This was another place with heavy death energy, as judged by Zhu Xi Ning.
Following the location Zhu Xi Ning had provided earlier, she found the innermost room; it was neatly arranged, showing that the previous occupant cared deeply about cleanliness.
As she rummaged through the room, a strong sixth sense suddenly alerted her; she whipped her head around and saw a figure in the corner's gap.
No, that couldn't be a human!
No human could survive in such a twisted manner.
Judging by her frame, it was a woman; her entire body seemed broken and curled into a ball, huddled in the corner.
Her long black hair covered her face, and Nan Yue couldn't see what she looked like.
The moment Nan Yue turned and saw the thing, it vanished into thin air, as if it were just a trick of her eyes.
Nan Yue pursed her lips and walked toward that corner.
The wall in the corner had long been peeling and shedding debris, with a small piece of plaster lying on the floor.
Nan Yue crouched down, right where the thing had just been, and examined the area carefully.
She tapped the wall lightly and discovered that one section was hollow.
Without hesitation, she punched through it.
It looked like someone had dug a hole there and later covered it with a wooden board.
Nan Yue estimated that since the wall was so thin, the hole likely led to the adjacent room.
Nan Yue knelt on the ground and peered through the hole; with no light in the wooden building, she had to rely on her flashlight.
Suddenly, a large, cloudy white eyeball flashed by on the other side.
If someone's eye could bulge that much, it must have been gouged out.
The eye flickered past, as if enticing exploration.
Nan Yue ignored the sudden eye; her gaze was fixed inside the hole.
There was something inside.
It was a small roll of paper-like material tied with a red thread.
Just as Nan Yue was about to reach for it, she glanced down at the streaming screen on the floor.
The screen had switched to her view, showing her surprised face.
The bullet comments were so dense that she couldn't see exactly what was happening.
Then, in an instant, all the bullet comments vanished, and the full scene of Nan Yue and what was behind her appeared on the screen.
On the screen was Nan Yue kneeling, and there was something on her back.
Without her noticing, something had crawled onto her!
Messy long hair covering its face, a deformed and twisted body, and blood-red eyes.
Because of its physical condition, the entity was pressed against Nan Yue's back, staring at the screen along with her.
【Holy crap, that scared me!!】
【Aaaaaah, this way of appearing is so terrifying!】
【Close-up scare! A critical hit right at the start!】
【Pitying the girl for a second, hope she doesn't die, I really like her.】
Nan Yue was also startled by the thing suddenly appearing on the screen, her heart skipping a beat.
But her superior psychological stability and stable mental stability ensured her reaction was limited to that single skipped beat.
The thing on her back watched her gloomily, seemingly having no intention of attacking for the moment.
Nan Yue reached out and took the object from the hole first.
【...Why isn't she scared at all?】
【Exactly! She's so calm, she can even still grab stuff!】
【Could she be blind?】
Nan Yue ignored the bullet comments and didn't even mind the thing on her back; she sat up and examined the object in her hand.
It was a small roll of paper tied tightly with a red thread; the thread was already rotten and easily unraveled.
[Jiang Qiao. My name is Jiang Qiao, and I live in Lianzi Village. My sister told me that if we stay here long enough, we can earn money to help our parents build a new house.]
[I don't like being a daughter of the Zhou family at all. I love my parents.]
[I really want to go home.]
The handwriting was childish yet neat, likely the work of a young girl.
This place was so strange, and from the previous illusion, Young Master Zhou would give them aliases; this was likely something Jiang Qiao used to remind herself of her real name.
It was also a form of spiritual support.
"Strange. Isn't Liping Garden filled with opera performers Young Master Zhou collected from all over? Why would Jiang Qiao be among them?"
Jiang Qiao was just an ordinary village girl who didn't even know how to perform opera; she had come here with her sister because the Zhou family needed daughters.
Buying children from the countryside was relatively common, though it was usually sons; however, for the poor, sending a child to a supposedly better place was also a choice.
But clearly, this was no wealthy household; it was a hall of the King of Hell.
Was the thing on her back this Jiang Qiao?
Nan Yue used the streaming screen as a mirror; the thing was indeed still clinging to her back.
She held out the slip of paper. "Jiang Qiao?"
A voice, sounding as if squeezed from a throat, came out in fits and starts.
"Qiaoqiao... Qiaoqiao..."
As soon as the female ghost spoke, Nan Yue understood; she wasn't Jiang Qiao, but very likely the sister mentioned in the letter.
"I don't know where Jiang Qiao is, and I don't even know what she looks like. It's not realistic to rely on me to find your sister."
"Er... Er..."
The sound of cracking bones echoed as the female ghost on her back wriggled toward the camera, causing the bullet comments to erupt in chaos.
Nan Yue thought for a moment. "Well... you can follow me. If I happen to find your sister, you can fulfill your wish."
【...】
【...What is she doing?】
【She seems to be... negotiating with a ghost...】
【Holy... she's a real pro...】
The female ghost's movements froze; she creakily turned her head, which was already halfway fallen off, before eventually moving back to her original position.
"Alright, then follow me. I saw a hole in the tunnel earlier; if your sister is in there, you probably won't be able to see her."
When she arrived, Nan Yue had specifically followed her memories from the illusion to find the pit that could only fit one person crawling through, but it had already been sealed tight with a massive boulder.
With the abilities of Nan Yue and the others, moving the rock wouldn't be too difficult, but this was reality, not an illusion.
In an illusion, time could be rewound or paused, but if they moved the boulder now, all that would await them was a pit of long-dead bones.
There was no point in going in.
The female ghost on her back didn't speak; Nan Yue checked the bullet comments, seeing everyone marveling at her courage, with no specific missions appearing.
"Is there anything else everyone wants to see in Liping Garden?"
Since no clear missions appeared in the bullet comments and only the tips were steadily increasing—thanks to her outstanding performance, her tips had reached 1,900.
"Then let's go back to the Zhou residence."
Liping Garden was a very special place; if one had to use a metaphor, it was a giant cage.
There would be clues here, but not many, and they were mostly related to the captives.
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