Chapter 136 Night Candle Rules 14 An Unexpected Guest.
The two acted out their roles for a while, and figuring they couldn't really be considered "bad guys," they sat down.
The staff member sat on the sofa that had just been put up and was still covered in dust. Of course, he couldn't complain, because complaining about the house being unclean would definitely not make him a "good guest." He maintained a stiff smile and said, "My name is Wu Yu, and my employee number is 11359. Let me explain the situation to you."
Nanmen Jue smiled amiably, "Thank you for your trouble."
“That’s right. As residents of a harmonious community, adults need to work and children need to go to school. This is ‘normal’ life.” Wu Yu emphasized the pronunciation of “normal”, which was the maximum he could remind his fellow human beings. “If it is a family with both parents, one of them can stay at home as a full-time housewife or full-time househusband. But if it is a single-parent family, you must work and take care of the family at the same time.”
Nanmen Jue nodded repeatedly, "That's only right. After all, it's for the child's growth, and parents can't be absent no matter what."
Seeing that she understood immediately, Wu Yu's eyes lit up. There were some things he couldn't say too clearly. If the other person wasn't smart enough and couldn't understand the meaning behind his words, it would be easy to accidentally break a taboo, and people would die one by one. This put him under immense psychological pressure.
In a harmonious community, no one wants to do the job of introducing and explaining things to newcomers, but...
"So, where should I look for a job?" Nanmen Jue asked.
“The jobs in Harmony Community are all assigned; you can’t choose them,” Wu Yu said stiffly. He rummaged through his briefcase, took out a stack of documents, and placed them on the coffee table. “These are the jobs assigned to you, as well as your daughter’s school information. Please read them carefully so your daughter can start school tomorrow.”
He kept calling her "your daughter" and "your beloved daughter," which disgusted Yu Wanyan. But given the current situation, she had no choice but to swallow her anger and turn her head away from them.
Nanmen Jue flipped through the documents and found that the job she was assigned was very ordinary: a waitress in a coffee shop. He wondered who in this community would still have the time or inclination to drink coffee.
The school arranged for Yu Wanyan is high school, first year of high school. The school requires students to spend no less than three hours doing homework at home every day, and students who have not yet started school should also prepare for the exam.
Nanmen Jue glanced at Yu Wanyan, whose face turned pale, but she still reluctantly stood up and said, "I don't have any textbooks."
“You should have all the textbooks from elementary to high school in your room,” Wu Yu said immediately.
Yu Wanyan's face turned even paler, and she staggered toward the small bedroom.
"You can find out the specifics from the materials. It's getting late, so I'll take my leave now." Wu Yu stood up.
Nanmen Jue got up to see them off. "By the way, do you know if visiting other people's homes in the community is allowed at night?"
Wu Yu suddenly turned his neck, as if Nanmen Jue had asked a terrifying question, "Visiting someone's home... are you sure?"
Who would want to visit someone in such a awful place!
"Yes, I'm sure. I'm new here and don't know the rules yet," Nanmen Jue said. "Is that alright?"
Wu Yu hesitated for a moment and said, "I've never seen this before, nor have I ever heard of being warned for visiting someone's home..."
Before he could finish speaking, he quickly covered his mouth, his eyes filled with terror.
The smile on Nanmen Jue's face disappeared.
Both men turned their gazes toward the doorway. The little boy had reappeared outside, his eyes devoid of any gleam. He silently looked at them and said, "Nanmen Jue, as a father, you laid a hand on your own child. This is a warning. Wu Yu, as a police officer, you visited the home and found no evidence of child abuse. This is also a warning."
Wu Yu's face turned as white as paper. His voice was sharp, even resentful, "You hit the child?"
Nanmen Jue pursed her lips; she hadn't expected the surveillance of people here to be this strict.
The boy vanished into thin air after he finished speaking. The doorway was pitch black, and the door opposite was opened. Ying Yao and the other two stood there, having all heard the warning.
Wu Yu's face twisted in anger as he glared hatefully at Nanmen Jue before hurriedly leaving with his briefcase. The others watched in silence as he rushed downstairs, and Yu Wanyan also came out of her room.
"You've been warned so quickly?" Yu Wanyan said sarcastically. "Rule-based elimination has nothing to do with strength. Nanmen Jue, do you really think you can leave this strange realm alive?"
Meeting the worried gazes of Mo Gui and Wei Chongru, Nanmen Jue calmly turned around, "Instead of studying properly, you came out to watch the commotion. Do you want a warning?"
Yu Wanyan's face darkened, and she stormed back to her room, slamming the door shut with a loud bang.
Nanmen Jue turned around and said, "Leaving a minor alone at home at night isn't exactly the act of a good person. Anyone want to come and try it?"
Ying Yao couldn't hold back any longer. Upon hearing this, he was the first to take a step forward and appeared beside Nanmen Jue in the blink of an eye.
The group waited quietly for a while, but the persistent boy did not appear to warn them. The other two quickly followed.
"Brother Jue, you've been warned!" Mo Gui said anxiously. "It's only the first day."
"Yes, who knows how many more pitfalls lie ahead? The situation is very unfavorable right now." Wei Chongru's expression was grave.
Nanmen Jue casually sat down on the sofa, smiling at these concerns. "What's there to be afraid of? There are still two warning opportunities left. I roughly know what to do."
“When that person exploded before, the eerie thing was that it was the third warning, so the third one is not a warning, but an execution. You only have one chance,” Ying Yao said.
Nanmen Jue gently patted his mouth. "I misspoke. One chance, one more chance to try and fail, that's enough."
“But with her by your side, it’s not like you can avoid making mistakes on your own.” Ying Yao glanced at the door. “She will definitely find ways to make you make mistakes.”
“I know,” Nanmen Jue said.
"What exactly do you want?" Ying Yao looked at her. "Do you still want to kill everyone here, just like you did in the Snow Maiden's Ghost Realm?"
When this issue came up, both Mo Gui and Wei Chongru's expressions became unnatural.
The fact that Nanmen Jue committed murder is ultimately something that cannot be viewed with a normal mindset.
Nanmen Jue shook his head. "It won't work in this Ghost Realm. I'm not that stupid. Besides, killing like this is too inefficient. From the beginning, I never intended to kill them one by one. It just so happens that we ended up in the Ghost Realm, so it's just a coincidence."
"And you killed tens of thousands of people in the process?" The two men's expressions turned even uglier.
Nanmen Jue ignored them and analyzed seriously, "Have you noticed that these strange rules are all very targeted?"
"A requirement to be a good person?" Wei Chongru said, "If it weren't for the bizarre rules that allow people to kill at will, I would have thought that this bizarre rule was some kind of moral exemplar come to life."
"Even if someone is a model of morality, they can't force a family to have only three people." Mo Gui, who has an older brother, strongly objected. "Can't a model of morality have older brothers, older sisters, younger brothers, or younger sisters?"
Nanmen Jue smiled, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, and finally looked at Ying Yao.
“The rules here are all very naive,” Ying Yao said thoughtfully. “To solve all problems, you have to go to the police station; every family has to have a father, mother, and child; the child must study hard; the parents must work. These rules aren’t the unshakeable rules of a normal society; they’re more like…”
“Rules set for the world from a child’s perspective,” Nanmen Jue continued.
“That boy? That weirdo?” Wei Chongru said, “You mean, that weirdo… really only has an IQ as big as his appearance?”
Nanmen Jue's expression was somewhat solemn. She looked at Ying Yao, but their eye contact was blocked by the layers of obstacles. However, she felt that the other party must have shown the same look in his eyes.
"I hope I'm just overthinking it," she murmured.
Wei Chongru also realized something, and a look of shock appeared in his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Mo Gui was still confused. "Why do you all look like that? What did you think of?"
Suddenly, Nanmen Jue and Ying Yao both looked up at Yu Wanyan's door. The next second, a familiar voice came from inside.
"Yu Wanyan, as a student, you have done something that is detrimental to your physical and mental health. This is a warning."
Yu Wanyan's scream came from inside the house.
The door was suddenly pushed open, and Nanmen Jue rushed in. The boy's figure had disappeared, leaving only Yu Wanyan slumped in her study chair. There were books on her desk, but they were not opened. She was holding a carving knife between her trembling fingers, and there were scratches on her arm. It was obvious what she had been doing.
Unexpectedly, everyone who came in was stunned. Before they could say anything, Yu Wanyan pulled down her sleeve to cover her wound and glared at them angrily.
"Get out..." She suddenly realized that spouting such nonsense wasn't something a "good student" should do, so she gritted her teeth and said, "I need to study now, you can all leave first."
She roughly grabbed the book from the table and opened it.
Nanmen Jue glanced at her twice, pushed the others out, and closed the door behind her.
"Is this self-harm? This is the first time I've ever seen it," Mo Gui said softly. "She's so strong, such a small cut shouldn't matter to her, right?"
"You two should go back first," Nanmen Jue said. "By the way, what are your jobs?"
Her gaze swept past Mo Gui and landed on his "parents".
The two were silent for a moment.
Ying Yao's voice was noticeably stiffer: "Music teacher."
Nanmen Jue was quite surprised, "Yu Wanyan's school?"
Ying Yao nodded.
Mo Gui said, "I also go to this school."
"That's quite a coincidence," Nanmen Jue chuckled. "With you around, Yu Wanyan wouldn't dare to pull any tricks. And what about you?"
She overlooked a very important issue and turned to look directly at Wei Chongru.
Wei Chongru gave an awkward smile. "Well, Ying Yao helped me apply, saying that my child is at the most crucial stage of high school and needs someone to accompany him, so he asked me to be... uh, a housewife."
Nanmen Jue almost burst out laughing.
She was overjoyed. "Great, great, at least it saves you the possibility of making mistakes at work... Yingyao? What's wrong?"
She suddenly sensed that Ying Yao's aura was off.
Ying Yao silently turned to her. Although his expression was not visible, he exuded an aura of bewilderment.
“I can’t sing,” he said.
The three people: ...
Nanmen Jue: "How bad are you?"
“The team has never called on me for the choir.” Ying Yao’s tone sounded a little pitiful, though I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination. “They said that if I went in, I would lead everyone astray.”
"They're not even including you in the choir? Really?" Wei Chongru exclaimed in surprise.
Nanmen Jue realized things weren't going well and tentatively suggested, "How about... you try singing a couple of lines? Hmm, everyone should know 'Green Flowers in the Army,' right?"
She deliberately chose a simple, familiar military song. Seeing Ying Yao nod and then shake his head, she was speechless: "...Just sing it, three, two, one, let's go!"
Ying Yao: "The cold wind blows, leaves fall, and the army is a green flower..."
A moment later, Yu Wanyan burst out of the room with a ferocious expression, "Nanmen Jue, what kind of mental attack tools did you use?"
In the living room, Nanmen Jue and the other two were pale-faced, and Ying Yao silently stopped singing.
Yu Wanyan was confused. "You guys... you even attack your own people when you get ruthless?"
"This is none of your business. Go inside and study." After dismissing Yu Wanyan, Nanmen Jue turned to look at Ying Yao, who had his head down, and fell silent.
Mo Gui and Wei Chongru remained silent.
Well, they thought they were well prepared, but they were still far too unprepared.
There was no other way. In order to prevent Ying Yao from being complained about by students for being tone-deaf on his first day of work, the three of them had no choice but to give him special training overnight.
It doesn't need to be too complicated, just be able to sing one song first!
...
The chaotic first day passed, and on the second day, those who needed to go to work went to work, and those who needed to go to school went to school. Wei Chongru prepared himself mentally and went out to find an anchor point.
Ying Yao secured him the status of a full-time housewife, not entirely to reduce his danger. Everyone else was held back, but he was now the hope of the entire village.
The first day passed without incident. That evening, Nanmen Jue, with Yu Wanyan in tow, and Ying Yao, with Mo Gui, led the five of them back to Nanmen Jue's house to reunite.
Yu Wanyan looked disgusted, and her temper was even worse than the day before. On the way here, Mo Gui had already told them that Yu Wanyan had suddenly started shouting during class, which had startled the teacher and earned her a second warning.
In other words, if Yu Wanyan violates the rules again, she will be eliminated by the rules.
Without saying a word, she went straight back to her room and slammed the door shut.
Nanmen Jue looked at the closed door. "What did she shout?"
“I don’t know, we’re not in the same grade.” Mo Gui shook his head. “It was something like, ‘I don’t want to go to school, I want to go home.’”
"It can't be that bad," Wei Chongru said, finding it hard to believe. "Even if she's a girl who hates school in real life, doesn't she understand what's going on here? She's already an orange-level user, and she still can't control her temper."
Nanmen Jue seemed lost in thought, his brows furrowing slightly. Ying Yao, uninterested in Yu Wanyan's fate, turned to Wei Chongru and asked, "How's the investigation going?"
“This ghost realm isn’t very large, but there are quite a few people. I didn’t see any ghost servants. If it weren’t a ghost realm, I would have thought this was just an ordinary community.” When it came to business, Wei Chongru became serious. “Today I’ve taken a general walk around the whole area. Tomorrow I will carefully check the possible locations of the anchor points.”
“That police station will be a key focus of our investigation tomorrow,” Nanmen Jue said. “And…”
She suddenly fell silent, and everyone looked at her. Ying Yao understood what she wanted to say.
“The anchor point is the place that the eerie creature initially chose. In this eerie realm, there are two most likely places,” Ying Yao said. “One is the police station, where the eerie creature obviously relies heavily on it, as it provides him with a sense of order and security. The other place is either the eerie creature’s home or the boy’s home.”
"Home?" Mo Gui exclaimed in surprise.
“Hmm… home,” Wei Chongru said. “Brother Nanmen suspected yesterday that these strange things… might not be ghosts or spirits, but rather the native inhabitants of this world.”
Mo Gui's face turned pale instantly. "Wait, wait, wait, I don't understand? No way? The supernatural beings are all natives, which means there's some kind of power in this world that can turn people into those inhuman, ghost-like creatures?"
The three adults tacitly agreed.
"This is just a guess," Nanmen Jue said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Hopefully we're wrong."
If something can transform a person into a monster, it means that there is a danger in this world that surpasses the supernatural. This is not good news for either the natives or the reincarnators.
In the somewhat tense atmosphere, the doorbell rang. Everyone looked up simultaneously. Nanmen Jue, the homeowner, went to answer the door. Standing there was Wu Yu, whom they had met once before, and beside Wu Yu…
Nanmen Jue's pupils contracted sharply; she saw someone who absolutely could not possibly be here.
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