Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Silence smothered both the room and the courtyard. Even the cicadas that had chirped so insistently fell quiet. If Lin Zhu had not been standing beside her, face bloodless and breath held, Cheng Miao might have wondered whether she had entered another dimension.

The unbearable stillness dragged on. Cheng Miao focused every scrap of her attention and slowly counted in her head.

What was outside? Why was it hesitating?

Without warning, something shrieked through the air and tore through the paper window. A branch as thick as an adult’s arm shot into the room and buried itself in the Eight Immortals table opposite the window.

Bang!

The strike had missed. The branch slowly withdrew, no longer carrying the vicious force of its first attack. It seemed to be searching for its target or studying the situation.

One look at the terrifying hole left in the table told Cheng Miao that the branch was anything but harmless.

As if it had eyes, it ignored Lin Zhu entirely and lunged fiercely at her.

Cheng Miao twisted aside, then ran for the inner room without caring how undignified she looked.

The branch was extraordinarily agile. It pursued her closely, stabbing into every place she passed and leaving one bottomless hole after another.

At first, Lin Zhu saw a dark branch like the Black Mountain Demon bursting into the room. Then the image abruptly disappeared, replaced by a woman in a red dress.

She looked like the classic ghost from a horror movie: black hair covered her face, her limbs were twisted, and the crack of snapping joints filled the air.

Lin Zhu flinched, then frowned the next instant. So this was… a ghost?

Ghosts were supposed to be incorporeal. He wondered whether an ordinary attack could hit one.

As the female ghost seemed about to raise her head, Lin Zhu felt more curiosity than fear. He rushed forward, lifted his book, and brought it down on her head in a wild barrage.

Huh? That felt strange…

Lin Zhu stopped. At some point, the scene before him had changed again. The black branch had returned. Despite all the blows he had landed, it showed no cracks or damage.

Nor did the branch spare any attention for him. It left him standing to one side and concentrated entirely on attacking Cheng Miao as she dodged through the inner room.

Cheng Miao rolled awkwardly across the floor. At last, the branch forced her into a corner.

She stood with her back against the wall, dark brown eyes calmly fixed on the branch as it inched toward her, toying with its prey.

When its tip was only a finger’s width from her throat, Cheng Miao suddenly slipped aside. Using its momentum against it, she drove the Fishbone Dagger deep into the branch.

“Screech!”

The bloodcurdling cry sounded like some mountain fiend in its death throes. Cheng Miao clapped one hand over an ear, yanked the dagger free with the other, and prepared to strike again.

The branch shuddered and swiftly retreated along its original path. Lin Zhu, still beating it with his book, lost his balance and pitched forward. His head struck the edge of the table, sending his glasses flying and raising an enormous lump on his forehead.

Cheng Miao chased the fleeing branch until it withdrew through the window and vanished into the endless night.

The cicadas resumed their song. Outside, the maids on night duty began yawning once more. Cheng Miao knew the night’s attack was over.

She had someone bring medicinal liquor, then retrieved the glasses that had fallen near the door and handed them to Lin Zhu. He sat in a chair, clutching his forehead and groaning.

The young man was brave and loyal, with the rare, unspoiled sincerity of someone who had not yet been hardened by society.

Cheng Miao pulled his hand away to examine the injury. The fair skin of his forehead was scraped, and the swollen red lump looked alarming. Fortunately, it was only a superficial wound.
Cheng Miao offered Lin Zhu a few words of reassurance. He was handling the experience well, though he felt embarrassed that he had been no help to her.

She did not want to pry into his secrets, but she felt obligated to give him a subtle reminder. Players needed to explore the rules of their Items on their own. Otherwise, smashing an enemy with an Item might be less effective than grabbing a vase.

Lin Zhu gently rubbed the medicated oil delivered by the maid over his forehead. He pulled a long face. “I know that, Sister Miaomiao. It’s just that this book doesn’t have any useful effect. All I can do is use it as a brick.”

He adjusted his glasses. A book appeared in his hands. “If you don’t believe me, take a look.”

Cheng Miao accepted it, and an Item description appeared before her eyes.

[Books Hold Houses of Gold: Knowledge is money. Use this Item within an instance to withdraw tradable currency.]

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Cheng Miao handed the book back. Seeing his bedraggled state, she comforted him. “It isn’t useless. If you enter an instance where you need money, it’ll be invaluable.”

Lin Zhu hissed in pain as he rubbed his forehead, but his face filled with admiration. “You’re incredible, Sister Miaomiao. You actually managed to wound the Black Mountain Demon!”

Cheng Miao burst out laughing. “What Black Mountain Demon? That was Madam Chang.”

Lin Zhu’s mouth fell open, and he forgot all about applying the oil. “Th-that monster was Madam Chang? Or was the female ghost Madam Chang?”

“Female ghost?” A chill swept through Cheng Miao. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure no hideous apparition was hiding behind her, then asked, “What female ghost?”

Lin Zhu realized something was wrong as well. Cheng Miao might not be deathly afraid of ghosts, but given her fear of them, she would never behave as if nothing had happened.

There was only one explanation. Lin Zhu alone had seen the ghost.

He might not fear ghosts, but the thought of a strange apparition visible only to him was terrifying. It felt like being singled out, like an omen of impending disaster.

As his face grew paler, Cheng Miao told him not to panic yet. He should carefully consider whether he had done anything that might have triggered a death condition.

With his swollen red forehead and bloodless face, Lin Zhu looked thoroughly pitiful.

First, he described everything he had seen in detail, raising goose bumps all over Cheng Miao’s skin.

“I can’t think of anything. We were together the whole time, except when I went to question the servants. Could that have broken a rule?”

“Impossible,” Cheng Miao rejected the idea immediately. If an instance prohibited ordinary investigation, what were players supposed to do besides wait to die?

“Then I…” Lin Zhu scratched his head awkwardly and accidentally tugged at his injury, sucking in a breath at the pain. “At breakfast, I said I was interested in strange tales about ghosts and spirits. Does that count?”

Cheng Miao thought back. Lin Zhu had indeed said that while trying to draw out the instance’s background. Madam Chang had even responded with a very peculiar warning.

“You mustn’t keep speaking of such things. Mention them often enough, and you may see something that never existed before.”

It sounded like a warning to be careful what he wished for. Yet Madam Chang’s expression had not resembled that of an adult concerned for an ignorant child. Instead, she had seemed secretly excited.

Cheng Miao bit the corner of her lip and fell into thought. Lin Zhu pondered for a while but reached no answer, so he asked the most pressing question. “Then when you said that branch was Madam Chang, you meant…”

Cheng Miao divided her attention between him and the hole in the window. “Yes. Madam Chang is a flower demon.”