Chapter 3 Bitter Night

After walking along a long road in the wind and snow, the four people fortunately did not encounter any strange incidents along the way and returned to their residence smoothly.

But when they returned, they felt that the atmosphere in the house seemed to be wrong. Several people sat in the living room with pale faces and did not move. There was a dead silence in the air. The atmosphere was even worse than when they first arrived here.

Lin Qiushi's gaze shifted to the few people, and he quickly counted the number of people. After confirming that there were no fewer people, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"What happened?" Xiong Qi asked.

A man sitting inside trembled and said, "The body upstairs is gone."

"It's just the body that's missing?" Xiong Qi said, "You're new here, right? What's there to be afraid of if the body's missing?"

"It was eaten." The girl next to her sobbed, tears streaming down her face. "There's blood everywhere..."

Xiong Qi and Xiao Ke looked at each other and knew that they could not get any useful information from these people, so the four of them decided to go to the third floor to see the situation.

They climbed up the stairs, and when they reached the second floor, Lin Qiushi noticed something wrong—there were bloodstains on the walls of the second floor.

Because it was a wooden house, the walls were also brown. Lin Qiushi saw some black spots on the walls, as if something had splashed on them.

"Be careful, there might be something up there." Xiong Qi walked in front.

Finally reaching the third floor, Lin Qiushi finally understood what they meant by being eaten.

The spot where the body had been was empty. If that were all, it would have been fine, but instead of the body, something else appeared. Crushed pieces of flesh and bone littered the floor, as if the body had been brutally torn apart and gnawed to pieces, leaving only broken fragments.

Seeing this, Lin Qiushi's face turned pale and he felt his stomach churning with discomfort.

"It's pretty clean to eat." Xiao Ke was used to it. "I don't know what it is."

"Alas." Xiong Qi sighed, "Let's go, lock the third floor, and stay on the second floor today."

"Yeah." Xiao Ke, "I'll go ask them about their specific situation."

They went back to the first floor and asked in detail what had happened.

The people downstairs then told them what happened in the house.

It turned out that after Xiong Qi and the others left, a group of people searched the building. When they reached the second floor, they heard a very strange sound coming from the third floor. It was like someone chewing something, with a wolfish swallowing sound.

Then everyone counted the number of people and after confirming that there was no one from their group on the third floor, they began to sweat coldly.

No one dared to go up to see, and they stiffly watched the situation on the second floor. When the chewing sound disappeared, they bravely went to the third floor to see what was going on - but they only saw broken meat and bones on the ground.

"It's terrifying." Another older girl in the team looked a little dazed. She said, "This is only my third time entering the door. How could I have encountered a world like this? Can we get out alive? What on earth is that thing..."

No one could answer her question and the room was silent.

Xiong Qi sighed slightly, said he was hungry and wanted to find something to eat, and asked if anyone wanted to go to the kitchen with him.

Lin Qiushi said, "I'll go with you."

Ruan Baijie sat next to Lin Qiushi and said softly, "Qiushi, I'm hungry too. I want to eat noodles."

Lin Qiushi: "I'll go see if there's any. If there is, I'll make you a bowl."

"Okay." Ruan Baijie curved her eyes and looked at Lin Qiushi gently, "Be careful."

Lin Qiushi nodded.

The kitchen is on the left side of the living room. There is no natural gas here, only the most primitive firewood.

Xiong Qi and Lin Qiushi didn't talk much the entire way until they reached the kitchen. Xiong Qi lowered his head and started a fire before saying, "I don't plan to tell them everything."

"What do you mean?" Lin Qiushi was stunned.

Xiong Qi glanced at the door silently. After confirming that there was no one outside, he whispered, "I'm not sure if everyone in our team is there."

Lin Qiushi got goosebumps on his back because of these words.

"This has happened before," Xiong Qi said. "The people we thought were our teammates weren't actually our teammates, but those things."

Lin Qiushi asked, "Then why do you trust me? What if I'm one of those things?"

Xiong Qi glanced at him and said, "You don't look like one."

Lin Qiushi: “…”

Xiong Qi continued, "And they don't look like people who have experienced this kind of thing several times. They are all too panicked, even more panicked than you are."

Lin Qiushi felt a little embarrassed by the compliment: "Actually, I'm pretty scared too."

Xiong Qi laughed self-deprecatingly when he heard this: "What's so scary about that? I peed my pants three times the first night I walked in."

Lin Qiushi thought of that terrifying woman from last night. He silently glanced at his crotch, thinking to himself that he had managed to control himself...

Xiong Qi: "I suggest you keep some clues to yourself and don't reveal everything."

Lin Qiushi nodded. "I see. Thank you for the reminder. May I ask how many times you've been in here?"

Xiong Qi: “Six times.”

"Oh..." Lin Qiushi tried his best to digest the information Xiong Qi gave him, about the sect, the team, and some hidden clues.

"It's no use thinking so much. Just try to get out alive." Xiong Qi laughed at himself, "Although I think this world is doomed."

The fire in the stove was lit, boiling the water in the iron pot.

Lin Qiushi found a basket nearby filled with ingredients: noodles, eggs, and even some green vegetables. He put the noodles in and fried an egg. The aroma of food filled the kitchen, dispelling the chilly fear. Seeing this, Xiong Qi praised, "Excellent cooking."

"Not bad." Lin Qiushi smiled.

Four bowls of noodles were cooked for Xiong Qi, Xiao Ke, Lin Qiushi and Ruan Baijie. Lin Qiushi didn't care about the others.

Ruan Baijie was also hungry. She picked up the bowl and began to eat noodles. Most people would make some noise while eating noodles, but she quietly finished the entire bowl, not even leaving a mouthful of soup. After finishing her meal, she said nothing and turned to look at Lin Qiushi eagerly.

Lin Qiushi felt uneasy under her fiery gaze and said helplessly, "Are you not full?"

Ruan Baijie: "I'm full." As soon as she finished speaking, her stomach growled in agreement.

Lin Qiushi: "...You eat. I'll get something else."

Ruan Baijie: "No, no."

Lin Qiushi: "Really?" He pretended to continue eating, but saw Ruan Baijie's eyes almost popping out of her head. This look was so adorable that Lin Qiushi couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, you eat. I'm almost done."

"Okay, okay." This time Ruan Baijie was not polite.

After eating two bowls of noodles, the cold feeling from the trip was finally gone. While eating, Xiong Qi told everyone the information they got from the old carpenter. Of course, he didn't tell everyone everything, and kept the last clue about filling the well.

"Could the key be in the coffin?" A relatively calm person in the team, a man named Zhang Zishuang, said, "Since the key clue is the coffin, then I think it's likely to be the case..."

"Well, I hope so," Xiong Qi said. "I plan to go to the mountain to chop trees tomorrow morning. All the men will go, and the women can follow. If you are really afraid of the cold, you can hide in the house. But if anything happens in the house, we can't help."

After discussion, everyone agreed with Xiong Qi's proposal. Although some felt that climbing the mountain in such snowy weather was too dangerous, the most dangerous thing in this world wasn't the weather, but the elusive, foul creatures. The best strategy was to build the coffin quickly and leave.

After this delay, it got dark again.

After nightfall, everyone quickly washed up and returned to their rooms, not wanting to do anything else. Lin Qiushi asked why they couldn't all get together. Xiong Qi replied, "Because if we get together, we'll all fall asleep at a fixed time."

"What do you mean?" Lin Qiushi was a little confused. "Does it mean that everyone will fall asleep at that time?"

"Hmm," Xiong Qi said, "Maybe it's the mechanism of this world. As long as the number of people in the same room exceeds a certain number, everyone will fall asleep at a fixed time. No matter what happens then, there's nothing we can do."

"Then don't we have no choice but to surrender?" Lin Qiushi frowned.

"Actually, those things can't just kill people casually," Xiong Qi said. "They need certain conditions to kill people. The higher the difficulty of the world inside the sect, the wider the conditions. And some of the conditions are very... hard to understand."

Lin Qiushi: "For example?"

Xiong Qi said, "For example, you can kill people who are wearing shoes."

Lin Qiushi: "..." He silently glanced at the shoes on his feet.

Seeing his expression, Xiong Qi laughed. "I'm just giving you an example. What if the conditions in this world allow you to kill people without shoes? You took off your shoes and died instead. Besides, these conditions are not single; some require the combination of many conditions. So, after summarizing the rules, I think it's safer to sleep through the night." He paused and said, "Of course, the premise is that you can fall asleep."

Lin Qiushi remembered what happened last night because of Xiong Qi's words. He glanced at Ruan Baijie, who was casually cracking a handful of melon seeds beside him, and felt that he had a close call with death last night.

It seemed that if he wasn't careful, he would become one of the two cold corpses on the third floor.

"Go to sleep." Xiong Qi said, "Good night."

Lin Qiushi nodded: "Good night." He called Ruan Baijie again and asked her to go to bed together.

Ruan Baijie yawned and casually placed the remaining melon seeds on the table. She rubbed her eyes and muttered, "I'm so sleepy. I should go to bed early today."

Lin Qiushi said, "Okay, go to bed early."

The third floor was completely unusable because of what happened last night, so everyone moved to the second floor.

Lin Qiushi still slept in the same bed with Ruan Baijie. This time he was prepared and decided to lock the windows first and draw the curtains as well. However, the curtains seemed to have not been used for a long time and could not be drawn no matter what he did.

Ruan Baijie lay in bed in her pajamas, whining, "Qiu Shi, it's so cold."

Lin Qiushi, still studying the curtains, said without turning around: "If you're cold, wear more clothes."

Ruan Baijie: "...You don't have a girlfriend, right?"

Lin Qiushi was puzzled: "Girlfriend? Why do I need a girlfriend?"

Ruan Baijie fell silent. By the time Lin Qiushi closed the curtains and turned back, she was already lying on the bed as stiff as a dead fish.

Lin Qiushi still didn't understand: "What's wrong with you?"

Ruan Baijie said softly, "You...don't you have anything you want to say to me?"

Lin Qiushi fell into deep thought. He looked at Ruan Baijie's beautiful face and finally had an idea. He said, "Yes."

Ruan Baijie showed a satisfied smile: "What do you want to say?"

Lin Qiushi: "That, that's it... If we encounter a ghost today, can you run slower?"

Ruan Baijie said indifferently: "No."

Lin Qiushi was furious: "Then why the hell are you asking me what I want to say? Go to sleep!"

So everyone went back home, found their own bed, and started to prepare for sleep with their backs to each other.

According to Xiong Qi, a peaceful sleep was the best way to get through the night. However, Lin Qiushi's mind was filled with all sorts of thoughts, and for a moment, he couldn't fall asleep at all. Behind him, Ruan Baijie, however, was like a pig, falling asleep as soon as her eyes closed, which made Lin Qiushi furious.

As the night progressed, the temperature dropped. Fortunately, the quilt was thick and there was a warm person sleeping next to me, so it wasn't too hard to endure.

Lin Qiushi closed his eyes, sorting through the day's clues. His consciousness began to fade, and he was about to fall into a deep sleep. However, just as he was about to fall asleep, he faintly heard a strange sound. Unlike the knocking sound yesterday, this sound came from the ceiling above their heads. It was the sound of something sticky and heavy, dragging slowly across the roof of the third floor. Lin Qiushi's hearing was sharp, and his sleepiness instantly disappeared. His breathing paused, and he slowly opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling above their heads.

There was nothing there but old wood.

However, Lin Qiushi's body began to feel cold because he clearly heard that the voice stopped when it moved above his head.

"Click, click." The sticky knocking sound stimulated his eardrums. The knocking sound became louder and louder, making Lin Qiushi get goose bumps all over his body. He gritted his teeth and was about to sit up from the bed, but a hand reached out from the side and hugged his waist.

"What are you doing?" It was Ruan Baijie's confused voice.

"Did you hear any strange noises?" Lin Qiushi lowered his voice. "On the rooftop."

"Sound? What sound?" Ruan Baijie said, "I didn't hear anything. Don't move, I'm cold." Her breath gently sprayed on Lin Qiushi's ears, carrying the smell of ice and snow.

"You..." Lin Qiushi wanted to say something, but he felt Ruan Baijie's arms around him tighten.

"Go to sleep." Ruan Baijie said.

Lin Qiushi had no choice but to close his eyes.

Ruan Baijie slowly hooked her fingers around Lin Qiushi's waist. This action should have been somewhat ambiguous, but at this moment it was full of comfort.

The knocking sounds on the roof continued, but Lin Qiushi didn't seem as scared as before. Sleepiness began to creep into his mind again, and he finally fell asleep.

The next morning.

Lin Qiushi woke up in Ruan Baijie's arms.

Ruan Baijie stretched out her arms and hugged him in her arms, resting her chin on the top of his head. After being woken up by him, she was still dawdling in a daze: "Don't make trouble, sleep a little longer."

Lin Qiushi: “…” Oh shit.

He lay there for a while, and seeing that Ruan Baijie still had no intention of getting up, he had no choice but to say, "I'm going to get up."

Ruan Baijie: "Hmm..."

Lin Qiushi: "Ruan Baijie?"

Ruan Baijie: "You called me Sweetie last night, so today you should call me Ruan Baijie."

Lin Qiushi: “…”

Despite saying so, Ruan Baijie still let go and leaned against the headboard, watching Lin Qiushi get dressed. After a while, Lin Qiushi felt the atmosphere was a bit strange. After a moment's thought, he turned to Ruan Baijie and asked, "Can you stop looking at me like that?"

Ruan Baijie: "What's that look? The money is on the table, you can take it and go. Pass me the cigarette, I want one."

Lin Qiushi: “…” Is this a cigarette after the event or something?

Ruan Baijie: "Why, you still don't want to leave? Five hundred was what we agreed on yesterday. You can't even ask for a cent more."

Lin Qiushi had nothing to say. After putting on his clothes, he went downstairs.

The others were already sitting in the living room, eating the breakfast brought by the villagers. Lin Qiushi counted the number of people as usual and found that there were three fewer people in the room besides Ruan Baijie.

Xiong Qi saw him and motioned him to sit over.

"Nothing happened yesterday, right?" Lin Qiushi asked.

"No." Xiong Qi said, "No one died."

As long as no one died, Lin Qiushi breathed a sigh of relief.

In reality, last night was remarkably peaceful, with no one even hearing a single extraneous sound. Lin Qiushi tentatively asked them if they had heard anything upstairs, but everyone's response was unanimous—it had been a very quiet night, with no other sounds besides the wind outside.

"After dinner, we will go cut down trees and deliver the wood to the carpenter. We have to be quick." Xiong Qi said, "It seems that the weather is only getting colder, and nothing happened last night..." He seemed to be a little confused in his words.

"Yeah," Lin Qiushi replied casually.

The remaining three people also came downstairs one after another. Ruan Baijie was the last one to come down. She was still wearing the same beautiful long dress, but she added two relatively thick coats on the outside and a pair of large cotton pants. Because the dress was very long, she walked very slowly and her posture was very elegant.

When Lin Qiushi saw her coming, he looked away a little uncomfortably.

"Qiu Shi." Ruan Baijie called his name.

Lin Qiushi hummed helplessly.

"Why are you ignoring me?" Ruan Baijie said, "I want to eat the noodles you cooked."

Lin Qiushi: "I'll make it for you at noon. It's too late now."

Ruan Baijie: "That's not what you said when we were in bed last night."

Xiao Ke was sipping his porridge when he heard this and nearly choked. Xiong Qi's expression also grew subtle, his eyes flickering between Lin Qiushi and Ruan Baijie.

Lin Qiushi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Alright, stop it. Thank you for last night. I made you noodles for lunch and fried two extra eggs for you."

"Okay." Ruan Baijie compromised, "Oh, it would be great to have chopped green onions."

In such a cold day, it is already a blessing to have green vegetables to eat, but don’t even think about chopped green onions or something like that.

Everyone had a rough breakfast, put on warm clothes, and then prepared to go out with axes in hand.

The place where the trees were cut was in the mountain forest near the village. There was only a small path leading there. Because of the snow, the path became narrower and only one person could walk.

Going up the mountain is not so difficult, but going down the mountain dragging the wood would be more troublesome, Lin Qiushi thought to himself as he walked along the path.

Fortunately, one of the eleven of them knew how to work with wood. He was a middle-aged man in his thirties who claimed to be a carpenter. He could cut trees and make simple furniture, but he didn't know much about things like coffins. He walked in front, selected a few trees, and began to teach everyone how to cut trees.

Most people here have never done this before. Even though they have someone to teach them, they are still quite unfamiliar with it the first time.

Lin Qiushi took the axe and made two moves. After the first chop, only a faint mark was left on the tree trunk.

"Your technique is still wrong." Ruan Baijie stood nearby, hands in pockets, breathing out white air. "You need to use your strength downwards, otherwise the axe is so heavy that you won't be able to lift it."

Lin Qiushi: "Have you ever cut down a tree?"

Ruan Baijie: "I've seen other people chopping down trees."

Lin Qiushi said "oh".

Ruan Baijie said: "Be careful, don't hurt yourself."

Lin Qiushi nodded and continued swinging his axe. This was much more troublesome than they had imagined. Several grown men took turns resting and chopped down a tree in the entire morning.

"What should we do, Brother Xiong?" someone asked. "What should we do?"

Xiong Qi looked at the weather and gritted his teeth: "Let's go, carry this tree back and continue tomorrow."

Although it was only a little after three in the afternoon, the sky had already darkened and large flakes of snow began to float in the sky. It looked like there might be a heavy snowfall in the evening.

Lin Qiushi asked, "How many pieces of wood are needed for a coffin?"

"The village chief said three," Xiong Qi said, "Two days of hard work will be enough. Come on, someone come and give me a hand."

Lin Qiushi was about to go forward and carry the tree when he heard Ruan Baijie say, "Ouch, I think I twisted my ankle. Qiushi, carry me down the mountain."

Lin Qiushi: "Ah?"

Ruan Baijie: "What? Hurry up, there are so many people here, why are you joining in the fun?"

Lin Qiushi was about to speak when Xiong Qi patted his shoulder and said, "Go."

Lin Qiushi: "..." He glanced at Ruan Baijie's expression and didn't see any other meaning from her pitiful look, but he sensitively smelled a clue, as if Ruan Baijie's sudden request was not as simple as he imagined.

The author has something to say: Ruan Baijie is the top, hahahaha, I feel like everyone has guessed it.