I Raise My Wife in a Supernatural Story (Infinite) - Chapter 29

Qi Yan was tied up and thrown onto the wooden horse in front of her.

One moment, she was hugging the head of the fox-shaped wooden horse, staring helplessly at the rear end of the horse ahead. The next, ropes from nowhere bound her tightly, then swung her forward like a pendulum, flinging her directly onto the horse in front.

The rapidly spinning carousel was already dizzying enough, but this stunt left Qi Yan nauseous.

Fighting against the intense vertigo and nausea, she struggled to shout, “Stop! Stop now! I did it! I caught up to the horse in front and even got on it! I won the bet, stop this thing already!”

As her voice rang out, the carousel abruptly began to slow down. All the players had been battered by the centrifugal force from the high-speed spinning some had even vomited, looking utterly disheveled. Now that the ride was decelerating, they finally had a chance to catch their breath. The two men from the Wushuang team were already clutching their horses, vomiting violently.

The carousel gradually came to a halt. Qi Yan remained motionless, gripping the handlebar. She was too dizzy, her legs weak, she just wanted to lie on the horse and recover for a moment.

Jiang Miao, with her excellent balance and physical fitness, was the first to jump off once the ride stopped. She quickly went to check on Qi Yan.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jiang Miao asked with concern. “You just fell over there.”

Qi Yan lifted her head and forced a weak smile. “Sis, your choice of the word ‘fell’ is spot-on. I really did just get flung over.”

That petty fox was way too much!

The petty fox snorted coldly. “Your dear ‘sis’ isn’t too much. Next time, let her save you.”

Qi Yan was truly exasperated. Lying on the horse, she argued with the fox in her mind: “Look at how petty you are your heart isn’t even as big as a mung bean! I told you, calling someone ‘sis’ in society is just the most basic social courtesy. If you met more working adults, you’d know, in the workplace, people call their seniors ‘bro’ or ‘sis’ all the time! Why do you even care about this? Can you, as a fox, at least learn some basic social norms first? If you’re so bothered, I’ll call you ‘sis’ too from now on, okay? Sis Bai?”

Bai Qing: “This one does not care.”

Qi Yan laughed in frustration. “If you don’t care, then why are you making such a fuss?”

“This one merely believes that as my wife, you should maintain distance from others.”

Qi Yan was so angry her dizziness worsened. She jumped off the horse without another word, ignoring Jiang Miao’s concern, and stormed off with a dark expression.

“Even if we formed that so-called spirit contract, I’m not your possession not some object for you to flaunt your possessiveness over! I’m a person! I know what I should do and how to interact with others!”

“You don’t even have any emotional foundation with me that spirit contract was just a fluke! Right now, we’re still trapped in this script. Once we get out, we’ll find a way to dissolve it!”

“Qi Yan! How can you treat the spirit contract so lightly?!” Bai Qing was clearly losing her temper too.

“What’s ‘lightly’ or not?! You don’t love me, you just want to own me! And you don’t need to keep acting like I’m getting too close to others. This contract was just an accident anyway!”

“You!”

Qi Yan was so furious that she unleashed a torrent of mental venting at Bai Qing in her mind. To outsiders, she just looked sullen and lost in thought. Her sudden shift to such a low-pressure mood left Jiang Miao completely at a loss.

“Uh! Shijian, are you okay?” Jiang Miao asked cautiously.

Qi Yan shook her head, rubbing her dizzy temples. “I’m fine, just a little disoriented from the spinning.”

At any rate, Bai Qing had gone silent now probably stormed off in anger. Their spiritual bond allowed them to sense each other’s emotions. Even though Bai Qing couldn’t win their argument, Qi Yan could still feel the other’s seething rage.

Hah, she’s angry? I’m the one who should be angry!

What kind of person treats others like their personal possessions? Never mind that this marriage was an accident to begin with even if they were truly in love, that kind of unreasonable clinginess was unacceptable.

Qi Yan knew, of course, that Bai Qing was a thousand-year-old great demon who had been sealed away for centuries and had no understanding of modern social dynamics. But she had already explained everything! Yet Bai Qing still refused to let it go and then threw her! It was dangerous, painful, and downright awful, okay?

She was just as aggrieved. That fox was utterly unreasonable. Throwing tantrums left and right, yet unable to articulate what exactly she was so upset about just latching onto the fact that Qi Yan had called someone “sister” and chatted with them a little longer. It was ridiculous! In the last scenario, she had gotten along just fine with Huo Zheng and Tang Shanshan, why hadn’t Bai Qing been angry then?

Unbelievable!

Qi Yan unilaterally decided to ignore that unreasonable, infuriating fox from now on.

The ring on her left hand dimmed, the fox had concealed her presence.

For some reason, that only made Qi Yan even angrier and more wronged. Her face fell into a scowl as she glared fiercely at the three little ghosts.

The three ghosts, suddenly on the receiving end of her glare, shot back with eerie glares of their own. “Sneaky adult! You cheated!”

Great. First, that damn fox bullied her, and now these three murderous brats were at it too.

In her anger, Qi Yan even forgot her fear. Crossing her arms, she matched their glares. “How did I cheat? Didn’t you say we had to catch up to the horse in front? Now that the wooden horse has stopped, that means the rules accepted my method. So tell me, how exactly did I cheat?”

The raspy-voiced ghost pointed at her. “We said to catch up to the horse in front, but you were thrown there! That doesn’t count!”

“…”

Was this never going to end? Everyone living or dead knew she had been thrown! Did she have no dignity left?

“Listen, kids, let me ask you this, what does ‘catch up’ mean? How do you define ‘catch up’?”

The raspy-voiced ghost huffed. “Catch up means catch up! You have to reach the other person to call it catching up!”

“Exactly! You just said ‘reaching’ counts as catching up. So tell me, did I reach the wooden horse in front or not?”

The ghost faltered. “Y-you did. But that’s not right! You cheated! Catching up means your wooden horse has to reach it!”

Qi Yan scoffed. “When you made the bet, you never specified ‘the wooden horse has to reach it’! You just said we had to catch up!”

“You!” The ghost choked on his words, his face shifting between pale and sickly purple, as if on the verge of revealing his deathly form.

Qi Yan flinched at his ghastly expression. The bold, argumentative energy she’d mustered like a middle-schooler debating semantics vanished in an instant. Instinctively, she took two steps back.

Wu Shuang and the ponytailed girl Xin Yi’s gazes fell upon her, scrutinizing her intently. It seemed they found this woman who dared to play word games with ghosts truly remarkable. Yet, when they saw her take two steps back in fright at the little ghost’s sudden face change, they began to doubt their initial impression was she really that extraordinary?

Wu Shuang recalled the most critical moment on the carousel earlier. He was certain he hadn’t misseen it Qi Yan had been bound by a white silk ribbon and thrown onto the horse in front.

Others might not have seen the details clearly, but Wu Shuang couldn’t have mistaken it. His eyes, enhanced by an item, allowed him to perceive things ordinary people couldn’t.

He didn’t know exactly what it was, but it was undoubtedly an ability possessed by this young girl named Shi Jian. It seemed she hadn’t fully mastered this power yet; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been flung so haphazardly.

A flicker of calculation passed through Wu Shuang’s eyes as darker thoughts took root. In the world of scripts, competition among players wasn’t just about earning higher points, it also involved seizing others’ items. This girl named Shi Jian was likely a novice, her abilities not yet fully honed, and she probably didn’t understand the unspoken rules of the script.

If he could find an opportunity to steal her ability. Wu Shuang quietly schemed, biding his time for the right moment.

Qi Yan was too incensed by Bai Qing’s provocation and her retort to the little ghost to notice the others’ reactions. However, Jiang Miao, standing right beside Wu Shuang, caught a glimpse of his momentarily greedy expression and frowned slightly.

The three little ghosts were left speechless by Qi Yan’s argument. Even the script’s rules acknowledged that the cunning adult had won this round, leaving them no recourse.

“Hmph, consider yourselves lucky!” The little ghosts stuck out their tongues, made faces at her, and ran off.

When their emotions weren’t running high, they seemed like ordinary middle schoolers, showing no signs of anything amiss. But all the players knew better these were no ordinary children. They were the ghosts of the dungeon.

The administrator, who had vanished throughout the entire game, suddenly reappeared before Qi Yan. His unchanging smile remained as he magically produced several cards, distributing them to the seven players: “These are the identification cards for free agents. They’ve been stamped with the carousel’s seal, proving you’ve experienced this attraction.”

Qi Yan looked down at the card in her hand, an utterly ordinary paper card bearing a red stamp depicting a carousel.

It reminded her of collecting stamps, like the time she bought ten cups of milk tea to get one free.

The space around the carousel’s red stamp was mostly blank, making it impossible to guess how many more attractions they’d have to complete. Regardless, the players had only cleared the first hurdle many more dangers lay ahead.

Qi Yan tucked the card away, but when she looked up again, the administrator was gone, his whereabouts unknown.

“Strange, where’s Qiangzi?!”

At that moment, the man named Lucky from Wu Shuang’s team suddenly grew tense. He looked around frantically, his expression horrified: “Where is he? He was just here a moment ago!”

Hearing this, the others turned to look. Wu Shuang frowned and asked, “What’s going on? Weren’t you supporting him the whole time? How could he just disappear?”

” I was holding him up. I was holding him the whole time. But just now when the administrator gave us the ID cards, I let go of him. He didn’t show any signs of discomfort at the time. Then I was focused on looking at the ID card and didn’t pay much attention.”

Wushuang furrowed his brows, unable to make a quick decision. They were a team of five, five when they came in, and now they were already down one member right at the start. It would sound terrible if word got out.

“Boss, what do we do?” Lucky was frantic, hoping their leader would make a call soon.

This wasn’t an easy decision. Logically speaking, leaving Qiangzi behind was the optimal choice, the remaining four couldn’t afford any more mishaps. But if he immediately decided to abandon Qiangzi, it would undoubtedly dishearten the other three.

If the team became divided, his role as captain would become untenable. If the members lost trust in him, he wouldn’t be able to squeeze any more benefits out of them.

Wushuang was torn. Qi Yan and Jiang Shui exchanged glances, neither intending to meddle in another team’s affairs. They were only temporarily cooperating at the carousel things could change later, so there was no need to get involved now.

So, after a brief word to Wushuang, the two left first, heading for the next attraction.

Aside from the carousel, the first floor also had a massive roller coaster. Qi Yan planned to check it out first.

“Hey, you two, hold on a second,” Wushuang called out to stop them. “We don’t know if the next attractions will have headcount requirements. We’re down one now, if the roller coaster still needs ten people, it’ll be trouble for everyone.”

Qi Yan understood his implication. He wanted to keep them around, to move together as a group maybe even rope them into helping search for Qiangzi.

Qi Yan stayed silent, but Jiang Shui spoke up. “The rules aren’t clear yet. We’ll go ask first. As for being down one person, the script won’t easily create a dead end. If it reduces our numbers, the rules will adjust accordingly.”

She was unyielding, completely unmoved by Wushuang’s rhetoric.

Hearing this, the man named Lucky grew agitated. “How can you be so heartless? A living person has disappeared, what if something happens to him? You can just say the script won’t create a dead end, that the rules will adjust for one less person? You don’t even want to help?”

Qi Yan frowned slightly, looking at Lucky as if he were an idiot.

The other three members of his team also shot him disapproving glances.

Qi Yan couldn’t hold back. “Do you even realize what kind of world we’re in? The script world is full of dangers, one misstep and you’re dead. And here you are, trying to guilt-trip people?”

“I, when did I guilt-trip anyone?!”

“Weren’t you just shaming Sister Shui? Isn’t that guilt-tripping?” Qi Yan had no patience for his nonsense. “If you’re so torn up about losing a teammate, then go find a way to save him! He’s your teammate, your comrade! Sister Shui never said she wouldn’t help she just said we’d check the roller coaster first.”

“Getting worked up already? Accusing her of being heartless? We’re all just trying to survive in this story world! You call Sanshui heartless, but were you really that eager to save your teammate? Would you dare spend all your limited time searching for him? Or is this high-minded accusation just your way of shifting blame to ease your own guilt over losing track of your teammate?”

With that, she turned and walked away without a backward glance.

She was giving Bai Qing the cold shoulder, in a foul mood and unwilling to deal with idiots.

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