chapter 2
After a moment, Uncle stiffly stopped moving, as if he had seen something terrifying. He pointed straight out the window, his expression full of horror as he backed away, heavy breaths rasping from his throat: “Huh… huh…”
Cheng Miao glanced at Uncle, gritted her teeth, and walked to the door.
There was a palm-sized glass window above the slot for passing things, but it was so caked with grime that it was hard to see anything outside.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!” Bloody handprints suddenly slapped onto the already filthy window, one after another.
The sight of the bloody handprints on the narrow, dirty window made Cheng Miao’s heart pound.
“Help! Open the door! Open up!” The same words, shouted by the people outside, sounded even more chilling.
Cheng Miao held her breath and stepped back, only to see several faces pressed and jostling against the glass, their features mangled and bloody, impossible to recognize.
Several hands reached through the slot, desperately trying to squeeze inside. Some fingernails had split down the middle from excessive force, looking painfully raw.
These hands were smeared with blood and dirt, as if they’d crawled and struggled across the ground.
Because the slot was so small, the wounds forced through were exposed, and some even showed glimpses of white bone.
“Ah!” Deafening screams erupted behind her. Cheng Miao bit down hard on the soft flesh inside her mouth, suppressing the scream rising in her throat.
Suddenly, the world spun, and a voice sounded in her ear-neither male nor female, and devoid of emotion: “Solo Instance [Abandoned Courtyard] initiated. Player Cheng Miao loading…”
A musty odor mixed with the smell of decaying wood made the newly awakened Cheng Miao sneeze several times.
Realizing she had been loaded into the so-called Game, Cheng Miao immediately tensed all her muscles, looking around in every direction to confirm she was currently alone.
In front of her stood an old residential building. A blue iron address plate hung unsteadily in the middle of the cement wall, with white paint marking: Minsheng Lane Building 4.
Cheng Miao was standing in the somewhat dilapidated Courtyard outside the building. The flowers and vines that once grew in the yard and climbed the gate had long since withered, their color turned black.
It was clear that no one had been here for a long time. Fallen leaves littered the ground, mixed with dust, making the gray sky above feel even more oppressive.
The Courtyard was eerily quiet, not even the sound of wind could be heard. The leaves on the ground, not yet fully decayed, lay lifeless and devoid of vitality.
It was as if someone had turned the colors here into the near-gray tones of an old photograph. Cheng Miao felt she could be sealed away at any moment, and the thought made her frown.
Suddenly, perhaps it was a trick of the eye, but a faint red shadow flashed quickly in the distance.
Startled, Cheng Miao looked carefully, but saw no trace of it.
In a place like this, Cheng Miao dared not be careless, but after checking several times, she confirmed the ominous red shadow was truly gone.
As Cheng Miao was looking around, a voice suddenly sounded right beside her.
“Welcome, Player Cheng Miao, to the Solo Instance [Abandoned Courtyard]. Please find the secret of the Courtyard and escape as soon as possible.”
“Hint: Human Yet Not Human, Object Yet Not Object, Dust to Dust, Earth to Earth.”
When the prompt ended, Cheng Miao felt the Courtyard, which had seemed frozen like a still image, slowly come to life.
Though it was still frighteningly quiet, she could at least feel a faint breeze brushing her cheek.
Several children around eight or nine years old appeared near Cheng Miao, dressed in outdated clothes that looked like styles from ten or twenty years ago.
“Hu Zi, is this Minsheng Lane Building 4? It looks so creepy,” sniffed a dirty little boy beside Cheng Miao.
This was a Solo Game, so these children must be NPCs guiding the story.
“Er Gou, are you scared? You’re not even as brave as Niuniu, and she’s a Little Girl.”
Next to Er Gou, a slightly taller boy curled his lip, holding the hand of a Little Girl with a watermelon haircut. The Little Girl looked terrified, clutching the boy’s shirt so tightly she was on the verge of tears.
Even though she was reluctant, Cheng Miao had entered the Instance. She pulled herself together and tried to gather information. “Why did you bring her here for such a trivial matter? Look how scared she is.”
Er Gou giggled foolishly. “Sister Miaomiao, you still don’t know Hu Zi. Wherever he goes, he has to bring Niuniu along. It’s not a big deal anyway, so just let her tag along.”
Niuniu glanced timidly at Cheng Miao, clearly intimidated by this much older big sister.
There must be useful clues on the NPCs. Cheng Miao looked at the three children, while keeping a vigilant eye on her surroundings.
“So what exactly are we here to do?” Time was running out, and Cheng Miao was on guard for any sudden terrifying scenes. All she wanted was to clear the Instance and escape from this courtyard.
“Sister Miaomiao, you’re not listening to me again. Didn’t Xiao Bao from Aunt Song’s house go missing a couple of days ago? Lots of kids have gone missing from this courtyard in Minsheng Lane before. We thought we’d come here to look for clues. Maybe we’ll find out where Xiao Bao went.”
Hu Zi patted Niuniu’s head and pulled her closer, then started walking inside. “Let’s hurry up. My mom only agreed to let me bring Niuniu here to play because she knew you’d be with us, Sister Miaomiao. I still have to go home for dinner.”
Kids at this age are still driven by curiosity. Although they wanted to help Aunt Song find her child, they were probably more interested in what was inside the courtyard, mixed with a desire to play the hero.
It looked like the background was about child trafficking.
Cheng Miao silently recited a few hints. She had no leads for now, so she kept them in mind and turned to observe her surroundings.
The courtyard wasn’t large. All she could see were nearly rotting flower vines and moss-covered stone tables and chairs, with thick layers of fallen leaves on the ground.
Cheng Miao used her foot to clear a patch of ground. There was only some soil and uneven terrain-nothing that needed special attention.
It looked like an abandoned courtyard that hadn’t been used for ages. In fact, with the NPCs present, it seemed unusually normal.
But it was this very normalcy that made Cheng Miao extra cautious.
The iron gate behind her suddenly creaked, “creak, creak,” as if blown by the wind or something else.
Cheng Miao whipped around, but saw nothing.
The iron gate was left ajar, as if someone had just squeezed through, forcing the rusty door to groan in protest.
Cheng Miao stared at the iron gate for a few seconds. Urged on by the three children, she turned back, suppressing the terrifying thoughts in her mind.
Cheng Miao wasn’t a stunning beauty, nor did she have innate strength, and she certainly wasn’t emotionless or fearless.
But she had one advantage that many lacked: the greater the external pressure, the calmer she became.
Even if she was scared to death, she could keep a cool face and analyze things step by step.
Cheng Miao used to joke that it was because she was a qualified corporate drone.
Now, this had become her greatest asset.
There was nothing in the courtyard that could be used for self-defense, so Cheng Miao had no choice but to steel herself and walk into the pitch-black Corridor.
The Corridor was very dark. Her eyes struggled to adjust after entering, and all she could smell was the damp, decaying scent of dust.
Suddenly, a beam of light flashed. Er Gou grinned slyly beside her. “Hehe, since we’re going on an adventure, I snuck out my dad’s flashlight.”
Cheng Miao took the flashlight and carefully examined the Corridor by its light.
The walls were filthy, covered in muddy footprints and unknown stains. In some cleaner spots, a few yellowed pieces of paper were pasted up.
Cheng Miao leaned in and carefully peeled off the papers. They were all missing person notices. The photos had been badly weathered, but you could still tell there were boys and girls, all around six or seven years old.
One missing notice for a Little Girl was posted the most. The girl had two pigtails, wore a red dress, and held a Jump Rope in her hand.
The face in the photo had already blurred into a rough patch of gray and white, looking eerie under the flashlight’s beam.
Cheng Miao stared thoughtfully at the red dress on the Little Girl. Red… The fleeting shadow she’d seen when she first entered the Instance had also been red.