Old Lady Huang's Birthday Celebration (23)

“Keep an eye on the ever-burning candle and the footprints, you two. I'll go take a look near the coffin,” Lin Hao said in a low voice.

“Huh? Get close to the coffin?” Ouyang Qiu froze. “Could it be dangerous? There's still scratching inside...”

Lin Hao waved his hand. “I'll just take a look. I won't touch it.”

He had made up his mind.

Wealth is found in danger. At worst, if there was a problem, he would just back off. Besides, he still had a bag of Evil-Expelling Lime Powder on him.

He slowly took two steps forward, stopping half a meter away from the coffin.

The umbilical cord around his neck squirmed even more violently, and the pulling force grew stronger, as if a hand were clutching his neck and dragging him toward the coffin.

There was definitely something there.

Lin Hao felt a surge of joy and took another step forward.

He was now only a single step away from the coffin.

He could even smell a metallic sweetness seeping from the cracks of the coffin, mixed with a faint scent of rot.

The sound of fingernails scratching grew even clearer. The players inside seemed to know someone was approaching, and their scratching became increasingly frantic.

Right at that moment—

A very faint sound, like a rubber band snapping taut, rang out.

The umbilical cord around his neck instantly went rigid!

An irresistible force surged from his neck, as if the ghost baby on the other end of the umbilical cord had lunged forward with all its might!

Lin Hao had absolutely no time to react. Losing his balance completely, he flew straight toward the coffin lid like a sack of potatoes!

A dull impact sounded.

His forehead and nose slammed hard against the cold, rigid coffin lid, and a sharp, throbbing pain instantly exploded between his brows.

“Ugh!”

Lin Hao let out a muffled groan as twin streams of blood gushed from his nose.

The warm liquid trickled down his lips and chin, dripping onto the pitch-black coffin lid and blooming into tiny splatters of blood.

His head buzzed, and stars danced before his eyes.

“Xiao Lin, are you okay?!”

“Lin Hao!”

Zhou Hui and Ouyang Qiu cried out in alarm, quickly rushing over to help him up.

But Lin Hao couldn't care less about the pain.

Shocked and enraged, he yanked off the scarf around his neck, revealing the blackish-purple, intestine-like umbilical cord beneath.

One end was wrapped around his neck while the other dangled in the air, twitching slightly as if extremely thrilled that its scheme had succeeded.

It was this thing!

It was the one that had suddenly exerted force just now and dragged him forward!

“You beast!”

Lin Hao's eyes practically split with rage. Gnashing his teeth, he reached out to rip the umbilical cord off his neck.

“What the fuck did I ever do to you for you to set me up like this?! How long do you plan on torturing me? If you have the guts, let's die together!”

He shook with pure rage.

Although he had been constantly tortured by it, he had always secretly considered it a life-saving trump card.

So, even though it tortured him daily to the point where he wished he were dead, he had forced himself to endure it.

And what was the result?

At the critical moment, it had slammed him straight into the coffin!

This wasn't a warning; this was an execution!

Zhou Hui and Ouyang Qiu finally saw the squirming umbilical cord on his neck.

Both of them took half a step back in unison.

The dark purple object had a greasy sheen on its surface. It looked alive as it coiled around Lin Hao's neck, radiating an unspeakable, sickening dread.

“W-Wait a minute.”

Ouyang Qiu stared at the nosebleed Lin Hao had left on the coffin lid, then at the frantically twisting umbilical cord, and finally at the increasingly thick, rat-like fur on Lin Hao's face.

She suddenly shuddered violently, her teeth chattering.

She spoke with a trembling voice that drifted like a fallen leaf tossed in the wind:

“Lin... Lin Hao... right now... we are rats too...”

The sentence struck like a bolt of lightning over the heads of all three of them.

Lin Hao froze instantly.

The quest rule stated: Cats and rats are strictly forbidden from touching the coffin.

Not only had he touched it, but he had also bled on it.

It turned out the ghost baby's previous two warnings were only meant to make him lower his guard.

The moment this thought crossed his mind, the blood on the coffin lid moved.

At a speed visible to the naked eye, the nosebleed was seeping into the cracks of the coffin wood.

It was as if something inside were sucking it in, or perhaps the blood was burrowing in on its own.

Within a few seconds, the drops of blood vanished completely.

The scratching of fingernails inside the coffin suddenly stopped.

A deathly silence instantly descended upon the mourning canopy.

The wind died down, and the white cloth stopped rustling.

The flame of the ever-burning candle shrank to a tiny speck, glowing a sickly green like a ghost fire.

Zhou Hui and Ouyang Qiu held their breath, their bodies stiffening.

Lin Hao forgot his anger, his eyes locked onto the cracks of the coffin as his hair stood on end.

The next second.

A harsh, slow grinding of wood echoed from within the coffin.

The coffin lid was slowly pushed open from the inside by something, the snapping of coffin nails making sharp crack sounds.

Inch by inch, bit by bit.

First a crack, then a gap half a foot wide.

A hand was the first to emerge from within.

It was not a human hand.

The nails were long and sharp, tinged with a dark, bruised hue like poisoned hooks.

The back of the hand was covered in fine, dense black fur, and the skin was wrinkled like old tree bark.

The hand gripped the edge of the coffin, exerting a slight force.

With a heavy thud, the coffin lid was completely shoved aside, sliding off and slamming onto the bier, shaking the entire mourning canopy.

A figure slowly sat up from within the coffin.

It was not tall, its back severely hunched like a shriveled old lady, and it wore a brand-new shroud.

The most terrifying part was its face.

It was not a human face.

It was a cat's face.

Pointed ears, a split lip, and long, stiff whiskers. One half of its face was covered in cat fur, while the other was wrinkled human skin.

It tilted its head slightly, its nose twitching twice as if sniffing for a scent.

Then, it slowly lowered its head, its blood-red eyes staring straight at Lin Hao in front of the coffin.

“Meow—uuuh—”

A sharp, hoarse screech tore from its throat. It sounded neither like a cat's meow nor a human's cry, but was as piercing as a needle, making their eardrums ache.

It lunged toward Lin Hao.

Even as his arm was torn halfway off by the Cat-Faced Old Lady, Lin Hao was still filled with regret, wondering why he had been stupid enough to trust a ghost baby that wanted him dead.

“Hee-hee-hee-hee.”

The tip of the umbilical cord curled upward slightly, letting out bursts of innocent, baby-like laughter.

...

The First Mirrored Instance.

At the threshing ground's mourning canopy, Su Ya, Yang Asha, Yang Hexuan, and Lin Jianguo were sprinkling lime onto the ground.

“What was that sound?”

Yang Asha suddenly raised her head and listened intently for a moment. “It sounds like a child laughing.”

“Yikes, Shasha, don't scare me.”

Yang Hexuan rubbed his arms and grumbled in a low voice:

“Why is there a quest to keep vigil for someone at night anyway? Huang Facai won't even keep vigil for his own mother, so why do we outsiders have to do it?”

“Well, technically, we're supposed to be a camera crew, but we haven't filmed a single scene yet.”

Su Ya cracked a joke to lighten the mood, then turned to look at Lin Jianguo:

“Uncle Lin, let's pool the clues we've gathered over the past few days in a bit.”

Lin Jianguo gave a brief response without raising his head, continuing to fill in the gaps in the lime little by little.

The rat fur on their faces had grown increasingly thick and dark gray, making them look like monkey children at first glance.

Fortunately, all four of them were entirely focused on survival, so no one had the energy to be repulsed by the others.

...

“Well, maybe I heard wrong.”

Yang Asha held the door bolt and sat inside the ring of sprinkled lime. With only the light of the ever-burning candle, the four of them began to study the clues they had collected over the past few days.

On the first day, they had completed three shrouding quests and obtained three clues: 【Old Lady Huang's Wrongful Death】, 【Rat Infestation】, and 【The Clay Sculpture Ghost in the Ancestral Hall】.

On the third day—which was today—they had completed the 【Grave Digging】 quest. However, they had received no clues, only a notification that each of them had gained ten points.

But as for how exactly these points were used, Su Ya genuinely had no idea.

The four of them sat in a circle beneath the offering table. The flame of the ever-burning candle flickered, casting their shadows onto the wall.

They were crooked and misshapen, looking like four distorted rats.