CH 40

Hearing Fu Yiran’s words, Si Yu glanced at him lightly. Then, he pulled the covers back silently,  patting the space next to him, signalling for Gu Xizhou to lie back down.

Gu Xizhou stared at the blurry silhouettes by the window and frowned slightly, but lay down and went to sleep as Si Yu told him to.

Seeing this, Fu Yiran went to lie on his bed, lying on his side and facing the window.

Under the covers, Gu Xizhou heard Si Yu whisper quietly: “Listen to me, don’t look at it. Sleep obediently. Nothing will happen tonight.”

Gu Xizhou nodded and said: “I know.”

Si Yu grabbed one corner of Gu Xizhou’s clothes as he slept.  It was probably to prevent Gu Xizhou from running to see the shadows outside. This time, he didn’t sleep with his back facing Gu Xizhou, and very soon, Gu Xizhou heard the smooth sound of Si Yu’s breathing. 

In the dark, Si Yu’s eyes were closed, and his feather-like eyelashes were slightly curled. His ink-colored hair was scattered randomly across the pillow.  

Gu Xizhou glanced at the black shadow by the window, but because Si Yu had grabbed his clothes, he gave up on his curiosity. 

“Not going to take a look?”

Si Yu seemed to have fallen asleep, and didn’t hear Fu Yiran’s words. 

In the dark, Fu Yiran got out of bed again. His pretty face carried a smile, and he winked at Gu Xizhou.  “Do you want to take a look? I’ll go rip the newspapers down.”

“No,” Gu Xizhou could feel the breaths of the sleeping Si Yu  behind his back, and frowned. “I’m going to sleep.”

Right after he finished speaking, Gu Xizhou closed his eyes and directly fell asleep. His breathing turned even after a while.

Fu Yiran froze when he saw Gu Xizhou close his eyes. He stood at the side of the bed, staring at Gu Xizhou and Si Yu for a while, then returned to his bed.

The next day.

Gu Xizhou came out of the bathroom and happened to meet Fu Yiran, who was already dressed in women’s clothing. He looked at the two dark circles under Fu Yiran’s eyes and asked: “Why didn’t you sleep well last night?”

Fu Yiran waved his hand and said helpless: “Don’t talk about it. Yesterday, those two figures stood by our window all night, and I didn’t dare to fall asleep.”

Gu Xizhou looked at him in surprise. At breakfast, he found out that the other six people also had dark circles under their eyes. 

“Did you see the figures last night?” Liu Kai suddenly looked around the dining table and realised that the lady who helped prepare dinner for them last night had walked out of the dining room. Then, he lowered his voice to say: “Those figures stood at the window for the whole night, and it scared me to the point that I didn’t even dare move at all!”

“We saw.” Fu Yiran pointed to the dark circles under his eyes as he spoke. “I didn’t sleep for the entire night, but those two slept quite well.”

As soon as Fu Yiran’s voice landed, the surrounding eyes fell on Gu Xizhou and Si Yu at the same time, with a look of surprise, obviously saying–how could you guys sleep?

Si Yu didn’t care about the gazes of the people around him. He ate breakfast quietly and elegantly, and Gu Xizhou also ducked his head to eat. 

“Sure enough, it’s a big boss,” Fu Yiran sighed as he stared at Si Yu.

After they ate breakfast, they finally met the village chief.

“Sorry for troubling you. These few days, we really had no other choice but to ask for your help. The plaque in the ancestral hall has turned rotten. If it is not fixed, I fear it will fall when we have to hold the ceremony to honor our ancestors,” the village chief said in a very polite voice to Gu Xizhou and the rest.

After Gu Xizhou listened for a long time, he finally understood what was going on. This village would be holding a ceremony to honor their ancestors after five days. However, due to years of rain and termite corrosion, the plaque outside the ancestral hall was no longer usable. The village thus decided to pay for people to fix a new plaque and hang it up. And they were thus the carpenters that had been invited to make this new plaque.

“Let’s go,  I’ll take you to the ancestral hall,” the village chief said.  “Every year, before “Qingming,” we honor our ancestors by sacrificing something to them. This is a big event for us, in order for our ancestors to bless us with fortune and good weather.”

The old man smiled a little and said to the crowd: “Yes, the ancestral hall is a sacred place, and the village has rules. Outsiders cannot enter.”

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Then, the village head walked out with his hands behind his back, as if leading the way for them. The others immediately stood up and followed behind him. The village head reminded them many times not to step foot inside the ancestral hall, and repeated it again and again, as if he wasn’t tired of saying it. 

The village chief took them along the road in the village to the west of the village. The surrounding area was surrounded by low shrubs, without any sort of shade, and there wasn’t a single tall tree to be seen. From afar, the ancestral hall that the village chief told them about could be seen clearly.

The surroundings of the ancestral hall was empty, and the plaque standing at the door read the four characters “Zheng Shi Ancestral Hall”. There were countless small holes in the plaque, which were probably left by termites after they had ate through the wood. The left corner of the plaque was missing a part, and the entire plaque was covered in black mildew. The gold inscription was slightly smudged. 

On the wall next to the ancestral hall, a small wooden sign said–Sacred land of the ancestors, do not enter, offenders will be punished.

From the outside, it could be seen that the ancestral hall was very big. Gu Xizhou peered in from the outside, but it was pitch black within, and nothing could be seen.

The old man pointed to the ancestral hall behind him. “This is the place. You must complete the new plaque as soon as possible. You must do it within five days before the sacrificial ceremony.”

Gu Xizhou saw that the old man kept repeating the deadline of the sacrificial ceremony, and couldn’t help but ask: “What if it is not done within five days?”

“Ha.” The old man gave Gu Xizhou a strange smile, and didn’t answer his question. He folded his hands behind his back and turned to ask the rest: “Do you still have any other questions?”

Si Yu: “Where can we find wood?”

The old man smiled, and pointed at the mountain road in front of him. “There is a lot of wood on that mountain.”

“We have to chop it ourselves?”

The old man nodded.  “Relax, you can cut the wood on the mountain at will. They were all planted by the villagers ancestors anyway.”

It was the first time Gu Xizhou had entered this sort of mission world. This world obviously had a mission that the players had to complete, else there would be some sort of punishment. Of course, he didn’t even need to think to figure out what the punishment in this mission world was–it was death.

“Are there any requirements for making the plaque?” Gu Xizhou thought of a problem. The people gathered here weren’t actually carpenters. 

“Just do it well.”

Gu Xizhou frowned. “What counts as doing it well?”

“If there is a plaque, and there are words, it counts.”

After the old man finished answering the questions, the crowd started to quietly discuss.

“This requirement is too simple, right? Just a plaque and some words will satisfy him, then can’t we just do it casually and it will count?”

As they discussed, they suddenly heard the sound of a woman crying. Gu Xizhou subconsciously looked at Fu Yiran beside him, but this time, Fu Yiran was frowning lightly and listening to the sound that came from a distance away, just like him.

It sounded like a lot of women were gathered and crying together, instead of a single woman. That sort of low crying sounded like a warning, and the people there couldn’t help but feel a chill run down their spine. 

Fu Yiran stopped talking for a moment and asked the old man: “Are there girls crying inside?”

The village chief showed a blank expression. “No, no one is crying inside, you must have heard wrongly!”

“There is someone crying inside.”

The village chief had a blank expression again. After hesitating for a while, he said: “I’ll go in and take a look.”

After he finished speaking, he stepped into the ancestral hall. As he walked in, Gu Xizhou heard the crying grow louder, as if countless mouths opened to cry right next to his ear at the same time. 

The village chief came out soon after entering, and raised his eyebrows. “No one is crying. You must have heard it wrongly. Did you rush here to our village too quickly, so you’re feeling a bit unwell?”

“Maybe,” Si Yu said lightly when he heard this.

“Hehe, you should rest more. You have five days to finish this, so you don’t need to rush. You can rest for two days before building the plaque, as long as you don’t miss the deadline of the sacrificial ceremony,” the village chief laughed, and sounded incredibly considerate.

Although the village chief said that, the sounds of crying could still be heard from within the ancestral hall, and it sounded as if a lot of people were crying at the same time. The voices grew louder and louder. As for the village head’s kindness, naturally no one accepted it. 

The earlier they finished the plaque, the earlier they could leave. 

After the old man left, Gu Xizhou tried to look inside, wanting to take a look at the situation. 

“Don’t go in for now,” Si Yu said lowly, suddenly grabbing Gu Xizhou.

“Okay.” Gu Xizhou nodded, and glanced again inside the ancestral hall. He could only barely see a candle that was burning slowly inside. 

After determining the location of the ancestral hall, Gu Xizhou and the rest went to the mountain that the village chief pointed out to cut wood. Unexpectedly, the wood was obtained fairly easily, and no accidents occurred during this period. 

The wood was placed at the door of the house where they lived. The woman who had cooked for them last night had started to prepare their food quite early, and after seeing them return, she smiled as brightly as before. 

“You’re back, please eat.” The woman set the tableware and invited them to eat. 

After that, the woman took off her apron and was about to leave. At this time, Si Yu casually asked: “What is your ancestral hall mainly used for?”

The woman heard this and looked up at Si Yu: “Just for the sacrificial ceremony. Every year, during the sacrificial ceremony, people will go there.”

“Does anyone in the village live there?”

The woman smiled as she put down the apron in her hands. “Live inside? Who would live there? Living with your ancestors’ graves? That would be terrible!”

After speaking, the woman left, leaving nine of them to sit at the table and eat. 

“Today went well… Later, we can use the tools to cut that piece of wood.” The only girl in the team spoke softly. “I haven’t encountered a world like this in so long, it’s rare that no one died this morning.”

After she spoke, her eyes bent into small crescents, clearly not as nervous as she had been yesterday. 

Fu Yiran who had been next to her, heard her words and said lightly: “Don’t let your guard down, or the first one to die will be you.”

Upon hearing Fu Yiran’s words, the girl immediately became angry and said: “What are you saying? Saying that I’ll be the first to die, are you insane?!”

Fu Yiran looked at her coldly, and smiled. “I’m just kindly reminding you–curiosity killed the cat.”

“Hey, say that one more time, you idiot who can’t decide if he’s a guy or a girl! You…” The girl was extremely angry. After all, if someone said you would die in a world like this, it wasn’t a good thing.

Fu Yiran rolled his eyes: “Remember my advice. Anyway, if you live or die, it’s none of my business.”

“Okay, just stop.” Gu Xizhou patted Fu Yiran’s shoulder. This place was originally full of death around every corner, and saying things like this really wasn’t right.

The people next to them also persuaded the girl to calm down. Fu Yiran didn’t say anything under Gu Xizhou’s watchful gaze. In the afternoon, those two people in the team refused to get along with each other, but they worked together and quickly finished the plaque before sundown. 

“It’s done? You’re too fast, can it be hung up today?” The village head didn’t mind the crooked and ugly words that looked as if they had been written like an idiot. On the contrary, he looked delighted. 

In the end, Liu Kai glanced at the already dark sky. It was estimated that the journey from the village to the ancestral hall would take about an hour. If they went over now, it would be dark. 

“We’ll help you hang it up tomorrow morning. Now, it’s dark, and it isn’t safe to go out,” Liu Kai said.

The village head didn’t force them to hang the plaque today, and laughed out loud. “Okay, no rush, as long as you do it before the sacrificial ceremony.”

After eating at night, Gu Xizhou glanced at the time on his phone and said to everyone: “It’s late, we should go to sleep.”

Hearing his words, the people around him nodded slightly and went back to their rooms. 

After all three of them washed up, Gu Xizhou sat on the bed and stared blankly at the newspaper covered window. 

“What are you looking at?”

Si Yu patted Gu Xizhou’s shoulder and asked. 

Gu Xizhou looked up at him. “Thinking about those two figures last night.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Si Yu abruptly said in a faint voice. 

Gu Xizhou was slightly startled when he heard this sentence, because it was exactly what Fu Yiran said to the girl during the day.

In the middle of the night, Fu Yiran woke Gu Xizhou up again. He pointed at the window and the shadows behind it, and said: “Gu Ran, aren’t you curious about what’s outside?”

Gu Xizhou: “…”

Fu Yiran smiled slightly at him. He had the intention to invite Gu Xizhou to explore the secret together. His eyes were full of eagerness, but the expression on Fu Yiran’s face suddenly froze. 

Gu Xizhou felt his back turn cold, and he turned to see Si Yu rising up from the bed. Si Yu’s gaze fell coldly on Fu Yiran’s body, then he said in a whisper to Gu Xizhou: “Remember what I told you before.”

Gu Xizhou held back his curiosity and nodded. Actually, he was seriously itchy at the fringes to find out what was going on with the shadows outside the window. He really wanted to take a look. 

There were definitely ghost monsters outside. To him, this wouldn’t be a big problem. At most, he would have to beat it up once, and it would be solved. 

Si Yu saw him gazing at the window, and helplessly walked over to the window. He used his hands to tap the window gently. 

“There is nothing that you want here. Please leave.”

The things outside seemed to understand his words, and the outline of the black shadow on the window became smaller and smaller, smaller and smaller, until it disappeared. 

The next day–

Before Gu Xizhou walked out of the room, he heard a whispering voice at the door!

“Dead… it’s really not that simple, two died in one night!” Liu Kai pointed to the room in the corner and spoke softly with Wen Wen next to him. 

Gu Xizhou saw the blood on the floor and knew that something had happened last night. Four feet were outside the door. Gu Xizhou walked over and looked at it–the two bodies lying on the ground were already unrecognisable. The blood on the ground had flowed out from their faces, and the faces of those two people were already gone. Other than that, everything else was completely intact, including the clothes on the bodies. From the clothes, it was clear that one of them was the girl who quarreled with Fu Yiran yesterday.

Gu Xizhou subconsciously looked in the room that the two had stayed in. He noticed that there was an irregular shape torn out at the window of the room where the newspapers had been attached. It was the right size to sneak a look at what was going on outside.

Curiosity killed the cat.