The silence around them was terrifying.
Ning Zhuangzhuang's first instinct was to grab the person beside her and run back. In her experience, if you stumbled upon a monster and didn't flee, your chances of survival were practically zero.
But Lu Mi silently caught her wrist and leaned close to her ear. "Look, here's our clue. Don't be afraid. I saw it-its eyes are closed. It's asleep."
Ning Zhuangzhuang calmed down. Beyond the pounding of her own heart, she could indeed hear steady breathing.
Lu Mi was right. The deadline for clearing the instance was drawing closer. If they sought only temporary safety, they would still end up dead.
She covered the head of the flashlight with her hand and switched it back on, letting a little light slip through the gaps between her fingers.
The tiny creature sleeping on the stone slab before them was a baby.
Even the bright light that had just flashed across its face hadn't woken it.
Lu Mi pointed at his own neck. Understanding his meaning, Ning Zhuangzhuang spotted a pendant around the baby's neck. A green Buddha, two fingers wide, exactly like the one "Mom" wore.
Behind the baby stood a stone door.
Lu Mi raised his index finger to signal her to stay quiet, then tiptoed around the Ghost Infant toward the stone door.
The Ghost Infant's breathing remained steady, its tiny body rising and falling in deep sleep.
While Lu Mi examined the stone door, Ning Zhuangzhuang watched the Ghost Infant, ready to warn him at the first sign of trouble.
Perhaps this was the key to clearing the instance.
Fear and excitement tangled in her chest. Before she could compose herself, however, she heard a voice bursting with joy.
"Lu Mi! Ning Zhuangzhuang, too! Thank goodness! We finally found you!"
Ning Zhuangzhuang looked back. Two figures, one tall and one short, were running toward them, waving. They were the siblings Zhang Zhu and Zhang Mei, whom they had lost track of. A sense of foreboding instantly washed over her.
Lu Mi frantically gestured for them to be quiet.
Zhang Mei sensed something was wrong and stopped first. But beside her, Zhang Zhu kept shouting at the top of his lungs, showing no intention of shutting up.
Before Ning Zhuangzhuang switched off the flashlight, Zhang Mei caught sight of the Ghost Infant sleeping on the stone slab and hurried to cover her brother's mouth.
That little monster probably hasn't woken up yet, she told herself. As long as I quiet him down in time, everything will be fine-
Before she could reach her brother's mouth, Zhang Zhu fell silent on his own.
Zhang Mei breathed a sigh of relief, glad that both of them had caught on.
But in the next instant, a crunching, chewing sound came from where the Ghost Infant lay, raising goosebumps all over her.
What's it eating? Wait, when did it wake up??
Zhang Mei didn't dare take another step forward. Frightened, she reached for her brother's arm. But the moment she touched Zhang Zhu, he collapsed limply beside her.
She hurried to catch him from behind.
Why did his blood sugar have to crash now?
Zhang Mei fished a candy from her pocket, carefully unwrapped it, and brought it toward Zhang Zhu's mouth.
Wait-where was Zhang Zhu's mouth?
Zhang Mei felt around above his neck, but her fingers met nothing but air.
Only then did she realize that the smell of blood had been hanging around her for some time.
Something dawned on her. With trembling hands, she reached for Zhang Zhu's neck.
Warm, sticky blood gushed out. The severed stump of her brother's neck was ragged, as though something covered in spikes had ripped his head clean off.
Ahead of her, the Ghost Infant stopped chewing. A muffled gulp assaulted her ears.
She felt someone helping her up. In an extremely quiet voice, Lu Mi said, "Come on. We have to get out of here. The Ghost Infant is probably blind. It's using sound to locate us."
"No, no..." Zhang Mei reached for Zhang Zhu. "We can't leave my brother here alone. He's afraid of the dark..."
"He's already dead! If you don't leave now, you'll only die with him!" Ning Zhuangzhuang clenched her fists in desperation.
"He's not dead. He's not. He's still moving." A smile blossomed on Zhang Mei's deathly pale face.
Zhang Zhu's body was indeed moving, slowly rising into the air, but Lu Mi clearly heard the rustle of vines writhing and coiling around it.
Another headless corpse had been born. The Demon Flower had fresh nourishment.
Lu Mi simply dragged Zhang Mei away by force. All the talking and struggling they had just done had very likely drawn the Ghost Infant's attention.
Sure enough, something was rapidly approaching with a soft rustling sound.
This won't work. Lu Mi thought quickly. When the Ghost Infant had killed Zhang Zhu, it had shot out an extremely long tongue, plucked off his head like a frog catching an insect, and delivered it into its mouth. The entire process had been silent.
Chasing them now was merely a little exercise to help digest its meal. There was nowhere to hide here. Once it grew impatient and the three of them had exhausted their strength, they would become its next courses, one after another.
Then he would have to take a gamble.
At that thought, he stopped.
Ning Zhuangzhuang looked at him in confusion. She heard him take a deep breath and sing:
"Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality"
(Trapped in a landslide, unable to escape the prison of reality)
It was the nursery rhyme "Mom" had sung on the first night. The instant his singing began, the rustling actually stopped.
Ning Zhuangzhuang: "..." He was a quick learner. He had even used chest resonance.
Tentatively, she blocked most of the flashlight's beam and pointed it behind them.
"Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth"
(I'll leave you all behind to face reality's judgment)
The Ghost Infant crouched motionless where it was. The jade pendant hung against its chest, and its eyes were dark hollows, as though it were struggling to recall something.
When Lu Mi finished singing it through once, the Ghost Infant tilted its head and slowly crawled forward.
Seeing this, Lu Mi hurried to sing again, only to hear the little monster ask in an extremely raspy voice, "Are you... Mom's friends?"
Friends?
Lu Mi and Ning Zhuangzhuang exchanged a glance without answering. They still couldn't be sure whether the relationship between this mother and child was good or bad.
The Ghost Infant was silent for a while before saying, "Sorry. I ate one of Mom's friends."
It crawled a few more steps forward. "You won't be angry, right?"
Ning Zhuangzhuang answered tentatively, "Tell us where the exit is, and we won't be angry."
"Okay." A smile appeared on the Ghost Infant's tiny face. "But before that, play a game with me."
The Ghost Infant spoke with a child's innocence, but left no room for negotiation.
Lu Mi glanced at his watch. They had half an hour left before "Mom's" deadline for picking flowers. "What do you want to play?" he asked.
"Let's play the jigsaw puzzle game we always play." The Ghost Infant slowly turned around, though its head remained facing them. "Mom said she loves doing puzzles with her good friends more than anything."
Lu Mi murmured his agreement. If spending this half hour was their only chance of surviving, they might as well...
He spoke, adding two conditions. "We can play with you, but after the game, you have to give us a hundred fresh flowers. None with insect holes, and none that are wilted."
"Also, if we ask you questions, you have to answer truthfully."
Before you continue