Peach-Orange! – Chapter 378 – Weakened Version of the Death-Dodging Straw Doll

Stepping out of the elevator, Chi Xiaocheng didn’t even leave the residential complex.

Her head still lowered as she looked at her phone, a faint alert from her instincts suddenly lit up in her heart.

There were enemies surveilling her within the complex!

She quickly came to this conclusion.

And if she considered the worst-case scenario, they might be monitoring whether she contacted Si Chen and the others.

Chi Xiaocheng’s heart sank. She put away her phone and walked straight toward the main gate, intending to hail a taxi, only to find one already parked downstairs.

A driver stood nearby, idly smoking a cigarette. Upon seeing Chi Xiaocheng, he immediately stubbed it out and approached her. “Hello, are you Miss Chi?”

Chi Xiaocheng wore a puzzled expression.

The driver explained, “Someone asked me to wait here for you and take you to a specific location. They specifically instructed that you shouldn’t bring your phone when getting in the car.”

He glanced around and lowered his voice. “Miss Chi, to be honest, asking you not to bring your phone is a bit much. I doubt this is anything good. That person said I just had to wait for you here. Whether you go or not is up to you.

“Honestly, you shouldn’t go. Something feels off about this. If it weren’t for the fact that they paid me way too much, I wouldn’t have gotten involved either.”

Chi Xiaocheng took a deep breath, immediately understanding what the driver meant.

Clearly, this was a precaution to prevent her from calling for help.

The moment she picked up the note at home without calling for help, she had already missed her last chance.

From now until she reached the destination specified by the other party, she would likely be under surveillance the entire time.

The driver, an older man, seemed genuinely unaware of the situation.

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Chi Xiaocheng asked one more question, “How much did that person pay you?”

“3,000.”

The driver was actually a little scared too.

He was worried about taking the money but not living to spend it.

But his mother was in the hospital and needed money urgently, so he gritted his teeth and took the job.

Chi Xiaocheng sighed and took out her phone. She placed it directly on a nearby road marker. “Let’s go, driver.”

The driver was stunned. “Your phone.…”

“No need. Let’s hurry.”

After she spoke, the driver saw the determination in her eyes and didn’t ask further questions. He started the car as soon as she got in.

What no one knew was that as Chi Xiaocheng got into the car, she softly mouthed two words: “Xiao Hei.”

‘It’s up to you now.’

A cool yet soft voice whispered in her ear, “Don’t worry.”

A black-stockinged leg stepped forward, materializing out of thin air in front of the road marker where Chi Xiaocheng had left her phone.

Then, starting from that leg, starlight butterflies gathered, gradually solidifying from the bottom up into Xiao Hei’s elegant dress and flowing long hair.

The latter adjusted her skirt and crouched down.

Without moving the phone, she unlocked the screen, typed a message, and after some thought, skipped Dongfang Yang and Chi Song, contacting only Si Chen.

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Xiao Hei hadn’t expected the other party to be unable to target Chi Xiaocheng and Su Tao directly, so they had gone after Fang Ning instead.

In any conflict, once it involves family and friends, the nature of the conflict escalates.

Dongfang Yang and Chi Song were too impulsive. Contacting Si Chen was the safer choice.

After sending the message, Xiao Hei tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Has Chu Lingfeng returned? Or… has the World Will intervened?”

Still pondering, as the taxi carrying Chi Xiaocheng drove further away, Xiao Hei reached the limit of her range of activity and was forced to dissolve into starlight butterflies again, following after them.

Meanwhile, Chi Xiaocheng was also thinking about who could be targeting her.

After much deliberation, the only person she could think of was Chu Lingfeng.

Xiao Ming was still in hiding. No one else had a motive besides Chu Lingfeng.

If that was the case, Chu Lingfeng had already eaten the poisoned apple. His luck and role significance had drastically diminished.

This was the perfect time to eliminate him!

Chi Xiaocheng glanced at her emotional value.

Her gaze lingered on the lottery option for a moment before she entered the system shop instead.

There, she found an item she had been hesitating over whether to buy:

[Death-Dodging Straw Doll (Weakened Version): 2,000 Emotional Value]

[Effect: When the host suffers fatal damage, this straw doll will share the damage. The doll will shatter, and the host will still die, but it preserves a chance for revival.]

[Chance for Revival: The host’s soul remains in the mortal world for six months instead of immediately entering reincarnation. The system will temporarily detach from the host and bind to a person of the host’s choice.]

[The chosen person can revive the host by entering reincarnation to gather life energy or by sharing their own lifespan.]

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Compared to the standard version of the Death-Dodging Straw Doll, this one was much weaker.

But it still gave Chi Xiaocheng a chance to avoid immediate reincarnation after death.

It was another form of insurance.

Last time, she had underestimated Chu Lingfeng and was counterattacked by his Thirteen Taiyi Needles, nearly wasting all her hundreds of reincarnations.

It was after that incident that Chi Xiaocheng’s desire for emotional value far surpassed what it had been before.

She wanted to buy the standard version of the Death-Dodging Straw Doll, but it cost 10,000 emotional value. Way too expensive.

This weakened version was a compromise.

But with these 2,000 emotional value, she could do two ten-draws. What if….

She was still hesitating when the system’s voice chimed in:

[Host, just in case, you should buy this.]

Understood. Even with rigged odds, her current luck wouldn’t get her anything good from the lottery.

“Alright, System, I’ll listen to you.”

Spending 2,000 emotional value meant she’d have another card to play against Chu Lingfeng.

At the same time, Chi Xiaocheng designated Su Tao as the person the system would bind to if she died.

The reason went without saying.

She trusted Tao-Tao.

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About half an hour later, after the taxi driver sped twice, they finally arrived at the location marked on the note at 2 p.m.

The women’s restroom 100 meters to the left of Central Wanda Plaza.

Chi Xiaocheng checked the address: “The wall of the second stall in the women’s restroom.”

She walked in, then came back out.

Following the next instruction, she approached a bicycle with another note attached:

“If you’re reading this, it means you didn’t call for help. My people have been watching you the whole way. If you had called someone, you’d never have made it here.

“Now, ride this bicycle to the next location. Someone will take you to me.”

Looking at the bicycle, Chi Xiaocheng sighed helplessly.

The other party was being excessively cautious.

But if it was Chu Lingfeng, it wasn’t hard to understand.

After all, he had lost both ears and his little brother.

Chi Xiaocheng had no other choice. With Fang Ning in their hands, she had to tread carefully.

She could only hope Si Chen would react quickly.

With that thought in mind, she rode the bicycle for over ten minutes. Her already weak body was starting to feel exhausted when she finally met the person who was supposed to take her to the next location.

And this person was also someone Chi Xiaocheng never expected.

“Huang Limei, it’s you!”