Auntie Xu's tone was insistent, laced with a tangible thread of malice.
Qi Si lowered his gaze, feigning ignorance. "Auntie Xu, you can just clear the dishes. Don't worry about me. I'll just finish this bun."
"No food is allowed in the rooms," Auntie Xu mumbled, walking over to Qi Si with the bucket. "Leftovers and everything have to be collected, or they'll attract rats."
"I'll finish it." Qi Si's words were slightly muffled by the bun in his mouth, which paradoxically made his voice sound all the more sincere. "It's just a little bit. How could there be any left? Auntie Xu, I was wondering if you could leave me one more for a midnight snack?"
Auntie Xu remained silent, her refusal starkly clear.
Qi Si swallowed the bun in his hand with a look of disappointment, then slowly ate the outer skin. Finally, under Auntie Xu's watchful gaze, he placed a small piece he had hidden in his pocket into the wooden bucket.
No matter how slow on the uptake the other players were, this entire exchange made it obvious that something was wrong with the food.
Du Xiaoyu had eaten the most at dinner. His normally dark complexion was now several shades paler, a sickly, sallow yellow.
The moment Auntie Xu was gone, he asked urgently, "Qi, was there something wrong with dinner?"
Qi Si let out a stifled laugh. "It won't kill you. Think of it as a clue."
Du Xiaoyu breathed a sigh of relief and pricked up his ears, waiting for more. Instead, he watched as the young man pulled a handkerchief from his pack, leisurely wiped the bun crumbs from the corner of his mouth, then flipped it over to clean the grease from his hands.
His heart leaped into his throat again. After a tense half-minute, Qi Si finally picked up his phone and opened the photo gallery.
Du Xiaoyu saw a new photo in the album—a close-up of the bell at Auntie Xu's waist.
"Qi, is this..."
"Took it just now," Qi Si said. He expertly opened the browser, selected the image, and ran a search.
This time, the result wasn't a terrifying ghost bride, but a dictionary entry.
[Soul-Calling Bell: Draws the living soul from its vessel, brings the dead ghost back to the world. Where yin and yang have no boundary, the bell's chime returns all to the primordial.]
Shang Qingbei leaned over. "So specific objects can also yield useful results, not just photos from Xu Wen. But what does all this mystical jargon mean?"
"I'm not sure about the specifics of this instance, but I once read about something similar in a book."
Li Yao pondered for a moment before recounting a story:
"A scholar named Wang dedicated his life to passing the imperial examinations. He stayed in the capital for eighteen years and finally achieved his goal. When he returned home, however, he learned that his wife had passed away six months prior. He was consumed by grief and regret. A wandering Taoist priest took pity on him and gave him a bell."
"Wang wore the bell on his person. The moment it chimed, he saw his wife resurrected, her voice and smile exactly as they were in life. She swept the courtyard, cooked meals, and prepared tea, just as gentle and capable as he remembered. At first, he suspected she was a ghost, but after spending time with her, he noticed she had breath and a heartbeat—she seemed completely alive—and his doubts vanished."
"He brought his wife to the capital. They never had children, but he never took another concubine. They lived lovingly for seven more years before passing away together, their story becoming a celebrated romance."
Shang Qingbei set aside the dictionary he was holding and stroked his chin, analyzing the tale. "So, the wife was a ghost, but the Soul-Calling Bell made her appear alive. From this, we can deduce that Auntie Xu is also a ghost."
"The food wasn't meant for the living. We just didn't notice anything wrong because Auntie Xu had the Soul-Calling Bell on her. She had to take the leftovers away to prevent the illusion from breaking once they were out of the bell's range."
Du Xiaoyu gasped. "So, should we still eat it?"
"Of course. If we don't, we'll starve. And it won't kill us—that scholar Wang ate it for seven years and was fine. Can't you think for yourself?"
Shang Qingbei picked up his dictionary again, flipped to the first page, and began reading aloud from "abandon," all but writing 'I'm allergic to idiots' on his face.
"Fine, fine! I'll take some more pictures and see if there are any other clues. Happy now?" Du Xiaoyu huffed, taking the phone from Qi Si and starting to snap photos in every direction.
The others also split up, searching every corner of the room, from the mattresses to the pillowcases, with meticulous care.
With his back to the light, Qi Si unfolded a corner of the handkerchief he'd used to wipe his mouth.
The pristine white cloth was dotted with tiny, distinct specks of blood, as if someone had pricked their skin with a needle and pressed it against the fabric.
Outside, the sky was darkening. The red silk ribbons and paper window decorations blended into a single mass, like an ocean of blood.
Qi Si casually folded the handkerchief, tucked it into his other pocket, and rose to his feet. He walked to the window and looked toward the west wing.
The bride, called "Xi'er," was sitting by her window. She was grabbing handfuls of meat and vegetables, shoving them into her mouth like a wild animal, clearly not in her right mind.
A mentally unstable orphan, "luckily" chosen for a grand wedding to please the Joy God...
Qi Si believed that people were fundamentally self-serving. Whatever fate had befallen a girl like this, it couldn't possibly be good.
He watched for a moment longer before lowering his gaze to inspect the windowsill.
The windowsill had a peculiar design, with a section of the wooden frame jutting out into a sharp corner. Anyone who bumped into it would almost certainly draw blood.
Qi Si noticed dark brown, clotted stains on the yellowed wood.
He slid a blade from his bracelet and scraped off a small sample. Holding it up to his eyes for a closer look, he remarked, "There's blood here. Looks like someone died in this room."
"What's going on?" Liu Bingding sidled over. "We're sleeping here... nothing's going to happen tonight, right?"
"Something will definitely happen," Li Yao said, her tone rather grim. "I found a notebook. The story inside is eerily similar to our own situation..."
She placed a wrinkled sheet of rice paper on the table.
On it was a strange tale, written in traditional characters:
[The story tells of a man named Zhang, a farmer from the county. He had two sisters, both of whom were renowned for their beauty. During a famine, their meager fortune was exhausted, and they became wanderers. The sisters were lost along the way, and Zhang's search eventually led him to Double Happiness Town.]
[The town was filled with paper soldiers and horses, and the sky remained overcast all day. Zhang was plagued by nightmares, growing gaunt and frail, and he became confused about why he had even come... One day, he lost his footing and fell into a well, where he discovered a skeleton. He was struck by a profound sadness...]
The story was incomplete, and crucial parts were frustratingly vague, but the general gist was clear.
Zhang came to Double Happiness Town looking for his lost sisters but slowly lost himself in the process, and to top it all off, he had the bad luck to fall into a well and find a body.
The parallels to the players' own situation were undeniable. They were also looking for someone, and the person they sought was also quite attractive.
The "paper soldiers and horses" and "nightmares" mentioned in the tale were likely to appear later in the instance.
Shang Qingbei chewed on the end of his pen. "It seems we need to be careful while we're searching. We can't forget our own purpose or where we came from. And we should probably stay away from any wells."
"A body in a well could be an important clue," Qi Si added dryly. "But judging from this story, we do need to gather information quickly and get Xu Wen out of here, before we end up lost like Zhang."
Liu Bingding seized the opportunity to hand a compact mirror to Qi Si. "Qi, I found this under a pillow just now. Could it be useful?"
After the incident with the phone, he was desperate to clear his name, practically willing to dump everything he found at Qi Si's feet.
Qi Si saw right through him. He took the mirror and examined it noncommittally. Li Yao commented, "That's a newer model with an LED light. It doesn't seem to belong in Double Happiness Town. Xu Wen must have left it behind."
"An important clue, then. Even if it isn't, it'll work as a light source," Shang Qingbei analyzed calmly.
Qi Si nodded and offered the mirror back to Liu Bingding. "You found it. You keep it."
"I... I don't know," Liu Bingding hesitated, reluctant to take it. He knew that important clues in these instances were often tied to danger.
Shang Qingbei chimed in. "Liu Bingding is still under suspicion. It's better if you keep it, Qi Si. It's best left in capable hands. We'd all feel safer that way."
"Alright, I'll hold onto it for now," Qi Si said with a relaxed smile. He turned and placed the mirror on his bed. "It's getting late. We can continue searching tomorrow. Let's all get some rest."
Night had fallen. The wing had no lamps or candles, making further exploration impractical.
The players got into their beds one by one. Du Xiaoyu placed the phone under his pillow, pulled the covers over his head, and fell asleep.
Qi Si took the middle bed, with Du Xiaoyu and Liu Bingding on either side.
Li Yao slept against the wall, while Shang Qingbei was next to Du Xiaoyu, leaving one bed empty.
Since none of the players knew each other well and were all keenly aware that sleepless nights meant danger, there was no idle chatter. Everyone wrapped themselves in their quilts and tried to will sleep to come.
In the silence, broken only by the sound of breathing, Qi Si toyed with the compact mirror, studying his own face.
Although he had painted his face into a mess in the game lobby, for some reason, the face reflected in the mirror was his own. Except for the eerie, faint red glow in his eyes, he looked identical to the photograph in the newspaper.
No wonder Du Xiaoyu had recognized him at a glance.
Qi Si stroked his chin. The rough skin and stubble under his fingertips felt distinct, a world away from the smooth-skinned face in the mirror.
He was more or less certain now. In this role-playing instance, his appearance had been altered. To the NPCs, he must look completely different.
Yet for some reason, the players could still see each other's original forms...
A rather philosophical question suddenly occurred to Qi Si:
Given that NPCs and players see different versions of the players, which image is the real one?
If the image the players saw was real, then their roles as "folklore investigators" and friends of Xu Wen wouldn't hold up.
But if the image the NPCs saw was real, why would the Weird Game go to the trouble of distorting the players' perception?
Lost in these boundless thoughts, he watched as the sky darkened inch by inch, until it was a single, impenetrable sheet of pitch-black.
The soft, rhythmic breathing of the other players rose and fell, gradually evening out.
They were drifting into dreams.
...
In the dead of night, Shang Qingbei tossed and turned, his sleep fitful.
His dreams were a chaotic mess—one moment he was being chased by a grotesque monster, the next he was sitting in an exam hall, unable to answer a single question.
Awful memories churned in his mind. He woke with a start from the hazy dreamscape, his ears immediately assaulted by thunderous snoring.
In the dim, hazy light, he saw Du Xiaoyu lying beside him, mouth agape, snoring away with a pool of drool on his pillow.
Shang Qingbei prided himself on being a clever person, one who could seize the initiative and profit from the Weird Game. He despised fools like Du Xiaoyu, who drifted through life with no plan for the future.
He mentally categorized his temporary teammates as a "motley crew" before turning over with a twitching corner of his lip. Out of sight, out of mind.
But there was someone else sleeping on his other side, their eyes wide open, facing him, seemingly staring right at him.
His brain froze for a second, then rebooted. He was instantly wide awake.
Holding his breath, he got a clear look at the person before him.
It was a bride in a red wedding dress. Her features were youthful, but her face was caked in a thick layer of powder, making it terrifyingly white.
Shang Qingbei almost screamed.
But the bride simply raised a finger to her lips. "Xi'er is scared... Xi'er is hiding..."
Xi'er? The mentally unstable orphan who was about to be married off?
She was running around during dinner, giving him a fright then, and now she was at it again, even coming into their room. Couldn't anyone keep her under control?
Shang Qingbei complained internally, but since he was a guest in their house, he couldn't say much.
He shifted his position, rolling onto his back, and was about to close his eyes again to conserve his energy.
Suddenly, a beam of light shot out from his side, illuminating Xi'er and dazzling his eyes.
His peripheral vision followed the light and caught sight of the ghastly, dark-green hands peeking out from beneath the red wedding dress.
The long, sharp fingernails were jet-black, exactly like those of a legendary hopping vampire.
—Xi'er is a monster!
The conclusion detonated in the back of his mind, instantly obliterating the composure he had fought so hard to maintain.
Shang Qingbei felt his entire body go rigid. He couldn't move, only able to shift his gaze instinctively.
He saw that Qi Si had, at some point, sat up in bed. He was holding the compact mirror, its LED light turned on, using it as a makeshift flashlight.
That explained the source of the light. Shang Qingbei forgot all about his pride and self-importance and shot a desperate, pleading look at the young man who was also awake in the dead of night.
The other man seemed completely unfazed, his expression as calm as still water. He held the light source, got out of bed, and strolled toward him.
"Since you're awake, come with me and let's take a look outside." Qi Si reached out, grabbed the stunned Shang Qingbei, and began pulling him unceremoniously toward the door.
His words and actions were so matter-of-fact, so far from the reaction one would expect upon waking in the night to find a monster.
Highly suspicious!
Shang Qingbei quickly yanked his hand back and scrambled to the head of the bed, grabbing the English dictionary from beside his pillow and holding it up like a shield. "Are you human or a ghost?"
The young man, silhouetted against the dim light, looked at him in confusion for a moment before a knowing smile spread across his face. "Good. You're cautious."
Then he uttered two words: "Weird Game."