What else could they be waiting for? Of course, for the next scream to echo out, so they could come over and clean up the mess.
Even from such a distance, and with Li Zhi’s hidden position, she thought she wouldn’t be noticed. But just as she was observing, Butler Chen seemed to sense something, turning his head to look in her direction.
Li Zhi couldn’t see his expression clearly, but she had a feeling that Butler Chen was quite angry, as he was heading toward her with others in tow.
Since she was already discovered, she didn’t bother to rush down. Casually, she sat down on the glazed tiles, looking completely unbothered. Butler Chen approached with an intimidating air. When he saw her relaxed posture, his face darkened like the bottom of a pot. “Master, what are you doing?”
Li Zhi replied, “It’s hot, so I came up to catch some wind and cool off.”
Butler Chen’s eye twitched, though he restrained himself from directly scolding her for being crazy. Instead, he said coldly, “It’s dangerous up high. Master should come down quickly.”
Li Zhi waved her fingers at them, signaling for the people below to step back. Then she grabbed the edge of the pavilion and swung herself down.
She clapped her hands and sighed under the scrutinizing gaze of Butler Chen, sounding slightly annoyed. “Butler Chen, I accidentally lost the charm packet you gave me. Could you give me another one?”
Butler Chen froze for a moment, quickly furrowing his brow. However, he didn’t appear flustered and only said, “Understood. I’ll have someone deliver one to you later.”
Li Zhi’s heart sank.
It seemed that burning the charm packet was now useless.
After she walked away with the two players, Butler Chen sneered and instructed the person beside him, “They probably sense something. Tell the doctor to feed the madam the labor-inducing medicine.”
…
When they returned to their residence, the others quickly gathered around. “Did you find anything?”
Li Zhi shared her theory: “This courtyard has been set up as part of a formation. We are likely the living sacrifices needed to activate it. From the moment we moved in, the formation started working.”
“Why would they do this?!”
“Do you remember the Infant Tower in town?” Li Zhi asked. “Based on what we’ve investigated, the people of this town have been killing female infants for years. They throw the bodies into the Infant Tower after killing them. There was once a master who tried to destroy the tower, but they were stopped. I suspect that the Infant Tower is used to suppress the resentment of the murdered female infants. And now, the tower might not be able to hold that resentment much longer.”
Chi Yi’s eyes widened in horror. “Vengeful spirits always seek their killers. Once those murdered girls come out, they’ll definitely take revenge, and the Jin family’s first target would be the pregnant madam! So, they’re using this formation to make us take the fall for her?”
Zhao Luan was about to lose his mind over the craziness of this instance. “Why does the Jin family feel the need to kill female babies in the first place? Can’t they even afford to raise a girl? What the hell is wrong with these people?”
Li Zhi coolly added, “What if they only want a firstborn son? Naturally, they’d have to kill the girls to make space for him.”
Everyone shuddered at the thought of such cruelty.
Chi Yi trembled with anger. “How many girls would they have to kill for that?! Are they even human? Weren’t they born from women themselves?!”
Tian Mingjie started to piece the clues together. “So, the first wife’s two daughters were both killed, and she couldn’t bear it and drowned herself. The current madam’s first child was also a girl, and she was killed as well. That’s why yesterday she kept begging to give birth to a son. Only sons can survive.”
Only sons can survive.
There were no girls in the school, and no boys in the Infant Tower.
How absurd.
Another player found it hard to believe. “What does that have to do with us? Are they planning to lure the ghost babies from the tower into our bodies so the madam can give birth to a son? Isn’t it the father’s chromosomes that determine the gender?”
Chi Yi sneered. “They’re ignorant enough to kill female babies to make room for sons. Do you really expect them to believe in science?”
Li Zhi felt that they had reached the threshold of the truth, but they were still missing one crucial clue, preventing them from connecting the entire plot.
However, a more pressing issue stood before them. Her usually calm tone became grave, “If the Jin family really plans to use us to shield the madam from disaster, then once she goes into labor, our situation will become even more dangerous. The closer she gets to giving birth, the more restless the ghost infants trying to reincarnate through her womb will become. Right now, they are blocked by an illusion, but we are their real targets for reincarnation.”
Tian Mingjie was horrified. “Didn’t we already throw away the charm packets?”
Li Zhi recalled the smug look on Butler Chen’s face. “I’m afraid the mark has already been made, and it’s hard to erase. Burning the charm packet only delayed the process.”
As if to confirm her words, before long, frantic voices from the Jin family’s servants echoed nearby, “The madam is going into labor early! Quick, help her!”
The group hadn’t yet processed the situation when one of the players let out a blood-curdling scream. She stared in terror at her own stomach, then suddenly raised her head to look at Li Zhi. Taking a few hurried steps toward her, she seemed to seek help.
But after only two steps, she collapsed in pain. A ghost infant crawled out from her belly, leaving her as nothing but a dried-up corpse.
The group was stricken with fear, instinctively clutching their own stomachs.
This time, Butler Chen didn’t even show up. Two expressionless servants arrived and silently cleaned up the crawling blood-soaked infant.
Everyone finally understood— the system never intended for them to leave this place alive. To complete the mission, they had to stay. If the madam gave birth to a girl, they would also have to protect the child from being killed by the NPCs.
But if they stayed, the activated formation would make them the targets of the ghost infants. They could only wait for death, fully aware of their fate.
This was the dead end the system had prepared for them.