The second grandson was dead.
His body was hung in a remote room with a white cloth around his neck.
Ren Yifei, for the first time in his life, saw a hanging body.
Although the hellish system always threw him into desperate situations previously to ‘experience life’, he actually rarely came into direct contact with a dead body. Most of the time, it was him who died.
People who genuinely suddenly died were completely different from all the general teacher in schools or the special effects makeup on set. It was the kind of sinister scene that could pierce through the air and deep into the bottom of a person’s heart, making it turn cold.
He looked up.
He watched as the corpse rotating in the air by itself without any wind.
When it turned to a certain angle, a pair of blood-red eyes directly met with Ren Yifei’s, he felt as though the corpse was laughing at him.
In his vision, all he saw was red. Red liquid rained from the sky and flowed into the ground.
A woman in a red dress entered his sight with blood pouring out of her throat yet she was still smiling at him.
The crimson blood crawled to the edge of his feet like a snake, tightly securing his body in place; it climbed up his ankle, little by little, binding him.
Ren Yifei shuddered, his heart was frozen until cracks appeared.
The woman stared at him with her red smiling lips.
“A Fei, what’s the matter with you?”
The voice of a young man shattered his frightening illusion.
Ren Yifei slowly turned his head, he started at A Jie, A Liang and the others in a daze. He opened his mouth but not a sound came out.
“Why is your face so pale?”
The night-watchmen surrounded him, scrutinising his pale face and damp forehead.
Their enthusiasm dissipated the chill and Ren Yifei sucked in a breath of air, feeling as though he had died and come back to life.
The night-watchmen glanced at the hanging corpse from Ren Yifei’s perspective and looked at him again, understanding why he had looked paler than a ghost.
“You’re afraid yet still came to look?” The night-watchmen were also helpless. Those who were afraid consciously hid their probing heads at the poker table. Was A Fei here to join in on the fun again?
“Come on, you two, carry him back,” A Liang found two tall night-watchmen.
Ren Yifei’s neck stiffened, “No.”
He stretched out a hand to grab A Liang’s clothes and firmly tugged, “I’m fine, just let me calm down a bit.”
After two minutes, he slowly seemed to be more spirited. His complexion had returned to normal and he stopped sweating.
“Are you alright?” A Liang was still doubtful.
Ren Yifei wiped his face, “I’m okay.” Even if he wasn’t, he still had to be.
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.
The corpse had already been taken down on the other end.
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The NPCs sighed endlessly while the players squeezed through the crowd to observe.
“This is Granny Chun Zhi’s room, you say…”
“Even if there is a grudge, you shouldn’t…” Whispers among the crowd spoke of secrets some players didn’t know.
Ren Yifei poked his head out, the eyes of the corpse had been closed and it was no scarier than the fake corpses used in films. It was not the first time he saw a dead person so he always thought that he would not be afraid of this kind of thing, he could even watch autopsy videos while eating chitterlings.
But the blood-red eyes of the dead body made him remember some unpleasant memories.
When there were no more memories getting in the way, Ren Yifei was no longer afraid of the body left by the dead, he could calmly think and analyse.
The second grandson’s corpse had protruding eyes, a pale complexion that lacked blood with bluish-purple lips and nails
These are typical characteristics of someone dying due to mechanical asphyxiation.
Mechanical asphyxia, or in layman’s terms, things like smothering, choking, hanging and strangulation.
The biggest difference between hanging and strangulation is that the force of the rope would mainly be focused on the area under the jaw, that is, the neck and it usually does not come into contact with the area behind the ears so the bruises would mostly be on the front of the neck.
While the other would have the rope looped around the neck with the force evenly distributed, therefore, traces could be seen on the back of the neck.
The bruise on the back of the corpse’s neck was obvious, so, he had been strangled then hanged afterwards.
Why did the ‘ghost’ do this?
Was there any special meaning behind this manner of death?
Ren Yifei was still pondering over these issues when the corpse began to fade. He quickly glanced around but none of the NPCs showed any other expressions.
The NPCs will automatically block these kinds of anomalies?
The veteran players who mixed into the crowd had an ‘it finally happened’ calm expression while the newcomers covered their mouths, trying to restrain their screams.
The corpse was disappearing, he even saw the texture of the ground through the corpse. At that moment, the middle-aged woman, who had been crying, stood up blankly.
The middle-aged man turned around and walked back in a daze, “Let’s all leave, we must not delay the vigil.”
What? Was this even human speech?
However, like magic, all the NPCs stood up, turned and started walking towards the mourning hall. All their eyes looked dull and inhuman.
The new players were both shocked and terrified.
The three veteran players immediately mixed into the crowd and the other new players could only follow suit.
The lamp trimmer stopped Xiao Mei, lowered his head and quickly instructed in a low voice, “After the corpse disappears, there will be a card left behind, bring it to me.”
Was this to prove her loyalty?
Xiao Mei looked back at the corpse that had yet to completely disappear and gritted her teeth before nodding.
The other players heard the conversation and looked back but weren’t very interested in that card.
Xiao Mei suppressed her fear and stayed beside the corpse for half a minute, waiting until the corpse finally disappeared and dropped the black card. The vigil group over in the distance had also arrived at the entrance of the mourning hall.
She took the card and used her trembling and slightly weak legs to catch up.
Xiao Mei squeezed into the group of night-watchmen, ready to pass through, walking in a straight line to send the card to the location of the lamp trimmer.
She passed by them smoothly while a pair of eyes within the group of night-watchmen watched her.
Ren Yifei wanted to use this opportunity to steal the card but he didn’t do anything in the end. He mustn’t inadvertently alert the enemy.
Xiao Mei and the lamp trimmer met up before they hid away to talk.
The night-watchman returned to the card table, continuing to play cards and chat. On such a night, there seemed to be nothing else to do.
The spirits of these young people were flexible, unlike the players who had to put on an act. Although Ren Yifei managed to avoid being stuck in the group of NPCs, he was still as worried as the other players.
The second grandson died, all the traces were also conveniently erased as if he had never existed.
Was this what death would be like here? With no body nor memories remaining?
Looking up at the dark sky, he intended to go to Granny Chun Zhi’s room to investigate, however, it was not the right time.
It was so dark, nothing could be seen clearly. If he used a candle, the light would attract the attention of others
It seemed that he could only wait until dawn.
Ren Yifei couldn’t hold on any longer and fell asleep on the table.
He slept unsteadily, frowning as his fingers searched the table’s surface unconsciously. The night-watchman near him saw and placed a piece of clothing on him
While Ren Yifei could still take a nap, the other pitiful players were hungry and tired. However, they were being stared at by the NPCs and could only forcefully endure with bloodshot eyes and grumbling stomachs.
They waited and waited until the sky was bright.
The player Xiao Mei looked up into the distance while carrying a tray and saw the morning star appearing in the eastern sky. Was this night full of terrible occurrences going to finally pass?
The summer morning is always slightly more bright. Usually, at this time, the breakfast stores would already be open and selling steamed buns, there would be noises from people who got up early to go to the market- however, there was no movement here.
Ren Yifei woke up, he got on his feet and yawned as he stretched.
The sky was still dark yet everyone’s mental state was not good as they had stayed up all night, each of them were yawning with black circles under their eyes. No amount of strong tea could relieve them of their desire to sleep.
The time and location were just right, now was the best time to explore other places.
He felt that the time had arrived and found an excuse to sneak to the backyard.
Ren Yifei walked around the backyard like a thief to the back of the most remote room and crawled in through the window.
This was Granny Chun Zhi’s room. The place where the second grandson was previously hanged was near the door, the white silk was tied around the beam as his corpse swayed from side to side.
Ren Yifei looked at the beam and recalled the blood-red eyes.
“Wait a minute,” he patted his face and suddenly remembered something, “Wasn’t I satisfied as long as it ended well? Being so immersed and investigating….”
Why must he be so proactive? He was not the protagonist of some criminal investigation drama!
“Squeak!” a mouse crawled over and surprised Ren Yifei.
At this moment, it was not completely bright outside since the sun has yet to raise so the room was dim and only barely visible.
He rubbed his face: Fine, since I’m here already.
This room had been carefully cleaned up and many things had already been disposed of.
The bed was gone, the wardrobe and chests were also gone, unused and old junk piled up in the room. If the NPCs hadn’t mentioned it, Ren Yifei would think that this was a storage room instead of a place where someone had once lived.
He looked down, only traces of dust sediments on the floor proved that something was once there.
As soon as the deceased passed away, the family hurriedly packed their things and turned the elder’s room into a storage room. Even ghosts wouldn’t be convinced if there were no deeper meaning behind these actions.
In the corner of the room, he found a reclining chair for elderly people which was very clean and does not seem like outdated junk. The surface of the chair was smooth and shiny, indicating that it was something its owner had used often. He inclined his head to examine the chair carefully and discovered that there were fresh scratches on the arm of the chair.
In addition, he also found a few disarrayed footprints on the ground, covered in a thin layer of dust so it could not be made out without a closer look.
These footprints were left behind in a hurry as the marks were very clear.
However, when the body of the second grandson was found previously, no one came in here. Ren Yifei suspected that these were traces left by the players around midnight when they were searching for clues.
This would indicate that the time of the second grandson’s death had been very early. If he were to die in this location, it would be impossible for the players who came here not to discover his body.
Thus, the second grandson’s body appeared here after the players had checked this room.
That is to say, when 2am arrived and it was time for the ‘ghost’ to return to the mourning hall, it was definitely not one of the people to return early, thus reducing the number of suspects.
The ‘ghost’ chose this room and for the second grandson to be hanged in this manner- wouldn’t this be hinting at something?
Ren Yifei’s eyes slowly turned towards the beam.
If someone had been hanged in this room before, then the upper surface of the beam should have two rope marks.
Holding onto the wooden pillar, he climbed up with difficulty and stuck out his head to carefully examine the beam, becoming stunned after one glance. As the result, he lost his grip and fell to the ground, shaking off a large amount of dust on the beam.
Ren Yifei grimace in pain, beating his clenched fist against the ground.
Although great efforts had been made to learn all kinds of tricks to pin down the enemy, in terms of physical fitness, he was still a waste.
“Cough cough cough,” he fanned the air and coughed quietly while covering his mouth. Half of his body was numb from the pain and it took a few minutes until he felt better.
This hardship was not in vain as there were two regular friction marks on the surface of the beam.
Two marks, that is to say, besides the second grandson, there was another person hanged in this room.
No, perhaps not a ‘person’.
If the person was still alive when they were hanged, they would have struggled due to the pain, causing the white silk to shift and leave many rope marks on the beam. However, the two friction marks were very uniform, as if the thing hung up had no instinct to struggle at all.
Ren Yifei, who was lying on the ground, raised his head. His eyes widened slightly, a black shadow seemed to appear in front of his eyes, silently overlapping with the image of a long white cloth.
A pair of women’s feet hung motionlessly in front of him.
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Uwaahh!! I want more!! This is so interesting!!
Thanks for the chapter!!
Me too, I’m looking forward to every chapter!
»What did the ‘ghost’ do this?« Why instead of what.
Everyone is tired af and just one is allowed to sleep lolol
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و
Thank you for the correction!
Thank you so much for translating! <3
This confused me, too. This is supposedly his first UF instance, so I am a bit confused. Does he mean his old agency and agent from his acting career?
I’ve discovered something new, this is not a spoiler (maybe) since it’s in the synopsis, but you’ve guessed correctly, the MC had experienced being the host of a system before!
Ah, cool! Thanks for clarifying, I’m really looking forward to it <3
Poor MC though, if he made it through one system only to get tossed into another haha
Thanks for the chapter! The stakes are getting higher~
That creepy cliffhanger –
But also wow, Ren Yifei clearly has some good instincts, a lot of attention to detail and great detective abilities.
This is one that I am already super invested in….GAHHH!!!! Why did Panda not learn Chinese?!?!?!
Because Panda is Lazy? points to username and Chinese is hard.
This is true…they always told me if I knew Japanese I would still be able to read a Chinese newspaper…but alas it is not so for this Lazy Panda…
That can be a trap. Not all kanji have the same meaning in Japanese and Chinese. It could be enough of a difference to really kick your poor panda.
Sigh…this poor panda will just have to wait for the amazing translators to grace us with new chapters…
❤❤❤
Is chapter 5 and 6 the same?
Thanks for the chapter! 💕
Thank you for the chapter!
“A pair of women’s feet hung motionlessly in front of him.” Uwahh, so creepy! 😰
I might be wrong but when reading other novels (specifically Mistakenly Saving The Villain), ‘general teacher’ has referred to dead bodies used to teach medicine, so perhaps here Ren Yifei is talking about the difference between them and freshly dead bodies(idk how to better describe it). My apologies if I am wrong, I really respect your work as a translator and am really grateful to be able to read this.
Oooh, right, I remember now! Thank you so much!
so scary
I’m on my period rn and this just now made me go urghhhhhhhhh
A Song the nightwatcher is the ghost. I think?
I really, really shouldn’t have read this😭😭 It’s 3 am and I have to “wake up” at 4:30 bcs school and I CANT SLEEP WTH
Remember??? Then the red lady in his memory is real and not from this scenario??
How creepy.😱
I would find it hard not to scream when those ghost feet appeared 😂