The backdrop can also be propped up.

Chapter 230 Red Rope Bell Talisman

Lu Renkui and the system WQBYRZM climbed out to see what had happened. The sound of the bell earlier made them feel that something was wrong.

After climbing out, Yi Renyi found Fang Cheng carefully unfolding a piece of paper that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

Lu Renkui was quite agile and quickly climbed onto Fang Cheng's shoulder, pulling the system WQBYRZM up with him as well.

She didn't take the two little people's action equations to heart—she now gets a lot of information from these two little people, and she doesn't mind them climbing all over her.

The equation unfolded the paper, which was long and thin.

The paper was written in traditional Chinese characters, and the characters were very small. In addition, the paper must have been quite old, as parts of some characters were missing. Fang Cheng frowned and tried hard to understand what was written on the paper.

"Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, I beseech all the immortals, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and deities, that I, Zhang Xiying, may tonight offer three sticks of incense, transforming them into countless fragrant clouds... What is this? It seems to be something from metaphysics." This touches on a blind spot in my knowledge of equations.

“This looks a bit like a summoning spell,” Lu Renkui said. Before she was hit by a car and became a vegetable, she was interested in metaphysics for a while and had read a few summoning spells.

"So, considering the condition that the Second Miss is a ghost, did this person invite a deity to suppress the Second Miss?" Fang Cheng asked.

"It seems so, but is this Taoist priest a legitimate one?" Lu Renkui frowned. "Why does he look so much like someone using cheat sheets?"

"Could this Taoist priest be a fake one, and he only approached the tea shop to earn money from them?" Fang Cheng stated her speculation. "Otherwise, there's no way to explain this cheat sheet-like incantation for summoning the gods."

“It looks like it, but this third floor…” Lu Renkui glanced at the corridor with lots of red lines, hissed, and asked, “Are you still going up?”

"I guess I should still go up and check it out." Fang Cheng clutched the incantation spell tightly in his hand and cautiously took another step forward. "I already promised Sister Bai Xingyi. Wow! The bell is ringing again!"

This time, the sound of the bell was even louder than when the equation was first brought close, so loud that Gu Huayang, who was waiting downstairs to receive the first-hand news, peeked up.

Because of the rules, Gu Huayang could only crane his neck and look up at the building, shouting, "What's going on? What happened? Why is there a bell sound?"

She couldn't get to the third floor; the bell was ringing. Fang Cheng was a little scared as she watched the red lines gradually lengthen and then intertwine, forming an impenetrable net.

The bells adorned with talismans also appeared out of nowhere. They shook violently, as if the equation were some kind of evil spirit.

Fang Cheng tried to flip over, but she was quickly burned by the red rope.

Ouch. Fang Cheng blew on his hand, then looked at the red rope with some curiosity. What was this red rope for? It was so domineering.

"So, can we still get to the third floor?" Lu Renkui asked, trying to reach for the red rope, but because her current body was too small, it was as if she couldn't reach it at all.

"It should still be possible... well, no!" Fang Cheng watched as the red ropes climbed higher and higher, completely sealing off the stairwell. There wasn't even a gap between the ceiling and the red ropes. Not only that, the red ropes even climbed down the stairs, step by step, until they reached Fang Cheng's feet.

Fang Cheng was so frightened that he took two steps back, but forgot that he was still in the stairwell. He missed a step and fell to the floor on the second floor.

Fortunately, just then the clock struck nine. The red rope stopped moving upon hearing the clock, and the sound of the bell faded away.

"Ouch!" Fang Cheng endured the pain of falling to the ground and sat up, looking at the stairs that were wrapped up like a rice dumpling with red silk thread.

Why did things turn out this way? Fang Cheng was somewhat apprehensive, worried that she would cause trouble for Gu Huayang.

"Are you alright? What happened? Why did the bell suddenly ring upstairs?" Gu Huayang finally made it to the time to change the tea for the second young lady and rushed upstairs. The first thing he saw was Fang Cheng lying on the ground, struggling to get up.

The falling equation attracted attention, and Lu Renkui and the system WQBYRZM, who had heard Gu Huayang going upstairs in advance, quickly scurried back into the equation's pocket.

"I'm alright, the red line blocked the way," Fang Cheng said, grimacing as he covered the areas he could feel that were in pain.

"The red line?" Gu Huayang frowned as he looked at the passageway between the second and third floors. "Where is the red line?"

The equation was frozen in place.

Gu Huayang also sensed that something was wrong—the equation was different from his role, so the direction of events he saw was also different, which was normal.

However, Fang Cheng now says there is a red line between the two floors, while Gu Huayang looks at the empty stairwell with only a large sign prohibiting people from going upstairs.

Gu Huayang helped Fang Cheng up, asking him to wait a moment while he went to the end of the corridor to change the tea on the table in the Second Miss's mourning hall.

After changing the tea for the second young lady, Fang Cheng wanted to say something to Gu Huayang, but Gu Huayang told her to say it later.

Gu Huayang took a deep breath at the top of the stairs. According to the rules, he had to go downstairs and could not stay on the second floor, but he wanted to try to find a loophole in the rules.

Gu Huayang walked down the stairs and stopped at the platform between the first and second floors. He then frowned and looked at the NPCs on the first floor.

The NPCs didn't stop what they were doing; they continued to do their own things.

It seemed that staying here was fine, so Gu Huayang breathed a sigh of relief. He then beckoned to Fang Cheng to come over and talk to him.

Fang Cheng also went up to the platform on the first floor and began exchanging information with Gu Huayang.

After listening to what Fang Cheng said, Gu Huayang lowered his head and thought: "You mean that when you wanted to go up, you saw a red rope with bells and talismans hanging on it. They blocked you. And when you got closer, they suddenly multiplied and crawled over like insects."

The equation nodded.

"That's strange, how come I didn't see it?" Gu Huayang frowned. He knew that Fang Cheng's current role was both reasonable and special.

It's normal for tea-picking girls to be present in a tea plantation. Unlike the schoolteacher in Fuqu, it's not as jarring.

What's special is that even Fu Qu, that special schoolteacher, has a character design, but Fang Cheng's character design for the tea-picking girl is not specified.

"What should we do?" Fang Cheng said with a worried look. "If we can't get to the third floor, we won't be able to get any clues about that cat-faced old woman."

"It's alright, I don't think the dungeon will really put us in a dead end," Gu Huayang comforted. "We'll see. If you're not in a hurry to pick tea right now, why don't you talk to Fu Qu, who's in a similar situation to you? He should be fine right now. The two of you can go together and look for clues in this manor."

"Okay." Fang Cheng nodded.