After the Players discussed the matter, dawn had fully broken.
Cold sunlight leaked through the battered windows into the room, casting broad patches of white light across the floor.
Qi Si stood by the window and looked toward the western wing. Red silk and paper cutouts were sparsely pasted across the walls, like scabs formed over burned skin.
Xi'er, dressed in a red wedding gown, crawled out of her room like a little beast and timidly peered toward the rooms where the Players were staying.
She had returned to her human state. The arm exposed beneath her red sleeve was the healthy color of living flesh, made even rosier by the fabric and morning light.
"I keep feeling that this Instance is strange. The NPCs are ghosts one moment and people the next; it's impossible to tell who's alive and who's dead." Li Yao silently came up behind Qi Si. "Double Happiness, Double Happiness—by tradition, there should be joyous occasions and funerals. But yesterday, Sister Xu went on and on about the God of Joy without mentioning funerals even once."
"Didn't the opening hint say it? 'The living may not be alive, and the dead may not be dead.'" Liu Bingding eagerly offered his opinion. "Could it be that dead people can come back to life, so funerals aren't considered important?"
It was a reasonable deduction, but it sounded more like a ghost story. Combined with the dreams the Players had had last night, it easily led to chilling speculation.
Du Xiaoyu muttered, "What bad luck," while Shang Qingbei kept his head lowered and said nothing.
Qi Si took in everyone's reactions and replayed all the information they knew in his mind.
In the dream, Xi'er, transformed into a ghostly creature, had appeared in the empty bed. After "Li Yao"