Warning: description of gore
Courtyard instance world
Tian Xihua was already waiting for them inside. He was studying a thin book, and actively making it thinner – he was tearing out the pages, looking like he felt not even a little bit of remorse because of his actions.
Looking at it closely, these torn out pages seemed to be the same as what Zhai Xiaoyi had in his hands when he was waiting for them outside. Now he placed all of the torn out pages next to each other.
He got to the point at once. ‘These are the financial records of the little boy’s family. If you look closely,’ he pointed at a couple of rows of numbers on different pages, ‘It’s clear that they received yearly payments from our family’s lady and lord. Right, there is supposed to be a man too, I don’t know why he hasn’t shown himself so far. Maybe he is waiting for something?’
‘Is he very short with a long beard? We might have met him today.’ Ji Liuzhou asked, but he was met with Zhai Xiaoyi’s headshaking.
‘No, he is tall and looks like he has a serious illness. As far as I know, he is quiet and doesn’t take the initiative to speak if it is not absolutely necessary.’
Shi Mingdu’s expression was dark as he thought. ‘We saw him. He and the short man came to the fields and accused Cui Shenyu with murder. He looked sick and didn’t say a word the entire time.’
Zhai Xiaoyi scratched his head and appeared to be somewhat at a loss. ‘That’s him then, he’s the man of the house. Why did he accuse you guys though? We’re very clear on the fact that the killer can’t be one of us, then isn’t this just acting too..’
‘Let’s get through what we know for sure first. What are the payments for? We can talk about the rest later.’ At least Green still knew his priorities, even when his teammates became immersed in another topic.
‘Sure. There isn’t much information other than the money, but it seems that they leased the house from that family. The time for this year’s payment hasn’t come yet, so there is nothing else to start out from..’
‘But is this not a standard plot from detective shows? The couple have to pay but they can’t so they choose murder.’ Ji Liuzhou felt that he grasped what had happened.
‘Is that what you think? What about the others?’ Shi Mingdu asked.
Before anyone else could, Tian Xihua spoke. ‘Not necessarily. You don’t know this yet, but the boy told us what happened last night.’
‘He said the one who killed his father was a woman, but today he seemed to have no vigilance towards the lady of the house. He also said that he had never seen her before. This excludes the woman from the list of suspects, while the situation is the same with the murderer. She can’t be anyone we have met.’
Zhai Xiaoyi nodded, ‘This is of course said assuming that the boy did not lie to us. We can’t forget about that either, even if there is only a slight chance of it.’
‘So what do we know so far?’ Zhao Qi couldn’t help feeling confused, and the same could be said for the others too.
Green took the initiative to sum up everything.
‘The killer is a woman. We don’t know her, and we don’t know anything about her other than what the boy told us, while we can’t trust him completely either. The couple we live with leased this house from his parents before their deaths, and welcomed the boy when he ran over here in the middle of the night.’
‘It is a taboo to go into the house the deaths occurred in, and this rule is set by the woman. It is most likely that the couple have to do something with the murder, but they weren’t the ones to carry it out.’
‘What else is there? Right, the accusation that happened this morning might be important too, and Jin Huai died after going into the house, leaving nothing behind. There is some kind of treasure we need to find too, which might have to do with the reason behind the murder. There is also the fact that we seem to have travelled back in time after Jin Huai’s death. I think that might have been a sacrifice.’
Cui Shenyu asked him, ‘Ah? What do you mean?’
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
‘It’s evident that there are two ways to complete an instance. The first one is to survive for the mentioned period of time while completing the second and third tasks. This one assumes that everyone manages to live til the end, with no mishaps occurring and no taboos broken. This is the standard solution all players aim for.’ Shi Mingdu spoke somewhat impatiently. He wanted to wrap the investigation up while still wanting the others to understand the reasons for their actions.
‘Qtfc kf oeioliifv j vfjat mbcvlalbc, atlr kjr jigfjvs lwqbrrlyif ab mbwqifaf. Ktfc Alc Lejl vlfv, jcv atf regnlnji ajrx kjr mbwqifafis fgjrfv ogbw atf geif qijdef. Llr vfjat wjvf beg pby tjgvfg, rb kf uba mbwqfcrjalbc lc atf obgw bo alwf agjnfi. Ktlr kjs kf vbc’a tjnf ab gfis bc atf RUJr’ kbgvr jcv biv vbmewfcar, jcv kf mjc fzqfglfcmf atf qjra begrfinfr.’
‘There are a lot more chances of death of course, as there’s no such thing as a free meal in this place. Jin Huai’s death can be said to be a sacrifice made unintentionally so that we could actually get out of here.’ He pushed his glasses up as he spoke, frowning slightly.
‘What I’m more concerned about is that treasure we have to find. It should be in the house, but we have no clue as to where exactly it is.’
Zhai Xiaoyi remembered something else. ‘Inside the study there were a couple more things regarding the bodies that I have yet to tell you all about. Firstly, the woman’s looks like she hadn’t died yesterday, but maybe even days before. There was also no blood around her body.’
‘The second thing is, there was only one body. The man’s corpse is missing and there was only blood left behind, similar to what we found on Jin Huai’s bed. The boy said that when he went inside to take a look, the woman was eating the man. It is impossible that she had eaten the entire body, which means that some of the remains are still to be found.’
‘What about the accusation then? Will Cui ge die next? Shi ge already said that we will see when the time comes but I don’t feel at ease having to watch him wait for death like that at all. Is there really nothing we could do?’ Zhao Qi sounded concerned.
Tian Xihua replied after thinking for a moment, ‘Well, we can either wait for the killer to come for us, or we can look for the treasure outside. In my opinion both options are equally troublesome.’
‘Let’s find the treasure. I don’t like sitting in one place and waiting for death.’ Shi Mingdu decided, and the others agreed too.
That evening, the group went back to the house with their shovels on their shoulders, having given a brief explanation of ‘wanting to make sure everything was done perfectly on the field’ to the woman, and with the clear intention of digging up all places someone would choose to bury something important to them in.
They began inside the courtyard and advanced in two directions; half of the boys circled around the house, looking for dirt that had been freshly moved, while the other half went inside.
Under the writing table there was a fine carpet, and as Zhao Qi lifted it the group could clearly see that the floorboards underneath weren’t as tightly arranged as in other places.
Cui Shenyu used his shovel to pry them apart, and soon they saw a small pile of dark dirt almost reaching the elevated floor.
Shi Mingdu was ready to start digging as he ordered, ‘Help me move the desk!’
They pushed the furniture to the side and used the carpet to roll up the woman’s corpse in, killing two flies with one swat. They picked up some more of the floorboards so that they could dig more comfortably.
Chu Anzhi’s shovel was the first one to hit something hard. He grinned a he said excitedly, ‘There it is.’ He wiped the light sweat from his forehead, and kept digging.
Soon, the lid of a pot about a metre wide became visible under the dirt. After lifting the lid, they could all see that the pot was filled to the brim with coins. The coins were oxygenated to the point where the ones on the top became all a bright, teal color.
At the same time, as if it aged with the coins, the entire house returned to its original state.
The boys were covered in dirt as they heard the exclamations from their teammates who were still looking outside, and for a moment they didn’t know what to do next.
Zhao Qi felt rather complicated, ‘Should we take the money? It surely isn’t part of the task to carry it with us, ah? It looks really heavy.’
‘I don’t think we have to do anything with it, we just had to find it. It might be because it’s a significant clue? I think…’ Zhai Xiaoyi pursed his lips knowing what kind of impact his words would have but still having to say them. ‘It might be convenient to just bury it again.’
Shi Mingdu felt somewhat flustered. He had never been in a similar situation before, and he had no idea how to deal with it either. ‘That.. It really might be the best way. Let the others see it too first.’
Cui Shenyu went to call in the boys who were still outside, and it wasn’t long until all of them stood around the hole in the ground.
‘That’s uh, a lot of money.’ He Jin said after a long time of silence. The other agreed.
‘Let’s get to work then.’ Shi Mingdu scratched his nose with some awkwardness.
‘Do what?’ It was Ji Liuzhou’s turn to feel confused.
‘Bury it back, ah. What else can we do with it?’ It was Tian Xihua who spoke now, and Shi Mingdu just nodded.
They put the lid on top of the pot again, and covered the hole with the dirt they dug up before, even putting the floorboards back in place.
It was Cui Shenyu who broke the silence next, ‘Let’s go back, it is already getting dark. Wouldn’t want to miss my own murder after all.’ He laughed weakly, but the others didn’t dare look at him in shame. It got quiet again as they left the house.
They had agreed previously that they wouldn’t sleep that night to keep guard against the murderer. All of the boys sat on their respective beds as they talked. The little guest wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and their own courtyard had also returned to its previous condition. It seemed that the privileges granted by Jin Huai’s death were only available when they had yet to find the money.
Shi Mingdu was thinking out loud. ‘It is possible that there are two targets tonight. One of them is Cui Shenyu, who got accused today, and the other one is Zhai Xiaoyi, who was the second one to step into the house. To know which one of them will possibly be attacked tonight, is impossible for us at the moment.’
‘It is because the accusation is probably similar to a death condition. My theory is, Cui Shenyu only got accused before due time because of a mishap. Zhai Xiaoyi wasn’t at the field when the detective came, and this might have saved him completely. I don’t know if any of you noticed it, but before he pointed out the murderer, the man closed his eyes and chose blindly.’
‘I think he might be a special type of NPC, one that can sense the severity of the rules broken by a person. He found the person with the strongest wrath directed at them, and basically cursed him. If I’m right, Cui Shenyu is the one to be attacked tonight.’
‘At that time though, Zhai Xiaoyi was in the house, making it so that he had broken the same rule again. What the official had mentioned on the first day was a clue regarding this; the death condition is set back every night. This doesn’t mean what I first thought it meant, precisely that the entire process would be set back, but it means that a rule can be broken several times instead.’
‘What we don’t know is how much wrath each of the taboos are worth. If the accusation is worth more than being the first to step into the house, then it is still Cui Shenyu who we have to protect. But if being first and being second add up to deeper resentment than an accusation and being third, it is Zhai Xiaoyi who will be attacked.’ He yawned lazily, ready to draw his conclusion.
‘In reality, it doesn’t matter who gets attacked tonight. The real problem is that we don’t know much about this killer. She is a woman who kills with an unknown method; she also consumes her victims. She’s probably not human. We have no way to properly protect anyone, as we can only use the tools found around the house. To be honest, I’m not very optimistic about tonight.’
He had spoken for a long time. Some of the boys were already drowsy, even though it was at most eleven at night. Some still sat on their beds with clearly visible vigilance in their eyes.
Zhai Xiaoyi was the first type. As he lied in the dark, he found it more and more difficult to keep his eyes open. He hadn’t slept enough the night before because of the dream, and even though he knew he had to be ready to defend himself in case he got attacked, he still couldn’t help falling asleep lightly. He gripped the broomstick he had found earlier in his hands as he listened to Shi Mingdu’s words get softer and quieter.
‘It is my fault that we even have to protect anyone.’ The other was only sort of mumbling at this point, but because the world was silent around them everyone could hear his words perfectly. ‘If I paid more attention to Jin Huai in the beginning, we could have all lived and figured out the truth before time. Then no one would have had to die unnecessarily. It is because of my neglect that we’re in this situation now.’
Cui Shenyu was the second type. He sat on his bed hugging his legs, a blunt kitchen knife wrapped into his bedsheet. He didn’t even dare blink, not to mention being foolish enough to try to sleep.
The night was dark, and the breeze smelt fresh with a hint of rain. It wasn’t long until daybreak would come. He could hear snoring from some of the beds, while others were staring into the darkness like him.
After a long time of silence, his ears perked and he heard a muffled noise from outside. He held his breath and grabbed the handle of his knife. He didn’t dare move, and there was no movement from the beds around him either.
In that moment, he realised that he could hear the snoring of everyone present. He was the only one to stay awake, all the others had fallen asleep long ago.
He didn’t scream or talk in fear that the killer would hear and attack him. He still had a vague chance of survival, so he didn’t dare act rashly. He extended his small leg and nudged the boy on the bed next to his.
Ji Liuzhou only felt that his comfortable sleep had been disturbed by an external force. He let out a nasal hmph and rolled towards the edge of his bed.
Cui Shenyu felt completely helpless. He could only grab onto his knife more firmly and wait for the unavoidable.
In the meantime, the noise only got louder. It didn’t sound like footsteps.. Instead it was as if something was being dragged on the floor.
The door creaked as it opened a little, letting those on the inside see a streak of the world outside and letting those on the outside peek inside.
The noise got somewhat closer, and a curious eye appeared in the slit. The iris had a reddish glow, and the eye blinked slowly. Then the thing outside shifted, and its other eye came into view, as if it thought that it could see more of what was going on inside that way.
Cowardice won and Cui Shenyu pulled his cover on top of his head. He thought, maybe the thing wouldn’t notice him this way and it’d choose another target.
He held onto his knife as he waited without daring to take even a deeper breath. The creaking sounded again as the door opened widely.
The dull noise got closer and closer, and Cui Shenyu almost fainted with fright. His mind blanked out and his breathing became scattered. His entire body was under the covers but he was still sitting on the bed, so he could see part of the floor if he angled himself the right way.
A tall shadow inched towards the beds, slightly illuminated by the dim moonlight from outside the door.
Cui Shenyu could feel that he was shaking as he tried to calm himself. But how could he be calm, so close to a death he still had a chance of avoiding? He stared at the shadow from the corner of his eye as it got closer and closer to him. The hand holding the blunt knife was dripping with sweat.
The light outside changed as dark clouds covered the moon. The smell of rain got stronger in the air, but Cui Shenyu didn’t have the chance to notice it.
The shadow of a graceful hand reached out, and lifted the covers he was hiding under slightly. He felt a bead of wetness roll down his forehead, and watched it land on the backside of that pale hand with widening eyes.
The hand stopped as if the owner couldn’t decide whether to wipe it off or not, but only for a moment. Another hand reached out and pulled the corner of the bedsheets up to lightly wipe it off before continuing on with its scheduled murder.
Cui Shenyu didn’t think anymore. He grabbed the hand quickly while he held the knife on his other palm, and he sent the blunt edge straight into the wrist. Even he didn’t know what kind of bravery had possessed him, but he did everything in a blink of an eye and the thing outside the covers had no time to react.
The knife hit the skin, and it bounced back. Cui Shenyu stared at it in silence, and only then did he realise that the hand in his hand didn’t feel like a human hand. It felt slippery, and he felt something similar to scales under his fingers.
The thing outside lifted the covers completely, successfully catching the knife before it bounced away. It didn’t hesitate to stab it back into the sender.
Cui Shenyu wanted to scream from the pain, but he couldn’t make a sound. He realised that he hadn’t heard any sounds since he touched the hand, and it seemed that now he couldn’t alert the others because of his own stupidity.
All he heard was the loud ringing of his ears, and a knife was sticking out from his arm as he looked up with a terrified expression. He couldn’t see the face of the woman, but the red light in her eyes made her unmistakable.
In that moment, he felt as if time had stopped. He felt the beating of his heart and the shaking of his hands, as well as the coldness of the hand that had grabbed his wrist.
The clouds passed over the moon in the exact moment the woman bit down on his neck. He fell back, and because of the hopeless scuffle from before, he fell straight to the floor instead of the bed.
The dull noise was extremely conspicuous in the silent room, but he didn’t have the time to care. He raised his hand to his neck, still unable to believe that his entire life could be ended so easily.
The woman was efficient, he had to give that to her. With only one bite, she severed one of the main arteries in his neck. The last thing he saw before the world dimmed around him was the blood gushing out from his body to the ground, to the covers he pulled down with himself, and to the face of the woman who slid over in less than a minute’s time to lick it all up.
The dim moonlight shone into the room through the open door and illuminated the woman’s snake-like body. The body on the floor jerked once, twice, and then it never moved again.
A sharp scream filled the air.
The author has something to say:
I updated this chapter from my phone so please tell me if there is anything amiss or just generally wrong ~
Oh boy… imagine getting killed or bitten to death in this instance without being able to make a single sound and others sleeping soundly💤 while you die 😖
SPOOKY~👻
Thank you for the update 🌸
Thanks for the chapter!
Omg why i’m replying…
Haha 😹
It has already happened two times..do it one more time coz 3rd time’s a charm~~U^ｪ^U
But who screamed? O.O
thanks for the chapter <3
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter!(((o(♡´▽`♡)o)))