Chapter 127

The moment the arched doorway with the green lantern disappeared, the Immobilization Talisman on Pan Qiping's body also crumbled into ashes.

With the players gone, the world inside the instance returned to what it had originally been.

Inside the room lit by flickering wedding candles, a gaunt man sat on the floor, clutching a section of the steel frame stained with long-dried blood.

He watched in terror as the bride in her crimson wedding dress dragged the steel frame embedded throughout her body and stepped out the door.

"Leave this place."

He heard her say.

The gaunt man was still wearing the bright red groom's wedding clothes, the jacket hanging crookedly on his body.

When he finally crawled to his feet and cautiously crept out of the room, the bride had already vanished without a trace.

Forget it.

He had already gotten the money anyway.

He might as well take the money and leave this town, heading for the bustling foreign concessions to broaden his horizons!

The gaunt man took off the groom's wedding clothes and left the town under the cover of night.

Within the Latrine Garden, the white mourning banners billowed in the night wind.

Amid the mournful sea of white, the lone splash of crimson was more dazzling than blood.

Madam Pan and the Pan family's eldest young master, tied to the pillars beneath the eaves with red silk, stared in horror as Pan Qiping slowly approached them.

The steel frame dragged behind her, scraping across the stone pavement with a piercing screech.

Those steel frames...

They had fastened every single one of them onto her corpse with their own hands.

"Green Green!! Green Green!!! Brother was wrong! Brother didn't mean it! Brother never wanted you to die! Mmph—!"

Pan Qiping raised one hand.

A strip of red silk immediately wrapped around him and sealed his mouth shut.

Madam Pan's face had gone deathly pale.

As she watched her daughter walk up to her, her shriveled lips trembled.

She wanted to say something.

But found herself unable to speak at all.

"Mother..."

The beautiful voice her daughter had possessed in life had once been as melodious as an oriole.

Now, only a rough, hoarse rasp could emerge from her ruined throat.

"Why did you treat me this way...?"

She lifted her head.

The phoenix coronet still rested atop her hair.

Behind the beautiful strands of pearl beads, tears of blood streamed endlessly down her face.

It was as though, even in death, she still could not understand.

Her voice cried out in bloody anguish as she questioned her mother.

"Why?!"

"Mother did it for your own good..."

Madam Pan burst into tears.

"Green Green, Mother wanted what was best for you too. Once the warlord attacked, if the Pan family had no one to rely on, you would have suffered too. Mother only did it for your own good..."

"You're still lying to me!!!"

Pan Qiping broke into wild laughter.

Her bluish-black, rotting fingers wrapped around Madam Pan's throat.

Yet the tears of blood flowed even more violently.

"I'm already dead, and you're still lying to me!!!"

She remembered that night.

There had still been three days before her wedding.

Pan Zixing had come once again to persuade her.

It was obviously for his own sake.

He couldn't bear to lose the Pan family's immense fortune.

Yet he insisted on disguising it as concern for her.

Brother and sister erupted into another fierce argument.

Pan Qiping was furious beyond words and spoke recklessly in anger.

"Even if I marry him, I'll never help you gain any benefits! Instead, I'll encourage that old bastard Liu to seize the Pan family's property! When that happens, you won't have a single penny of the family fortune left!"

She had only been too angry.

Angry that her mother and brother valued the family fortune more than her happiness.

She had deliberately said those words because she was simply too heartbroken.

But Pan Zixing believed her.

That old bastard surnamed Liu was certainly no good person either.

If his younger sister really whispered into his ear after marrying him, this marriage alliance might very well become inviting a wolf into the house.

Pan Zixing became so enraged that he lost all reason.

He raised his hand and viciously slapped her across the face.

The slap was so powerful that Pan Qiping lost her footing and staggered backward before falling heavily to the ground.

Against the wall nearby lay several leftover steel frame sections from the stage that had been built earlier for the opera troupe hired to perform during Madam Pan's birthday celebration.

Pan Zixing was about to walk over and strike her again.

Only then did he notice that his younger sister was curled up on the ground without moving.

Bright red blood spread beneath her body.

He heard his younger sister crying out in pain.

By the time he frantically called his mother over, Pan Qiping's body had already gone cold.

Mother and son trembled as they turned her cold corpse over.

Her eyes remained wide open.

Both hands were clutching the steel frame that had pierced straight through her abdomen.

Upon the face that had always been filled with innocent brightness now rested nothing but unbearable pain and overwhelming hatred.

"Mother...! Mother! What do we do?! I killed someone! I killed my younger sister!! What do we do?! My younger sister is already engaged to that man surnamed Liu! He'll never let me go!!"

Though she was already dead, she could still hear her older brother's panicked voice.

She heard her mother trembling as she comforted him.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. It'll be alright. Mother will think of a way."

No one grieved for her death.

They were only thinking of solutions.

How to conceal the truth about her death.

How to avoid the police investigation.

How to explain everything to the man surnamed Liu.

Why?

Hadn't she and her older brother both been carried by their mother for ten months before birth?

Weren't they both her children?

She heard her mother summon the old nanny who had cared for her since childhood.

"I remember your family used to work in this trade, didn't they? Hurry and think of something. Green Green died such a tragic death. Her resentment must be enormous. We absolutely can't let her harm Zixing."

The old nanny's voice trembled slightly.

"Madam, Green Green is your child too..."

"I've already lost one child, so I cannot lose another!"

After a long silence, the old nanny let out an aged chuckle.

"Yes, Madam. This old servant will help you. When a ghost has somewhere to return to, it will not become a vicious ghost. Let's arrange a ghost marriage for Green Green. Marry her off, and she won't haunt the household or harm the eldest young master."

So, one steel frame after another was driven through her body, propping her upright.

They dressed her in a wedding gown.

They placed a phoenix coronet upon her head.

They sent her off to be married.

On that deserted morning, the old nanny held her in her arms, just as she had when Pan Qiping was little, telling her stories.

"Miss, this old servant can only help you this far."

"Remember your hatred."

"Remember your pain."

"Take your revenge yourself."

And now...

The time for her revenge had finally arrived.

Three days later, the Pan family's live-in son-in-law, who was staying at an inn, read the latest newspaper.

The paper reported the extermination of an entire household.

It said that the wealthy Pan family had been attacked during the night by bandits.

A great fire had destroyed every trace of evidence.

The elderly Madam Pan and the Pan family's eldest young master had both died in the blaze.

When the bodies were discovered, they were found lying together with the Pan family's young lady, who had supposedly died suddenly of illness some time earlier.

All three had been burned into charred corpses.

Under the blazing sun, the gaunt man sat beside the window, staring at the newspaper photograph.

A chill spread throughout his entire body.

...

Even after coming out of the haunted house and seeing the familiar lights of the amusement park, Ou Wendong was still completely bewildered.

The boss wasn't dead???

Then if the person holding his hand right now was Li Zhi...

Who was the person whose neck Pan Qiping had snapped right in front of him???

"That was the substitute doll I made."

Li Zhi let go of his hand and smiled at him.

"Thank you for still thinking about taking my body with you while you were escaping."

For a moment, Ou Wendong didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

If Li Zhi's rubber-clay substitute hadn't appeared, he might have fainted the moment Pan Qiping approached him.

That substitute had not only bought him enough time to pull out the steel frame, it had also shocked him into rushing forward to stick the Immobilization Talisman onto Pan Qiping.

It was as though Li Zhi had predicted this scene from the very beginning.

Ou Wendong immediately felt ashamed.

Stammering, he asked,

"Y-You... did you know I'd choke at the critical moment?"

He had clearly prepared himself.

Yet he had still been so frightened that he collapsed onto the ground.

It was unbelievably embarrassing!

The audience must think he was completely useless.

His vote count was definitely going to be terribly low...

Li Zhi smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"You did a great job."

"And you accomplished it."

Pull out the steel frame.

Find the exit.

Stick on the Immobilization Talisman.

Every task Li Zhi had entrusted to him had been completed.

Although the process hadn't gone quite as planned, at least the ending had been perfect.

Emotions surged within Ou Wendong's chest.

In the end, all that came out was a long sigh.

They had spent an entire day inside the haunted house.

But time outside had clearly flowed differently.

The fifth round of voting had not yet begun.

A staff member wearing a red work uniform approached with a smile, holding out a red box decorated with the Double Happiness character.

"Congratulations on solving 'The Red Wedding Dress' mystery and clearing the haunted house. This is your reward."

Li Zhi accepted the box and opened it.

Inside was only a single card.

Four words were written on it:

A Beauty Without Bones.

You Jingmeng turned the clue box upside down and searched it repeatedly.

"Why is there only one clue?"

Before entering, the staff member had already explained that the haunted house used a single-round challenge system, unlike the other amusement park attractions that used three rounds.

They had originally assumed that a single-round challenge would directly reward them with three clues.

They had never expected to receive only one.

Ou Wendong immediately cursed,

"This damn system is such a scam! How are we supposed to make a judgment with only one clue?"

"The direction this clue points to is actually quite obvious."

Holding the card between her fingers, Li Zhi said,

"'A Beauty Without Bones' means someone who has only an outer shell."

"It should be referring to the Skin-Wearing Ghost."

Qi Yongyi thought for a moment.

"Could it be because this one clue is already specific enough, so they didn't bother giving us a second one? But I remember there's also a ghost on the Hundred Ghost Wall called the Paper Sandwich Ghost. It's similar to a paper doll and can also transform into a beautiful woman. Paper dolls don't have bones either. If you really wanted to force a connection, this clue could apply to that one as well."

Li Zhi glanced toward the haunted house, whose doors were still tightly shut.

"Let's wait for Pei Hongyu's group and see what clue they get."

According to the rules of the single-round challenge, each player could only enter once.

Even if she wanted to go in again, she couldn't.

Now all she could do was hope that the clue Pei Hongyu's group received would be different from theirs.

Since she had already come out, Pei Hongyu's group should be finishing soon as well.

Sure enough, after the six of them waited outside for a short while, movement came from the exit.

Pei Hongyu was the first to walk out.

The surrounding red light fell across him, making him look somewhat bedraggled.

Tang Nanshan came out right behind him.

Her complexion didn't look very good either.

The moment she emerged, she grabbed the nearby railing and threw up.

"Wei Xiao! Jia Yue! Tian Ran!"

Standing nearby, Han Wenlin became excited when he saw his former teammates come out safely and enthusiastically waved at them.

The green light at the exit dimmed.

Li Zhi looked over.

Only five of them had come out.

Pei Hongyu's lackey, He Yuan, had not.

Li Zhi walked over to Tang Nanshan.

She had just finished vomiting and looked rather weak.

When she saw Li Zhi approaching, she forced a smile.

"You all made it out safely."

Li Zhi asked,

"What happened?"

Tang Nanshan's expression darkened.

"He Yuan... was killed by the Ghost Groom. He died inside."

"The Ghost Groom?"

Chi Yi, who had walked over as well, looked surprised.

"You encountered the Ghost Groom? We encountered the Ghost Bride."

Tang Nanshan suddenly understood.

"So our storylines were different. I drew the Bride identity. It was a substitute bride storyline."

Meanwhile, Pei Hongyu had already taken the clue box from the staff member.

He opened it, his face darkening.

"There's only one clue."

Delights in Eating Human Hearts.

Li Zhi took out her own card.

"Mine says A Beauty Without Bones. That confirms the answer is the Skin-Wearing Ghost."

In truth, either clue alone pointed quite clearly toward the Skin-Wearing Ghost.

If only one team had entered and received either one of the clues, they would most likely still have chosen the Skin-Wearing Ghost.

But now that they had both clues, their conclusion was even more certain.

As they spoke, the amusement park lit up with red lights.

The cards turned into ashes.

Li Zhi dusted off her hands.

"Let's go back and cast our votes first."