The ghosts and monsters in the game were oblivious to the existence of the Weird Game. To be able to utter that phrase so calmly was proof enough of one's identity.
Shang Qingbei let out a sigh of relief and turned to look at Xi'er, who was lying beside him.
Dressed in a red wedding gown, the ghost lay quietly on the narrow wooden bed, staring vacantly at the patterns on the sheets, showing little interest in harming players.
Shang Qingbei tentatively reached out and waved a hand in front of Xi'er's eyes.
Seeing that she remained motionless and unresponsive, he pulled a ballpoint pen from his English dictionary and reached out to poke the ghost's face.
Xi'er flinched and began to mutter a new line: "It hurts... Xi'er hurts..."
"Judging by the feel, she has a physical body, probably some kind of zombie." Shang Qingbei tucked the pen back into his dictionary, swung himself off the bed, and retreated a few steps to the door.
Xi'er exuded a damp, foul odor, like the stench of rotting, moldy wood, which made his stomach turn.
"You must have triggered a special event." Qi Si moved past Shang Qingbei and stood in the space between the beds.
"Didn't I tell you before? The first day of an instance has fewer death traps. Most of what you see and hear are clues related to the world's lore."
He repeated the nonsense he had spouted earlier, his expression unchanged. Repeat a lie a hundred times, and some fool is bound to believe it.
Shang Qingbei nodded as if he had learned a valuable lesson, but he remained rooted by the door, unwilling to take even a single step forward.
You couldn't trust anyone completely. Poking the ghost twice with his pen was the extent of his goodwill. For the time being, whoever wanted to court death could go right ahead; he had no intention of getting involved again.
"Xi'er, do you recognize us?" Qi Si gazed down at her corpse on the bed for a moment before suddenly leaning in and whispering the question.
It was unclear whether the corpse understood. It merely tilted its face upward and murmured, "Save me... save me..."
The red figure on the bed began to flicker, wavering like a candle flame in the wind. Within the span of two breaths, it dissolved into a cloud of crimson mist that seeped between the floorboards and vanished.
Qi Si turned to Shang Qingbei, who was flipping through his dictionary by the moonlight. "Qing," he said, his tone lilting, "you were saying she had a physical body?"
What kind of ridiculous nickname was that? Why did it make him sound like some kind of snake spirit?
Shang Qingbei's mouth twitched. "She did a moment ago, but now she's gone," he replied. "Do you think there was something wrong with your question?"
Qi Si remained noncommittal. He walked over to Shang Qingbei and patted his shoulder. "Worried about the college entrance exams?"
"Who wouldn't be?" Shang Qingbei suddenly became talkative. "It's a life-changing exam, after all—one that can determine your entire future, your social standing. I'm not some slacker who wouldn't be affected either way. If I could just get my English score above average, I could easily get into one of the Federation's top 100 universities..."
"I can tell your English is really terrible," Qi Si remarked as he pushed open the door and stepped into the courtyard. The chill night air immediately raised goosebumps on his skin.
He glanced back, a placid look in his eyes. "You've been studying all this time, and you're still on the first page."
"I was reviewing..." Shang Qingbei's expression froze, and he found himself following Qi Si. "I had planned to spend my entire senior year cramming for English. I'd even signed up for tutoring, but then I got dragged into this game..."
The two of them had reached the center of the courtyard.
A thick white mist swirled through the air, blurring the outlines of the white-walled, black-tiled buildings and creating a hazy vista reminiscent of an ink wash painting.
The western side of the courtyard was littered with tattered red scraps. Faded "double happiness" characters and red silk ribbons hung askew. In contrast, only a few pieces of white paper money were scattered across the eastern side.
Picking his way across a clean patch of ground, Qi Si remarked casually, "You know, Qing, in your current situation, I really don't think you need to worry about the entrance exams..."
Following behind, Shang Qingbei pricked up his ears.
Just as he was expecting to hear words of encouragement like, "Your grades are already great," or "Don't be so hard on yourself," the young man in front of him sighed with a world-weary air. "The exams are three months away. You probably won't live to see them."
Shang Qingbei: "...Brutal."
Having successfully bullied a minor, Qi Si was in a fine mood. Even the motion of pushing open the courtyard gate was noticeably gentler.
With a soft *creak*, the frigid wind outside rushed in like a physical force, compelling Shang Qingbei, who stood directly in its path, to take half a step back.
His eyelid twitched as he realized how far he had followed without thinking.
Then came Qi Si's lecturing voice: "See? In a game where you could die at any moment, you're still getting distracted by trivial matters. Your focus is shot. You didn't even notice you'd been led out of the courtyard. At this rate, do you really think you'll make it to June?"
Shang Qingbei adjusted his glasses and retorted coldly, "I was planning to investigate outside anyway, to look for clues. And didn't you say yourself that the first day is the safest?"
"Is that right? My apologies, then." Qi Si offered an apologetic smile, then grabbed Shang Qingbei's wrist without waiting for an argument. "Let's go together. It's better to have someone to watch your back."
Having just made such a righteous declaration, Shang Qingbei couldn't take back his words. He could only let Qi Si drag him out of the residence.
Qi Si had successfully manipulated his new partner into this dangerous venture. A faint, placid smile touched his lips, and Shang Qingbei, catching a glimpse of it, had the distinct feeling that he was up to no good.
He tugged at his captured right wrist, but couldn't pull it free. The feeling of foreboding grew even stronger.
—Was it too late to run?
Completely unperturbed, Qi Si pulled Shang Qingbei over the threshold.
The air outside was several degrees colder than inside, like being plunged into ice water. It seemed to suck the warmth from your body, leaving you chilled to the bone.
Qi Si, wearing only a thin white shirt, couldn't help but shiver. Fortunately, he was no stranger to the cold; after standing for a moment, he acclimated to the plummeting temperature and his trembling ceased.
Although Shang Qingbei was wearing his long-sleeved school uniform, suitable for spring or autumn, it was just two layers of cotton and offered little protection from the biting cold.
He stood in the biting wind, huddled and shivering like a quail, wrapping his arms around himself and rubbing them vigorously in a desperate attempt to generate some warmth.
A fierce wind howled past, carrying with it white flecks that fluttered down all around them.
A single paper coin landed on Shang Qingbei's head, settling there like a migratory bird that had finally found a branch on which to perch.
Immediately after, gusts of wind swept in flurries of the paper money. It drifted down with a soft rustle, and soon a layer had accumulated on the ground, as white as snow and frost.
Shang Qingbei looked up at Qi Si, his teeth chattering. "Are we really going out to investigate now? It was eerie enough during the day, never mind at night. Even if you're a veteran on his nineteenth instance, underestimating these things never ends well."
Qi Si reached out, snatched a handful of the paper coins from the wind, and after a brief inspection to confirm they were clean and white, he casually stuffed them into his pocket.
Hearing the distinct hesitation in Shang Qingbei's voice, he paused and glanced back with a faint smile. "Danger and opportunity often go hand in hand, don't they? You won't find any useful clues by cowering in a room, waiting to die."
"With that kind of attitude, it would be better for you to just die and get it over with. It would save you a great deal of fear and torment."
Shang Qingbei didn't take the bait. He just shook his head. "If something happens to us, the other three will probably have to rely on the 'minimum death count' mechanic to clear this instance. I think it's better if we wake them and investigate together."
Qi Si scoffed. "Do you think the commotion you made back in the room wasn't loud enough?"
Shang Qingbei thought back to his frantic actions after seeing the ghost.
He hadn't screamed, but he had certainly scrambled around the room. Considering the creaky floorboards and the rickety wooden bed, he must have made a significant racket.
And yet, apart from "Qi Wen," no one else had woken up...
Qi Si smiled coolly. "Either they don't care whether you live or die and were just pretending to sleep, or a game mechanic has chosen us. Tonight, only we are able to act."
"It must be the second one..." Shang Qingbei's mind began to race.
To be chosen by a game mechanic on the very first day... did this mean he had a chance to find an important side quest?
It seemed he had no choice but to explore. It wasn't the danger that bothered him, but the inequality of it; he absolutely could not let the morally ambiguous "Qi Wen" monopolize all the important clues.
"Fine, I'll go with you," Shang Qingbei stated coolly. "But just so you know, if you get into trouble, you're on your own." He received no response.
At some point, the smile had vanished from Qi Si's face. He was backing away soundlessly, step by step, moving under the eaves of the house with the quiet caution of a cat on a rafter.
The distant wind carried the faint, mournful wail of a suona, a sorrowful sound like a ghostly cry.
Shang Qingbei sensed immediately that something was wrong.
He copied Qi Si, retreating to the side of the entrance and pressing himself flat against the wooden door.
The shadow of the eaves completely concealed them. The door was set deep within the wall, creating an alcove just large enough for them to stand. Anyone or anything passing by would never notice them unless they looked directly at the doorway.
Qi Si leaned against the wooden door, seemingly boneless, and squinted in the direction of the wailing suona.
An uneven mist swirled in the air, coalescing into a murky haze. A massive black silhouette rounded a corner down the street, gliding slowly out of the fog and drawing ever closer.
It was a coffin, pitch-black from end to end, its surface etched with intricate, complex patterns. It was even more exquisite than in the photograph. The meaning of the designs was impossible to discern, but the clean, flowing lines were captivating to behold.
How beautiful. Qi Si's breath hitched. He was suddenly seized by an impulse to creep forward and run his hand over its surface.
I want to open it... I want to study the carvings... I want to lie down inside...
The feeling was bizarre, yet not entirely unpleasant. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say his wariness had been dulled.
Shang Qingbei was also staring intently at the coffin.
The disastrous terms in the [Soul-Suppressing Coffin] entry—'vicious corpse,' 'resentful energy,' 'great calamity'—and Xu Wen's words over the phone—'They're all coming out, one by one'—had all been dire warnings. Now, it seemed, the worst was coming to pass.
The coffin drew nearer, close enough now for them to see the strange runes carved onto the long nails hammered into its four corners.
The listless wail of the suona was now mingled with a soft dripping sound. Shang Qingbei could see that as the coffin advanced, dark red blood trickled steadily from its seams, leaving a thin trail on the ground.
The scene before them aligned even more perfectly with the anomaly from the photograph. Shang Qingbei stared, his eyes wide.
Distorted black shadows clustered around the coffin, forming a long, winding procession, like a train of pallbearers.
A strange, shrill chant began to rise:
"Mortals walk the mortal path, ghosts take the ghostly way. Human and ghost have separate roads, as do the realms of yin and yang—"
"Born with nothing, die with nothing, your fortune and ruin are numbered. Seek not blessings, nor beg from disaster—"