Si Xuanyang held his breath, stiffly turning his head back, his eyes darting around, saying not a word.

Yu Sen: “…”

Dude, at least say something. You’re making me look like a dog sticking out its tongue with no one paying attention! This is really embarrassing!

Yu Sen pinched Si Xuanyang’s waist hard. Si Xuanyang flinched and slapped his hand away without mercy, whispering a warning, “This isn’t the place for fooling around!”

Yu Sen: “…”

Damn, being lectured like a misbehaving kid by this little brother, now he understood why Wang Siyu was so upset.

Si Xuanyang, you’re really something!

Meanwhile, Wang Siyu, the center of attention, seemed to have lost his soul from fright. The head had rolled directly onto his foot, and the dry, straw-like hair brushed against his ankle, sending a prickly sensation shooting up from his feet to his head, exploding like fireworks, making all the hairs on his body stand on end.

The head had half a neck, with a severed wound still stuck with what had turned into black-gray rotten flesh. The facial features were intact but somewhat wrinkled, and perhaps due to the terror at the moment of beheading, it appeared exceptionally twisted and hideous.

It was entirely clear that this was a real human head, not a prank or a joke.

Mi Xue covered her mouth desperately, trying not to scream. The corridor was narrow, and there was nowhere for her to retreat. After the head rolled off Wang Siyu’s foot, it landed next to hers, stopping right by her feet, the face staring straight up at her, visible with just a glance down.

Maybe it was the wind blowing in from outside, but Mi Xue even felt like she saw parts of the face on the head slightly twitching.

She whimpered twice, pushed past the others, and dashed out of the room.

Wang Siyu, on the other hand, seemed to have lost all strength in his legs, leaning against the iron cabinet behind him, panting heavily, his face pale and weak, with sweat pouring down like rain.

It wasn’t that he was a coward, but with no psychological preparation for such a scene, opening a cabinet to find a human head would make even the strongest nerves jump in fright.

Luo Yu suggested, “Let’s get out of here first, and also, Wang Siyu, you should probably stop leaning against those cabinets. Who knows if each one contains another head?”

That worked. Wang Siyu’s eye twitched, and no matter how shaky his legs were, he had to force himself to stand up.

Who would have thought that such a storage room would be a place specifically for storing human heads?

Someone hesitated, “Then what about this head? Just leave it on the ground? Isn’t that disrespectful to the deceased… Wouldn’t that bring bad luck?”

“What else can we do? Who wants to put it back in the cabinet? You want to do it?”

The room fell silent for a moment. After a few seconds, someone complained, “Wang Siyu opened the cabinet, so of course, it’s up to him to put it back!”

“Put your damn nonsense!” Wang Siyu cursed angrily, his face turning blue. “When I was opening the cabinet, why didn’t anyone object?! You were all just waiting for me to take the lead, right? Who said that just now? You put it back! Go on, you put it back!”

Wang Siyu was about to grab the person when he suddenly noticed that everyone around him had stopped moving at the same moment, their expressions tense as they stared at something behind him.

“What? What are you all looking at?” He was so scared that his voice trembled. His eyes widened, and a circle of red appeared around them. He stood there stiffly, not daring to turn around.

Yu Sen was surprised to see a woman appear behind Wang Siyu. They had blocked the entrance, and no one had noticed anyone coming in. This woman either appeared out of thin air, or there was another door in this room.

The mysterious woman was dressed in a neat uniform, with a small name tag on her chest. Yu Sen couldn’t read the words on it, but she was either an employee here or… the boss.

She had a slim figure, and although the uniform covered her, it still showed her curves clearly.

Upon closer inspection, her features were very well-defined: an oval face, almond-shaped eyes, a straight, petite nose, and long black hair down to her waist. She should have been considered a beauty, but her demeanor was very off-putting—her eyelids drooped lifelessly, her eyes rolled upward like a dead fish, and her brows carried a fierce and resentful expression. Her complexion was pale, completely stripping her of any sense of beauty, making her resemble a vengeful spirit trapped in a wall for years, as seen in TV dramas—quite eerie.

Yu Sen gulped and watched as the woman slowly walked out from behind Wang Siyu, bent down to pick up the severed head, brushed off some nonexistent dust, and then silently put the head back into the cabinet, closed the door, and locked it.

That head seemed to be part of her collection, Yu Sen thought, tilting his head.

When she bent down, he saw the job title on her name tag—“Manager.”

“I-I’m sorry!” Wang Siyu was so scared that tears came out. “I didn’t know that was inside…”

The manager’s body paused for a moment before she spoke, “It’s fine. If any of our guests wish to store their belongings, you can use the lockers against the wall. That row is empty.”

No one responded.

Store what? Heads? Yu Sen chuckled silently. At least the manager’s voice sounded normal. Though a bit cold, it was no longer that creepy, saw-like sound that made one’s scalp tingle.

---

After leaving the storage room, Wang Siyu was nowhere to be seen. After experiencing such an unpleasant encounter, the group was not in the mood to stick together. Without saying much, they each went their own way to look for clues.

The mist on the street outside had disappeared during the day, but the desolation and emptiness of this street made it feel as though it didn’t matter whether there was mist or not.

The only business still open was this hotel. There were paper money remnants blown around by the wind and some scattered white cloth strips on the ground. Apart from that, there wasn’t a soul in sight.

“Judging by the terrain, the hotel must have been built on the foundation of that ancient mansion from last night,” Si Xuanyang said.

“It does seem like it,” Yu Sen laughed. “Staying at the hotel during the day, sleeping in an old mansion at night—it’s all clearly planned out for us.”

“The only problem is we still don’t know what we’re supposed to do here.”

“Salt merchant’s daughter… A salt merchant, that’s likely from ancient times,” Yu Sen thought for a moment. “Last night, we stayed at the Li Residence. We can start there, figure out who all lived in that mansion.”

…

The hotel was simple, but it had all the necessary amenities. The laundry room and bathroom were communal, so there wasn’t much to search.

At the bottom of the stairs on the second floor, there was a small lounge with a reading corner. They thought they might find some clues there, but a quick glance showed that the books were either crumpled-up story magazines or foreign magazines with big-breasted women on the cover—nothing useful.

After searching the whole building, they found nothing.

All they knew now was that many of the rooms in this house were eerily cold and damp. If they invited a feng shui master, he would probably say the feng shui was terrible.

But with so many severed heads lying around, could the feng shui be good?

After walking around all day, both lunch and dinner consisted of plain porridge with cabbage, leaving Yu Sen completely deflated. This place was more exhausting than the zombie city. At least there, they had a clear objective. But this time, the mission was so vague that after an entire day, they had found no clues. And on top of that, the room full of heads on the second floor could really crush a person’s spirit.

Si Nan, sipping his porridge, mocked him sarcastically, “You’re just a masochist. You have a place to stay and food to eat, yet you think it was better when we slept in subway tunnels and ate expired biscuits. You’re sick.”

Yu Sen: “…Si Nan, I warn you, if I kill you in this place, when we return to the real world, the police won’t be able to trace it back to me. They’d just chalk it up to you suddenly dying while playing with your phone. Are you sure you want to provoke me?”

“Bullshit, my brother is still here. You think you can take on both of us?” Si Nan sneered at his threat.

Yu Sen slumped over the table, glanced up at Si Xuanyang from below, and smiled mischievously, “No, Yang Yang won’t take part in this fight.”

—Because he would think he was the third wheel.

Sure enough, Si Xuanyang coldly said, “What’s it got to do with me?”

In the moment he lowered his eyes, a subtle hint of something different, something awkward, flashed in the depths of his gaze.

Si Nan, busy complaining about Si Xuanyang’s indifference, didn’t notice, but Yu Sen, who was watching from across the table, didn’t miss that fleeting complex emotion. After a moment of surprise, he buried his face in his arms and chuckled softly.

Si Xuanyang frowned at him, saying coldly, “Wiping the grease off the table for someone? You’re too kind.”

“No, I’m not kind at all. I’m actually very devious…” Yu Sen murmured.

Si Xuanyang’s frown deepened, “…No need to go that far.”

---

Not long after dinner, the sky began to darken. The surrounding scenery became somewhat out of focus, and to the naked eye, it looked like watching a 3D movie without glasses—blurry and intangible.

The scene transition had begun.

“Wow! I thought at least the change would happen after we fell asleep,” Luo Yu exclaimed in surprise.

“What you thought is just what you thought,” Si Xuanyang replied coldly.

Luo Yu choked: “……” Isn’t this a bit too much? This is blatantly showing disdain for him!

Soon, the moon emerged from behind the clouds, and the spot where Yu Sen and the others stood seemed to shift in time and space, instantly transforming into a pavilion covered in bluestone slabs, surrounded by oil-paper lanterns with a faint red glow inside.

Before they could react, the gentleman from last night suddenly appeared around the corner, running toward them with small, quick steps.

When he reached them, he had a strange smile on his face and his voice was still hoarse.

“The wedding is about to begin. Please follow this servant this way.”

A wedding? Yu Sen and the others exchanged glances. He remembered that when they arrived last night, they were told the wedding had ended. Why was there another one tonight? Was this place some kind of wedding agency?

The four of them followed the gentleman to the large hall opposite the main entrance, where they saw other players, including Wang Siyu and Mi Xue, all with abnormal expressions.