I’d originally planned to pretend to sleep—
Blanket over my head, lifeless as a corpse—
so that when the woman ca back, I could act unconscious and save myself a long interrogation.
But the bed was actually warm.
And I was actually tired.
My eyelids slipped shut, and before I knew it…
I fell into a deep sleep.
I didn’t know how long I slept before a faint sound seeped under the door.
It sounded like soone pushing the door open—
or sothing sliding across the floor.
The sound crept closer, inch by inch.
The hair on my body stood straight up.
Only one thought remained in my mind—
A monster coming to eat at midnight!
I tried to curl tighter under the blanket, a sensible turtle awaiting fate.
Just then, the system chose that mont to murmur in my mind:
【Host, we discussed this. You’re supposed to fix your cowardly persona.】
I ground my teeth under the blanket.
“Fix your ass! Survival cos first!”
【If you don’t take the initiative, your chance of survival will only drop.】
…This system really had a cursed tongue.
I held my breath and listened.
The sound grew closer—so close I could feel the faint vibration of the floor under the side of the bed.
Fine. To hell with it!
I jerked forward, headbutting the blanket and charging out, planning to ram whatever-it-was before they reacted.
But the mont my head hit sothing warm, before I could even apply force—
that “sothing” shifted lightly aside, absorbed my montum, and with a swift tug—
My blanket was snatched clean off .
I blinked at the person standing above —
And nearly burst into tears.
“Big Brother?!”
He looked at calmly, as if he’d just returned from visiting a neighbor.
My mind buzzed loud as thunder.
Twice now—twice!—I’d valiantly fought back, only to attack my own people.
What was this?
Destined reunion by accidental assault?
I opened my mouth to demand why he was sneaking around in the middle of the night scaring people.
But he spoke first, voice low:
“You slept quite soundly. I nearly lost my soul searching for you.”
His tone wasn’t harsh, but it was like a gust of wind, blowing straight through and sweeping my sleepiness away.
I blinked, struggling to recover from the sha of “nearly headbutting my own brother to death,” and whispered:
“How did you even find this place?”
With the room quiet, I spilled everything—
my guesses, my wild theories,
including my earnest suspicion that the man of this house was a legendary boar demon.
At the end, I clutched my brother’s hand, pleading:
“Please take away before the boar demon realizes I’m gone!”
Big Brother frowned as he listened. After a long mont, he said slowly:
“I saw you entering the city with a few people and followed. Then I watched you fall into the secret passage… After the two groups fighting above scattered, I managed to track the trail here. As I thought—you’d been locked away.”
I froze.
A sudden mory flashed.
“Huh? So the thing following halfway really was you? I thought it was a dog!”
He gave a look and smacked lightly on the head.
“Who are you calling a dog?”
I rubbed the spot, muttering under my breath:
“Well, we did think soone was following us, but what we saw was a dog…”
“There was a dog!” I hissed.
“A big yellow one, smart eyes, followed for a long way—
Looked just like the one in this room…”
“When I ca in, there was no dog,” Big Brother said firmly, without a trace of doubt.
I froze.
Da Huang’s eerily intelligent stare flashed through my mind.
A cold shiver crawled down my spine.
Don’t tell …
I really encountered a spirit?
A low, amused voice suddenly drifted from outside the door, like claws scraping iron—cool and chilling:
“Such a lively chat. In that case, stay. Both of you. Talk as long as you want.”
My heart dropped.
It was that man!
Before I could react, the door slamd shut.
A heavy bar dropped.
Iron chains clattered.
Just like that—
my brother and I were locked together inside.
Footsteps faded.
Silence swallowed the room.
My heart still thundered wildly, ringing in my ears.
“We’re finished… He’s gonna cook us together…” I muttered, palms sweating as I scanned the room.
In the dim lamp light, the walls were stone—cold and sharp as blades.
The only door was barred shut, sealed tight enough that not even wind could slip through.
I swallowed hard.
That man’s voice still echoed in my skull—
as if he’d already asured the size of the pot
and only needed to light the fire.
I clutched my clothes, panic knotting my insides.
“Big Brother… are we… are we not getting out of here?”
The mont I said it, I felt like a crab already sitting in the stear basket—
struggling only for formality.
But Big Brother walked a slow circle around the room.
His fingers brushed the walls lightly, as if testing sothing.
“Calm down,” he said, voice as steady as still water.
“These walls were built recently. They haven’t settled or breathed yet.”
“So… so it’s a newly built prison room?” I whispered.
He shot a look—
the kind that ant: Shut up.
He moved to a corner, crouched, studying the floor.
He tapped the stone with his knuckles. The sound was dull, thick.
I tiptoed after him, nerves tangled—
Was he searching for a secret passage?
Or the best place to bury bodies?
“You keep watch on the door,” he said suddenly.
I blinked, but obeyed, pressing my ear to the cold wood.
Not a sound.
Only my own breathing, loud enough to deafen.
Holding my breath, I peeked at Big Brother.
He was half-squatting, fingertips gliding along a stone slab as if confirming sothing.
A spark of hope burst in my chest.
The way he moved—
Yes! He must have found a chanism!
He was going to unlock a hidden tunnel and take away!
I leaned closer, eyes practically glued to the stone slab.
Then—
Big Brother rely pushed it twice.
The slab didn’t budge.
He lifted his head, expression calm:
“The builder of this room… seems quite skilled.”
I nearly spat blood.
“You weren’t digging for an escape route?!”
“I was.” He sounded righteous.
“I just didn’t find one.”
I squatted down, clutching my head, wailing,
“A boar demon IS stronger than humans!”
Big Brother frowned, sounding every bit like an elder lecturing a junior.
“Don’t go doubting this and fearing that—seeing gods and ghosts everywhere. Didn’t you also claim you saw a ghost when you were little?”
I stiffened, rembering that humiliating incident.
That sumr, I got up in the middle of the night to use the chamber pot. As I passed the back courtyard, the moonlight fell just right on a sheet of yellowing window paper.
Suddenly, a hunched, limping silhouette appeared on it—stooped back, crooked gait, and sothing round and bulging dangling at his side… like he was carrying a severed head.
He shuffled forward, wobbling with each step, and with every movent the “head” swayed along, as if nodding to .
My scalp exploded; cold sweat shot from my spine down to my soles. I didn’t wait to see any more—I just turned and bolted.
The next day, I told everyone the Nangong estate was haunted, that a head-carrying ghost wandered about at midnight.
It wasn’t until later that I learned the “ghost” was just Uncle Wang, the la groundskeeper, going out at night to dump the chamber pot.
And that “head”… was an old, battered urine bucket.
My brother even comforted with a straight face:
“That wasn’t a ghost, it was your future father-in-law.”
—Of course, that turned out to be absolute nonsense, since Uncle Wang only had a daughter and no son, and as for … well, I’ve only ever liked n.
Thinking of all this, I covered my face and groaned,
“But this ti I really might’ve run into a demon!”
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