Seven Life Candles

[Forty minutes until midnight.]

The seven Life Candles were lit again.

The funeral hall fell quiet for the moment.

But after Fang Kai's death,

no one dared treat this as an ordinary funeral vigil anymore.

Shen Niannian lay in the coffin.

The white cloth had been pulled over her again, covering her completely.

Only a small strip of her black-and-red skirt showed.

Now she even tried to keep her movements controlled when turning over.

After all, in this scene,

she wasn't Shen Niannian.

She was-

a dead person.

Dong!

The funeral bell suddenly tolled a second time.

The players in the Chen family roles lowered their heads at the same time.

Crying broke out.

"My daughter..."

"Young miss..."

"How could someone who was perfectly fine just be gone like that..."

The young woman playing the madam cried particularly earnestly.

It wasn't because she was a particularly good actress.

It was simply because someone had already died.

Now she didn't need to work herself up at all.

She was truly afraid.

She truly wanted to cry.

The three guests kept their mouths tightly shut.

No one dared repeat Fang Kai's mistake.

But as the crying continued,

from outside the funeral hall,

a series of light footsteps suddenly sounded.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Several paper children with topknots

came skipping inside.

There were three in all.

Red cheeks.

Black eyes.

They also held white paper pinwheels.

They didn't look at the players.

After coming in,

they immediately began circling the seven Life Candles.

The player in charge of the steward role was called Cao Yong.

He was thirty-seven.

He had already cleared three instances.

When he saw them approach the Life Candles, he didn't act rashly.

He just watched them intently.

"Don't touch the candles."

No one answered.

But one of the paper children suddenly puffed out his cheeks.

Whoosh-

The Life Candle at the very end went out.

Cao Yong's expression changed slightly.

He immediately went over and relit it.

The second paper child ran to the other side.

Whoosh-

The second candle went out.

"They're deliberately using up the steward's actions."

Ye Qinglan quickly saw the problem.

Cao Yong gritted his teeth.

"I know, but under rule four, I'm the only one who can touch the Life Candles. I can only keep going back and forth to relight them."

The three paper children began picking up speed.

Left.

Right.

Middle.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

The flames kept going out.

Sweat was already beading on Cao Yong's forehead.

He wasn't simply lighting candles.

Every time he approached one of the paper children,

it would stare fixedly at him with pitch-black eyes.

One even leaned close to his ear

and whispered:

"Grandpa steward."

"After you die, we'll light the lamps for you."

Cao Yong's expression darkened.

But he never responded.

The viewers in the livestream felt their scalps crawl.

"That's so creepy!"

"The steward role is under so much pressure!"

"He has to guard seven lamps by himself, and the other players can't even touch them!"

"Those paper people are deliberately forcing someone else to help!"

Soon,

the situation spiraled out of control again.

[Current Life Candles: 4/7]

Cao Yong had just lit the fifth candle

when two more went out on the other side.

[Current Life Candles: 3/7]

And right at that moment,

one of the paper children suddenly wrapped his arms around a candleholder

and dragged it to the side!

Screech-

The whole Life Candle began to tilt.

The flame flickered wildly.

"Oh no!"

The player playing the master stood up instinctively.

If it fell any farther,

at least two candles would go out together!

But the rule was clear.

[Only the steward may touch the Life Candles.]

Cao Yong was too far away.

He couldn't get there in time!

"Don't touch it!"

Cao Yong shouted.

The player playing the master forced himself to stop.

But another player playing a household servant panicked.

"I'm not touching the candle, I'm just steadying the candleholder!"

With that,

he grabbed the wooden candle stand.

He managed to steady the candleholder.

The two flames stabilized again.

The man's face lit up.

"It's fine!"

But the next second,

a wisp of white smoke suddenly rose

from the hand gripping the candleholder.

Sizzle-

The smile froze on the man's face.

"What?"

Flames burst from his palm in an instant.

They weren't red.

They were deathly pale.

"Aah-!"

The man jerked his hand away.

But it was no use.

The white flames spread madly up his arm.

Skin.

Flesh.

Clothes.

Everything began to burn.

Ye Qinglan drew her blade.

She slashed at the man's arm!

Splurt!

His entire right arm fell to the ground.

But the white flames had already appeared on his chest.

The man looked down in horror.

"Why?! I didn't touch the candle!"

Bloody words slowly appeared on the wall.

[The Life Candle includes the wick, the candle body, and the candleholder that bears the Life Flame.]

[A non-steward role has touched a Life Candle.]

[Role error.]

"No-!"

Boom!

Deathly pale flames engulfed his entire body in an instant.

In just three seconds,

a living person

was burned into a pile of black ash.

[Player Liang Feng has died.]

[Players currently alive: 12]

The funeral hall fell deathly silent once again.

Even the livestream comments thinned out considerably.

"That counted as touching a Life Candle too..."

"He was already so careful. He only touched the candleholder, and he still died."

"You can't narrow the meaning of things in the rules on your own."

"This instance really doesn't let you exploit that kind of loophole in the wording!"

Ye Qinglan looked at the ash on the floor.

Her face grew increasingly grim.

Liang Feng wasn't stupid.

In fact, by normal logic,

his judgment made a certain amount of sense.

But in the instance-

one mistake

was enough to kill you.

What was even more chilling was that

a paper effigy in the corner

raised its head again.

Its face began to change, little by little.

Its nose.

Its mouth.

Its eyes.

Finally,

it became Liang Feng, who had just died.

It patted the paper ash off itself.

Then it silently returned to the position originally occupied by [Household Servant B].

As if nothing had happened.

[Household Servant B role restored.]

[Vigil storyline continuing.]

Shen Niannian lay in the coffin.

After hearing the notification,

her heart sank a little.

(｡ŏ_ŏ)

This place really didn't care about the players.

One died.

One replaced them.

As long as the role remained,

the play could go on.

And now-

those three paper children still hadn't disappeared!

[Current Life Candles: 3/7]

Cao Yong was drenched in sweat from running.

"This isn't working. They're blowing out the candles faster and faster. I can't relight them quickly enough!"

Ye Qinglan tightened her grip on her short blade.

"Can we attack them?"

"I don't know."

The rules didn't forbid it.

But no one could be sure

whether these paper children counted as actors, audience members, or part of the vigil storyline.

Shen Niannian immediately activated [Identity Archive].

Although the white cloth blocked her view,

she had already seen the paper children earlier.

Translucent information soon appeared.

[Target: Lamp-Blowing Child]

[Danger level: C-rank]

[Identity: vigil attendant]

[Current task: extinguish the Life Candles]

Additional information slowly appeared.

[Environment-related information: Lamp-Blowing Children are funeral hall attendants, not actors. They will temporarily stop blowing out candles after being attacked.]

Shen Niannian's eyes lit up at once.

They can be attacked!

The problem was-

she couldn't speak now.

Nor could she display any obvious signs of being alive in front of these living people.

What should I do?

Shen Niannian lay in the coffin.

Her mind raced.

The next second,

she suddenly thought of someone.

Ye Qinglan.

A combat-type player.

And that blade was clearly no ordinary weapon.

Shen Niannian slowly extended one hand from beneath the white cloth.

Her movements were stiff.

Straight.

She looked just like a corpse suddenly reanimating.

Then-

her finger pointed very slowly at one of the paper children.

Everyone: "..."

Ye Qinglan: "..."

The livestream chat:

"???"

"The corpse is making hand gestures!"

"Hahahahaha!"

"Come on, she can't speak, so this is the only way she can give them a hint!"

Ye Qinglan froze for a moment.

Then she looked at the paper child.

Then back at Shen Niannian's motionless finger.

She understood instantly.

"You want me to try attacking them?"

Shen Niannian didn't answer.

The dead couldn't converse with the living.

She merely moved her hand-

a little farther toward the paper child.

Ye Qinglan: "..."

She got it.

She attacked at once.

Swish!

A flash of dark red blade light swept across the funeral hall.

The head of a paper child puffing out its cheeks and blowing

flew clean off on the spot!

Smack!

The paper head hit the wall.

Its body stopped moving.

The other two paper children turned to look at Ye Qinglan at the same time.

Their mouths split open all the way to their ears.

But they didn't attack.

Instead, they stood where they were

and stopped blowing out the candles.

It worked!

"Cao Yong, light the candles!"

Ye Qinglan shouted at once.

Cao Yong also caught on.

He seized the opportunity to frantically relight them.

The fourth!

The fifth!

The sixth!

The seventh!

[Current Life Candles: 7/7]

The seven deathly pale flames steadied again.

The faint, intermittent chill beneath the coffin

also receded completely.

Shen Niannian silently withdrew her hand beneath the white cloth.

(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

Good.

Having a teammate who can fight is great.

Ye Qinglan, meanwhile, stood in front of the Life Candles,

her short blade held across her side.

She watched the three paper children, who had begun moving again.

"Leave the candles from here on to me. You just focus on lighting them. If they dare blow them out, I'll cut them down."

Cao Yong nodded firmly.

"Okay."

The livestream comments grew lively again.

"That teamwork is satisfying!"

"Shen Niannian finds loopholes in the rules, and Ye Qinglan carries it out!"

"Ye Qinglan's a combat-type supporting character, but she's on a completely different track from Cheng Ye."

"And the other players aren't just waiting for the protagonist to save them either. Cao Yong's nearly run himself sick guarding those seven candles."

Just as everyone thought things had stabilized for the moment,

Dong-!

The third funeral bell

rang.

Everyone stopped moving at once.

The theater tickets rapidly grew hot.

[Midnight approaches.]

[The second act, "Vigil," is entering its final stage.]

[All family members, please complete the final mourning rite.]

[Butler, please guard the seven Life Candles.]

[Guests, please remain silent.]

Finally.

The theater ticket belonging to Shen Niannian.

A new line of text slowly appeared.

[Dead person, prepare to return to life.]

Shen Niannian:

"?"

(⊙_⊙)

Under the white sheet.

She was completely stunned for a moment.

Wait.

Just a second ago, they had wanted her to be a good little dead person.

And now, all of a sudden, they wanted her to-

Return to life?