Chapter 214 – Nightmare from Ten Thousand Years Ago – Each Encounter (10)
“What are you talking about?” Wei Kexin asked.
Bai Tang glanced at Xiao Dong. “I was telling Ah Yan how we might be able to find clues in the amusement park. Why don’t we split up? That way it’ll be faster, and we won’t stand out as much. If we run into danger, it’ll be easier to escape.”
Wei Kexin looked a little hesitant. “Split up, huh…”
Qi Jiu exchanged a glance with Mu Quyan. “I agree.”
“Qi Jiu…” Wei Kexin said discontentedly. “If we split up, who knows how we’ll find each other again? This place is huge.”
“That’s easy—we’ll set a meeting point. Let’s use the Ferris wheel. Once we’re done looking for clues, we’ll regroup there.” Mu Quyan made the final decision without giving the other two a chance to object. “We’ll split into pairs to search. I’ll go with Bai Tang. You guys can pair up however you like.”
When Mu Quyan said “however you like,” he meant it literally—he didn’t care what combinations the others chose, as long as Tang Tang was with him.
“I’ll go with Qi Jiu,” Wei Kexin quickly said. Aside from Mu Quyan and Bai Tang, Qi Jiu was the only one she trusted. Plus, Qi Jiu was her boyfriend—she couldn’t let him pair up with Xiao Dong or Bi Xinzhi. That would leave two girls together, and if they ran into danger, they wouldn’t even be able to run away properly.
Bi Xinzhi’s face darkened, but given the situation, he had no choice but to team up with Xiao Dong.
“Alright,” Xiao Dong agreed compliantly.
The group set off in three different directions.
Compared to the Mu Quyan–Bai Tang and Qi Jiu–Wei Kexin pairings, the combination of Bi Xinzhi and Xiao Dong was much more silent, and the atmosphere between them… rather eerie.
“Let’s split up from here,” Bi Xinzhi said, glancing behind them. The others were already out of sight.
“Drop the act. They don’t know you, but I saw it with my own eyes,” Bi Xinzhi said coldly.
Xiao Dong shed her friendly facade and sneered. “Look who’s talking. You’re no better than me.”
Back when Bi Xinzhi and Han Nian encountered Xiao Dong being chased by Xiao Yu in the amusement park, Han Nian had kindly saved her—only to be shoved in front of the knife by Xiao Dong.
“And you didn’t chop off her hand?” Xiao Dong snapped coldly. “Acting all righteous now, are we?!”
When Xiao Yu grabbed Han Nian, in order to escape her, Bi Xinzhi had ripped off one of Han Nian’s arms so she would let go of him.
And just like that, Han Nian was dragged away by Xiao Yu.
Bi Xinzhi and Xiao Dong couldn’t get along even for half a sentence—neither of them spoke again.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Mu Quyan and Bai Tang were walking along the path.
Bai Tang asked, “Are you sure that’s really okay?”
Mu Quyan gently patted the boy’s soft hair. “Bi Xinzhi and Xiao Dong definitely aren’t meeting for the first time. Don’t worry about it. Right now, we need to focus on finding our clues. We can’t put all our attention on them.”
Mu Quyan turned Bai Tang’s body to face him. “Tang Tang, stop thinking about them. Look at me instead, won’t you~?”
The sudden display of affection from his dear husband caught Bai Tang completely off guard.
“Alright, alright~” Bai Tang stood next to Mu Quyan and hooked his pinky finger around his.
Mu Quyan’s lips curved into a smile, his whole body radiating joy.
Hand in hand, the two of them arrived in front of the haunted house.
Bai Tang hesitated. “Ummm…”
How did they end up choosing this direction, of all places?
Mu Quyan chuckled. “Tang Tang, are you scared?”
“M–me? Scared? No way.” Bai Tang puffed out his chest. “I’m a real man. W–why would I be afraid of something like this? I’m not even scared of afterimages, let alone something fake.”
Still trying to act tough, Bai Tang pushed open the haunted house door to show he wasn’t afraid.
As soon as the door opened, a cold gust of air rushed out at them.
Bai Tang shivered and instinctively summoned his squirrel claws—swipe!—they slashed the door, leaving three long claw marks along the wooden edge.
“Brave Tang Tang, let’s go in,” Mu Quyan said, barely holding back his laughter.
Bai Tang let out a snort, but he didn’t let go of Mu Quyan’s hand.
This was Bai Tang’s second time entering a haunted house—the first was during his very first mission. Back then, Hudson had also held his hand just like this.
Time really flew. He and Hudson had already traveled through so many worlds together.
As Bai Tang walked, he reminisced, not even noticing the changes in his surroundings.
Mu Quyan tightened his grip on Bai Tang’s hand. The walls around them were starting to grow damp.
The passageway inside the haunted house was pitch black. Instinctively, Bai Tang reached out to steady himself, and Mu Quyan didn’t have time to stop him. His hand came away covered in something sticky and slimy.
He brought it closer to his nose and sniffed. The scent wasn’t unfamiliar—ever since entering this world, he had often smelled this metallic odor. It was blood.
As long as he didn’t see those things, he wasn’t really afraid of anything else.
Mu Quyan pulled Bai Tang into his arms. “Stay close to me.”
Without thinking, Bai Tang leaned in toward Mu Quyan.
Just as the words left Mu Quyan’s mouth, the walls on either side began to bulge in irregular shapes—looking eerily like human faces.
“Awoo… ahhh…”
The faces opened their mouths, releasing cries of agony.
Mu Quyan quickly covered Bai Tang’s ears. The ground beneath them became uneven, turning into a narrow, squirming path—like the inside of a twisting intestine—pushing them deeper into the haunted house.
“Ah Yan~!”
Amid the jostling and swaying, Bai Tang lost his grip on Mu Quyan’s hand. Panicked, he shouted Mu Quyan’s name.
The next second, the floor beneath him gave way. He slipped and was dragged downward, sliding uncontrollably into the depths.
The entrance behind him began to slowly close.
Mu Quyan shouted, “Tang Tang—!”
He narrowed his eyes and took out the switchblade he had gotten from the woman in the red dress, flicking the blade open.
Mu Quyan gripped the knife and stabbed it into the now-softened ground.
In an instant, blood splattered as Mu Quyan dragged the switchblade downward, slicing through the floor.
The faces on the walls shrieked horribly, and as the ground split open, the path that had swallowed Bai Tang was forced open as well.
Without hesitation, Mu Quyan jumped in.
The walls inside were red. Perhaps afraid of the switchblade in Mu Quyan’s hand, the faces twisted to one side in unison, silently pointing the way forward.
Mu Quyan found the unconscious Bai Tang lying on the ground in one of the corridors.
“Tang Tang… my Tang Tang…”
Covered in grime, Mu Quyan clenched the knife between his teeth and lifted Bai Tang onto his back.
The faces shifted again, turning toward another passageway.
Mu Quyan seemed to understand something. He tied a red string around Bai Tang’s wrist, then carried him toward the exit.
When he reached the exit, Mu Quyan turned back to glance at the haunted house. The opening looked just like a gaping human mouth.
The twisted corridor, the identical faces, the fear of the switchblade and red string…
This must have been the pain Xiao Yu felt when her mother forced her to take abortion pills.
Mu Quyan gently stroked the red string on Bai Tang’s wrist. A portion of it had frayed and nearly broken. It seemed to be some kind of protective charm, though it likely had limited uses. Judging by its condition, it could probably protect him one more time.
The red string represented the mother–daughter bond between Xiao Yu and the woman in the red dress. But that woman had secretly forced Xiao Yu to abort her child. Xiao Yu’s hatred likely wasn’t just directed at her bullies—it probably included her own mother.
…
Meanwhile, on the other side, Wei Kexin and Qi Jiu encountered a little girl squatting under a tree, sobbing softly.
With her “protagonist’s bleeding-heart halo,” Wei Kexin ignored Qi Jiu’s warning and rushed forward to help the girl.
In horror movies, there’s always someone who insists on asking for trouble. If it’s a side character, they’ll usually die pretty quickly.
If it’s the main character, then one of two things happens: either they keep courting death but get lucky every time—always escaping in the nick of time, sometimes even stumbling upon key clues—or, someone close to them ends up taking the hit for them. The main character survives, but someone else dies instead. That’s what you call a “meat shield.”
In the Nightmare Realm, the female lead had this kind of luck. In the original story, on the first level, her disposable shield was Qi Jiu. On the second level, it was Bai Tang. The people who secretly liked the male and female leads were the ones taking the hits for her. Once all the side characters were dead, the male lead was left struggling to carry her out alone.
In the later part of the plot, the male and female leads did make it out alive—but the male lead was barely clinging to life. He was only alive in the most technical sense, and it was all thanks to the mess the female lead had caused.
“Little girl, why are you crying?” Wei Kexin asked gently.
The braided girl sobbed with her back to them. “My mom doesn’t want me anymore…”
“Maybe you just got separated from your mom—she’s probably looking for you right now,” Wei Kexin comforted her. What a pitiful child, she thought.
“Big sister, can you help me find my mom?” the girl with braids asked again.
“Of course I can. What does your mom look like?”
“My mom looks just like me. I look like… wuwu… what do I look like…”
“I… I can’t find my face.”
As soon as the braided girl said this, chills ran down Wei Kexin and Qi Jiu’s spines.
“Big sister, did you see my face?” the girl asked.
“N–no…” Wei Kexin swallowed hard.
“Big sister, can you help me find my face? Without it, I won’t be able to find my mom…”
The girl turned around—where her face should have been, there were no features at all. It was completely flat.
Wei Kexin let out a scream and stumbled back a few steps, falling into Qi Jiu’s arms.
“Big sister, can you help me find my face? What does my face look like…”
…
Meanwhile, Bi Xinzhi and Xiao Dong weren’t nearly as lucky.
It seemed Xiao Yu had locked onto them. Not long after they set off, when they reached the pirate ship ride, they saw Xiao Yu sitting there.
Xiao Dong knew—Xiao Yu’s target was her. But Bi Xinzhi didn’t.
Xiao Dong dragged Bi Xinzhi and ran like mad, but no matter where they went, Xiao Yu always appeared nearby.
On the pirate ship.
At the ticket booth.
By the benches in the amusement park…
She followed them like a shadow. They couldn’t shake her off.
They finally stopped at the spinning teacup ride. Xiao Dong leaned against the railing, gasping for air.
Suddenly, Bi Xinzhi caught on. He threw off Xiao Dong’s hand. “She’s after you, isn’t she?”
Xiao Dong hadn’t expected Bi Xinzhi to realize it so quickly.
“What are you talking about? She’s just a remnant spirit—she wants everyone who entered this place dead.”
Bi Xinzhi sneered. “All the way here, she kept appearing on your side. Just now she spoke to you too. What’s it got to do with me?”
“Don’t forget—you’re with me. She’s already hated me for a long time. That makes you one of my people. I can’t run, and neither can you. But I know her weakness. I’m the only one who can hold her off.”
Xiao Dong dropped the act and straightforwardly began bargaining with Bi Xinzhi.
Author’s Note:
Happy New Year, quack~ Wishing you joy and good health! (><)/