Chapter 52 - Doll House (29)

The servants room was diffrent from the rest of the manor rooms. Poor and shoddily built, in the most neglected corner of the castle, nevertheless carried evidence of being regular cleaned.

However the experienced players were able to immediately spot a few discrepancies in the room.

Servants were usually the lowest tier of people in a castle estate , howver, although this room still had the illusion of being run-down, the beds weren't the same standard, hard and uncomfortable blocks that they were usually assigned instead they were soft and bouncy, which was a luxury, especially in this particular era, similarly, furniture and accessories common to servants had been switched out and replaced with aristocratic but subtle types that would still give the illusion of sevantry unnoticeable to others but still function to please their bearer.

Evidently something or rather someone of importance had resided here.

The servants room was like a separate isolated space cut off from the rest of the castle. Running through the Halls previously they could still feel the sting of smoke choking their nose and blocking their lungs, the heat from the rapidly decomposing walls scorching their skin.

However the minute they had stepped into the room, a stiff biting chill washed over them, sending tiny goosebumps traveling up their spines.

"Coffin"

"It's like a coffin."

Uncharacteristically Bu Hua was the first to speak.

With thin, trembling Lips, he mumbled with a pale face,

"I-I work as a janitor at a hospital and one of my stops is at the morgue. This Cold reminds me of the temperature in the morgue, it's needed to freeze dead corpses"

"And it's getting colder"

The chilling sensation rose from the bottom of their feet to the tops of their head, quickly turning their faces ugly

"At least we're safe for now, we just have to quickly find what the servants had stolen and hand it back to the madam"

Zhong Feng tried to assure the others

Chu Yi didn't have a sense of measure even in this dire situation, quickly tearing into Zhong Feng, removing any illusion of false hope they had, before it could fester

"Stupid."

" Right now at the speed at which the temperature is falling we'll be faced with death from hyperthermia in less than 5 minutes and outside we'll be looking at Burning to death"

They ran away from the fire but now they were wading in deep waters.

They could neither stay nor turn back.

"Also who's to say that the Madam is the true mastermind behind all of this."

The air was silent for a second, then Shi Xiaodong Bu Hua, Lui Quishi and even Zhong Feng all turned grave.

None of the players who had managed to get this far were stupid and once their thoughts was guided in the right direction, they quickly found the crux of the problem

"Why didn't you say anything earlier! "

"If you had said something earlier, would we still be here running around in circles!"

In desperation, Bu Hua's fear quickly turned into unreasonable anger, turning the hatred onto Chu Yi.

Seizing the opportunity, Zhong Feng immediately started instigating

"Maybe he was just waiting, watching for us to reach a critical point and jump out to posture as Savior and then send us all to our deaths once we've treated him."

"Only he, himself would know"

Zhong Feng spoke meaningfully, with his identity of knowing Chu Yi from the previous copy, there was indeed some credibility in his words.

Even if they didn't fully believe him, subconsciously their vigilance against Chu Yi would rise.

Bu Hua was a prime example of this.

His eyes looking at Chu Yi turned increasingly dark, although supressed he could still feel the tendrils of malice sneaking like insects in a murky swamp

Those eyes were ugly, evil and incompetent.

He disliked them.

Chu Yi watched the farce in front of him expressionlessly, dangerously teetering between calm and anger.

Firstly, he had no evidence before, and even if he did

,if he had said something at the time there was no guarantee that they would take it seriously, maybe they would even ridicule him for thinking too much.

Nevertheless he didn't feel like explaining anything anything to the jumping clowns.

The sudden heat in his pocket quickly brought his attention away from them.

Dark, bloody pools tilted towards Shi XiaoDong and Lui Quishi direction, without observing their expression he mouthed something to them.

Both of their faces changed after understanding what he said.

Shi XiaoDong gave him a subtle nod and interrupted the still jumping Bu Hua.

"Alright- Alright, we don't have time to complain right now. Quickly look for anything that can help us get out of here ".

Zhong Feng and Bu Hua immediately focused , there really was no time to argue.

In the brief moment they had spent idling, the temperature had already fallen to below sub degree temperatures.

The paleness on their face was longer from fright.

The players quickly scattered around, looking under the beds and Dresser and it wasn't before long that they heard a familiar shout.

"Found it!"

Lui Quishi exclaimed excitedly, holding up a broken piece of paper, frost had already started to gather on his eyelashes but it still couldn't hide the brilliant light in his eyes.

"You really do have an Emperors physique"

Even Bu Hua had to exclaim in admiration.

Shi Xiaodong's face softened looking at Lui Quishi bright eyes, however after noticing the fingers that had turned purple, starting to tremble struggling to hold up the piece of parchment, the smile was quickly wiped off his face

"Read it! Quickly!

Lui Quishi nodded and scanned the page hastily, face slowly turning green the more he read

"Fuck!"

"What does it say?!"

He quickly summarized it for them

"The witch had disguised himself as one of the servants here under the care of the Madam to avoid attention. But the sacrifice he had given to the madam was missing the most crucial point!"

"Not only does the sacrifice require a blood child with a Yin physique but the mother of the child must be sacrificed too!"

"Two biting dogs! Hurting everyone else-"

He didn't get to finish talking however, as Bu Hua unceremoniously snatched the page from his hands

"Who gives a fuck about that nonsense, does it say anything about how to leave here!"

Lui Quishi frowned slightly at his callousness, the hand that was batted was faintly stiff and painful, nevertheless there was no time to argue

"The paper only said that the most important part of the ritual is that it must be kept on the Yin year, The Yin Month and the Yin Day, otherwise the evil spirit to be Let loose!"

" If the Madam was really just a sacrifice in all of this then that means that the witch must have done something to the ritual to make it work for him!"

"Today is February 4, 1963-"

"What?"

Before Zhong Feng could hear what Lui Quishi had said clearly, Bu Hua jumped out to interrupt him once again.

"Stop beating around the bush, how the fuck do we get out of here!"

"Time "

Behind them, a symphony of broken, childish voices sounded in sync suddenly

Grating and jarrish to the ear.

Goosebumps erupting from their skin, the players turned slowly towards the sounds.

Zhong Feng quickly forgot what he had wanted to say, instead vigilantly taking out a prop

A familiar Young Master dressed in a plain white robe, stood in front of a group of bloody disfigured children

A joyful smile on his small face.

He didn't pay attention to the frightened faces of the others, instead his large eyes bored right into Chu Yi's unflinching own.

"Don't you know this already big brother. Time can stop it all"

Bu Hua and Zhong Feng turned to Chu Yi with speculation.

Increasing hostility festering in their gazes.

This newcomer was more difficult to deal with than they thought.

Chu Yi didn't care about the thoughts of others.

He smiled playfully at the young master before him, a red tinged mouth opening to reveal a pink tongue that swiped over his lips, leaving behind an alluring wet trace

"XingLing, won't you lead the way. You failed once before, why not try one more time"

There was freezing silence in the room immediately, a solemn pressure washing over them, only the sound of crackling as the woods beneath their feet started to split under the pressure of the cold.

In the excruciatingly long silence, the sound of their own heart beats was deafeningly loud in their ears.

Badum-

Badum-

Bad-

"Go."

The Young Master was the first to break the suffocating silence.

Chu Yi grinned.

"Where are we going XingLing" He asked knowingly,

"To the Madams room. The sacrifice has started."

Along with his voice, the children turned around simultaneously, walking back into the collapsing hall without care.

Chu Yi glanced at Shi XiaoDong behind him once more before following XingLing into the burning flames.

With a playful lilt hanging on the edge of his lips.

Bloodthirsty and cruel, beautifully stained with sin.

"Let's end this shall we."