Warning: description of gore
Courtyard instance world
Zhao Qi was woken up by a loud noise in the middle of the night. He looked around, still feeling somewhat dazed, and the first thing he saw was a gigantic snake with the face of a woman leaning over his teammate’s twitching body.
He screamed.
Shi Mingdu was woken up by a scream in the middle of the night. He sat up on his bed, and the first thing he saw was the scene Zhao Qi had woken up to.
The air was filled with a rusty smell he couldn’t exactly place at first.
Cui Shenyu had fallen onto the floor between two beds. His back was to Ji Liuzhou’s bed frame and blood was gushing out of the wound on his neck. The snake woman bit down again, and the entire room was soon filled with the sounds of chewing.
Tian Xihua felt like his head was buzzing as he looked at the monster and corpse duo. He Jin fainted back into his covers when he saw it, and Chu Anzhi had both of his hands in front of his mouth but still couldn’t help throwing up.
The others all had differing reactions, and only Green was sober enough to think about more practical issues.
He turned to Shi Mingdu while covering his own mouth and nose and asked him, ‘What are we.. What are we supposed to do now? Do we try to fight it or..’
Before Shi Mingdu could reply, Green got an answer to his question directly from the snake woman.
Her face was bewitchingly beautiful, and beads of crystal-clear water served as adornments more precious than silver jewellery in her wet hair. When she opened her mouth, rows of razor-sharp teeth could be seen dripping with blood.
She reached out one of her weak looking but inviolable arms and grasped Cui Shenyu’s neck, breaking the bone with a simple motion. She opened her mouth, dislocating her jaw as she shoved the entire body down her throat.
After having filled herself up in such a gruesome way, she licked the excess blood from around her mouth contentedly, and slid towards the door. The sound was heavier than when she came and her movements were somewhat slower too, but all of this was still done in less than a couple of minutes. Soon she was nowhere to be seen.
The rain outside stopped abruptly, only a few raindrops landing in the puddles outside.
Ji Liuzhou watched the entire process from the first row, but he still was the first one to speak. He wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead as he asked, ‘Now.. Is this it? We know who the murderer is and we can go home? Do we just, what do we do now?’
Shi Mingdu was deep in thought once again. As he opened his mouth to speak, Green was already saying, ‘Why? Do you know who she is? We know what she looks like, that’s true, but we still know nothing else about her.’
Shi Migdu suddenly remembered something. ‘That.. You mentioned a book before, didn’t you?’ He got up and quickly walked to Zhai Xiaoyi’s bed. ‘Was the book by any chance connected to the supernatural?’
Zhai Xiaoyi had only just woken up. He missed most of the events concerning the murder and he still looked slightly dazed.
‘The book? I don’t remember. We had more important things to do and it was only a minor lead so I.. I put it down somewhere. I think I put it back into the study so the woman wouldn’t become suspicious and..’
He only mentioned the study when Shi Mindu turned around and ran out of the room.
The sky outside was a purplish shade of blue and it was full of small clouds drifting in the wind. It was still somewhat dark outside, but the first couple of golden rays from behind the mountains made it so he could vaguely see his surroundings.
The door to the study was wide open. No one was inside, as if someone had just left in a hurry, not even bothering to extinguish the candle on the desk.
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.
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The noise of the gates opening outside could be heard, followed by a man’s words. He recognised the sound as the detective’s voice.
He didn’t have time to properly look through the books, and he could only hope that he wouldn’t miss one of the most important clues in the instance again. He pulled out the books and threw them to the ground after seeing that none of them were what he was looking for. He pulled down the book before the last one, and pushed it open as he leaned over the table to read the contents in the dim light.
He had this thought, or maybe it would have been better to call it a suspicion, ever since he saw Cui Shenyu’s body being swallowed. It reminded him of a story he had heard a long, long time ago.
At the same time, in the bedroom.
Tian Xihua wanted to follow Shi Mingdu outside, but just as he opened the door the other had slammed shut, the gates to the courtyard also opened.
The two men from the day before walked quickly towards the door he was standing on the other side of. He froze. He didn’t know what the two wanted, but he knew it well that it couldn’t be anything good.
In that moment of panic, still under the after-effect of the first hand experience of watching one of his teammates get murdered and then eaten, Tian Xihua’s mind short-circuited. He slammed the door shut again, using his own back to block it.
The others looked at him in surprise, and he explained shortly, ‘The two from yesterday are coming this way.’
Chu Anzhi was the first to react. ‘The one they accused is dead, what do they want now?’
Tian Xihua shot him a strange look. ‘I’m not sure. If you want to ask, feel free to go and talk to them.’
‘Alright, alright, I was just talking nonsense. But can we really avoid them?’
Tian Xihua opened his mouth to reply, but the sound of knocking on the door cut him off. He looked at the others helplessly, ‘What now? Do I just.. Can we ignore them?’
The handle was pushed down as someone tried to open the door. After realising that they couldn’t, the knocking got fiercer.
The detective’s voice came from outside, ‘Children, are you not awake yet? Your uncle and I have something to discuss with you.’
The boys inside went quiet. Only Chu Anzhi couldn’t stop himself from asking, ‘Are you guys going to elope?’
His voice was loud enough so that there was no question whether those on the outside had heard it or not.
The detective, ‘……..’
He really couldn’t deal with this group of brats today!
‘It’s about the murders! We found that the accusation we made yesterday was false. I came to apologise to that poor boy. He must have been scared out of his wits.’ He let out a strange laugh as if he knew the one he was looking for wasn’t there to begin with this morning, as if he knew that he really was scared out of his wits that night, only, it wasn’t because of his words but something much worse.
The boys looked at each other. They knew they couldn’t just not open the door for the rest of time being, and they knew that if the men wanted to curse them again they could do so with the door in the middle just the same.
Tian Xihua opened the door slowly, peeking outside. The two were really standing there, while Shi Mingdu was nowhere to be seen.
The tall man grabbed the door and opened it wide, as if afraid that the boy would shut it again. The detective patted his belly and stepped into the room, looking around in a satisfied manner.
His gaze stopped on the blood pool on the floor, but he looked away soon. He showed a wide grin before starting to speak, ‘I hope that we didn’t disturb you this early in the morning. As I have already said, I came to apologise. But it seems,’ his grin grew even wider, ‘that the one I wanted to apologise to isn’t present. In this situation, the best I can do is do all I can to find the murderer, and arrest them.’
‘That is why,’ he shut his eyes just like the day before, as if his choice had nothing to do with any of those present. He then looked at Zhai Xiaoyi and the smile disappeared from his face. ‘You. I came to arrest you.’
He was already close enough to the boy so that he could just reach out his hand and lift him by the back of his shirt. As he reached out, it was Chu Anzhi who stopped him yet again.
‘Can you show us your evidence?’
The man hmphed, but he didn’t fall for the same method again. ‘No. Legally, I am not allowed to.’ He looked at the tall man as if asking for help, and the other lifted Zhai Xiaoyi up with ease.
Zhai Xiaoyi felt extremely confused as he let his legs dangle in the air. Was he.. going to die now? But before he could immerse himself in the role of a martyr, a yell from outside made the men stop in their tracks.
‘Wait! I know what happened.’
It was Shi Mingdu who came running into the room. He had a thick book under his arm, and his face was slightly flushed underneath his glasses.
He stood in the door as he took a few deep breaths. ‘Let him go. I’ll say everything.’
The detective was somewhat surprised. ‘You.. You want to confess?’
Shi Mingdu just waved dismissively. ‘Sure. Confessing or drawing the conclusion, what is the difference.’
He opened the book showing it to all those present, ‘This is a collection of strange folktales. It is my luck that I remembered that such a book even exists. It wasn’t popular when it was written and these days almost no one knows about it.’
‘Our luck lies in the fact that my grandfather used to own it. There is a strange story,’ he flipped the pages until they stopped on a part that had more than half of it torn out. ‘There is a story about a river goddess with the body of a snake, covered in scales but more beautiful than a hundred others, who lends a helping hand to those who are willing to offer her recurring sacrifices.’
‘The summoning procedure is described in detail in the tale. Here, the entire chapter is torn out. A wish corresponds to a sacrifice, but once you make a wish, you will have to make another sacrifice soon. While the wishes do in fact come true, the one who wishes will become the last victim sooner or later.’
‘This is to say, if I were to lease a house, and I suddenly ran out of money, but then remembered that my lessor must have a lot of money hidden in their house.. And say, in this situation I just remembered an old folktale that can help me achieve what I want the most, would I wish for the death of my lessors?’
He looked at the sickly looking man seriously. The other looked paler with every word said. ‘You didn’t need to sacrifice Cui Shenyu last night; we could have told you about the damn money if you asked for it! This is your problem, the issue with both of you..’
‘The parents of the little boy are dead. The man was the sacrifice, while the woman was the victim. It must have been amusing to be able to dispose of both of them with such ease, wasn’t it? But you forgot about one thing; what if the couple hid the money before you could get your hands on it, what if they buried it long before their deaths? So how could you find it this way?’
‘That is why the second sacrifice, Cui Sheyu, had to die, so that you would be able to find the money. A shame that you won’t have the chance to actually spend it. You all are so eager to find a scapegoat, it makes people wonder.’
‘The first death in our group was our fault though. If we had waited a bit longer to go to the house, while Jin Huai still would have had to die, at least Cui Shenyu’s death could have been prevented.’
‘In the end, it is indeed worthy of being a D level instance. The difficulty isn’t high, but it takes blood and sweat to be able to make the final evaluation.’
As he drew his conclusion, the world dimmed around the group as if someone turned down a switch taking away all the light from the world. Zhai Xiaoyi was surprised to find that the pain he felt when arriving to the instance was nowhere to be found. He was feeling slightly uncomfortable, but that was all.
When he opened his eyes, he was leaning against the wall near his apartment door. He had to blink a couple of times before the blur in front of his eyes disappeared gradually. He could feel the weight of his limbs as he looked around.
His school bag was thrown to the floor next to him, and his keys were still in the lock on his door. Looking outside the wide window at the end of the corridor, he could see the redness of the sun on the horizon. It seemed that it had already been a couple hours since daybreak.
He only realised after a couple moments of rest that he was holding onto something with his hands.
He looked down, confusion evident in his gaze as he turned the envelope around.
It was plain, white paper with only his name written on it. It wasn’t glued together, so he could easily shake out the contents.
A card the size of his palm fell onto his hand. It looked like a common, state-issued identification card with his photo and basic information on the front of it. On the back, the logo of the Federal Bureau was imprinted.
The envelope still wasn’t completely empty, as there was a letter carefully folded up inside.
Zhai Xiaoyi put the ID card into his bag and shook the letter open. He opened the door to his apartment absentmindedly as he read the contents.
‘Dear Mr Zhai, It is our pleasure to announce that your application for admission in our institute has been accepted. Considering the fact that this year’s term has already started, we are not intending to make things difficult for you. Please prepare to visit our main branch in the Capital in the course of the following two weeks.’
‘The institution also wishes to elucidate the fact that you shall be getting all the support you need and when the time comes our representatives will be glad to answer all of your arising questions.’
The letter was signed by the head of the Department of Instance Regulations. Zhai Xiaoyi fell into deep thought and only when he heard inquiring meows from his feet did he come back to the present.
It seemed that someone had been in the kitchen, as all of the bowls of the cat were filled to the brim. The cat food looked fresh, at most half a day old. It was apparent that he didn’t have to worry about the little thing at all. As Zhai Xiaoyi was thinking, he noticed a small note inserted between two apples on the dining table.
‘I wasn’t sure what the little lady likes, so I gave her whatever I could find. I hope you don’t mind~’
There wasn’t any type of signature at the end, only the small words on the paper.
Zhai Xiaoyi looked down at the cat licking at the bowl in a practiced manner, then shook his head as he let out a light laugh. ‘You let just about anyone feed you, huh? Little traitor.’
He had just sat down to the table when the phone in his pocket buzzed, then started ringing. He got a text from Tian Xihua, while Xue Liuhe was calling him.
He put the call on speaker phone as he read the message and typed an answer. A moment later his phone buzzed again just as Xue Liuhe let out the breath he had been holding onto on the other side of the line.
‘Xiaoyi, tell me honestly, where have you been these past few days? I tried to call you but everything went to voicemail the moment the call connected. Do you not want to talk to your old friend anymore, is that it?’
Zhai Xiaoyi, ‘…..’
He had no idea how to explain the last two days’ events to him.
‘I was busy..’
‘When have you not been busy? Is that really a good excuse? Then tell me, have you forgotten what you promised me, ah?’ Xue Liuhe cut him off.
‘What I promised? What did I promise?’ Zhai Xiaoyi’s mind blanked out.
‘You.. What can I even do with you. You promised to come out and play with us. I’ve already told RanRan about you, but now..’
The author has something to say:
And finally, the end of our first instance. I really enjoyed writing the murder scenes!
This was their first instance!! I hope he gets more exposure in future instances (✪㉨✪)
Thank you for the chapter 🌸☺️
Тhanks for the chapter! (❁´◡`❁)
Thanks for the chapter! <3
Thanks for the chapter!!
Thank you for the chapter 💛