She Was Sentenced to Life Imprisonment [Unlimited] - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Beauty Porcelain (11)

Did I Scare You?

Jiang Nan had forgotten about the mute, hanged ghost in the room. When Luo Ning reminded her and she turned around, all she saw were the ghost’s terrified eyes.

The next moment, the lotus porcelain was back on the display shelf, and the terrifying ghost was nowhere to be seen.

Was it afraid of Luo Ning?

Only then did Jiang Nan remember that Luo Ning had the ability to control ghosts.

If that was the case, it made sense for the ghost to be afraid of her.

As she was thinking, a hand landed on her shoulder. A delicate fragrance surrounded her, and a soft laugh seemed to carry an invisible pressure. Luo Ning’s crimson lips parted, and her voice was lazy yet carried a hint of an incomprehensible abnormality.

“Little Jiang Nan, what did it tell you?”

Jiang Nan’s hand on the scroll paused. A sting on her shoulder made her snap back to reality. She turned her head and met the other person’s eyes.

Those slightly upturned beautiful eyes, with their faint purple pupils, were tinged with a dark red, making them so eerie that they struck fear into her heart.

Luo Ning had been pretending for so long that Jiang Nan had forgotten she was a person of terrifying mystery.

“It told me to find the potter’s ashes.”

Jiang Nan moved her gaze away from the other person’s body. She answered honestly, then reached out to push her away.

The ghost was a mute. Since Luo Ning could control ghosts, this information wouldn’t be hidden from her. So she was asking what Mother Ci had told her after they left.

Jiang Nan’s strength wasn’t great, but Luo Ning had already released the pressure on her shoulder.

Luo Ning looked at the aloofness on the gloomy face in front of her and sneered. The dark red faded from her eyes, and she returned to her smiling self, as if everything that had just happened was someone else’s hallucination.

“Did I scare you?”

With that, she reached out to tuck the other person’s hair behind her ear, but Jiang Nan turned her head to avoid it. Luo Ning didn’t seem to mind.

“It didn’t lie to you.”

A slender, beautiful hand was placed on the back of the other person’s cool hand that was resting on the painting scroll. Jiang Nan, with her back to her, couldn’t see the madness and arrogance in Luo Ning’s eyes.

“So, are you going to help her?”

The warmth on the back of her hand and the clamor from deep within her soul made Jiang Nan freeze.

A cry rang out. The heavy rain stopped, a faint light appeared in the sky, and the lanterns were extinguished in an instant. The altar, which could be called a form of punishment, disappeared from the ancient town, and everything returned to normal.

Her head suddenly throbbed with pain, making Jiang Nan frown. After closing her eyes for a moment, she opened them again, her gaze filled with indifference.

“This is the quest to clear the game.”

The quest from the system was the same as what Mother Ci had told her. Her words weren’t wrong.

Jiang Nan shook off the hand that was on hers and looked down at the scattered scrolls on the ground.

After looking through all of them, she looked at the dazzling lotus porcelain on the display shelf, which was illuminated by the sunlight.

These paintings should be of the Beauty Porcelains from over the years. The newest one was the porcelain Buddha.

[A defective porcelain piece that lost the competition dares to come before me!]

Mother Ci’s words suddenly flashed in her mind. The scene from back then replayed in her head frame by frame, as if she had caught something crucial.

“What’s wrong?” Luo Ning asked casually, as if she knew Jiang Nan had figured something out.

“There’s only one Beauty Porcelain here,” Jiang Nan said.

After entering the dungeon, they, with their human way of thinking, always assumed that the person the system assigned to them was the most famous potter in the town, which was why they all went to the largest manor, the “Lin Manor.”

But in the end, the Lin Manor seemed to have been wiped out. The potter they were really looking for was just an unknown female potter who lived in the most secluded house.

And the art of making the Beauty Porcelain had probably been monopolized long ago, and the place of this monopoly was the “Lin Manor.”

From these paintings, it was clear that the Beauty Porcelains presented over the years were all provided by the “Lin Manor.”

But the problem lay in this last Beauty Porcelain. Although the porcelain Buddha from the “Lin Manor” was exquisite, it wasn’t as vivid and lifelike as Mother Ci’s lotus porcelain.

Clearly, the “Lin Manor” had lost in the final year, losing to an unknown woman.

Since that porcelain woman won with this Beauty Porcelain, it was strange that she didn’t become famous. Why were the townspeople still afraid of her?

Before she could figure it out, the courtyard gate was suddenly pushed open. The returning group looked very disheveled.

“Why did I come back?”

Li Feng patted the mud off his body. The sudden sharp pain in his palm made him grimace. He looked down and the bloody, shattered hole in his hand almost made him faint.

“Who hurt my hand like this?!”

He cursed, not seeing the strange expression on Yi Fei’s equally disheveled face. Yi Fei said hesitantly.

“Don’t you remember, Li?”

“Remember what?! Weren’t we supposed to leave?!”

He touched his wound again, “hissed,” and started cursing the person who had hurt his hand.

Yi Fei looked at Shi Hui on the other side. When he saw the confusion on his face, he seemed to understand something and laughed coldly to himself.

Jiang Nan and Luo Ning walked out of the house. Their spotless appearance was a stark contrast to their disheveled state, making them instantly vigilant.

Jiang Nan glanced at them but didn’t care what they had gone through.

Yi Fei’s gaze fell on the scattered scrolls on the ground behind them. He put on his harmless smile again.

“She took all the paintings last night. We didn’t have time to look at them.”

“Paintings? What paintings?” Li Feng asked in confusion.

He and Shi Hui had lost their memories of last night, so they didn’t know that Luo Ning had taken all the paintings from the Lin Manor.

Yi Fei whispered something into his and Shi Hui’s ears. The next second, the two of them glared at them fiercely.

“Sisters, you can’t hoard the clues,” Yi Fei said with a kind smile.

They had already looked at them, so the paintings were no longer valuable, and there was no need to hide them.

“Go get them from the ground yourselves,” Jiang Nan said calmly.

Then, she gave Yi Fei a cold glance and spoke again.

“Don’t call me that…”

She paused, as if choosing her words carefully, and finally said without hesitation.

“…It’s disgusting.”

She had held back many times, but she didn’t expect him to be so shameless repeatedly. It would have been fine if he only disgusted Luo Ning.

Yi Fei’s face lit up when he heard her first words, but her words that followed immediately made his face turn gloomy. He didn’t show it too much, though. Then, as if he had remembered something, he looked at Jiang Nan and said.

“Didn’t you see anything?”

“See what?” Jiang Nan retorted, her expression unchanging, as if she didn’t know anything.

The ghost was very timid. Yi Fei had stayed in the room the first night and saw it, but he was too scared to talk to it. So he wanted to know what had happened from Jiang Nan.

But she wasn’t a kind person. Yi Fei’s every move made her uncomfortable. Telling him what was outside before was already her kindest gesture.

Yi Fei choked. Seeing that she clearly didn’t want to say more, he immediately put on a troubled expression.

Li Feng, who had been won over by him because of the porcelain Buddha incident, stepped forward and said in a menacing tone.

“You’d better be smart…”

He didn’t finish his words before Luo Ning, who was standing beside Jiang Nan, gave him a cold, bone-chilling stare. It made his body tremble.

Yi Fei stopped him and put on a smile again, saying.

“Sister…”

His words were interrupted by Luo Ning. The faint smile on her lips remained, but her voice was full of disgust.

“It’s disgusting.”

She repeated Jiang Nan’s words, making Yi Fei’s face turn ashen. He almost shattered his teeth trying to keep his expression from faltering. A hint of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes.

Unable to get anything more out of them, Yi Fei had other plans.

“You’re all back.” A charming laugh entered their ears.

Mother Ci’s appearance made Li Feng’s face stiffen. But she noticed his fear and smiled at him.

“How are you still alive?”

Her words made Li Feng’s body tremble uncontrollably. But he was afraid of being punished again if he didn’t answer, so he said dryly.

“Alive. Thanks to you, I’m still alive.”

He no longer dared to get close to Mother Ci, no matter how gentle her smile was. He couldn’t forget his previous terror.

Mother Ci glanced at Jiang Nan’s side but was met with Luo Ning’s smiling gaze, which was tinged with coldness.

The pressure around them made people fearful.

Jiang Nan caught a glimpse of it and felt a sense of confusion.

She felt like Luo Ning was angry.

Soon, Mother Ci looked away. She scanned the others and finally landed her gaze on Yi Fei.

Yi Fei felt a chill under Mother Ci’s gaze, but he tried his best to maintain his innocent demeanor.

“Is there something on my face?”

With that, he reached up to touch his face, only to feel the uneven acne scars.

Mother Ci sneered and said.

“You should be glad they like you.”

Hearing that, Yi Fei’s face stiffened. He forced a dry laugh.

“What are you talking about?”

When they were trapped in the Lin Manor, the porcelain people only looked scary, but for some reason, they didn’t actually harm him. Li Feng and Shi Hui already belonged to them, so they wouldn’t attack them either. Otherwise, how would they have escaped?

Mother Ci held the handle of her fan, covering her mouth with a soft, charming laugh. But her words were chilling.

“They especially love liars.”

Her beautiful eyes were slightly curved in a smile, but they held no warmth, only disgust.

“When you tell a lie enough times, you start to believe it’s the truth.”

Her sarcasm seemed to be aimed at him. Yi Fei’s fists clenched tighter and tighter. Finally, he looked up and smiled.

“You have no proof.”

Mother Ci scoffed. Her eyes were filled with endless killing intent, and the eerie aura almost shattered his defenses.

“Hurry up. You don’t have much time left.”

She fanned herself and walked inside. As if she had remembered something, she didn’t turn back and said.

“Choose your materials carefully.”

After that, she and her two child attendants walked into the house, and the children closed the door behind them.

Li Feng saw Yi Fei’s expression turn ugly. He thought for a moment and, for the sake of his own life, said.

“Let’s go find the paintings you mentioned first.”

Shi Hui didn’t dare to stay with Jiang Nan and Luo Ning and silently agreed with Li Feng’s words.

Yi Fei finally managed to suppress his surging emotions and said.

“Let’s focus on the main task.”

Jiang Nan couldn’t be bothered with them. She went to the room where they made porcelain. Luo Ning naturally followed her. When Jiang Nan gave her a glance, she still smiled and followed her.