Lin Xue

Only silence answered him.

Fang Tang gave Xu Zhou a token tug. Just as she was about to speak, their surroundings began to collapse without warning.

It was not the collapse of physical objects, but the erasure of space itself.

Zhong Mingnan had never seen anything like this before. Uneasily, he asked, "What's happening? Did we fail the mission?"

No one could say for certain. They were all too busy looking out for themselves.

"What do we do?" An Nian struggled to keep her footing and clutched Long Zang beside her.

His expression grave, he surveyed their surroundings and reassured her, "Don't panic. Maybe this is where the instance really begins."

He made no effort to lower his voice, so Yin Chao and the others nearby heard him clearly.

Mo Nan took a black umbrella out of his storage space, then straightened his hat, looking as formal as if he were about to attend a banquet.

Uncontainable excitement shone in his eyes. His lips curved into a broad smile as he remarked, "Now this really is something to look forward to."

The collapse accelerated, and soon Yin Chao's vision went completely dark.

When he could see again, the mountain village had become a stretch of wasteland dotted with scattered burial mounds.

Yin Chao felt no particular emotion. He walked unhurriedly toward the nearest grave.

Dirt covered the inscription on its headstone.

Frowning, Yin Chao took out the handkerchief he had filched from Mo Nan and used one corner to wipe away the dirt.

Carved into it were the words: Li Meihe of Fortune-Blessed Village.

It seemed to be nothing more than a simple marker, with no further details.

Apparently, this was the real Fortune-Blessed Village. The bustling, vibrant village they had seen before had been an illusion someone had created.

The sky here was frighteningly overcast. The hoarse cries of crows drifted through the air, as though something kept them from approaching and left them only daring to circle overhead.

In many cultures, crows were regarded as omens of misfortune and symbols of death.

Their presence deepened the thick pall of death hanging over this land.

A hissing sound rose, as though someone were struggling beneath the earth.

Yin Chao saw the mound before him begin to bulge. Something seemed to be writhing beneath the soil, trying to push its way out like a spring bamboo shoot.

It was not just this grave. Almost every burial mound began to tremble.

Before long, a skeletal hand that had not fully rotted pierced the soil, dragging the body attached to it up from below.

Soon, the entire skeleton emerged.

Looking at the rotten flesh hanging from it and the maggots dropping off incessantly, Yin Chao moved farther away in disgust.

After crawling out, the skeletal figures wandered around the graveyard.

They roamed aimlessly, like flies without heads.

Yin Chao did not understand, and even found it a little boring.

He sat leaning against Li Meihe's headstone and casually quipped, "Plants vs. Zombies?"

The moment the words left his mouth, a passing skeleton stopped. It turned its skull, a few strands of hair still clinging to it, and began clawing and biting at the weeds like mad.

Startled, Yin Chao nearly toppled off the headstone.

After steadying himself, he wondered, Was it because of what I just said?

Then-

"Everyone, get down!"

Yin Chao shouted, intending to test it.

To his surprise, the skeletons really did obey his command.

"Now you've really made me curious. Just who are you?"

A woman's voice came from behind him.

Yin Chao turned and found Lin Xue, covered in mud.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I don't know. I was all alone just now, and those monsters crawling out of the ground kept chasing me, trying to kill me," Lin Xue said pitifully.

Yin Chao gave an "Oh," curled his lips, and asked, "Then why didn't they kill you?"

His tone was light, as though he were asking something as trivial as whether she had eaten.

Lin Xue's expression froze for a moment. "You figured me out?"

Yin Chao looked up and moved a few steps closer to her. "You should know that whatever you are, your life is no different to me from an ant on the ground or a weed beside the road. I couldn't care less."

"How very... cold of you," Lin Xue said with feigned regret.

If not for her face, the Lin Xue before him and the timid, forgettable Lin Xue from earlier could have been two entirely different people.

"When did you figure it out? I thought my act was flawless." Her voice was languid, as though she were chatting with a friend in an upscale café.

"You're very good at pretending to be an ordinary person. But as it happens, you and I are the same kind of person." Yin Chao paused, then continued, "Remember Wang Buhui's death?"

Lin Xue nodded. Of course she remembered. She had killed Wang Buhui herself.

"You told Zhong Mingnan that it was Wang Buhui's own fault. I thought you were absolutely right. I also thought he brought it on himself. But faced with a dead man, with his body still warm, an ordinary person wouldn't think that way," Yin Chao said.

When Lin Xue finished listening, she smiled and applauded.

"You're clever," she praised him. "No wonder I never had the slightest urge to kill you from the beginning. Even now, with you standing in front of me, all I'd have to do is lift a hand to snap that slender, fragile neck of yours..."

As she spoke, she slowly approached Yin Chao, coming close enough to smell the fragrance of the blood flowing through his body.

Then she leaned in and said, "But I still don't want to kill you."

With those words, Lin Xue vanished.

Her drifting voice came from the air. "My name is Cheng Meihe. I'm Liangzi's daughter. Cheng Liangzi died in childbirth."

[Beep. You are the first player to discover Cheng Liangzi's cause of death. Would you like to leave the instance world? All other players will leave with you.]

Lin Xue was Cheng Meihe. Or rather, Lin Xue had been killed at the very beginning, and Cheng Meihe had impersonated her.

Cheng Liangzi had died in childbirth, but Cheng Meihe had been safely delivered and even raised by someone.

Everything in Fortune-Blessed Village had been that child's revenge.

Yin Chao sorted through his thoughts and sighed before saying, "Yes."

His vision gradually darkened, but a song reached his ears, drawing closer from far away.

"The sun shines up above, the flowers smile at me, the birds say, morning, morning, morning, why does a fool go to school..."

Yin Chao saw Cheng Liangzi again. Dressed in worn-out clothes, she stood in the classroom singing at the top of her lungs, surrounded by countless malicious jeers.

But she did not stop. Instead, she sang with even greater enthusiasm.

She seemed to think she had made her classmates laugh, and a rainbow of light shone in her eyes.

Later, walking home from school alone, Liangzi was still singing. The country path, filled with birdsong and fragrant flowers, and Liangzi with her grubby schoolbag formed a picturesque scene.

Yin Chao seemed to feel that same ease. Walking slowly beside Cheng Liangzi, he actually found the song rather pleasant.

"Who are you?"

Cheng Liangzi suddenly stopped singing and looked at Yin Chao as she asked.

"Me? It doesn't matter," Yin Chao said. Then, as though something had occurred to him, he asked, "Do you know how this song goes? Would you like me to teach you?"

Cheng Liangzi shook her head, blinked her bright, dark eyes, and happily began to sing.

"The sun shines up above, the flowers smile at me, the birds say, morning, morning, morning, why are you carrying your little schoolbag? I'm going to school, never late a single day..."

She sang beautifully, and the way her head bobbed from side to side was adorable.

But Yin Chao felt a heaviness in his chest. "If you know how it goes, why did you deliberately sing it wrong?" he asked.

Cheng Liangzi said, "Because that's how Meihe taught me to sing it. I really like Meihe. She's my best friend..."

At the mention of Li Meihe, Cheng Liangzi's eyes seemed to shine even brighter.

Looking at the little girl, as pure as a lily, Yin Chao desperately wanted to tell her to stay away from those demons.

But this was only a fragment of Cheng Liangzi's consciousness lingering in the instance world. He could not change anything.

The girl's figure gradually receded, while Yin Chao seemed rooted to the spot.

Just as she was about to disappear from sight, he asked, "Cheng Liangzi, do you like children? Your own child?"

"I do! I love children! I love everyone's children!"

She smiled so happily, just as she had when the sunlight fell across her face on the day she gave birth.

Yin Chao remembered what Li Meihe had said earlier about the meaning behind the name Grandma Cheng had given her.

Cheng Liangzi, always be a kind person with a conscience...