Chapter 2798 The Substitute Was Forcibly Taken by the Bandit's Wife 03

Chapter 2762 The Substitute Was Forcibly Taken by the Bandit's Wife 03

Night had fallen, and the campfire was burning brightly. Dozens of bandits sat around the fire, holding large pieces of roasted meat and drinking loudly while laughing and cursing.

Upon seeing Jin Chen being brought over, many people stopped what they were doing and turned their gazes toward him.

The bandits escorting him gave him a push, signaling him to move forward.

Red lanterns hung under the porch, swaying gently in the night breeze.

The gate was wide open, and the inside was brightly lit.

Jin Chen was escorted inside.

In the center of the room was a huge hearth, which illuminated the entire room.

The bandits, who were sitting around a table, were talking and laughing loudly. When they saw someone enter, they all stopped what they were doing and turned to look.

Jin Chen's expression remained unchanged; he merely raised his eyes slightly and looked straight ahead.

There were five chairs covered with animal hides, with very high backs carved with ferocious animal heads.

At this moment, four of the tables were occupied by people. The man in the first seat on the left had a cold and hard face, held a wine bowl in his hand, and had a gaze as sharp as a knife.

The man to his left was a baby-faced young man leaning back in his chair, fiddling with a dagger in his hand. When Jin Chen looked over, he grinned, revealing two canine teeth.

The person seated on the right was a man in a red robe, with feminine features and a beautiful face, playing with a jade fan in his hand.

Next to him stood a towering, burly man with a full beard, gnawing on a roasted lamb leg with his mouth dripping with oil.

Upon seeing Jin Chen enter, the burly man said in a gruff voice, "Oh, you really brought back a little beauty?"

Jin Chen ignored the stares and looked at the animal skin chair in the very center.

That was the only empty chair.

No, it's not empty.

Jin Chen narrowed his eyes slightly. In the shadow cast by the back of the chair, there was a person sitting.

The flickering firelight gradually illuminated the man's figure from the shadows.

The man sat casually, one leg bent and resting on the chair, his elbow on his knee, and a wine bowl in his hand.

The firelight illuminated half of his profile, revealing high brow bones, a straight nose, and distinct lips—a face that should have been incomparably handsome, but with a scar on his face.

A red mark lay across his left eye, like a bizarre tattoo, which ironically added to his almost wild handsomeness.

Jin Chen's gaze lingered on that person's face for a moment.

And it was at that moment that he looked up.

Eyes facing each other.

Jin Chen saw his eyes clearly.

It was a deep black, yet heavy and oppressive, making it hard to breathe.

That's the look in the eyes of someone who's been through countless battles and waded through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Gu Fanghe stared at Jin Chen for a long time.

After a while, the noise inside the house gradually subsided, and all the bandits stopped what they were doing and watched this scene with bated breath.

[Detected the villain in this world's plot, triggering the blackening value, current blackening value: 90! ]

[Task requirements: Clear the black value to zero and change the villain's tragic ending! ]

“Boss,” the one-eyed bandit leader, sitting at the lower end, spoke up, “am I right? This kid does look somewhat like…”

He didn't finish speaking, but everyone understood.

Like that young master Ruan who stayed here for ten days three years ago and saved the children of the mountain village.

Like Ruan Shutong, who became the cinnabar mark on the leader's heart.

“Yes, it’s true,” Liu Mianfeng chuckled, waving a jade-bone fan that obscured the lower half of her face. “It really is true.”

Jinchen: "..."

He was cursing filth in his heart.

[Calm down, phew...] Ling Gun Gun manually cooled him down, [It's a blessing to be the protagonist!]

After a long pause, Gu Fanghe finally spoke.

"Come forward."

Jin Chen stepped forward as instructed.

He stopped in front of Gu Fanghe's seat, no more than three steps away.

Gu Fanghe raised his eyes and looked Jin Chen up and down.

"What's your name?" Gu Fanghe asked.

"Jinchen."

"Do you know why I kidnapped you?"

Jin Chen said, "The bandits rob people for nothing more than money. Although my Jin family is not very rich, we can still afford the ransom. As long as the chief lets me and my page get down the mountain safely, the money is negotiable."

A few snickers came from inside the room.

Gu Fanghe didn't laugh. He looked at Jin Chen, his eyes swirling with thoughts, which he quickly suppressed.

"Money?" he said slowly. "Black Mountain Village is not short of money."

"What does the chief want?"

Gu Fanghe gripped Jin Chen's chin with considerable force.

Jin Chen frowned, a hint of anger rising in her eyes, and glared at him.

Gu Fanghe pinched his face, turned it left and right, and brushed his fingers along Jin Chen's cheekbone and the corner of his eye.

After a moment, he released his grip, revealing that it wasn't a disguise.

“From today onwards,” Gu Fanghe leaned back in his chair, resting his elbows on the armrests and tapping his fingertips lightly on the animal hide, “you will live in the village.”

"What you eat, what you wear, what you do, you have to follow my rules."

Jin Chen took a deep breath and looked up at Gu Fanghe. "Do I have a choice?"

Zero Rolling in his mind flipped through the manual with a clattering sound. [Host, I got a great thing from the strategy department: the Substitute's Guide to Ascension!]

[Step 1: Playing hard to get~]

Gu Fanghe's gaze remained fixed on Jin Chen's face, his eyes darkening.

"You have no choice. And you're not allowed to cry in front of me anymore."

Jinchen: "..."

"Oh dear," Ling Gun Gun couldn't help but chime in again, reciting a cheesy line, "You don't look like him when you cry!"

Jin Chen: [...] (Silence)

The impact has been exerted.

Seeing that he remained silent, Gu Fanghe raised his hand and gestured to the two bandits waiting by the door, "Take him to the east wing to settle him in."

"Yes!"

Two young bandits stepped forward to grab Jin Chen's arms, but before their hands could even touch his sleeves, he shook them off.

The two bandits were taken aback and subconsciously looked at Gu Fanghe.

Jin Chen looked directly at Gu Fanghe at the head of the table, her brows furrowed in displeasure.

"It hurts, but I can walk by myself."

After saying that, without waiting for Gu Fanghe's response, he turned and walked out the door.

The two bandits were dumbfounded, standing there at a loss for what to do.

The other bandits inside the house looked at each other, some wanting to laugh but holding it in because their leader was there.

Gu Fanghe watched the departing figure with a blank expression on his face.

He wasn't angry at all.

I even found it somewhat interesting.