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Chapter 47: Orphan Resentment (Part 7)
“Anyway, he probably didn’t have the chance to harm anyone. We’ll need to be cautious bathing from now on,” Xiao Muyu muttered, lowering her gaze.
Initially, they felt safe enough to bathe there because of the times hinted by the instance. They just hadn’t expected the ghosts here to be sex offenders as well as killers.
The three parted at the doorway. Xiao Muyu checked the time when she entered her room. It was 7:56 p.m.
Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu tidied up, locked the door early, and lay on the bed. They could still hear noises outside and faint rustling from the room next door, but it was silent beyond that.
“This instance feels so weird to me,” Xiao Muyu said uneasily. A whole day had passed, yet the only information they had was the name and duration of the instance, which was unprecedented. No matter how difficult things got, they always had a goal to give them direction. Starting completely clueless like this would put them at the mercy of the instance’s NPCs.
“It is weird. But one thing is clear: even though we have no leads, none of these strange people or events have harmed us. As for progress… maybe we’ll get some answers tonight.” Shen Qingqiu always seemed so calm. To her, the best way of handling things was to adapt to them.
“Oh, by the way, how many times can you use Arso—your candle?” Even though it was an S-grade card, using it to increase favorability seemed overpowered. Xiao Muyu worried it might have some limitations.
“Works a lot like your stopwatch; it has a special function and a general use. So there’s no limit to lighting it. However, the skill that increases favorability can only be used once per instance,” Shen Qingqiu explained softly. She then turned to look at Xiao Muyu lying on the bed next to hers. A slight smile played at the corners of her mouth. “Want to give your lantern a try?”
Xiao Muyu hummed in agreement, sitting up to activate her item. Soon, an octagonal lantern appeared before Shen Qingqiu. Intricate patterns adorned the carved sandalwood frame, and a red cord looping around the top made it easy to carry. It was beautiful and exquisitely crafted.
Shen Qingqiu also sat up, pulling off her blanket. She activated the Arsonist of the Heart card. After staring at the candle in her hand blankly for a moment, she finally looked up at Xiao Muyu.
Xiao Muyu, equally expressionless, was staring at the candle in Shen Qingqiu’s hand. However, Shen Qingqiu couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a hint of disdain hidden in her otherwise undisturbed face. Even Shen Qingqiu, with her famously thick skin, felt speechless and awkward.
The reason was obvious. The bright red candle in her hand had a glaring double-happiness symbol (囍)1 that outshone the candle itself.
Xiao Muyu finally pierced the awkward silence. “Is the system trying to set you up with someone?”
Shen Qingqiu choked slightly. She cleared her throat to steady her expression and quirked an eyebrow. “If it is, I wonder who my supposed partner is.”
Xiao Muyu merely gave her a sidelong glance, her tone indifferent. “Focus on the task.”
After one last smirk, Shen Qingqiu dropped the teasing. She climbed out of bed to open the lantern. There was a wick inside. She held the candle up to it. The flame flickered on the wick, but it stubbornly refused to light.
Xiao Muyu glanced up at Shen Qingqiu, who now looked serious. With lips pressed together and brows knit in concentration, she focused wholly on lighting the wick.
Xiao Muyu’s heart stirred like a droplet hitting a still lake. She was about to tell her not to force it when a droplet of red candle wax fell, tinged with a faint pink hue. It landed on the lantern’s wick with a soft hiss.
Then, the flame ignited from the fallen wax with a sudden burst. The little flame flickered and crackled a few times before standing tall and steady.
Shen Qingqiu held her breath and raised her head, unable to hide the smile in her eyes. She didn’t move the candle away until the lantern was lit.
“It’s lit! Check if there’s any change.” Shen Qingqiu seemed happier than the actual owner of the lantern.
Before Shen Qingqiu even told her that, Xiao Muyu felt a change in the carousel lantern’s description the moment it lit up.
Lit Carousel Lantern
Rarity: S
Drop rate: Evolved from the Extinguished Carousel Lantern.
Item Description: Unassuming lantern with an illumination range of 0.5 meters.
Skill 1: Exorcism (Passive). A lit carousel lantern will reveal anything lurking in the darkness for 15 minutes.
Skill 2: “In a walking-horse lantern, a lantern horse walks. The lantern dies and the horse stops!” When the user shouts this while holding the lantern, it will start to rotate for 15 seconds before stopping. All ghosts within its range will be immobile for 15 seconds. Cooldown is 12 hours. Note that each time Skill 2 successfully affects a target, the illumination range increases by 20 centimeters.
The new description surprised Xiao Muyu. “It upgrades with use.”
Shen Qingqiu leaned over to take a look and had mixed feelings. The carousel lantern only illuminated a 0.5-meter diameter around Xiao Muyu. In other words, it would barely light up anything beyond herself. One immobilized ghost only increased the range by 20 centimeters. To make the lantern more effective, Xiao Muyu would have to activate Skill 2 in a den of ghosts.
“Sure, but to get the range up, you’d need to carry the lantern and cling to a ghost to make sure you hit it. Who would be reckless enough to do that the first time?” It was hardly the overpowered skill it appeared to be. If the card were in anyone else’s hands, they’d probably think twice before upgrading it.
Shen Qingqiu couldn’t help but make a snarky comment and immediately noticed Xiao Muyu staring straight at her. She looked away awkwardly, pretending to examine the room.
“The lantern is already lit, so the passive skill should be active automatically. Skill 2 is an active skill, so we can save it for later, right?” Shen Qingqiu murmured her thoughts.
“Yes, we can.” Xiao Muyu’s expression relaxed slightly. An extra item meant a greater chance of survival. She placed the lantern in the room. She considered turning off the electric light, but on second thought, she decided to leave it on and lay back down.
“Let’s get some rest.”
Shen Qingqiu didn’t respond. In tacit agreement, neither turned off the light or spoke further. After some time, the lantern quietly went out.
It was nine o’clock.
The room was so quiet that Xiao Muyu could hear Shen Qingqiu’s steady breathing. Even when the lantern went out so suddenly, her breathing remained calm and even.
In contrast, faint noises came from the neighboring room where Yang Rui and Zhang Yangfeng were asleep.
“Shen Qingqiu, are you awake?” Xiao Muyu felt a strange unease.
Shen Qingqiu turned to face her, whispering, “What’s wrong?”
Xiao Muyu paused for a moment before replying softly, “Nothing.”
Shen Qingqiu moved a little closer to her. An impenetrable darkness overtook the room with the lights out, leaving no sliver of light. Xiao Muyu couldn’t see anything and only heard the soft rustling from Shen Qingqiu’s movement. Yet somehow, she felt sure that Shen Qingqiu was watching her closely. A moment later, she heard Shen Qingqiu’s gentle whisper, “I won’t fall asleep so early. I’m by the door, you know.”
Xiao Muyu was momentarily stunned, recalling how Shen Qingqiu had chosen the bed closer to the door without hesitation. Her heart fluttered as an unfamiliar sensation welled up inside her, lingering in her chest—just out of reach yet undeniably present.
She didn’t say anything more and lay there quietly.
Perhaps it was too quiet. Drowsiness crept over her. Slipping into sleep, she faintly heard soft, steady tick-tock, tick-tock. It felt distant yet strangely close, as if it was right beside her.
Xiao Muyu’s mind drifted between sleep and wakefulness. She wanted to sleep but felt like she had left something crucial undone. Amidst that struggle, what felt like ropes binding her consciousness snapped, jolting her fully awake. The faint, elusive tick-tock she’d heard now solidified into a distinct, tangible sound in her ears.
She hadn’t imagined it. There was a sound, and it was coming from the area by her headboard, or more precisely, from the room on the other side of her wall.
Xiao Muyu remembered the room directly adjacent to her headboard was the locked bathroom on the second floor. It was well past nine-thirty. The ticking sound gradually began to quicken. What had started as a steady rhythm soon morphed into the unmistakable sound of water dripping onto the floor. It sounded like someone was taking a shower in there.
Xiao Muyu’s entire body tensed up. Imagine waking from sleep to quiet, except there was an impossible sound right by your ear. Even the calmest person would feel their heart twist in fear. Xiao Muyu was so unnerved that she didn’t even manage to ask if Shen Qingqiu was awake.
The sound of the shower cut off abruptly in the darkness. It felt like a signal, and the next second, a haunting yet beautiful song floated through the silence.
“Ka~ gome kagome, kago no naka no tori wa~…” Xiao Muyu felt her scalp prickling as she held her breath, listening.
The singing voice was soft and sweet, like a young girl’s. Each line was gentle and unhurried, as if a sleepy child were murmuring to herself in her mother’s arms. The melody was beautiful, but in the pitch-black night, within the eerie walls of this orphanage, all its warmth twisted into pure terror. The song floated down the corridor. It would draw close and back away, circling like a phantom sound.
It was a nursery rhyme, a melody Xiao Muyu thought she recognized, yet couldn’t recall where she’d heard it before. She strained to listen, hoping to catch the lyrics. But as the first verse ended, she gave up trying. She might have understood if it had been in English or even French. However, the words sounded distinctly different from the languages she knew—Japanese perhaps. It frustrated her that she couldn’t make sense of it.
“Ka~gome kagome…” The rhyme continued, and Xiao Muyu could hear the voice drift closer and closer until it stopped… right outside her door.
As Xiao Muyu stared at the door, her mind conjured the chilling image of a small child standing just outside, peering into the room. After a few seconds, the song moved to the right down the hall. Before Xiao Muyu could even process this, Shen Qingqiu suddenly sat up in her sleep.
Xiao Muyu’s heart leaped in alarm. She didn’t dare call out to Shen Qingqiu with that singing creature still outside, so she quickly sat up.
Shen Qingqiu threw off her blanket and swung her legs off the bed. Her movements seemed unnatural.
Xiao Muyu tried to keep the fear from overwhelming her. But when she reached out and grabbed Shen Qingqiu’s hand, her fingers met ice-cold skin. Xiao Muyu’s heart plunged into the abyss.
Teeth gritted, she slid her hand down to clasp Shen Qingqiu’s wrist. She was relieved to feel a pulse. But her relief was short-lived. Shen Qingqiu shook her hand off and headed straight for the door.
Xiao Muyu scrambled after her. She tried grabbing Shen Qingqiu again but the other woman was too strong. Left with no other choice, Xiao Muyu threw her arms around her. She reached for a bedsheet to tie her down. Yet Shen Qingqiu mechanically pried Xiao Muyu’s fingers off one by one.
Having her fingers forcibly pried apart was agonizing. Xiao Muyu felt like they were about to snap. Shaking her hands, she glanced back at the carousel lantern but hesitated.
In a short moment, she shook off her initial panic and calmed down.
Shen Qingqiu’s mysterious desire to go out was undoubtedly tied to the nursery rhyme. Judging by her posture, she had no choice in the matter. Pausing her for fifteen seconds wouldn’t do much good and would be a waste of Skill 2.
More pressingly, Xiao Muyu picked up sounds from the room next door, louder than before. She also heard a door creak open not far away. So, Shen Qingqiu wasn’t the only one drawn out by the song.
As her mind began to turn, Xiao Muyu gathered her wits about her. She understood why Shen Qingqiu was acting like this. Whatever had been coming for them was finally here.
Xiao Muyu put her lantern away. While she turned back to grab her things, Shen Qingqiu opened the door with a creak.
The wind blew in, chilling and piercing, delivering the hypnotizing nursery rhyme inside.
Xiao Muyu saw no figure from her hiding place behind the door. After the door opened, the singing voice floated downstairs.
One, two, three… People in the adjacent rooms got up and walked out. It brought to mind legends of the corpse-driving practice2. One by one, seemingly lifeless bodies went downstairs, following the sound of the nursery rhyme.
Author had something to say:
In a walking-horse lantern, a lantern horse walks. The lantern dies and the horse stops.
In a flying-tiger flag, a flag tiger flies. The flag folds and the tiger hides.
This is a very famous couplet written by Wang Anshi when he got married.
The nursery rhyme is “Kagome Kagome3”.
Footnotes:
D[Translator]
Hello, I'm D. I mainly translate yuri stories. My language pairs are CN-EN and JP-EN. If you want to commission/request me to translate a story, ping @D in Shanghai Fantasy's Discord server. I don't translate stories over 1 mil character/word count, or ones that contain many NSFW scenes. Support me at ko-fi only if you're able.