“Lin Xiang! Lin Xiang, where are you?!”
At the pinnacle of his fear, right as he was about to faint, Lin Xiang heard Xia Bai’s voice calling out to him amidst the terrified screams.
Tears instantly poured down his face.
Initially, when he was tied up by Wen Qiu, he felt the corpse beneath him breathing. He had dismissed it as a hallucination. But now, with the screaming, he was sure it was real. He felt moisture on the back of his neck, where the corpse’s exhales reached. Perhaps it was even watching him.
Yet Lin Xiang couldn’t extricate himself. His body was limp, and all he could do was remain intimately pressed against the corpse.
He was on the verge of being scared to death—literally.
And then he heard Xia Bai’s.
Xia Bai had come looking for him once more.
He had come for him once again, under even more horrific circumstances.
To Lin Xiang, Xia Bai was an angel sent from above.
If Xia Bai were a girl, he’d spend all his fortune to marry her.
Xia Bai gave him strength. Determined to break free even if it meant breaking his hands and feet, Lin Xiang struggled violently. He would fight the corpse beneath him to the death.
The beds in Morgue No. 1 had simple iron frames. They weren’t particularly sturdy and rather light. After using all his strength, Lin Xiang managed to shake it despite the corpse already lying upon the bed. The friction between the legs of the bed and the floor resulted in a loud, piercing screech.
“Here, Xia Bai, I’m here…”
Xia Bai quickly located the source of the noise and rushed into the morgue.
“Xia Bai, Xia Bai,” Lin Xiang called with a hoarse and cracked voice.
Xia Bai reassured, “Don’t worry. I’m untying you.”
Tears flowed freely from Lin Xiang’s eyes as his body tensed, trying to distance himself from the corpse below. “It’s breathing, really, it’s coming back to life, Xia Bai, it’s been reanimated… I’m going to die, ah, ahhhh!”
Xia Bai’s breathing grew heavier. The cacophony of screams and thunder outside made his head buzz. It felt like something was about to be unleashed, and his heartbeat accelerated.
“Untied them.”
The next second, Lin Xiang leaped off the bed.
“Bang!”
A gust of wind blew open the old window, bringing with it rain and lightning.
The wind stirred the white cloths covering the corpses throughout the room. For a brief second, lightning revealed their gray-purple faces, twitching eyelids, and stiffened, outstretched hands. It seemed they might rise at any moment.
“See?! They moved! They moved! What do we do… What do we do, Xia Bai?” Having been in close contact with a corpse, Lin Xiang was overwhelmed by the sight of so many bodies. “My heart is racing.”
Xia Bai, staring intently at the corpses in the room, swallowed hard and pressed a hand to his chest. “So is mine.”
Just like before, they exchanged a knowing glance. Lin Xiang roared, “Three! Two! One! Run!!!”
“Ahhhh!” Lin Xiang, who had been tormented all night, ran screaming to the door, tears streaming down his face, his eyes bloodshot.
“Ahhh!” Xia Bai, who had tamped down his urges all night, seemed to have broken free of some sort of seal. His family tree could no longer contain his desires. He ran fervently towards the corpses in the room, his face red with excitement.
Lin Xiang, who had reached the door, stared blankly.
“Wen Qiu!”
“Wen Qiu, where are you? Don’t touch Chu Xuelin!”
Bang!
As Hua Haoming and Meng Tianyou pushed open the door to Morgue Number Four, the sight of Wen Qiu screaming on the floor met their eyes. Then, they heard a dull, resounding thud, the unmistakable sound of something heavy hitting the ground.
From his past experiences in Morgue Number Four, Hua Haoming instantly recognized it could only be the lid of the black box used for storing specimens in formalin.
Wen Qiu was illuminated by their phone lights; there was no one else around to open or knock those boxes over.
Which meant that…
Holding his breath, Hua Haoming slowly, cautiously shifted his phone.
The quivering light slowly slid from the yellowed, patchy walls to the ground by the opposite wall.
Gone were the stacked black boxes by the wall.
The sound hadn’t come from the black boxes stacked against the wall beside them. Instead, it originated from one laid out on the floor. Its lid had flipped over, and next to it stood a pair of swollen, ghostly pale feet.
Someone’s breath wavered, causing the light to shake. The entire morgue seemed to sway in response, rustling all around.
They moved the light upwards against the downward trail of fluid. Brown skin turned pale, and desiccated parts were replaced with bloated parts.
The three men’s eyes widened in horror, their pupils trembling, reflecting pair after pair of eyes. Those gazes seemed to burrow deep into theirs.
This reanimated female corpse, ghastly white and slimy, was covered in eyes. Those eyes all stared intently at them.
“This… This is Chu Xuelin. She really is deformed! This is her secret!”
Wen Qiu’s voice cracked as she shouted, releasing all her fear. She laughed with manic excitement, “We’ve found it! We’ve uncovered the truth!”
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.
“Qjamt bea!!!”
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With that sound, every corpse in Morgue Number Four began to move.
“Ahhh! Hua Haoming! Save me!”
Meng Tianyou stumbled backward, watching in terror as the fetus opened its dark eyes, locking onto Wen Qiu. He cried out, “Hua Haoming! Hua Haoming! Save her!”
In their minds, Hua Haoming was the most formidable among them, the only one who could stand against these eerily resurrected corpses.
And Hua Haoming did move, approaching the recently animated corpse. Without any emotion on his face, he leaned in and bit into the flesh of the corpse’s shoulder.
Meng Tianyou, in his fright, fell to the ground.
Pica.
The corpses had come alive.
“Xia Bai!”
In such a despairing environment, the only other person he could think of was Xia Bai.
“Xia Bai!”
Lin Xiang, who also sensed something was amiss, was also calling for Xia Bai.
He realized Xia Bai was missing and when he turned around, he was dumbfounded.
There was Xia Bai, hands outstretched, cheeks flushed, rushing toward a corpse.
Just as the corpse sat up, Xia Bai wrapped his arms around its neck, rubbing his cheek against it with fervor.
Once he was done with his affectionate actions, he excitedly ran over to another, giving it the same treatment.
When that was done, he darted to yet another corpse. It was evident that he wanted to touch and rub against every corpse in the morgue.
“Ahhhh! So many! So many corpses!” He exclaimed with ecstasy and immense satisfaction, rolling on top of two corpses.
Lin Xiang: “…?”
Lin Xiang: “???”
Lin Xiang: “??????”
Lin Xiang had always known that Xia Bai was exceptionally handsome, with looks that could stun someone speechless if he so much as glanced their way. When Lin Xiang first tried to befriend Xia Bai, he experienced this often.
But Xia Bai usually seemed lost in his own world, as if his brain wasn’t actually contained within his skull. He behaved like a lost child with a lost soul.
Now, it seemed as if all of Xia Bai’s soul had returned. He was dazzling; he was stunning, and his change was all thanks to these corpses.
That ever-indifferent, otherworldly Xia Bai.
Lin Xiang couldn’t comprehend.
Lin Xiang was deeply shocked.
Lin Xiang felt as if his brain was about to leave his skull.
The corpses themselves probably couldn’t understand what was going on either. As Xia Bai nudged against them, their already rigid bodies seemed to stiffen even more.
A flash of lightning illuminated the scene. A rosy hue appeared on the faces of two corpses as Xia Bai embraced them.
Lin Xiang: “?”
His shock was now mixed with utter confusion, which overpowered his previous deathly fear.
The corpse, which had scared him breathless mere moments ago, was… blushing?
“Xia Bai! Xia Bai!”
The desperate shouts from outside snapped Lin Xiang back to reality. He saw Meng Tianyou being dragged by a withered, dead hand toward Morgue Number Four.
Meng Tianyou looked petrified, his face distorted in fear. His nails dug into the floor cracks, drawing blood.
“Where’s Brother Hua?!”
Lin Xiang rushed over, pulling Meng Tianyou’s arm desperately.
“He’s gnawing on the corpses! Their fixations have been completely distorted!”
Lin Xiang: “?”
In a split second, countless thoughts raced through Lin Xiang’s mind. In the end, only one word emerged.
Fuck.
Following that, he used all his strength to pull Meng Tianyou away.
But the opposing force was inhumanly strong. Lin Xiang nearly got pulled into Morgue Number Four himself.
Meng Tianyou let out a pained and harrowing scream. The dim light prevented Lin Xiang from seeing what happened to Meng Tianyou’s leg, but he pulled with all his might, fearing that if Meng Tianyou was pulled inside, he’d surely die.
“Help me, help…”
Lin Xiang’s muscles strained, veins bulging on his forehead. With a powerful shout, using all his strength, he managed to pull Meng Tianyou out.
Without wasting a moment, he began to drag Meng Tianyou away. But after barely two steps, he stopped in his tracks.
The door to the third morgue was flung open, revealing dissected corpses rushing out.
Xiabai and Hua Haoming had told him that the third morgue was a temporary storage for cadavers that had just been used by various grades. It was filled with freshly dissected bodies.
Lin Xiang remembered how the professor had mentioned musculoskeletal separation in anatomy class. He hadn’t paid attention then, but he sure as hell knew now what that term meant.
The first corpse that rushed out gave him a vivid lesson.
The arm he’d used to tug Meng Tianyou with was shaking in pain and drooped limply down. Unfortunately, it was yanked a little closer towards the morgue together with Meng Tianyou.
Lin Xiang stumbled and fell, watching the hollow-chested corpse approach. From its body, mutilated after countless dissections, he could almost guess its thoughts: People dissected him, so why couldn’t he dissect them?
Lin Xiang was pulled in further.
Looking around, he saw the corpses from the first morgue emerging, with Xiabai chasing after them.
Song Mingliang peeked from a corner of the corridor, his eyes glowing yellow in excitement, seemingly itching to join the chaos.
Then there was Wen Dong. He should’ve been resting, but he’d appeared here for some unknown reason.
Lin Xiang watched as Wen Dong rigidly approached the silent Wen Qiu. He knelt down and started tearing at her hair and the skin on her face. Lin Xiang couldn’t quite see his expression.
He watched as Xiabai slapped Hua Haoming, who was feasting on a corpse.
He watched as the corpses from the second morgue came rushing out as well.
Thunder rumbled. In this dimness, human obsessions were twisted madly, drowning out their rationality and clouding their judgment. The corpses swarmed, their sorrow and anger threatening to overwhelm the living.
Despairingly, Lin Xiang closed his eyes. Amid the chaotic figures, he saw Xiabai fighting with Hua Haoming. He wanted to laugh, but he wanted to cry even more.
He knew they had failed this challenge. They were about to die here.
Hua Haoming had repeatedly told them about the cruelty and terror of the game. Lin Xiang had nodded, thinking he understood, but only now did he truly grasp how horrific this game was. One mistake and there was no chance of survival.
He was dragged in further. The dissected corpse reached for his chest. Lin Xiang wanted to close his eyes and accept his fate, but his fingers brushed against a piece of paper in his pocket— the talisman Xiabai had given him.
What if Xiabai can’t beat Hua Haoming?
In his final moments, Lin Xiang stared at the two’s scuffle and fretted. He raised a talisman and stuck it on the corpse’s forehead.
It was the last thing he did in life, cherishing Xiabai’s heartfelt gesture.
The dissected cadaver’s hand paused inches from his chest.
His arm was in intense pain, numbing his reactions. Feeling that his death was near, Lin Xiang had also instinctively shut off his senses. It was Meng Tianyou’s desperate scream that snapped him back.
“Lin Xiang! Lin Xiang! Do you have another? Save me!”
Lin Xiang opened his eyes and stared at the motionless teacher in shock.
When Xia Bai gave him the corpse-suppressing talisman, Hua Haoming said that it would not be valid here, even if it was effective in the real world, unless the talisman was a skill obtained in the game.
He accepted Xia Bai’s kind gesture, but he’d always assumed that it would be useless.
But it wasn’t.
It worked.
It worked!
In the most desperate of moments, nothing is more exhilarating than glimpsing a sliver of hope. Such a moment imbued him with an overwhelming surge of strength. With a swift movement of his hand, Lin Xiang placed a talisman on the forehead of the corpse tugging at Meng Tianyou.
This one worked too.
Fueled by adrenaline, he quickly plastered the few talismans he had in his pocket onto the corpses trying to tear them apart. But it wasn’t enough. The number of corpses in the morgue was too great; they were all rushing towards them.
Lin Xiang’s entire body trembled, but he forced himself to stay calm.
Seizing a moment when Hua Haoming was distracted, he kicked him towards two approaching corpses. Hua Haoming immediately knocked one down under his feet and trapped another within his arms as he munched away.
Lin Xiang then swiftly shut the door to Morgue Room Four, barring the advancing dead.
The door thudded loudly from the impacts. The vibrations caused him to shudder with each hit. He knew he couldn’t hold them off for long, so he frantically looked for an escape.
His most pressing concern was to block the corpses.
The talismans Xia Bai had given him—there might still be some on his person. He should search for them.
But most importantly, he needed to uncover the truth.
A cell phone lay on the ground, emitting a faint glow. With the help of this dim light, he saw the female corpse covered in eyes.
“Is that Chu Xuelin? Aren’t all these eyes her deformity? Haven’t we found her?”
The words escaped Lin Xiang’s lips in his excitement.
“No, this… this is another red herring.”
Meng Tianyou’s voice had grown extremely faint. Only then did Lin Xiang notice that one of Meng’s legs was gone, blood pooling around him.
He wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.
The once vain and self-centered eighteen-year-old’s face was now streaked with tears. The horror of seeing so much blood drain from his body was indescribable.
Still, he tried hard to relay everything he knew to Lin Xiang, passing on a glimmer of hope.
Had it been earlier, he too would have believed these eyes to be Chu Xuelin’s deformity. But after hearing Xia Bai’s analysis before entering and using the process of elimination, he understood.
In this game, ‘she’ was symbolized by green algae and Chu Xuelin was represented by a salamander. These eyes weren’t her deformity but the gazes of others—incessant prying looks manifested as eyes sprouting all over her body, inescapable and unshakeable.
“Xia Bai…” He neither had the strength nor the intellect to ponder further. Perhaps only Xia Bai held the answer.
“Xia Bai, necrophiliac… why… on the first night…”
Lin Xiang grasped what he was trying to convey. If Xia Bai had an obsession with corpses, why hadn’t he shown it the previous night? He’d even accompanied him to find Hua Haoming.
As the corpses pounded more fiercely on the door, Lin Xiang staggered, recalling the previous night’s details. Xia Bai’s hand often reached into his pocket, as if touching something.
Bang!
The force from the zombies behind the door sent Lin Xiang flying. Nearly falling, he made his way to Xia Bai’s side, holding down the dazed man and rummaging through his belongings.
He first found a stack of talismans, handing most of them to Meng Tianyou. He then found a yellowed booklet with the handwritten words “Family Tree” on it.
He recalled seeing this booklet. On their admission day, Xia Bai had hugged a clear file which contained this little booklet.
“Xia Bai! Xia Bai! Look! This is your family tree. Snap out of it!”
He practically shoved the family tree into Xia Bai’s face, then painfully flipped through it for him to see.
The bloody fingerprints in the family tree quickly flashed before Xia Bai’s eyes, one after another.
The winter his grandfather died, the yard became desolate.
He didn’t want to bury his grandfather, so he kept him in his room, talking to him daily.
His grandfather had once said their yard was a geomantic treasure. He had searched his entire life to find this precious land.
“Why else would our Xi Shen not rot even after so many years?”
It was a geomantic treasure, so grandpa could stay by his side for a long time. He kept him in his room, talked to him daily, and answered his WeChat messages for him. It was as if nothing had changed.
Until Xia Bai spotted the livor mortis on his grandpa.
He bought a coffin for him.
That night, he sat in the yard for hours, exhuming their Xi Shen. He chronicled them in the old booklet, ascribing identities and stamping their handprints — and his grandfather’s — with his own blood as ink.
He had no family left, so he’d create a new one, eternal and vast.
The blood-stained fingerprints swirled before his eyes, reminding him of how his Xi Shen looked when they were by his side. Some were more handsome than movie stars, some were dashing, while others were already sporting white hair and had to lean against Xia Bai to support themselves.
“Xia Bai! Snap out of it! What’s going on with Chu Xuelin?!” Lin Xiang’s voice thundered in his ears.
What was going on?
Chu Xuelin?
Xia Bai looked up, eyes landing on the female corpse covered in eyes. She roared with her wide-open mouth, ready to pounce.
Images flooded Xia Bai’s groggy mind.
Chu Xuelin reading softly in the library with her mouth slightly agape.
Chu Xuelin cupping a pea blossom in hand, bowing her head to smell it, burrowing her nose and mouth into the flowers.
Chu Xuelin clad in a lab coat, taking a photo. Her hand clapped over her mouth, as if crying, as if laughing.
The sutured mouths of the cadavers.
“Throw me at her! Or onto the bed up front,” Xia Bai, shaking his head furiously, gripped Lin Xiang’s arm.
There were several corpses rushing at them.
Meng Tianyou, lying on the ground, was about to be buried under a mountain of bodies despite his talismans.
Behind Lin Xiang, several desiccated hands dug into his flesh.
Lin Xiang didn’t ask a single question. He trusted Xia Bai implicitly — though it was true that he was in so much pain he couldn’t speak.
Without a care for the dead hands tearing at his back, Lin Xiang lifted his disarticulated arms and hosted Xia Bai, who weighed more than 50 kg, up. Blood streamed out from his tense muscles, veins bulged on his forehead, and every bead of sweat on him was trembling. With every ounce of strength left, he hurled Xia Bai forward.
Xia Bai clung to Chu Xuelin’s corpse, fingers prying at the eyes on her back.
With Song Mingliang’s actions replaying in his head, Xia Bai mirrored the former’s actions, diving right into the female corpse’s gaping mouth.
????
I need a new chapter. I am super confused
it was so chaotic omg
this is so chaotic, i loved this chapter! thanks for the translation! ❤️
Hey. Why would you stop the chapter there? That’s…. That’s so mean
I’m sorry but I just can’t stop thinking about how those corpses were literally blushing 😭 Like from what blood⁉️
Yes!!!
Who said it had to be theirs 🤨
Hehehhehe idk why but its so silly, xia bai giggling and in heaven at all the corpses at the morgue, and fighting hua haoming who’s eating the corpses. Like “NO DONT EAT THEM, THEY STILL NEED A HOME”
Thanks for the chapters ~~~
😂 “stop eating my new family!”
Thanks for the chapter
lmao Xia Bai really went and slapped Hua Haoming for eating the corpses xD Also I thought pica was only inclusive of dirt, rock and hair…? Imagine how he would react when he snapped back to reality and found out he ate rotten flesh 😰
There’s actually different type of pica and it varies what someone will try to eat
….new fear unclocked: People with pica (please don’t find this comment offensive, what I’m trying to say is I would be terrified if someone comes out of nowhere and start gnawing at my hair and flesh)
There was someone who once ate an entire air plane. Yes, an actual air plane.
I’m sorry WhAt???? Did that person survive?? Did they at least go down on history??? Bro ate an airplane??? EXCUSE ME WHAT?????????????
Thank you for the chapter! ❤ hiss cliffhangers…
Thank you for this chapter of utter madness!! 😆