CH 56

(Be careful, the deceased is in the dark, spying)

This chapter is dedicated to sleepymango123, thank you so much for your Ko-Fis!!! 

Zhou Wenyan did not know how Shen Dongqing came to that conclusion but he was split between wanting to laugh and cry.

He tugged on his lover’s  hand and coaxed him: “Let’s leave this copy first before we talk, please?”

Shen Dongqing nodded his head unhappily.

The pair headed straight for the pond in the centre of Four Water Village. 

Numerous sets of bones were placed at the shore of the pond; there were matured women and immature children, and even more were still buried underneath the sludge.

Shen Dongqing: “Do we have to dig out all of them?”

“Not necessary.” Zhou Wenyan pulled out a small paper man from his pocket and flung it.

The originally palm-sized small paper man became longer as it encountered the wind, and by the time it landed in front of the pond, it had already become half a person tall. Then, it stooped over and started excavating the remains in the sludge in an assiduous manner.

The small paper man picked around and it only chose the bones that were not fully developed and its efficiency was higher than that of other players.

Thus, in a short while, the small paper man managed to dig out all the children’s bones and arranged it in a tidy fashion, and the rough count of the skeletal sets totalled up to around forty to fifty.

It coincided with the forty to fifty indigenous people currently living in Four Water Village.

All of their faces were covered with a layer of white paper and their mouths were stuffed with sludge. Even though they had been reduced to their skeletal remains, they did not manage to find relief. 

Shen Dongqing asked: “The others?”

Although they dug out a lot, there were still countless bones in the sludge.

Zhou Wenyan: “Those are the women of Four Water Village.”

They were kidnapped and sold here, unreconciled and resentful. They gave birth to daughters that were thrown into the pond and giving birth to sons did not mean they could live a good life as they were treated like objects that could be resold. 

Zhou Wenyan heard their faint sobs in the wind.

These female children wanted to protect their mothers but they chose the wrong method of making their mothers throw themselves into the pond.

Because they felt that the pond was the safest place.

In turn, the reason why these resentful ghosts had entranced Hipster and JK Belle was not because they wanted to harm them, rather, they did it for the sake of their protection. 

“These…” Zhou Wenyan paused for a moment, “We can redeem them as well when the time comes.”

Shen Dongqing responded with an “oh” before he walked up to one of the baby bones to peel off the white paper from the corner.

It was unknown how long the white paper had been covering her because it was clinging tightly to her skull, and it was exceedingly difficult to take it off.

When the white paper was completely pulled off, the skeleton issued a wrathful roar as it crawled up nimbly and leapt straight into an alley. Immediately after, a series of sad and shrill noises echoed out. 

A native tumbled out from his window and a small skeleton could be seen lying prone on his neck as it gnawed on his flesh and blood endlessly.

It was only when the indigenous person stopped breathing that the skeleton ceased its movements, changed into a beam of white light, and disappeared into the skies.

Shen Dongqing raised his head, watching as the white light scattered.

What followed was a violent gust of cold wind blowing over, causing all the white papers covering the skeletons to rustle, and like fallen leaves, the sheets flew up. 

In an instant, the skeletons that had been buried deeply, revived.

They scattered and left, wanting to take back the “life” that belonged to them.

Shen Dongqing dropped the sticky white paper: “It’s over like this?”

Zhou Wenyan listened to the yells that rose and fell in succession before he said: “It should be.” 

There were three clearance methods in this copy.

The first method was for the indigenous people to harm and kill all the university student outsiders; the second was for the university students to successfully live through seven days and get on the bus and leave this place; the third was solving the story behind Four Water Village by redeeming all the ghost brides.

And what was happening right now accomplished the third method.

Shen Dongqing made a questioning noise. “But why is she constantly staring at me?” 

He pointed at the baby skeleton that was lying a short distance away.

The skeleton baby raised its head, focusing its small eye sockets on Shen Dongqing, and it looked like it wanted to pounce on him but was afraid to.

At this moment, Uncle He rushed out and there was a skeleton lying on his back as well, and his entire back was gnawed to the point where it was dripping blood. Due to the pain he was feeling all over his body, his facial features were scrunched together.

Uncle He said stutteringly: “Can’t believe that you, you were enthralled by these outsiders… you will die… as long as you’re dead, only then can the entire Four Water Village be considered as freed…..” 

Done speaking, Uncle He’s body keeled over and collapsed.

Zhou Wenyan clicked his tongue. “I forgot that this was a roleplaying mode, this is the female child that exchanged lives with your character.”

According to the story’s order of thinking, every indigenous person in Four Water Village should not have existed, considering how they were only born because their sisters’ lives were used in the exchange.

Their sisters had their eyes covered and mouths stuffed; their resentment had no venting outlet, their hate could not be spoken, and worst of all, they were unable to extricate themselves from it. Only by taking their lives back could they return to the cycle of reincarnation. 

And by virtue of acting as the native Shen Dongqing, he had exchanged lives with the little girl. What prevented the skeleton baby from acting was the memorial tablet Shen Dongqing had stored in his bosom, which was disguising him as a dead person.

Shen Dongqing thought about it briefly before he took out the memorial tablet he kept at his bosom and smashed it on the ground without any hesitation.

It made a sound on impact, and the memorial tablet broke into two pieces.

The skeleton baby seemed to receive a signal and it was too impatient to wait as it pounced on him. It had been suppressing itself for a long time and now that it could finally act, its small mouth opened, wanting to bite into that person’s flesh. 

However, before it even touched his shirt corner, it was grabbed and held by Shen Dongqing like a little chick.

Shen Dongqing held one of the skeleton baby’s tiny palm and swayed it as he said: “It’s so cute.”

The skeleton baby was made out of a small skeletal body and a bare small skull. Truthfully speaking, it could not be considered as cute.

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Shen Dongqing continued to tease it with his finger for a while before he said: “Why don’t we bring it back and make it our pet?”

This little brat was quite fun.

Zhou Wenyan: “We can’t bring it out.”

It was a product of the game, and based on how stingy the game was, it definitely would not allow the players to bring out a special prop from the copy itself. 

Shen Dongqing stared at him with expectant eyes, “Think of a way, please?”

While he blinked his eyes coquettishly, he wrangled the troublemaking skeleton easily.

Once Zhou Wenyan was stared at by those distinctive black and white eyes, he immediately laid down his arms and surrendered. “It’s not impossible…”

For instance, he could exploit a loophole in the system, the sort that would allow them to take the skeleton baby out. 

Although Zhou Wenyan was still contemplating it, the skeleton baby did not dare.

These two people looked incredibly terrifying; if it was brought out, it might be stewed into spareribs soup and it did not want that! The skeleton baby might only have bones left, but it tried its best to make an expression that was seized by terror.

Then, the skeleton baby started to struggle frantically.

Shen Dongqing was caught off guard for a moment and it broke free from his grip. 

The moment the skeleton baby touched the ground, it placed its four limbs on the ground and ran towards the pond as if it was flying. More than taking its life back, it only wanted to go back to its safe space.

Unfortunately for the skeleton baby, it had not taken two steps out before it was pressed to the ground and its movements were restrained.

Shen Dongqing commented, “This little thing is quite clever too.” He rapped his fingers on the skeleton baby’s skull.

If the skeleton baby was not just bones, it was highly probable that it would have started crying tears right then and there. 

Zhou Wenyan finally thought of an idea: “I have a prop here, it can let you bring it out…”

Before he could finish speaking, Shen Dongqing felt his hand lighten as the skeleton baby disappeared into thin air.

Shen Dongqing: “Huh?” He turned his head to search for the skeleton baby but he did not manage to find a trace of it even after a long time.

“Maybe it was too afraid, and then it……” Zhou Wenyan suppressed the urge to laugh, “Redeemed itself on the spot.” 

Shen Dongqing’s eyes widened, “Such an operation exists?”

Let alone Shen Dongqing, even the game was thinking, There’s actually such a method to clear the copy?

They could clear the customs without a single death?

The blood-curdling screams gradually subsided. 

Silence was restored to the entire of Four Water Village once more and it was like a ghost town that had nothing.

Having been restored back to normal, Hipster and JK Belle left the Shen Family compound in search of people, and they looked like they had found their close relatives when they saw Shen Dongqing and Zhou Wenyan.

Besuited Uncle asked: “What happened just now, why were there puddles of blood all over the ground?”

Zhou Wenyan: “That’s not important, come over here and help redeem these skeletons, we can clear the copy once it’s done.” 

Upon hearing that they could clear the copy, the players immediately ignored the horrific images they had witnessed just now and started the process of redemptions eagerly. Apart from JK Belle, the rest of the players had been through two games at minimum, which meant that they had a lot of talismans in their hands and they were not miserly in the least as they tossed them out.

The skeletons buried in the sludge slowly became transparent before they transformed into dots of lights, dispersing and disappearing from Four Water Village.

JK Belle asked: “After being redeemed, where will they go?”

Instead of saying that he did not know this time around– 

Shen Dongqing said: “Home.”

“They’re going home.”

【 You have successfully cleared [Four Water Village’s Strange Tale]…… 】 

The game gritted its teeth, 【 Because of the irregularities present within the game, the Copy Four Water Village is permanently closed, there are no special drops in this copy 】

【 …… 】

【 Requesting the player to conform to the rules of the game, and by no means create more losses 】

This is a plea to the both of  you, could you restrain yourselves a little when playing the copies? 

How much time and effort did it spend on creating a single copy, only for it to be ruined just because they said they wanted it gone? And every time it wanted to create trouble by distributing them into opposing camps, they managed to play it into a love game.

Do they still want their faces?

Thousands and thousands of words were concentrated into a string of ellipsis.

The game shot them another glance only to see the casual indifference the pair were sporting, and it wanted to vomit blood. 

This could not go on, it had to think of a way! Since it could not indirectly murder the pair, then it had to send them out in advance!

Once they left Four Water Village and returned back to their room, Zhou Wenyan saw Shen Dongqing lie on the bed unhappily.

He walked over on gentle feet and sat down next to Shen Dongqing.

Shen Dongqing let out a snort, twisted his head away and turned his body to the other side. 

In reply to that, Zhou Wenyan promptly decided to lie down and pull the person into his embrace as he asked: “What’s the matter?”

If someone else were to see his appearance, they would probably suspect if there was something wrong with their eyes. Or else, how could they have possibly stumbled upon this big boss using a delicate and soft voice to coax someone?

Shen Dongqing: “You’re already married.”

Zhou Wenyan nodded his head: “Yes.” 

Shen Dongqing became angrier, did he just become a third party without any rhyme or reason?

In every television series and novel, the third party was always condemned for their behaviour.

He pushed Zhou Wenyan away and said in a righteous tone, “Stay further away from me.”

Zhou Wenyan: “En? For real?” 

Shen Dongqing glanced at him covertly, “You’re still smiling?”

Zhou Wenyan coughed and pushed down the corner of his lips with much difficulty before he said severely, “I won’t smile anymore, I’ll stop smiling.”

Shen Dongqing clenched his fist and shot it towards him. “You scumbag!”

He had presumed that Zhou Wenyan had forgotten everything but he did not expect he knew everything and continued to pretend like nothing had happened! 

However, he knew his own strength; even if they were in this situation, he still controlled the amount of force he was using.

Zhou Wenyan stopped Shen Dongqing’s fist with one hand as he said helplessly, “You were obviously the one who kissed me first.”

Shen Dongqing blurted out, “Drivel!”

But after he said that, he reflected back and it seemed like… that seemed to be the case. 

“Then it was my fault.”

Shen Dongqing was a person who knew how to learn from his mistakes, thus he said right then and there: “Let’s maintain some distance between the both of us from now on.”

However, just as Shen Dongqing got up, he was pulled back down again.

Zhou Wenyan raised his eyebrow. “You’re willing?” 

Shen Dongqing puffed out his cheeks, “I’m willing.”

Zhou Wenyan chuckled and patted Shen Dongqing’s back: “But I’m not willing.”

Shen Dongqing: “Go back and get a divorce first then.”

A posthumous marriage was still a marriage, and it was more convenient than a marriage certificate because it did not matter if he was living or dead, they were still husband and wife. 

Zhou Wenyan: “Uh….. but I don’t want to divorce.”

Shen Dongqing glared at him with wide eyes. He did not expect that Zhou Wenyan was such a person and he was enraged to the point where the rims of his eyes had gone red. “You… You……”

Upon seeing Shen Dongqing’s reaction, Zhou Wenyan realised he had gone overboard with his joke and he hurriedly explained: “But the person I’m in posthumous marriage with is you.”

Otherwise, why would he have found Shen Dongqing to be so familiar even though it was the first time they met? 

Initially, he was similarly clueless as to why Shen Dongqing was so attractive to him. But later, as they were witnessing the procession of the posthumous marriage, he recalled a portion of his old memories and came to realise that they were considered an old married couple a long time ago.

It was just that Shen Dongqing had gone from a ferocious ghost to a human, and he had forgotten his past memories too.

Shen Dongqing went still. “You, you’re not lying to me?”

Zhou Wenyan pinched his nose. “I’m not lying, little wife.” 

Shen Dongqing was dissatisfied: “What do you mean little wife?”

Zhou Wenyan changed his address hastily, “Darling, babe.”

In reply, Shen Dongqing smacked his hand away as he asked: “Why don’t I have a single recollection of it?”

“Although I don’t have the evidence, I suspect that it’s definitely the doing of this SB game.” 

Shen Dongqing thought of his amnesia as something that could not be more normal.

After all, he had lived for a thousand years and it was impossible for him to remember if he was missing a section of his years, and he had assumed that his memory had declined after surviving for so long. However, now that he suddenly became a married person and even forgot the entire section of it, it made him a little anxious.

“What do I have to do to remember it then?”

Zhou Wenyan ruminated about it for a moment. “Go through more copies, maybe you might remember some of it.” 

Perhaps they might even encounter a copy they had played before which would allow them to remember something, but all these were uncertain.

Shen Dongqing thought what he said was reasonable and he urged: “Let’s go to the next one then!”

Zhou Wenyan flipped open the black leather notebook to draw another copy token.

Only to see the notebook flip to a certain page, and for a row of black words to emerge on the parchment. 

【 Both of you are a pair of newly wedded husband and wife, and you will be sitting on an airplane to go to your honeymoon 】

【 A small suggestion, please prepare clothes that can protect you against the cold weather 】

The airplane gradually lifted off into the skies. 

Shen Dongqing was sitting in the seat nearest to the window and his cheek was pasted on the glass slightly as he looked at the flocks of clouds that resembled cotton candy outside.

“Truly amazing.”

Once more, he had experienced the miracles of modern technology.

This game was too fun. 

Shen Dongqing sighed with emotion again.

After playing at the amusement park, he got to sit on the plane, and after knowing they were already married, the game even prepared a honeymoon trip for them— the game was simply too kind! He did not want to leave the game anymore.

Although the clouds were nice to look at, Shen Dongqing grew weary of them after looking at them for a while and he leaned back onto his chair.

The tall and pretty stewardess stopped over and inquired if they needed anything. 

Shen Dongqing thought about it before he asked: “Is there food?”

Very quickly, the stewardess brought him an airplane meal.

The airplane meal provided was quite sumptuous; it came with a salad and hamburger with a small dessert pudding.

After Shen Dongqing was done eating, he only felt a wave of sleepiness wash over him, and he leaned against his chair and fell asleep. 

Zhou Wenyan closed his magazine and took out a woollen blanket to cover Shen Dongqing’s body with it.

At this moment, a soft and graceful voice came over the broadcast.

“The airplane will be going past a snowy mountain soon and there will be a period of turbulence. Passengers, please do not panic.”

Zhou Wenyan looked outside the window and perceived the piece of continuous and unceasing snow in the distance. 

He did not know why but he felt his sleepiness surge up, causing him to close his eyes and fall asleep.

Thousands of meters in the sky, the plane flew towards the snow-capped mountain and left a long streak across the blue skies.

All the passengers in the cabin had fallen asleep and they did not have the slightest awareness that after the airplane jolted, it headed straight for the snow-capped mountain.

Then, there was a large sound and it shook up a mass of snowflakes that filled the skies. 

Shen Dongqing was rudely awoken by a bone-piercing chill.

Muddled and ignorant, he opened his eyes and vaguely realised that he was not in an airplane cabin but on a snowy ground which was reflecting light.

For a moment, Shen Dongqing thought he was dreaming but when a cold wind blew past and caused a snowflake to land on the tip of the nose, he finally understood that this was not a dream. 

Zhou Wenyan opened his eyes and he was extremely calm: “The plane crashed.”

When they were sleeping, the airplane crashed into the snow-capped mountain and broke into half from the middle.

Furthermore, the attendants inside had disappeared.

Thankfully, they had prepared some clothes to protect themselves from the cold weather before they left home. 

Zhou Wenyan hauled up two small suitcases. Due to the fact that big items needed to be checked-in as baggage, the things that they could bring were very few. First, he pulled out an overcoat stuffed with fine soft feathers and helped Shen Dongqing put it on before he used a scarf to wrap him up tightly.

Shen Dongqing pulled at the scarf, feeling like he was like a penguin right now.

Then, Zhou Wenyan wore his own overcoat and pulled Shen Dongqing up with one hand. “Let’s go down and take a look.”

There were a few more players sitting in the plane cabin and they were still unconscious. 

When they got off the plane, they saw that three more people were sitting on the snow-covered ground and they had started cooking soup.

The aforementioned three were in good states of mind as they had enclosed themselves in a bivouac, surrounding a steaming hot coal stove, and they even waved at them in greeting.

“You guys are awake.”

Zhu Wenyan nodded and that could be considered his greeting. 

Shen Dongqing took a few quick inhales and felt that whatever was cooking did not smell very good.

The blonde beauty among them shouted at them: “You don’t need to be afraid, the other attendants have already gone out to find a place with a signal.”

It turns out they were NPCs.

Zhou Wenyan observed the other two. One was a middle-aged man with an aquiline nose and the other was bespectacled. 

Were all three of the NPCs?

The bespectacled man patted the seat next to him: “Sit here and warm yourselves up.”

Zhou Wenyan and Shen Dongqing sat down.

The blonde lady said smilingly: “The both of you don’t look scared at all.” 

Shen Dongqing yawned and said: “We were sleeping just now and we don’t know anything.”

His lack of awareness seemed to jab at something, and the blonde lady laughed out loud. “I like young people like you.”

The man with an aquiline nose used the ladle to stir the contents inside the small pot.

The bespectacled man said: “Don’t mind, Lisa’s temper has always been like this. I am Borg, this is Leo, we were originally planning to go on a camping trip but we didn’t expect that the plane would crash halfway through the flight. However, it coincidentally means that we can put the items we prepared to good use.” 

Zhou Wenyan gave a simple introduction by saying the identities that the game had given to them.

“We were on our way to our honeymoon.”

As they were conversing, the players in one half of the plane cabin started waking up one by one, and after they got over their short-lived panic, they stepped onto the snowy ground from the airplane as well.

In a short moment’s work, the coal stove was surrounded by three NPCs and six players. One of the players hadn’t brought thick clothing and she was so cold she was shaking. The NPC kindly gave her an overcoat they had in reserve. 

The young girl in braided pigtails received the article and put it on in a hurry. “Thank you.”

Lisa smiled and said: “Who would have known such a thing would happen? Since we experienced an aviation disaster and we did not die, all of us must be the lucky people that the Heavens favour, and we ought to help each other out.”

Compared to the energetic and optimistic NPCs, it was apparent that the players were a little dazed in contrast.

They did not understand what an aviation crash in the middle of the game meant and they could only surround the coal stove and sit down. 

The soup in the bronze pot gurgled and boiled.

Then, the game’s familiar voice sounded out from the airplane cabin.

【 All of you have experienced an aviation accident and you are awaiting rescue on the snow-capped mountain. If you mutually help each other, you will definitely be able to endure through the next fifteen days 】

【 But the aviation accident is not as merciful as it seems, for someone amongst you have already met with their death. It might be a player, and it might be a NPC too, the deceased is in your midst, please find “them” 】 

【 Be careful, the deceased is in the dark spying 】

Translator’s parting remarks: Four Water Village was one of my favourite arcs to translate, because as sad and prejudiced as the story was, it was a satisfying ending. Additionally for Four Water Village, 四水镇 (pinyin: si shui zhen), the first two characters is also a wordplay for 死水 (pinyin: si shui) which means dead water, with connotations of pestilence.