Chapter 29: Ten Ways To Summon Ghosts (8)

Shu Yushuang had already taken one of the spots closest to the corner of the wall. The others spread out and squeezed into the other three corners.  

No one wanted to squeeze in with Shu Yushuang. They all seemed to be afraid of her ghost-attracting body.  

But not having to squeeze with others made Shu Yushuang feel very comfortable.  

The wall clock rang twelve times in a row. It reminded every Executor that time was up.  

Yang Zeng walked to the table without hurrying. He picked up the knife and cut open the doll.  

At that moment, all the other Executors smelled a very bloody and stinky smell.  

The stuffing inside the doll was actually a pile of already rotting meat and bones.    

Someone asked in a low voice, “Why is it this kind of thing?”  

Someone else quickly stopped her, “Shh!”   

After that, the room became quiet again. Everyone kept watching Yang Zeng’s hands carefully.

They saw him holding the same knife he used to cut open the doll. He scraped off a small piece from his fingernail, then mixed that little piece of fingernail with the small bowl of rice.   

Yang Zeng did not hurry to stuff the mixture into the doll. Instead, he turned his head and gave a gloomy stare at the other Executors standing in the four corners.  

His eyes made everyone feel very uncomfortable.  

He Fei got creeped out by the look and cursed directly, “What the fuck are you looking at? Look one more time and see what happens! Do you believe I’ll slice you up?”  

Yang Zeng gave him a disdainful glare and said darkly, “Try stepping out of the safe zone if you dare.”  

That sentence shut He Fei up at once.  

That was right. The mission clearly said the other Executors must not leave the safe zone, or they would bear the consequences.  

No one dared to test what exactly those “consequences” were.  

Only then did Yang Zeng slowly stuff the mixture of fingernail and rice into the doll.  

His movements were very slow. Even though the others were anxious, they could not do anything.  

Besides, this mission did not have a time limit, so they could only wait.   

Yang Zeng was not very good at sewing. He stitched up the doll’s belly with red thread in a crooked and messy way, but at least he managed to close it.    

He picked up the doll and looked at it carefully in front of his eyes, like he was admiring his own handiwork.  

He Fei finally could not hold it in anymore and urged him again, “Can you hurry up?”    

But this time, Yang Zeng did not even look at He Fei.  

He finally had enough of admiring the doll. Then he lowered his voice and said something.  

But his voice was too soft. No one heard what he said.    

Shu Yushuang had a bad feeling. The task clearly said he should recite it in his heart. Why did he say it out loud?

After that, Yang Zeng carried the doll and walked into the bathroom.  

The people left outside started whispering among themselves.    

Shu Yushuang had no interest in joining their talk. She only stared seriously at the hidden door.  

Source: https://www.gongzicp.com/novel-1388844.html

This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com

She kept feeling that Yang Zeng had his own plan, but for now, she could not guess what he wanted to do.  

Yang Zeng stayed in the bathroom for a very long time before he came out.  

After coming out, he turned on the TV as the task required.  

But after Yang Zeng turned it on, no matter how he adjusted it, the screen stayed full of snowflakes.  

In the end, he gave up on trying to get a channel to appear.    

However, something unexpected happened next.  

According to the task process, Yang Zeng was supposed to close his eyes and silently count ten seconds, but he did not do that.  

He ran straight out of Room 201.  

This move from Yang Zeng caught everyone off guard.  

They all looked at each other in shock, but Shu Yushuang understood right away what Yang Zeng had done.    

He had shifted the danger onto the other Executors.  

If Shu Yushuang was right, then before placing the doll in the bathroom, Yang Zeng must have told it:  

“First, they become ghosts.”    

Shu Yushuang quickly shut her eyes and silently counted ten seconds.

Some of the other Executors noticed what she was doing and followed her example by closing their eyes.  

But some Executors were still standing there in a daze, not knowing why Yang Zeng suddenly ran out.   

Shu Yushuang was silently counting the seconds in her heart, and her eyebrows were tightly furrowed.  

Today's task was called “One-Man Hide-and-Seek”. As the name suggested, only one person was supposed to do it.    

Now that Yang Zeng had dragged everyone else into it, Shu Yushuang did not know what kind of serious result might come.   

Ten seconds passed. Shu Yushuang rushed into the bathroom.  

The doll was lying quietly in the water-filled tub.  

Yang Zeng had taken the knife that the game provided, so Shu Yushuang had to pull out her own stone knife.  

She silently chanted “Found you” three times, then stabbed the doll in the chest.  

After that, Shu Yushuang silently chanted “Next, you become the ghost” three times.  

But right then, Hu Yue came into the bathroom.    

Her face was pale as she asked, “Did you... do it?”  

Shu Yushuang nodded. Hu Yue's face turned even paler.    

“Then I...”    

“You also go do it once. If you follow the steps, you won’t get it wrong.”    

Of course Hu Yue knew what Shu Yushuang meant.  

She said in a trembling voice, “But you already did it... It’s already the ghost!”    

“Maybe not.”

Shu Yushuang did not explain anything more to Hu Yue and walked straight out of the bathroom.  

Hu Yue glared at her back with resentment. After hesitating for a few seconds, she still pulled out a razor blade with trembling hands and walked toward the doll.

When Shu Yushuang left the bathroom, she brushed shoulders with Liang Qi, but neither of them said a word.  

At that moment, Shu Yushuang saw that the outside had almost turned into a world of blood.  

Yang Zeng, by himself, had caused the deaths of three people.  

Now, besides him, only she, Hu Yue, and Liang Qi were still alive.

The others did not matter much. But Zhu Yao was also dead now, which made things troublesome.  

It seemed like among all the Executors, only she truly understood these ghost-summoning games.

Just then, Hu Yue also came out.  

Looking at the bloodstained living room, she said angrily, “That bastard Yang Zeng, he is trying to get all of us killed!”

Shu Yushuang only said one thing to Hu Yue: “Hide.”

Hu Yue trembled in shock. She had almost forgotten the next steps after the task.  

Those three who had died all failed to react in time and broke the rules of the task, so they were killed by the ghost early.

In other words, the ghost in this task had already been summoned.

By the time Shu Yushuang hid herself in the wardrobe, Liang Qi had just come out of the bathroom.  

Shu Yushuang glanced at her indifferently from inside the wardrobe.  

Once she saw Liang Qi hiding under the bed, she finally relaxed.

But right now, Shu Yushuang did not feel it was necessary for her to hide.  

Because the ghost definitely would not come for her first—even though she had found the doll and stabbed it.

Shu Yushuang waited quietly in the wardrobe for a while. Then, she heard the bathroom door being opened.

Her heart instantly leapt into her throat.  

Although she was confident in her own guess, it was still just a guess.

Shu Yushuang did not dare to imagine what might happen next.  

What if she had guessed wrong...

She could now hear something moving outside.  

But rather than footsteps, it sounded more like something sliding.  

There was the sound of fabric dragging against the floor.

It must be the doll sliding across the ground.

Shu Yushuang held her breath. Sweat on her forehead was about to drip into her eyes, but she did not dare to wipe it.  

She was afraid of making the slightest noise.

Suddenly, there was another sound of a door opening.  

Then, that fabric-against-the-floor sound disappeared.

After waiting a few more seconds and making sure there were no more sounds outside, Shu Yushuang finally wiped the sweat from her forehead.

She knew that the doll—or rather, the vengeful ghost possessing the doll—had gone to find Yang Zeng.

Yang Zeng had calculated everything but still missed one thing—  

The thing he stuffed into the doll belonged to him.

But... had he really not thought of that?  

For someone who could do something like this, there was no way he had overlooked that.

What was that madman really planning?

Shu Yushuang kept hiding in the wardrobe. She knew it was safe here for now.

Just as she was still thinking about a way to survive, the wardrobe door suddenly opened.

Hu Yue was standing outside, smiling as she looked at Shu Yushuang.  

Even though she wasn't showing any hostility, Shu Yushuang still gripped the stone blade in her hand.

"Don't be so nervous," Hu Yue said with a cheerful smile. "Let's work together."

Shu Yushuang leaned back slightly. She didn't speak.

Seeing this, Hu Yue didn't get angry. She kept talking to herself,  

"That Yang Zeng's definitely unreliable. I went to Liang Qi before, but she turned me down, so now I can only come to you. By the way, when everyone introduced themselves earlier, you weren't there. I'm Hu Yue."

This girl was quite frank.

But Shu Yushuang still only coldly gave her own name and said nothing else.

Seeing Shu Yushuang still looking guarded, Hu Yue finally shook her head.

"You don't have to be suspicious of everyone. I just want to stay alive. As long as you don't get in my way, I won't hurt you. The two of us working together is the best choice."

Shu Yushuang nodded. This time, she finally spoke.  

"Same here. Don't get in my way, and I can work with you."

"Good."

Hu Yue stretched out her hand, Shu Yushuang hesitated for a moment, then stretched out her hand as well.

There are only four people left, so it is not a bad thing to choose a teammate for yourself. Liang Qi wants to kill her, so he is obviously not a good teammate, and Yang Zeng is even more unreliable.

Shu Yushuang’s only teammate now is Hu Yue.

At this time, Hu Yue asked: "What should we do now? Continue to hide here, or go out?"

Shu Yushuang did not answer her question directly, but asked in return: "Where is Liang Qi? Is she still here?"

"Liang Qi? Who is Liang Qi?"

*author error, Hu Yue already mentioned Liang Qi’s name referring to Liang Qi in the earlier paragraph 

“The other girl who’s still alive.”

“Oh, her name’s Liang Qi? She actually lied to me!”  

Hu Yue looked a bit upset, but when she saw Shu Yushuang’s impatient expression, she added,  

“She’s still here. I saw her go into the bathroom just now.”

Shu Yushuang looked at the small door and narrowed her eyes.

Liang Qi must have found something.  

No one would go back into the place where the ghost-possessed doll had been unless they discovered something important.

Hu Yue clearly thought of this too. She asked Shu Yushuang,  

“Should we go find her?”

“No need.”

Seeing that Shu Yushuang was cold and distant, Hu Yue did not ask anything else.

Since Liang Qi was still in that room, Shu Yushuang decided to leave.  

Who knew what tricks Liang Qi might still be hiding?

She and Hu Yue carefully opened the door.  

The hallway was empty.  

No doll, no Yang Zeng, not even any blood.

Where could they have gone?

Shu Yushuang paused for only a moment, then quickly ran toward her own room.  

Hu Yue followed right behind her.

The moment Shu Yushuang locked the door, both of them finally let out a breath.

While they were on the way, they had worried the doll might ambush them. Luckily, nothing happened.

Shu Yushuang looked at Hu Yue and asked coldly,  

"Are you planning to stay in my room the whole time?"

"Uh... aren't we teammates? Can't I stay here?"

Shu Yushuang shrugged and said nothing.

Sensing the awkward mood, Hu Yue quickly changed the subject,  

"How many dungeons have you cleared? You seem so calm, you must've cleared a few already, right?"

"This is the second one."

"The second?"  

Hu Yue could hardly believe it.  

Everything about Shu Yushuang—her fearlessness, her cleverness, her courage—made her seem like someone who'd been through several rounds.

A thought flashed through Hu Yue’s mind:  

Some people are just born lucky.

Shu Yushuang seemed born to play this death game.

Shu Yushuang lay on the bed, closed her eyes, and said,  

"I need to rest. Do as you please."

"You trust me that much?"

Shu Yushuang opened her eyes again. She said flatly,  

"You need a teammate."

Hu Yue looked a bit embarrassed. She sat down on the chair nearby.  

"You sure have a lot of guts."