Chapter 324
Chapter 324
The two of them cried for a long time.
Only after they had been crying for quite a while did Yellow Hair come back to his senses. Looking at the saliva gradually receding, he reached out and poked Lin Junruo. “It’s daylight.”
“Wah, what?” Lin Junruo was still crying when she abruptly paused. She lowered her gaze to the sinking saliva, delight appearing in her eyes. “We survived!”
“We did!” Yellow Hair was deeply moved as well.
They were both so excited that they looked at each other and embraced.
Two stools stood on the round table, and the pair huddled atop them, holding each other tightly.
If one ignored their current predicament, the scene might even have been rather beautiful. Once their location was taken into account, however, there was not a trace of beauty to be found. Other than being funny, it had nothing going for it at all.
After her excitement faded, Lin Junruo realized she was holding Yellow Hair, and a hint of awkwardness appeared on her face. She pushed him gently. “Um, we should hurry and find Jian Fan and the others.”
The push made Yellow Hair realize how inappropriate their position was. He quickly let go of Lin Junruo and tried to move farther away so she would not misunderstand.
Feeling nervous, Yellow Hair momentarily forgot his circumstances. He hurriedly stepped backward, and then…
“Holy shit!” Yellow Hair suddenly screamed. His entire body toppled backward before landing on the floor with a thud, limbs splayed in the air.
Yellow Hair fell silent.
Joy had turned to sorrow.
He was utterly despondent.
Seeing Yellow Hair like this, Lin Junruo was struck silent as well.
Yellow Hair quickly recovered. As though nothing had happened, he climbed up from the floor, helped Lin Junruo down from the table, and then the two of them pushed open the door.
It was fine. Nothing happened.
Before them stood the familiar entrance to town.
The moment they stepped outside, everything around them shifted in myriad ways.
Qin Nan and the others had long since returned to the entrance.
There were still ten bells. Certain that Yellow Hair and Lin Junruo were alive, the group waited at the town gate. Fortunately, the pair appeared before long.
“Are you two all right?” Qin Nan asked when Yellow Hair and Lin Junruo suddenly appeared.
At the sound of that familiar voice, Yellow Hair was so moved that tears nearly burst from his eyes, though he managed to hold them back in the end.
“Surviving was really rough,” Yellow Hair said.
Seeing that they were unharmed, Qin Nan relaxed. At Yellow Hair’s aggrieved expression, he even let out a laugh.
Qin Weiyi smiled too. “What happened to you back there? How did you suddenly disappear?”
At the mention of it, Yellow Hair wiped away another bitter tear, while Lin Junruo spoke with some embarrassment. “Um, Yellow Hair was trying to save me.”
“Talk while we work,” Jian Fan said suddenly.
Yellow Hair was startled. “Work on what?”
“Set the scholar tree grove on fire,” Jian Fan answered.
Before leaving, Jian Fan had already asked Lu Jing to swipe a flint. Now Lu Jing deftly started a fire.
Afraid that leaving the bridge would trigger the Death Setting, Lu Jing did not move forward. Instead, he found some wood nearby, lit it, and tossed it ahead into the scholar tree grove.
Worried that the flames would spread too slowly, Lu Jing threw several more pieces in quick succession.
Before long, the scholar tree grove began to burn.
While Lu Jing was busy, Lin Junruo recounted her and Yellow Hair’s miserable experience from beginning to end.
At the time, Miss Xie and the Groom had entered the main hall, and the entire group had gathered there to watch the excitement.
Naturally, Lin Junruo went with them.
Before she reached the main hall, however, she suddenly felt someone tugging at her clothes.
She turned and saw Shi Chen. Puzzled, she asked, “What is it?”
Shi Chen did not answer. He simply grabbed her and dragged her toward the back. Lin Junruo sensed that something was wrong and opened her mouth to shout, but Shi Chen seemed to notice and immediately clamped a hand over her mouth.
Unable to resist him at all, Lin Junruo was dragged away.
Yellow Hair had been the closest person to her at the time.
When he noticed something wrong with Lin Junruo, he immediately chased after them.
Of course, Yellow Hair was not the sort of person who liked playing the hero and fighting alone. He had actually called out to Jian Fan.
But–
“None of you seemed able to hear me,” Yellow Hair said aggrievedly.
Worse still, when Yellow Hair tried to reach out and grab someone, the NPCs suddenly crowded around him. Seeing Lin Junruo being dragged farther and farther away, he gave up on calling for help and followed her on his own first.
Shi Chen dragged Lin Junruo toward the rear courtyard.
His expression was blank, and even his movements were somewhat stiff.
Following behind, Yellow Hair saw his condition and thought of what had happened to Fang Kang, as well as the string with only ten bells left. A thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
Shi Chen was dead!
In that critical moment, Yellow Hair did not hesitate. He immediately exchanged Points for a whip in the Points Mall.
He did not really know how to wield a whip, and he was afraid of hitting Lin Junruo. After obtaining it, Yellow Hair charged straight at Shi Chen and pressed the whip firmly against him.
These items could harm ghosts. There was no need to lash one with it; mere contact should have an effect as well.
Shi Chen was caught off guard by Yellow Hair’s attack.
As soon as the whip touched Shi Chen, flames sprang up. Before long, they had swallowed him whole.
Lin Junruo regained her freedom, while Yellow Hair’s strength gave out and he collapsed to the ground.
They had made it through with a scare but no real harm.
“After dealing with Shi Chen, we tried to go back and find you, but by the time we returned, you were already gone. We figured you must have gone searching for clues, so we went looking, but we couldn’t find you anywhere. In the end, time was almost up, so we had no choice but to find a room and hide first,” Yellow Hair said, full of bitterness.
After hearing Yellow Hair and Lin Junruo’s account, Qin Weiyi was somewhat puzzled.
“It isn’t strange that Shi Chen died. Thinking back, his shoes were damaged. That may have happened when the saliva spread into the room that night. Contact with the saliva should have killed him. Perhaps he only touched a little of it, so his death was delayed. But Shi Chen was the Groom. He should have been performing the wedding bows at the time. How could he have remained beside us and attacked Lin Junruo then?” Qin Weiyi wondered.
“Then was that not Shi Chen?” Yellow Hair asked, confused.
Jian Fan shook his head. “It was Shi Chen.”
Qin Weiyi looked at Jian Fan. “How do you figure?”
“The Groom performing the wedding bows seemed more like a puppet,” Jian Fan said.
Qin Weiyi raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. He understood.
Qin Nan understood as well. “In other words, Shi Chen died after coming into contact with the saliva. He became a ghost and was naturally eliminated. After turning into a ghost, Shi Chen remained beside us, obeying someone else’s orders and attacking Lin Junruo. Meanwhile, the Groom getting married wasn’t actually Shi Chen himself… or his ghost. The Groom was something like a model puppet that merely changed to match whoever had died?”
Jian Fan gave a hum of agreement.
The Groom performing the wedding bows had always been a puppet. It would change its appearance to match the name of that night’s Groom.