Married off, part five

What a pain. He couldn't stop sighing inwardly.

Then the hooded man spoke, actually answering his earlier question. "I'm a player. The Tenth Player."

Only then did Yin Chao realize that the hooded man didn't just have a good build and handsome features. His voice was pleasant, too.

He asked, "Then why didn't I see you earlier? I remember all the players coming out of the houses on either side of the bridal procession's route, right?"

The hooded man shifted his neck slightly, his gaze settling on Yin Chao's face.

"I killed the monsters and got here before you."

His expression barely changed. He spoke of killing monsters as casually as eating or drinking.

Yin Chao studied him, remembering the wooden door smeared with thick black goo he had seen earlier. His gut told him the man was probably telling the truth.

He returned to the matter at hand. "Since you heard everything, you know that little girl said to go to the kitchen, find something, and hide it. You're so strong, you could easily go yourself."

A trace of irritation crossed the hooded man's face. "I can't find it. You're the Child of the Evil God. This game was created specifically for you."

Yin Chao's eyelid twitched violently. What Child of the Evil God? That sounds like some ill-omened person they'd tie to a stake and burn alive!

He refused to believe that Yin Rui, who curled up in her husband's arms whenever she watched horror movies, could be some evil god.

He hurriedly protested, "Don't make things up! I don't know any evil god!"

The hooded man neither agreed nor disagreed. He stood opposite him, showing no intention of moving.

His meaning was clear: he was waiting for Yin Chao.

With no other choice, Yin Chao tiptoed out of the room after him.

The night was utterly quiet. Red gauze fluttered in the wind on either side of the corridor.

From time to time, owl cries like a baby's wailing drifted from the woods outside, echoing through the night sky and chilling anyone who heard them to the bone.

Yin Chao followed behind the hooded man as they descended from the second floor to the first.

The hooded man seemed very familiar with the layout, lending weight to his claim that he had already searched but found nothing.

He casually pushed open a moss-covered wooden door and stepped inside.

Yin Chao followed close behind, only for the stench of decay to hit him so hard that tears sprang to his eyes.

His vision gradually blurred.

The scene before him began to change. The moonlit kitchen slowly brightened.

"Oh! She's giving birth! She's giving birth! Hurry and fetch a midwife! Hurry!"

Yin Chao shook his groggy head, feeling the world spin around him.

A bustle of people coming and going filled his ears. Was someone giving birth?

The voice that had called for a midwife rang out again. "What? Premature? What are we supposed to do? You have to save this baby!"

Another voice sounded, old and sly.

"From all my years of experience as Granny Wang, this is a Nezha baby. And it's a boy."

"Oh! A boy! Then you absolutely have to save him!"

Granny Wang sighed. "Wencai's mother, we'll have to fetch a doctor from town."

"That would cost a fortune! Just tell me whether you can save my grandson!"

Wencai's mother's voice was anxious, but her anxiety was only for her unborn grandson and the cost of hiring a doctor.

The young woman's agonized screams continued inside the room, while the two women outside had already begun a transaction with a tacit understanding.

Granny Wang nodded, took a sip of water, and continued, "I can, but Guixiang..."

"As long as you save my grandson! The money for a doctor would be enough for my son to marry two more wives!"

The conversation ended there.

Yin Chao's head had cleared considerably by then.

He frowned at the basins of bloody water being carried out of the room.

Gradually, the entire courtyard was stained red with blood. The woman's screams vanished completely, replaced by a baby's cries.

This was the beginning of a life, and the end of another.

"Granny Wang! Why is it a girl? Didn't you say it was a boy?"

Wencai's mother's shouting drowned out the baby's cries.

Granny Wang fled the room in disgrace, a string of curses following her.

Yin Chao stood in the middle of the courtyard, surrounded by bloody water.

Granny Wang stumbled into the courtyard, muttering something incoherently.

Suddenly, the rooster caged in the corner began crowing and beating its wings, as though something were squeezing its neck.

The black dog tethered nearby also began barking frantically.

The bloody water beneath Yin Chao's feet gradually thickened. Only when Granny Wang reached his side could he make out what she was saying.

"Go back where you came from. I, Granny Wang, was only doing the family's bidding. Go back where you came from..."

She kept muttering this the whole way.

The rooster stopped breathing. The black dog stopped barking, too, crouching in a corner and vomiting blood.

By the time Wencai's mother and several of her sisters-in-law chased Granny Wang outside, still demanding an explanation, Granny Wang was already lying in the thick pool of blood.

The blood spread outward as though alive. Wencai's mother was swallowed by it, too, dying a horrific death.

The entire world was engulfed in blood.

Crimson filled Yin Chao's vision. A heavy metallic smell filled his nose, as though he were drowning in a sea of blood.

Slowly, he began to suffocate.

"Focus. Hold your breath."

A cold voice forcefully cut a path through the sea of blood. Like a drowning man who had found driftwood, Yin Chao clung desperately to that voice.

"Wake up."

It seemed to possess some wondrous magic.

The voice told him to wake up, and Yin Chao truly did.

The bloody smell in his nose was replaced by the stench of decay. Somehow, he found it comforting.

After coughing twice, Yin Chao could make out the person before him.

It was the hooded man.

"What happened to me?"

He asked.

The hooded man helped him up and glanced around. "Empathy."

Seeing Yin Chao's blank expression, the hooded man explained, "Empathy is one of the methods monsters use to kill people. They recreate past events and kill their victims within the illusion."

So he had fallen for a monster's trick. Yin Chao patted the dust off his trousers.

He couldn't help thinking of the woman named Guixiang. Had he been experiencing Empathy with her?

While he stood lost in thought, the hooded man walked to the window and pushed it open. Moonlight instantly illuminated the entire kitchen.

A stove came into view.

Yin Chao recalled the little girl's words.

But did she finish what she was saying? Did she mean find me and hide me, or find something I hid?

Yin Chao spotted a row of cupboards against the wall and started toward them to take a look inside.

Before he reached them, the hooded man caught his collar from behind and hauled him half a step backward.

His back pressed against the hooded man's chest, with the man's chin just above his head. It was decidedly awkward.

He had just opened his mouth to say something when the hooded man covered half his face with one hand.

"Shh. Footsteps."

He said.

Yin Chao immediately focused his attention on the area outside the kitchen.

Listening carefully, he could indeed hear footsteps drawing closer.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

Heavy and slow.

Like a walking corpse.

The hooded man quickly dragged Yin Chao behind the stove to hide in a pile of firewood.

Before long, the wooden door creaked open.

The village chief stood in the doorway, wearing a short jacket.

His gaze was vacant, his fangs exposed as he slowly approached the stove.

Yin Chao and the hooded man crouched behind the woodpile, able to see only through gaps between the branches.

Suddenly, the village chief's deformed legs stopped right in front of their hiding place.

Neither dared breathe.

Fortunately, the village chief paused only briefly before moving on.

First, he lifted the large lid covering the pot on the stove. Finding nothing he wanted inside, he moved toward a pitch-black stone vat.

He stopped before the vat and unexpectedly began clawing at the wall.

His inhuman claws soon gouged a large hole in the earthen wall.

Yin Chao saw a pair of withered, cracked hands emerge from inside it.

Was it a corpse?

Little by little, the village chief dug the entire corpse out of the earthen wall.

Dragging it like a sack, he laid the corpse on the stove, opened his maw, and tore a chunk of flesh from its face.

The moonlight was bright. The maggots writhing beneath the corpse's skin and the scraps of flesh falling from it were clearly visible.