Chapter 197 [(*^▽^*)]
Zhou Feng said, "It's definitely necessary. At the very least, the Lin family needs to handle this mummified corpse. Leaving it in the village isn't a solution; it will cause panic among the villagers."
Left with no other choice, they returned to the Lin residence and informed the people there about the matter.
Upon learning of this, Lin Zhoushan and his wife, who had just finished discussing Lin Yangxu's marriage, immediately got up and quietly led their people to the place where the mummified body was discovered.
Lin Zhoushan didn't want to attract the villagers' attention, so everyone who came was quiet. Of course, the players also came, and they all quietly observed the corpses on the ground.
"It's a mummified corpse!"
"It must have been done by a vengeful ghost; they've all been drained dry!"
Lin Leyou, who came with Xue Rui and the others, had naturally noticed the mummified corpse long ago. If he hadn't remembered that he had killed Zhou Nanyue and dumped her here, he wouldn't have recognized her as Zhou Nanyue.
How did it turn into a dried corpse?
Lin Leyou didn't understand. Did these corpses turn into mummies quickly after being killed by ghosts? Anyway, it wasn't him who drained them!
At this moment, he noticed Xue Rui's expression. He looked at the dried-up corpse and saw that its face was blank. Could it be that Lin Leyou had drained the corpse?
Lin Leyou quickly reached out to Er Kang, "No, don't slander him. He didn't do it. He just strangled the person to death and didn't do anything else!"
So who exactly is framing him?
Xue Rui might have found it hard to accept that Lin Leyou was a vengeful ghost, but he quickly recovered. Perhaps it was because Lin Leyou possessed certain abilities after becoming a ghost.
It just turned into a dried-up corpse; that doesn't mean it was sucked dry.
Seeing that his complexion gradually returned to normal, Lin Leyou secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He thought, "Just wait and see. I'll explain to Xue Rui when I have the chance. Anyway, I will never bear such a stigma!"
Lin Zhoushan suddenly said, "Everyone, please keep your voices down, lest the villagers find out and implicate them. The fewer people who know about this, the better."
Everyone quickly quieted down, especially the players, who had all participated in other dungeons before coming to this one, so they were quite accepting of the corpses.
The servants who came with Lin Zhoushan were all trembling with fear, but fortunately none of them turned and ran or shouted.
Lin Zhoushan: "Do you know who this person is? He shouldn't be from my Lin family, right?"
At this moment, Kong Shubai and Qi Miaofan, who had been following Xue Qian for a while, leaned closer to observe him carefully. After a while, they said somewhat uncertainly, "This looks like Zhou Nanyue."
Lin Zhoushan thought for a moment, but really couldn't remember who Zhou Nanyue was.
Xue Rui reminded him, "It's Xue Qian's lackey, the one who was beaten up by Lin Yangxu's men before. Does Master Lin know about him?"
The one who got beaten up by people arranged by Lin Yangxu?
Lin Zhoushan really didn't know about this, but... his death shouldn't have anything to do with his son, right?
Just then, a voice came from behind, "What do you mean by 'getting beaten up'?"
When did he hit someone?
Soon a servant explained the matter to him, and Lin Yangxu finally understood what had happened. At that moment, he was standing next to Lin Zhoushan and saw the mummified corpse in front of him.
Lin Yangxu gasped, his mouth agape but he couldn't utter a single word. He looked terrified, and it took several servants running around him to calm him down before he finally came to his senses.
"Father...he...this...this mummified corpse...could it be my brother?"
Lin Zhoushan was taken aback for a moment, "No."
You can tell he's not a guest just by looking at his clothes and his hair. Lin Yang'an has long hair, and his clothes are those of a young master, not this kind of thing.
Lin Yangxu, "I... Dad! Who did this?"
Lin Zhoushan, "Weren't you targeting him before?"
Lin Yangxu cried out that he was wronged, "Father, I didn't... I didn't do it. I don't have such supernatural abilities. How could I kill someone and turn them into a dried corpse? Besides, I was at home the whole time, and all the servants were there. I didn't go out at all."
Lin Zhoushan thought about it and realized that was indeed the case.
Fang Hong said, "If that's the case, then if the murderer isn't some kind of vengeful ghost, then it must be someone who wasn't in the Lin residence when Zhou Nanyue left. Does anyone have a candidate in mind?"
Everyone shook their heads.
“We can all testify to each other that we didn’t leave the Lin residence, after all… the Lin residence is where the vengeful ghosts often appear.”
After asking around, it turned out that almost all the players were at the Lin residence. Come to think of it, the haunted place was at the Lin residence, and it was at night, so they would definitely stay there.
There are only three people missing. One of them, Zhou Nanyue, died in the fields. The whereabouts of the other two are still unknown. It seems we need to go and look for them.
"Those two people look like Xue Qian and a woman. Should we go to their residence and look for them?"
"Then let's go. Maybe it wasn't a vengeful ghost that did it, but they wanted Zhou Nanyue's tools, so they killed him? Maybe he turned into a dried corpse not because of anything else, but because they had special tools?"
"Then let's go and look for them. I won't feel at ease until I find them and ask them properly."
Lin Zhoushan ordered his servants to move the mummified corpse away with straw mats. Of course, they didn't take it to the Lin residence; this unlucky thing was meant to be sent to the cemetery behind the mountain.
Several servants nervously dealt with the mummified corpse, while the rest headed towards the players' residence. When they arrived outside the dark house, they sensed something was amiss.
"Speaking of which, it seems that Young Master Lin deliberately prevented the Lin family from preparing food for the three of them. Zhou Nanyue may have been attacked on her way to the village to buy food."
"If it weren't for these two people, they should be starving by now. Why haven't they made a sound?"
"That's strange. They didn't even light any candles. Are they all asleep? Didn't they eat? Or did they eat?"
Hearing their words, Lin Zhoushan glanced at Lin Yangxu standing beside him, but Lin Yangxu was staring intently at the house and didn't notice that his father was glaring at him.
Lin Zhoushan withdrew his gaze. "This is where the guests are staying. Why don't you go and take a look?"
Xue Rui didn't want to go over there, and neither did the three people standing next to him. Xue Qian was truly disgusting, and they didn't even want to look at him.
In the end, other players went to knock on the door, but no matter how hard they knocked, there was no response from inside.
If there's no response, then there's a problem!
They pushed hard, and to their surprise, the door opened just like that. It wasn't locked. Was the person inside?
After pushing open the door, it was pitch black inside, without a single ray of light. The scattered starlight outside couldn't illuminate the interior at all, allowing anyone to see what was inside.
With no other option, they lit candles and found two mummified corpses, just like Zhou Nanyue's, in the two rooms!
"hiss!"
They're all dead!
"It seems it wasn't them who did it, but a vengeful ghost. But why would a vengeful ghost target the three of them?"
"I don't think it's targeting those three; it's more likely that anyone who's been to the Lin residence will be targeted."
"Oh no! Does that mean we'll be targeted too?"
"No problem, aren't we just waiting for the vengeful ghost to come to us? Otherwise, it's too annoying to search every day and we can't find anything."
"That's true. If the vengeful ghosts could come to us on their own, it would save us a lot of trouble."
"So, what do we do with these two mummies now? We'll be coming back here to rest later."
The players all looked at Lin Zhoushan.
"Then we can only trouble Mr. Lin again to bury their bodies in the cemetery behind the mountain. After all, they are dead, and we can't just leave their bodies here."
Although they've all turned into mummies and are unlikely to decompose, mummies are still corpses, and leaving them here will still make some people uncomfortable.
Lin Zhoushan did not refuse, and once again ordered several servants to come and carry away the two mummies... no, they were carried away along with the bed.
The body was thrown into the graveyard behind the mountain and buried, while the bed was chopped up and used as firewood... no, even burning it as firewood was considered unlucky, so the servants were all thrown into the back mountain and buried with the mummified corpse.
At this moment, the players were all in high spirits and continued to follow Lin Zhoushan back to the Lin residence. This time, they did not continue to wander around, but instead split into several small groups, stopped in some places, and waited quietly.
They probably wanted to wait for the vengeful ghost to come looking for them.
After all, the vengeful ghost will definitely target them, so there's no need to go through the trouble of searching.
Xue Rui then stood up and said, "I'm going to the restroom."
In places like this, of course, there are no modern toilets; it's the kind of latrines from ancient times.
Zhou Feng: "It's a bit dangerous for you to go alone. Shall I go with you?"
Xue Rui hesitated for a moment, but did not refuse. "Then let's go."
Everyone probably knows where the outhouse is. After all, people need to relieve themselves sometimes, and you can't just let them do whatever they want in the Lin residence, right? Although the outhouse is a bit too old-fashioned, it's still acceptable.
Xue Rui and Zhou Feng went to the restroom, but it didn't take too long, and they returned quickly.
It was already past midnight, and Ding Baishuang and Fang Hong were both a little sleepy, while Zhou Feng was yawning.
Xue Rui said, "You guys go to sleep first. I'll keep watch for the night and wake you up after a while."
Zhou Feng said, "I'll be the second one. There's no need to look for vengeful ghosts right now. Getting some rest is the most important thing."
All three of them slowly fell asleep. After confirming that they were all asleep, Xue Rui slowly got up and walked to a slightly farther spot where he could see them, but they couldn't see what he was holding.
He took out his phone and texted Lin Leyou, "Brother Lin?"
Lin Leyou was on the roof directly above them. "Yes."
"Those three mummies?"
Lin Leyou sighed, "I killed them, but do you believe me if I didn't turn them into mummies?"
Xue Rui breathed a sigh of relief. "I believe you. I know Brother Lin would never lie to me, nor would he have any reason to do so. There would be no benefit for him in doing so."
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