Granny Wang’s words made Lu Chu’s heart jolt.
To be trapped in here; what did this ‘here’ refer to?
Was it referring to the village, or, referring to the ‘game’?
Just as Lu Chu was thinking deeply about it and wanted to ask something, Granny Wang interrupted his question. She took off a copper coin on a red string that she had been wearing on her neck, placed it into Lu Chu’s palm, and closed Lu Chu’s hand. She led him out of the door, then said, “there’s no need to ask so much. Child, take this, and go, what’s happening here should be ending soon, again.”
Then, Granny Wang shut the door.
On the way back, Lu Chu’s mind was filled with Granny Wang’s “After all, you, are different, from the rest of us who are doomed to be trapped in here.” At the same time, what lingered in his head was the last sentence that she had said. Why did Granny Wang have to say that everything would be ending soon, ‘again’……? This ‘again’, seemed to have some special meaning.
Lu Chu realised, no matter whether it was Granny Wang or Qi Li, both of them seemed to know a lot of important things. Qi Li told him that he would tell him everything that he wanted to know in the future, but Granny Wang only said a few vague words, and before it could even get far, their conversation had already stopped.
This game without any reason and purpose was becoming more and more complicated.
Lu Chu had already returned to the Lu house while he was thinking about it.
When Song Gui and the rest saw him, they came up and surrounded him, then Li Jiapeng asked him anxiously, “how is it? Did Granny Wang reveal anything to you?”
Lu Chu shook his head, “Granny Wang said that she only knew the resentful spirit had appeared in the village because someone had committed an evil act, but as for who it was, or what was the reason, she didn’t know.”
Both Li Jiapeng and He Mingde showed dejected expressions when they heard what he said, and Li Jiapeng anxiously messed up his own hair, “then what can we do? I don’t think we have any clues now.”
Lu Chu thought for a moment, then said, “a few of us will go to Wei Rong’s place.”
Li Jiapeng questioned, “again?!”
“This time,” Lu Chu said, “we’ll go there secretly.”
“Secretly?”
Then, Qi Li said, “also good. We can see if there’s any clues in Guo Jianping’s house.”
The place where Wei Rong current lived in was originally bought by Guo Jianping for the purpose of settling down in the village, and he and his two wives had also lived there. Without question, the places that Guo Jianping had spent most of his time were, firstly, the school, and secondly, his home. Because the previous two times they had come to Wei Rong’s place, they saw that it was dirty and empty, and looked as if even a useable wardrobe had been moved away by her relatives, the few of them thought that there wouldn’t be anything useful here. However, now, they didn’t have any more clues, and it would be some time before they could find Liu Cuihe, so they might as well look carefully in all those questionable places once more.
What if they had missed something?
So they decided to let Lu Chu, Song Gui, and Qi Li to go.
Before they went out, Li Jiapeng grabbed Lu Chu again, and asked him in a suspicious manner, “that, ‘it’…… is ‘it’ here?”
Lu Chu laughed, “do you wish for ‘it’ or be here or not?”
Li Jiapeng swallowed, “I hope that ‘it’s here, and not here.”
“You’re hoping ‘it’s not here because you’re afraid, and you’re hoping ‘it’s here because you’re afraid that ‘it’ll go and kill a fourth person?” Lu Chu asked back.
Li Jiapeng nodded his head with great difficulty.
Lu Chu comforted him, “relax, what that will come definitely can’t be avoided, and the only thing we can do now is to quickly find out the truth of what happened that year.”
He Mingde said, “you guys can go ahead, Li Jiapeng and I will be fine here.”
So the three of them prepared, then left for Wei Rong’s house.
This was the third time that the three of them went to Wei Rong’s house, and it was night again. From the start, almost no one in the village would go out at night, and there wasn’t any trace of life in the village at night, but now, it was even more lifeless.
The three of them nimbly climbed over the wall, then flipped into Wei Rong’s house.
Upon entering the yard, there was still a pungent smell. At this time, Wei Rong still hadn’t slept, and didn’t light a lamp. In the dark, there was only the sound of her nervously talking to herself, and it was especially scary at night. Lu Chu made a ‘silence’ gesture towards the other two men, and headed towards the west room.
Wei Rong’s courtyard had an average layout, facing the north was the main room where the crazed Wei Rong was currently living in, a house in the west for others to live in. The kitchen was next to the west house, while the southeast corner of the yard was a toilet, a storage room, and a place for raising chickens and ducks. After Guo Jianping had passed away and Wei Rong went crazy, the place used for raising chickens and ducks had also been turned to a place for storage, and was piled with rotten furniture.
At this moment, the sound of Wei Rong talking to herself came from the main north room, and since they were planning to search Guo Jianping and Wei Rong’s place, they naturally couldn’t alarm Wei Rong. Wei Rong had already gone crazy, and nobody knew what was in her head, or could guess her next move. If they startled her, then their search tonight would come to an end.
The west house was unlocked, but this house had barely been used for the past twenty years, there was a lot of dust on the door. The courtyard hadn’t been renovated for two decades, so the door was still the same two wooden doors from the past, and needed to be pushed open from the middle. Lu Chu lightened his movements, and slowly pushed open the door. The door made a loud ‘squeak’ and Lu Chu quickly stopped his movements, then after he turned to lookat Song Gui and Qi Li with questions in his eyes, he once again opened the west house’s door. This time, he used even less strength, tried not to make any noise, and eventually opened a gap big enough for two people to pass through.
There were more clouds in the sky in this night, and sometimes there wouldn’t be any moonlight. This cause the area to either become so dark that they couldn’t see anything at all, or it look as if there was a layer of white frost covering the ground, the bright moonlight.
The three of them brought three flashlights, two of them were brought by Song Gui and the rest, a powerful torch, like the remaining one was the old flashlight in Lu Chu’s house. Its surface was rusted, and when it was turned on, the light would be a hazy, dark orange. Now, the three of them only dared to turn on the flashlight in Lu Chu’s hands, because this flashlight wasn’t as bright and glaring, and compared to a strong torch, it could even be called unobtrusive.
The west house was the same as the main east house, and the furniture that could be moved had all been moved, and there was only a bed and a tattered table left. The three of them rummaged through it for some time, but didn’t managed to find any useful thing.
The moon outside was covered by clouds again, and no light shone through the gap between the two door. The three of them searched for a moment using the light of the old torch, and after finding nothing, they planned to go to another room.
They turned around, the clouds dispersed, the moon emerged, radiating a bright white light. Shining through the slit in the door, it illuminated the shadow of a person into the room.
Wei Rong was standing here, the side of her faced turned pale under the bright moonlight as she stared at them with wide eyes.
Lucky the other two weren’t there or that scene at the end would have been even more nightmare material for them.