Chapter 74

Chapter 74

As the flash of lightning vanished, Granny Liu’s face returned to a mass of dark shadows.

Jiang Li felt goosebumps erupt across her skin.

She instinctively took a half-step back, staring at Granny Liu with wary eyes.

“What’s wrong, child? Are you… afraid of Granny?”

Granny Liu’s voice dropped an octave, her tone tinged with a faint, underlying sadness.

She pressed forward two steps, cornering Jiang Li against the wall.

“Granny Liu wouldn’t hurt you. Listen to Granny and go inside, okay?

Good children always listen to Granny.”

Granny Liu reined in her emotions, her voice becoming coaxing and persuasive.

She pushed open the Red Door at the end of the hallway and gestured with her eyes for Jiang Li to go inside obediently.

Jiang Li stole a glance into the room.

The darkness within seemed ready to swallow her whole.

“Xiao Li! Don’t believe her!! Whatever you do, don’t go in! Come here, quick!”

A young boy’s voice rang out.

Jiang Li followed the sound.

A Little Boy was standing about eight or nine meters behind Granny Liu, his face filled with righteous indignation.

Granny Liu turned around and saw him as well.

The moment she laid eyes on the boy, she seemed to be triggered by something.

Her tone abruptly shifted, becoming frantic and violent:

“Xiao Li, don’t go over there! He’s a bad child! Quick, get into the room!! Now!”

At that same moment, Jiang Li seized the opportunity while Granny Liu was distracted. She bolted from the corner, escaping Granny Liu’s encirclement.

She now stood between the two of them, looking left and right, not daring to make a reckless move.

“Xiao Li, come here! Give me your hand, I’ll protect you!” the Little Boy said, his voice laced with concern as he reached out a small hand toward her.

“Don’t go! Good child, come to Granny!! Granny won’t hurt you!” Granny Liu also reached out an aged, withered hand toward Jiang Li.

Jiang Li hesitated for half a second before moving toward the Little Boy.

*CRACK-BOOM!*

Another bolt of lightning tore through the sky.

The light flared.

Jiang Li’s pupils contracted violently, and her footsteps toward the boy faltered.

Wait a minute!

Behind him… there were no footprints.

By the light of the lightning, Jiang Li had seen the Little Boy’s figure clearly.

He was standing by the third door from the end, wearing a raincoat. He must have just come in from outside.

Mud clung to his black cloth shoes.

Rainwater trickled down the surface of his shoes, and filthy water pooled on the floor around him.

But the most Aberration thing was that there were absolutely no “wet footprints” trailing behind him.

Jiang Li recalled what had happened after she reached the upper floor.

After arriving on the Third Floor, she hadn’t heard the “creak-creak” of the wooden stairs.

That meant that since Jiang Li had come up, no one else had climbed those stairs.

So… he had appeared here out of thin air!

Jiang Li stared at the Little Boy suspiciously, halting her approach as a chill ran down her spine.

Outside, thunder rolled and lightning flashed amidst the howling wind and rain.

This Aberration weather was clearly as cold as winter, yet it was a summer thunderstorm.

And the situation inside was even more of an Aberration.

To her left was an old woman who had long since passed away.

To her right was a Little Boy in a raincoat who had appeared out of nowhere.

Who should she trust?

The rain outside was torrential.

Raindrops hammered against the glass windows in a chaotic, pitter-patter rhythm.

Granny Liu: “Come here, good child. Come to Granny.”

Little Boy: “Xiao Li, she’s going to kill you! Come here, I’ll protect you!”

Jiang Li’s mind was in a state of total confusion.

Both sides… were problematic!

Jiang Li looked up. In this pitch-black corridor, there was only one door at the very end.

Everywhere else was nothing but wooden walls.

There was nowhere to hide!

Jiang Li’s index finger twitched unconsciously.
…Wait.

Jiang Li looked up sharply.

A strange detail flashed through her mind-

The door!

When the lightning struck, the Little Boy had clearly been standing in front of the “third door”…

But now, the door next to him was gone!

The difference was… the lightning.

Or rather, the light.

Jiang Li’s brow furrowed.

She immediately pulled a flashlight from her Space, clicked it on, and shone it against the wall.

On the wooden wall where nothing had been visible in the darkness, an old door suddenly appeared.

This old door, the one closest to Jiang Li, was the “second door” counting from left to right along the corridor.

The door wasn’t locked; it was left slightly ajar.

Candlelight flickered inside.

The light and shadows on the floor revealed several children huddled together, shivering with fear.

At that moment, the expressions of the Aberrations on either side of Jiang Li shifted!

They both bared their fangs, their faces turning green and their eyes bulging as they lunged at her-

There was no time to think.

Jiang Li shoved the door open and leaped inside.

The second she crossed the threshold, she clicked off the flashlight, spun around, and bolted the door!

The Aberrations outside tried to enter but couldn’t catch her in time.

The moment the flashlight went out, the spot where the door had been reverted back into a wooden wall.

The door had vanished.

Having locked the door, Jiang Li stood there, her heart still racing.

There was no such thing as a guaranteed death trap.

Since both figures outside were Aberrations, this room had to be safe!

In that narrow corridor, there couldn’t possibly be a fourth option.

Before Jiang Li could catch her breath, she was startled by a chorus of screams from within the room.

A group of children stared at her, shouting as they retreated into a corner.

The Caregiver standing at the front held a dim candle.

She stared at the six-year-old girl who had burst into the room, her gaze wary.

Shielding the children behind her, she looked at Jiang Li.

“Xiao… Xiao Li? Are you… human or a ghost?”

From the Caregiver’s perspective, the six-year-old girl who had just broken in had wet hair clumped into strands that hid most of her face.

Her body was covered in black mud.

It looked as if she had just crawled out of the earth.

Especially the small padded jacket draped over her shoulders.

The style and pattern were those of a small burial shroud the Caregiver had picked out herself.

The Caregiver had even hand-sewn the cotton into that thin shroud.

“Aunt Xiaoyu, I saw Sister Lili being buried in a pit with my own eyes from the balcony just now!”

A chubby little girl glared at Jiang Li, hiding behind Aunt Xiaoyu.

Water dripped from the tips of Jiang Li’s hair.

She raised her hand and brushed aside the hair covering her eyes.

Aunt Xiaoyu swallowed hard. Remembering that Lili was a little mute, she asked:

“Xiao Li, if you’re human, nod. If you’re not, shake your head.”

Jiang Li looked at them and nodded.

Then, Aunt Xiaoyu pulled out a half-length mirror and placed it in front of her.

The angle was positioned to reflect Jiang Li perfectly.

“Then, tell me… how many people are in the mirror?” Aunt Xiaoyu asked.

Jiang Li looked into the mirror.

In the reflection, Jiang Li could see herself as a six-year-old girl.

But behind her, where the wooden door should have been, there was nothing but empty space.

Granny Liu, dressed in her floral jacket, and the Little Boy in his raincoat were standing right behind her, grinning sinisterly.

Jiang Li quickly moved away from the door.

She stepped to the side.

It was this very movement that allowed Jiang Li to see the rules posted on the wall through the mirror’s reflection.