The Missing Players and Corpses
"Would closing our eyes make us less likely to fall victim?" Yi Pei asked.
Closing their eyes might help to some extent, but it wouldn't make a decisive difference.
Xu Huo glanced outside. "The rain's getting heavier. You should head back."
Yi Pei said goodbye to the grandfather and granddaughter, then left the courtyard.
The sky had grown as dark as night. By evening, a torrential downpour had begun, too heavy for even an umbrella to withstand. Naturally, no one was out walking in the rain.
Not long after night fell, a faint scream suddenly came from outside. Xu Huo immediately went into the courtyard. Seeing him head for the exit, the little girl hurried to stop him. "Don't go out at night."
"I'm worried something's happened to my friend." Xu Huo left the courtyard, but when he looked back, he saw the old man call his granddaughter inside and slam the gate shut.
Some of the players living nearby came out and headed toward the sound. Before long, they saw the square-faced player who was with Fang Penghui standing guard in front of a courtyard.
When Xu Huo and the others went in, they found that the Black Shirt Player, the artsy player, and the rest were already there.
The grisly scene in the courtyard was easy to take in at a glance. The heads of the two elderly sisters who lived there had been smashed to a pulp. One lay in the main room, the other facedown in the courtyard. The second woman must have screamed—she had run out of the house, but still ended up dead.
Players had killed the two women. The player Xu Huo had set on fire during the day lay just two steps away.
"I remember those two