Ghost Granary: Gnawing Out Past Life Memories
The mechanical cat's bell echoed softly in the silent barn. Xiaodou followed it across the half-man-high wheat ears, and suddenly his nose was struck by two contradictory smells: a damp, musty smell shrouded in a faint sweetness, like osmanthus cakes soaked in rainwater.
"Warning: This area has triggered a [Memory Erosion] instance." Lin Shen's personality pushed up his glasses, his fingertips drawing a light blue data stream in the void. "The words and actions of all non-player characters may reflect real history."
Xiaodou's treasure-hunting radar suddenly beeped wildly, and his round ears turned to the right corner. There, huddled in the corner, was a young girl in a blue cotton shirt, her translucent apron still stained with flour. In her hand, she clutched a yellowed food coupon—the date on the coupon was March 15, 1960.
"Xiaofang..." Bai Yan's personality whispered softly, his fingertips brushing the girl's shoulders, and the fox fire in his palm condensed into a warm light, "What are you looking for?"
The girl raised her head, a faint blue light streaming from her eyes. "My food coupons...my food coupons were taken away by the big black cat..." She suddenly grabbed Xiaodou's panda paw, and the cold touch made the latter shudder. "Help me find them, okay? If you find them, I can exchange them for osmanthus cakes..."
Lin Shen dug out a tin box from the dusty grain storage. Inside lay three hard steamed buns. Xiaodou had just taken her first bite when a sudden, intense white light flashed before her eyes. Xiaofang, with her pigtails, was squatting in front of the wood stove, breaking up the last piece of cornmeal and feeding it to the calico kitten that was nuzzling against her ankle.
“Meow—”
Sparks suddenly erupted from the mechanical cat's gear eyes, and a silver bell crashed to the ground with a cracking sound. It trembled as it extended its claws, but the moment it touched Xiaofang's shadow, they pierced through, and a clear liquid seeped from the gaps in its gears—human tears, something an NPC would never experience.
"The data is abnormal!" Lin Shen's pupils suddenly shrank. "This cat's AI core... contains a human emotion module!"
Ling Yuan used a prying gun to pry open the rusted iron cabinet. A yellowed piece of math paper fell out among the pile of food coupons. Lin Shen scanned the equation and suddenly grabbed Xiaodou's paw, dipping it in flour and writing the numbers: "3 jin of flour + 5 liang of sugar = wedding date? No, it's May 20, 1960. The code to the granary's secret room!"
When the last number sounded, the wall suddenly flipped over, revealing a rat-shaped rune. Xiaodou instinctively pressed her paw against it, and the black and white fur instantly glowed with golden light. The rune climbed up her arm like a living thing, converging on her chest into the mark of a rat head surrounded by wheat ears.
"Ding—Concept Rat Clan inheritance activated!"
The system notification tone was accompanied by a murmur of electricity. The three personalities of Bai Shenyuan frowned simultaneously—the arrangement of these runes was surprisingly identical to the Heavenly Dao Seal that appeared every time they died.
When Ling Yuan cleaved open the secret door with his sword, the sweet aroma that filled the air was almost suffocating. The room was filled with osmanthus cakes piled high like a mountain, each one inscribed with icing sugar: "Bai Yan," "Ling Yuan," "Lin Shen." Bai Yan's fingertips traced the words, and the fox fire suddenly scorched the cakes. "Are these... our names from our past lives?"
Before he could finish his words, a crack suddenly appeared on the granary roof. In the moonlight, a giant tapir composed of countless gears slowly descended. Its eyes were swirling runes of the Way of Heaven. The turbulence created by its raised claws overturned an entire row of grain bins.
"Warning! Dream-Eating Tapir 2.0 program activated." The GM's mechanical voice came from all directions. "Panda Mouse players, please stay where you are. Your cuteness will serve as the boss's energy source~"
Xiaodou was thrown to the ground by the blast, but as she turned, she saw the mechanical tapir's claws facing her panda butt. She hurriedly hugged a piece of osmanthus cake and screamed with her eyes closed, but she heard the roar of the three soul personalities of Bai Shenyuan erupting simultaneously -
Ling Yuan's sword sliced through the tapir's tentacles, Bai Yan's foxfire blasted a golden barrier through the cakes, and Lin Shen's data stream suddenly entangled the tapir's gear joints. And under Xiaodou's paw, the osmanthus cake suddenly cracked, revealing half a yellowed grain coupon inside. The girl's portrait printed on the coupon was exactly the same as the ghost Xiaofang from before.
“Crack.”
She unconsciously took a bite of the pastry, but tasted a hint of rust in the sweetness - it was the blood and tears of hunger and hope that had been sealed for sixty years.
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