CH 112

Translated by: Dust Bunny

Edited by: Crooked 

Seeing that Gu Xizhou wasn’t going to respond, Si Yu didn’t take offense. He simply moved closer to Gu Xizhou, his brows twisted in thought.

Lying in bed, Gu Xizhou relaxed and breathed out a sigh of relief when Si Yu didn’t continue to press him. He was actually very worried that Si Yu would continue to pursue the matter closely. He didn’t want to admit that he had mistaken that female ghost for Si Yu. He just couldn’t say it.

Gu Xizhou closed his eyes to sleep for a while. The light that had shown on his eyes that night didn’t reappear.

Gu Xizhou slept past midnight before he started to feel suffocated and feverish as if he was deep inside an oven. 

Finally Gu Xizhou woke up fully. When he woke up he discovered the source of his problem.

Si Yu was too close to him, Gu Xizhou’s back plastered to Si Yu’s chest.

One hand was resting on his waist and the sound of Si Yu’s breathing was even. He was incredibly close, his long even breaths blowing on the back of Gu Xizhou’s neck. Gu Xizhou thought of that female ghost from before and his body trembled involuntarily. Very gently Gu Xizhou rolled over to make sure that it was Si Yu hugging him. Only then did he relax.

In the dark without movement or sound Gu Xizhou studied Si Yu’s face.

The man was laying on his side, stretched out naturally. The handsome quality of his five features silhouetted more clearly in the darkness, the corners of his lips slightly drawn. This person really was extraordinary. He really was good-looking. No wonder those NPC’s had their three hun and six po stolen by him every time.

The room was quiet, not one sound could be heard. Gu Xizhou watched Si Yu’s face for a while before closing his eyes. He rolled over, turning his back to Si Yu with the smallest movement so that he wouldn’t wake him up.

When Gu Xizhou had rolled over, the person behind him slowly opened his eyes. A thread of light flashed through those deep eyes and his eyelashes trembled like crow’s feathers, his thin lips flattening into a line.

Si Yu hugged Gu Xizhou gently, slowly changing his movements. 

That night, the female ghost didn’t make a peep.

When Gu Xizhou woke up the next morning he found himself in Si Yu’s arms. Like last night, Si Yu had his eyes closed.

Gu Xizhou woke Si Yu up. Seeing that he was awake, Si Yu glanced at him lightly and smiled at him before slowly looking away.

After the two had washed up, Gu Xizhou had intended to ask Si Yu to go to the restaurant with him, but as he swept his gaze around the room he noticed something strange about the picture hanging on the wall. 

Si Yu saw him looking at the painting and also looked over, pointing out, “There’s one less snowman.”

Gu Xizhou was stunned before finally realizing why he thought the painting was strange, “Right, yesterday there were nine snowmen. Today there are only eight.”

He knew then that someone had an accident last night.

Right then, Gu Xizhou heard someone let out a heart-rending scream outside the door. 

Gu Xizhou and Si Yu glanced at each other and went out immediately. Fang Zhi, Fu Yiran, and several others also heard the scream and came rushing over. Only then did they know that something bad had happened in one of the rooms that had chosen to take the painting down.

One of their teammates fell to the ground trembling all over. Gu Xizhou rushed over to ask about the situation and Shen Bo lifted a finger to point inside the room, “Blood, so much blood… The bed… So much blood…”

Hearing this, Gu Xizhou pushed open the door to Shen Bo’s room to enter. There was no corpse in the room, but the bed was soaked with blood.

Drip. 

Drip.

Drip.

Drop by drop blood dripped from the sheets and spattered onto the ground.

The white bedsheets were dyed red with blood, the pungent smell of blood filling the entire room. 

There was no body, only blood.

Gu Xizhou furrowed his brow, the puddle of liquid in the room made it clear that that copper teammate was dead.

The two girls hid outside…along with Fu Yiran, their eyes already filling with tears.

“What happened last night?” Li Yan pulled Shen Bo up to ask. 

“I don’t know, I don’t know what happened,” Shen Bo said, shaking his head, his face as ashen as death itself.

“Shen Bo, please think carefully, did anything out of the ordinary happen last night?”

“Last night we took down the picture to sleep. It was nothing unusual. I laid down to sleep and slept soundly until dawn, so I knew a little earlier than you…” Shen Bo looked pensive as he thought for a while before saying, “As for him, I really don’t know if he heard something last night and ran out and died.”

Shen Bo was also someone who had experienced six mission worlds so he knew that it was easy to die going out alone at night. But, apart from that newcomer Fu Yiran, everyone else had experienced several mission worlds. His partner shouldn’t have made such an elementary mistake. Thinking to this point, Shen Bo couldn’t help but frown. 

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Fang Zhi said: “Gu Ge, you’re right. There is a snowman missing from the picture in our room.”

Li Yan also nodded and said, “The picture in my room is also missing one.” 

“The hanging, the hanging pictures are gone!”

Shen Bo came out of his room yelling.

“Gone?”

“Yes, it’s gone. I didn’t throw it away yesterday. I simply secured it and put it on the desk. But, when I went in just now, it wasn’t on the table. The two of us searched the room but it wasn’t there…” 

“What do we do now?”

Hearing this, Gu Xizhou frowned and asked the other two girls, “Why didn’t you find the picture?”

Tang Jiajia nodded as she replied, her complexion bad, “It’s lost. After we took it down, because we were worried about something happening, we threw it out.”

With no better alternative, Gu Xizhou and the others were forced to go look for the discarded picture with the girls. 

Gu Xizhou was digging through the snow with a shovel when he suddenly heard a scream in the distance.

Gu Xizhou and Si Yu arrived to discover that Tang Xiaoshi had been pushed into a snow pit.

The person who pushed her was Tang Jiajia who was with her at the time.

But Tang Jiajia wouldn’t admit it, “I really didn’t push her. I was busy searching for the picture in the snow, how could I push her?” 

“It’s only you and me here, how was it not you? You’re just mad because I threw away the picture! But you’re forgetting, we talked about it yesterday before I threw it away! How can you blame me, ba?”

“I really didn’t push you. Why would I push you?” Tang Jiajia said woefully, “Last night we both decided to throw out the picture. I’m not blaming you. I made my own choice.”

Tang Xiaoshi watched Tang Jiajia suspiciously. Seeming a little convinced by Tang Jiajia’s words she frowned and said, “Who pushed me then?”

Li Yan lowered his voice and said, “You didn’t trip yourself did you?” 

Tang Xiaoshi shook her head firmly, biting her lip with her teeth, and saying, “Someone definitely pushed me from behind. I can tell the difference between someone pushing me or tripping me.”

“Let’s try to find the picture first,” Li Yan interrupted to ask, “Did you definitely lose it somewhere around here?”

The cold wind whistled by, making his face ache. Gu Xizhou used the shovel to search through the snow while keeping an eye on Fu Yiran who was following Fang Zhi.

Fu Yiran’s progress however was relatively slow. If the other people were looking for the picture, Fu Yiran was playing in the snow. 

“Xiao Ran, w-why are you building a snowman?!” Tang Jiajia said, noticing the palm-sized snowman sitting in front of Fu Yiran. The snowman was actually quite adorable, but the legend of the snowman and the disappearance of one of their teammates this morning had left her with a psychological shadow. Seeing Fu Yiran make a little snowman, her complexion paled.

Fu Yiran on the other hand smiled innocently, the corner of his mouth turning up as he said, “Don’t you think it’s cute? This snowman is for you, ah.”

“Go away!” Tang Jiajia opened Fu Yiran’s hand causing the snowman in his palm to scatter in an instant. Tang Jiajia scolded, “What’s cute? Stay away from me!”

Fu Yiran stood up, and, feeling somewhat wronged, he began to cry. Seeing him cry like this, Shen Bo and Li Yan clearly felt a little sorry for him. Especially Li Yan, a wolf who hadn’t given up yet. He frowned and said, “Xiao Ran originally came out to help you look for the picture, isn’t that good, ba?” 

“Tang Jiajia, come on, you can at least apologize, ba. Look, you’ve made her cry.”

Tang Jiajia’s expression was unreadable, “Why should I apologize, she made a snowman to scare me!”

“Jiajia Jie, I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m sorry. I grew up in the south and have never seen so much snow before, so I played with it. I’m sorry… Please don’t be mad,” Fu Yiran said, “I’ll continue to help you find the picture.”

“You…” Tang Jiajia looked at the two copper men defending this white lotus and her expression immediately darkened. Why was her luck so bad today? Yesterday she even helped Fu Yiran speak and called out Gu Ran. Immediately her teeth began to hurt. 

Subconsciously, she turned her head to look at Gu Ran who wasn’t paying any attention to Fu Yiran, hoping he would say a few words.

Gu Xizhou noticed Tang Jiajia’s gaze and heartlessly looked away. It’s not that he didn’t want to help speak for Tang Jiajia, but with Li Yan and Shen Bo clearly so enamored with Fu Yiran’s pitiful appearance even if he did speak, these two people wouldn’t listen. It would be better not to speak.

“Ah, Xiao Ran is too kind. Anyway, it’s not my fault the painting was lost. I don’t have to help look for it,” Li Yan said, apparently still trying to curry favor with Fu Yiran.

Unexpectedly, Shen Bo didn’t say anything else. Afterall, he didn’t have a picture hanging in his room either. The picture in his room wasn’t thrown out, but it was missing. 

Seeing this, Tang Xiaoshi quickly stepped into settle the dispute, saying to Tang Jiajia, “Jiajia, just apologize, ba. It’s not a big deal anyway.”

“I’m in the right, why should I apologize, we all know what the legend of the snowman is! She suddenly made a snowman, I was scared and opened her hand. What’s wrong with that?” Tang Jiajia cried, feeling wronged.

“Don’t say anymore, Jiajia Jie doesn’t mean that. I know Jiajia Jie helped me speak for her. It’s my fault.” Fu Yiran clenched his teeth, his lips flushing slightly, his eyes red just like a little rabbit’s.

They were both crying, but Fu Yiran’s lethality was obviously much higher than Tang Jiajia’s 

“Let me apologize to you…”

Li Yan seemed to have something else to say, but Fang Zhi interrupted him directly, “Li Ge, Xiao Ran said it’s not Tang Jiajia’s fault, why are you still being so stubborn. Inside the mission world we’re all in the same boat together, that’s the most important, don’t you understand?”

Due to Fang Zhi’s words, Li Yan didn’t continue to speak. He glared at Fang Zhi, obviously blaming him for saying too much. Tang Jiajia gave Fang Zhi a grateful look. It was then that Tang Xiaoshi pointed at something and said, “Behind that tree… there’s something there.”

Following Tang Xiaoshi’s finger, Gu Xizhou caught sight of a vague outline of something, the heavy snowfall obstructing most of his view. Everyone hurriedly walked through the knee high snow. The thing behind the tree turned out to be a snowman. 

When Gu Xizhou caught sight of the snowman, his brow furrowed slightly. This snowman’s head wasn’t really directed at them, but rather leaned to the side. Gu Xizhou took a step forward, following the snowman’s line of sight. The snowman’s line of sight was actually looking at where they were just looking for the picture a moment ago.

Had the snowman been hiding here watching them?

“Look at the snowman’s scarf! That’s his scarf!” Shen Bo turned pale in fright, the scarf on the snowman was exactly the same as the one on his missing teammate!

Si Yu nodded slightly, “It’s Liang Ke’s. I remember the scarf he wore had this black and white plaid pattern.” 

Liang Ke was their missing teammate.

“I-Is it Liang Ke?” Tang Jiajia jumped, her voice trembling.

Li Yan thought about it for a moment, “It should be.”

“He turned into a snowman!” 

“The legend… the legend is real.”

Everyone’s complexion was poor. Their missing teammate really had turned into a snowman. At the moment the only thing they could be sure of was that it was related to the picture.

“We have to find the painting quickly, ba. Once we find it we can go back to the hotel. I’m scared,” Tang Jiajia said, frightened, no longer able to stay angry.

“Okay, ba. Let’s find the picture.” 

Everyone continued to help Tang Jiajia and Tang Xiaoshi look for the painting, but it was snowing harder and harder and they had shoveled everything without finding the picture.

Finally with no other alternative Li Yan said abruptly, “Forget it. We won’t find it. There are still three rooms with paintings. You can switch rooms at night, ba. We have to look for clues, we can’t waste anymore time here.”

Just before everyone left, Gu Xizhou glanced down at the already waist deep snow and said to Li Yan, “You go back first, I’m gonna go see if that snowman is still there.”

Li Yan gave Gu Xizhou a strange look and warned, “Pay attention to safety.” 

Naturally Si Yu went with Gu Xizhou, and the two walked over to the tree.

The snowman hadn’t been completely covered by the heavy snow; it seemed to have moved up a little. Gu Xizhou furrowed his brows. He noticed the snowman’s face was staring straight ahead now and was no longer facing the direction they had just been.

Gu Xizhou also noticed that there were clear indications that one of the branches that formed its hands had been snapped off. Observing the snowman closely, he set about opening up the snowman directly.

“There’s only snow inside, there’s no corpse,” Gu Xizhou told Si Yu in a low voice. 

Si Yu took everything in and reached for Gu Xizhou, motioning for him to take his hand, “Let’s go, ba. It’s snowing harder and harder.”

Gu Xizhou nodded and said, “En, okay.”

After the two people left, the snowman suddenly moved. It scooped snow up from the ground and formed it into balls, stuffing it in the place Gu Xizhou had just dug out. It seemed a little wronged.

Si Yu and Gu Xizhou hurried to the restaurant and found that the tour guide was already there. When the tour guide saw them, he looked surprised, saying, “Where did you go? How did you get to the restaurant, ah?” 

Their tour guide and all six of their teammates were seated at a table with a big steaming wok in front of them. Gu Xizhou glanced at the pot, it should be Shuan Yang Rou. It was the perfect thing for this weather.

“We were walking around outside and saw a snowman. It was very interesting. I don’t know who made it,” Gu Xizhou told the tour guide, his eyes narrowing.

“Oh, come eat, ba,” the tour guide said, wiping his mouth, “I’m already full. You go on.”

After the tour guide left, Gu Xizhou suddenly felt a chill at his back. It seemed someone was looking at him. He turned his head subconsciously to see the tour guide talking with the waiter. They weren’t looking at him. 

Just now Gu Xizhou had deliberately said that to test the seemingly normal NPC, but the tour guide’s facial expression didn’t change.

Everyone sat around the table, chopsticks in hand, wolfing down food. This could be because they skipped breakfast in favor of searching for the picture this morning. Everyone’s stomachs growled with hunger making everyone immediately feel that the food was delicious.

“This is so good,” Li Yan said with a sigh as he wiped his mouth regretfully when he was done.

After dinner, everyone went around in groups of two asking questions about the situation in the hotel. 

“Xiao Ran, we’ll be in a group together, ba!” Li Yan said to Fu Yiran gently.

Gu Xizhou thought that Fu Yiran would continue relying on Fang Zhi like before, so he was surprised when he unexpectedly agreed to his offer. “Thanks Li Ge, I’ll team up with you. Please don’t hate me for being stupid.”

Li Yan said quickly, “How could I? Of course I won’t hate you!”

Li Yan’s heart was filled with joy thinking that he’d finally managed to curry favor with her and catch the goddess’s attention. 

Ultimately Fang Zhi and Shen Bo paired up with Tang Jiajia and Tang Xiaoshi respectively and Gu Xizhou formed a group with Si Yu.

After the other two left, Gu Xizhou asked Fang Zhi, “You brought the mirror, right?”

Fang Zhi lowered his voice so that Tang Jiajia wouldn’t overhear, “I have it!”

“Okay, pay attention to safety. Don’t explore by yourself if you find anything. Wait for everyone to discuss it first before going in,” Gu Xizhou reminded him. 

“I know,” Fang Zhi said, nodding.

Tang Xiaoshi and Fang Zhi were leaving when they were suddenly stopped by someone. “Wait a second.”

Si Yu took a step forward with his long legs. Being called by him, Tang Xiaoshi turned around in confusion. She didn’t know why this handsome guy who didn’t talk much was calling to her. “What’s up?”

“There’s something in your hat,” Si Yu said, pulling something from Tang Xiaoshi’s hat. 

Gu Xizhou was able to see clearly what was in Si Yu’s hand. It was a piece of a twig no longer than a pinkie finger. Gu Xizhou glanced at the marks on the broken twig.

Tang Xiaoshi felt her hat in surprise and said, “I don’t know how that got in there.”

“Maybe it fell in on accident, ba,” Gu Xizhou said casually. After Tang Xiaoshi left, he continued talking to Si Yu, “It’s from the branch on that snowman. It was what pushed Tang Xiaoshi, It wasn’t just her misconception.”

Clearly Si Yu had also discovered this problem and nodded. After that the two prepared to leave to look for clues. Just as Gu Xizhou was about to leave he suddenly caught sight of a familiar face. 

“Hold on, let’s ask the waiter. I saw him chatting with the tour guide just now.” Gu Xizhou grabbed Si Yu, who was just about to leave, by the wrist, walking right over to the waiter.

Si Yu looked at his hand with an unreadable expression in his dark eyes as he followed Gu Xizhou, his thoughts inscrutable.

“Hello, I’m a tourist here. I wanted to ask a few questions,” Gu Xizhou asked, finding the waiter.

The waiter smiled and said politely, “What do you want to know?” 

“Have you heard of the legend of the snowman?”

The waiter smiled weakly and said, “Of course, many tourists come to our hotel just to confirm this legend.”

“How long have you worked here, is the legend true?” Gu Xizhou asked.

“This…” the waiter glanced around and said quietly, “It really is. Since the first tour group went missing, someone has gone missing from our hotel every year. Not only that, but everytime someone goes missing a snowman will appear near the hotel.” 

“What happened before that tour group disappeared? Did something similar happen?” Gu Xizhou asked.

“If you look carefully, there was another time before the first tour group went missing…”

“The previous owner of this hotel was an old man. When he died unexpectedly, it was inherited by his granddaughter. Not long after his granddaughter inherited the hotel she went missing. Someone said that they saw a snowman outside the hotel at that time… We don’t know if that’s true or false… Anyway, she went missing.”

Hearing this, Gu Xizhou raised his eyebrows slightly and asked, “Who owns the hotel now?” 

The old man was dead and his granddaughter was missing, but the hotel was still open so there must be a new owner.

Just as the waiter was about to answer, the three of them suddenly heard a cough from behind them. Gu Xizhou turned around and saw the tour guide standing behind them. Looking at them with a smile, he asked, “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing…I have work to do. I’ll get back to work!”

After being interrupted by the tour guide, the waiter spoke in a panic and hurried off. 

Gu Xizhou watched the retreating waiter strangely and turned his head to look at the tour guide. The waiter looked at the tour guide with the suspicion of a mouse seeing a cat.

“It’s been snowing heavily for a good several days now. It seems you’ve paid your travel expenses in vain,” The tour guide said with a look of regret like he wasn’t worthy of Gu Xizhou and the others.

Si Yu said lightly, “It doesn’t matter if we can’t climb the mountain. We are more interested in the legend of the snowman than climbing the mountain.”

The tour guide said disdainfully, “That legend is bogus. Snowmen can’t eat people. Those things can’t even move.” 

As they chatted, Gu Xizhou could tell from the tour guide’s words that he looked on the legend of the snowman with contempt. He clearly didn’t believe that it was true.

The author has something to say: I expect after reading the following content you will all boo Fu Yiran frantically. But, just to disclose a little bit, everything Fu Yiran does is self-care