Shen Yi followed Yan Pan and the man in the suit out the door. The rest of the group watched them leave, and the village woman turned around as well.
“You know what to do now, right?” the woman said. “If you know, then get going; time waits for no one.”
“Understood.”
As the three left, the man in the suit even smiled and waved goodbye to the other sinners waiting in front of the house.
Wen Mo didn’t care about the others. Seeing Shen Yi leave, he jumped onto the outer wall of the house and followed close behind.
The rain was still falling.
The three turned right out of the gate and walked straight ahead, completely unaware that an invisible Night Watchman was tailing them along the walls.
“Shen Yi,” the suit-man asked suddenly as they walked, “where did the clothes you’re wearing come from?”
Shen Yi let out a questioning “Hmm?” and looked up, meeting the suit-man’s enigmatic smile. He clearly wasn’t up to any good.
Shen Yi returned the smile and asked back, “Why do you ask?”
“Curiosity,” the suit-man said. “You came in yesterday wearing a short-sleeved shirt and had no other clothes. You were carrying a bag, but later that bag had a massive hole in it and everything was gone.”
“The only survivor seems to be that bottle of water.” The suit-man’s gaze fell on the bottle of water tucked into Shen Yi’s pants pocket.
Shen Yi was wearing loose-fitting pants yesterday with large pockets.
“That bottle of water was in the inner pocket of your bag yesterday, so it survived. You’re a strange one; you didn’t put your student ID or cards in the inner pocket, but you put a bottle of water in there,” the suit-man remarked.
Shen Yi gave a forced laugh: “It’s none of your business what I put in my inner pocket. I was just out for the weekend; I wasn’t carrying any handouts or textbooks. What’s wrong with tossing my cards into the bag? Does that bother you too?”
“That’s not what I meant.” The suit-man smiled. “I just thought, you flipped through your whole bag yesterday and even pulled out the lining; we all saw what was inside.”
“So, I know that this jacket wasn’t in your bag. You must have obtained it last night.” The suit-man continued, “So, Shen Yi, these clothes…”
“I went into someone’s house and took them. I was cold is that not allowed? This damn place doesn’t let us use umbrellas,” Shen Yi said. “Why do you love investigating me so much? Just because I’m wearing an extra piece of clothing, you start acting like Conan this isn’t right, that isn’t right.”
The suit-man laughed heartily: “I was just asking. Why are you so defensive?”
“Alright, stop acting out this power struggle drama, you two.” Just as Shen Yi was about to speak again, Yan Pan interrupted him. She tilted her head toward them, “I think we found it. This must be the Earth Bodhisattva.”
Shen Yi stopped and followed her gaze to the side of the road, where he saw a pile of stones arranged like a shrine. Beneath the eaves of the shrine sat a stone statue about the size of a palm, resembling a little monk.
Having endured years of wind and rain, both the shrine and the little monk were covered in moss and mud. In front of the little monk was a dilapidated incense burner filled with rainwater. By the looks of it, no one had come to worship this little stone Bodhisattva in a long time.
Following the old woman’s instructions, the three turned right at this spot.
It was raining, and the road was muddy. They walked for a few more minutes, and the houses on both sides of the road gradually became sparse. Finally, a field of pitch-black ruins appeared in their sight.
They approached. Within the ruins were scorched remains and broken walls clearly the aftermath of a fire.
“This should be the ruined temple,” Yan Pan said. “Didn’t the old village chief say yesterday? The temple burned down, so it’s ended up in this state.”
“They didn’t rebuild it…?” The suit-man felt a headache coming on. “It’s just a pile of rubble. Where are we supposed to find a sedan chair?”
Yan Pan guessed: “Buried underneath? Do they want us to dig it out?”
“Really? Is it going to be that much trouble?” The suit-man walked toward the ruins.
Yan Pan followed: “The old woman said it was at the temple, right?”
The suit-man sighed, looking troubled and burdened. “There’s really no other way.”
“Let’s just look quickly. The sooner we find it, the sooner we go back.”
A choking smell suddenly hit them, as if the fire were still burning. The suit-man coughed and instinctively waved his hand in front of his face. He suddenly felt something and looked back, seeing Shen Yi standing far away, motionless, staring at the site with a deep frown.
“Shen Yi!” the suit-man shouted. “What are you dazing off for? Hurry up and get over here!”
Shen Yi snapped back to reality and gave a vague response but didn’t move immediately. He looked at the black ash with a complex expression for a while longer before hesitantly taking a step forward.
Seeing him like this, the suit-man whispered, “With a reaction that big, he’s definitely a local resident of Hell.”
Yan Pan gave a chuckle: “You never know.”
Wen Mo had found an old tree nearby and was standing on a branch. He watched Shen Yi hesitantly walk over, step by step, his face looking none too pleasant.
He wouldn’t be remembering something, would he? Wen Mo thought. Shen Yi’s expression was solemn; he truly looked the part. Wen Mo’s expression grew even more unsettled.
[Brother Yi!] [Brother Yi! Have you gone mad!?] [You’re going to be the death of your own mother!!] [I can’t control you anymore; you just have to go against me!?]
The flames roared.
Shen Yi rubbed his head. This ruined temple had clearly burned to the ground long ago, and his vision was clear he could see plainly that it was a pile of ruins. Yet, in his ears, there was still the sound of a great fire burning. Even the sound of roof beams snapping and debris falling from the ceiling echoed in his mind.
The cold rain of the Hell of Tongue-Ripping was still falling, and it had always been cold, but Shen Yi suddenly felt burning hot all over, as if he were being scorched by fire in waves of pain.
He walked to the ruins, took off the jacket, and rubbed his body. The burning pain still came in waves. In his ears, a woman’s voice was screaming heart-wrenchingly, making Shen Yi’s heart throb with a tight, suffocating discomfort.
Shen Yi remembered this voice; he had heard it in his dreams. This was the “Mom” from his dream.
[What is wrong with you, huh!? Brother Yi, you’ve been so sensible and obedient since you were little; why are you acting like a madman now!]
[You just have to be like this… you just have to!] she screamed, followed by the crash of several bowls and plates being shattered. She roared at him in uncontrollable rage, [I see they were right! You bastard are possessed!!]
[Exorcism!] she said. [I’m going to find Granny Wang right now; we’re going to exorcise you!!]
[I—]
Suddenly, a hand reached out in front of him, less than ten centimeters from his eyes, and snapped a finger with a pop.
Shen Yi flinched in surprise. He looked up; the man in the suit was standing before him.
“Earth to Ghost Brother.” The suit-man retracted his hand. “I’ve called you several times; why didn’t you react at all? What are you thinking about?”
The woman’s voice abruptly vanished from his ears, and the sound of the fire disappeared along with it.
Shen Yi came back to his senses and let go of his arm; the burning pain that felt as if a piece of flesh was being scorched away was also gone. After a moment of daze, Shen Yi looked up and smiled at the suit-man: “I was just spacing out.”
“Don’t space out; we still have to find the bridal sedan.” Yan Pan stood in the middle of the ruins with her hands on her hips. “Find it quickly so we can go back. Once we hand this over, I don’t know if there will be another task.”
“If there aren’t any tasks, we can go investigate who exactly it was in this village who committed suicide by jumping into the river back then.”
“True. That matter seems to have a huge connection to the ‘Ghost Groom’.” The suit-man turned around. “You probably aren’t clear on this yet, Shen Yi, but the nursery rhymes in the broadcasts aren’t just sung for fun; they are the most important clues for clearing this level. We need to find out exactly who the Ghost Groom in that rhyme is, and then see what ‘evil’ he committed.”
Only then did Shen Yi remember that the rule for clearing the game was to end the evil within Hell. He rubbed his head and nodded: “Okay.”
“Find the sedan chair,” the suit-man said. “Let’s go.”
The three of them entered the ruins and searched back and forth for a while. But soon, the suit-man discovered things weren’t that simple.
“This isn’t right; the things underneath are all brittle.” He kicked a piece of wood aside and saw a long beam beneath it. The moment he applied force, the thing snapped with a crack in his hands.
The suit-man clicked his tongue and straightened up: “It can’t be underneath; it’s all as brittle as crackers down here.”
“It looks that way.” Yan Pan was puzzled. “Then where exactly is the bridal sedan? This place should be the ‘ruined temple’.”
“There couldn’t be two temples in this village, could there?”
“How is that possible…”
Shen Yi reached into the rubble and grabbed something. He pulled hard, and there was a crack from below. He, too, had broken something. The things underneath were indeed brittle.
Shen Yi let out a sigh, felt around, grabbed the upper half of what he had broken, and pulled it up.
It was a severed hand, scorched to the point where the five fingers were twisted and bent in an unnaturally struggling manner.
Shen Yi: “…”
He fell silent. He was holding the forearm of this hand. The entire arm had been burned pitch-black, scorched down to skin and bone with barely any flesh, looking no different from the eerie ghostly hands in Wen Mo’s Hunting Ground.
There was something around the wrist. Shen Yi’s gaze was drawn to it. He reached out and touched the object it was a hand-rope. He pinched the rope and gave it a rub. The black ash fell away, revealing a bright crimson color underneath.
This mere red string hadn’t been burned away! It was completely intact!? It was too unscientific.
Shen Yi thought this, then felt that he was a bit mentally troubled for trying to find science in a place like this, so he didn’t pay it much more mind. He crouched down, placed the severed hand on the ground, and untied the red string. He rubbed all the black ash off it.
The red string revealed its true appearance. It was a very plain red cord, without any decorations, just several red strings braided together into a wrist-rope.
Shen Yi inexplicably felt this wrist-rope looked a bit familiar. Where had he seen it not that it was strange; such plain wrist-ropes were sold everywhere.
Suddenly, a massive shadow was cast behind him.
Without any warning, the newcomer hadn’t approached bit by bit. He appeared suddenly, standing behind Shen Yi in an instant.
Unfortunately, Shen Yi was so absorbed in examining the red string that he didn’t notice anything was wrong at all. He thought it was the suit-man coming over and muttered to himself: “You’re just in time. Look, I…”
He turned around as he spoke. The moment he turned his head, his throat immediately went mute.
The Ghost Groom, dressed in a red wedding robe and holding a blood-red oil-paper umbrella, was standing right behind him.