Chapter 38: Xiangxi Corpse-Driving
Time passed slowly, but the storm showed no signs of weakening, continuing to pound the green branches and buds of the trees outside. The rumbling thunder stirred people's hearts into panic.
A flash of lightning illuminated the night as bright as day. In the blinding light, Qin Dongwan could see that the ivy clinging to the walls began to shake loose, while large chunks of hardened paint kept falling down.
“I once went to the mountains with my family for vacation. It was almost the same kind of environment, mountains on all sides, and we also happened to meet rain. This downpour is unusually sudden though, and it feels a bit like an earthquake.”
Lin Fengque held a cup of hot water in his hands, looking worriedly at the unusual weather outside. They would likely have to spend the night outside. Although Pingping's house was relatively dangerous, the unknown lurking in the shadows was often more terrifying. As the saying goes, it's easy to dodge a spear in the open, but hard to guard against an arrow in the dark.
“If this was an earthquake, with this place being surrounded by mountains and having river water nearby. The shaking wouldn't be this small. Most likely, it would trigger a mudslide.”
Hua Qingjiu shook her head, rejecting his opinion.
The hardest thing to endure was the night. Usually, spending the night in a hidden corner of this small mountain village was already enough to frighten people, let alone inside a horror escape game. Long silence was torture to the nerves, but facing such a strange phenomenon, even Tang Zihang, who had the thickest nerves, stopped talking after muttering a few words at the start.
The current clues had already been sorted out. From that one sentence accidentally revealed by Pingping’s parents under pressure, it could be seen that the two had long known their daughter turns into a ghost at night.
But why had buzz cut guy suddenly gone crazy and wanted to kill Pingping? The players on the other side and those on this side didn't communicate at all, which caused the clues to stop here. One problem after another.
“Anyway, after the rain stops, we’d better still follow the original plan and check the Mountain God’s side. We can’t give up just because Pingping died. But just in case, after the rain stops, I’ll go check Pingping’s house again.”
The clear male voice broke the silence. Seeing everyone listening seriously, Lin Fengque hesitated slightly before continuing:
“In one of the levels I cleared before, someone also courted death and killed an NPC. But that NPC revived, just like task refreshes in games. The next day, everything was normal again. Though every instance is different, there will definitely be similarities. Pingping is an important NPC, so there’s also a chance she can revive.”
His voice wasn't loud, and it was drowned out by the raging wind and rain; people next to him had to stand close to hear him. Tang Zihang was still completely bewildered, but when Lin Fengque used the analogy of a game refresh to describe how NPCs had to respawn, he felt a little better and hurriedly interjected:
"So you're saying that Pingping might have been the one who gave us tasks and helped advance the plot, but in order to block our progress, Buzz Cut killed her?"
Only this seemed able to explain why Buzz Cut suddenly wanted to kill Pingping.
It's best not to offend NPCs in the game, especially those who clearly don't seem quite normal. Normal players who have already reached the second level would never make such a basic mistake; it's practically courting death.
Buzz Cut was clearly a problematic player. After all, anyone who could stay alone with the ghost tour guide for so long and still survive would not be some kind person.
In their reasoning, the tour guide, the buzz cut guy, Pingping, and the mountain god all belong to the same group.
Qin Dongwan felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. The feeling of wanting to know but being unable, made her feel frustrated and irritable. She scratched her head but couldn't get any information out of it, so she could only let out a long sigh.
After so much time, the storm still had not stopped. It carved shallow trenches into the ground as muddy water rushed noisily. The small restaurant’s door could not close tightly. The window glass was the rare frosted kind, stained into a foggy blur by rainwater, with droplets hanging and dripping down.
They were wearing summer clothes, and now they couldn't help feeling a bit cold. Since learning there was something wrong with Pingping’s house, they had barely drunk water or bathed there. Though the restaurant was small, it had everything necessary. Besides the kitchen, there was also a narrow and dirty bathroom in the backyard. Qin Dongwan carried an empty kettle to boil some water, preparing to simply wipe herself down.
Qin Dongwan had watched many horror movies and infinite flow novels. Many people thought they were safe, went to take a bath, and then died alone in the bathroom. Her body felt too uncomfortable. She only simply wiped herself outside with water and did not even take off her clothes. She stayed very close to the restaurant, it didn't matter even if the door remained open.
Even so, the three boys consciously turned their backs. Only Luo Shu, who looked even smaller sitting beside the three tall boys, rested her chin on her hand like a bad-tempered child, silently poking the table with her finger from time to time, occasionally raising her eyes to quickly glance over there.
….
"Shh shh shh".
The footsteps, still carrying raindrops, were slow and uneven, yet still clearly audible in the downpour. Although it was cold outside, Qin Dongwan propped the bathroom door shut with a stone, boiled water in a relatively clean basin, and used toilet paper soaked in the water to wipe her exposed arms and legs.
The tall girl stood under the eaves, yet raindrops still landed on her body, making her shiver from the cold, and her nose slightly itchy. At the same time, the sound her ears caught made Qin Dongwan alertly stop what she was doing. Quietly setting down the wet tissue, she moved toward the wall.
More and more dark clouds gathered. In the heavy darkness, it was impossible to tell whether it was afternoon or night. Qin Dongwan had to stand on tiptoe with all her strength just to barely see outside, when a strange scene suddenly and roughly entered her sight.
A thin mist rose between the pouring rain, covering the mountains and grass, making them even harder to see clearly. The rustling footsteps were obviously one pause after another, splashing water everywhere. Figures of different sizes slowly walked through the rain curtain. The person at the front occasionally shook a bell, producing a long yet dull sound, completely different from its usual crisp ring.
A pitch-black bird flapped across the heads of the line of people, hurriedly letting out a string of hoarse cries before returning to the mountains and forest. Mountain mist, rain curtain, all of it painted everything in blurry and mysterious colors.
The final one of the Three Evils that had yet to appear suddenly revealed its face.
Corpse driving, also known as spirit relocation, is part of the shamanistic culture in the Xiang and È regions. Legend has it that shamans would bring those who died far from home back to their hometowns so that they could be laid to rest peacefully. Rainy days carried heavy yin energy¹ and could not be more suitable for these corpses to travel. But it was said that if the living got close to the corpses, there would be danger of “corpse startling”² and “corpse ressurection.”³
¹Yin (阴) is one half of the Yin and Yang duality, it is the passive, receptive, dark, and feminine aspect of existence. It is associated with death, coldness, and the earth, making it symbolic of the afterlife or underworld in Chinese cosmology.
²Jīng shī (惊尸) when the corpse is suddenly "startled" or disturbed by animals, loud noises, living people getting too close, etc., causing it to move.
³Zhà Shī (诈尸) refers to the phenomenon where a recently deceased person's body suddenly moves, sits up, jumps, or even attacks people shortly after death (before burial/enshrinement).
The dungeon of Luodong Village is unlike the Internet Addiction Center, which hints at a ‘main quest’ after the tasks to suggest side stories will unfold. Qin Dongwan didn’t wish to entangle herself with these strange local phenomena. She intended to feign ignorance and retreat, but her instinctive fear froze her stiff legs, nearly loosening the bricks beneath her feet.
After patting her rigid limbs to restore circulation, she lifted her head again, only to meet a pair of scarlet eyes, brimming with violent rage.
***
"Ahhhh—"
Upon hearing the scream, Luo Shu flipped over the table and landed gracefully, smashing a bowl with a crash before rushing forward, nearly colliding with Qin Dongwan, who was turning around and running wildly.
Standing in the rainstorm were upright “people,” each wearing straw raincoats, their bluish-purple faces already showing extinguished life. At the front stood a girl clutching a bell, scarlet eyes streaming two thick lines of bloody tears that reeked of iron, staring straight at them with a wild, unrestrained grin.
That face was clearly Pingping’s face, but her features carried a strange sense of mismatch, as if someone had dug out another person’s features and stitched them onto her face. It instantly made Qin Dongwan think of the old professor in the previous level who pieced together others’ organs to extend his life. Bone-chilling fear crawled up her spine. The muddy rain made the stone path slippery beneath their feet.
Pingping coldly looked at the few people here but remained standing in place, as though the death condition had not been triggered and she could not easily act. Her gaze overflowed with resentment, wishing she could skin them alive, remove their bones, and turn them into human pigs on the spot.
Even the braver men could not stop a shiver after meeting such eyes. Pingping seemed full of hatred toward them but could not act because of the rules.
Several people and a row of ghosts confronted each other in the darkness. Occasionally, lightning would tear through the sky and send down blinding rays of light, making the pretty yet eerie little face as pale as paper, while the bright red blood flowing continuously from under her eyes was chilling.
After a long while, when everyone’s nerves had become so tense they were almost numb, they finally heard a sigh full of unwillingness.
“Get lost, next time you won’t be this lucky.”
Her eyes were filled with a deep resentment, seemingly from failing to make a move. Her whole body was soaked by the heavy rain. The teeth inside her open mouth were neat and white. Other than her eyes, nothing else looked abnormal. Standing in the rain all this time had already turned several of them into drowned chickens. Tang Zihang had already started sneezing. Hearing the female ghost’s unwilling voice, he relaxed slightly, turned around, and walked inside first.
The second to turn around was Luo Shu, the third was Lin Fengque, and Hua Qingjiu paused before walking, hesitation still in his eyes.
“Get lost!”
The female ghost’s voice was hoarse, dark anger gathering in her eyes. Seeing Qin Dongwan walking slowly, she couldn't help but open her mouth and roar. Everything looked strangely normal. Ghosts in the game had to follow certain rules and could not kill freely. Otherwise, the limitations on players would be too great, leaving humans with almost no ability to fight back.
She really wanted them to turn around.
Just as Qin Dongwan was about to follow the group and turn around, she turned her head around and saw a terrifying scene inside the open doorway.
A female ghost in the mirror had disheveled hair and hollow eyes. Blood-stained fangs dripped with saliva. Her rotten features crowded together on her pale face. A skinny arm had already formed into a half-transparent entity and was about to break free from the mirror.
Author's Note:
The legendary “turn back for a surprise” series.
The explanation of “Xiangxi Corpse-Driving” refers to Baidu Encyclopedia.
