Top Horror Novelist - Chapter 15

A chill came from behind, and the feeling on the back of his neck was akin to being brushed by a curtain.

Chi Yiyin knew that the female ghost was standing behind him, coming for her hindered revenge.

As long as he moved a bit, his head would be separated from his body. 

He quickly glanced around, the others players didn’t realize it. It seemed that he was the only one who triggered the female ghost, and only he could feel the existence of the female ghost in the spirit state behind his back.

Chi Yiyin made a decision immediately. He took out the red card, pretending that he was looking for hints on the card, but made a dent on it with the other end of the pen.

[By killing your aunt, will your hatred really be absolved? Miss, now I am you, and I feel the same as you, try to believe me.]

The sharp nails were on his neck, and if they moved a little further, would pierce his skin.

But the ghost stopped.

The handwriting on the card gradually disappeared, and the card became smooth again. Then, new handwriting appeared.

[Why! You got in my way and I won’t trust you anymore.]

Although she doesn’t trust him, she is still willing to communicate… The young miss who had received a new school education is actually a polite and kind person.

Chi Yiyin smiled slightly, and wrote: [In front of the housekeeper, you didn’t save me, but I still trusted you. We have reached a cooperation, didn’t we? To you, it makes no difference if your aunt dies one day later, so why don’t you give me this chance and let me show you. If I break my promise, it will not be too late to kill me by then.]

Thinking of the failure when he wrote about the female ghost in his notebook just now, he paused, and then said: [Have you ever had a time when people around you didn’t believe you no matter how much you explained it? That’s how I feel right now.]

After these words fell, Chi Yiyin frowned instantly, and the aversion to pain appeared within his eyes.

The female ghost scratched the skin of his neck, feeling agitated.

But she didn’t kill him, and instead retreated slowly.

The surrounding temperature also began to rise.

All the handwriting on the red card disappeared, as if nothing had happened just now.

But Chi Yiyin knew that he had just passed the moment between life and death, and also verified his guess.

The last sentence was not him complaining to the female ghost, but because he suspected that the eldest miss didn’t like this marriage and even killed her family with her own hands. Perhaps, it was because she found something wrong, but the family didn’t believe any words she said.

Chi Yiyin put himself in the same position as the female ghost, and reminded the female ghost of her own experience, and made her reluctant to trust him.

——He knew very well that preventing the female ghost from killing the aunt would inevitably attract the hatred of the female ghost, but he had the opportunity to find out the truth behind the aunt because of this.

Considering his choices, he chose the more interesting path.

But just when Chi Yiyin put away the card, he suddenly felt his calf being pulled suddenly, a chill spread upwards, and something cold and soft held his ankle.

He froze, then slowly lowered his head, and suddenly lifted the tablecloth hanging from the table——

A little ghost lay on his knees. He slowly raised his head in the darkness, his lips grinned all the way to the bottom of his ears, his eyes were curved, and smiled silently at him.

But this child’s face… had no facial features, only holes for eyes and mouth, floating in the dark, eerie and penetrating.

Chi Yiyin’s pupils dilated in an instant.

[Fuck!! I was so frightened to death that I suddenly faced this thing that filled the screen, and almost died on the spot.]

[Damn it! I quickly lifted my legs onto the chair.]

“What’s wrong?”

Li Li’s voice came.

Chi Yiyin immediately forced himself to regain his composure, and when he looked up at Li Li, his expression was normal.

“Nothing.”

He pointed to his feet: “Do people who don’t like banquets always want to hide somewhere?”

Li Li looked along, and there was nothing at Chi Yiyin’s feet.

He squinted his eyes, but still smiled again: “It seems that Mr. Chi is not only obsessed with cleanliness, but also a little introverted.”

Chi Yiyin nodded calmly: “It’s better to say that I just prefer to explore inwardly. After all, there are too few interesting things on the outside, and there are too many stupid people.”

Li Li smiled and said, “Like Ah Si?”

He raised his glass to avoid everyone’s eyes and whispered: “You know very well that we made a deal on Ah Si’s matter, and the truth about the aunt…”

Chi Yiyin glanced at his watch, Li Li understood and left him alone temporarily.

When all the players gathered around the NPCs to find clues, Chi Yiyin lifted the tablecloth again and looked down slowly.

The smell of blood and mold instantly hit the face.

Under the tablecloth was like another world.

The pool of blood flowing all over the ground reflected faintly under the light. Maggots squirmed in the black and red rotting blood and climbed onto a palm soaked in the pool of blood.

Chi Yiyin followed the maggots, only to find that palm… he had seen it before.

It was when the youngest brother came to play with him.

But now, the child was lying on the ground with his eyes wide open, looking straight at Chi Yiyin outside the tablecloth, like two cloudy glass of beads.

Half of his face had rot, revealing the dark red flesh and bones under the skin. The flesh and blood are like melted asphalt, spilled in a pool of blood like mud.

Not only this child, Chi Yiyin also saw two other corpses.

The older brother had turned into a mummy with curled fingers like chicken feet, while the younger sister…

She turned into a puddle of minced meat, as if she had been chopped into minced meat by someone.

After recognizing the owners of the three corpses, Chi Yiyin was startled, and calmly looked around.

The three younger siblings were still chatting in liveliness around the aunt. They seemed to like this aunt very much. Even the younger sister, who was full of malice towards her elder sister, looked like a normal little girl in front of her aunt, innocent and well-behaved.

The banquet hall was full of excitement, but under the tablecloth were the bones of the three children.

The rest of the players didn’t notice the rotting flesh and blood under the tablecloth, and all their attention was on the key NPC aunt.

When Chi Yiyin looked down again, he only felt a blur in front of his eyes, and there was nothing under the tablecloth.

There were no empty eyes looking at him, no flesh and blood, just dusty wooden floors.

…The tragedy of this instance had existed from the very beginning.

Chi Yiyin slowly put down the tablecloth with a heavy heart.

At this moment, he suddenly realized that perhaps the reason no one could pass the instance—how can you bring a dead person back to life?

The prompts given by the system have been hinting to the player that as long as the wish of Master Ma was fulfilled and the family was reunited, the instance can be passed.

But the problem was, this family…

Are long dead.

Only the bones were left in the old mansion, rotting to this day.

Up to now, Chi Yiyin had finally been able to confirm that the Ma family in this instance was the haunted mansion he explored before.

In reality, there is a famous story about that haunted mansion, which the locals call “Hate Marriage.”

The orders of the parents are the words of the matchmaker.

A century ago, the young miss in that haunted mansion was married off to a man she didn’t like by her parents. She committed suicide on the night of her wedding, turned into a ghost, and then returned home. She killed her parents, relatives, and all the servants, even the guests at home at that time were not spared.

The screams continued until dawn, but the neighbors in the neighborhood thought it was the noise of the wedding banquet. Only one person thought it was strange and went out to check, but saw a person in a red wedding dress reflected in the window.

The woman was covered in red, as if she had been dyed with fresh blood. She stood behind the window and stared outside coldly, while the blood splashed on the wall, staining the white wall red.

The man screamed and ran home in terror, only daring to go out after dawn.

When people pushed open the heavily locked door, corpses immediately fell down. What they saw was layers upon layers of corpses all over the ground.

Rumors about the mansion also spread. The blood on the walls of the mansion could not be washed away, and their faces were still painted on the walls, twisted hideously like a last struggle and roar before death, it was creepy to look at.

Some people also said that at 12 o’clock at night, they could hear screams and begging for mercy from the mansion, and occasionally a woman’s cry.

The local people said that this was the cry of the married daughter, who committed suicide at midnight wearing a red wedding dress, which was the most vicious and tenacious. Everyone who entered the mansion will be killed by the ghost.

Therefore, since then, no one had dared to approach the mansion, and it had been deserted.

The story that Chi Yiyin learned in reality was quite different from the instance reminder given by the system. Although he didn’t trust the system, the rumors were also exaggerated and untrue. Perhaps the stories on both sides were half-truth and half lies.

But the only truth is—

The young miss in that family did die because of the marriage.

And the person who caused all this was right in front of his eyes. Since the aunt came to the door with a marriage contract, the whole family was dragged into the whirlpool of death.

The chill slowly spread upwards along his ankle. Chi Yiyin raised his eyelashes, and looked coldly at the aunt across the long table.

The aunt didn’t think there was anything wrong at all, she was still laughing and telling her own story with the three children, and heard them exclaim again and again.

But when Chi Yiyin fixed his eyes on the aunt, she soon noticed something, and her eyes were full of smiles.

Because Chi Yiyin went out to greet the aunt and saved her again, so for the aunt, among several “elder sisters,” Chi Yiyin’s initial favorability was the highest.

“Yuze, I was too busy talking to the younger ones, and I didn’t take care of you for a while.”

The aunt stood up apologetically, and walked towards Chi Yiyin: “You didn’t even tell your aunt, how was it when you were studying in Shanghai? Do you have any boys you like?”

With the aunt’s action, all the other players looked at Chi Yiyin in unison, full of doubt and envy.

Chi Yiyin turned a blind eye, stood up calmly and said: “Don’t worry about my affairs, auntie. You have yet to see my mother, right? I was about to go to see my mother’s condition, how about we go together?”

The aunt frowned, a little annoyed, she didn’t seem to care about her sister’s illness.

But when Chi Yiyin said this, she couldn’t refuse in front of the junior, so she forced a smile: “Okay.”

Although Chi Yiyin disliked the aunt, he was very satisfied with the momentum he borrowed from her.

The housekeeper didn’t want “elder sister” to see Madam Ma at  alll. If they went to investigate now, it would be equivalent to leaving the banquet before the end and the elder was still there, which might trigger something.

Although Chi Yiyin wasn’t afraid, he was also too lazy to make a fuss.

But with the aunt around, the situation was quite different.

The aunt took Chi Yiyin to the housekeeper and asked about the madam’s current location. The housekeeper looked at Chi Yiyin bitterly, as if blaming him for causing trouble.

But due to the existence of the aunt, and because Chi Yiyin had already controlled a part of the housekeeper, the housekeeper had no choice but to bow down and respectfully ask them to leave with him.

The players watched Chi Yiyin a few steps ahead of them, unable to hide their resentment and envy.

They also wanted to go with Chi Yiyin, but were stopped by the faceless servants.

These sturdy servants built a human wall around the banquet hall, silently but firmly refusing the players to leave.

The players who wanted to leave were all entangled by the three younger siblings who were still in the banquet hall.

“Sister, where are you going?”

The younger sister smiled and grabbed the player’s hand tightly. The player groaned in pain. When he lowered his head, he saw that his hand was covered in blood, and his flesh and blood disappeared, leaving only bones.

“The banquet is not over yet, it would be too impolite for sister to leave just like that.”

The older brother blocked the door, grinning and smiling at the player, but showing his fangs, his voice was rough and hoarse: “Don’t you want to spend more time with us, elder sister.”

Li Li’s heart skipped a beat, and when he sensed something was wrong, he immediately wanted to smash the window and leave. This is a hongmen banquet!

But as soon as he jumped onto the windowsill, he felt a cold arm hug his leg.

He lowered his head, facing a pale and bloodless face.

The child grinned at him, his eyes were empty and lifeless, like cloudy and cold glass beads.

“Sister, play with me…”

…

After leaving the banquet hall, Chi Yiyin realized that the sky outside was getting dark very quickly. It was obviously not 6 o’clock yet, but it was already pitch black.

Red lanterns had been lit in the mansion, and the rows of buildings looked prosperous.

But against the white walls and black tiles, to Chi Yiyin, it was akin to bloodstains and handprints smeared all over the walls that he saw in the haunted mansion.

It seemed that this was not the red light, but the blood spilled all over the mansion.

The housekeeper quickly brought the two of them to Madam Ma’s room.

As Chi Yiyin guessed, except for the embarrassed elder sister, all members of the Ma family lived in the main building, and Madam Ma’s bedroom was just across the veranda behind the banquet hall.

Just when Chi Yiyin was about to push the door open, the housekeeper suddenly reached out and opened the door panel with a “bang!”

He looked at Chi Yiyin sadly, grinned and said, “Miss, Madam is seriously ill, you have to be careful…don’t disturb the madam.”

The aunt also looked at the door in disgust, covered her mouth and nose, as if she knew something.

Chi Yiyin smiled calmly: “You don’t need to worry about it.”

His outstretched palm stopped in front of the doorknob for a moment, then he became firm again and pushed the door open.

“Crack…”

The door seemed to hit something, and there was a sound of bones rolling, like a head rolling on the wooden floor.