Chapter 17: Human Skin Manor (Part 16)

Even though the others couldn’t fully grasp the conversation between Shen Qingqiu and Chen Xi, they understood one thing: Shen Qingqiu had known that someone would open the old woman’s door tonight.

Once they realized this, everyone turned their gaze to Shen Qingqiu, their expressions mixed with a bit of disappointment and reproach.

Shen Qingqiu clearly noticed this, but she didn’t care. These people’s lives, deaths, likes, and dislikes meant nothing to her. There were many people who were miserable, or had lost their lives in this world. To have another chance to live in this place should already be considered a blessing.

“It doesn’t matter if you stood by and watched, but I was the one who opened the door, so I should be the first to go in,” Chen Xi said to Shen Qingqiu and Xiao Muyu.

Shen Qingqiu stepped back and nodded slightly. “Suit yourself.”

The others watched as Chen Xi walked into the old woman’s room alone, unsure if they should follow.

Meanwhile, the bound old woman continued to struggle, letting out low growls like a wild animal. The sound was both unnerving and upsetting.

Shen Qingqiu, annoyed by the noise, reached up to rub her ears. At that moment, Xiao Muyu calmly walked over and, without expression, stuffed the old woman’s clothes into her mouth, instantly silencing her.

Cui Xiaoxuan: ……

Seeing this, Shen Qingqiu’s eyes glimmered. She leaned back against the wall, a little amusement in her eyes as she looked at Xiao Muyu. Then, her gaze shifted downward, focusing on the old woman, who was now completely different from the frail figure they had seen before.

Now that the immediate danger had passed, Cui Xiaoxuan had the presence of mind to consider the situation before her eyes, and asked, “What’s going on with this old woman? It’s like she’s possessed.”

Liu Wei also remained perplexed despite much thought. “Why did she suddenly change like this? Was it because the two of them broke in?”

Shen Qingqiu glanced at Xiao Muyu and then leaned over, saying, “Miss Xiao doesn’t seem surprised at all.” When they saw that it was the old woman who killed Leopard, Xiao Muyu only showed a slight hint of surprise before quickly calming down, as if the old woman killing someone was not unexpected to her at all.

Xiao Muyu responded calmly, “The first night when she reached out to let us sit down, I noticed the calluses on her thumb and palm. These aren’t the kind you get from sewing or mending. Also, on her fingers, there was…”

“White residue. So, you saw it too,” Shen Qingqiu interjected.

“White residue? What do you mean?” asked a completely baffled Xu Ran.

Cui Xiaoxuan had also seen the white residue, but she hadn’t thought much of it at the time. After hearing Shen Qingqiu and Xiao Muyu’s words, it suddenly came back to her, and she quickly drew a conclusion: “The human skins have white fluid.”

Liu Wei’s expression shifted at this, and he made the connection. “A human skin fluid? The old woman had contact with a human skin?” That had been the night of their arrival. If the old woman had touched a human skin, then it could only mean that she and the human skins were not in a so-called ‘curse and cursed’ relationship.

“I only took a look from a distance, and didn’t think anything of it at the time. On the sewing machine in the parlor, I smelled a faint fragrance. You all should have smelled it later, too—it’s the scent of a human skin, and the human skin we killed on the first day had stitch marks. If we put all of this together, we can deduce a few things.”

“If I’m not mistaken, you might see some interesting things if you go in now,” Shen Qingqiu said with a raised eyebrow, glancing at the room.

Liu Wei, Old Liao, and the others had already been thinking of going in to take a look. After hearing Shen Qingqiu’s words, they exchanged glances and hurried inside.

The lights were on in the room. As they pushed the door open and stepped inside, they immediately recoiled, their eyes wide with shock.

“Ah!” Xu Ran couldn’t help but cry out, grabbing Liu Wei in fear, his face turning as pale as ash.

Right by the doorway was the old-fashioned sewing machine, and next to it was a wooden rack. Hanging on the rack were human skins—roughly seven or eight of them!

There was even a freshly skinned, bloodstained one lying right on the sewing machine.

“These… these human skins… were all sewn by the old woman,” Old Liao said shakily. He was almost tongue-tied.

“Absolutely twisted, just twisted,” Liu Wei muttered under his breath.

Chen Xi was still searching through the room and, judging by the things he was pulling out, he was finding quite a lot.

Shen Qingqiu didn’t care whether Chen Xi found any clues, nor did she care about his blatant resentment. But that didn’t mean she felt no dissatisfaction.

Xiao Muyu noticed that she was paying more attention to Shen Qingqiu than to anyone else. For instance, seeing the flicker in Shen Qingqiu’s eyes, she knew exactly what the woman was about to say.

“This human skin—doesn’t it look familiar to you?” That mocking yet cold statement, like a death knell in the night, echoed chillingly behind everyone’s back, causing them all to shiver.

“W-what… what do you mean?” Cui Xiaoxuan stammered, her speech faltering. Chen Xi, who had been rummaging through items, immediately froze. He looked up and stared straight at the blood-stained human skin, then suddenly glared at Shen Qingqiu. His stubbly face was a mess, tinged with a hint of hysteria.

Xiao Muyu raised her eyebrows slightly. Shen Qingqiu was admittedly a bit scary. It was best never to encounter someone like her again, and certainly not to become her enemy.

“Fresh human skin… heh, where could one find such fresh human skin? The answer is obvious,” Shen Qingqiu continued, her eyes coldly fixed on the restless old woman. Her tone was gentle, yet carried a sinister edge. “Granny, you already used that human skin. Only a fool would repeat the same mistake. The human skin can still strut around after being pierced and cut apart. Can you do the same, Granny?”

The old woman, who had been trying to make a move, instantly froze and dared not move a muscle. Xu Ran momentarily forgot his fear and rushed over to check, tightening the rope once more.

“What do you mean, Shen Qingqiu? Speak clearly!” Chen Xi could no longer bear it. He was like an agitated porcupine, bristling and ready to shoot all his quills at Shen Qingqiu.

“If you don’t understand, then how could the rest of us outsiders possibly understand?” Shen Qingqiu glanced down at her interface. “There’s only 13 hours left on the countdown. Are you sure you want to waste time on such a pointless argument?”

Chen Xi’s face was particularly unsightly. Although he had uncovered quite a few things here, they mostly pieced together some of the old woman’s secrets. To complete the task, he still needed the two women’s help, so he had no choice but to swallow his frustration.

Shen Qingqiu saw Chen Xi back down, and continued to scrutinize the layout of the room. Xu Ran also dragged the still tied-up old woman over, preventing her from escaping.

Xiao Muyu surveyed the items in the room, and languidly commented, “Looks like she really is caught in her own web.” Aside from the human skin laid out on the table, there were several others hanging up.

Next to the sewing machine was a large jar that emitted a strange odor. She didn’t know what it contained, but milky white liquid had dripped down the side of the jar, forming a trail that stretched all the way to the rack nearby.

Xiao Muyu counted eight human skins hanging on the rack. She approached for a closer look, and saw that the areas where the human skins had been cut were stitched up with fine, tight needlework—the same stitching she had seen on the human skin that day.

Out of the eight skins, three were still wet, and had likely just been taken out of the jar not too long ago.

Cui Xiaoxuan felt increasingly nauseous as she looked at the scene. Suddenly, a thought struck her. She pointed at the three dripping human skins, and weakly said, “Miss Xiao, could these three skins belong to the three people who died?”

Xiao Muyu glanced at her but remained silent, which was answer enough, and Cui Xiaoxuan dry heaved again.

“Three people? Xiao Tian didn’t get skinned, though? Unless…” Xu Ran trailed off, his expression turning particularly grim. As he looked at the old woman, a mix of anger and fear filled his eyes. The sicko actually dug up bodies and skinned them.

“So, after death, they become one of them. The rules were hinting at this all along.” Xiao Muyu sighed softly.

“This is just… damn it…” Liu Wei, usually refined, calm, and composed, couldn’t help but curse.

“Chen Xi, did you find anything?” They didn’t want to stay here a minute longer than necessary, and just wanted to finish this quickly.

After hearing this question, Chen Xi glanced at Shen Qingqiu and Xiao Muyu. There was a hint of unwitting satisfaction in his eyes.

“We can see from all of this, that those human skins were her own making. So, the human skins aren’t trapping her; she’s the one who created them. That task was probably just a smokescreen.” After saying this, Chen Xi pulled out a photograph.

It was a black-and-white photo, likely a family portrait. The picture seemed quite old, with weathered and mottled marks across it. There were seven people in the photo. A couple sat at the front—an older man in a suit and a woman in a white dress, appearing to be in their fifties. Behind them stood two tall, handsome men, and a girl who was smiling sweetly, her hands resting affectionately on the shoulders of the older couple. These three looked very much alike, suggesting they were siblings.

However, in the corner of the photo, there was another woman holding a young girl, clearly separated from the rest of the family. Her gaze was vacant and cold as she looked at the camera, her pale face bearing a gloomy expression. She seemed completely out of place with the rest of the family.

Chen Xi pointed to the woman in the photo and asked, “Do you see this woman?”

Cui Xiaoxuan and the others quickly went over to look, then glanced down at the old woman.

“It’s her,” Chen Xi said, pointing at the old woman.

“I also found a notebook in her drawer. It contains some records. You should take a look.”

The group passed the notebook around, and each of them looked astonished. It appeared that a woman had written it. The entries were filled with expressions of deep sorrow and anguish, making them frown deeply.

“I can’t take it anymore. Why can’t they just leave me alone?
Living is too painful.
I’m just a slave, a plaything for that family.
But I have a new hope now.
Xiao Yun can talk now; she called me ‘Mommy’.
Xiao Yun…”

The notebook contained long passages about someone named Xiao Yun, and a glimmer of warmth and brightness appeared amidst tragedy and hopelessness. After a few blank pages, the writing resumed with a forceful intensity, the words almost bleeding through the paper with rage and hatred.

“They’re beasts! Beasts! My Xiao Yun is only thirteen years old—thirteen!”
“They all deserve to die. I will tear them apart, skin them alive, and pull their tendons!”

The group showed complicated expressions after reading the notebook. Although the entries were disjointed, it gave them a rough idea of what had happened.

“This Xiao Yun is probably her daughter. They went through something tragic, which drove her to want to kill them,” Chen Xi said, a flicker of confidence breaking through his previous despondent expression, like a spark in the ashes.

One part caught Cui Xiaoxuan’s attention, and she couldn’t help but ask, “Them?”

“Yes, ‘them’ should be referring to the people in this photograph.”

Liu Wei frowned and questioned, “Are you sure?”

What little bit of confidence on Chen Xi’s face wavered, but he insisted, “I’m certain. The photograph is unusual; it’s the only one in the entire house, and her expression in it doesn’t reflect any happiness despite it being a family portrait.”

Xiao Muyu furrowed her brows and said, “There are five people… The old woman had mentioned that the human skin incident started with a family of five, massacred and skinned.”

This detail was from the old woman’s account on the first night. During these tense couple of days, they had momentarily forgotten it, but Xiao Muyu’s reminder brought it back to mind.

“These people in the photo were the massacred family? She killed them, and then skinned them?” The revelation was shocking, yet it made sense, explaining why the old woman would be sewing up human skins.

“She also mentioned that if her grandson was alive, he would be around Xu Ran’s age. It seems that her daughter had a child, but unfortunately, that child also died.” With this explanation and the evidence, they were able to piece together a rough outline of the truth.

However, they would only know what exactly happened once the possessed old woman recovered.

“No wonder she’s the only survivor. But even though we’ve uncovered her life story after opening this room, we still have no idea how to resolve her predicament,” Cui Xiaoxuan said, a little perplexed.

Shen Qingqiu remarked, “She has no predicament, she got caught in her own web, just like Muyu said.” Xiao Muyu couldn’t help but glance at her. ‘Muyu’? When did they become so close?

“Caught in her own web? Are you saying the old woman trapped herself, Miss Shen? Then how can we resolve her predicament?”

“She isn’t physically trapped,” Xiao Muyu explained. “Remember I mentioned that failing the task means becoming a human skin. Becoming a human skin doesn’t grant supernatural abilities; rather, it’s a form of eternal torment. This old woman can raise and sew human skins, so it’s not them trapping her; she’s the one trapping them. Her predicament is that she refuses to let them go, confining herself in the process.”

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Author had something to say:

Another secret is revealed, and all that’s left for this instance is the finishing touch. I’m not just casually giving praises. There are actually many little cuties who guessed right. Come on, put your hands up for everyone to see.