Chapter 83 Oil Lamp
Although I am used to such scenes, I have to say that every time this scene appears before my eyes, it is a challenge to my nerves.
The hostess heated up the wok in front of her and placed the meat in her hand. As the meat sizzled in contact with the hot pot, the aroma of cooked meat lingered. This smell quickly turned to a burnt stench. Gu Longming's expression was complex, though he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The hostess's actions at least proved that the food they were eating wasn't human flesh.
The meat rolled in the pot, the fat layer overflowed with abundant oil, and the meat part became charred and was picked up by the woman with the spatula in her hand.
Lin Qiushi looked at the furnishings in the room and the woman's actions, and instantly understood what she was doing—she was using the corpse to make oil. And it seemed she was using it to make the lamp oil in the room.
Sure enough, when the transparent hot oil overflowed the iron pot, the woman turned around and picked up the lamp next to her, then put the hot oil and wick into the small lamp.
Lin Qiushi thought of the oil lamp in their house, which was exactly the same as the one in the woman's hand. There was no doubt that the method of making the oil lamp was probably almost the same.
The woman was lighting the oil lamp when she heard a baby crying in the house.
Lin Qiushi was stunned for a moment, then saw her turn around and go back to the inner room. A moment later, she brought out a tiny baby wrapped in a red swaddling cloth.
Because of the angle, Lin Qiushi couldn't quite see the child's face, but he saw the child's outstretched hands. The small hands were pale with a strange blue hue, and they didn't look like the hands of a normal child at all.
"Don't cry, don't cry." The woman rocked the child and soothed the child in her arms with a gentle voice.
Lin Qiushi didn't dare to go too far, for fear that the woman would see him through the window.
The woman paced in the room filled with the smell of grease, her tone and expression extremely gentle. She slowly turned her body, allowing Lin Qiushi to see the child in her arms.
Just as Lin Qiushi guessed, this was not a living child.
His face was swollen and pale, as if it had been soaked in water for a long time. His eyes were narrowed into a line, the pupils barely visible. His huge blood-red mouth was open, wailing loudly. Lin Qiushi could clearly see the fine teeth within—no human had teeth like that. The child's cheeks were covered with cyan veins, further revealing his non-human identity.
Lin Qiushi felt his arm being firmly grasped by Gu Longming. Turning his head, he saw that Gu Longming was terribly frightened.
Lin Qiushi was about to tell him to loosen his grip when he saw the hostess heading towards the door. He quickly turned around and pulled Gu Longming into a corner. Only after they saw the hostess leave the yard, carrying the child, did they breathe a sigh of relief.
"Do you want to go in and take a look?" Although Gu Longming looked quite scared, he still made this suggestion.
Lin Qiushi glanced at the door and said, "Let's go."
Gu Longming said, "Um...can I keep watch for you at the door?"
Lin Qiushi said, "That's fine." He didn't force Gu Longming to go in with him.
Unexpectedly, after hesitating for a while, Gu Longming decided to go into the house with Lin Qiushi to check for clues. He said that if she really came back, it seemed that keeping watch would be useless, and it would be safer to turn around and run.
The two entered the house through the half-open door and began to search for clues quickly.
Because the hostess might come back at any time, Lin Qiushi didn't dare to delay too long. Gu Longming checked outside while Lin Qiushi went into the inner room.
The inner room was not big, and there was a very small crib in it. But what was very strange was that there was a shelf next to the crib, and on the shelf were densely packed oil lamps. Although it was daytime, all the oil lamps were burning.
Lin Qiushi was about to continue watching when he heard faint footsteps coming from the door. He knew it must be the hostess returning, so he turned around, grabbed Gu Longming's arm and motioned him to leave.
Gu Longming understood what he meant and quickly left the house with Lin Qiushi.
As soon as the two of them reached the corner, the hostess pushed open the courtyard door. The baby in her arms had stopped crying, but Lin Qiushi could clearly see a circle of red marks around the baby's mouth, as if left by chewing something...
"Be good, be good." The woman returned to the room. After returning to the room, she looked around and a look of suspicion appeared on her face.
Seeing the situation was not good, Lin Qiushi said to Gu Longming, "Let's go!"
The two of them followed the wall and headed straight for the exit of the yard.
Fortunately, they ran away quickly, because just one minute after they left the house, the hostess came to the door and put a heavy lock on the door to the yard. If they were a little slower, they would definitely be locked in the yard.
Even the calm Lin Qiushi couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Let's go back." Gu Longming said, "It's almost noon..."
Lin Qiushi glanced at him and said, "How can you still eat like this?" Didn't he look like he was about to vomit just now?
Gu Longming said, "Man is like iron, and food is like steel. If you don't eat for a meal, you'll be very hungry. Besides, it's not human flesh anyway, so it doesn't seem to matter if you eat a little..."
Lin Qiushi said helplessly: "Okay."
After that, the two of them walked towards the dining area.
When the two of them arrived, the others had almost finished eating. Yan Shihe was sitting next to them chatting with Xiao Qian. Lin Qiushi heard their conversation, which was probably about the customs and habits of the small town.
It seemed that Gu Longming was really hungry. After getting a bowl of rice, he began to eat it in big mouthfuls.
Yan Shihe glanced at the two of them, then stood up and walked over to Lin Qiushi, saying, "You're eating so late! The food is almost cold."
Lin Qiushi said, "Yeah, I got up late."
Yan Shihe's eyes flickered, and he obviously didn't believe Lin Qiushi's excuse. He was right. In a world like this, it was simply impossible to be so careless as to oversleep.
But Lin Qiushi didn't care whether he believed it or not. So what if Yan Shihe didn't believe it?
"We've found a new clue. Can we exchange it with you?" Yan Shihe sat down next to Lin Qiushi. "We're not enemies..."
Lin Qiushi looked at him: "What kind of clue?"
Yan Shihe said, "Clues about the river god."
Lin Qiushi put down his chopsticks and asked, "What do you want to know?"
Yan Shihe said, "I want to know where you went and what you saw."
Lin Qiushi looked at him without saying anything.
Yan Shihe smiled and said, "Well, actually, Xiaoqian saw you heading towards the hostess's residence. You've made it in, right? I just want to know what's inside the house..."
"You go ahead and talk first," Lin Qiushi said frankly. "If you just try to fool me with some nonsense, you'll probably have a hard time getting the clue you want."
Yan Shihe said, "Okay, let's find a secluded place." He glanced at Gu Longming who was still trying to dig for rice, "It seems that what you saw inside the door was not very scary." He still had such an appetite.
Lin Qiushi looked at Gu Longming, not knowing what to say.
Gu Longming finally cleaned up the rice, wiped his mouth and said righteously: "Don't waste it!"
Lin Qiushi: "Are you full?" This guy has already eaten three big bowls of rice.
Gu Longming gritted his teeth and said, "Even if I'm full, I guess I'm full!"
Lin Qiushi: “…” I’m so sorry for what you have done.
Then the four of them found a secluded room in the yard and started exchanging clues.
"I remember you also entered the ancestral hall, right?" Yan Shihe said, "Did you see the tablets of those children up there?"
Lin Qiushi said, "I see." He immediately realized what was going on. "Are you saying those children are the river gods?"
"Clever," Yan Shihe said. "Normally, children who died young cannot be enshrined in the ancestral hall. But these are different. They are no longer children, but gods."
Because of this, their tablets were placed even higher than those of some of the town's elders. Lin Qiushi suddenly realized that this was the reason.
"There's another memorial tablet. I don't know if you noticed it," Yan Shihe said. "The name on it is Yu Caizhe."
Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming both shook their heads, indicating that they didn't know.
Seeing this, Yan Shihe laughed and said, "Tell me what you saw in the room first. Then I'll tell you about Yu Caizhe. After all, both sides need to show some sincerity, right?"
Lin Qiushi paused for a moment and said, "We saw the hostess in the yard frying corpses in a pan—the bodies of the two people who disappeared last night."
Yan Shihe sat up straight. "Fry? Why would she fry a corpse?"
Xiao Qian's face turned ugly all of a sudden: "You're not giving it to us to eat!"
If ordinary people have not seen the oil lamp, it is easy to misunderstand what they are thinking when hearing this passage.
Lin Qiushi smiled and didn't explain. Instead, he asked, "Who is Yu Caizhe?"
Yan Shihe knew he had met his match. Although the man before him looked gentle and non-aggressive, he didn't seem to be someone to be trifled with. He said slowly, "Do you know that the male owner of this courtyard is also surnamed Yu?"
Gu Longming didn't understand: "Is this his tablet?"
"No," Yan Shihe said, "it's his son's tablet." He spread his hands and said, "I found their family tree in a room in the courtyard."
"The mistress's son? So the mistress's son also became a river god?" Speaking of his son, Lin Qiushi suddenly remembered the pale, toothy baby in the mistress's arms. Could that baby be the Yu Caizhe Yan Shihe had mentioned? But how could he, already a river god, return to the mistress's side?
Lin Qiushi frowned, feeling a little confused.
"Frying a corpse? What is the hostess doing frying a corpse?" Yan Shihe laughed, "I don't believe we are eating a corpse."
"Why don't you believe it?" Gu Longming said unhappily, "Have you ever eaten a real corpse?"
Yan Shihe glanced at Gu Longming and said calmly, "Of course not."
For some reason, Lin Qiushi had a feeling he was lying. Of course, he didn't voice this feeling, but instead said, "We saw her boil the oil from the corpse and make it into an oil lamp."
Yan Shihe frowned. "Oil lamp? The kind we usually use?"
"Yes." Lin Qiushi confirmed Yan Shihe's question. "It's the kind we usually use."
Yan Shihe fell into a brief silence, then spoke again: "So what is the purpose of the oil lamp?"
Lin Qiushi shook his head, indicating that he didn't know.
Yan Shihe got the information he wanted. He stood up and said goodbye to Lin Qiushi, "We'll be leaving first." He looked at Gu Longming with a hint of sarcasm in his eyes. "If you're hungry, you can go back and eat more."
Gu Longming didn't say anything. He just reached out and rolled up his sleeves, revealing his muscular arms, and sneered.
Yan Shihe turned and left, looking a little flustered from behind.
Lin Qiushi found this quite amusing.
"Damn, this guy is a moron." Gu Longming spat, "All he knows is to bully a poor, weak, and helpless high school girl like me."
Lin Qiushi silently shifted his gaze away from Gu Longming's muscular arms.
The information exchanged with Yan Shihe was very useful. At least Lin Qiushi now had a clear understanding of the so-called river god. However, when they were still wondering what the relationship was between the oil lamp and the river god, they discovered that Yan Shihe had actually told everyone about the oil lamp.
Yan Shihe said this during dinner in a very calm tone.
Most people put down their chopsticks because of his words. One of the two newcomers rushed to the door and started vomiting. No one knew what he was thinking about.
"All the oil lamps are made from the oil in corpses," Master Yan said. "Although I don't know the exact function of these oil lamps, I still think it's appropriate to tell everyone about this."
Gu Longming was extremely displeased with Yan Shihe's behavior of spreading their clues, and his expression remained sullen. Lin Qiushi's face was also expressionless, as he quietly ate the food in front of him.
Some of the others who heard the news immediately stood up and left in a hurry, apparently wanting to throw the oil lamp away.
Lin Qiushi glanced at Yan Shihe, and their eyes met. Yan Shihe smiled at Lin Qiushi and then looked away.
"What on earth does he want to do?" On the way back, Gu Longming's dissatisfaction with Yan Shihe reached its peak. "He actually said this out loud like that?!"
Lin Qiushi had already figured out Yan Shihe's intention. "He just wanted to know what the oil lamp actually did."
Gu Longming: "What do you mean?"
Lin Qiushi said, "To put it simply, oil lamps can only have two uses: good or bad, so Yan Shihe needs someone to test it."
Gu Longming was stunned for a moment before he understood what Lin Qiushi meant. "Are you saying that he deliberately made those people throw away the oil lamps out of fear?"
Lin Qiushi said, "Yes."
Gu Longming: "But what if...what if the oil lamp is the condition that attracts ghosts?"
Lin Qiushi asked, "Do you remember the room we inspected this morning?"
Gu Longming said: "Remember..." The room they checked was the room of the two people who disappeared last night.
Lin Qiushi said, "The oil lamp in that room is empty."
Gu Longming's eyes widened. He had completely forgotten this detail.
"Yan Shihe remembered this incident, so he placed his bets on the other side." Lin Qiushi slowly pushed open the door. "The world inside the door is a gamble. Whether you throw the oil lamp or not, there is a 50% chance of death on both sides. He wants to find the correct answer, so he uses other people's lives to try." When he said this, a hint of boredom appeared on his face.
Gu Longming: "Then why don't we tell them..."
Lin Qiushi tilted his head, feeling somewhat helpless. "Because we don't know the correct answer either. What if leaving the oil lamp behind is the mistake?"
Gu Longming had nothing to say.
The two of them walked into the room, and their eyes immediately fell on the oil lamp on their table.
Gu Longming walked over to the oil lamp and muttered, "Then we'll keep this one?" He reached out and picked up the oil lamp, then froze. "Wait, has our oil lamp been replaced?"
Lin Qiushi: "Changed?" Lin Qiushi looked at the oil lamp and found nothing unusual.
"Yes, I've changed it." Gu Longming was very sure. "If you don't believe me, I'll show you." After he finished speaking, he reached into his pocket, rummaged around, and pulled out something. When Lin Qiushi saw what he had pulled out, he was stunned: "Wait, you didn't change it when we entered..."
"Yes." Gu Longming said, "Since we are here now."
Gu Longming was holding a finished oil lamp, the oil inside already solidified into a milky white paste. Undoubtedly, this lamp was the one Gu Longming had secretly taken from the hostess's living room when they first entered the courtyard. Lin Qiushi stared at the lamp, not knowing what to say for a moment.
"Hehehe, luckily I have foresight." Gu Longming was quite cheerful. "Come and see, isn't the color of our oil lamp different from this one?"
Lin Qiushi leaned closer and discovered that the colors were indeed different. However, the difference was very subtle; the color of the oil lamp in their room was only slightly lighter. Without comparing them side by side, Lin Qiushi really couldn't tell the tiny difference.
"Right, right?" Gu Longming said, "Am I seeing things right?"
"You're not mistaken." Lin Qiushi took the lamp from Gu Longming. "I want to check the other rooms."
He wanted to compare it with other oil lamps.
Gu Longming said, "Let's go together."
As soon as the two of them left the house, they saw the hostess in a red dress standing quietly in the middle of the yard with her back to their room.
Gu Longming felt a little guilty and didn't dare to look any further.
Lin Qiushi noticed that she was holding a small red blanket in her arms. It was the swaddling clothes she had used to wrap the baby during the day. However, the swaddling clothes were now empty...
Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming went to other rooms and compared the lamp oil before making a discovery.
The lamp oil in the room where Ying Hai cried before was exactly the same as the lamp oil in their house, which was different from the lamp that Gu Longming stole from the hostess's room.
And judging by what happened last night, this kind of lamp oil will obviously bring disaster. On the contrary, lamp oil made from human bodies is safe.
However, even though this is the truth, it still makes people feel very uncomfortable. After all, they have to use the fat in their own bodies to illuminate...
So that night, Gu Longming and Lin Qiushi did not light the lights. They went to bed early and chatted in bed.
Gu Longming was a talkative person and was good at bragging. He talked about the interesting things he encountered in the real world, and Lin Qiushi listened with great interest.
But before falling asleep, Lin Qiushi got up and looked out the window.
It was pitch black outside, with only two rooms lit: Yan Shihe's room and an elderly couple's. The other rooms were all dark, apparently because the owners had either thrown away the lamp oil or had left it on and hadn't lit it.
Lin Qiushi returned to his bed, his eyes slowly closing as he tried to drift into a deep sleep. However, something on his mind prevented him from sleeping too soundly. The faint sound of footsteps outside the window woke him from his light slumber.
Lin Qiushi opened his eyes and saw the darkness in the room. Only the faint moonlight shone through the window, casting a white glow on the ground.
Through the window paper, Lin Qiushi spotted a row of figures. They were short, and judging by their height and shape, they appeared to be children. Hearing these voices, he couldn't help but think of the children who had appeared in the corridor last night, slowly walking forward with their shoulders linked.
And the worst thing was that Lin Qiushi heard the sound of fingers rubbing against the window again.
Because the woman had poked a hole in the window last night, Lin Qiushi had specially patched the hole with glue during the day. He lay in bed with his heart hanging in his throat. The subtle sound was like a rope demanding his life, which could be put around his neck at any time and push him down.
The sound continued for a long time and finally stopped. It seemed that something outside found that the window paper could not be pierced, so it slowly moved towards another room.
Yan Shihe's experiment also produced results. The lamp oil made from human bodies did not have any harm. Instead, it was a tool to protect them.
However, Lin Qiushi was lying on the bed, about to breathe a sigh of relief, when he caught a glimpse of another tall figure outside the window from the corner of his eye - it was the hostess of the yard. She stood very tall, staring into the house through a thin layer of glass.
Lin Qiushi held his breath, but he suddenly remembered the oil lamp that suddenly lit up last night.
Why did the oil lamp suddenly light up? Could there be some other hidden cause of death besides the oil lamp? Lin Qiushi was thinking this when the oil lamp on the table suddenly lit up with a dazzling light again.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com