WOYE Chapter 38 [Third Night Part Eight]

Editor: SeriesCircuit

Sensing that something was off, Fang Daichuan stood helplessly behind Li Sinian and touched his shoulder.

Li Sinian bent over and moved the lighter closer to the skeleton in the corner. The skeleton was half-leaning on the stone wall, surrounded by heaps of algae. It was more than obvious that it had been submerged in water for some time after death. The wall where the skeleton lay was covered with moss; a shade-loving plant that had struggled its way through the thin crust of dirt on the stone wall, wrapping itself around the dead bones and rotting flesh, leaving a small white flower in the darkened eye socket of the skull.

Li Sinian gently shook off the dirt and water weeds from the bones. Without the water weeds wrapping around the skeleton, it instantly fragmented, scattering across the ground. The white skull rolled twice, landing at the feet of the two of them, coming to a halt just before the puddle. The small flower in the eye socket rocket slightly.

Li Sinian instantly wavered, his expression was a mix of astonishment and disbelief, he even turned his head and gave Fang Daichuan a crooked smile, as if laughing at the untimely nature of the flower blooming in the skull. Then quickly turning around, he raised the back of his left hand, as if he was going to gently kiss the ring on his little finger before his whole body heavily slammed against the stone wall.

Fang Daichuan lowered his head and dared not to speak. He silently picked up the skull. He didn’t know if it was appropriate to let it lay on the ground or not. After all, it was Li Sinian’s father. So, he simply held it in his hands, a quiet sombreness to his manner.

In the darkness, Fang Daichuan looked at the back of the almost silent figure before him. As a repressed muffled voice, as if he was trying to swallow tears, came from Li Sinian

“I…I am sorry for your loss.” Fang Daichuan thought for a long time. Finally, he walked over to comfort him, “I know this must be hard for you, but…”

He leaned back against the stone wall, taking care to not get too close to Li Sinian, looked down at the skull in his palm, and said: “Your father, I am certain he doesn’t want you drowning in sorrow.” The skull he was holding felt like a peculiar shaped flower vase. Thinking about the skull like that made Fang Daichuan feel a little bit better, “Look, uncle clearly knew that his son would do anything to find him, and there is even a flower in his eye socket. Doesn’t it seem like he wanted to remind you that, ‘life goes on’?”

——–Though the whole scene could be described as eerie, the flower bloomed sincerely, like the last signs of life left in the world by the departed.

Li Sinian’s forehead was against the stone wall, the aura oozing out from his body filled the room. “I’m mentally preparing myself,” he swallowed, with a thick nasally voice, “I just… need some time.”

He turned around after collecting himself, moving his gaze from the wall to the skull in Fang Daichuan’s hand. Fang Daichuan flicked open his lighter and sneaked a peek at his face. Li Sinian looked like his usual self at first glance, but if one looked closer they would see that his nose was indeed red.

Li Sinian took off his shirt, pulled out the flower from the eye socket, and tightly wrapped the skull.

“I want to take him back, I can’t let him remain here…” Li Sinian sniffed, raised his head, and stared straight at Fang Daichuan, as if waiting for Fang Daichuan to object. For the first time the stubborn and impulsive look, which is often characteristic of youth, appeared on his face, which was so unlike his usual noble and thoughtful demeanour.

Fang Daichuan breathed a sigh of relief. If Li Sinian insisted on taking his father’s entire skeleton, even with the two of them, they would not be able to carry it out. If Li Sinian was right about the tide and that they could escape when the water from the sea filled the cave, the time they would have to do so would be quite limited. With it being just the two of them, everything should be fine when they try to leave the cave, but Fang Daichuan really couldn’t see how it would be possible for them to escape while carrying a whole skeleton.

But taking only the skull with them seemed much more doable.

“Of course, we can’t leave uncle here.” Fang Daichuan also took off his shirt and took the makeshift cloth bag which held the bones, from him. The rest of the fabric was twisted into two strands of rope so the bag could be tied to Li Sinian’s waist when they made their way out of the cave later. “Although, I don’t know if the two of us will make it to the end, at least we can bury him on the beach. Uncle must have been suffocating down here for so many years.”

Though his intentions were well meaning Fang Daichuan felt that he had said something stupid as soon as he finished speaking. He looked at Li Sinian cautiously, but Li Sinian’s face was worryingly blank. He just stared at the small handful of cloth in his hand and closed his eyes tightly.

Then the two sat facing each other in the dark.  For a while, neither one of them spoke.

Fang Daichuan was afraid of Li Sinian having any thoughts about  necking himself, so he was desperately trying to find some topics to chat about.

“Oh, by the way, I haven’t had time to ask you yet,” Fang Daichuan said stiffly, “You closed the window last night, right?”

“?” Li Sinian looked up, his expression was not as shrewd or as indifferent as usual.  His eyes were hollow; his face was expressionless; he seemed to have no recollection of the window at all.

“It’s the window in the corridor,” Fang Daichuan explained with his head bowed, still feeling somewhat despondent as he thought about his reasoning and Li Si Nian’s lie, “Liu Xin came up before and after you, and he said the window was closed when he came up. When I asked you at the time, you said you didn’t close the window.——You lied to me. I really don’t understand what you needed to open and close the window for.  Unless you decided to lie about being the seer, I can’t really think of another reason. However, Liu Xin then said that he was not a seer, so that leaves you…”

Fang Daichuan managed to achieve his goal of distracting Li sinian, after dropping this bombshell. Li Sinian’s mood finally shifted from dour to helplessness: “You doubt me because of that window?”

Fang Daichuan quickly raised his eyes, glanced at him and nodded.

Li Sinian sighed, and he stroked his hair irritably, as if trying to sort out his thoughts in the chaos. He said: “I did close the window. I will explain it to you from the beginning. When I went out, I found some murals on the wall in the corridor.  They were quite faint but if you looked closely, you could make them out. There were an equal number of murals for there were people, including how many of each sex there were in the group. So, I began to wonder if this “Boss” character could have something to do with what happened back then. If they do, then this killing game can be their means of trying to find out something they wish to know. Yang Song’s father is dead, Ding Zihui’s mother committed suicide, Du Chaosheng seems to have lost a secretary, Niu Xinyan has lost her husband, and each of them have a motive for wanting to construct such a game. I did get a chance to look at it for a while, however, I was also in a rush to find out what roles the others had been assigned, so I didn’t stay too much longer before I headed back downstairs. As a result, when I came back into the corridor to study these murals further, I found that the window had been opened. I thought that someone must have understood what the murals on the wall were hinting at and that is why they wanted to wet the wall with rain, so that they could see better. There was no one in the corridor at the time. From my perspective, whoever opened the window must know some inside stories, since they are able to decode the hints from the boss. This in turn must have something to do with the deaths of so many people back then. With that in mind, I closed the window silently and didn’t mention myself doing so, in an attempt to psych out the guy who opened it in the first place a little, to see if anyone would mention either the murals or the window the next day.”

Fang Daichuan raised his head in astonishment.

“Because of my underhanded tactics you pulled me over and told me that you opened it,” Li Sinian sighed helplessly. “What can I say? You are a passerby who has nothing to do with this situation. I just casually said a few words to get along with you, who knew you would pay so much attention to a window… I am really impressed.”

When Fang Daichuan heard this, he couldn’t help but facepalm. 

“Never mind raising a goldfish, there is enough space to raise a great white shark in your brain.” Li Sinian summed up weakly.

(T/N: LMAO alright so for people who don’t know, you can’t keep great white shark inside aquarium, so basically Sinian said ‘there is a hole in your brain the size of an ocean’)

Fang Daichuan was simultaneously annoyed and dumbstruck. Sure enough, people with low IQ shouldn’t do work that requires brains. All this after thinking things over for such a long time, he had still missed the mark, not only was he now despised by some, but it was also like he had been slapped in the face.

“But, but this isn’t entirely on me,” Fang Daichuan said in his defence, “since ancient times witches are always on the wrong side, you are a stranger, I don’t know you, so why should I trust you wholeheartedly.”

Hearing this, Li Sinian suddenly raised his head and asked helplessly: “You don’t know me? You really don’t remember?”

Fang Daichuan was stunned: “Remember what?”

Just as Li Sinian wanted to answer, there was a sudden gurgling sound from outside.

Both of them froze for a moment before quickly running out to check.

They followed the gurgling noise to its source. Water was gushing through the mouth of the cave, carrying gravel, water plants and a layer of white foam with it, as it began to rise. With great speed and a loud sucking sound it rose to ankle height in just a few minutes, as if the mouth of a demon was swallowing the air.

Li Sinian’s face was grim.

He quickly walked back inside, bent down towards the bones that were still scattered, piled them up and tied them firmly together with some of the water plants before tying them to a stone in the corner.

“Hurry up!” Fang Daichuan shouted from outside, having completely forgotten their earlier line of conversation, “The water is rising rapidly!” 

Li Sinian stared at the small pile of bones, feeling the cold water slowly climbing up to his legs. He closed his eyes, picked up the cloth bag with the skull in it, turned around decisively and walked out of the room.

The water outside was already at waist height, the sea water was spinning in circles inside the cave, forming a powerful whirlpool. Li Sinian walked through the water with difficulty, firmly clutching the skull to his chest. The sound of the rushing water would be deafening on its own but in the hollow space of the cave the sound echoed. The sound of the water combined with the echo, made the whole cave seem like it was shaking.

“Are you ready?!” Fang Daichuan shouted, as the water had reached their chests.

Before the water reached their heads, Li Sinian nodded resolutely towards Fang Daichuan.

Splash–, the two of them plunged into the water at the same time. Li Sinian is a good swimmer so he held the cloth bag with one hand and grabbed Fang Daichuan’s wrist firmly with the other. Fang Daichuan on the other hand, had already become disorientated in the whirlpool, leaving him unable to discern his direction.

Li Sinian floated on top of the water where there was still a tiny bit of space left between the water and the roof of the cavern; he held Fang Daichuan up, allowing him to take one last breath.

The force of the current instantly stopped.

At that moment, the two people rushed toward the exit at the same time.

(T/N: So below is a piece of fan art for this chapter. I wish I could link the artist’s website but the thing is, there is a lot of art there that could spoil the story.  So, regrettably I can’t link it. Please do remind me when this novel reaches the end to give the link, ok?)

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