The Corpse

The singing lasted all night.

The next morning, Zhong Mingnan got up with huge dark circles under his eyes.

He yawned. "That singing last night was unbearable. It scared me so badly I didn't dare sleep all night."

After saying that, he looked at the others and realized that everyone except him seemed well rested.

"You... did you all sleep well?"

He asked.

Lin Xue nodded at his question. "Pretty well. The singing wasn't scary. After listening long enough, it even started to sound like a lullaby."

Zhong Mingnan: "..."

After everyone finished the breakfast Li Meihe brought out, they headed into the village in groups of two or three to look for information about Cheng Liangzi.

An Nian had actually wanted to go with Yin Chao and the others, but Long Zang pulled her away.

Mo Nan smiled. "What did you do? His impression of you is worse than bad."

Yin Chao didn't answer right away, calmly putting a bite of pickled vegetables into his mouth instead.

Only Luo Lingyue, Mo Nan, and he remained at the table.

He stood up and shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe he's afraid. Don't snipers have a very keen sixth sense?"

"Afraid?" Mo Nan repeated the word distinctly, making the question in his voice unmistakable.

His amusement needed no further expression.

Yin Chao looked at him, completely unconcerned. Without explaining or arguing, he said mildly, "Let's go. It's time we headed out too."

The three had barely stepped outside when Li Meihe called after them.

"Hello! Please wait!"

Yin Chao turned around. "What is it?"

Li Meihe seemed to have something she found difficult to say. She stammered, "C-can I come with you? I'm afraid to stay home alone."

"Why?" Sensing something was wrong, Mo Nan pressed her.

Li Meihe said nothing. It seemed she had no intention of telling them the truth.

A calculating look flashed through Yin Chao's eyes. A moment later, he smiled and politely refused. "Sorry, we're not used to having outsiders around disturbing us while we sketch."

It was like bargaining at a store. When the seller refused to budge, all you had to do was pretend not to care and convey the idea that you would forget about it and look elsewhere.

At that point, seventy percent of sellers would agree to the price you had originally offered.

Sure enough, Li Meihe began to panic. She hurriedly said, "Someone wants to kill me. If I'm alone, she'll kill me!"

Only then did Yin Chao smile in satisfaction and agree to let Li Meihe join them.

But when they asked who wanted to kill her, she refused to say another word.

Yin Chao knew he couldn't rush it. An NPC wouldn't spill all the crucial information at once. They had to wait for the right trigger.

With Li Meihe in their group, they could no longer freely question the villagers about Liangzi.

They were afraid she would go berserk again like she had yesterday.

They could only find a scenic spot, lie down, and bask in the sun.

Watching all three do the same thing, Li Meihe was rather speechless. "This is how you sketch?"

"Of course we have to experience nature first. Only then can we understand it better and form a painting in our minds," Mo Nan replied.

It sounded perfectly reasonable. Li Meihe nodded, only half understanding.

He had always had a knack for making things up. Listening, Yin Chao admired him inwardly and recalled the cannon fodder Mo Nan had duped in their first instance.

Time passed quickly, until a system notification sounded.

[Ding. NPC Old Man Luo has died at the hands of the Ghost Monster.]

All three instantly snapped to attention, their sudden movements giving Li Meihe a fright.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Mo Nan suggested, "Why don't we walk around the village and look for inspiration?"

"Agreed," Yin Chao chimed in.

Luo Lingyue had already gotten up and started toward Old Man Luo's house.

Li Meihe had no choice, however unwilling she was. Her suggestions didn't seem to be up for consideration, so she obediently got up and followed closely behind the three.

Even from a distance, they could see blood seeping out of Old Man Luo's house.

"Ah! What's... what's going on?" Li Meihe screamed, reluctant to go any farther.

The three ignored her and headed straight for the crime scene.

When they reached the entrance, they came face-to-face with Fang Tang and Xu Zhou coming out.

The two had apparently finished investigating, and it looked as though they had found nothing.

Fang Tang's gaze fell on Li Meihe. "Why is she with you?"

Yin Chao had no desire to waste words on her, so Mo Nan naturally took over. "Miss Meihe said she was too lonely on her own and wanted to come with us."

Fang Tang said nothing and turned to leave with Xu Zhou. There was no need for her to pretend to be friendly in front of these people, since they were even better at putting on an act than she was.

Upon entering the courtyard, they immediately saw Old Man Luo's corpse hanging from a roof beam.

He hung directly opposite the main gate.

There were other players inside as well. Yin Chao entered the house and carefully examined the condition of the corpse.

People who died by hanging usually looked horrifying, and Old Man Luo was no exception.

His tongue dangled far out of the corner of his mouth, its blackened coating looking rather disgusting.

The obstructed blood flow from his head had left his face bluish-purple, with pinpoint hemorrhages beneath his skin.

Pressure had forced one eye out of its socket, leaving it dangling precariously, the base of the eyeball attached to pink strands of flesh.

The other was nothing but a blood-smeared socket.

"Ah! What was that?" someone shouted.

Yin Chao looked toward the sound and saw the tall, thin man. He seemed to have stepped on something, splashing thick blood everywhere.

A foul stench spread, almost overpowering the smell of blood.

"An eyeball, probably," Yin Chao said honestly.

The tall, thin man went deathly pale and rushed outside to vomit violently.

Meanwhile, Mo Nan looked up at the corpse, the corners of his mouth curving slightly. "How do you think he died?"

Yin Chao shook his head and glanced at the large pool of blood on the floor. "I don't know. Maybe hanging, maybe blood loss."

Mo Nan chuckled, his admiration heartfelt. "That fellow is a genius. A genius at torturing people!"

Then he continued, "Look, there are cuts from a sharp weapon over the arteries in his wrists and ankles. The wounds are uneven, meaning it was done over and over, because the major arteries lie deep in the tissue. A person can still stay alive after losing a third of their blood, and the main arteries in the limbs can rapidly contract within ten minutes to stop the bleeding. In other words, an ordinary person can survive having a hand or foot chopped off."

Yin Chao listened to his impassioned explanation without speaking.

Mo Nan turned to look at him, his eyes full of admiration and longing-though certainly not for him.

He said, "Before someone dies of excessive blood loss, their muscles undergo ischemic spasms. That means sustained contraction, relaxation, then contraction again. What an incredibly, incredibly painful process..."

Yin Chao interrupted Mo Nan. "So the killer wanted to torture him."

"Yes! He is an undeniable genius!"

Yin Chao looked around and found that everyone still at the scene was busy searching for other clues. No one had noticed what Mo Nan was saying.

Li Meihe, who had followed them all this way, had said she would wait for them at the entrance.

He said he wanted to check on Li Meihe and went to the entrance alone, where he found her huddled in a crouch, trembling uncontrollably.

"What are you afraid of? You know who killed Old Man Luo, don't you?" Yin Chao asked.

Then he added, "Or are you the next target?"