The Cellar

"Uncle Li, I'm here."

Little Zhou called out to Li Yang. Li Yang noticed the two people in the bedroom and was extremely surprised. "How did you find this place?"

"We headed east the whole way and followed the tire tracks on the ground until we got here," Zhang Ze answered. "It looks like this cabin, like that tree hollow, is a spawn point for newcomers entering the Door-After World."

Li Yang nodded. "That's right. My memories began in this cabin. Everything before that was completely gone."

"Old Zhou and I had originally planned to patrol these two spawn points. Whenever newcomers entered the Door-After World, we could lend them a hand."

Zhang Ze glanced at the cabin's bathroom.

Since Li Yang had first entered the World in the Painting from here, one of the door's entrances had to be in the bathroom.

"Have you checked this place?"

"No. This place is filthy and stinks. Why would I check it?" Li Yang asked, baffled.

Zhang Ze did not answer him.

Instead, he entered the bathroom. It was tiny, containing a toilet, a showerhead, and an overturned wooden bathtub. If there was anything else, it was a plunger sitting in the corner.

Zhang Ze ignored places like the toilet, showerhead, and pipes, focusing instead on the more spacious areas.

Such as the walls, mirror, window paper, and even the cabinet beneath the sink.

He found nothing.

Li Yang looked utterly confused the entire time.

He had no idea what Zhang Ze was looking for.

At last, Zhang Ze turned his attention to the overturned wooden bathtub. Compared with everything else in the bathroom, it was the most suspicious item—and the only thing he had not checked.

If he could not find what he wanted inside it either, that meant Zhang Ze's guess had been wrong.

Zhang Ze flipped the bathtub over and set it upright so the light could reach the bottom.

Several dense rows of scratches covered the bottom of the bathtub, like words painstakingly carved with a small knife.

"My name is Lin Wan. I have been in this hellhole for a day now. Thanks to a warning from a senior, I know that if I die even once, I will die in reality as well. All my memories will be erased, leaving only the memories from the World in the Painting onward."

"I have been lucky enough to survive until now and still retain my previous memories, but I do not think I will live much longer. Crow has been appearing more and more often, and I feel like something has been watching me all this time. I have to leave behind a piece of information. If those who come after me see this, please remember it well. This may be your only hope of surviving."

"We all bought paintings by an artist named Lingling. That's right—if you still remember, she was Hanjiang City's most famous genius girl artist. This was the last painting she made before she died."

"This painting is cursed. Ghosts exist in this world. Lingling has already become a ghost, and we were all dragged in here to become objects of her torment. She will keep our numbers fixed at four and hunt us endlessly until newcomers enter."

"I did not know how to leave at first either, but a senior told me that among the earliest wealthy people to enter the World in the Painting, one person found a way out."

"Perhaps because Lingling's hand was severed, or for some other reason, her control over the World in the Painting is incomplete. That gave the senior an opportunity to create a Cellar hidden deep in the forest and leave the World in the Painting through it."

"Little Bear and that dwarf are both ghosts in the painting. They do not seem to harm living people. Instead, they attack Crow. But do not stay near them for too long either. If you linger too long, it will draw Lingling herself to hunt you down."

"By the time I have written this much, my hand has already gone numb. Remember this Cellar. I am going to look for it too. If I make it out alive, I will expose the truth about this painting through the media. All right, good luck. Please, you must survive."

After reading the lines, Zhang Ze had a rough understanding of the situation.

He showed them to Li Yang.

Li Yang looked shocked. "I revived here, yet even I didn't know there were words here."

"How did you know?"

"I guessed," Zhang Ze said. "If someone had the foresight to know their memories would be erased, they would definitely leave information behind for those who came later."

Only after seeing Li Yang revive in the bathroom had he thought of it. If someone wanted to leave a message for their memory-less future self or for those who came after them, they would definitely write it somewhere everyone could find.

And where could everyone find?

Naturally, at the revival point.

That was why he had searched around with the mindset of giving it a try. Sure enough, he had found useful information.

"The Cellar is the only way out. I guess this Cellar might be something similar to a door," Zhang Ze said.

"Are you sure? If this Lin Wan successfully left through the Cellar, why hadn't there been any rumors in Hanjiang City about this cursed ghost painting?" Li Yang challenged.

Zhang Ze: ...

"Come on, man. Are you messing with me?"

"It got out. How could it not have gotten out? Before I entered the World in the Painting, the news was already making a huge fuss about it. They said this painting was a cursed death painting, and anyone who bought it would definitely suffer some kind of fatal accident."

"You're the idiots who knew there were ghosts on the mountain but insisted on walking straight into Ghost Mountain anyway. You bought it home just for the thrill, and now you're fucking regretting it, aren't you?"

After Zhang Ze finished speaking,

Li Yang looked embarrassed.

That really was the case.

Although he had lost his previous memories, that did not mean he had lost his personality. Judging from his personality, he had probably been quite wealthy before and enjoyed collecting all kinds of supernatural and urban-legend items.

The kind of rich young master in horror movies who would die if he did not court death.

"Anyway, when newcomers enter the World in the Painting, the door is only open for a dozen seconds or so. The chance is far too slim. We need to find this Cellar."

"You take Little Zhou with you. Once you find the Cellar, send him out. I'll go lure Lingling away."

Zhang Ze said this.

Hearing that, Li Yang reevaluated the young man before him and was instantly filled with emotion.

They were the same age.

Yet Zhang Ze was actually willing to save Little Zhou.

If it were anyone else, upon hearing that the Cellar was the only exit, they would be desperate to use it secretly for themselves. Who would give up such a precious chance to escape for someone else?

Especially Zhang Ze.

He had even said he was willing to act as bait and lure Lingling away.

What incredible generosity!

Li Yang was won over by Zhang Ze.

Little did he know that Zhang Ze was plotting something else entirely.

"Lingling... good. Now I know the ghost's name."

"To follow Chen Ge's redemption approach, it would be way too fake if I couldn't even remember the ghost's name."

"Knowing the ghost's name, plus Boss Chen's signature warm-hearted-man combo, should be enough to persuade Lingling."

Zhang Ze had naturally not entered the World in the Painting in order to escape.

He had come to complete the system mission and conquer this two-star scream-index scenario.

The reason he had not gone all out the moment they met was, on one hand, because there were too many people around and the effect would be poor. On the other hand, he knew too little about Lingling. He only knew her background and did not even know her name, which was rather disrespectful to Lingling.

Now, everything was ready.

Zhang Ze had even prepared his speech.

"I'm not here to hurt you..."

"I understand your pain..."

"I want to help you move on..."

He refused to believe that Boss Chen's warm-hearted-man combo could win over even Xu Yin and Zhang Ya, yet fail against a mere Lingling.