Zhu Village at Night

Wen Dian had sharp eyes and noticed that Miao Laisheng had just smiled.

Startled, he hurriedly nudged Guo Mu with his elbow, urging him to look.

On their first night, the two of them had made a bet about whether this man would smile.

Before Guo Mu could look over, Miao Laisheng's expression had returned to normal.

"She wasn't wrong. This is why Madam Zhao is trapped here forever." Miao Laisheng's gaze rested on Zheng Wuyou's hair, his emotions impossible for the others to read.

"What are you two going on about?" Hu Yu asked, confusion in her eyes.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, but things had come this far. Without a graceful way out, she was too embarrassed to return to the Wooden House.

"Miss, I don't understand what this means either."

Uncle Cai could tell at a glance that Hu Yu was embarrassed, so he offered her a way out.

The other two nodded in agreement.

"Madam Zhao isn't trapped here forever just because she's confined to a coffin. She's trapped in an endless tomorrow." Zheng Wuyou poured out a cup of tea and splashed it onto the floor.

The steaming tea left splatter marks on the Wooden House's floor.

Everyone was still confused.

"It's simple. From the first day, everything we've learned has been about the tasks they say will happen tomorrow. But think back—have we ever experienced the tomorrow they talk about?" Zheng Wuyou set the cup back in its place and swept her gaze over everyone.

Looking at the water on the floor, Wen Dian shook his head as if enlightened, then nodded.

"I get it! The water splashed out is the future—or tomorrow. In a normal timeline, if no one interferes, the water on the floor will dry naturally by tomorrow. But in the future timeline, the water could cause anything to happen. That's an inevitable butterfly effect."

After speaking, Wen Dian looked at Zheng Wuyou. When her raised eyebrow confirmed his words, he continued, "But in this village's timeline, the water splashed out and then ceased to exist. You're probably wondering why. It's because the events of each day seem connected, but they don't produce any butterfly effects. That separates today's timeline from tomorrow's. Without a butterfly effect, Madam Zhao can never escape."

"Can you put it in plain English?" Guo Mu watched Wen Dian pace back and forth through the splash of water, his head throbbing.

Apart from the water drying naturally, he hadn't understood a word.

"Simply put, we're trapped in today forever. The wedding will always be tomorrow, so getting married isn't the key to clearing this." Miao Laisheng calmly walked over to the spilled tea. He stepped beside the water, and his eyes rippled in its reflection.

"But there really is a bride in the Backyard, isn't there?" Uncle Cai was also struggling to understand. He was completely lost.

"This timeline doesn't target any one person or event. It covers the entire village—including the bride." Zheng Wuyou crouched down, dipped a finger in the tea, and drew a large circle around the wet patch.

She used water to illustrate her point.

"I'm still a little confused. What does this have to do with what we're doing now?" Uncle Cai had tried his best to keep up with the young people's reasoning, but he thought more simply.

All he could think about was how to leave.

"I get it, Uncle Cai. We've been reasoning from our assignments and the List, assuming the key to clearing this was the wedding, right? But the further we go, the more we realize this village isn't as peaceful as it seems. If we don't find its hidden rules, we'll never leave. And one of those hidden rules is... that we're stuck in today forever."

Hu Yu hurried back into the Main Hall. She understood what Zheng Wuyou meant.

There was no need to keep making a fuss.

As a boss, the first lesson was learning when to give way.

She'd seen a similar theory on a short-video platform before. The video had been titled, "What should you do if you're trapped in today forever?"

Uncle Cai nodded where he stood, only half understanding. Whether he understood it or not no longer mattered.

"Then did we pass yesterday's task or fail it?" Wen Dian remembered what had happened the previous night, when white bones had crawled across the ground.

He couldn't help shivering.

He took out the List he and Guo Mu shared, only to find that the writing on it had changed.

How could that be?

The disbelief in Wen Dian's eyes aroused everyone's curiosity.

Still astonished, he quickly handed the List to Zheng Wuyou, who stood in the middle of the Main Hall.

Every level was a word puzzle. No one understood what had shocked him.

They'd returned the hairpin to Old Zhu's family that morning, which should have completed the task.

That still didn't explain his expression.

Zheng Wuyou cast Wen Dian a puzzled glance and took the List.

The List was...

blank, without a trace of writing.

As if the earlier tasks had never existed—like a dream, like an illusion.

The task... had disappeared?

Or had it not been issued yet?

Zheng Wuyou gripped one corner of the List tightly, crumpling a small part of it.

"Why's the task gone? Should we ask the village chief?" Uncle Cai's List was the same.

They had put together the Lists from every household.

But all they could see was the glaring white, and the light from outside reflected in the puddle at their feet.

It was painfully bright.

Hu Yu stood beside Wansi, pondering for a moment before saying with certainty, "Zhu Youcai said our work was done for today... Could that be related?"

"Yeah. Stay sharp. We're almost at the last level." Miao Laisheng looked toward the Wooden House's open doorway, his voice low.

To him, the sky outside seemed to shift and change unpredictably.

A mountain breeze swept through the doorway, making the door creak.

Everyone in the Main Hall broke out in a cold sweat.

They didn't know whether it was because of his words or the wind outside.

"Looks like we'll be in for a tough fight tonight."

Zheng Wuyou had a gut feeling that none of them would get through tonight unscathed.

Especially her and Wansi, who were often targeted.

Five...

Four...

Standing in the puddle, Zheng Wuyou closed her eyes and counted down from five, weighing her options.

In the end, she had made her decision.

She hadn't wanted to get involved again.

"I'm going to tell you all the rules I've discovered. Whether you survive tonight is up to you." Zheng Wuyou instinctively reached for a pen and paper in her bag, but then remembered she was in Countdown Nightmare.

So she could only crouch and use the water to jot things down.

Her hand swept lightly across the puddle, leaving a long trail on the floor.

She wrote down her first discovery.

"First, we're trapped on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. The children's rhyme sung at night tells the secret of this village: 'Mid-July, arrange the flower altar; King Yama collects graves, wearing faces.' That's the original rhyme. What does the flower altar refer to? And what do you think it means that King Yama wears faces?"

"Second, the graves on the back mountain are each inscribed with the name of someone from Zhu Village, but none of the grave mounds are empty. The three of us saw it with our own eyes. Why do you think that is?"

Zheng Wuyou paused, ignoring everyone's shocked stares.

Then she continued...