Chapter 132: The Alter Ego Says He Loves Me (21)
“Year-Bro, tell me… do you think there really is someone here who… isn’t human?”
Lin Chuan leaned in close to Xiao Yinnian’s ear and whispered his question.
Xiao Yinnian’s gaze wandered over everyone present. At the moment, aside from the woman who hadn’t eaten last night, he truly couldn’t see anything abnormal about anyone else.
As for that woman who looked strange no matter how he viewed her, Xiao Yinnian also felt that he might just be biased because of his first impression.
Last night, whether they had eaten or not, nothing had happened.
Clearly, the death condition had nothing to do with the food.
Xiao Yinnian took a sip of soup and mused for a moment. “I don’t know. It’s not clear yet.”
After saying that, he looked at Xiao Ji. “Do you have any thoughts?”
Xiao Ji glanced at Lin Chuan, who was also looking at him. “None for now. Let’s eat first.”
As the three of them began to use their chopsticks, the others who had taken their seats also began to eat as if nothing were wrong.
However, since there was one fewer set of cutlery and one fewer chair, the last two people to arrive at the round table were unhappy.
After a brief argument, the two of them simultaneously pointed their spears at the woman who hadn’t eaten last night.
“You didn’t eat last night, so what are you sitting here for today?”
“Acting all mysterious—are you a person or a ghost?”
These two were both members of Chang-ge’s team.
Chang-ge had a conflict with this woman yesterday, yet she was perfectly fine now. These two felt that regardless of her identity, poking at her with words wouldn’t cause any problems.
But unexpectedly, the woman suddenly put down her chopsticks and burst into laughter without any warning in front of everyone.
Her laughter was wild and frenzied, with a hint of ferocity in her expression, making everyone else feel a prickle of unease in their hearts.
After a long while, she finally stopped and said to the two men, “Be careful. Never mind whether I’m human or not, you’d best not provoke me. Otherwise, I’ll send you to see ghosts tonight.”
Xiao Yinnian watched the ugly expressions on their faces—they were furious but didn’t dare speak. He whispered in Xiao Ji’s ear, “Don’t you think this woman is a bit crazy? Is there something wrong with her?”
Xiao Ji looked thoughtful. “After doing enough of these missions, it’s normal to go a bit crazy. I can’t see any specific problem.”
Just as he finished speaking, the woman suddenly turned her head and looked at Xiao Ji.
She had an ordinary face—not particularly pretty or ugly—but the way she was staring intently at Xiao Ji was strange.
Looking closely, her black pupils seemed smaller than a normal person’s.
Xiao Ji met her gaze without flinching or guilt.
During the standoff, it was ultimately the woman who shifted her gaze first. After lingering on Xiao Yinnian and Lin Chuan for a moment, she looked back at Xiao Ji and said only two words:
“How interesting.”
Hearing this, a chill ran down Xiao Yinnian’s spine. Feeling uneasy, he reached under the table and squeezed Xiao Ji’s thigh.
Xiao Ji silently patted the back of Xiao Yinnian’s hand, signaling him not to take it to heart.
After breakfast, the group left the house one by one to head toward the east end of the village.
Xiao Ji wasn’t in a hurry to leave. Instead, after watching the others depart, he led Xiao Yinnian and Lin Chuan back to their quarters in the backyard.
“Keep watch. I’m going in to take a look.”
Xiao Ji gave Lin Chuan instructions and pushed open the door to Chang-ge’s room.
It also had two beds. The bedding was neatly laid out, and on the surface, there seemed to be no abnormality.
However, the smell of decay permeating the room was identical to their own room.
Xiao Ji walked to one of the beds and pulled back the quilt. As expected, a dead rat lay beneath the bedding.
Xiao Ji stared at the dead rat for a long while, then reached out, grabbed it by the tail, and lifted it up.
He neatly laid the quilt back down, left Chang-ge’s room, closed the door, and then opened the door to their own room.
Xiao Yinnian made a face. “Why are you carrying that thing?”
Xiao Ji didn’t speak. He waved Xiao Yinnian inside.
Xiao Yinnian followed him into the room and watched as Xiao Ji pulled back the quilt of the bed where the rat had been last night. His expression instantly changed.
The rat that had been on their bed was gone.
“That guy surnamed Chang stole our rat?”
Xiao Ji hummed an affirmation. He tossed the dead rat back onto the bed, covered it with the little quilt, and after a moment of thought, went to open the other rooms one by one to conduct a quick search.
Only two rooms had dead rats.
However, the other rooms each contained different dead things.
Some had dead cockroaches flipped on their backs under the bed, some had dead cats hanging in the wardrobes, and some had dead sparrows in the drawers.
The occupants of these rooms were perhaps cautious and hadn’t dared to dispose of these dead things.
Or perhaps they simply hadn’t opened the wardrobes or drawers, ignored the space under the beds, and hadn’t discovered their existence at all.
“That woman named Ling-zi threw away the rat in her room yesterday. This morning, that guy Chang likely realized that these dead things cannot be discarded.”
“To temporarily appease Ling-zi’s roommate, he gave the dead thing from his own room to that man. Then, while everyone was downstairs eating, he had his accomplices steal our rat.”
That was why those two had been so late for breakfast this morning.
As Xiao Ji spoke, Xiao Yinnian narrowed his eyes and reopened the door to Ling-zi’s room.
The bed that had held Ling-zi’s remains this morning had already been cleaned. He pulled back the quilt and saw a dead sparrow inside.
Xiao Yinnian picked up the dead sparrow, then opened the door to the room of the two men who had arrived late. He pulled a dead cat out of their wardrobe and bundled them together, hiding them in the storage room at the end of the corridor where firewood was stacked.
After doing this, Xiao Yinnian and Xiao Ji washed their hands together at the faucet at the end of the hallway.
“If you plot against people, you should be prepared for their revenge. Chang-ge and those accomplices of his aren’t good people,” Xiao Yinnian said.
In the past, he had always adhered to the principle of “I won’t provoke others if they don’t provoke me.”
But now, Chang-ge and his group were clearly bullying them. If he remained indifferent, it would be too pathetic.
Xiao Ji looked at him. “Then why didn’t you just throw away the things in their rooms?”
Xiao Yinnian pursed his lips. “What if throwing things away is actually the death condition?”
Xiao Ji was quite pleased with this. Just as he was about to find some appropriate words to praise Xiao Yinnian, he looked down and saw a little boy standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at them.
The three of them exchanged glances, went downstairs, and surrounded the child.
Xiao Ji stopped in front of the child and looked down at him.
The boy also looked up at Xiao Ji and asked, “Have you seen my sister?”
Xiao Ji observed the boy’s face, which shared some similarities with the little ghost from last night, and said calmly, “Your sister… is a bit taller than you, wears a small red floral vest, and has short hair like you, right?”
The boy nodded. “I’m looking for my sister. Can you tell me where she is?”
Xiao Ji squatted down, reached out, and pinched the boy’s cheek, then touched his neck.
After confirming that his head was still firmly attached to his neck, he said, “Your sister is dead. Didn’t you know?”
Hearing this, the boy suddenly opened his mouth and let out a loud “waa,” bursting into tears.
The sound of his crying echoed through the entire courtyard.
Seeing this, Xiao Ji suddenly remembered that yesterday upon their arrival, the mistress of the house was pouring tea when this child’s crying made her drop everything and rush to the backyard.
He quickly grabbed Xiao Yinnian. “Run!”
Having made the child cry, the three of them sprinted out of the courtyard and didn’t slow down until they reached the overgrown dirt road outside the gate.
“You even pick on kids?” Xiao Yinnian panted, giving Xiao Ji a nudge.
Xiao Ji hadn’t expected the kid to cry just like that. He said with a blank face, “His sister was already dead.”
Xiao Yinnian suddenly said with concern, “What if making a child cry is also one of the death conditions? His mother might come after us with a cleaver tonight to take our lives.”
Xiao Ji looked at his fearful expression and reached out to pinch his face too. “It won’t happen. Don’t worry. We ran fast; his mother didn’t see us.”
Translator’s Note: “I won’t provoke others if they don’t provoke me” is a translation of the idiom rén bù fàn wǒ, wǒ bù fàn rén (人不犯我，我不犯人). Xiao Ji is becoming quite protective and domestic here, even if he did accidentally traumatize a ghost child!
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Thank you for the update!! I’m not a huge fan of cn horror but this has me gripped lol
The same for me. I don’t like horror that much, in fact, I don’t like world hopping and only read a few in this trope but this one got me hooked. LOL.