Many unpleasant things from the past replayed before her eyes, scene after scene, over and over again.
Su Zhai knew very well that this was a spell within the labyrinthine array. At first she felt a bit lost and helpless, but after watching for a while, she began to find it boring and silently rolled her eyes a few times.
From dawn to dusk, she had already eaten one small cake. It had gone cold and didn't taste very good, but she was somewhat hungry after all. Su Zhai hesitated, then pulled out another one.
Just as she brought it to her lips, a woman rushed over and tried to hit her without explanation. "You greedy thing!"
Su Zhai remained unmoved, simply taking small bites.
The woman's phantom figure passed right through Su Zhai—it was just an illusion. She kept repeating the same scolding. As time passed, her hair turned gray and her eyes grew clouded. Her harsh words softened, replaced by a kind face as she called Su Zhai on the phone, trying to press pocket money into her hands.
Su Zhai looked away and sighed.
The cake had gone a bit hard. She put it away, then turned around and was startled to find someone sitting beside her, leaning against a tree stump, close but not too close.
…Shi Yeshan.
Was he also part of the mental contamination?
Su Zhai suspected this was a new tactic of the labyrinthine array and resolved to ignore this person, afraid that if she spoke, he might do something strange.
But Shi Yeshan just sat beside her expressionlessly, frowning at the spectacle ahead.
The woman had already exited the stage. This time it was a relatively young couple, arguing hysterically about something. Their words were fragmented, deliberately obscuring the details, and Shi Yeshan couldn't understand any of it.
A small pebble came flying over. Su Zhai's aim wasn't very good—the pebble barely grazed Shi Yeshan's arm. He turned his head to look and saw Su Zhai's conflicted face.
"Close your eyes." Su Zhai tried to command him. "Close your eyes, close your eyes. Stop watching."
The labyrinthine array kept dredging up her psychological traumas and replaying them, probably to attack Su Zhai's mind and make her break down.
But Su Zhai wasn't actually that fragile. After watching for a whole day, she only felt a bit speechless and mildly annoyed.
The labyrinthine array probably realized this, so it conjured up a Shi Yeshan to make him watch the embarrassing things right beside her.
That tactic… worked a little, because Su Zhai did feel somewhat embarrassed.
Shi Yeshan just looked at her without reacting.
This man truly had a fine appearance—his brow and nose rose like tall mountains, yet were delicate and refined. His pair of always-emotionless eyes seemed to hold the entire world within them, seeing all things as formless, all things with compassion.
He didn't speak, and didn't pay her any attention.
Su Zhai felt disgruntled. She broke off pieces of the now-stale cake in her hands and tossed them at him one by one.
She stopped looking at the drama ahead and instead grew interested in this new game, continuously flicking crumbs at the man, making him quite disheveled.
Shi Yeshan let her play quietly until his clothes were covered in the fragrance of cake. A crumb landed on the bridge of his nose, ticklish, and he casually raised a hand to brush it off.
So Su Zhai started aiming at his face instead. But his illusion was also somewhat infuriating—sensing Su Zhai's intent, it silently glanced at her, then turned around, leaving her only the back of his dark head.
Getting someone's hair covered in greasy cake crumbs would be too evil.
Su Zhai regretfully stopped, patted her hands clean, and suddenly let out an "Eh?"
Illusions had no physical form.
But she had definitely hit this man for real.
"Shi Yeshan!" She suddenly stood up, quickly walked around to face him, and shoved him with wide eyes. "When did you get here? You came without making a sound."
Shi Yeshan tilted his chin up slightly, his tone distant. "Saw that you weren't too happy. Thought I'd sit with you for a while."
What kind of reasoning was that? This wasn't a question of being happy or not.
Su Zhai bent down, grabbed his hand, and struggled to pull him up. "This is the labyrinthine array! Do you know how to get out? Where's Chu Yi? Have you seen her?"
Shi Yeshan answered succinctly: "I know the way out, and I've seen her too."
Su Zhai finally let out a sigh of relief upon hearing this. "As long as we can get out."
Only then did she notice that the dramas inside the labyrinthine array had all dispersed cleanly at some point.
"Those things are gone."
"Because you no longer wavered. With no point to attack, the labyrinthine array stopped its futile efforts and withdrew your Inner Demon Illusion." Shi Yeshan explained calmly, gazing at her. "Why is that, Zhai Niang? Why did you suddenly stop being afraid?"
Was it because she saw him?
Su Zhai decided to name it the Clown Resurrection Array.
It had trapped her for an entire day, yet in the end, it still couldn't do anything to her.
It really underestimated her! It might as well have just played The Ring on repeat.
She spoke with smug confidence. "What's there to be afraid of? It annoyed me all day—did you see me pay it any mind?"
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Shi Yeshan's lips. "So you enjoy bullying people."
The illusion had dissipated when Su Zhai threw cake at him.
She was having too much fun playing to even notice.
The miasma in the mountains was thick, and an eerie air hung over everything. Su Zhai didn't want to linger and urged Shi Yeshan to hurry along.
The man, however, only stared at something behind her, then shifted his gaze to her, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.
Su Zhai instinctively turned her head, and one glance was enough to scare her out of her wits. She shrieked and threw herself into Shi Yeshan's arms. "Oh my god! A ghost! Run!!"
It wasn't just Sadako—there was also the clown holding balloons, Carrie the witch, and the twins from The Shining. This dream team all surged out at once, baring their claws and teeth as they came chasing after them.
Shi Yeshan caught her perfectly, patted Su Zhai on the shoulder and said it was fine, then, supporting her by the hips, strode out of the labyrinthine array.
The gusts of eerie wind finally died down, but Su Zhai still clung tightly to Shi Yeshan's body. She didn't dare open her eyes, inwardly cursing her untimely imagination from earlier, her voice still trembling. "Did they catch up?"
The array was already broken, so the illusions were naturally gone.
Shi Yeshan covered the back of Su Zhai's head, which was buried against his shoulder, with one hand, and said he didn't know—maybe soon.
"Are you lying to me?" she cried out. "These are all illusions. They can't possibly catch up."
The calves wrapped around his waist were restless, and she angrily tapped Shi Yeshan's waist with her heel.
She really had been scared badly.
Shi Yeshan lowered his head and breathed against her ear. "Then why don't you look up and see?"
That cold breath sent chills down Su Zhai's spine.
"Stop scaring me." Her arrogance was completely gone. Su Zhai clung to Shi Yeshan even tighter, speaking very softly. "I want to go home. Walk faster."
But Shi Yeshan paused, then returned to his normal tone, though it sounded a bit odd. "Don't move."
She had unconsciously squeezed his waist with the crook of her leg just now.
Su Zhai didn't even dare breathe. She stayed silent the whole way home, then immediately ran to her bedroom, drew the curtain, and curled up under the blanket before she felt a bit of safety again.
Never going to the back mountain again. Chu Yi was truly unreliable.
But Shi Yeshan only then noticed that on the wooden table in the main hall, a piece of paper was weighed down by a teapot.
It was Su Zhai's crooked handwriting, saying she had gone to the back mountain with Chu Yi for a stroll and telling Shi Yeshan not to worry.
But he had gone out to search the moment he got home, without even entering the house, and had missed Su Zhai's note.
Shi Yeshan silently tucked the note into his chest, went to the bathhouse to set down the bathtub for Su Zhai, filled it with water, and then went straight to knock on her window. "Come out and bathe. The water's ready. Want something to eat? I'll go make something in the kitchen."
In the muggy heat, what with the exhaustion and the fright, Su Zhai had worked up a bit of sweat, her skin sticky and damp. His reminder made her feel even more uncomfortable.
…But the bathroom always had a somewhat gloomy feel to it.
Half an hour later, Shi Yeshan brought out three small dishes of food, but Su Zhai was still in her room, having taken out all her night pearls and arranged them around, making the place as bright as day, illuminating the humble room.
"Come out." Shi Yeshan rubbed his forehead and happened to pick up a bit of cake crumbs.
He said slowly, "What's so scary about ghosts? Ziqian Hall is all about Exorcising Demons and Monsters. I've seen plenty of these things. They're nothing more than corpses and Soul Separation. They won't come looking for you for no reason."
Su Zhai finally came out of her room, poking her head out first while her body remained hidden behind the curtain, tilting her head slightly to look at Shi Yeshan.
"It's different." She mumbled. "Anyway, ugh…! It's all your fault for scaring me earlier."
After that complaint, her expression improved, lured out by the aroma of the food. She sat down at the table in a few steps, ready to eat.
"Come eat." Su Zhai looked at Shi Yeshan, who was still standing off to the side, and urged him. "You went and bought roast chicken again. Do you have enough pocket money? I'll give you a bit more, but you have to use it sparingly, okay?"
After taking her frustration out on him, she came back to life, no longer wearing that terrified expression.
Su Zhai loved to bully him. She derived immense pleasure from it.
Shi Yeshan hummed in acknowledgment, ate with her, and cleaned up the dishes. When he came back, he saw Su Zhai still sitting on the chair, unmoving.
Looking listless.
Shi Yeshan was a little surprised. "Not bathing today?"
She was fond of cleanliness. Regardless of winter or summer, she always bathed once in the evening.
The bathtub was an item Shi Yeshan had dug out of the storage rooms of Shu Mountain, with volcanic crystals embedded at the bottom that heated up upon contact with water, warming to a pleasant temperature for Su Zhai's nightly baths.
Su Zhai was a bit dejected. "I'm a little scared, because the bathroom window faces the back mountain…"
"I'll go close the window."
"That won't help. I still don't dare."
Shi Yeshan thought for a moment. "Then should I move the bathtub into your room?"
But she stopped him. "The steam would make the whole room damp."
Shi Yeshan was at a loss, deciding he'd just cast a Cleansing Art on her instead.
But Su Zhai spoke softly at that moment. "Can you sit outside the door and wait for me?"
As long as someone was outside the door talking to her, she wouldn't be scared anymore.
As soon as the words left her mouth, Su Zhai quickly slipped off the bed and scurried over to grab a small bamboo stool, placing it just outside the bathroom door. She patted the stool—though there wasn't a speck of dust on it—with eager attentiveness, then turned back to look at him with bright, sparkling eyes.
Su Zhai invited him to sit there, promising, "I'll be done washing in no time. Just wait a moment for me."
Unexpectedly, he only shook his head. "Not waiting."
"…Why not?"
"There are too many mosquitoes outside."
"There aren't any bugs in our courtyard." Su Zhai pointed at the few dried branches hanging by the gate. "These that you brought back yourself—they repel insects and mosquitoes."
"Oh." Shi Yeshan's voice was slow and drawn out. "The moonlight is too glaring."
I can tell you're just looking for trouble!
She was cursing him again in her mind.
A hint of amusement flickered in Shi Yeshan's eyes as he headed straight for the bathroom, tossing over his shoulder, "You're not washing? Then I'll go first. I'll sleep once I'm done."
He brushed past Su Zhai's stiff figure, stepped inside, and casually closed the bathroom door behind him.
Counting silently to no more than three, Su Zhai quickly pushed the door open, shoving against Shi Yeshan's body that was blocking the entrance, her tone none too pleasant. "Fine, we'll wash together, wash together, alright?!"