The comment section was stunned:
[Holy crap??? This is giving me goosebumps.]
[Is there anything more creepy than this? How can he hold the doll so calmly??]
Xie He touched the doll, then walked to his bed without changing his expression. He chose the leftmost bed, leaving the next bed for the two shivering men.
The man in the business suit and the frail young man, terrified of the eerie doll, walked on tiptoe, carefully avoiding the scattered pieces on the floor.
After they settled into their beds, they glanced at Xie He discreetly.
He was the one who had examined the corpse last night…
The boy leaned lazily against the bed, his long, straight legs tucked into patent leather Doc Martens, casually crossed, a gleaming silver chain hanging from the side of his trousers.
His skin was a delicate pale white, a light mole at the corner of his eye, and his eyes held a deep sense of world-weariness. He was engrossed in his own world, playing with his dolls, oblivious to everything around him, radiating an invisible aura of detachment.
The scene from the previous evening was still vivid in their minds, and they couldn't help but feel a sense of fear and unease towards Xie He.
The man in the business suit, fidgeting and trying to start a conversation, stammered, "Hello. Um, my name is Yu You. Sigh, I was on my way to a job interview today, but somehow I ended up here, it feels like a nightmare..."
He wiped his face as he spoke, seemingly terrified, and then rambled on incoherently.
"My name is Xia Gu," the frail young man on the left bed cautiously interjected, his voice barely a whisper.
He sat stiffly, head bowed, appearing much more introverted.
Xie He leaned lazily against the headboard: "Xie He. The 'He' of 'wind and rice rising together.'"
He placed the doll beside his pillow, leaning against it.
Yu You and Xia Gu were folding the bedding when they discussed what to do with the dolls scattered around the bed.
After chatting for a while, Xia Gu, shivering, whispered, "...I don't know if we can just throw them out, they're so scary."
"Don't throw them out," Xie He said casually, glancing at them. "You just arrived and you're already throwing away someone else's stuff, the owner will come after you."
It was a warning.
His expression was lazy, his tone indifferent, as if he were casually chatting about how nice the weather was.
But his words sent a chill down Yu You and Xia Gu's spines.
What he said made sense; these were items from a horror game, after all. What if throwing away someone's dolls caused them to get haunted by evil spirits? So they gave up on the idea.
Ignoring the two of them, Xie He considerately covered the dolls with a small pink towel, using it as a blanket, and patted them a couple of times as if to lull them to sleep.
Seeing this, Yu You and Xia Gu were so shocked their jaws nearly dropped.
The viewers in the live stream were also stunned:
[??]
[???]
[Hahaha, I'm dumbfounded. Is it normal that he's covering this thing with a blanket to lull it to sleep???]
...
After taking a cold shower in the bathroom, Xie He lay on the bed, idly scrolling through his phone.
His phone wallpaper was a card.
It wasn't his own phone; it must have been sent to players by the gacha world.
His phone couldn't connect to the internet. Only one friend, named [Card Draw S], was still contactable—the system that gave him tasks and tallied his points.
Xie He proactively tried to engage the system: [Hello?]
A few minutes passed without a response.
Xie He didn't care, and continued listlessly sending messages: [Little system, I'm so bored QAQ.]
Xie He: [Paws.jpg]
Xie He: [Want to chat? Want to chat for a couple of bucks?]
After sending a series of messages, a red exclamation mark appeared before the message box.
Reminder: [Card Draw S has enabled friend verification. You are not yet his/her friend. Please send a friend request first. You can chat only after the other party accepts the request. ①]
Xie He's gaze suddenly sharpened: "..."
The onlookers could also see the information on the player's phone, and they were stunned:
[What the heck?!]
[Hahahaha, did I see that right? Someone actually got blocked by the system?! Holy crap!!]
Xie He stared at the screen and smiled lightly, as if he had discovered a new continent.
The system can actively block people? It seems his verification was correct. The system doesn't just issue tasks. The system also has its own thoughts.
Looks like it's a system with a temper, like a cold, prickly little hedgehog.
***
The night passed, and dawn broke.
The autumn morning was still a bit chilly. Xie He sat up with a yawn. He had slept soundly last night, without any dreams until dawn.
He glanced sideways and noticed Yu You and Xia Gu sitting motionless on the edge of the bed, their eyes etched with dark circles, as if they hadn't slept in ages.
Xia Gu huddled under the covers, trembling, his voice weak and shaky: "...Is it quiet now?"
"Finally quiet. They were banging on the door all night, 'knock, knock, knock, knock, knock,'" Yu You said in a panic, his whole body shaking. He glanced up casually, saw Xie He, and exclaimed in surprise, "You...you're awake?! Your sleep quality is amazing!"
Xia Gu looked at Xie He, and seeing him get up, explained uneasily, "We were too scared to sleep last night. It was so noisy outside, they were banging on the doors and windows..."
"Yeah," Yu Youye continued, his heart pounding and his face turning pale as he recalled the incident. "We even mustered up the courage to open the door once, but when we opened it...guess what? It was pitch black outside, and there wasn't a soul in sight. But as soon as we closed the door, that 'bang bang bang bang' sound...it started again! It was that sound all night long, you must have heard it too, right?"
The two looked at Xie He.
Xie He scratched his brow: "I didn't hear it."
He was indeed quite sleepy. For a long time, he had been averse to light and world-weary, habitually keeping the curtains tightly drawn, sleeping soundly in a dimly lit room day and night, but he never slept this deeply.
But last night… he really didn’t hear anything…
As he regained his senses, the plump maid came to call them for breakfast.
Around nine o’clock, the players came downstairs. Turning the corner of the stairs, they saw a little boy in overalls and a yellow flower hat playing with toys at the bottom of the stairs.
The little boy was about five years old. Hearing footsteps, he looked up, smiled at everyone, and obediently greeted, “Hello, Uncle. Hello, Auntie.”
He must be the family’s child?
The players also greeted the little boy in a friendly manner: “Hello, little friend.”
The little boy stood up, dusted off his pants, and smiled sweetly at everyone: “Uncle and Auntie, let’s go have breakfast together. The soup at my house in the morning is delicious.”
“Okay, let’s go try it.”
The players led the little boy to the dining room, the player closest to him even holding his little hand.
The dining room was on the first floor, with tiled walls and a very luxurious decor. A long, pure white table stood in the center of the restaurant.
A young woman sat at the host's seat.
The woman appeared very thin; her eyes bulged slightly, and her skin was sallow, almost bluish. Her beige sweater was loosely fitted, and she frequently covered her face with her hand, coughing laboredly, as if her lungs were about to burst.
The little boy sat down beside her, and everyone else followed suit.
"Did everyone sleep well last night?" the hostess asked with a forced smile, her face pale. "Thank you for coming to my home. This is breakfast the chef prepared for you; it's rather simple, I hope you won't mind. Cough cough..."
Her voice was very hoarse, and she coughed as she spoke, creating an odd atmosphere.
Her gaze swept over everyone.
Those who had taken their seats all had deep dark circles under their eyes, their faces clearly showing "poor sleep" and "no appetite."
Except for a dark-haired boy in the crowd…
The boy wore a dark gray hoodie, one hand lazily propping up his cheek, his index finger rubbing back and forth on the beauty mark at the corner of his eye, looking completely at ease as he waited for his meal.
A hint of surprise flashed in the hostess's eyes.
She pointed, a polite smile playing on her lips. “Ahem. That's the mutton soup I had the kitchen make this morning. It's autumn now, and the weather's gotten cooler; it's quite chilly in the mornings and evenings. This soup is to nourish everyone. Please, everyone, start eating.”
The milky-white mutton soup sat in the center of the table, steaming gently.
The bubbles in the pot rose and fell, the slices of meat floating and sinking in the tender broth, the aroma instantly filling the air.
The crowd wondered where the man of the house was, but dared not ask, and simply picked up their bowls and chopsticks, ladling soup and vegetables into their food.
"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!" A female player suddenly screamed, dropping her bowl and drawing everyone's attention.
The screamer was a player named Mingzhu. On the table in front of her, amidst the shards of the broken bowl, lay half a plastic doll's finger.
The doll's finger had been scalded by the boiling soup, turning white and swollen, looking like a bloody mess.
Even worse, it was only half a finger!
What's more terrifying than finding a worm in an apple? Finding half a wriggling worm, because the other half was already…
"Ugh—" Mingzhu's face instantly turned deathly pale. The half-finger churned in her stomach, and she vomited violently onto the ground.
Her body bent forward, and with a "whoosh," she vomited up a bloody mess of broken internal organs.
A deathly silence fell around them; everyone's faces grew increasingly grim.
A flicker of unease crossed the hostess's eyes. She instructed the plump maid to change the soup, then casually gestured, "Bring me a glass of water, Sister Cui. One of our guests isn't feeling well."
Mingzhu reluctantly took the hot water, her face ashen, her fingers trembling uncontrollably.
"I'm so sorry," the hostess said apologetically, smiling, explaining to the players, "It seems the chef accidentally got the doll's arm in the soup, causing you all a bad dining experience."
A chill ran down everyone's spine.
The round-faced Zhang Che tugged at Liao Mingze's clothes in alarm, cautiously eyeing Mingzhu, and whispered, "Brother Liao, is she being targeted by the evil ghost?"
"Need you even ask?" Liao Mingze replied, "That person's dead meat. Stay away from her!"
Even after the soup was changed, everyone lost their appetite, looking listless. They put down their chopsticks, some even wanting to stay far away from the table.
The hostess didn't force anyone to eat. She elegantly put down her chopsticks, preparing to announce the end of breakfast, and smiled, "It seems everyone has finished eating..."
Xie He said, "No."
The hostess's face stiffened for a moment: "...?"
Everyone: "????"
Xie He nonchalantly drank his hot soup: "I haven't eaten well."
Everyone turned their heads speechlessly, only to see a black-haired boy calmly drinking his soup, seemingly oblivious to everything.
Steam rose from the bowl, and the boy's every move exuded an air of nobility. He didn't seem to care that a severed finger had been found in the soup earlier, like an immersive mukbang streamer, picking up meat and ladling soup, visibly enjoying his meal.
The table of people watched numbly as Xie He slowly and methodically finished eating: "..."
The comments section was practically dying of laughter:
[Hahahaha, I'm dying of laughter, how the hell is he not eating well!]
[Is this a mukbang channel?]
[I just saw how nervous that female player was, and now I have mixed feelings, I even want to order some barbecue.]
[That guy is so handsome! Hehe…hehe…I'm totally smitten!!]
Author's Note:
Xie He: We won't give an inch when it comes to restaurant food. We'll make the most of every second during mealtimes… (drinking soup.gif)
①: Quoting the original words from deleting a friend on WeChat
Comments
Post a Comment