Rain suddenly began pouring inside the instance, pattering relentlessly as though someone were crying.
Several newspapers appeared out of nowhere and fluttered down through the air before landing across the living-room floor.
——"Serial Murders at Clear River Guesthouse"
——"Guesthouse Owner Abuses Wife, Finally Killed by Her in Self-Defense"
——"Woman in Her Sixties Swapped Infants Three Years Ago, Destroying an Entire Family"
The newspapers were all from eighteen years ago. Together, their scattered reports pieced together the truth of what had happened.
Granny Huang could no longer remember many details clearly. Too much time had passed. Age had thinned her memories until they resembled brittle old paper, ready to crumble into fragments at the slightest touch.
But she still remembered the day Liao Qingqing gave birth. Huang Youquan had not been home. Granny Huang had waited alone outside the operating room of the county hospital, from daylight until darkness, then into the pale light of another dawn.
Only when a baby's cry finally came from the operating room did Granny Huang release the breath she had been holding.
Mother and child were safe. How wonderful.
That relief lasted only a few minutes. When the nurse came out carrying a baby girl, the smile on Granny Huang's face disappeared instantly.
She wanted a grandson who could continue the family line.
But the doctor told her that Huang Youquan had poor sperm quality and that Liao Qingqing had suffered complications from childbirth. The couple would not have another child.
So Granny Huang bought a baby boy.
It sounded absurd, but in the era she came from, she had heard of such things many times. Her own family had once bought a boy because there was no son to carry on the family line.
She was merely following an old example. If others had done it, why couldn't she?
The baby girl had no fate with the Huang family. Granny Huang did not even let Liao Qingqing see her once. She hurriedly abandoned the infant outside an orphanage.
After bringing the boy home, everything seemed to return to normal. Nobody knew what had happened. Everyone raised the boy as though he were their own flesh and blood, and the family appeared complete and happy.
Unfortunately, modern medicine had become far too advanced. In the past, children got sick and simply endured it. Now everyone insisted on going to hospitals, and the moment a doctor ran tests, the truth came out.
He even sent over a DNA report!
What a meddling busybody!
To prevent the matter from spreading further, Granny Huang strangled the doctor with yarn inside the guesthouse's most expensive executive suite.
But killing the doctor was nothing more than covering her ears and pretending the problem did not exist. His death could not stop Huang Youquan. Believing his wife had betrayed him, he became increasingly unstable. Whenever he looked at his son, the warmth that had once filled his eyes was gone.
That was not his child.
That was a bastard, proof that his wife had slept with another man!
Love transformed into hatred, and even the bond he had once believed was thicker than blood disappeared.
Without blood ties, how could there be family affection?
Huang Youquan began killing people. If he could not find the adulterer, then he would kill every possible suspect! The blood of guests stained the executive suite on the top floor, while resentment and karmic sin grew wildly throughout the building.
Eventually, he turned on Liao Qingqing too.
After all, if she had never betrayed him, how could he have become this mad?
Whenever the domestic violence began, Granny Huang would hold the little boy in her arms. On every stormy night filled with thunder, she sang him the gentlest nursery songs.
"It's all right, it's all right. Everything will be fine when you grow up! You're the eldest grandson of our Huang family. Once you're grown, everything will be fine!"
Unfortunately, some children were destined never to grow up.
Hatred spread. It grew until it became hysterical. If Huang Youquan could attack the wife he had once loved, what was a child with no blood connection to him?
On the night everything happened, Huang Youquan stumbled into the child's bedroom reeking of alcohol and stared at the sleeping boy.
He looked at him as though staring at a stranger. Three years of father-and-son affection vanished like smoke.
Then he reached out and closed his hand around the boy's throat.
Liao Qingqing rushed in and wrapped herself around the child.
"Are you insane? This is our son!"
Huang Youquan shook his head. "He isn't."
He threw the DNA report at her. The conclusion left Liao Qingqing too shocked to speak.
At last, Liao Qingqing understood why Huang Youquan had become so obsessive and unstable recently. She understood every one of his hysterical outbursts.
But if he knew the child was not biologically his, why hadn't he asked her? If the boy was not his flesh and blood, then… that also meant he was not hers!
Huang Youquan tore the child away from her. He would not allow a child who represented an insult to his dignity to remain alive in this world.
There was an unavoidable difference in physical strength between a man and a woman, and the drunken Huang Youquan had lost all reason. His grip hurt the little boy so badly that the child burst into terrified sobs, unable to understand why his father was treating him this way.
Huang Youquan seized one of his legs and dragged him toward the window, intending to throw him out.
"Mommy! Mommy!"
The child's desperate cries tore painfully through Liao Qingqing's heart. Memories suddenly flooded back: the past, and the happy, ordinary life they had shared during those three years.
She did not know where the strength came from. Liao Qingqing lunged forward like a madwoman and knocked Huang Youquan down. She used every ounce of force to hold him back. During the struggle, the two of them crashed through the window and fell from the building together.
With a dull thud, their skulls struck the hard concrete below. Every muscle in their bodies spasmed violently, and warm blood streamed from their mouths.
In the final second before her breathing stopped, Liao Qingqing could not help asking herself one question.
Was it worth it?
There was no blood relation between them.
But the little boy was still on the top floor, leaning over the balcony while Granny Huang held him back. He screamed——
"Mommy! Mommy!"
Liao Qingqing suddenly smiled.
It was worth it.
Blood was not required for someone to be family.
*
The scene fell into deathly silence.
At the exact moment the memory ended, the hollow-eyed little boy who liked playing with severed hands disappeared.
Liao Qingqing instantly became alert. The savage expression she had worn at death returned as she looked around frantically.
Lu Jin said, "He's still alive."
The boss's wife looked at him blankly.
Lu Jin continued, "You saved him. He didn't die. He's still alive."
Liao Qingqing and Huang Youquan had died from the fall. Granny Huang had died in prison. Only the little boy survived.
Liao Qingqing had stopped trusting people long ago. After years as an evil ghost, her body was saturated with resentment and karmic sin, and she instinctively assumed the worst of everything. Yet when the young man before her said those words, she believed him with rare certainty.
The dark aura surrounding her gradually dispersed. Her skin returned to the pale complexion she had possessed in life, revealing her original delicate features.
"Really? He's still alive… that's wonderful."
…
The ten-minute break ended, and the rain outside stopped as well.
The storm had arrived without warning and departed just as freely. The air afterward carried the fresh scent of wet soil. The distant mountain peaks gleamed from the rain, and the entire world looked as though it had been washed clean.
[Ding——]
[The ten-minute rest period has ended~]
[Countless souls died at Clear River Guesthouse, all because of one person's selfish decision. They suffered a disaster they never deserved. Now that the truth has been revealed, where should they go? How could they possibly accept it?]
[Final Task: Escape from the Guesthouse!]
[Time limit: 3 hours]
[Endure the resentment of the dead for 3 hours, and you will welcome the first light of dawn! Do your best, players~]
After the System fell silent, the room remained quiet for several seconds.
This was the final task. There was no punishment and only a three-hour limit. If they endured until the time expired, they would clear the instance.
Fang Yuan looked toward Huang Youquan in confusion. "Who are the 'dead souls' the System is talking about?"
Huang Youquan shook his head. "Every time an instance ends, our memories are reset. We forget everything that happened and only remember again when the next instance starts. So I don't know what comes afterward either."
He had experienced scenes where the truth was exposed countless times. Whenever players progressed this far, he learned what had really happened.
But he could never remember. The truth vanished again and again, endlessly repeating.
Huang Youquan could not answer Fang Yuan, but a sound from the distance answered for him.
Soil rustled loose. On the back mountain, blurry figures began crawling out of the graves——the guests Huang Youquan had murdered and every player who had died after being dragged into the instance.
Fang Yuan's gaze swept over the dead. He saw many unfamiliar faces and several familiar ones: his senior, Yu Nan, Zhao Kuan, and Xie Zhi.
The world seemed to lose its color. His once-brilliant senior now had a livid face twisted with unwillingness and hatred.
There were too many. More than a hundred evil ghosts crowded into the guesthouse grounds. Their bodies were wrapped in resentment so dense it seemed almost liquid. They had long since lost their minds and moved only on instinct, surging toward the three-story building.
"You knew the truth! Why didn't you tell us?" The wails of the dead were piercing and shrill.
Granny Huang recoiled in fear. "What does it have to do with me? You died because you were useless! I wasn't the one who killed you!"
Her words were like oil poured over fire. The resentment surrounding the dead thickened, and they began attacking indiscriminately!
"Damn! There are so many ghosts! How are we supposed to play this?!" Xu Moyang immediately hid behind Lu Jin.
Fang Yuan shouted, "How are we supposed to survive three hours? Lasting three minutes would already be impressive!"
There were simply too many ghosts. Even Lu Jin and Jiang Sui, despite their combat ability, found the situation difficult. The two could protect themselves easily enough, but there were other people present, and keeping everyone safe would be far harder.
"Get back inside!" Lu Jin ordered immediately.
The others reacted and followed him into the building.
"Bang!" The heavy wooden door slammed shut. Lu Jin pressed his back against it and could clearly feel the force of the dead souls crashing into the other side.
They no longer resembled humans. They moved on all fours, joints bending at unnatural angles like enormous spiders, and they were terrifyingly fast.
The players had barely retreated into the living room when the ghosts reached the outer walls and began clawing at the windows, trying to climb inside!
Lu Jin kicked a chair across the room, knocking every ghost that slipped in back outside. At the same time, Jiang Sui controlled his metal and sealed every door and window!
For the moment, the small three-story building became their only safe room.
But the noise outside did not stop. Some ghosts even climbed over the second-floor balcony and poked their heads down from the staircase!
"!!!"
Xu Moyang scrambled under a table. "The sleepwalking NPCs were scary enough! I didn't expect these dead souls to be the ones who'd really kill us!"
Lu Jin grabbed a broom from the corner and snapped off its head with a crack, leaving only the metal handle.
He held the metal rod and stood at the staircase leading to the second floor, taking up a position that looked capable of blocking an army alone. Whenever a ghost surged downstairs, he swung the rod and smashed it across the head, physically beating it back onto the second floor!
After being battered black and blue often enough, even the ghosts grew "smarter." Realizing Lu Jin was too difficult to bite, they turned toward softer targets instead.
"Aaaaah, Brother Lu, save me!" Xu Moyang's scream was heartbreaking as one ghost lunged toward him.
Lu Jin flashed across the room and swung the metal rod, knocking the ghost away with ease. But because he had to divert his attention to Xu Moyang, a ghost that had been lurking in the shadows behind him suddenly sprang forward!
Its enormous mouth opened wide as it lunged at Lu Jin's back!
A bite like that would probably tear away a layer of flesh.
But the expected attack never landed. Another figure moved even faster, slamming into Lu Jin and knocking him to the floor!
The charging ghost sailed over the two men, missed completely, and crashed onto the floor with a dull impact.
Jiang Sui braced himself on one arm and looked down at Lu Jin beneath him.
"With this many monsters around, you don't know how to dodge?"
Lu Jin: "…" He truly had failed to dodge that one.
He was about to sit up when his body abruptly stiffened. A warm sensation at his waist was impossible to ignore.
Jiang Sui's hand… was gripping the side of his waist.
