through. Although she had accepted this fact early on and even completely forgotten what Cui Sili looked like, at this moment, Daisy realized that she had been deceiving herself.

How could a daughter forget her mother's appearance?

Those scattered fragments of memories pieced together in her mind. Daisy seemed to see her mother smiling and holding a paper windmill to amuse her when she was a child. These images were still vivid, as if it happened yesterday.

Daisy turned her head away, pursed her lips, blinked her eyes several times, and her eyelashes left shallow black marks on her eye bags. After a while, she finally spoke, "What do you want to talk about?"

"Anything, except your mother's affairs..." Gu Chi leaned closer to Daisy, lowered his head and voice, "and the matters regarding Weird Rules."Daisy's pupils shrank as she looked at Gu Chi in disbelief.

This man can speak of Weird Rules?

Gu Chi: "Can we talk somewhere else?"

The Withered Zone is not suitable for discussing matters.

Influenced by her mother since childhood, Daisy did not fear Weird Rules like others did. Instead, she felt more hatred. This was consistent with Gu Chi's judgment. After the initial shock, Daisy quickly calmed down. She wiped away the traces on her face and said in two parts, "No."

"Let's go to my house."

Imperative sentences are not affected by Weird Rules.

Daisy took off the work apron she had just put on, asked for leave from the store manager, and left the coffee shop with Gu Chi.

Daisy's home was on the border between the Withered Zone and the Spirit Realm. Gu Chi and his team had recently passed by here, but they never thought that the clue was right under their noses.

It was an old and narrow house, with the sofa and coffee table almost squeezed together. The lighting was poor, making the originally clean but old floor look dirty.

It was hard to imagine that Cui Sili and her daughter, who used to be wealthy, would live in such a place. Even if the lights were on, illuminating the valuable exquisite objects on the cabinet, it couldn't dispel the sense of destitution brought by poverty. Instead, it made this contrast even more glaring.

Daisy remained silent and led Gu Chi and Ling Mao to the basement after entering the house.

As soon as the door opened, Gu Chi smelled a strong smell of paint.

It was a spacious art studio, larger than the first floor. The walls were filled with wooden frames and oil paintings, emitting a dim glow under the light bulbs.

Gu Chi noticed a red line on the floor, dividing the art studio into two areas: half Withered Zone and half Spirit Realm.

Ling Mao looked at the paintings on the wall in astonishment. She found them all beautifully painted.

There were scenes of forests and lakes at night, with eerie shadows reflected in the shimmering lake, and people struggling in the shadows.

There were bustling cities at night, with fireworks blooming in the night sky and towns engulfed in flames, creating a lively scene.

There was also a top-down view of a rotating staircase, with a splash of red in the middle, as if it were a person falling and splattering blood.

Hmm... Although it was a bit abstract and anti-human, at least they were things she could understand.

"These are all my mother's previous paintings. How do you like them? Aren't they dark?" Daisy had reached the Spirit Realm area of the art studio. She no longer needed to lie. She held two small stools and placed them in front of the paint table, gesturing for Gu Chi to sit.

"Thank you."

Gu Chi replied, "Darkness is relative. I can understand Mrs. Cui Sili's mood."

Ling Mao was still by the oil paintings, seemingly interested in them. She turned her head and asked Daisy, "Can I take a closer look at them?"

"You can, feel free." Daisy didn't like these paintings.

Cui Sili had put much more effort into them than her own daughter. If the bracelet brought back good memories, then these oil paintings brought pain. Daisy had thought about throwing them away more than once.

Although she understood that Cui Sili's change was due to Weird Rules, it was not enough reason for a mother to ignore her daughter. Time could dilute many things, but this was something Daisy couldn't let go of.

However, today she was much more mature than when she was young. Underneath her inability to let go, there was a hope for Cui Sili's gentle side. It was not all hatred, but also a painful love.

After all, Cui Sili was her mother.

Daisy calmly asked, "How did she die?"

"Shadow," Gu Chi answered. He placed the bracelet on the table. "My companions and I found it inside the Strange Object when we were clearing shadows at the Andrew Hotel."

Daisy stared at the black bracelet for a while, then pulled the corners of her mouth. "Then she didn't die in vain. At least she made some contribution to others."

"Did you try to stop her back then?" Gu Chi asked, referring to the promotion of freedom.

Daisy shook her head. "No, because I knew I couldn't stop her."

"She was just a lunatic who wouldn't listen to anyone."

"Do you understand how it feels for a little girl to worry about her mother starving herself and specially make her favorite snacks, only to be splattered with oil paint?" Daisy's tone was mocking. "After that, I never bothered her again."

She used the word "bother."

"In her eyes, there was only her husband, not me, her daughter. At that time, I even thought she wanted to degrade herself and die, so she could reunite with my father sooner." Daisy's tone was filled with ridicule. "I thought that when she grew old, she would have no energy to cause trouble anymore. But the fact proved that a lunatic will always be a lunatic."

"After she was arrested, I went to the detention center to see her once. She told me to get lost, saying that this world was beyond saving and that I should earn more money to buy myself a better grave."

"At that moment, I felt an absurd feeling."

"She was like those bitter and mean old ladies who only knew how to curse. I couldn't believe that she was once my gentle and elegant mother."

Gu Chi fell silent for a moment and said, "Perhaps she was trying to protect you."

By that time, Cui Sili had already been sentenced to death. From Daisy's description, it seemed that Cui Sili's "flyers" promoting freedom had not been given to her own daughter."Perhaps." Daisy finally shifted her gaze from the bracelet, "There's another reason why I didn't stop her."

Gu Chi: "Hmm?"

Daisy: "I hope she can succeed."

Gu Chi: "To gain freedom?"

Daisy: "No, to take revenge."

The proclamation of freedom was just a plausible excuse. What Cui Sili really wanted to do was to avenge her deceased husband.

This was quite easy to guess.

A person driven mad by hatred would naturally seek revenge.

Everyone knew that Cui Sili despised the Weird Rules, and so did Daisy.

Her hatred for the Weird Rules was no less intense than Cui Sili's.

To Cui Sili, the Weird Rules had killed her husband.

To Daisy, the Weird Rules had killed her parents.

Although reason told Daisy that the Weird Rules were invincible and that Cui Sili could not possibly succeed, she still harbored hope in her heart. She had no other choice.

Daisy couldn't dissuade Cui Sili.

After all, she was already mad. What difference would a little more madness make?

If Cui Sili were to succeed by some stroke of luck, Daisy might be able to find her mother. If Cui Sili failed and died, it might be a kind of release.

Not stopping her was the best support Daisy could give to Cui Sili.

The reason Daisy was willing to discuss these matters with Gu Chi was also for this purpose.

If Gu Chi could talk about the Weird Rules, perhaps he could really help her avenge her mother.

Gu Chi seemed to have caught on to something: "Do you know about Evelyn, the Creepy Baron?"

"I heard the name when I was a child. My father said she was a great person, but he didn't tell me how great she was." Daisy said.

"Because he couldn't tell you, but I can." Gu Chi said, "Evelyn, the Creepy Baron, can confront the Weird Rules directly. No matter what she does, the Weird Rules can't kill her."

Daisy was surprised: "Is there really such a powerful person?"

Gu Chi nodded: "Since your father knew about Evelyn, your mother should know too. What I'm more curious about is, if even the powerful Evelyn couldn't deal with the Weird Rules, why was your mother confident that she could take revenge on the Weird Rules?"

"I don't know..."

Actually, Daisy didn't need to know.

When Gu Chi asked this question, he already had an answer in his mind.

If "eliminating the Weird Rules" was a problem, then Cui Sili had spent most of her life looking for a solution. It wasn't until she found a solution that she suddenly started to "return kindness with hatred and advocate freedom".

With Evelyn, a powerful predecessor, as a reference, Cui Sili still dared to challenge the Weird Rules, which showed that she had enough confidence in her own method.

Now that Cui Sili was dead, Gu Chi couldn't go and ask her how she came up with the solution and where her confidence came from. What was important was to prove the correctness and feasibility of this solution.

There was a simple logic.

The oppression of the Weird Rules on the local residents was extremely strong, and they were not even allowed to mention it. If Evelyn said she had a way to deal with the Weird Rules, Gu Chi would definitely believe her, because Evelyn had the strength to do so. But Cui Sili was different - a person who couldn't even deal with shadows, how could they believe she could deal with the Weird Rules?

There were many shadows in the City of Intrigue, and the black bracelet was just one of many clues. It wasn't necessarily right or wrong. Unless the clues from other shadows also pointed to Cui Sili, they would have to first confirm that Cui Sili had the ability.

There was also the most important point.

What was the ultimate goal of this instance?

The former leader of the City of Intrigue - Evelyn, the Creepy Baron, spent her entire life looking for a way to eliminate the Weird Rules. Now Cui Sili also wanted to eliminate the Weird Rules. It seemed likely that this was the player's task. But the problem was, there was no clear hint, was there?

"Gu Yuan, look at me."

At this moment, Ling Mao suddenly called out.

In the studio, the paintings that were originally placed against the wall were pieced together by the girl.

The first three paintings she saw were among them.

The lake reflecting the ghostly shadows was on the left, the shade of the tree on the right of the painting looked like a robust "讠", next to it was a bird's-eye view of a spiral staircase, Ling Mao herself was holding a painting of a burning town above, the raging flames just formed the shape of "".

The three paintings pieced together to form an exaggerated character "诡".

And the paintings that Ling Mao pieced together were more than just three.

From left to right, a total of ten paintings were pieced together in a twisted way to form four big characters -

「Kill the Weird Rules」

At the same time, a prompt popped up.

【Current instance task updated】

【Final goal: Kill the Weird Rules】

Gu Chi: "?"

6.

4300, there will be only one chapter today (probably).

(End of this chapter)