This couldn't go on.
Zheng Wuyou pressed a hand to her lower back and waved for everyone to stop, but her gaze remained fixed on the chicken, still strutting triumphantly.
Everyone had run at least eight hundred meters around the little courtyard chasing that chicken.
They either lunged and hit the ground...
Or watched its tail feathers slip through their fingers.
Wen Dian, standing nearby, rolled his eyes and suddenly came up with an idea.
Zheng Wuyou only noticed someone quietly come up beside her. Under the curious gazes of the others, they whispered a few words in her ear, then smugly returned to their spot.
After hearing them out, Zheng Wuyou wore an utterly incredulous expression.
But she still reached into a grain sack beside them—a sack that had rotted away with the passage of time before anyone could deal with it—and scooped out a handful of grain, scattering it across the ground like water.
When the chicken heard the grain pattering onto the ground, it stopped, its eyes warily sweeping over everyone.
It seemed to be struggling against its hunger.
Everyone barely dared to breathe, afraid of startling it.
As the chicken slowly approached the grains of rice, they silently formed a circle and closed in.
Then Wansi, who had the advantage of being the tallest, slipped through the others and lunged at the feeding chicken.
This time, she finally caught it!
It had been that easy!
The scrawny chicken struggled desperately in Wansi's small hands. The human-face-shaped feathers on its body seemed to let out a chorus of shrill cries.
Just as Wansi proudly raised the chicken, nothing happened around them as they had expected.
But the unpredictable fire in the Wooden House, fanned by the wind, had already spread across the roof of the westernmost room and reached the walls of Old Zhu's family home.
There came a deafening crash...
The Wooden House collapsed...
The moment it fell, thick smoke swept across the entire mountainside.
"Head for the river!" Zheng Wuyou covered her mouth and nose, snatched the now-quiet chicken from Wansi's hands, and ran after the others toward the river.
She had barely set one foot on the soft, wet riverbank when a fierce gust of wind roared past her ear.
The fire, now beyond control, swallowed the entire Desolate Village.
Even the sign at the village entrance didn't escape.
Zheng Wuyou looked back, the fiery red sky reflected in her eyes. Stunned, she struggled to lift her feet and splash through the water up to her knees along the bank, as though a moment's delay would let the flames race along the withered willow trees and reach her.
She had the chicken by the throat, and it could only manage a few faint clucks.
With her free hand, Zheng Wuyou rubbed her temple in frustration.
The gesture suddenly reminded her of the woman by the window...
She could tell that the others behind her were already some distance from the bank.
If they went any farther toward the middle of the river, they'd have to swim to the other side.
This time, she counted silently to five again.
She didn't consult anyone or receive any sure sign.
She simply raised the hairpin she'd picked up in the Wooden House and swiftly drove it into the chicken's neck.
Blood sprayed across her face.
But she didn't care anymore...
Zheng Wuyou frowned slightly and blinked, listening with satisfaction to the sounds behind her blend with the roar of the flames before her in a kind of symphony.
The chicken slipped from her gradually loosening grip and drifted away with the slow-moving river, its lifeless body carried into the distance.
"What is that..." Confused voices rose behind her.
"Why is there such a huge watch in the river?"
A watch?
Zheng Wuyou turned around. She'd heard a splash behind her just as she stabbed the chicken in the neck.
But she'd thought it would be a door leading to the exit...
Wasn't that what Old Yuan had said? In those novels, the usual way out was a door.
What was a watch supposed to be?
In the broad, placid river stood a gigantic antique pocket watch with exposed gears.
It was like an ancient, mysterious tower, steeped in the weight of time.
Zheng Wuyou, who was around a hundred and seventy centimeters tall, stood on the riverbank and gazed at the colossal watch. She felt so small.
Like an insignificant ant.
The winding mechanism looked old and neglected, as though it hadn't been maintained in a long time. The minute hand pointed between twelve and one, and the watch ticked back and forth.
Firelight spilled across the rippling water, glimmering like countless tiny red diamonds.
The river lapped gently, clearly reflecting the watch.
And a figure on the bank.
"Allow me to introduce myself once more. My name is Chi Ao Chi Yin. I'm the only NPC present in this scenario, and the only NPC present in all the nightmares. I'm looking forward to seeing you again, Hidden Dream."
At some point, a familiar figure had appeared on the riverbank, his back to the flames.
He looked like Zhu Li... yet spoke in Chi Ao Chi Yin's voice.
Ignoring the question marks hanging over everyone's heads, he finished his introduction and walked into the flames.
The others remained in the river, bewildered, listening to his voice fade away.
The moment he finished speaking, countless figures began emerging from the ground on both banks.
They faced the gigantic pocket watch in the center of the river, heads bowed, their bodies seemingly formed from packed earth.
Their features were indistinct.
No one had time to react.
In just two seconds, the riverbanks were already packed with a dense crowd of "people."
Half-submerged in the river, Zheng Wuyou watched the scene, a premonition of danger rising in her heart...
These people...
"Run!" Zheng Wuyou's roar rang out almost simultaneously with the howls from the bank.
Zheng Wuyou and Miao Laisheng were the first to feel their way through the icy water, making their way toward the middle of the river as quickly as they could.
Though the blazing fire made the air scorching, the water remained cold and flowing.
And so, amid this song of ice and fire, everyone swam toward the gigantic pocket watch in the middle of the river in a thoroughly desperate scramble.
Behind them, the sound of people falling into the water rang out again and again, accompanied by countless splashes as they drew closer, thrashing violently.
In Zheng Wuyou's line of sight, Wen Dian was the first to reach the edge of the watch.
The current swept him toward it by accident. The instant he touched its edge, he vanished from view.
Hu Yu seemed to have seen hope. She swam toward the watch like a madwoman.
She was the second to disappear into the nauseating river.
Uncle Cai...
Wansi...
One after another, driven by their desperate will to live, they swam faster and escaped this world.
Only a dark blue figure remained floating in the water, keeping a certain distance from the watch.
Zheng Wuyou wasn't much of a swimmer...
Especially since her leg had cramped!
The "people" chasing her were clearly much better swimmers than she was.
She couldn't hold on any longer!
As Zheng Wuyou weakly lifted her eyes, a dark blue sleeve appeared in her field of vision. He grabbed her by the collar...
With his help, she struggled to swim toward the watch, carried along by the current.
Suddenly, a deafening rumble rang in her ears. Before she could react,
a massive wave slammed Zheng Wuyou into the water, and her consciousness blurred.
"Zheng... Wuyou...!"
When she opened her eyes again, the first thing she saw was the dark blue curtain above her bed.
Around her, people breathed softly in their sleep.
Only after confirming that she was in a familiar place did she relax and let out a long sigh.
Once she calmed down, Zheng Wuyou realized that her eyes were painfully dry and her face stung from the heat, as though she'd just walked out of a bonfire.
But her throat felt as though she'd choked while drinking water.
She lay in bed for a long while before slowly propping herself up against the headboard. She turned on her phone, which had been paused on a short-video page and gone dark. Her do-not-disturb period wasn't over yet, but the phone still chimed with a notification.
"You have a message."
Before she could open the notification, the phone on Yuan Ling's bed across from hers chimed too.
Before you continue