Chapter 24

Xiao Tangqiu felt a chill run down his spine and ruthlessly shook off Luo Mansu’s hand at once.

“What’s the matter?” Luo Mansu seemed impatient, “Hurry! Let’s go! We can’t let them catch up to us!”

Xiao Tangqiu had on a wary expression. At that point, he was afraid to trust anyone. What’s more, it was Luo Mansu, whom he had originally doubted. In his state of confusion, his gaze fell onto the shadow behind Luo Mansu….. It was clearly the shadow of a child!

Xiao Tangqiu turned and ran without any hesitation. “Luo Mansu” shouted as he chased after him, “Why did you leave me behind? Why did you leave me behind?”

Xiao Tangqiu didn’t dare look back at “Luo Mansu.” He only gritted his teeth and tried his best to speed up his pace. However, no matter how fast he ran, the thing seemed to stick to a certain distance behind him as if it were attached to his back.

“Do you want to leave me too?” The voice sounded faintly in his ear, then turned into a pitiful sob, just like the one he heard before.

Wuwuk2026;k2026;.

Wuwuwu……

Xiao Tangqiu felt the hairs stand on his back. Just when he thought he was going to die, the crying suddenly disappeared and his surroundings became extremely quiet.

He looked up and realized that he had unknowingly ran into a strange courtyard, which was even more deserted compared to Yun Jizhou’s courtyard. He immediately guessed who this courtyard belonged to.

Indeed as he expected, in the courtyard, there was a tall watermelon tree, which was full of large watermelons.

He couldn’t help but stare at the watermelons on the tree. The more he looked at them, the more he felt that the lines on the watermelon skin resembled the facial features of a human being….. As soon as he thought of that, he felt sick all over, and at that instant, he suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of danger!

A gust of rotten odor washed over him as he reflexively rolled onto the ground. A shovel was deeply smashed into the ground where he had been a moment before. Right then, Fang Lan flew towards him, pulled out the shovel and struck at him again!

Xiao Tangqiu quickly crawled up, rolling and ducking to avoid Fang Lan’s attack. Fang Lan waved the shovel frantically, using an enormous amount of strength. It was obvious just one strike and his head would burst open.

Under extreme tension and fear, he calmed down instead and even led Fang Lan towards direction he wanted to go. He rolled and crawled towards the watermelon tree and stood beside it.

The next second, the shovel swung hard at his head again!

At that critical moment, he hugged his head and rolled on the ground, past Fang Lan’s side. The shovel was deeply embedded into the tree trunk behind him. However, before he could breathe a sigh of relief at the thought that the BOSS had temporarily lost its weapon, Fang Lan smiled faintly and applied a tiny bit of strength……. The tree trunk that was so thick that a few people would be needed to surround it, broke along with the shovel.

Fang Lan simply threw aside the shovel that had broken in half and turned to lunge at Xiao Tangqiu.

His mind blanked out. He was finished! He had no way out!

……

Just when he thought he would die, Fang Lan was suddenly beaten aside with a long stick. His eyes widened in that instant. He couldn’t believe it. What the fuck happened? Did he suddenly awaken some magical ability……

“Qiuqiu! We’ve come to save you!” Tang Mianmian’s voice rang out. God knows when Tang Mianmian and Luo Mansu had caught up to him. Tang Mianmian held the bamboo pole in his hand; it turned out that he had just used that bamboo pole as a weapon. With all his strength, he waved his arm and had actually managed to beat Fang Lan off so hard that she flew away.

…… This violent shota! But what the hell is Qiuqiu?

Xiao Tangqiu cursed and sweared as he threw himself at Tang Mianmian. Wuwuwu, when it really mattered, this guy was indeed still his most reliable and reassuring teammate!

Right then, the tall tree fell to the ground!

As the watermelon tree slowly fell to the ground, those large watermelons turned into heads – completely lifelike heads with proper facial features!

Xiao Tangqiu took a good look; those heads……. were clearly the people of Yun Manor! It was the Old Madame, Second Young Madam, the other womenfolk, servants, maids, and the housekeeper!

The heads looked at him numbly; when the tree fell, the heads had dropped from the branches and rolled all over the ground.

“What the fuck! What the fuck!” Tang Mianmian was so frightened, he was holding his head as he scurried about.

Xiao Tangqiu thought of the watermelon that Yang Bing and Lu Xiaotao had eaten; his mood was very complicated. Before he could recover from the shock of the human head tree, Fang Lan had already lunged at him again.

He quickly picked up the bamboo pole and tried to use it as a weapon like Tang Mianmian had. But when Fang Lan saw the bamboo pole clearly, her expression suddenly changed and the ferocity in her eyes deepened.

She rushed straight at Xiao Tangqiu, but right then, a black figure suddenly appeared from the bamboo pole, blocking the blow for Xiao Tangqiu.

“Zhou….. Hai……”

“……Zhou Hai!”

Fang Lan looked at the figure in front of her with bitterness and hatred in her eyes.

The person standing in front of Xiao Tangqiu was the old boatman who was missing his eyes, the very same one that had sent them to Yunjia Village!

In the midst of their shock, several other people rushed in. It was Yan Yiyan and others. Yan Yiyan shouted, “Fang Lan! I know what you’re looking for! The person you’re looking for is in…… “

After noticing the scene in front of her, Yan Yiyan stopped speaking in surprise. She obviously hadn’t expected that the plot had already developed till this point, but very quickly, she shouted again, “Fang Lan! The reason why you turned into an evil spirit is because you hate the people of Yun Manor, the villagers of Yunjia, and the person who abandoned you. You’ve already slaughtered all of the people in the Yun Manor and Yunjia Village, and now you’ve found the person who abandoned you. Let us out!”

Xiao Tangqiu suddenly burst out, “That’s not right!”

Yan Yiyan frowned slightly. What the hell was this rookie doing at such a critical point?!

“You’re wrong, Zhou Hai did not abandon her,” Xiao Tangqiu suddenly understood everything. “When they agreed to elope, Zhou Hai didn’t keep his promise, not because he had abandoned her, but because…… Zhou Hai was dead, am I right?”

Fang Lan glared resentfully at Zhou Hai, who stood in front of Xiao Tangqiu, not saying a word for a long time. The old blind man floated silently mid-air. He didn’t have a body, or eyes, so no one could tell what his emotions were.

“It’s not that he didn’t keep his promise, but it was because he couldn’t keep to it. He died and his soul could only stay on the boat,” Xiao Tangqiu said softly, “You hate him for abandoning you and leaving you to die alone. You hate that he didn’t come save you from the Yun Manor…..”

Fang Lan turned to look at Xiao Tangqiu, her eyes overflowing with bitter hatred.

“You dug up his body from his grave, gouged out his eyes, brought his skull back to Yun Manor, and threw it to the bottom of the well just so you could find his soul, right?” Xiao Tangqiu was sure that he had figured it out, “The entire Yunjia Village was under your curse, but you still couldn’t find him….. only we, as players, can find him.”

“Now that you’ve found him, you can do whatever you want to him, whether it’s scatter his soul or stop him from ever being reincarnated….. Just let us out!” Yan Yiyan interrupted.

“Why…..” Fang Lan looked hatefully at Zhou Hai as she screamed angrily.

Xiao Tangqiu answered, “It’s because he was already dead.”

“I wasn’t asking you!” Fang Lan was furious.

Zhou Hai looked at Fang Lan as two streams of bloody tears flowed from his empty eye sockets eyes, “I’m sorry…… Ah Lan……”

“Why…… why didn’t you come then?!” There was so much pain within Fang Lan’s resentful gaze, “It was so cold….. I was drowned alive in the river…… the river was so cold….. and my child……”

“Where’s my child?!” She suddenly seemed to remember her child and angrily roared, “Where’s my child?”

“Here!” Luo Mansu quivered as he put down the broken rattle. Ding Tiantian, who originally held onto the rattle, must’ve ran into trouble.

As soon as the broken rattle touched the ground, it turned into an infant spirit that was several months old. It smiled, revealing a mouthful of fangs as it cried with resentment. The moment Fang Lan looked at it, her originally hateful gaze gradually turned more loving.

The infant spirit stumbled into Fang Lan’s arms and was carried by Fang Lan.

“You’ve found Zhou Hai, and also your child. Can you can let us go now?” Yan Yiyan gritted her teeth and asked Fang Lan.

Fang Lan looked coldly at the players in front of her, his gaze turning bitter once more, “You will never leave this hell……”

Xiao Tangqiu’s heart turned cold. What happened? Did they fail the mission?!

However, at that point, the same cold and mechanical system’s voice from the start of the game, sounded in his ears, “Dear players, congratulations for completing the D-level mission [Fishing Village’s Haunted House] and completing the mission objective [Lifting the Curse of the Fishing Village]. The time limit is 3 days, and the players will receive 500 points…..”

“The mission is completed, you will be leaving this instance soon…..”

Mission accomplished!

Looks like this D-level mission wasn’t that difficult after all!

In just a few seconds, Xiao Tangqiu was so happy that he almost couldn’t breathe. Just as he let out a sigh of relief and was about to sit his butt down, Fang Lan’s expression suddenly turned into one of horror. She screamed out in fear, “He’s here! He’s here! “

…… He? Who is he?

Following Fang Lan’s shrill screams, the system’s voice suddenly rang out once more.

“….. Dear players, congratulations for triggering the S-level hidden mission [???] Your mission objective is….[???], the time limit is [???] days, after completing this mission, you will receive 50000 points and special rewards…..”

~~~

P.S. Sorry for the late update! There was something up with the site earlier but it’s all fixed now Also, the scene where FL asked ZH why he didn’t come was so heart-breaking! I was crying while I translated