CH 80

Translated by: Dust Bunny

Edited by: Crooked 

“What is this smell, ah?” Yu Yizhou and Xiao Nan whispered to the others, they frowned and couldn’t help retching.

“Corpse smell,” Gu Xizhou said casually.

When they caught sight of what it was, they all became alarmed and were about to scream when Gu Xizhou immediately put a finger to his lips thin to stop them from making a sound and warned: “Don’t scream, be careful not to be heard by the old man. It might be a mouse or something. The smell is very strong, endure it for now. Let’s see if we can find any clues and go.”

The two fell silent in fear and nodded. 

The house didn’t have a single window to open or light to turn on. The light couldn’t come in at all, so not only was there the strange smell of a corpse inside the house, but there was also the damp and musty smell of mold.

In the room was a black square table. The outdated table top was extremely worn. Gu Xizhou touched it with his hand, and his palm was covered in dust. At the same time, the counter creaked and shook.

Tableware was placed to one side covered in a thick layer of dust, and the vegetables in the cabinet below were all rotten.

It was clear that the things here hadn’t been used in a long time. Gu Xizhou was silent for a moment before everyone left the room, tiptoeing like thieves into the next room.

Inside this room there was a small table with an old-fashioned color TV on it, a radio beside it, and a wooden bed with the sheets folded neatly on top of it.

“Listen, do you hear something?” Xiao Nan whispered tensely.

Everyone stopped and listened carefully. They really did seem to hear something.

It was as if something in the room was walking around. 

Xiao Nan staggered backwards in fear towards the door.

“Ah!”

“What happened?” Si Yu asked.

“Something soft bumped into my foot.” Xiao Nan explained. Looking down, he discovered it was a false alarm. What had actually hit his foot was a mouse. 

Si Yu said in a low voice: “don’t make a fuss.”

Xiao Nan felt somewhat embarrassed, his face turning red. He had crossed over into the mission world several times, but as of right now, he was still no better than this newcomer.

“Squeak, squeak, squeak.”

“Squeak, squeak, squeak.” 

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“Just come look at it.”

Gu Xizhou did not answer Si Yu immediately, but he showed his approval with his actions. Lifting the blanket, Gu Xizhou caught sight of the body of the old man lying on the ground, already long dead and decayed. At the moment, the mouse was sitting inside the man’s chest cavity, squeaking. 

“Is there anything under there?” Yu Yizhou asked in a low voice.

Gu Xizhou looked back at the others and stepped aside to let them see clearly, “See for yourself, ba.”

“Ah, it-it’s him!” Yu Yizhou and Xiao Nan said, their mouths hanging open. Even though they couldn’t see him completely since the body was already decayed, they had seen that old man in the blue vest yesterday.

“He’s dead?” Yu Yizhou murmured. 

Gu Xizhou didn’t comment, instead he said, “As expected, the door is him. It’s not surprising that he’s dead.”

Si Yu fell silent for a moment and fell deep into thought.

“That story Xu Hao told us about the butcher should be true. The butcher’s death this morning confirms it. The butcher must be connected to Old Lady He’s disappearance.”

Si Yu touched his chin and frowned, saying thoughtfully, “But why hasn’t the door appeared? We must have missed something. Xu Hao might still be keeping something from us.” 

“Since the old man is dead, we’ll have to find Xu Hao again,” Gu Xizhou thought and turned around, letting go of the sheet.

Gu Xizhou put his hand on the old man’s door handle when he felt someone poke his hand. Gu Xizhou turned to look at Fang Zhi who pointed behind Gu Xizhou with a pale face.

Gu Xizhou gave Fang Zhi a deep look and turned to immediately catch sight of the old man standing in the doorway.

The old man smiled at them kindly, but this sort of kindness was different in the eyes of the other people. It rather gave them an unspeakably strange feeling. “What are you doing at my door?” 

Hearing the old man’s question, Gu Xizhou heard Xiao Nan and Yu Yizhou suck in a cold breath, not daring to speak.

“Oh, I saw your door was open and  helped you shut it,” Gu Xizhou said.

Beside him, Si Yu also spoke up, “Yes, we came to ask you if you had any other clues. When we knocked on the door, no one answered, and we discovered that the door was open.”

“Was it?” The old man grinned. 

Xiao Nan, Yu Yizhou, and Fang Zhi, all heard Gu Xizhou and Si Yu echo one another as they both lied through their teeth. It took a moment for anyone to react. The old man narrowed his eyes as he turned to look at them, “Is that so?”

The others: “……”

“Well?”

“Yes, yes, yes! Exactly!” the others said in unison, nodding vigorously and almost vowing to the heavens. 

The old man grunted and seemed to be convinced by their excuse. At the same time he replied, “there are no more clues.”

Si Yu lifted his eyes to look at the old man. The old man carried a black plastic bag in his hand. Si Yu couldn’t see what was in it. He pointed at the bag and asked, “What’s in the bag?”

The old man generously opened the bag, exposing the inside for everyone to see.

Xiao Nan already felt faint seeing the old man. When he caught sight of the bloody things inside the bag, he immediately passed out. 

“What’s the matter with young people these days? He’s not as good as an old man like me, hasn’t he seen pigs trotters before?” The old man was dumbfounded.

Si Yu glanced at the bloody human hand expressionlessly and explained: “He gets sick at the sight of blood.”

Supporting the unconscious Xiao Nan back to the office, Fang Zhi patted his face. It took Xiao Nan ten minutes to wake up from fainting. His face was pale, and all the color  was drained from his cheeks. Gu Xizhou handed him a cup of hot water.

Trembling with fear, Xiao Nan managed to take it and swallow a mouthful of water and asked in a low voice, “W-what do we do now?” 

Gu Xizhou glanced at him and said: “You are worse than an old man. A newcomer had to carry you back, and you still have the nerve to ask?”

Unable to help it, Xiao Nan complained: “There were dead people in previous worlds, too, but I’ve never seen this kind of thing before! They eat people!”

It was clear from Xiao Nan’s expression that he was very scared.

“Well, since you’ve come to, we can go find Xu Hao directly to ask if he remembers anyone else,” Si Yu said, waving his hands to interrupt Xiao Nan’s explanation. 

When they left the office, it was noon, and there was no one at the vegetable stands.

After walking for a while, Gu Xizhou came to a sudden stop and frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Xiao Nan asked.

Gu Xizhou: “Why is the door to the butcher’s shop open? Isn’t the owner already dead?” 

Everyone felt it was strange, but no one thought about it too hard. They went directly to Xu Hao’s house.

“Xu San’er, come out for laozi. Damn, you stole my wife’s bra, don’t you want to live? Come out for laozi. Laozi’s gonna kill you today!” At this moment, a man dressed in factory worker clothes stood at the front gate bellowing.

“Do you have the guts to come out here, Laozi’s gonna kill you! I’ll cut you into a thousand pieces!”

His wife stood next to him crying and feeling particularly wronged. She grabbed onto the corner of his sleeve. “Husband, he bullied me when you aren’t here.” 

The woman’s voice really seemed to be able to provoke pity. Gu Xizhou gave Wang Chunjiao a strange look. Did Xu Hao bully her? He had watched with his own eyes as Wang Chunjiao chased Xu San’er with a vegetable knife.

This man seemed to be Wang Chunjiao’s man.

“I did not, I stole one of her panties! Laozi didn’t steal a bra!”

Xu San’er’s voice came from inside of the house as he argued. 

“I really didn’t steal! If Laozi stole then he stole, and he didn’t steal if he didn’t steal!”

“You’re still talking! Laozi must kill you today!” the man bellowed.

Xu San’er caught sight of the people from the office and continued to hold the door shut, even calling to Gu Xizhou’s group for help.

After they patiently persuaded the two to leave, Xu Hao came out of the house looking pitiful. His whole face and hands were covered in scratches from the woman. He gave Wang Chunjiao and her husband a very fierce glare and spat on the ground. 

“Bah, Laozi will change his name, I only steal underwear, only underwear!” Xu Hao said righteously.

Next to him, Yu Yizhou glanced at Xu Hao and snickered at him. This person insisted on explaining that he didn’t steal. It looks like that couple put him in his place.

“Damn, bitch! Someone else must have stolen it! I didn’t steal anything yesterday!”

Gu Xizhou looked at him and asked: “Okay, okay, it’s fine if you don’t change your surname, don’t change your surname. If you didn’t steal those things, why did they come after you?” 

When Xu Hao heard this, his arrogance immediately vanished. A typical wolf, whenever something happened in the village, they would blame it on him.

Gu Xizhou continued: “Is there anything else you’re hiding from us? Now that the butcher is dead, you…”

“He’s dead?” Xu Hao was shocked. Apparently he had no idea that the butcher had died. He revealed a bewildered expression and made a frantic beeline towards the butcher’s shop.

Gu Xizhou pointed at Xu Hao, “Follow him.” 

Everyone nodded.

As they walked along the gravel road, Gu Xizhou’s group saw Xu Hao lying on the ground, paralysed with fear as he looked ahead in horror.

Gu Xizhou turned his head to follow his line of sight. At the moment several women were lined up outside the butcher’s shop to buy meat. There was a person in the butcher’s shop. To be exact, it was a person with the head of a pig. Combined with the pig’s body and the human head they saw this morning, they just happened to make a complete set.

While Xiao Nan and Yu Yizhou stood there dumbfounded, Gu Xizhou said quietly, “Pig head, human body. Isn’t it ironic this person has pig brains?” 

Gu Xizhou didn’t notice it, but Si Yu unexpectedly turned his head to look at him deeply, silently mouthing the words Gu Xizhou had just said.