“Hu Die (Butterfly)…”
Who?! Who is calling her?!
Chi Yi’s back pressed tightly against the doorframe, her eyes widened in terror, staring at the bride sitting by the bedside.
“Hu Die…” The voice was faint and eerie, like being squeezed out from the eye of a needle, carrying a sharp, cold sneer: “Why do you betray me?”
Chi Yi was about to cry, she did not dare to answer at all, nor did she know how to answer. She slowly scraped herself up along the doorframe, suppressing her fear, staring vigilantly at Pan Qiping, guarding against her suddenly teleporting close.
“Hu Die…” But Pan Qiping, sitting upright by the bed, did not move. Instead, that faint voice began to cry: “It hurts so much… Hu Die… help me…”
The weeping was shrill and full of resentment. Chi Yi seemed to feel that pain as well; she covered her ears uncomfortably, and involuntarily took two steps forward: “Miss…” Her voice carried a trace of softness: “Where does it hurt?”
“That steel frame pierced into my body…” From under the red bridal veil, Pan Qiping’s cold, painful voice came out: “Help me pull it out. Butterfly, help me pull it out…”
Chi Yi’s gaze gradually became vacant. She let go of her hands covering her ears, and step by step, dazedly walked to the bridal bed.
The bright red wedding gown reflected into her empty eyes, casting a ghostly red light. Chi Yi slowly bent down, extending both hands toward the corpse before her.
Bang bang——!
“Hu Die! Hu Die, are you inside?”
The loud knocking and shouting jolted Chi Yi awake. She suddenly lifted her head, and the red bridal veil was hanging right above her. From this upward angle, she could see that rotting face under the veil staring down at her, cold and venomous eyes shooting downward.
Chi Yi screamed, rolling and crawling backward in panic.
“Madam…!” Chi Yi scrambled to the doorway on hands and feet: “I am inside!”
Outside the door, Li Zhi tugged at the huge bronze lock, took out her master key, and unlocked it. As soon as the door opened, Chi Yi rushed out with a deathly pale face. Seeing Li Zhi, her lips trembled and tears streamed down instantly.
Li Zhi held her hand, raising her voice: “Hu Die, there aren’t enough people outside, come with me to entertain the guests.”
Chi Yi forced back her sobs: “Yes, Madam.”
Li Zhi cast a glance inside. In the room glowing with a dark red light, Pan Qiping in her red wedding dress was sitting upright on the bed, as if still alive.
Through the red bridal veil, she keenly felt that venomous gaze looking up from beneath.
Li Zhi calmly shut the door.
Not until they left that courtyard, when Chi Yi looked around and saw no one, did she finally burst out crying: “Mama!!! I was scared to death!!! I almost lost my Zhizhi, it was too terrifying!!! She has a bewitching skill!!”
Li Zhi was both amused and distressed. The role Yiyi had drawn really was rather tragic, practically equivalent to Owen Dong.
Chi Yi sobbed for a while, then hurriedly said: “Zhizhi, I think Pan Qiping’s death is suspicious. She must have been murdered! She said a steel frame pierced into her body, and wanted me to pull it out.”
Li Zhi recalled, Pan Qiping’s corpse indeed had many steel frames. At first she thought they were for supporting the corpse, but if Pan Qiping had died from that steel frame driven into her body, then to cover up the cause of death, the killer very likely filled her entire body with steel frames to disguise the murder weapon.
But to tamper with her corpse unnoticed by the Pan family would have been impossible.
So then…
Chi Yi also realized this, her expression somewhat shocked: “It was her own kin who killed her? Was it you, or Xiao Qi?”
Was it Pan Qiping’s mother, or her elder brother? Or perhaps… Hu Die?
“She asked me why I wanted to betray her.” Chi Yi shivered uncontrollably at the memory of what had just happened: “I feel like the entire Pan residence has a problem, including that old servant woman.”
Li Zhi patted her shoulder, soothing her in a gentle voice: “Let’s first find the exit. Once we find the exit, we’ll be safe.” She told Chi Yi of the speculation she had discussed with Qi Yongyi earlier in the carriage, “If an NPC asks, just say I lost an earring, and you’re helping me look for it.”
Chi Yi noticed indeed she was only wearing one green-jade earring.
She nodded, then asked: “What about the others?”
Li Zhi said: “Everyone’s been notified. Aside from Owen Dong who has to stay at the banquet, the others all went to search for the exit. This haunted house should have a time limit.” Combining Chi Yi’s words just now, she speculated: “Pan Qiping wants you to pull out the steel frame inside her body. She hasn’t come out to kill yet, likely because that steel frame is restraining her.”
Once the restraint is removed, the ghost bride will probably come out and slaughter on all sides.
“But even if we don’t help her remove the steel frame, she should still find another way later on. We must hurry. If we haven’t found the exit before nightfall, Owen Dong will be forced to enter the bridal chamber.”
Leaving aside whether Owen Dong would lose his life inside, during the bridal chamber no one else could enter. If Owen Dong were to be bewitched as Chi Yi had just been, pulling out the steel frame inside Pan Qiping and undoing the seal, none of the six of them would escape.
“But we don’t even know what the exit looks like.” Chi Yi fretted: “Is it like a haunted house exit, with a green safety sign? Otherwise, even if we found the real exit, it would be hard to recognize, right?”
Before finding the real exit, even Li Zhi could not guess what it might look like.
She could only say: “Maybe it’s the same as the six arches we came through, or maybe just an ordinary door. Pay more attention— the system won’t give no hint at all.”
Chi Yi nodded: “Got it.”
The two reached a fork and split up.
Qing Garden was not large, its layout compact and small. Perhaps because the wedding had been rushed, after Pan Madam bought the place she hadn’t rebuilt it, only tidied up the courtyard for the newlyweds and the banquet hall for the guests. The rest remained in its original state, even the rusty, dust-covered locks on the gates hadn’t been replaced.
Li Zhi kicked, and those old gates broke open. Before Pan Madam purchased it, Qing Garden must have been uninhabited for a long time; inside, cobwebs covered everything, fallen leaves had rotted, and the air was filled with dust and mildew.
Li Zhi searched one after another, kicking through several ruined doors, but found nothing resembling an exit.
Along the way, she encountered You Jingmeng. Seeing her, You Jingmeng was immediately excited. With their identities different, in front of NPCs they could not even have normal exchanges. Only now, with no one around, did she hurry forward: “Boss Zhi! How is it? Have you discovered anything?”
Li Zhi shook her head: “You?”
You Jingmeng sighed: “No. I tried walking into every place that looked like an exit, but none were. But I did find this!” She took out from her bosom a rain-soaked, mottled, torn old flyer: “It must have been blown in by the wind. It stuck to the ground after being drenched. I carefully scraped for a long time before I could peel it up.”
Li Zhi took it and looked. The flyer resembled those old big-character posters once scattered all over the streets. In times when information traveled slowly, scattering flyers everywhere was the most direct and effective method, usually used to spread word of major crisis events.
This flyer conveyed news that the flames of war were about to spread to the area, saying several warlord factions in the south were fighting fiercely for territory, and the local towns might become their next target.
Just a few large characters, but it explained the era background of this dungeon.
Li Zhi held the flyer and pondered: “Warlords at war…”
You Jingmeng grew a bit excited: “Boss Zhi, is this information useful to us?”
Li Zhi turned her head, patted her shoulder, and smiled: “Very useful. You’ve made a great contribution.”
You Jingmeng immediately puffed up her chest with pride: “I knew it would be useful!” Then, with a face of humble curiosity, she asked: “But… what exactly is it useful for?”
Li Zhi said: “Do you know that the Pan family is the wealthiest household in the area?”
You Jingmeng nodded repeatedly: “Of course! To recruit a son-in-law for their dead daughter, they paid thirty thousand silver dollars! I counted on my fingers—ten thousand silver dollars is about a million, so thirty thousand silver dollars is three million!”
Li Zhi asked: “Then if those warlords fighting for territory were to march here, who would suffer first?”
You Jingmeng suddenly realized: “It would definitely be the Pan family! Warlords will definitely rob the rich! They’d ‘strike the landlords’! But… but what does that have to do with this ghost marriage?”
“The Pan family has no male heirs apart from the eldest young master. Madam Pan, being a woman, could only rely on powerful forces to guard her fortune in these troubled times.” Li Zhi’s expression was calm: “Pan Qiping was nineteen, just the right age for marriage. What do you think Madam Pan would do?”
You Jingmeng froze for a moment: “She… she would marry her daughter off to a local warlord to seek protection?”
Li Zhi nodded: “But I suspect Pan Qiping was unwilling. In the course of this dispute, something happened, which led to her death.”
You Jingmeng whispered: “So Madam Pan held this ghost marriage for her daughter out of guilt?”
Li Zhi shook her head, not answering.
After exchanging information, the two went off separately to continue searching for clues. But several hours later, the three of them had turned Qing Garden upside down and still found nothing related to an exit.
By dusk, Qi Yongyi also arrived from the Pan residence, bringing Han Wenlin with him.
The group gathered at their prearranged meeting place, but everyone looked grim—there were no clues at the Pan residence either. Since the Pan residence and Qing Garden were the most likely places for the exit, with neither yielding results, they no longer knew where else to search.
Han Wenlin grew a bit impatient: “Could it be that we’re going in the wrong direction? What if the mission isn’t to find an exit at all?”
Chi Yi, who could not bear anyone doubting Li Zhi, instantly revealed her one-and-only loyalty: “Then why don’t you tell us what the mission is?”
Han Wenlin faltered, unable to say anything.
Qi Yongyi hesitated: “Actually, there’s still one place we haven’t searched.”
Li Zhi looked at him: “You mean the bridal chamber?”
Qi Yongyi nodded: “This haunted house’s theme is ghost marriage, even its name is Red Wedding Dress. The place where the exit is most likely to appear is actually the bridal chamber. The bridal chamber is also called the dongfang [wedding chamber], and the word dong (cave/hole) can precisely indicate an exit.”
Chi Yi’s face turned pale: “But I’ve already been to the bridal chamber. I didn’t see any exit.”
“Could it be that the time wasn’t right, so the exit hadn’t appeared yet?” You Jingmeng scratched her head: “Maybe the exit only shows up at a specific time.”
As soon as she said this, they all noticed Li Zhi’s expression had become strange.
Even the big boss had changed her face—could the matter really be that serious?
Chi Yi asked nervously: “Zhizhi, what did you think of?”
Li Zhi was silent for a moment: “I was thinking—if the exit only appears after each of us completes our assigned role’s task, then right now, there’s still one person who hasn’t completed his task.”
You Jingmeng cried out: “It’s Owen Dong! His task is to marry the ghost bride, and then… to consummate the marriage with the corpse…!”
You Jingmeng’s face twisted in horror.
Li Zhi sighed: “If that really is the case, it’s far too cruel for him.”