Chapter 34.1 ?

From Xu Ming’s perspective, apart from the sizzling TV, everything in the room was no different from before.

But even so, she could still vaguely feel that something had changed.

A faint fragrance, a strange, oppressive atmosphere, and when looking at the white walls, she could see a faint color, like the dazzling spots of light seen after staring directly at the sun—at first, she thought this was a psychological effect caused by the words of the blubberman and Qiu Yufei, but she quickly realized it wasn’t.

She could indeed feel that there was something more in the room. Just like in Hongqiang, when she was running away with someone’s printer, she couldn’t see the domain master chasing behind her, but could feel the intense burning sensation gradually approaching.

…From another perspective, this at least proved two things.

First, her guess was right, in this urban legend, the butterfly was the domain master; second, just as the blubberman said, the other party was probably going crazy now.

After all, taking Hongqiang as an example, the only time she could feel the domain master’s presence was when the other party was furious and chasing her; by analogy, the butterfly’s mental state at this moment was probably really unstable.

Without further thought, Xu Ming took Qiu Yufei’s work badge and hurriedly put it on her.

Qiu Yufei was still in a daze, staring intently at the snowy screen of the TV, muttering to herself from time to time. Xu Ming effortlessly put on the work badge, then snapped her fingers by her ear.

“In the Urban Legend Demolition Office, employees should maintain basic courtesy to the leaders,” she said. “When the leader speaks, employees should pause their work and look at the leader, listening attentively.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she felt a familiar pain in her shoulder—it was you, frozen shoulder.

Qiu Yufei still didn’t give her a glance, just staring fixedly at the TV. The air of workplace rectification completely ignored the leader.

But from the wardrobe came a creaking sound, and Gu Yunshu, who was curled up inside, poked her head out, blinking at her.

Then, as her gaze swept over the room, her eyes widened slightly.

“…” Seeing the astonishment in her eyes, Xu Ming quickly raised her hand, making a silent gesture. Recalling her previous experience of being bewitched by the butterfly’s wings, she also covered her eyes, signaling her not to look around.

Gu Yunshu nodded in understanding and slowly shrank back into the wardrobe. Xu Ming turned her gaze back to Qiu Yufei, but felt a bit helpless for a moment—although the “Paper Robe Authority” had been successfully activated, it obviously had no effect. Helplessly, she could only resort to more basic methods, trying to cover the other’s eyes and pinching Qiu Yufei’s face hard.

However, even though her cheeks were pinched red, Qiu Yufei’s expression and posture didn’t change at all. Even when Xu Ming covered her eyes with her palm, she couldn’t feel the flutter of eyelashes—she didn’t even blink, her gaze seemed fixed forward, indifferent to the TV or her palm.

“This won’t work.” Seeing Xu Ming’s frown deepen, the blubberman finally couldn’t help but speak up in her head, “You intervened too late, now those words are already engraved in her mind. Unless you can erase those impressions, no matter how you struggle, it’s useless.”

“What impressions, that the butterfly is really beautiful?” Xu Ming couldn’t help but purse her lips, “So where exactly are the words…”

“On the TV, always playing, like mental pollution,” the blubberman said.

“?” Xu Ming turned to look at the snowy screen, pursed her lips tighter, paused for a moment, then asked again, “What’s specifically being played?”

“Hm?” The blubberman didn’t understand for a moment.

“I mean the words on the TV, what exactly are they?” Xu Ming rolled off the bed and started rummaging through her bag, “Tell me everything, don’t miss a word.”

“What else… it’s the same sentence over and over,” the blubberman was already confused, now even more so, “‘The butterflies here are so beautiful.’”

“Is it?” Xu Ming buried her head, found something, and suddenly said, “Look more closely?”

Blubberman: “? Looking…”

Xu Ming: “I said read it to me.”

Blubberman: “…”

Blubberman: “The butterflies here are so beautiful.”

Xu Ming: “Now? Read it to me.”

Blubberman: “…The butterflies here are so beautiful…”

“…” Xu Ming said nothing. After two seconds, she asked again, “Now? Read it to me again.”

Blubberman: “…!!!”

What, is there something wrong with you??

The blubberman fell into a brief silence.

If it weren’t for communicating with Xu Ming through the rulebook at the moment, it would really suspect it might have accidentally fallen into some kind of terrible illusion—and the one talking to it wasn’t Xu Ming, but a terrible monster constantly tempting it to repeat eerie words, engraving its mind full of butterfly.

“Hey, hey, are you still there?” Xu Ming’s urging voice sounded again during its contemplation, “Are the words still on the TV? What’s written? Read it to me.”

“…” She isn’t probably trying to take this opportunity to kill it, right?

The blubberman sincerely pondered for two seconds, finally refocusing on the TV, casually responding:

“Of course the words are there, isn’t it still the same sentence. The bichon here are so beautiful… huh?”

Wait, what bichon?

The blubberman was stunned, looked again carefully with his eyes wide open as he leaned over the edge of the bag.

No mistake. The TV screen still displayed that mentally polluting scene, the same sentence, scrolling repeatedly.

Only the content had changed to “The bichon here is so beautiful.”

“…” Realizing something, the blubberman turned back, finally noticing the two pieces of paper in Xu Ming’s hand.

Only then did it realize what those were—when Xu Ming was studying the newly unlocked “Second-level Substitution”, she had torn two pages unrelated to the urban legend from the rulebook. One was its, and the other was Xu Ming’s own.

So-called “Second-level Substitution” simply grabs reading records within a certain range, then Xu Ming extracts keywords from it and substitutes them with certain phrases in the current urban legend area.

This “certain range” was very limited, only applying to all entities bound to the rulebook, with a lot of restrictions, which is why the content extracted at the time was absurd—it grabbed an article about beauty for it, and a short video title for Xu Ming:

? Hilariously Shocking, Ten Dumb Moments of Bichon Frise ?

Alright, at least now it finally understood where that bichon came from.