Chapter 73
Chapter 73
“A knock?” Everyone shuddered. In a bizarre village, in the pitch-black depths of night, someone had suddenly knocked on the door beside them. The very thought sent a chill racing up most of their spines.
Cheng Miao walked to the room where Li Fei had stayed and reconstructed the scene.
“Xiao Xu, you said she called your name, but you didn’t have time to answer. Then…” Cheng Miao raised a hand and knocked. The wooden door answered with two soft taps. Knock, knock.
Zhou Ke found the reenactment deeply unsettling. He backed away several steps, not daring to watch any longer.
Lin Zhu stood beside Cheng Miao, marveling at how quickly Sister Miaomiao had improved. Back in the Secrets of the Chang Residence instance, she had still been afraid of ghosts. Her occasional jumpiness had even been a little endearing.
And now? Lin Zhu adjusted his glasses as he watched Cheng Miao repeatedly shut herself inside the room and have Qi Jiajia knock from outside. She was already moving through an instance confirmed to contain a ghost as comfortably as a fish through water.
Qin Musong had not spoken since Cheng Miao announced there was a ghost. Lin Zhu nudged his arm. “Brother Qin, what’s wrong? You’ve seemed upset ever since then.”
Watching Cheng Miao emerge from the room, Qin Musong turned and spoke in a voice only Lin Zhu could hear. “I’m afraid of ghosts.”
Lin Zhu was speechless. Afraid of what now?
Cheng Miao came over and noticed his peculiar expression. “What’s wrong? Did you discover something?”
Lin Zhu glanced around mysteriously, then beckoned Cheng Miao and Qi Jiajia closer. “Brother Qin says he’s afraid of ghosts.”
Cheng Miao and Qi Jiajia fell silent.
Cheng Miao tilted her head to look up at Qin Musong and let out a dry laugh. “Really? I never would have guessed.”
A rare trace of embarrassment appeared on Qin Musong’s bronze face. “Yes. Terrified.”
Only then did Cheng Miao remember the final climb up the stairs in the previous instance. None of them had been able to see one another. All they could hear in the dark were terrifying, eerie sounds. When they finally emerged from the stairwell, Qin Musong had been soaked in sweat and moving stiffly.
At the time, Cheng Miao had assumed carrying Freckles had exhausted him. In hindsight, with Qin Musong’s strength, carrying a person should have been effortless. His weakness back then had come from fear.
Cheng Miao did not know whether to laugh or cry, but there was nothing strange about it once she thought it over.
No rule said a man could not fear ghosts. Qin Musong might possess extraordinary combat power, but he still had things he feared. There was nothing shameful about that.
Cheng Miao held back Qi Jiajia, who was about to tease Qin Musong, and shared what she had discovered.
“The wooden door is solid. Once it’s closed, you can’t see who’s outside. Li Fei grew frightened after the light went out. No one in the room answered her, but then someone who might have been a companion knocked from outside. That made her feel safe.”
“But why did she assume Su Shuang was knocking?” Song Yu’s face remained pale. His gaze darted between Cheng Miao and Su Shuang beside him.
Su Shuang propped up his chin and thought. Then he clapped his hands. “I know. I went to ask her for hand cream that evening, and I knocked twice when I entered.”
“Then that explains it. She panicked in the darkness. When she heard a similar knock, she assumed it was a companion and opened the door while asking who it was.”
“Then… why did we hear the door close afterward?” Zhang Lele’s tongue nearly tangled around the words. Just imagining herself in Li Fei’s place covered her in a cold sweat.
“The ghost closed it, obviously. The rest of us hadn’t triggered a death condition, so it couldn’t kill us.” Now that the circumstances of Li Fei’s death had been unraveled, Yezi exhaled and relaxed slightly.
“You mean… you mean…” Xiao Xu covered her mouth with both hands as tears streamed down like pearls from a broken string. “She only opened the door because I didn’t answer and she got scared. I killed her!”
“Not necessarily.” Qin Wen flashed Xiao Xu a handsome smile and patted her shoulder. “If you’d answered her, there might be two bodies nailed up outside today.”
Xiao Xu’s gaze went blank. Then she seemed to remember something and turned excitedly to Qin Wen. “I remember now. Brother Qin Wen, you kicked me last night, so I forgot to answer Li Fei. Did you know something?”
Qin Wen shrugged. With his campus-heartthrob looks, he could ordinarily charm crowds of young women, but Xiao Xu was in no mood to appreciate them. “I didn’t know. All I know is that you have to be careful about everything in an instance, even speaking.”
Cheng Miao squeezed her fingers together and narrowed her eyes. “So Li Fei might have died because she opened the door, or because she spoke.”
Cheng Miao could not help recalling the previous instance. At night, once the lights went out, no one was allowed to speak. Anyone who did would trigger a death condition.
That inevitably brought Li Fei’s words after the light went out to mind. If speaking truly was what killed her, then why? Surely this tiny village did not enforce an almost brutally strict daily schedule too.
Unable to make sense of it, Cheng Miao said, “For now, everyone should be careful. Don’t open the door if you hear knocking at night, and don’t speak after the lights go out.”
No one objected. A single night had already crushed the newcomers’ spirits, while the veterans knew this was only the beginning. They had to seize every moment they could to search for clues.
Lanterns hung from every surrounding house. There were none outside the rooms where the players stayed, but lanterns hemmed them in from every direction. It felt as though they had been surrounded.
Zhou Ke hated the feeling. He had found lanterns deeply unsettling since childhood, and people walking with them even more so. He desperately wanted to find somewhere without lanterns where he could have a moment’s peace.
“I’m going to search for clues. Anyone want to come?” Yan Qi rolled up his sleeves, stroked his pencil mustache, and looked around at the other players.
“We’d better stay here. Didn’t the Village Head say he’d take us to learn how to make lanterns soon?” Cheng Miao reminded him. This village was extremely strange, and with so much still unclear, wandering around was unwise.
“What’s the problem? We already explored the village yesterday.” Yan Qi looked down on Cheng Miao for being so cautious. The young woman had a pretty face, but her personality left much to be desired. How could anyone gain anything from a game if they were too careful?
“The ancestral ceremony hadn’t started yesterday. Today is different.” Lin Zhu could not stand hearing Yan Qi argue with Cheng Miao and shot back at once.
“If you’re too scared, forget it. I’ll go alone.” Yan Qi could not be bothered wasting words on them. He swept his gaze over the others. “Anyone coming?”
The newcomers were already too frightened to think. Qin Wen watched Yan Qi with a pleasant smile but did not answer. Yezi refused outright. Su Shuang stroked his fair hand and edged closer to Lin Zhu. “I’ll stay with them.”
As for Lian Ge, she did not spare Yan Qi a single glance. From the beginning, the woman had stood there with the elegance of an oil painting, without uttering a word.
“I… I’ll go with you, sir.”