Edited by Zaki
Chapter 1.8
This question was unsolvable, obviously.
The Handstand Ghost couldn’t help but feel sad, but for the sake of his own ghost life, he could only bite the bullet and go around Gu Mozhi. He purposely detoured from the furthest route, as far away from Gu Mozhi as possible.
However, it was of no use.
Gu Mozhi stood guard by the door. No matter how careful he was when he went out, he would still pass by him, and this short second of contact allowed Gu Mozhi to get his hands on him without any problems.
The players who had been paying attention to the scene suddenly saw Gu Mozhi making a move, as if grabbing something from the ghost, and for a moment they thought they saw something wrong. Especially since Gu Mozhi, who was holding the beads in his pocket, looked confident and innocent. He didn’t look like he had done anything shameful at all, which made everyone think that they had seen wrong.
The Handstand Ghost shivered and hesitated to speak, but didn’t dare to ask Gu Mozhi to return his bead. In the end, he had no choice but to leave with a victimised look on his face, walking slowly, like a deeply affected old man.
Everyone felt their scalps aching when they heard the louder sound of a “thud“.
This night, just like the previous night, nothing happened in the second half of the night.
At dawn the next day, everyone hurried out. Because of what happened yesterday, no one dared to stay in the mourning hall. Only Gu Mozhi took the little girl to take a nap as usual. Before going to bed, he threw the ghost bead he got last night into his mouth, slowly chewed it up, and swallowed it.
Jian Linglong looked at it with envy and greed.
Gu Mozhi asked insincerely: “Want to eat?”
The little girl nodded.
Gu Mozhi stretched out his hand to rub her head and said earnestly: “If you want to eat, just go and grab it yourself. You can work hard to have a good meal.”
“…….”
Wanting to snatch the rations from her Master’s mouth was a long way to go. Jian Linglong realized that it was impossible for her unreliable Master to give up his delicious food to her, so it was better for her to give up this naive extravagance as soon as possible.
Well, next time, she would definitely get the ghost beads first!
That day, everyone finally got something in the town, although it wasn’t much, it was still better than the whole day of yesterday that they got nothing from asking. Perhaps it was because the townspeople had gradually accepted them, so they told them quite a few things about the dead man in the mourning hall.
In the evening, everyone gathered together to exchange information.
There were no fools who would withhold information at this moment, after all, they still understood how much weight they had. They would be idiots to not hug the golden thighs of Pink-hair’s team of four. It was better to share all the information and let them analyze it than to guess blindly by themselves.
Why should they go through all the trouble of guessing when there was a Big Boss?
On the other hand, some people thought that if they could “solve the puzzle” alone, there might be some great rewards after passing the level. But they could only daydream about it, now they couldn’t even protect themselves, it was already good that they could pass the level alive, why should they have unnecessary thought?
However, Gu Mozhi obviously had no interest in solving puzzles. He leaned against the corner and felt sleepy, letting the other three discuss the background story. They all agreed that the story should give them some hints for the “final showdown.”
Judging from the current situation, the first six days shouldn’t be too much to worry about. As long as they had the courage to help the guests to finish lighting the incense, they could stay safe until the last day. The main thing was that on the seventh day, the soul of the deceased would return home, and they might need to deal with the deceased.
The deceased was not a guest, so of course they couldn’t fool him trying to entertain him like the other guests. So if they wanted to survive until the end of the game in peace, they would have to use their brain more.
“But there is too little information.” Jian Linglong looked troubled.
The townspeople only said that this lonely old man was the only one left in the family. After the old man died, he didn’t even have any children or grandchildren to show him filial piety. The old man did not have much ability during his lifetime, and had been living on his savings. Except for being extremely skinny, he was no different from many old people in the town. He smoked, drank, and idled around. From time to time he wandered around the town with his hands behind his back to join in the fun. He also liked to scold the passing children in a haughty manner.
The College Girl joked: “Why don’t we burn some cigarettes and wine for him?”
“The cigarettes are fine, but how can the wine be burned? It will catch fire as soon as it is burned.” Pink-hair was speechless.
“Hei, I just said it casually.”
They waited until dark and everyone shut up. It was time to choose a night watchman again. This time, Pink-hair no longer acted foolishly and took the initiative to make trouble, he didn’t care about the situation. These people could do whatever they wanted, he would just mind his own business.
He thought that after what happened yesterday, these players would be cowardly and choose to go back to their rooms to sleep. After all, the incident of almost being smashed to death yesterday was still fresh in everyone’s minds. If Gu Mozhi hadn’t stopped the ghost after watching enough drama, there would have definitely been casualties among them.
Although no one had died, they received many bruises and small wounds caused by various commotion, but no one had the mind to care about these at the moment.
However, after waiting for a long time, Pink-hair didn’t see anyone asking to go back to the rooms to sleep, and no one urged them to decide on the night vigil. This showed that they still decided to stay in the mourning hall, even if there was danger here.
“What do they think?” Pink-hair frowned.
The College Girl shook her head helplessly: “They are not thinking. If they go back to the house to sleep, and a Handstand Ghost knocks them down in the middle of their sleep, wouldn’t they be dead? At least they can determine when the ghost will come here, and they can rest assured after sending the ghost away. It’s not so easy in the room, no one can tell which time the ghost will choose to visit.”
Gu Mozhi guessed that there would be no danger after falling asleep, but that was just a guess. No one was fool-hardy enough to risk their own life to verify this guess, so the safest choice was to stay here. If any danger arose again, at least they could avoid it as soon as possible.
This group of players had nothing else per se, that is, when it came to their immediate interests, they would rarely make stupid choices.
“Forget it, leave them alone.” Pink-hair snorted coldly.
Everything after that was like a repeat of the previous two nights, and the system still announced that everyone would stay vigil together. This time everyone knew that ghosts would only come at two or three in the morning, so those who were more brave went to sleep first.
Anyway, every time before the ghosts appeared, there would be a noise to remind them, and then there would be other players to wake them up. They took a nap to refresh themselves, and it didn’t delay things.
They hadn’t slept well for the past two nights, and if they didn’t rest again, I’m afraid that they wouldn’t be able to hold it together.
In the middle of the night, the guest arrived as scheduled.
“Da, da, da.” The wooden blocks collided with the stone pavement, making a crisp sound, as someone slowly approached.
Jian Linglong was already very skilled. She was awakened by the fragrance again, so she ran to the door to take a few glances, and then ran back to report: “A female ghost in ancient costume is coming, her face was painted pale, she looks like an opera singer. She also has an umbrella and is quite clean.”
After hearing this, Gu Mozhi nodded and commented, “They have finally learned well.”
Going out on a rainy day without an umbrella, the two ghosts from before were too uncouth. The opera ghost who came this time was a little better, it was that they didn’t know if the other party’s umbrella was standard, or if they had heard about Gu Mozhi’s devilishness and took the initiative to add to it.
Because of Jian Linglong’s voice, the players also woke up one after another. They stood up and stared at the door warily.
After last night, no one dared to take any chances anymore. Although Gu Mozhi finally took action to save them, his action was too late. If he still dawdled so much today and they were unlucky enough not to escape, they’d have to give up their lives here for nothing.
However, his power was stronger than the people, so they did not dare to make any comments to Gu Mozhi. That guy was not even afraid of ghosts, how could they have the guts to accuse him?
Sometimes evil people were much scarier than evil ghosts. Wasn’t there a saying… Evil ghosts are afraid of evil people?
Everyone secretly followed Gu Mozhi’s every move with their peripheral vision, their bodies tense as if they were facing a formidable enemy. If this person suddenly got violent, they wouldn’t be able to fight against him.
“Da, da, da.” The embroidered shoes with flower pot bottoms still stepped on the ground unhurriedly, and slowly arrived at the entrance of the mourning hall while maintaining an elegant pace. Jian Linglong looked over curiously. It was too dark and the rain had affected her vision previously. She didn’t see the other party’s appearance clearly and only vaguely realized that the other party was an opera singer. Now she could finally take a good look.
Some people were so beautiful that even if they put on a thick layer of white powder, they couldn’t hide their grace. The female opera ghost in front of her was, no, maybe this was a male ghost. After all, actors in ancient times were mostly slender and handsome men.
Since the other party had breasts, Jian Linglong temporarily regarded her as a female ghost.
The opera ghost stopped in front of the door, and with a flourish, she put away her paper umbrella and stood by the door. Then she carefully showed Gu Mozhi her dry clothes all over her body, indicating that she really loved to be clean.
Gu Mozhi nodded with satisfaction: “Come in.”
“Thank you, Sir.” She drew out her handkerchief and carefully wiped the rainwater from the soles of her shoes before entering.
In fact, her dress today was not a Qing Dynasty attire, but she still wore shoes with flower pot soles, at first everyone didn’t understand why, they just thought it was the female ghost’s special fetish, only now did they react. Because the bottom of the flower pot soles had a small area in contact with the ground, it would not wet easily when walking in the rain, and it was easier to wipe clean.
On the other hand, it was easy to fall with such shoes. It was difficult to walk on a rainy day, and she was still wearing these shoes. If she hadn’t been an actress with a particularly strong balance ability, she would have stumbled along the way and been covered in dirty water. One could imagine how tragic the scene would be.
The College Girl thought about the scene where the opera ghost took a step and fell, and almost burst out laughing. But although she didn’t laugh out loud in front of the other party, she still pulled Jian Linglong and hid behind her, whispering and sharing her thoughts.
Jian Linglong: “…” Hahahahahaha!
To be honest, she was really looking forward to this scene.
Unlike the College Girl who was having wild thoughts, the other players only had one expression when they saw this scene of a female ghost wiping the soles of her shoes: a hard to explain kind of expression.
These days, even the ghosts have become so smart?