Chapter 27
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Ye Zun froze at the door, not expecting to see such a normal picture when he came up.
The woman had naturally walked to the doorway, welcoming him in warmly as she bent down and thoughtfully brought him slippers.
With a smile forming on her lips, she said, “This child, really, what are you doing in a daze? Haven’t you seen your mother for so long that you forgot about me?”
Ye Zun came back to his senses, paused, then walked in slowly.
The door behind him closed.
Ye Zun didn’t know what to say, so he simply didn’t say anything at all and just looked around.
At a glance, he saw the middle-aged man sitting on the sofa. The other man was reading the newspaper in his hands. He looked slightly fat and scholarly. With a kind smile on his face, and nodded politely to Ye Zun. “You’re back. Come and eat ba. Knowing you will come back, your Mum specially had me go out to buy ingredients early in the morning. All of them are your favorites.”
——What is going on?
No matter how terrifying the scene was, he was already mentally prepared, but seeing such an ordinary scene made him suspect for a moment that he had made a mistake.
Before he knew it, Ye Zun was herded to sit near the sofa.
The food on the table was very luxurious, especially the big pot of pork rib soup in the middle. The broth was red and bright and the meat firm and tender, making people unable to stop drooling, wiggling their index fingers.
Seeing the pork rib soup, the image of the woman holding a kitchen knife dripping with blood in despair flashed in Ye Zun’s mind. He suddenly jolted slightly.
“Quickly eat ba. You should eat more, this was all prepared for you.”
The two people at the table had already started to dig in.
“Dad has worked hard, you should eat some more.” The woman was gentle and considerate, and after serving Ye Zun some food, she also served the male house owner.
The white rice was fragrant, but Ye Zun dared not to take a single bite.
“This child, still cautious even after returning to our own home. Quickly eat ah,” the woman smiled and admonished.
Ye Zun came to his senses, and in order to cover up, he subconsciously asked, “Where’s the rest of the family?”
With a new conversation topic, the woman stopped staring at him while urging him to eat, and said with a smile, “Your Gege is at work ah, he only comes back occasionally on weekends. “
——At work? Isn’t Shen Yuan a high school student? How can this be?
“You too; you just graduated from university, wouldn’t it be better to come home and find a nearby workplace?”
——What? In their eyes, has Nogawa Kaoru graduated from university already?
Ye Zun was stunned for a moment. “How old am I now?”
“Aiya, I just remembered once you brought it up. Your twenty-first birthday is coming soon. This time, Mum must remember to give you a good time.”
The woman smiled, revealing faint wrinkles at the end of her eyes.
Ye Zun sat there in a daze, and the next second, he went to touch the hair on the back of his head, barely tied and sticking out like a sparrow’s tail. Sure enough, he caught a tuft of soft hair, hanging at a hand’s length.
——21 year old Nogawa Kaoru, with hair that inexplicably grew longer… Is the time in this house constantly changing?
Ye Zun’s eyes were cautious as they looked at the woman. His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly. “Then, what about Meimei?”
The woman was stunned for a moment, the smile on her face stagnated slightly, before she quickly returned to normal, still smiling. “This child, what Meimei do you have ah. Where did you hear that? Did you suspect that we’re having a second child? How can we try for a child at this age?”
Ye Zun froze in place. “There’s no Meimei?”
——The seven-or-eight year old girl I saw at home before, is she really the ghost of Nogawa Kaoru’s little sister?
——But if it is a ghost, Shen Yuan said that there is a girl at home. What is going on?
“Isn’t there a girl at home?” Ye Zun stared at the woman, his tone restrained and calm. “Where is she now?”
The woman’s expression was a little reluctant, and she looked back at the man.
The man’s expression was also a little hesitant, trying to smooth things over by saying, “Let’s eat ba.”
Ye Zun still looked at the woman. “Mum’s only daughter was born to my dad, right?”
There was a smile on the woman’s face, but formed with great reluctance. She frowned slightly and nodded.
Ye Zun clenched his fingers, watching the woman who looked completely normal, and thought of a possibility:
——Maybe he was wrong. Maybe it was only Nogawa Kaoru who knew that her little sister was bitten by a ghost. Although the mum took Nogawa Kaoru away, maybe she didn’t know about ghosts, so it is possible that the mum took the initiative to bring the little sister who was infected by ghosts to live in their new home.
He stared at the woman. “Didn’t Mum bring Meimei to live at home? I’ve seen her, she even made breakfast for Dad.”
Because of the messy timeline in the house, Ye Zun couldn’t say it was during Monday morning.
The man paused, lowering his head to eat as if nothing had happened.
The woman furrowed her brows. The corners of her mouth rose, but the smile on her face was almost equal to nothing. As if nothing was wrong, she said, “Don’t talk about this, you don’t have a little sister at all. It’s the same no matter how many times you bring it up. You too, all graduated from university, hurry and find someone to marry and start a family with. Your immune system is not good…you’ve been off vitamins for a long time, do you want to go to the doctor and get prescriptions again?”
Ye Zun found things a little absurd and faced her down calmly. “Is Mum implying that I’m sick in the head?”
——Didn’t she deliberately set up the tableware at the beginning and made Shen Yuan save some meat for the little sister?
The woman lowered her head to eat. “I didn’t say that, let’s eat ba. It’s fine to talk about anything, don’t mention any little sisters again.”
Ye Zun watched her quietly, swallowed lightly with his dry throat, and decided to put things straight. “Because Meimei died, or is it because, Mum was also bitten by the ghost?”
The man immediately smoothed things over. “Kid, what nonsense are you talking about? The salt in the soup is a little light, go to the kitchen and get some salt ba.”
The woman stopped and frowned at him, not angry, but looking at him with an odd expression. “I do have only one daughter, do you really want to know where she is?”
The woman’s expression really was far too strange, giving off a kind of calm and eerie feeling. Ye Zun looked at her face and the same chill that made his blood run cold when he opened the diary that belonged to the dead before reappeared again.
——This expression, she clearly knows. Is that girl’s ghost really always in this house?
He took a deep breath, feeling like he wasn’t quite ready yet.
Ye Zun stood up subconsciously, following the middle-aged man’s words and walking to the kitchen to get the salt. During this process, the woman also kept her eyes on him quietly. Looking like she wanted to laugh but not laughing, looking like she wanted to be angry yet she wasn’t angry, an odd expression that made people feel uneasy.
It was like, as long as Ye Zun asks another question, she will consider handing the answer directly to him, but her expression was saying that the answer may not be something Ye Zun can bear.
Ye Zun stood in the kitchen. This was his first time in this kitchen.
Probably because it was daytime, the house was much brighter than he remembered. Although it was a little dim due to the rain outside, the light was bright and there was no sense of oppression at all.
The same could be said for the kitchen. After entering, one would find that there was a window to the outside directly, which was brighter than anywhere else in the house.
Ye Zun took the salt shaker and was about to go out when his footsteps stopped.
A series of images flashed through his mind: the images of the woman chopping meat two nights ago, the indigestible meat in the pot of soup, the tempting bone broth outside, and, whether it was the little girl in the nightmare or Nogawa Kaoru’s diary, even the death diary of the girl with the cherry blossom hair clip, they all wrote words.
——People who have been bitten by ghosts will be infected. If they don’t eat people, they will starve to death. After dawn, they will return to their original state, but at night, the wounds they retained from being eaten will still be exposed until they are completely eaten by the ghost.
He tried his best to avoid thinking about the original source of the meat in the soup pot, but he couldn’t stop doubting.
Squeak squeak.
A small noise seemed to come from the refrigerator behind him.
Before he made a rational judgment, his hand was already placed on the refrigerator handle.
The voices of man and woman outside the kitchen continued. Like any normal family, one parent complained that their child didn’t understand anything, and the other persuaded them to let it go.
——How about it? Should I open and take a look?
What will he see?
The sound of the refrigerator door was very quiet, and there was only a slight resistance. Once opened, one can clearly see the interior.
He opened the door to the freezer. Inside, there was some loose meat packed in bags. With the distinct red and white colour, it looked like ordinary pork.
“Taking so long just to fetch the salt.” The woman’s voice was slightly unhappy.
The middle-aged man smoothed things out. “The child finally came home, let’s not say anything out of anger. Right, there is beer in the refrigerator, remember to bring two cans over.”
“Oh.” Ye Zun breathed a sigh of relief and opened the small refrigerator compartment above.
There was basically nothing in there, just some vegetables, leftover cooked food and drinks.
After pulling it open, it was indeed the same as the freezer. It seemed like there were quite a few items inside, but in reality, the fridge was rather empty. Something was not placed properly, and the whole thing fell out.
Ye Zun reached out his hand subconsciously, holding a cabbage-sized, round…human head.
Human head?!
Ye Zun blinked, his heartbeat lagging.
The face of the human head was very familiar, exactly the same as that of the middle-aged man who was currently persuading the hostess outside.
He looked like he was suffocated to death, with eyes bulging in spheres, unclear on whether it was out of rage or fear. It was as if he was staring so hard the eyeballs would fall out.
The lights in the house suddenly went out and every wall in the kitchen spun in an instant. The warm family household turned into the grave-like old house in his nightmare.
The horizontal kitchen became vertical; what was supposed to be the wall became the doorway; the whole house turned into a long, open corridor. Ye Zun looked straight into the living room.
The man and woman in the living room were also looking at him.
The delicious food on the table turned into various human tissues.
The man ate with relish, chewing while saying the warm words of persuasion from before.
However, his neck was broken to one side, teetering as if it was about to be completely severed but was barely stitched up by a black thread that was like a centipede. But, there was still a thick black blood stain oozing out of the wound.
On top of the twisted neck, pitch dark eyes stared straight at Ye Zun, who was holding a human head in front of the refrigerator, wearing a strange expression.
The woman was aged and numbed, no longer as gentle and happy as before, looking just as lost as the previous two nights, feeling a bone-deep fear but not daring to express her timidity in an obvious way.
She stared blankly in Ye Zun’s direction.
Empty from the waist down, only the torn upper body.
The middle-aged man behind her bit off half of her head in one bite, and her right shoulder and arm in two. The woman didn’t respond, she just smiled absently and stared at Ye Zun. “Now, you know where your Meimei is.”
After losing most of her body, the woman who still sat in the dark living room like a normal person and maintaining her smile was more creepy than the ghost-like middle-aged man behind her.
His field of vision was filled with the sight of heads, black lines, twisted necks, and splattered blood.
Ye Zun hurled the head in his hand far away, feeling a convulsion in his chest.
Even if he had never eaten a meal made by a woman, when he thought about himself almost consuming it, he couldn’t help retching.
——They really all turned into ghosts!
Run away! He must run away immediately!
The first thing he did was lock the kitchen door, then he picked up a kitchen knife and hacked into the middle of the dilapidated window frame, escaping through the cramped kitchen window.
While he was trying his best to escape, the lock of the kitchen door was twisted again and again from the outside and countless murmuring voices of ghosts were saying something.
Pretending to be angry, accusing, concerned, trying to get him to open the door.
“Kaoru, Kaoru…time to eat…”
When he jumped out of the window, the voices disappeared instantly.
Ye Zun leaped out the window. There was a certain danger in sticking a landing after jumping from a height of three floors and cushioning was needed, but he was already on the ground almost as soon as he stepped out of the window.
There was a terrifying darkness all around him.
Ye Zun ran a few steps before realising that this was not outside. He seemed to still be in the living room.
The living room here was more like the living room from last night’s nightmare than the one he walked in before.
No matter how long he walked, it was endless, but if he looked closely, it was cramped and narrow. It was as if he was always in the same place, having not gone anywhere with his steps.
——Have I entered the ghost’s energy-farming system?
He pressed down on his wildly beating heart, taking a deep breath and making psychological cues to himself: Calm down, calm down, at least slow down your heartbeat first.
With his heart jumping like this, everything might as well be useless. Before the ghost even comes to kill him, his heart will explode and he’ll die.
This has always been effective. After all, since he decided to go home, he had been mentally prepared and had certain expectations for what he was about to encounter.
Although it was imminent, he couldn’t help but be afraid. However, this can be overcome with hindsight.
——I cannot enter the ghost’s energy circulation system. As long as I am not scared and feel no fear, the ghost’s power is not that strong.
——This is the fourth day. In theory, the ghost’s power is not that strong, and it is not enough to kill me. Otherwise, it would not have tricked me just now, it would’ve just made its move directly.
His heartbeat slowed down. He made himself very calm and his eyes adapted to the darkness. There was no movement here for the time being.
——What is the ghost going to do next? Thinking of how to make me more scared? Scare me to the point of losing my mind?
Suddenly appearing from behind?
Peeping in the darkness from all sides?
Pictures of bloody murders? Horrifying visions?
Fear can not be visualised, as it will strengthen the fear of the unknown.
But one must expect horror, in order to numb the sensitivity towards the horror.
In order to fight against the fear that could not be suppressed, he deliberately pulled away part of his attention and tried his best to rethink the clues and reasoning he had obtained so far.
——Nogawa Kaoru’s parents have both turned into ghosts, so looking back now, neither of those two lied.
On the Sunday night he entered the game, he was afraid both of them were already dead by then.
At that time, when he entered the instance, the game prompt was:【 Your name is Nogawa Kaoru. One night, you suddenly hear a quarrel, and when you wake up the next day, the world starts to become strange. You find that some people around you are ghosts… 】
Thinking about it now, back then, the strangeness of the woman chopping meat and the fishy smell in the house were all too suspicious.
But because of Ye Zun’s subconscious fear of the game and his lack of initiative, as well as the seemingly mild seven-day safety period given by the game, it paralysed him, and he chose to turn a blind eye to everything suspicious in front of him.
If he had taken the initiative to find a way to enter the master bedroom to have a look that night, would he have discovered the truth earlier?
But if he really went in and saw the corpse in the house, would he live to the seventh day?
——Damn it, this suddenly came to me, did the game do this on purpose? In fact, the correct way to clear the level may be not to explore; as long as you don’t discover the truth, and don’t become aware of the ghost, will you be safe instead?
The instant panic was quickly suppressed by Ye Zun.
——No, I will never be able to clear the seventh day just by trying hard not to find the ghost. This is undoubtedly end in me waiting for death. As long as the ghost makes their move on the seventh day, I will definitely die.
However, when searching for clues in the early stage, it is absolutely necessary for your own safety to not reveal the identity of the ghost so quickly.
In the end, it is still required of him to actively explore the plot in the instance, and based on the clues finds, he can solve the fated death of Nogawa Kaoru.
As he moved carefully around the house, vigilantly looking for an exit, he forced himself to calmly rearrange his thoughts.
——It is known that there is a kind of ghost in this world that will select victims in a certain way: Nogawa Kaoru’s little sister and the girl with the cherry blossom hair slip are both victims.
What they both have in common is that they are girls.
——However, the ghost came to Nogawa Kaoru’s new home after many years. Ruling out that the little sister might have come to take revenge on her big brother and mum who left her to the ghost, why did the ghost appear in the new home?
It’s because, in this family, there is still a slippery fish that fits the identity of a victim, a girl!
So, the woman that was denying the existence of a little sister just now, was in fact hiding and protecting that girl?
——Then, there is a question that needs to be answered: how did the ghost enter Nogawa Kaoru’s house?
When Nogawa Kaoru was a child, how the ghost entered their house and devoured his little sister had an answer that was nowhere to be found, but now, how did the ghost enter this new home?
——Wait, since neither of them lied about the time of their death, plus the time given by the game, does it mean that the time when the ghost entered this house was actually last weekend?
That night when Ye Zun entered the game.
So, the question can be simplified to, what happened on that weekend night?
As long as he knows what happened that night, will he be able to figure out how the ghost invaded Nogawa Kaoru’s house? Who was the first to be infected by the ghost? If he can find the ghost’s body, just as Nogawa Kaoru said in his diary, he can kill it!
Click.
As if it was because he finally solved the puzzle, the door of the labyrinth opened automatically.
The exit that could not be found suddenly had a gap open, revealing the familiar main door that led to the outside.
Ye Zun only hesitated for a second, then stepped forward and opened the door.
In any case, anything was better than staying in this closed grave-like house, where it was as if a man-eating ghost would pop out at any time.
Outside the door, there was still rain accompanied by persistent lightning, and it was impossible to see anything clearly beyond three steps.
This rain completely put an end to the idea of anyone wanting to run out in order to escape. It revealed a cold and strange and ominous aura.
Ye Zun also had no intention of walking out at all.
Standing in the silent corridor, he thought for a while, thinking of the resident to the left side that he passed when he went up the stairs on the third floor.
“Let’s go and ask, maybe they heard something.”
Ye Zun walked to the left of the corridor.
The sound insulation of the old residential area was very poor and the smallest sounds were clear. As long as there were people next door, anyone can definitely hear something.
He stood at the door and knocked three times.
“Hello, I’m sorry to bother you, is there anyone here? I’m Nogawa Kaoru, your neighbour living to your right. I have something I would like to ask.”
No one answered, but the front door creaked a little, opening up a crack.
“……”
The sound of wind and rain was loud and Ye Zun was not sure what the person inside said when they opened the door. They seemed to have said please come in, come in ba, or something like that.
Several pots of flowers were placed outside the neighbour’s door, full of life, and the trash can at the door was also neatly arranged, giving people a sense of liveliness and fun and pulling him out of the atmosphere of terror and suffocation.
“Pardon my disturbance, I’m coming in.”
He stood at the entrance. Because he was still wearing the shoes he changed when indoors, he wasn’t too worried about stepping on and dirtying the house owner’s floor.
At a glance, the house was clean, refreshing and romantic, decorated with careful thought. Just seeing it and one would know that the hostess was very much enjoying life
Inside, there was the sound of bed sheets being shaken to dry. It reminded him of the excessive wind and rain outside. It seemed that the rain had soaked into the laundry hanging on the balcony and the owner was currently busy cleaning.
“Sorry to visit at this time, but I have something very important I would like to ask you…”
“Come in and tell me ba.” The quiet and soft voice sounded like the owner was frowning, thinking about why he was worried, but forcing herself to be patient and polite.
Ye Zun carefully closed the front door, subconsciously not locking it.
He walked towards the master bedroom and saw the woman facing him at a glance, tall and thin, wearing silk pyjamas with a lace trim.
Ye Zun closed his eyes for a moment and pursed his lips slightly, feeling a little embarrassed and discourteous.
He didn’t expect the woman to dress so lightly. It really was too rude to be here at this time.
But his problem was of great importance. There is no way for him to leave like this.
“It’s like this,” he spoke quickly, pretending he didn’t see anything, “I was wondering if you heard a quarrel last weekend night? There’s something going on at my house because of it, and I want to know what was going on.”
There was no answer. The sound of shaking bed sheets continued, the range of movement a little loud and forceful, as if the owner’s mood was slightly irritated.
“En?” Ye Zun waited for a while. Several times, he wanted to look directly at her face, but when he thought of the light dress on the woman’s body, he became a little hesitant.
“The rain is very heavy, aren’t you cold? Would you like to wear an extra layer of clothing?”
After all, he had no stray thoughts and a clear conscience, and the matter at the moment was very important. Ye Zun still looked at her calmly, letting himself only look at her face above her neck.
The woman was really tall. Ye Zun was 1.85 metres tall, but despite the slight distance, the woman’s perspective seemed to be looking down at him.
She must be more than 1.9 metres ba, is she even taller than the priest?
His heart suddenly jumped.
Ye Zun slightly startled and he carefully looked at the woman.
The wind blew inside through the open windows. There was the sound of curtains rustling, just like shaking off an annoying rain-soaked bed sheet.
However, the hostess herself did nothing. She just looked down at Ye Zun slightly, unblinking.
Ye Zun took a step back, his face turning pale before he knew it.
Looking closely, the woman’s fashionably permed long hair was scattered, and a tulle-like silk scarf was wrapped between her hair and her neck.
But, who would wear such light pyjamas at home as well as a silk scarf around their neck?
Following along the silk scarf, the ceiling was decorated with the same pink and white lace tulle, the same type as the silk scarf around her neck, which had been wrapped around the lamp of the same colour above them.
The tulle nightdress was long enough to reach the calf, and the calf to the instep hung down naturally and tight. The overly long neck made the person look very, very, very tall.
Ye Zun stepped back, holding the door frame with his hand, and stared at the scene in front of him with wide eyes.
The hostess was hanging dead from the lamp in the bedroom.
——She died? Who opened the door for me?
Ye Zun ran to the door hurriedly. He was initially always ready to go out and open the door at any time.
Unlike the strange layout of Nogawa Kaoru’s house, this bedroom was not far from the front door and he ran to it in three or two steps.
Panting sharply, when Ye Zun’s fingers touched the door, his feet came to a stop.
——I can’t run away, I came here to find the truth.
——If I run away now without knowing anything, I can only wait to be slaughtered by the ghost on the seventh day!
Ye Zun clenched the doorknob tightly. He closed his eyes, then opened them again. His eyes were firm.
First, he completely undid the anti-theft lock of the door, and then pulled the door completely open, so that even if there was a powerful force, the door would not be locked for a while, so as to avoid being locked inside and unable to escape at a critical moment.
Then, Ye Zun began to observe the living room.
The house was very clean and tidy, having the breath of life from not long ago. Judging from the state of the hostess’ body, she hadn’t been dead for long.
Thinking of something, Ye Zun touched his own hair again.
——As expected, the hair became shorter again.
It seemed that the time in this residential building was indeed disordered, but the length of his hair could be used to judge the time of past and future.
No wonder he couldn’t find a mirror at home. It turned out to be intentional, in order to hide this clue, so as to block his perception?
Judging from the length of the hair, it was now close to what Ye Zun had before he entered the instance. The current time was roughly when he just entered the instance.
That is to say, the current timeline was of last weekend, just before or after he entered the instance.
It was the day when everything became strange, the day Nogawa Kaoru heard a quarrel.
——It seems that I was wrong, the setting of the instance is not only Nogawa Kaoru’s house, but also the neighbours. This is also an important area for hidden clues.
He suddenly thought about the second year’s Class 1, where the entire class had turned into ghosts.
——That’s right; the school, even the bus on the road, there are ghosts everywhere. Why didn’t I think that there would also be something wrong with the neighbours?
He felt that he was beginning to touch the edge of truth.
“Hehehe, you can really talk, is it okay? Still staying with me until now? At this time, your wife is coming back from shopping oh.”
Suddenly, a woman’s enchanting voice came from the bedroom, and Ye Zun was suddenly horrified.
The author has something to say:
The foreshadowing is almost done in the early stage, and the clues are basically all given, now we start to run towards the ending.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
Ye Zun froze at the door, not expecting to see such a normal picture when he came up.
The woman had naturally walked to the doorway, welcoming him in warmly as she bent down and thoughtfully brought him slippers.
With a smile forming on her lips, she said, “This child, really, what are you doing in a daze? Haven’t you seen your mother for so long that you forgot about me?”
Ye Zun came back to his senses, paused, then walked in slowly.
The door behind him closed.
Ye Zun didn’t know what to say, so he simply didn’t say anything at all and just looked around.
At a glance, he saw the middle-aged man sitting on the sofa. The other man was reading the newspaper in his hands. He looked slightly fat and scholarly. With a kind smile on his face, and nodded politely to Ye Zun. “You’re back. Come and eat ba. Knowing you will come back, your Mum specially had me go out to buy ingredients early in the morning. All of them are your favorites.”
——What is going on?
No matter how terrifying the scene was, he was already mentally prepared, but seeing such an ordinary scene made him suspect for a moment that he had made a mistake.
Before he knew it, Ye Zun was herded to sit near the sofa.
The food on the table was very luxurious, especially the big pot of pork rib soup in the middle. The broth was red and bright and the meat firm and tender, making people unable to stop drooling, wiggling their index fingers.
Seeing the pork rib soup, the image of the woman holding a kitchen knife dripping with blood in despair flashed in Ye Zun’s mind. He suddenly jolted slightly.
“Quickly eat ba. You should eat more, this was all prepared for you.”
The two people at the table had already started to dig in.
“Dad has worked hard, you should eat some more.” The woman was gentle and considerate, and after serving Ye Zun some food, she also served the male house owner.
The white rice was fragrant, but Ye Zun dared not to take a single bite.
“This child, still cautious even after returning to our own home. Quickly eat ah,” the woman smiled and admonished.
Ye Zun came to his senses, and in order to cover up, he subconsciously asked, “Where’s the rest of the family?”
With a new conversation topic, the woman stopped staring at him while urging him to eat, and said with a smile, “Your Gege is at work ah, he only comes back occasionally on weekends. “
——At work? Isn’t Shen Yuan a high school student? How can this be?
“You too; you just graduated from university, wouldn’t it be better to come home and find a nearby workplace?”
——What? In their eyes, has Nogawa Kaoru graduated from university already?
Ye Zun was stunned for a moment. “How old am I now?”
“Aiya, I just remembered once you brought it up. Your twenty-first birthday is coming soon. This time, Mum must remember to give you a good time.”
The woman smiled, revealing faint wrinkles at the end of her eyes.
Ye Zun sat there in a daze, and the next second, he went to touch the hair on the back of his head, barely tied and sticking out like a sparrow’s tail. Sure enough, he caught a tuft of soft hair, hanging at a hand’s length.
——21 year old Nogawa Kaoru, with hair that inexplicably grew longer… Is the time in this house constantly changing?
Ye Zun’s eyes were cautious as they looked at the woman. His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly. “Then, what about Meimei?”
The woman was stunned for a moment, the smile on her face stagnated slightly, before she quickly returned to normal, still smiling. “This child, what Meimei do you have ah. Where did you hear that? Did you suspect that we’re having a second child? How can we try for a child at this age?”
Ye Zun froze in place. “There’s no Meimei?”
——The seven-or-eight year old girl I saw at home before, is she really the ghost of Nogawa Kaoru’s little sister?
——But if it is a ghost, Shen Yuan said that there is a girl at home. What is going on?
“Isn’t there a girl at home?” Ye Zun stared at the woman, his tone restrained and calm. “Where is she now?”
The woman’s expression was a little reluctant, and she looked back at the man.
The man’s expression was also a little hesitant, trying to smooth things over by saying, “Let’s eat ba.”
Ye Zun still looked at the woman. “Mum’s only daughter was born to my dad, right?”
There was a smile on the woman’s face, but formed with great reluctance. She frowned slightly and nodded.
Ye Zun clenched his fingers, watching the woman who looked completely normal, and thought of a possibility:
——Maybe he was wrong. Maybe it was only Nogawa Kaoru who knew that her little sister was bitten by a ghost. Although the mum took Nogawa Kaoru away, maybe she didn’t know about ghosts, so it is possible that the mum took the initiative to bring the little sister who was infected by ghosts to live in their new home.
He stared at the woman. “Didn’t Mum bring Meimei to live at home? I’ve seen her, she even made breakfast for Dad.”
Because of the messy timeline in the house, Ye Zun couldn’t say it was during Monday morning.
The man paused, lowering his head to eat as if nothing had happened.
The woman furrowed her brows. The corners of her mouth rose, but the smile on her face was almost equal to nothing. As if nothing was wrong, she said, “Don’t talk about this, you don’t have a little sister at all. It’s the same no matter how many times you bring it up. You too, all graduated from university, hurry and find someone to marry and start a family with. Your immune system is not good…you’ve been off vitamins for a long time, do you want to go to the doctor and get prescriptions again?”
Ye Zun found things a little absurd and faced her down calmly. “Is Mum implying that I’m sick in the head?”
——Didn’t she deliberately set up the tableware at the beginning and made Shen Yuan save some meat for the little sister?
The woman lowered her head to eat. “I didn’t say that, let’s eat ba. It’s fine to talk about anything, don’t mention any little sisters again.”
Ye Zun watched her quietly, swallowed lightly with his dry throat, and decided to put things straight. “Because Meimei died, or is it because, Mum was also bitten by the ghost?”
The man immediately smoothed things over. “Kid, what nonsense are you talking about? The salt in the soup is a little light, go to the kitchen and get some salt ba.”
The woman stopped and frowned at him, not angry, but looking at him with an odd expression. “I do have only one daughter, do you really want to know where she is?”
The woman’s expression really was far too strange, giving off a kind of calm and eerie feeling. Ye Zun looked at her face and the same chill that made his blood run cold when he opened the diary that belonged to the dead before reappeared again.
——This expression, she clearly knows. Is that girl’s ghost really always in this house?
He took a deep breath, feeling like he wasn’t quite ready yet.
Ye Zun stood up subconsciously, following the middle-aged man’s words and walking to the kitchen to get the salt. During this process, the woman also kept her eyes on him quietly. Looking like she wanted to laugh but not laughing, looking like she wanted to be angry yet she wasn’t angry, an odd expression that made people feel uneasy.
It was like, as long as Ye Zun asks another question, she will consider handing the answer directly to him, but her expression was saying that the answer may not be something Ye Zun can bear.
Ye Zun stood in the kitchen. This was his first time in this kitchen.
Probably because it was daytime, the house was much brighter than he remembered. Although it was a little dim due to the rain outside, the light was bright and there was no sense of oppression at all.
The same could be said for the kitchen. After entering, one would find that there was a window to the outside directly, which was brighter than anywhere else in the house.
Ye Zun took the salt shaker and was about to go out when his footsteps stopped.
A series of images flashed through his mind: the images of the woman chopping meat two nights ago, the indigestible meat in the pot of soup, the tempting bone broth outside, and, whether it was the little girl in the nightmare or Nogawa Kaoru’s diary, even the death diary of the girl with the cherry blossom hair clip, they all wrote words.
——People who have been bitten by ghosts will be infected. If they don’t eat people, they will starve to death. After dawn, they will return to their original state, but at night, the wounds they retained from being eaten will still be exposed until they are completely eaten by the ghost.
He tried his best to avoid thinking about the original source of the meat in the soup pot, but he couldn’t stop doubting.
Squeak squeak.
A small noise seemed to come from the refrigerator behind him.
Before he made a rational judgment, his hand was already placed on the refrigerator handle.
The voices of man and woman outside the kitchen continued. Like any normal family, one parent complained that their child didn’t understand anything, and the other persuaded them to let it go.
——How about it? Should I open and take a look?
What will he see?
The sound of the refrigerator door was very quiet, and there was only a slight resistance. Once opened, one can clearly see the interior.
He opened the door to the freezer. Inside, there was some loose meat packed in bags. With the distinct red and white colour, it looked like ordinary pork.
“Taking so long just to fetch the salt.” The woman’s voice was slightly unhappy.
The middle-aged man smoothed things out. “The child finally came home, let’s not say anything out of anger. Right, there is beer in the refrigerator, remember to bring two cans over.”
“Oh.” Ye Zun breathed a sigh of relief and opened the small refrigerator compartment above.
There was basically nothing in there, just some vegetables, leftover cooked food and drinks.
After pulling it open, it was indeed the same as the freezer. It seemed like there were quite a few items inside, but in reality, the fridge was rather empty. Something was not placed properly, and the whole thing fell out.
Ye Zun reached out his hand subconsciously, holding a cabbage-sized, round…human head.
Human head?!
Ye Zun blinked, his heartbeat lagging.
The face of the human head was very familiar, exactly the same as that of the middle-aged man who was currently persuading the hostess outside.
He looked like he was suffocated to death, with eyes bulging in spheres, unclear on whether it was out of rage or fear. It was as if he was staring so hard the eyeballs would fall out.
The lights in the house suddenly went out and every wall in the kitchen spun in an instant. The warm family household turned into the grave-like old house in his nightmare.
The horizontal kitchen became vertical; what was supposed to be the wall became the doorway; the whole house turned into a long, open corridor. Ye Zun looked straight into the living room.
The man and woman in the living room were also looking at him.
The delicious food on the table turned into various human tissues.
The man ate with relish, chewing while saying the warm words of persuasion from before.
However, his neck was broken to one side, teetering as if it was about to be completely severed but was barely stitched up by a black thread that was like a centipede. But, there was still a thick black blood stain oozing out of the wound.
On top of the twisted neck, pitch dark eyes stared straight at Ye Zun, who was holding a human head in front of the refrigerator, wearing a strange expression.
The woman was aged and numbed, no longer as gentle and happy as before, looking just as lost as the previous two nights, feeling a bone-deep fear but not daring to express her timidity in an obvious way.
She stared blankly in Ye Zun’s direction.
Empty from the waist down, only the torn upper body.
The middle-aged man behind her bit off half of her head in one bite, and her right shoulder and arm in two. The woman didn’t respond, she just smiled absently and stared at Ye Zun. “Now, you know where your Meimei is.”
After losing most of her body, the woman who still sat in the dark living room like a normal person and maintaining her smile was more creepy than the ghost-like middle-aged man behind her.
His field of vision was filled with the sight of heads, black lines, twisted necks, and splattered blood.
Ye Zun hurled the head in his hand far away, feeling a convulsion in his chest.
Even if he had never eaten a meal made by a woman, when he thought about himself almost consuming it, he couldn’t help retching.
——They really all turned into ghosts!
Run away! He must run away immediately!
The first thing he did was lock the kitchen door, then he picked up a kitchen knife and hacked into the middle of the dilapidated window frame, escaping through the cramped kitchen window.
While he was trying his best to escape, the lock of the kitchen door was twisted again and again from the outside and countless murmuring voices of ghosts were saying something.
Pretending to be angry, accusing, concerned, trying to get him to open the door.
“Kaoru, Kaoru…time to eat…”
When he jumped out of the window, the voices disappeared instantly.
Ye Zun leaped out the window. There was a certain danger in sticking a landing after jumping from a height of three floors and cushioning was needed, but he was already on the ground almost as soon as he stepped out of the window.
There was a terrifying darkness all around him.
Ye Zun ran a few steps before realising that this was not outside. He seemed to still be in the living room.
The living room here was more like the living room from last night’s nightmare than the one he walked in before.
No matter how long he walked, it was endless, but if he looked closely, it was cramped and narrow. It was as if he was always in the same place, having not gone anywhere with his steps.
——Have I entered the ghost’s energy-farming system?
He pressed down on his wildly beating heart, taking a deep breath and making psychological cues to himself: Calm down, calm down, at least slow down your heartbeat first.
With his heart jumping like this, everything might as well be useless. Before the ghost even comes to kill him, his heart will explode and he’ll die.
This has always been effective. After all, since he decided to go home, he had been mentally prepared and had certain expectations for what he was about to encounter.
Although it was imminent, he couldn’t help but be afraid. However, this can be overcome with hindsight.
——I cannot enter the ghost’s energy circulation system. As long as I am not scared and feel no fear, the ghost’s power is not that strong.
——This is the fourth day. In theory, the ghost’s power is not that strong, and it is not enough to kill me. Otherwise, it would not have tricked me just now, it would’ve just made its move directly.
His heartbeat slowed down. He made himself very calm and his eyes adapted to the darkness. There was no movement here for the time being.
——What is the ghost going to do next? Thinking of how to make me more scared? Scare me to the point of losing my mind?
Suddenly appearing from behind?
Peeping in the darkness from all sides?
Pictures of bloody murders? Horrifying visions?
Fear can not be visualised, as it will strengthen the fear of the unknown.
But one must expect horror, in order to numb the sensitivity towards the horror.
In order to fight against the fear that could not be suppressed, he deliberately pulled away part of his attention and tried his best to rethink the clues and reasoning he had obtained so far.
——Nogawa Kaoru’s parents have both turned into ghosts, so looking back now, neither of those two lied.
On the Sunday night he entered the game, he was afraid both of them were already dead by then.
At that time, when he entered the instance, the game prompt was:【 Your name is Nogawa Kaoru. One night, you suddenly hear a quarrel, and when you wake up the next day, the world starts to become strange. You find that some people around you are ghosts… 】
Thinking about it now, back then, the strangeness of the woman chopping meat and the fishy smell in the house were all too suspicious.
But because of Ye Zun’s subconscious fear of the game and his lack of initiative, as well as the seemingly mild seven-day safety period given by the game, it paralysed him, and he chose to turn a blind eye to everything suspicious in front of him.
If he had taken the initiative to find a way to enter the master bedroom to have a look that night, would he have discovered the truth earlier?
But if he really went in and saw the corpse in the house, would he live to the seventh day?
——Damn it, this suddenly came to me, did the game do this on purpose? In fact, the correct way to clear the level may be not to explore; as long as you don’t discover the truth, and don’t become aware of the ghost, will you be safe instead?
The instant panic was quickly suppressed by Ye Zun.
——No, I will never be able to clear the seventh day just by trying hard not to find the ghost. This is undoubtedly end in me waiting for death. As long as the ghost makes their move on the seventh day, I will definitely die.
However, when searching for clues in the early stage, it is absolutely necessary for your own safety to not reveal the identity of the ghost so quickly.
In the end, it is still required of him to actively explore the plot in the instance, and based on the clues finds, he can solve the fated death of Nogawa Kaoru.
As he moved carefully around the house, vigilantly looking for an exit, he forced himself to calmly rearrange his thoughts.
——It is known that there is a kind of ghost in this world that will select victims in a certain way: Nogawa Kaoru’s little sister and the girl with the cherry blossom hair slip are both victims.
What they both have in common is that they are girls.
——However, the ghost came to Nogawa Kaoru’s new home after many years. Ruling out that the little sister might have come to take revenge on her big brother and mum who left her to the ghost, why did the ghost appear in the new home?
It’s because, in this family, there is still a slippery fish that fits the identity of a victim, a girl!
So, the woman that was denying the existence of a little sister just now, was in fact hiding and protecting that girl?
——Then, there is a question that needs to be answered: how did the ghost enter Nogawa Kaoru’s house?
When Nogawa Kaoru was a child, how the ghost entered their house and devoured his little sister had an answer that was nowhere to be found, but now, how did the ghost enter this new home?
——Wait, since neither of them lied about the time of their death, plus the time given by the game, does it mean that the time when the ghost entered this house was actually last weekend?
That night when Ye Zun entered the game.
So, the question can be simplified to, what happened on that weekend night?
As long as he knows what happened that night, will he be able to figure out how the ghost invaded Nogawa Kaoru’s house? Who was the first to be infected by the ghost? If he can find the ghost’s body, just as Nogawa Kaoru said in his diary, he can kill it!
Click.
As if it was because he finally solved the puzzle, the door of the labyrinth opened automatically.
The exit that could not be found suddenly had a gap open, revealing the familiar main door that led to the outside.
Ye Zun only hesitated for a second, then stepped forward and opened the door.
In any case, anything was better than staying in this closed grave-like house, where it was as if a man-eating ghost would pop out at any time.
Outside the door, there was still rain accompanied by persistent lightning, and it was impossible to see anything clearly beyond three steps.
This rain completely put an end to the idea of anyone wanting to run out in order to escape. It revealed a cold and strange and ominous aura.
Ye Zun also had no intention of walking out at all.
Standing in the silent corridor, he thought for a while, thinking of the resident to the left side that he passed when he went up the stairs on the third floor.
“Let’s go and ask, maybe they heard something.”
Ye Zun walked to the left of the corridor.
The sound insulation of the old residential area was very poor and the smallest sounds were clear. As long as there were people next door, anyone can definitely hear something.
He stood at the door and knocked three times.
“Hello, I’m sorry to bother you, is there anyone here? I’m Nogawa Kaoru, your neighbour living to your right. I have something I would like to ask.”
No one answered, but the front door creaked a little, opening up a crack.
“……”
The sound of wind and rain was loud and Ye Zun was not sure what the person inside said when they opened the door. They seemed to have said please come in, come in ba, or something like that.
Several pots of flowers were placed outside the neighbour’s door, full of life, and the trash can at the door was also neatly arranged, giving people a sense of liveliness and fun and pulling him out of the atmosphere of terror and suffocation.
“Pardon my disturbance, I’m coming in.”
He stood at the entrance. Because he was still wearing the shoes he changed when indoors, he wasn’t too worried about stepping on and dirtying the house owner’s floor.
At a glance, the house was clean, refreshing and romantic, decorated with careful thought. Just seeing it and one would know that the hostess was very much enjoying life
Inside, there was the sound of bed sheets being shaken to dry. It reminded him of the excessive wind and rain outside. It seemed that the rain had soaked into the laundry hanging on the balcony and the owner was currently busy cleaning.
“Sorry to visit at this time, but I have something very important I would like to ask you…”
“Come in and tell me ba.” The quiet and soft voice sounded like the owner was frowning, thinking about why he was worried, but forcing herself to be patient and polite.
Ye Zun carefully closed the front door, subconsciously not locking it.
He walked towards the master bedroom and saw the woman facing him at a glance, tall and thin, wearing silk pyjamas with a lace trim.
Ye Zun closed his eyes for a moment and pursed his lips slightly, feeling a little embarrassed and discourteous.
He didn’t expect the woman to dress so lightly. It really was too rude to be here at this time.
But his problem was of great importance. There is no way for him to leave like this.
“It’s like this,” he spoke quickly, pretending he didn’t see anything, “I was wondering if you heard a quarrel last weekend night? There’s something going on at my house because of it, and I want to know what was going on.”
There was no answer. The sound of shaking bed sheets continued, the range of movement a little loud and forceful, as if the owner’s mood was slightly irritated.
“En?” Ye Zun waited for a while. Several times, he wanted to look directly at her face, but when he thought of the light dress on the woman’s body, he became a little hesitant.
“The rain is very heavy, aren’t you cold? Would you like to wear an extra layer of clothing?”
After all, he had no stray thoughts and a clear conscience, and the matter at the moment was very important. Ye Zun still looked at her calmly, letting himself only look at her face above her neck.
The woman was really tall. Ye Zun was 1.85 metres tall, but despite the slight distance, the woman’s perspective seemed to be looking down at him.
She must be more than 1.9 metres ba, is she even taller than the priest?
His heart suddenly jumped.
Ye Zun slightly startled and he carefully looked at the woman.
The wind blew inside through the open windows. There was the sound of curtains rustling, just like shaking off an annoying rain-soaked bed sheet.
However, the hostess herself did nothing. She just looked down at Ye Zun slightly, unblinking.
Ye Zun took a step back, his face turning pale before he knew it.
Looking closely, the woman’s fashionably permed long hair was scattered, and a tulle-like silk scarf was wrapped between her hair and her neck.
But, who would wear such light pyjamas at home as well as a silk scarf around their neck?
Following along the silk scarf, the ceiling was decorated with the same pink and white lace tulle, the same type as the silk scarf around her neck, which had been wrapped around the lamp of the same colour above them.
The tulle nightdress was long enough to reach the calf, and the calf to the instep hung down naturally and tight. The overly long neck made the person look very, very, very tall.
Ye Zun stepped back, holding the door frame with his hand, and stared at the scene in front of him with wide eyes.
The hostess was hanging dead from the lamp in the bedroom.
——She died? Who opened the door for me?
Ye Zun ran to the door hurriedly. He was initially always ready to go out and open the door at any time.
Unlike the strange layout of Nogawa Kaoru’s house, this bedroom was not far from the front door and he ran to it in three or two steps.
Panting sharply, when Ye Zun’s fingers touched the door, his feet came to a stop.
——I can’t run away, I came here to find the truth.
——If I run away now without knowing anything, I can only wait to be slaughtered by the ghost on the seventh day!
Ye Zun clenched the doorknob tightly. He closed his eyes, then opened them again. His eyes were firm.
First, he completely undid the anti-theft lock of the door, and then pulled the door completely open, so that even if there was a powerful force, the door would not be locked for a while, so as to avoid being locked inside and unable to escape at a critical moment.
Then, Ye Zun began to observe the living room.
The house was very clean and tidy, having the breath of life from not long ago. Judging from the state of the hostess’ body, she hadn’t been dead for long.
Thinking of something, Ye Zun touched his own hair again.
——As expected, the hair became shorter again.
It seemed that the time in this residential building was indeed disordered, but the length of his hair could be used to judge the time of past and future.
No wonder he couldn’t find a mirror at home. It turned out to be intentional, in order to hide this clue, so as to block his perception?
Judging from the length of the hair, it was now close to what Ye Zun had before he entered the instance. The current time was roughly when he just entered the instance.
That is to say, the current timeline was of last weekend, just before or after he entered the instance.
It was the day when everything became strange, the day Nogawa Kaoru heard a quarrel.
——It seems that I was wrong, the setting of the instance is not only Nogawa Kaoru’s house, but also the neighbours. This is also an important area for hidden clues.
He suddenly thought about the second year’s Class 1, where the entire class had turned into ghosts.
——That’s right; the school, even the bus on the road, there are ghosts everywhere. Why didn’t I think that there would also be something wrong with the neighbours?
He felt that he was beginning to touch the edge of truth.
“Hehehe, you can really talk, is it okay? Still staying with me until now? At this time, your wife is coming back from shopping oh.”
Suddenly, a woman’s enchanting voice came from the bedroom, and Ye Zun was suddenly horrified.
The author has something to say:
The foreshadowing is almost done in the early stage, and the clues are basically all given, now we start to run towards the ending.
Ye Zun froze at the door, not expecting to see such a normal picture when he came up.The woman had naturally walked to the doorway, welcoming him in warmly as she bent down and thoughtfully brought him slippers.With a smile forming on her lips, she said, This child, really, what are you doing in a daze? Haven't you seen your mother for so long that you forgot about me?Ye Zun came back to his senses, paused, then walked in slowly.The door behind him closed.Ye Zun didn't know what to say, so he simply didn't say anything at all and just looked around.At a glance, he saw the middle-aged man sitting on the sofa. The other man was reading the newspaper in his hands. He looked slightly fat and scholarly. With a kind smile on his face, and nodded politely to Ye Zun. You're back. Come and eatba. Knowing you will come back, your Mum specially had me go out to buy ingredients early in the morning. All of them are your favorites.What is going on?No matter how terrifying the scene was, he was already mentally prepared, but seeing such an ordinary scene made him suspect for a moment that he had made a mistake.Before he knew it, Ye Zun was herded to sit near the sofa.The food on the table was very luxurious, especially the big pot of pork rib soup in the middle. The broth was red and bright and the meat firm and tender, making people unable to stop drooling, wiggling their index fingers.Seeing the pork rib soup, the image of the woman holding a kitchen knife dripping with blood in despair flashed in Ye Zun's mind. He suddenly jolted slightly.Quickly eatba. You should eat more, this was all prepared for you.The two people at the table had already started to dig in.Dad has worked hard, you should eat some more. The woman was gentle and considerate, and after serving Ye Zun some food, she also served the male house owner.The white rice was fragrant, but Ye Zun dared not to take a single bite.This child, still cautious even after returning to our own home.Quickly eatah, the woman smiled and admonished.Ye Zun came to his senses, and in order to cover up, he subconsciously asked, Where's the rest of the family?With a new conversation topic, the woman stopped staring at him while urging him to eat, and said with a smile, Your Gege is at workah, he only comes back occasionally on weekends. At work? Isn't Shen Yuan a high school student? How can this be?You too; you just graduated from university, wouldn't it be better to come home and find a nearby workplace?What? In their eyes, has Nogawa Kaoru graduated from university already?Ye Zun was stunned for a moment. How old am I now?Aiya, I just remembered once you brought it up. Your twenty-first birthday is coming soon. This time, Mum must remember to give you a good time.The woman smiled, revealing faint wrinkles at the end of her eyes.Ye Zun sat there in a daze, and the next second, he went to touch the hair on the back of his head, barely tied and sticking out like a sparrow's tail. Sure enough, he caught a tuft of soft hair, hanging at a hand's length.21 year old Nogawa Kaoru, with hair that inexplicably grew longer Is the time in this house constantly changing?Ye Zun's eyes were cautious as they looked at the woman. His Adam's apple bobbed slightly. Then, what about Meimei?The woman was stunned for a moment, the smile on her face stagnated slightly, before she quickly returned to normal, still smiling. This child, what Meimei do you haveah.Where did you hear that? Did you suspect that we're having a second child? How can we try for a child at this age?Ye Zun froze in place. There's no Meimei?The seven-or-eight year old girl I saw at home before, is she really the ghost of Nogawa Kaoru's little sister?But if it is a ghost, Shen Yuan said that there is a girl at home. What is going on?Isn't there a girl at home? Ye Zun stared at the woman, his tone restrained and calm. Where is she now?The woman's expression was a little reluctant, and she looked back at the man.The man's expression was also a little hesitant, trying to smooth things over by saying, Let's eatba.Ye Zun still looked at the woman. Mum's only daughter was born to my dad, right?There was a smile on the woman's face, but formed with great reluctance. She frowned slightly and nodded.Ye Zun clenched his fingers, watching the woman who looked completely normal, and thought of a possibility:Maybe he was wrong. Maybe it was only Nogawa Kaoru who knew that her little sister was bitten by a ghost. Although the mum took Nogawa Kaoru away, maybe she didn't know about ghosts, so it is possible that the mum took the initiative to bring the little sister who was infected by ghosts to live in their new home.He stared at the woman. Didn't Mum bring Meimei to live at home? I've seen her, she even made breakfast for Dad.Because of the messy timeline in the house, Ye Zun couldn't say it was during Monday morning.The man paused, lowering his head to eat as if nothing had happened.The woman furrowed her brows. The corners of her mouth rose, but the smile on her face was almost equal to nothing. As if nothing was wrong, she said, Don't talk about this, you don't have a little sister at all. It's the same no matter how many times you bring it up. You too, all graduated from university, hurry and find someone to marry and start a family with. Your immune system is not goodyou've been off vitamins for a long time, do you want to go to the doctor and get prescriptions again?Ye Zun found things a little absurd and faced her down calmly. Is Mum implying that I'm sick in the head?Didn't she deliberately set up the tableware at the beginning and made Shen Yuan save some meat for the little sister?The woman lowered her head to eat. I didn't say that, let's eatba. It's fine to talk about anything, don't mention any little sisters again.Ye Zun watched her quietly, swallowed lightly with his dry throat, and decided to put things straight. Because Meimei died, or is it because, Mum was also bitten by the ghost?The man immediately smoothed things over. Kid, what nonsense are you talking about? The salt in the soup is a little light, go to the kitchen and get some saltba.The woman stopped and frowned at him, not angry, but looking at him with an odd expression. I do have only one daughter, do you really want to know where she is?The woman's expression really was far too strange, giving off a kind of calm and eerie feeling. Ye Zun looked at her face and the same chill that made his blood run cold when he opened the diary that belonged to the dead before reappeared again.This expression, she clearly knows. Is that girl's ghost really always in this house?He took a deep breath, feeling like he wasn't quite ready yet.Ye Zun stood up subconsciously, following the middle-aged man's words and walking to the kitchen to get the salt. During this process, the woman also kept her eyes on him quietly. Looking like she wanted to laugh but not laughing, looking like she wanted to be angry yet she wasn't angry, an odd expression that made people feel uneasy.It was like, as long as Ye Zun asks another question, she will consider handing the answer directly to him, but her expression was saying that the answer may not be something Ye Zun can bear.Ye Zun stood in the kitchen. This was his first time in this kitchen.Probably because it was daytime, the house was much brighter than he remembered. Although it was a little dim due to the rain outside, the light was bright and there was no sense of oppression at all.The same could be said for the kitchen. After entering, one would find that there was a window to the outside directly, which was brighter than anywhere else in the house.Ye Zun took the salt shaker and was about to go out when his footsteps stopped.A series of images flashed through his mind: the images of the woman chopping meat two nights ago, the indigestible meat in the pot of soup, the tempting bone broth outside, and, whether it was the little girl in the nightmare or Nogawa Kaoru's diary, even the death diary of the girl with the cherry blossom hair clip, they all wrote words.People who have been bitten by ghosts will be infected. If they don't eat people, they will starve to death. After dawn, they will return to their original state, but at night, the wounds they retained from being eaten will still be exposed until they are completely eaten by the ghost.He tried his best to avoid thinking about the original source of the meat in the soup pot, but he couldn't stop doubting.Squeak squeak.A small noise seemed to come from the refrigerator behind him.Before he made a rational judgment, his hand was already placed on the refrigerator handle.The voices of man and woman outside the kitchen continued. Like any normal family, one parent complained that their child didn't understand anything, and the other persuaded them to let it go.How about it? Should I open and take a look?What will he see?The sound of the refrigerator door was very quiet, and there was only a slight resistance. Once opened, one can clearly see the interior.He opened the door to the freezer. Inside, there was some loose meat packed in bags. With the distinct red and white colour, it looked like ordinary pork.Taking so long just to fetch the salt. The woman's voice was slightly unhappy.The middle-aged man smoothed things out. The child finally came home, let's not say anything out of anger. Right, there is beer in the refrigerator, remember to bring two cans over.Oh. Ye Zun breathed a sigh of relief and opened the small refrigerator compartment above.There was basically nothing in there, just some vegetables, leftover cooked food and drinks.After pulling it open, it was indeed the same as the freezer. It seemed like there were quite a few items inside, but in reality, the fridge was rather empty. Something was not placed properly, and the whole thing fell out.Ye Zun reached out his hand subconsciously, holding a cabbage-sized, roundhuman head.Human head?!Ye Zun blinked, his heartbeat lagging.The face of the human head was very familiar, exactly the same as that of the middle-aged man who was currently persuading the hostess outside.He looked like he was suffocated to death, with eyes bulging in spheres, unclear on whether it was out of rage or fear. It was as if he was staring so hard the eyeballs would fall out.The lights in the house suddenly went out and every wall in the kitchen spun in an instant. The warm family household turned into the grave-like old house in his nightmare.The horizontal kitchen became vertical; what was supposed to be the wall became the doorway; the whole house turned into a long, open corridor. Ye Zun looked straight into the living room.The man and woman in the living room were also looking at him.The delicious food on the table turned into various human tissues.The man ate with relish, chewing while saying the warm words of persuasion from before.However, his neck was broken to one side, teetering as if it was about to be completely severed but was barely stitched up by a black thread that was like a centipede. But, there was still a thick black blood stain oozing out of the wound.On top of the twisted neck, pitch dark eyes stared straight at Ye Zun, who was holding a human head in front of the refrigerator, wearing a strange expression.The woman was aged and numbed, no longer as gentle and happy as before, looking just as lost as the previous two nights, feeling a bone-deep fear but not daring to express her timidity in an obvious way.She stared blankly in Ye Zun's direction.Empty from the waist down, only the torn upper body.The middle-aged man behind her bit off half of her head in one bite, and her right shoulder and arm in two. The woman didn't respond, she just smiled absently and stared at Ye Zun. Now, you know where your Meimei is.After losing most of her body, the woman who still sat in the dark living room like a normal person and maintaining her smile was more creepy than the ghost-like middle-aged man behind her.His field of vision was filled with the sight of heads, black lines, twisted necks, and splattered blood.Ye Zun hurled the head in his hand far away, feeling a convulsion in his chest.Even if he had never eaten a meal made by a woman, when he thought about himself almost consuming it, he couldn't help retching.They really all turned into ghosts!Run away! He must run away immediately!The first thing he did was lock the kitchen door, then he picked up a kitchen knife and hacked into the middle of the dilapidated window frame, escaping through the cramped kitchen window.While he was trying his best to escape, the lock of the kitchen door was twisted again and again from the outside and countless murmuring voices of ghosts were saying something.Pretending to be angry, accusing, concerned, trying to get him to open the door.Kaoru, Kaorutime to eatWhen he jumped out of the window, the voices disappeared instantly.Ye Zun leaped out the window. There was a certain danger in sticking a landing after jumping from a height of three floors and cushioning was needed, but he was already on the ground almost as soon as he stepped out of the window.There was a terrifying darkness all around him.Ye Zun ran a few steps before realising that this was not outside. He seemed to still be in the living room.The living room here was more like the living room from last night's nightmare than the one he walked in before.No matter how long he walked, it was endless, but if he looked closely, it was cramped and narrow. It was as if he was always in the same place, having not gone anywhere with his steps.Have I entered the ghost's energy-farming system?He pressed down on his wildly beating heart, taking a deep breath and making psychological cues to himself: Calm down, calm down, at least slow down your heartbeat first.With his heart jumping like this, everything might as well be useless. Before the ghost even comes to kill him, his heart will explode and he'll die.This has always been effective. After all, since he decided to go home, he had been mentally prepared and had certain expectations for what he was about to encounter.Although it was imminent, he couldn't help but be afraid. However, this can be overcome with hindsight.I cannot enter the ghost's energy circulation system. As long as I am not scared and feel no fear, the ghost's power is not that strong.This is the fourth day. In theory, the ghost's power is not that strong, and it is not enough to kill me. Otherwise, it would not have tricked me just now, it would've just made its move directly.His heartbeat slowed down. He made himself very calm and his eyes adapted to the darkness. There was no movement here for the time being.What is the ghost going to do next? Thinking of how to make me more scared? Scare me to the point of losing my mind?Suddenly appearing from behind?Peeping in the darkness from all sides?Pictures of bloody murders? Horrifying visions?Fear can not be visualised, as it will strengthen the fear of the unknown.But one must expect horror, in order to numb the sensitivity towards the horror.In order to fight against the fear that could not be suppressed, he deliberately pulled away part of his attention and tried his best to rethink the clues and reasoning he had obtained so far.Nogawa Kaoru's parents have both turned into ghosts, so looking back now, neither of those two lied.On the Sunday night he entered the game, he was afraid both of them were already dead by then.At that time, when he entered the instance, the game prompt was: Your name is Nogawa Kaoru. One night, you suddenly hear a quarrel, and when you wake up the next day, the world starts to become strange. You find that some people around you are ghosts Thinking about it now, back then, the strangeness of the woman chopping meat and the fishy smell in the house were all too suspicious.But because of Ye Zun's subconscious fear of the game and his lack of initiative, as well as the seemingly mild seven-day safety period given by the game, it paralysed him, and he chose to turn a blind eye to everything suspicious in front of him.If he had taken the initiative to find a way to enter the master bedroom to have a look that night, would he have discovered the truth earlier?But if he really went in and saw the corpse in the house, would he live to the seventh day?Damn it, this suddenly came to me, did the game do this on purpose? In fact, the correct way to clear the level may be not to explore; as long as you don't discover the truth, and don't become aware of the ghost, will you be safe instead?The instant panic was quickly suppressed by Ye Zun.No, I will never be able to clear the seventh day just by trying hard not to find the ghost. This is undoubtedly end in me waiting for death. As long as the ghost makes their move on the seventh day, I will definitely die.However, when searching for clues in the early stage, it is absolutely necessary for your own safety to not reveal the identity of the ghost so quickly.In the end, it is still required of him to actively explore the plot in the instance, and based on the clues finds, he can solve the fated death of Nogawa Kaoru.As he moved carefully around the house, vigilantly looking for an exit, he forced himself to calmly rearrange his thoughts.It is known that there is a kind of ghost in this world that will select victims in a certain way: Nogawa Kaoru's little sister and the girl with the cherry blossom hair slip are both victims.What they both have in common is that they are girls.However, the ghost came to Nogawa Kaoru's new home after many years. Ruling out that the little sister might have come to take revenge on her big brother and mum who left her to the ghost, why did the ghost appear in the new home?It's because, in this family, there is still a slippery fish that fits the identity of a victim, a girl!So, the woman that was denying the existence of a little sister just now, was in fact hiding and protecting that girl?Then, there is a question that needs to be answered: how did the ghost enter Nogawa Kaoru's house?When Nogawa Kaoru was a child, how the ghost entered their house and devoured his little sister had an answer that was nowhere to be found, but now, how did the ghost enter this new home?Wait, since neither of them lied about the time of their death, plus the time given by the game, does it mean that the time when the ghost entered this house was actually last weekend?That night when Ye Zun entered the game.So, the question can be simplified to, what happened on that weekend night?As long as he knows what happened that night, will he be able to figure out how the ghost invaded Nogawa Kaoru's house? Who was the first to be infected by the ghost? If he can find the ghost's body, just as Nogawa Kaoru said in his diary, he can kill it!Click.As if it was because he finally solved the puzzle, the door of the labyrinth opened automatically.The exit that could not be found suddenly had a gap open, revealing the familiar main door that led to the outside.Ye Zun only hesitated for a second, then stepped forward and opened the door.In any case, anything was better than staying in this closed grave-like house, where it was as if a man-eating ghost would pop out at any time.Outside the door, there was still rain accompanied by persistent lightning, and it was impossible to see anything clearly beyond three steps.This rain completely put an end to the idea of anyone wanting to run out in order to escape. It revealed a cold and strange and ominous aura.Ye Zun also had no intention of walking out at all.Standing in the silent corridor, he thought for a while, thinking of the resident to the left side that he passed when he went up the stairs on the third floor.Let's go and ask, maybe they heard something.Ye Zun walked to the left of the corridor.The sound insulation of the old residential area was very poor and the smallest sounds were clear. As long as there were people next door, anyone can definitely hear something.He stood at the door and knocked three times.Hello, I'm sorry to bother you, is there anyone here? I'm Nogawa Kaoru, your neighbour living to your right. I have something I would like to ask.No one answered, but the front door creaked a little, opening up a crack.The sound of wind and rain was loud and Ye Zun was not sure what the person inside said when they opened the door. They seemed to have said please come in, come inba, or something like that.Several pots of flowers were placed outside the neighbour's door, full of life, and the trash can at the door was also neatly arranged, giving people a sense of liveliness and fun and pulling him out of the atmosphere of terror and suffocation.Pardon my disturbance, I'm coming in.He stood at the entrance. Because he was still wearing the shoes he changed when indoors, he wasn't too worried about stepping on and dirtying the house owner's floor.At a glance, the house was clean, refreshing and romantic, decorated with careful thought. Just seeing it and one would know that the hostess was very much enjoying lifeInside, there was the sound of bed sheets being shaken to dry. It reminded him of the excessive wind and rain outside. It seemed that the rain had soaked into the laundry hanging on the balcony and the owner was currently busy cleaning.Sorry to visit at this time, but I have something very important I would like to ask youCome in and tell meba. The quiet and soft voice sounded like the owner was frowning, thinking about why he was worried, but forcing herself to be patient and polite.Ye Zun carefully closed the front door, subconsciously not locking it.He walked towards the master bedroom and saw the woman facing him at a glance, tall and thin, wearing silk pyjamas with a lace trim.Ye Zun closed his eyes for a moment and pursed his lips slightly, feeling a little embarrassed and discourteous.He didn't expect the woman to dress so lightly. It really was too rude to be here at this time.But his problem was of great importance. There is no way for him to leave like this.It's like this, he spoke quickly, pretending he didn't see anything, I was wondering if you heard a quarrel last weekend night? There's something going on at my house because of it, and I want to know what was going on.There was no answer. The sound of shaking bed sheets continued, the range of movement a little loud and forceful, as if the owner's mood was slightly irritated.En? Ye Zun waited for a while. Several times, he wanted to look directly at her face, but when he thought of the light dress on the woman's body, he became a little hesitant.The rain is very heavy, aren't you cold? Would you like to wear an extra layer of clothing?After all, he had no stray thoughts and a clear conscience, and the matter at the moment was very important. Ye Zun still looked at her calmly, letting himself only look at her face above her neck.The woman was really tall. Ye Zun was 1.85 metres tall, but despite the slight distance, the woman's perspective seemed to be looking down at him.She must be more than 1.9 metresba, is she even taller than the priest?His heart suddenly jumped.Ye Zun slightly startled and he carefully looked at the woman.The wind blew inside through the open windows. There was the sound of curtains rustling, just like shaking off an annoying rain-soaked bed sheet.However, the hostess herself did nothing. She just looked down at Ye Zun slightly, unblinking.Ye Zun took a step back, his face turning pale before he knew it.Looking closely, the woman's fashionably permed long hair was scattered, and a tulle-like silk scarf was wrapped between her hair and her neck.But, who would wear such light pyjamas at home as well as a silk scarf around their neck?Following along the silk scarf, the ceiling was decorated with the same pink and white lace tulle, the same type as the silk scarf around her neck, which had been wrapped around the lamp of the same colour above them.The tulle nightdress was long enough to reach the calf, and the calf to the instep hung down naturally and tight. The overly long neck made the person look very, very, very tall.Ye Zun stepped back, holding the door frame with his hand, and stared at the scene in front of him with wide eyes.The hostess was hanging dead from the lamp in the bedroom.She died? Who opened the door for me?Ye Zun ran to the door hurriedly. He was initially always ready to go out and open the door at any time.Unlike the strange layout of Nogawa Kaoru's house, this bedroom was not far from the front door and he ran to it in three or two steps.Panting sharply, when Ye Zun's fingers touched the door, his feet came to a stop.I can't run away, I came here to find the truth.If I run away now without knowing anything, I can only wait to be slaughtered by the ghost on the seventh day!Ye Zun clenched the doorknob tightly. He closed his eyes, then opened them again. His eyes were firm.First, he completely undid the anti-theft lock of the door, and then pulled the door completely open, so that even if there was a powerful force, the door would not be locked for a while, so as to avoid being locked inside and unable to escape at a critical moment.Then, Ye Zun began to observe the living room.The house was very clean and tidy, having the breath of life from not long ago. Judging from the state of the hostess' body, she hadn't been dead for long.Thinking of something, Ye Zun touched his own hair again.As expected, the hair became shorter again.It seemed that the time in this residential building was indeed disordered, but the length of his hair could be used to judge the time of past and future.No wonder he couldn't find a mirror at home. It turned out to be intentional, in order to hide this clue, so as to block his perception?Judging from the length of the hair, it was now close to what Ye Zun had before he entered the instance. The current time was roughly when he just entered the instance.That is to say, the current timeline was of last weekend, just before or after he entered the instance.It was the day when everything became strange, the day Nogawa Kaoru heard a quarrel.It seems that I was wrong, the setting of the instance is not only Nogawa Kaoru's house, but also the neighbours. This is also an important area for hidden clues.He suddenly thought about the second year's Class 1, where the entire class had turned into ghosts.That's right; the school, even the bus on the road, there are ghosts everywhere. Why didn't I think that there would also be something wrong with the neighbours?He felt that he was beginning to touch the edge of truth.Hehehe, you can really talk, is it okay? Still staying with me until now? At this time, your wife is coming back from shoppingoh.Suddenly, a woman's enchanting voice came from the bedroom, and Ye Zun was suddenly horrified.The author has something to say:The foreshadowing is almost done in the early stage, and the clues are basically all given, now we start to run towards the ending.
