Chapter 166: "Good Friends"

Linglan didn’t stand on ceremony with Lin Yun in the slightest and simply accepted the flowers outright, without any of the usual polite hesitation.

"The puppet theater’s got a new show running now. If you two have the time, it’s worth checking out — quite good, actually." Lily of the Valley lowered her head and breathed in the fragrance of the lily of the valley blossoms.

I wonder where she found these, she thought. They were different from the ones she used to grow herself, and honestly, they didn’t smell quite as sweet as the ones already in her hand.

"We heard the announcement earlier and were actually planning to go check it out soon."

"Oh, and one more thing before I forget — when you’re watching the performance, try not to get too emotionally invested in it. Getting swept up in the story tends to cause trouble more often than not. And don’t go doing anything unnecessary either — just remember, you’re only there to watch, nothing more."

"Ah, and about the promised gift — never mind about that for now. Seems like they’ve been a bit too swamped with everything else to prepare enough of them properly this time around. Still, for the sake of our friendship, I certainly won’t leave you two walking away completely empty-handed."

As though the thought had only just occurred to her, Linglan waved a hand dismissively, then pulled something out of her pocket and pressed it casually into Lin Yun’s palm.

She glanced sideways at Song Xizheng, considered for a moment, then pulled out another item and handed it over to him as well.

"All right, you two go have fun out there. Such a shame, honestly — those people really dropped the ball on the gifts again this time around. There are even a few tourists walking away with absolutely nothing to show for it. I’ll make sure to go have a proper word with them about it a little later on."

Cradling her bundle of lily of the valley flowers, Linglan gave them a faintly disappointed look, shook her head, and walked off.

The two exchanged a brief glance before heading out of the visitor center themselves.

[System Notification: Lily of the Valley’s Affection +20]

Since it wasn’t exactly the ideal spot to examine what Linglan had just pressed into their hands right there in public, the two of them tucked the items away for the moment, planning to look everything over properly once they were safely back at the shelter.

This time around, the two of them headed to the puppet theater on their own.

"Hey there! We’ve got a brand-new show starting today — care to check it out?"

A baby-faced girl in a green vest handed them a small notebook, pointing out several new plays for them to pick from.

Amusement Park, Good Friends, Castle.

Three brand-new shows in total.

"Which one should we go with?" Lin Yun tilted her chin toward Song Xizheng, leaving the choice up to him.

"The middle one, I guess."

Song Xizheng settled on Good Friends.

The boy in the green vest handed over a fresh little tag — apparently the puppet theater only issued new tags for viewing a different show.

The tag depicted two girls standing back to back — one facing forward toward the viewer, the other turned away, her head angled just enough to reveal half her face.

"There’s a performance starting shortly, just so you know. This way, please, right through here."

Once he’d tucked their belongings safely away, the baby-faced attendant stepped out from behind the counter and led the two of them toward the second floor.

Plenty of wooden puppets hung along the staircase leading up to the second floor as well, though since the stairs themselves sat right within the main open lobby, they didn’t carry quite the same unsettling, eerie atmosphere as the ones lining the earlier dim corridor had.

The attendant guided them to the theater entrance and then left them to it.

The layout of the theater room mirrored every other viewing room in the building exactly. Quite a few tourists had already settled into their seats by the time they arrived, though a handful of open spots still remained toward the back rows. The two of them ended up claiming seats near the door.

This time, Song Xizheng brought along a bag of his own, setting it down in the empty seat beside him.

More tourists continued trickling in steadily over the next several minutes, and before too long, the show itself was finally ready to begin in earnest.

The story opened with two girls suddenly appearing, seemingly out of nowhere, right at the entrance of the amusement park, as though they had simply been dropped there without warning.

"Where on earth is this?" The curly-haired girl sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes, with no idea how long she’d actually been lying there on the ground.

Spotting the still-sleeping girl lying beside her — long, straight black hair spread messily across the ground — she reached over and gave her shoulder a gentle nudge. "Ruoling. Hey, wake up already."

Lan Ruoling stirred awake fairly quickly at the nudge, and the very moment she took in her strange new surroundings, her senses sharpened at once, fully alert.

"How did we end up here, right at the entrance of the park?"

"No clue. I woke up and we were already here. Come on, let’s get up — sitting on the ground like this isn’t exactly comfortable."

Tong Yin pushed herself up and pulled Lan Ruoling to her feet as well.

Before long, two attendants in green vests approached them. "Hello there — are you here to enjoy the park, or would you rather apply for a part-time position with us?"

"Huh?" Tong Yin blinked, momentarily thrown by the question.

Standing beside her, Lan Ruoling reacted quickly. "Let’s have some fun first — we can talk about the job later."

"Sounds good. Enjoy yourselves, then."

The two green-vested girls smiled warmly and walked off without pressing the matter any further.

The pair wasted no time heading further into the park.

Near the entrance stood a full, detailed map of the entire amusement park grounds. The two of them took a moment to memorize the general layout before deciding to try out a ride first and figure out their next move afterward.

They settled on the Ferris wheel, and since it was just the two of them riding alone, it gave them plenty of privacy to talk.

"Yinyin, since there’s no rule against applying for a job here, why not just go for it?"

"Sure, works for me — being staff would make things a lot easier to manage." Tong Yin agreed without a moment’s hesitation.

The two quickly settled on the plan, though neither had expected the Ferris wheel itself to turn into such an ordeal. They ended up stuck aboard it for two or three full hours before finally getting off.

"Ruoling, I think our instinct to apply for staff jobs was the right call. It took two or three hours just to get off this ride alone."

"If something ever actually went wrong up there, it’d probably take even longer to sort out."

When the creature had suddenly appeared earlier, looming just beyond the glass, Tong Yin had genuinely feared it might smash straight through and get inside with them. Even now, sitting safely away from it, the memory of that moment still left her feeling a little shaken.

Lan Ruoling pulled Tong Yin along quickly. "Come on, let’s head back toward the entrance — I wonder if those two green vests are still around."

"They probably are."

Once they reached the entrance, the two didn’t actually step back outside — they simply peered through from where they stood.

"Hello there, is there something we can help you with?" The same two attendants from earlier reappeared right on cue.

Their eyes lit up at once. "Hi — we’d like to apply for that part-time position. What exactly do we need?"

"No special requirements to speak of, really — just that one of you will be stationed at the visitor center full-time, while the other works as an NPC out somewhere in the park itself. So the two of you won’t actually be together for most of your shifts."

The girl in the green vest explained with an easy smile.

"Feel free to talk it over between yourselves, but I’d suggest deciding quickly — we’re nearly out of part-time openings. Only these last two spots remain."

"No need to discuss it — we’re in. We just need to figure out who takes the visitor center." Lan Ruoling agreed on the spot without hesitation.

The girl’s smile deepened. She gestured off into the distance. "Wonderful — come along with us to the visitor center, then. We’ll get your work badges and everything else sorted out over there."

Without a shred of suspicion, Tong Yin and Lan Ruoling followed along right behind them.

The boy in the green vest led the way, the two girls trailing close behind.

Lan Ruoling murmured quietly, keeping her voice low, "This park doesn’t really seem to have any dangerous spots as far as I can tell, aside from that one creature stuck on the Ferris wheel."

"And even that thing doesn’t seem capable of getting off the ride itself."

Tong Yin glanced toward the green vest walking a few steps ahead of them and whispered back, "Seems that way, sure enough — but the people back at the transit station did specifically warn us this special world was dangerous. Better to stay cautious just in case, no matter how calm things look right now."