Chapter 157
Chapter 157
In the darkness, Qiudong’s cool, distant voice carried an unusual tenderness. “Your buff leaves you with a thirty-minute weakness debuff after you use it.”
Cheng Miao smiled bitterly. “I know, but I have no choice. We still don’t have a lead on this instance. We can’t delay any longer.”
Qiudong was quiet for a while before he said, “All right.”
Cheng Miao stopped dwelling on it and let herself fall asleep.
In another room, Qi Jiajia sat on the bed and watched Yun Su’s back as the woman drew the curtains.
After a while, Yun Su turned and asked with a faint smile, “Why are you staring at me like that?”
Qi Jiajia shrugged. “Why did you share the clues with us?”
Yun Su sat on the bed and imitated Qi Jiajia’s frosty tone. “Because I can’t clear this instance on my own. If I want to cling to someone’s thigh, I naturally have to show some sincerity.”
Qi Jiajia’s gaze was icy, without the petulant affection she usually showed around Cheng Miao’s group. “Don’t even think about scheming against Cheng Miao or the others.”
Yun Su smiled and lowered her gaze to the prayer beads around her wrist. “I’m not a Party-Wipe Player. Naturally, I don’t harbor those kinds of malicious intentions.”
Qi Jiajia folded her arms, looking like a miniature adult. “But if someone gets in your way, you’ll act against them, won’t you?”
Yun Su braced both hands against the soft mattress and tipped her head back to look at a painting covered by a bedsheet high on the wall. “Of course. That’s human instinct.”
Qi Jiajia curled her lip slightly. “Cheng Miao and the others wouldn’t.”
Yun Su burst out laughing. She looked at Qi Jiajia in amusement. “But you would, wouldn’t you? You and I are the same kind of person.”
Qi Jiajia stared at Yun Su coldly for a long while. Then, without a word, she climbed into bed and turned her back to her.
“You could consider teaming up with me. We’re the same kind of person. Life would be much easier for you with me.”
Yun Su’s soft voice came from behind her. Qi Jiajia barely listened before casting the offer out of her mind.
Instead, she was thinking about asking Cheng Miao to take her to the Golden Lion Grand Hotel for whole roasted lamb after they left the instance.
With Xiang Ping dead, the mood in Gu Fan and Ah Qi’s room was oppressive.
They had survived many instances together. It would not be an exaggeration to call them friends who had repeatedly risked their lives side by side.
Now that one of them was dead, the other two could barely focus.
Gu Fan was the backbone of the group. Looking at the hollow-eyed Ah Qi, she forced herself to rally, reminded him of several things they needed to do the next day, then went to bed early.
To avoid disturbing Gu Fan’s sleep, Ah Qi extinguished the candles, leaving only one beside the bed in case either of them needed to get up during the night.
Ah Qi tossed and turned for a long time without feeling sleepy, but he did begin to need the toilet.
He climbed quietly from bed and carried a gilded candlestick toward the washroom.
After relieving himself, he did not dare linger there.
Xiang Ping had died in a washroom, and Ah Qi could still see the grotesque corpse whenever he closed his eyes.
When he returned to the bed and was about to set down the candlestick, he spotted another gleam on its surface. Perhaps it was only an illusion caused by the wavering flame.
Could there be another candle they had forgotten to put out?
Ah Qi followed the reflection, afraid that overlooking a source of fire might lead to disaster.
Several death scenes had gone up in flames.
The gleam came from behind a vase on the table. From where he had been standing, it was visible in the candlestick’s gilded surface.
He craned his neck around it. There was no flame and no candle.
Reaching behind the vase, he pulled out a hidden doll.
Cheng Miao’s warning from that day, never to investigate a doll discovered through reflected light, exploded through his mind like thunder. His hand jerked, and he flung the doll away.
Ah Qi ran back to the bed in two strides, pulled the blanket over his head, and trembled beneath it.
He would be fine, right?
He had not looked for long. The moment he realized it was a doll, he had thrown it away. He had to be fine.
As he thought this, he felt someone outside tugging at his blanket!
Terror robbed him of his voice. He could only cling desperately to the blanket, but it was still ripped away.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you afraid you’ll suffocate?” Gu Fan stood beside his bed, studying him with a strange expression.
Ah Qi breathed a sigh of relief. He sat up, still shaken. “Sister Gu, weren’t you asleep? Why are you up?”
Gu Fan frowned at him. “Who could sleep with all the noise you’re making? What are you doing?”
Still badly frightened, Ah Qi explained what had happened. Gu Fan looked at him as though he were hopeless. “Miss Cheng already warned you, but you still didn’t listen! Xiang Ping is dead. Can’t you give me a little peace of mind?”
Ah Qi hung his head and accepted the scolding. In the end, Gu Fan could not bear to say much more. She sighed. “Come on. It’s still early. We’ll find Miss Cheng and ask if she has a solution.”
His life was at stake. Ah Qi answered quickly, sprang out of bed, and followed Gu Fan out of the room.
After walking for a while, they reached Cheng Miao’s room. Gu Fan glared at Ah Qi. “Well? Knock on the door. And mind your attitude, understand?”
“Yes, yes.” Ah Qi nodded like a chicken pecking grain, stepped forward, and knocked.
No one answered. Afraid the sound was too faint to hear, Ah Qi struck the door twice more with his palm, neither too lightly nor too hard.
Still no one answered.
Scratching his head, Ah Qi looked back. “Sister Gu, it looks like Miss Cheng isn’t…”
Gu Fan, who had been standing behind him, was gone. Ah Qi looked around in confusion. Where could she have disappeared to in such a short time?
He turned back, baffled, only to recoil two steps from what appeared before him.
The door that had been in front of him was gone. In its place stood a white wall, with the painting that had haunted every player’s nightmares hanging upon it.
He had not been knocking on a door at all. He had clearly been knocking on the painting!
Ah Qi stared blankly at his hand. When had the hallucination begun?
When he mistook the painting for a door?
No, it must have begun earlier.
Sister Gu had never woken him. All of it had been a hallucination!
Ah Qi started running toward their room. If he moved quickly enough, perhaps he still had a chance.
But the moment he turned toward the guest rooms, he collided with a female ghost standing behind him, her black hair hanging over her face. He had no idea how long she had been there.
Scarlet eyes stared through the strands of hair at Ah Qi’s face, twisted with terror. The ghost raised her lips in a grotesque smile.
Gu Fan woke with a start. Her chest felt tight, and when she sat up to drink some water, she discovered Ah Qi was gone.
Knowing something was wrong, Gu Fan grabbed her Item and rushed out of the room. A thick stench of blood filled her nose.
Her heart raced wildly. She followed the smell and finally found Ah Qi’s corpse in the dining room.
His four limbs had been nailed to the table. The tabletop was a wreck, and surging blood had smeared the table and chairs everywhere.
Gu Fan covered her mouth as tears instantly spilled from her eyes.
Boom. Towering flames reflected red in Gu Fan’s eyes, and the bloody scene before her gradually disappeared into the blaze.