Chapter 94
Chapter 94
No wonder even Sun Xingye had refused to go inside.
It was not merely frightening. Hair itself had a way of drawing out the fear buried in people’s hearts.
The sight of such dense masses of hair growing from the floor made their skin crawl and sent chills down their spines.
The stench made them even less willing to approach.
Xiao Huai, however, suddenly crouched and lightly touched the floor with his fingertips.
“A-Zhuolang… w-what are you doing?” someone beside him stammered.
Xiao Huai answered quietly, “Examining it.”
He was checking the ground. Most likely, the hair was connected to something.
Under everyone’s shocked gaze, Xiao Huai stood and walked directly into the room full of hair.
“Wait…”
No one could stop him. They watched him take out a small shovel and begin digging into the floor little by little.
Sun Xingye was speechless. “You think something is buried underneath?”
Xiao Huai kept his head down and dug without sparing him a glance. He answered indifferently,
“What else? If hair doesn’t grow on a person, then what does it grow on? Aren’t you curious?”
It was not that Sun Xingye had never considered that possibility. He simply had not possessed the courage to start digging.
After struggling with himself repeatedly, he shot Cheng Shan a look, took out a shovel, and joined Xiao Huai.
They were not the only curious ones.
What exactly was buried underground? Could it really be a person?
They avoided the hair as much as possible and shoveled at the bare patches.
“Ah!” Lu Zhi suddenly screamed. “It moved! The hair moved!”
As though coming alive, the hair slowly burrowed into the ground. Xiao Huai glanced at it once, then continued digging.
All the hair on the walls sank into the earth, revealing the original surface beneath.
When they saw the words written there, cold crept up their spines.
[Bad seeds! Bad seeds!! They don’t deserve to live!! Bad seeds!!]
Crimson writing covered the walls, repeating the words “bad seeds” everywhere.
“Hey, something’s wrong! Everyone, if there’s a monster buried down there and we disturb it, could we…?”
Could they die?
“A-Zhuolang, stop! Don’t dig anymore!” Cheng Shan shouted.
Xiao Huai seemed not to hear him. His hands moved faster and faster, and a strange gleam appeared in his eyes.
No one dared step forward to stop him, and their fear and anxiety mounted.
At that moment, Lu Yuanshi emerged from the crowd and slowly walked to Xiao Huai’s side. Bending down, he brought his lips close to Xiao Huai’s ear.
In a voice only Xiao Huai could hear, he softly called his name.
“Xiao Huai.”
Xiao Huai’s pupils contracted. His hands stopped, and he saw a wisp of black mist sneak away from beside his hand.
Ever since the hair began to writhe, an inexplicable agitation had spread through his heart.
Chattering voices had sounded continuously in his ears.
[Bad seeds. We were born bad. We shouldn’t be alive. Burn us, burn us!!]
Why?
Why did they want to be burned to death?
Xiao Huai lowered his gaze and breathed shallowly. When he looked up, he met Lu Yuanshi’s calm, lake-like eyes.
The faint scent unique to Lu Yuanshi slowly curled around his nose as well.
His restless heart was suppressed. Xiao Huai pinched the space between his brows, stood, and left the room.
The moment he stepped outside, he saw a woman standing at the door.
Ji Yelin.
She had not gone in and was merely standing at the entrance.
“You’re out already?” Ji Yelin asked when she saw Xiao Huai.
Xiao Huai glanced at her. “Don’t you want to see it yourself?”
“Me? No, thanks. I don’t particularly like oppressive places.”
“You haven’t gone in. How do you know whether it’s oppressive?” Xiao Huai asked coldly.
Ji Yelin said, “Isn’t it obvious? A woman’s intuition is very accurate. Why don’t we just burn this place down?”
“No,” he answered without hesitation.
Ji Yelin looked up at him. At that moment, several players also emerged from the room.
Only after breathing the fresh air outside did they dare exhale in relief. “Oh my God, that scared me to death! What was with all that hair? It was terrifying.”
“Exactly. And those words about bad seeds. Do you think there’s a monster buried underneath?”
Sun Xingye rubbed his chin and murmured, “Maybe it’s the witches who roamed last night. They could be hiding underground during the day.”
At his words, goose bumps rose over the players’ bodies again. The thought of witches lurking beneath the ground so close to the inn made the situation even more terrifying.
Lu Zhi said, “Then what should we do? In the stories, witches are killed with fire. Should we try it?”
“That’s a good idea.” Many people voiced their agreement. Ji Yelin nodded with a smile. “That’s what I was thinking.”
Rather than worry constantly, it would be better to strike first and eliminate the threat before it could grow.
Most of the group supported burning the place down.
But at that moment, Xiao Huai’s cool voice cut through them like winter frost.
“Does being a witch mean everyone has to hate her?”
His expression was cold and grave, but his eyes were pure and clear, stripped of their former sharpness.
He seemed to be questioning them, yet also asking himself.
Everyone turned to look at him.
Ji Yelin’s smile faded, and she stared at him coldly.
Cheng Shan said, “A-Zhuolang, what are you trying to say? Don’t your people hate witches? Witches are all evil.”
Cheng Shan had originally wanted to repeat every description from Rule One, but after some thought, decided that calling witches evil was simpler.
Xiao Huai merely smiled faintly. “Have you ever met a witch? What gives you the right to say that? Have they ever done anything to harm you? Did one steal the vegetables from your garden, or rob you of your money?”
It would have been easier if Xiao Huai had simply cursed at him. But when Xiao Huai argued, he did so calmly and without anger, which made his words all the more devastating.
“None of you outsiders are good people either.”
Xiao Huai tipped his chin back, a touch of laziness in his smile.
Yet his voice carried a hint of self-mockery.
“Does that mean you all deserve to die here?”
The group fell silent at his words.
They were all players in a horror game. Did that identity alone mean they deserved to be slaughtered?
Xiao Huai’s gaze settled on Ji Yelin at the front of the crowd, and he slowly walked toward her one step at a time.
When he was only eighteen inches away,
he lowered his voice until it was quiet but still clear enough for her to hear.
“Every life has meaning. You know that better than anyone, don’t you?”
Miss Witch.
He did not say those two words aloud.
But Ji Yelin’s pupils contracted. Without saying anything, she turned and walked toward the inn.
Cheng Shan was completely confused. Lu Zhi hurriedly said, “Um… A-Zhuolang means we shouldn’t do anything yet, right?”
Xiao Huai smiled lightly at him. Although he did not give a direct answer, Lu Zhi immediately grew excited.
Lu Zhi suggested, “Why don’t we visit the basement first? Didn’t we discover one earlier?”