The dilapidated wooden door emitted a creaking groan, sounding like some strange bird stretching its neck to release a bizarre, long-drawn-out cry that left one’s heart unsettled.
In just the blink of an eye, Chi Ling felt a gust of wind carrying a rotting stench whistle past as it reached right in front of him.
The old woman before him was short and lean, resembling a withered branch. Her face was covered in age spots, and the skin on her hands was wrinkled like dried tree bark. Chi Ling felt she looked very much like the mottled wooden door outside.
“Grandma Wang, hello. I am here to pick up the burial robe for my aunt, Liu Fang.” He wore a well-behaved and gentle smile, his tone soft, completely devoid of the arrogant and aggressive demeanor he had shown while shouting outside the door just moments earlier.
Grandma Wang raised her eyes to stare intently at Chi Ling, a piercing chill flashing through her turbid eyes.
“Humph! Liu Fang’s nephew, is it? The burial robe is already made; come inside and get it.”
The door lintel of the room was very low. Chi Ling bent his waist as he followed Grandma Wang into the room, where a yellowish lightbulb hung suspended, illuminating only a small patch of area right in the center.
Chi Ling followed Grandma Wang to the embroidery basket by her bed to retrieve the burial robe. He noticed the bed was covered with a white cloth, upon which a thick layer of dust had already settled, clearly showing no one had lain down to rest there for a very long time.
Directly facing the direction of the bed was an incense table. The statue of the deity was half-concealed in the shadows, with only the flickering, dying embers of the incense allowing one to catch a fleeting glimpse of the deity’s silhouette. It seemed Grandma Wang usually rested right in front of the incense table.
His expression remained unchanged, though his gaze grew increasingly cold. Just then, a chilling, raspy voice rang out from behind him.
“What are you looking at?”
Chi Ling felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end in an instinctive defensive reaction. He turned his head with difficulty and handed the burial robe over to Grandma Wang. “I was not looking at anything. I have just never been in this kind of house before, so I am a bit curious.”
Chi Ling blinked, feeling the chilling sensation dissipate quite a bit, and finally let out a sigh of relief.
“Humph!” Grandma Wang sneered again. “Children raised in the city are truly ignorant; even the smallest trivial things are worth your staring at for so long.”
“However, I still want to remind you to look less at things you should not be looking at. Be on your way!”
Grandma Wang had given him permission to leave, but Chi Ling still had questions he wanted to ask. Since he had made the trip out here, he was unwilling to leave just like that.
“Grandma Wang, may I ask you a few questions?” Chi Ling asked, clutching the burial robe.
“Of course you may.” Grandma Wang suddenly burst into laughter, the curve of her mouth stretching wider and wider as if it were about to split her entire face apart.
Truly stupid! He got the burial robe and should have just left directly. To still be here chatting with the boss, he can just wait to die once the boss goes berserk!
This newbie is good-looking alright, but I really cannot understand what is going on in his head.
Sigh, he probably won’t live much longer. I’d better go watch other players’ livestreams instead!
Humph, I just happen to want to see how he dies!
Livestream S0112103, current viewer count: 613, likes: 284, favorites: 350, tips: 187. Please continue to work hard, player.
“I can answer your questions, but you need to bring something in exchange.”
Chi Ling felt as though he were being stared at by a cold, venomous snake, one that might sink its fangs into him at any moment.
Player Sanity minus 3. Current Sanity: 90.
The system’s prompt sobered Chi Ling up for a split second. He immediately bit down on the tip of his tongue, preventing himself from spacing out any further.
After all, in this game, even a momentary lapse in focus could prove fatal.
“I can bring something in exchange!” Chi Ling said aloud.
“Speak up then! You had better be able to name something that satisfies me.” Grandma Wang withdrew her gaze and said sinisterly.
“How about this! I will sing a song for you. I sing very well, and many people have praised me. It is definitely worth more than its price.”
After finishing his sentence, Chi Ling paid no heed to Grandma Wang’s reaction. He opened his throat and began belting it out with a completely flat, raw voice, clearly intending to force a transaction whether she liked it or not.
Good grief, this is honestly a development I never saw coming.
Seriously, even my sanity was dropping just from listening to him sing.
Don’t even mention us; I feel like the boss is having an existential crisis.
Actually, I think this tune is pretty catchy.
No way, bro! You still need to go get your ears checked!
Silence fell after Chi Ling finished singing. He looked at Grandma Wang with a timid expression. “How was that? I told you I sing pretty well!”
The veins on Grandma Wang’s forehead twitched. She gritted her teeth and said, “Good, very good.”
“Then can I ask my questions now? If not, I can sing another one.” He seemed rather enthusiastic about the prospect.
Confronted with Chi Ling’s sparkling eyes, Grandma Wang averted her gaze. After all, what the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve over. She spat out two words with full vigor: “Ask away.”
Hahaha, looks like the boss really doesn’t want to hear that sanity-draining song anymore, and my ears are spared too.
Look at how he drove that old lady to speak with full breath and vigor.
Look, just look, is this the distortion of human nature or the loss of moral fiber?
Click to see why a seventy-year-old woman suddenly recovered her full vigor.
Chi Ling cautiously shuffled over to the chair directly across from Grandma Wang and sat down. He deliberately chose the spot furthest away from her, acting as though he feared she might suddenly leap up and tear him to shreds.
“Do you know how Grandpa Liu died?”
“I do not know.”
“Do the people in the village all revere their ancestors?”
“Yes.”
“Was it the same in the past?”
“No.”
“Do the women in the village generally not go outside?”
“Yes.”
The more Chi Ling asked, the uglier Grandma Wang’s expression became. He intuitively felt that he should stop right here.
He stood up and returned the chair to its original place. “I have nothing else to ask. Grandma Wang, I will head back for today and come see you again next time.”
“You had better not come again. In this village, the fewer things you know, the happier you live. Sometimes, ignorance is nothing short of a blessing.” Grandma Wang’s voice grew increasingly raspy.
Chi Ling made a noncommittal sound, gave a slight nod in acknowledgment, and left with the burial robe in his arms.
As he reached the doorway, he sighed and muttered a parting remark: “You must really hate this village, do you not?”
A faint, fleeting response seemed as though it would scatter into the wind at any second.
“Yes.”
“Cousin, you are finally back.” Seeing Chi Ling return, his cousin was overcome with emotion, practically on the verge of tears of joy.
“Just now, Auntie found out that you went to pick up the burial robe for me and gave me a harsh scolding. If you had not come back, she definitely would have skinned me alive.” The cousin patted his chest with his chubby hands, the flesh on his face quivering as lingering fear gripped him.
“Did I not fetch it back? Take it and give it to Auntie!” Chi Ling said as he handed the burial robe over to his cousin.
Just at that moment, an embroidery needle suddenly slipped out from the burial robe, reflecting a silver gleam off the ground.
Chi Ling narrowed his eyes slightly and picked up the embroidery needle.
“Cousin, what is this?” asked the cousin, who was holding the burial robe nearby.
“An embroidery needle. It was probably dropped by Grandma Wang. I will have a chance to return it to her.” Chi Ling spoke casually, though he carefully stowed the needle away.
System Prompt: Congratulations to player Chi Ling for successfully completing Liu Jiahao’s commission task. Rewarded with 100 points.
Congratulations to player Chi Ling for obtaining the item Grandma Wang’s Embroidery Needle (specific functions still require the player to discover them independently).
Chi Ling had not expected this embroidery needle to count as an item. He stared at it for a brief moment; he originally wanted to study it closely, but the gaze fixed upon him from right in front was far too intense to ignore.
“Why have you not gone to deliver the burial robe to Auntie yet?” Chi Ling raised his head and said impatiently.
He wanted to wait until his cousin left so he could properly study the game and his status panel. Right now, this could genuinely be called a blatant eviction notice.
However, his cousin lacked that sort of awareness. It was as if he completely failed to catch Chi Ling’s subtext, continuing to look at Chi Ling with a face full of eager anticipation.
“Cousin, come with me! That way Auntie will not scold me.” The cousin said with a fidgety demeanor.
Chi Ling could barely bear to look, raising a hand to cover his forehead. “You go ahead first! I will go over in a moment.”
With that, his cousin left, turning back to look every few steps.
Chi Ling returned to the west hall. The young people were still gathered there playing cards, filled with laughter and chatter as though they would never grow tired.
Liu Desheng had not prepared a burial robe in advance, which meant his death was very sudden. It could have been an accident. The women in the village rarely went outside. It could be protection, or it could be imprisonment.
Liu Desheng was highly respected in the village. What had he done to earn such deep respect from the villagers?
Why did a small village of several hundred people need to build such a massive ancestral hall?
What kind of connection, or perhaps conflict, existed between the villagers’ ancestor worship and the deity statue inside Grandma Wang’s house?
Heh!
This village truly harbored many secrets. Merely surviving for three days to complete the main quest was no longer enough to satisfy Chi Ling.
In his opinion, if he acted so timidly right in the newbie instance, things would only grow increasingly difficult in the future.
What he wanted to do was become the absolute best player in the newbie instance. The system had once stated that performance in the newbie instance determines how far a player can go within the system, which only strengthened Chi Ling’s resolve: if he was going to make a move, he would make a big one. Besides, he still had one chance to seek help left.
“Cousin, Auntie is calling for you!” Liu Jiahao shouted from outside the room.
Chi Ling had been wanting to find more people to gather information from anyway, so he immediately agreed, “Alright, I am coming right now.”
Chi Ling and his cousin stood side by side in front of their aunt, both showing the same degree of unease.
The aunt remained silent for a long time. Chi Ling was holding up fine, but his cousin’s legs had already started trembling.
“The burial robe has been retrieved, but we still lack someone to dress the deceased in it. Grandma Wang is an elder in the village and the only surviving relative of Uncle Liu. The two of you go ask Grandma Wang to help Uncle Liu change into his burial robe. If she is unwilling to come, the two of you can change Uncle Liu into it yourselves.” The aunt raised her brown, short-curly hair with fingers coated in bright red nail polish, scrutinizing the two of them. “Understood?”
If they said they did not understand now, the consequences were likely something they could not bear. Chi Ling nodded immediately, and when he glanced at his cousin beside him, the amplitude of the latter’s nodding made Chi Ling fear his cousin’s head might shake right off his neck.
What a pair of distressed fellow sufferers!
Only after the aunt left did Chi Ling have the bandwidth to ponder her words. Good grief, so Grandma Wang and Grandpa Liu were a married couple? That meant the other female college student besides the aunt was Grandma Wang’s daughter?
His cousin’s face was twisted into the expression of a bitter melon. “What should we do, Cousin? Do we really have to go look for Grandma Wang? I have been afraid of her since I was a child; I do not dare.”
If you do not dare, then I dare even less. Such thoughts could only remain inside Chi Ling’s head.
After all, voicing them out loud would be useless and might even lose him his alliance with his cousin.
“Sigh! Let us go ask first. If Grandma Wang refuses, we will just have to do it ourselves.” Chi Ling patted his cousin’s shoulder, a look of sympathy crossing his face.
His cousin’s experience was genuinely more like that of a truly unlucky player than his own.
The two of them went together to find Grandma Wang, but this time Grandma Wang refused to let them through the door entirely.
“Give up! Even if he is already dead, I have no desire to see him. I find him repulsive.”
Grandma Wang’s voice was filled with intense hatred. Chi Ling did not dare to say anything more, and could only bring his cousin back to the ancestral hall.
The aunt did not seem surprised that they had failed to bring Grandma Wang along. She led the two of them toward the east hall, where Grandpa Liu’s coffin was resting.
Chi Ling had been somewhat curious about the east hall earlier, but now he was not curious at all. He even wanted to run away. Curiosity killed the cat indeed!
He could see the coffin resting in the inner room of the east hall. The lid was not tightly sealed, and from Chi Ling’s angle, he could just catch sight of the corpse’s head. The pale, greenish-white complexion of the corpse looked exceptionally terrifying amidst the flickering shadows of the candlelight.
Chi Ling’s complexion turned somewhat pale as well. He could not help swallowing a mouthful of saliva, holding his breath for fear of disturbing the deceased.
His cousin’s reaction was even more intense than his own. His calves were shaking, and he stuck so close to Chi Ling’s back that he remained inseparable.
Chi Ling: “…”
Sighing internally, he realized he truly could not rely on his cousin at all.
“Hurry up with what you are doing. Come out for dinner by ten o’clock at the latest.” The aunt clicked away on her high heels, her steps swift as wind as she departed.