Chapter 20
When Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian finally got back to Yun Manor, they met Luo Mansu who was frowning at them as he scolded, “How could you just run out like that? It’s too dangerous!”
Xiao Tangqiu stopped Tang Mianmian who looked like he wanted to say more, smiling at Luo Mansu, “We were wrong. We’ll be more careful next time.”
“You must be more careful next time! This place isn’t at all like our world. It’s full of danger, and you’ll lose your head if you’re not careful!” Luo Mansu cautioned Xiao Tangqiu with a grim face. Then, he turned to talk about something else, “Did you see anything unusual when you went out? What happened to Yang Bing? Is he dead?”
Xiao Tangqiu shared a little about what happened earlier, including the “river” made out of dead bodies, how Yang Bing was burned alive, and how they were chased by the paper doll on their way here.
“You ran into the paper doll again? How did you manage to escape this time?” Luo Mansu eyed Xiao Tangqiu suspiciously.
Xiao Tangqiu concealed the matter regarding the jade pendant and explained that they both ran all the way back and somehow threw the paper doll off their backs.
Luo Mansu remained doubtful, but he did not continue to ask. He merely breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Fortunately, you are both fine, otherwise we would’ve lost two helping hands in vain, and we’ve not even finished searching Yun Manor yet!”
Xiao Tangqiu said calmly, “I’m guessing that the key to completing this mission, is to stop tonight’s wedding!”
Luo Mansu looked puzzled, “Isn’t that a given? Do you still need to make a guess?”
Xiao Tangqiu looked embarra.s.sed, “…..Eh?”
“Ahem,” Luo Mansu noticed Xiao Tangqiu’s awkward expression. He rubbed his bald head, “Actually, we’ve collected enough clues for this mission. After all, this is just the lowest D-level mission. Once you’ve completed a few more missions and have more experience, you can basically guess what’s the way to unlock the mission based on the various hints in the game………”
Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t help blushing harder, “Then, what are we still doing here talking? Let’s split up and search the Yun Manor.”
Luo Mansu nodded, divided the search tasks, and left with the twins.
Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian set out in the opposite direction from them.
As they were walking, Tang Mianmian couldn’t resist asking, “What does he mean by D-level mission? Could it be that there are A-level, B-level and other level missions?”
Xiao Tangqiu contemplated, “That should be the case.”
“f.u.c.k! This D-level mission is already so difficult, how f.u.c.king crazy will an A-level mission be?” Tang Mianmian looked gloomy. “We nearly died several times already in the lowest difficulty. If it were an A-level mission, two weak slags like us wouldn’t even survive past three seconds!”
Xiao Tangqiu gave a dry laugh, “I’m the only weak slag here. Please exclude yourself from our ranks. Thank you very much.”
“I’m not much better than you, it’s merely the difference between a vegetarian and a meat dish. For those BOSSes, we probably aren’t even enough to fill one bite…..”
Xiao Tangqiu sighed; he knew that as well, but what could he do? If he didn’t want to continue watching a horror movie, he could always click the ‘x’ b.u.t.ton; if he didn’t want to keep playing a horror game, he could always quit the game. But what he really wanted to know was……….. Where the h.e.l.l was the exit b.u.t.ton in this d.a.m.n real-life game!
The two of them searched in places they hadn’t been to yesterday, but found nothing.
Forget about a locked door, he wasn’t even able to find a locked box. Xiao Tangqiu was holding a key, but he couldn’t find the corresponding keyhole.
“I finally know what’s worse than finding a locked door in a horror game but not finding the key.” He said faintly as he looked at the key, “And that is, finding a key but not finding a door that needs to be unlocked.”
“….. Actually, both cases are just as s.h.i.tty,” Tang Mianmian interrupted, “Why don’t we look again? Maybe there are places that we’ve missed, like a secret tunnel that leads to a door or something like that? Isn’t it always that way on TV? “
Xiao Tangqiu promptly decided, “Let’s keep looking! Anyways, before tonight’s wedding, we must find it!”
They rolled up their sleeves and continued with the search. This time around, they looked in every nook and cranny for a hidden door. When they saw anything even slightly suspicious such as a vase, they would pick it up and take their sweet time examining it.
However, even until the sky turned completely dark, they still found nothing.
The two men were so exhausted, they almost collapsed to the floor, but compared to the physical fatigue that set in their bones, they were even more mentally depleted. Xiao Tangqiu frowned and studied the key in the palm of his hand, “What the h.e.l.l does this key open? ……… Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” He would rather have never found the key if he knew that he wouldn’t be able to find the matching keyhole. The thought that he could be missing out on something important made his chest tight.
“Pei! Pei! Pei! Don’t you dare say anymore! “
Tang Mianmian shrank his neck like a frightened bird as he looked left and right. As soon as he found that it was safe, he relaxed, “Don’t think too much, what if this key is just for decoration? Let’s go to the main hall first. Maybe Luo Mansu found something?”
“That’s all we can do right now.” Xiao Tangqiu put away the key and said, “Let’s go.”
As they approached the main hall, Tang Mianmian suddenly asked Xiao Tangqiu, “Did you hear something?”
Xiao Tangqiu shook his head, “What is it?”
Tang Mianmian’s little face turned white, “The cries of a baby…… f.u.c.k! Here comes that d.a.m.n infant spirit again!” He had just finished speaking when Xiao Tangqiu also heard the faint cries of a baby.
“Don’t panic…..” Xiao Tangqiu ground his teeth. In the next instant, a shrill scream rang out from the direction of the main hall.
They looked at each other; Xiao Tangqiu hesitated for a moment before saying, “Let’s go and have a look. We have to go to the main hall eventually anyways.”
Tang Mianmian followed behind him with a reluctant expression on his face.
The both of them reached the entrance of the main hall and soon discovered the origin of those ear-piercing screams. One of the twin sisters had fallen to the ground in a heap, her eyes wide-open in terror as she vomited blood. Her body had split into pieces and in hand, she held a rattle that had broken into pieces as well.
“Mimi!” Her sister kneeled beside her as she screamed desperately, trying to stop the blood that was gushing out from the fracture wounds on Ding Mimi’s body. But it was no use.
Ding Mimi stopped breathing. Her eyes were still wide open; the expression on her face showed how unwilling she was to just die like that.
“No! No!” Ding Tiantian tried to hug Ding Mimi in her arms but Ding Mimi’s body had completely fallen apart, leaving only her head in Ding Tiantian’s arms. Out of desperation, Ding Tiantian tried her hardest to piece together her sister’s body but all she got was a handful of blood and flesh.
“Stop,” Luo Mansu sighed and gently said, “She’s dead.”
Ding Tiantian sat on the ground in a daze, just staring at the body, not saying a word.
“What happened?” Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t bear to look anymore and turned to ask Luo Mansu.
Luo Mansu sighed, “Earlier, in one of the rooms, we came across some items used by children. Ding Mimi picked up a rattle when the infant spirit suddenly appeared…… We immediately turned and ran. But when we got here, Ding Mimi suddenly fell down and dropped the rattle. The moment the rattle broke, she……. split into pieces.”
Xiao Tangqiu’s hair stood on end. The infant spirit was too scary! It’s a miracle that the both of them had escaped from it so many times!
Just then, a calm and wooden voice suddenly called out, “The wedding banquet is about to begin. Please be seated……”
They jumped in shock, reflexively raising their head only to see that creepy housekeeper standing at the entrance. Not one of them had seen the housekeeper coming!
The housekeeper impa.s.sively looked at them. When his eyes swept over the dead body on the ground, there was no change in his expression, as though he was used to it.
He stiffly stepped forward and picked up all the pieces of Ding Mimi’s corpse, one by one, just like he was picking up garbage. Blood had soaked through his clothes, but he merely turned a blind eye, while Ding Tiantian sat motionless on the ground holding her knees, still lost in the harsh certainty of her sister’s violent death.
In the blink of an eye, the housekeeper had already removed all the b.l.o.o.d.y pieces of flesh from the ground, but he completely ignored the blood that dyed the ground red. When they finally recovered from the shock, they found that the housekeeper had unknowingly disappeared as abruptly as he had appeared earlier.
Xiao Tangqiu was speechless for a long time but was distracted by the arrival of some other people.
He looked up and realized that it was the silent trio. The woman leading them calmly walked over, calmly pa.s.sed through the pool of blood, and then calmly picked a seat to sit down.
By contrast, Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t remain calm at all because he saw that the woman was holding a small wooden box…… a small wooden box with a lock!