Chapter 93

Chapter 93

Rao Lin had never dealt with ghosts before. On top of that, every time his hand touched the female ghost, yin energy seeped into his body, even showing faint signs of frostbite. All he could do was keep dodging.

Forced back step by step, Rao Lin still had the presence of mind to strike up a conversation with Mingzhi. “Ma’am, the moment you arrived, I treated you with courtesy and served you good tea. Surely that doesn’t warrant a massacre, right?”

Black energy swirled around her, and her blood-red eyes stayed locked on him.

Mingzhi had not originally intended to kill. But the moment she looked at Rao Lin, she could not suppress the murderous intent inside her.

She did not know this was a Script, nor did she know this reaction came from the settings the Script had imposed on her.

Only one thought filled her mind: the men of Aotianli deserved to die.

Not to mention, this man was a descendant of the Murderer who had caused her death.

Driven by killing intent, Mingzhi had no desire to waste words with him.

In any case, if she ate this man, she would be able to obtain his memories. Then she would naturally be able to find the man who had inexplicably appeared in her nightmare.

However, before she could attack again, a glowing Golden Net once more dropped over her.

…”Once more.”

History repeated itself again. The difference was that last time, she had attacked Ning Shuo; this time, she was attacking Rao Lin.

Candlelight flared to life. Ning Shuo blew out the fire striker and, despite his deathly pale face, still managed to joke with Rao Lin. “Captain, your combat ability isn’t cutting it. You should step down early and make way for someone better.”

Rao Lin assumed the “someone better” he meant was Ning Shuo himself. Then he saw Ning Shuo point at Ning Wang. “See? Ningning is very impressive.”

Rao Lin: “…Do you really have to praise yourself indirectly like that?!”

Ning Wang frowned. “Captain, my brother only woke up not long ago. Don’t be so harsh.”

“…” Rao Lin said helplessly, “Fine. Then what do we do with her?”

Ning Shuo said, “Perfect timing. We came here to find her.”

Rao Lin: ?

In disbelief, he said, “You mean you didn’t come here specifically to save me? I’m hurt!”

Their captain had been somewhat assimilated by the two of them. Ning Wang gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder and coaxed him, “Think about it, Captain. The fact that we didn’t come here specifically to save you means we never imagined anything would happen to you in the first place. You’re so strong, Captain. Who could have expected you to nearly run into trouble?”

Ning Shuo crouched beside Mingzhi and started chatting with her. “Miss, we overheard a little from outside the window just now. Were you looking for me?”

Off to the side, Rao Lin was still grumbling nonstop. “You were actually crouching outside listening in? And watching me get beaten into such a sorry state?”

Ning Wang leaned against the side. After coaxing him once, he was too lazy to continue. “Captain, there’s no need to announce something as embarrassing as being forced back again and again by a Ghost/Monster so loudly, is there?”

Mingzhi stared at Ning Shuo. “Are you the one who helped me get revenge?”

Although it had only been memories, although it had only been the past.

Those events had, in the end, given her quite a bit of satisfaction.

After her death, she had only killed a few people before she was suppressed in the ancestral hall. Only when someone from the Sun Family in Aotianli was close to twenty years old would the bindings on her loosen.

But those bindings could not be broken. Even if Mingzhi, as a ghost, managed to leave, she could still feel a thread attached to her body, and when the time came, it would yank her back.

There were even restrictions on whom she could kill.

Mingzhi could not understand why. Every time she tried to think about it, it was as if a layer of fog covered up all the clues, leaving only emptiness.

Later, Mingzhi simply stopped thinking about it. Whenever she could get out, she would look for a chance to take revenge.

And now, the thing she could not understand was casually cleared away by someone in a few light words. “Miss Mingzhi, I wonder if you’ve ever seen a strange fragment?”

A fragment.

Time seemed to stop abruptly in that instant. Mingzhi finally remembered that she had once devoured a fragment.

The reason her memories could connect into a continuous line seemed to have started from the moment she devoured that fragment.

It had been during a heavy snowfall in the depths of winter. A son of the Sun Family had a birthday in the twelfth lunar month, and when she sensed the bindings loosen, she walked through the snow toward a lit room.

At that time, she had been acting on instinct alone, driven by that inexplicable killing intent in the depths of her heart to go and kill someone. Who would have thought that when she reached that room, she would just happen to run into a person coughing up blood?

The moment she caught the scent of blood, she instinctively lunged at him. That person seemed to sense something and threw something at her.

The object caught the light midair. Later, before that instance of the Script had reset, whenever Mingzhi recalled this scene, she could easily recognize it as a fragment of a mirror.
The instant the shard touched her forehead, it sank in as silently as an object slipping into water. But in that very moment, Mingzhi’s mind cleared, and her eyes sharpened with sudden understanding.

Her newborn thoughts were still immature, and the flood of memories in her head was a chaotic mess. Mingzhi instinctively wanted to flee any place where there were other people, only to trip over the threshold as she stepped out.

She thought she was about to fall, but someone caught her by the forearm. “Careful.”

The person looked her over twice and said, “So you’re a ghost.”

Mingzhi did not know that when he said “ghost,” he did not mean she was a wandering spirit, but that she herself was the Ghost/Monster in this Script.

She did not recognize this person as the Sun Family’s twenty-year-old son from her “understanding.” After steadying herself, she only felt that his profile looked very much like someone else’s.

Mingzhi turned back on instinct and happened to see that person casually remove the bridal veil and wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. His profile was identical to that of the person who had just helped her.

…It seemed that after touching that shard, she had gained some ability to think.

Before she could react, the person at the door stepped into the room wrapped in wind and snow, then mercilessly shut Mingzhi outside. “My wife is frail and cannot be exposed to the wind. Forgive us for not receiving guests.”

With a bang, the door shut Mingzhi and the blizzard out together.

Not only did those two look the same, even their voices were the same.

Mingzhi could only tell who said what from the context.

The one who closed the door said, “You’re coughing blood again.”

The one coughing blood spoke in a slightly low voice. “It’s nothing. Didn’t you brew medicine for me?”

“Who knows if the medicine here will have any effect?”

“Medicine from anywhere would have no effect. You know how my body ended up ruined like this.”

“We still have to try. You threw the shard to her?”

“A Ghost/Monster came. I threw the shard out to protect myself. I imagine that person won’t be able to find fault with me for that.”

Then Mingzhi left.

She did not understand what they were saying, so she believed there was no need to keep listening.

Only, after that day, Mingzhi never saw them again.

They were like people in the role of Traveler who had wandered into the snowstorm and found a place to rest their feet, casually tossing her something they claimed was for self-defense yet helped her tremendously, and then vanishing into the depths of winter.

After that, the Script reset, and Mingzhi did not even remember them, nor did she remember that there was a shard on her body gifted to her by someone else.

That shard had allowed her to begin thinking, but she still could not figure out what was strange about this world.

Until now, after being reminded, Mingzhi, who had muddled through countless Script resets in a daze, remembered that shard and the person who had gifted her thought. The latter asked with a smile, “Miss Mingzhi, I wonder if you’ve ever seen a strange shard.”

Mingzhi said she had, but she could not give it to them.

That person continued to ask why.

Because it was only thanks to that shard that she had thoughts. Leaving aside whether she would lose control of her power and go on a killing spree if she lost it, just the thought that she might become a mindless monster that knew only slaughter was enough to chill her heart.

But the thing did belong to them. After a moment of silence, Mingzhi pried a shard from the ornament on her bridal gown, one she had removed and embedded there back when she still had memories. “I need to go out first. Then I’ll give you the shard through the window.”

“After I give it to you, remember to run quickly. I might lose control of myself.”

Strictly speaking, a slaughter-type NPC would probably have all consciousness erased and become a simple horror element in the Script, chasing after the Player and killing them.

Ning Shuo raised an eyebrow. “You mean this shard gave you consciousness, and if it leaves you, your consciousness will disappear?”

Mingzhi nodded. Ning Wang asked oddly, “Have you tested it?”

How could she dare test it? What if the shard broke after she tried? Then she would not be able to stand here and speak to them properly now.

Seeing her unease, Ning Shuo smiled. “Then go. Don’t worry, we won’t die.”

Mingzhi, who was sitting on the floor, had originally wanted to say that there was no way they would not die, since she had devoured the power of quite a few girls. Then she saw the Golden Net on her body.

Mingzhi: “…Oh. Okay.”

Ning Wang withdrew the Golden Net and watched Mingzhi leave, teasing, “Why does she look more like the Player, while we’re the ones playing the scary NPC role in the Script?”