Chapter 53

“Where are you looking at…?”

Luo Li paused for a moment before his face flushed bright red in an instant.

He hurriedly defended himself in a panic. “I didn’t! I was looking at… at…”

He realized it was impossible to explain clearly. He certainly couldn’t just admit that he had been trying to steal the key, could he?

It was all because the key had been placed in such an awkward spot. That was why this bastard had gotten the wrong idea…

Luo Li tried to pull back, but the man seemed entranced, gripping his shoulders tightly and refusing to let go.

An ominous premonition stirred faintly in Luo Li’s heart. “D-don’t touch me. Let go.”

The servant stared at him intently. “Even if you did look, it wouldn’t matter.”

He licked his dry lips. “Don’t you know? The feeling of being watched by you…”

The snow-white nightgown draped over his slender shoulders. The hem had ridden up past his knees, revealing the subtle dip between his parted thighs.

Sitting like that on the bed, his round toes curled up shyly and timidly with every pointed question. His knees would draw together nervously, the soles of his feet rubbing against the bedsheet.

Such a pure and innocent little beauty—if he had truly glimpsed the servant’s most shameful place… The servant felt he might just lose control right then and there.

Seeing the man draw closer, Luo Li’s face grew even more panicked. “Don’t come any closer… Huo Cheng will never forgive you if he finds out.”

“The Eldest Young Master and the others aren’t in the Huo Mansion right now.”

The servant answered almost immediately. The moment the words left his mouth, he convinced himself: The young masters had already crossed lines with Luo Li themselves. What difference did adding him make?

He surely wasn’t like this in front of those young masters.

Perhaps he even threw himself at them, eagerly shedding his clothes, cheeks flushed as he coquettishly called out to them and generously parted his legs.

Even a fool like Huo Lan could have a taste—

So why not him?

In his desperation, Luo Li bolted, trying to flee.

But he stumbled clumsily. He had meant to leap off the bed, only to tumble unexpectedly right into the servant’s arms.

The man gazed at his face in a drunken daze.

His tongue, greedy and obsessed, licked at the soft flesh of that tender cheek.

~~~

The wooden fish had been struck for the twenty-seventh time when the heavy snow outside finally stopped.

Huo Xing’er wearily rubbed her temples. With the maidservant’s support, she rose and headed out of the room.

“I’ve had enough,” she murmured. “How much longer must I endure this kind of life?”

She had no desire to play this game at all. She had wanted an early death, to be taken by the Buddha she revered to the legendary Western Paradise… It was with that hope that she had willingly embraced death. She would have accepted even oblivion afterward. But instead, she had ended up in this game.

It was as if the game were telling her that her lifelong faith had been a lie. Beyond the Buddha, there were other “gods.”

“No, this must be the Buddha’s test for me.”

Huo Xing’er murmured a prayer and wrapped her outer robe tighter before stepping outside.

The maidservant called from behind her. “Madam, where are you going?”

Huo Xing’er did not reply.

She stopped at the head of the pitch-black staircase.

Truth be told, she had few memories left of her late brother Huo Jieqi. But she did recall how he had often locked himself away upstairs, turning away countless visitors.

Huo Jieqi had been a moody, cold-blooded merchant.

She could scarcely believe he had ever had a lover. Perhaps Huo Cheng was right, and the boy upstairs was nothing but a thorough fraud.

The game rules stated that only by claiming the inheritance could one break the curse and clear the game.

Huo Xing’er had no intention of clearing it. Clearing it would just mean more games ahead. She might as well die.

What if, she wondered, what if she let that boy go—or killed him? Could that hasten the curse’s arrival?

With such thoughts in mind, Huo Xing’er ascended the stairs step by step.

Strangely, none of the guarding servants were anywhere to be seen along the way. Her prayer beads clicked ceaselessly in her tightening grip, her heartbeat pounding ever more fiercely.

It was only after climbing the final step that she noticed the unnatural black stain on the floorboards.

The blackness seemed alive, writhing along the walls and floor. The other end snaked through the crack beneath the tightly shut door.

From behind the door came faint, unnatural sounds.

Huo Xing’er approached and gave the door a light push.

It was unlocked.

The screen had been flung wide open. Through the gaping seam, the scene inside was all too visible.

As her vision cleared, the fingers clutching her prayer beads clenched abruptly.

At the same moment, she heard the man’s impassioned whispers from within.

“Little Madam… Little Madam…”

His collar torn open, the nightgown’s zipper yanked all the way down. The boy’s two snow-white, slender legs trembled as his knees pressed against the man’s chest, desperately resisting.

In the midst of the struggle, Huo Xing’er caught sight of his face.

His pupils unfocused, bite marks marring his cheeks and full lips. His eyes brimmed with tears, the whites showing as his gaze rolled back.

A sliver of pink tongue protruded between his teeth, pressed against the pillow. Wet saliva trailed from it, soaking the bedsheet.

She realized what she was witnessing and tried to back away—but it was too late.

The black shadow at her feet surged into the room at a visible speed. In an instant, every light flickered out.

In the darkness, she could see nothing. Only the boy’s porcelain-pale waist, encircled by a pitch-black arm. The black shadow enveloped him entirely.

The man who had been pinning him to the bed seemed to behold something utterly horrifying. His body convulsed violently, yet he lacked even the courage to flee.

Huo Xing’er heard a sharp “crack” by her ear, like bone snapping.

The ghost hand emerging from the black shadow wrenched the man’s neck clean off.

Thick blood sprayed forth, dripping in rivulets from the shadow’s unnaturally massive form.

A chill crept from her feet to engulf her whole body. Her nostrils filled with the stench of blood and dampness.

She saw the servant’s headless corpse collapse at the door, countless writhing black tendrils coiling and tightening around it.

From the empty eye sockets of the severed head, tendrils burrowed in thickly, emerging from his nostrils and ears to devour his brain matter utterly.

After twisting off the head, those ghost hands wiped the blood on the bedsheet. Slowly and carefully, they pulled up the white nightgown, zipped it closed, and gently smoothed out the hem’s wrinkles for the boy.

Then, cradling him on his knee, the ghost hands wiped the streaked tears from his face with a broad palm.

That boy—the one who appeared so harmless and innocent—showed no fear of the thing at all. Instead, he clung to its arm, nuzzling his cheek against its palm.

In her daze, Huo Xing’er felt as if those tendrils had burrowed into her own throat.

And so, her mind shattered as she let out a piercing scream.

~~~

Disheveled and wild-haired, Huo Xing’er was not found until nightfall.

When the servants arrived, the woman was huddled at the foot of the stairs, clutching her shoulders and shivering uncontrollably. She muttered incoherently to herself.

“Evil spirit… Evil spirit…”

“Madam! Madam!”

The servants called to her several times, but she shook her head repeatedly as if she could not hear them.

Her eyes were threaded with red veins, one shoe missing from her foot. It looked as though she had fled down the stairs in haste.

The servants wasted no more time. They hoisted Huo Xing’er onto one’s back and carried her away from the place.

~~~

Elsewhere in the Huo Mansion, the three Huo brothers sat together, discussing their strategy.

A sheet of paper lay on the table before them, soaked through with blood-red ink. Upon it were several rows of cold, steel-pen handwriting.

It was Huo Jieqi’s will.

“Once you fulfill my wish, you will receive my inheritance from the Jinzhou Chamber of Commerce. The heir who claims it will be freed from the curse and able to leave this place.”

Yet to this day, they still had no idea what Huo Jieqi’s wish truly was. They only knew that Bern controlled the Chamber’s assets.

Huo Yin suspected he knew what Huo Cheng was thinking: No matter what, securing the inheritance was key, so wresting control from Bern was paramount.

But that assumption rested on Huo Jieqi’s wish being to protect his lover Luo Li.

Now that Luo Li’s status was in question, everything circled back to square one—

What was the old man’s wish, really?

The servants brought Huo Xing’er before them. The woman could barely stand; she collapsed to the floor and clutched at Huo Cheng’s clothes.

“The evil spirit… The evil spirit has appeared. It’s come for our lives.”

Huo Xing’er babbled disjointedly, repeating herself endlessly until the others pieced together her meaning.

“You’re saying there’s an evil spirit in Father’s room? That it killed a servant?”

Huo Yin demanded immediately. “What about Luo Li? What happened to him?”

“They were together…” Huo Xing’er wailed in breakdown. “They’re… in league!”

She had clearly suffered a severe shock; she could provide no clear details. At that moment, the butler descended from upstairs, his face grim.

He reported, “No one’s in the room anymore. Just a headless corpse—the new servant, Xi Cai.”

With the butler’s words, a new task popped up before all the players at once.

【Go to Ancestral Hall Cave and Subdue the Evil Omen】

【Fail Clearance if Evil Omen Not Lured Out Before Sunrise】

Huo Cheng pondered for a moment before making a decisive call. “A Yin, take Aunt and A Lan and wait outside the Ancestral Hall. Once I get there, we’ll head into the cave together.”

Huo Yin acknowledged the order and directed the others to disperse ahead of time.

Huo Xing’er trailed behind him, her steps unsteady. She kept muttering to herself the whole way.

Huo Yin found the whole situation riddled with suspicions. Hadn’t that upstairs room always been off-limits? So how had Xi Cai ended up inside?

As for this little aunt of his, she’d always kept herself at a distance, and now she was acting like a total dimwit. It was hard to buy.

But for the moment, he had to shelve his doubts.

The sky had already darkened, thick clouds blanketing the area outside the Ancestral Hall. Huo Yin had Huo Xing’er sit down out front while he positioned himself at the entrance.

His emotions were a tangled mess right now. Even knowing Luo Li’s background was shady, he’d never imagined the man might be tied to the Evil Spirit—accomplices, even. Was that possible? That guy… he was such a timid sort, with a personality as soft as they came.

Huo Yin gripped a pistol, its barrel concealed in his sleeve, the muzzle pointed outward.

He had no idea if the gun could actually kill the Evil Spirit inside, but it was worth a shot.

What if the Evil Spirit took Luo Li hostage, though?

Could he still pull the trigger?

Huo Yin drew a deep breath. What was there to hesitate about? A ghost was a ghost. If it needed killing… kill it.

But the moment his hand touched the doors of the Ancestral Hall, they swung open from the inside.

His heart skipped a beat. On instinct, he raised the pistol. The dark muzzle pressed against a patch of soft flesh.

…The handsome youth’s cheek dimpled under the gun barrel.

His big, watery eyes lifted. The instant they met Huo Yin’s, tears spilled out.

Huo Yin’s arm went slack right away. He dropped the gun to the ground and stared at the red mark the muzzle had left on the boy’s soft cheek. His heart ached fiercely.

What a fool—why had he run straight into the line of fire?

Before Huo Yin could say a word, Luo Li choked out a tearful accusation. “A-Are you here to kill me?”

Those tears washed away any resolve Huo Yin had left. His bold words from moments ago were already forgotten. “No.”

“Liar!” Luo Li refused to believe him. “I know everything. You… you peeped on me, and you even told the others…”

Huo Yin hadn’t expected him to call it out so bluntly. Peeping on someone while they slept wasn’t exactly honorable, after all. His tongue tied itself in knots, leaving him at a loss for words.

The boy wiped at his tears, his earlobes flushed bright red, looking for all the world like someone who’d been truly wronged.

“Everyone says… only a husband gets to see a place like that. And you’re not.”

“You’re… so shameless.”