Translator: CinderTL
Zhao Xingguo stumbled back several steps, his face turning deathly pale. Though he had mentally prepared himself, the sudden sight still sent his heart racing.
"What's wrong?" Fu Fu asked.
"There's... there's a person," Zhao Xingguo stammered uncontrollably in his panic. "Hanging... hanging from the rafters."
A person hanging from the rafters...
"Did you see who it was?" Jiang Cheng immediately asked.
"No... no, I only saw a pair of legs," Zhao Xingguo replied honestly. The thought of those legs swaying slightly in mid-air sent a chill down his spine.
Speculating from outside the Gate was useless; they had to go inside to uncover the truth.
But before entering, they had to deal with Zhao Xingguo. Ever since Pan Du and Linghu Yong had met their fates, he had become a different person, his mental state perpetually unstable.
Jiang Cheng turned to him, his voice cold and sharp. "Get yourself under control. If you're too afraid, stay outside."
The situation inside was unknown. Bringing Zhao Xingguo in his current state could only lead to trouble.
Perhaps sensing the underlying meaning in Jiang Cheng's words, Zhao Xingguo shivered. How could he possibly stay outside alone?
He had been aware of his emotional instability lately and had been actively working to regain control. After several deep breaths, his demeanor became noticeably calmer.
Jiang Cheng nodded and exchanged glances with Fu Fu. Together, they slowly pushed open the Gate, one on each side.
A jarring scraping sound filled the air, and the next moment, the room was bathed in cold moonlight, opening up their view.
The sight before them brought everyone to an abrupt halt.
This wasn't just one person as Zhao Xingguo had claimed. Five corpses hung from the rafters!
The bodies were arranged in an alternating pattern, front to back. Due to the dim light, only their dangling legs were visible.
A gust of cold wind swept through the room, causing the legs to sway slightly. Faintly, they could hear the creaking of ropes straining under the weight.
Now Zhao Xingguo understood why the man who had led them here hadn't wanted them to enter.
To stumble upon such a scene in the middle of the night would surely scare the faint of heart to death.
After a moment, however, they realized something was amiss. These weren't real corpses, but straw effigies.
The effigies were dressed in clothes, making them appear eerily lifelike at first glance.
"It's a crime scene reconstruction," Zhao Xingguo whispered. "Someone was hanged from these rafters not long ago, but the body has been removed. These straw effigies are here to aid the investigation."
The thought of five people being hanged at once was utterly despairing.
The straw figures were even more intricately crafted than they had imagined. The closest one, dressed in black, bulky trousers and a leather jacket, stood out.
The long leather jacket nearly reached its knees, giving it a heavy, old-fashioned air—a look of authority.
Next to it stood another straw figure in a floral cotton padded jacket, clearly a woman.
Considering Wu Dali's words, these two figures must represent Master Feng and Old Madam Feng, who had been hanged here.
"No wonder they immediately suspected us of involvement in this case," Fu Fu said, staring at the other straw figures.
The remaining three figures were dressed to resemble Pan Du, Linghu Yong, and Chen Qiang. Now, wearing their clothes, they hung from the rafters, a truly terrifying sight.
Clearly, when discovered, they had been hanging alongside the bodies of Master Feng and Old Madam Feng, all within this hall.
No, it should be called an ancestral hall now.
In the center, on a table, stood black-and-white memorial portraits of Master Feng and Old Madam Feng.
Against the wall, piles of white paper flowers and Ghost money filled the space.
Several crudely made paper figures leaned against the wall—some male, some female—their exaggerated features appearing even more grotesque in the dim light, as if they could come to life at any moment.
A box placed before the portrait of the deceased caught their attention.
It looked like an ordinary gift box, the kind a relative or friend from the Feng Family might have brought to offer condolences and simply left there.
It was wrapped several times with thin hemp rope, tied in a simple knot.
A gentle tug would reveal its contents.
As they examined the box, an indescribable sense of unease settled over everyone. Zhao Xingguo scanned the surroundings, trying to pinpoint what felt wrong.
Jiang Cheng slowly lifted the box. His first impression was how light it was—remarkably light. If he hadn't felt something shifting inside, he might have thought it was empty. He gently shook the box, and the sound it made was unsettling. Through the wrapping, he could tell the contents were bulky and rough, as he heard them scraping against the inner walls of the box, like many coarse, sharp thorns.
The next moment, he immediately set the box down and stepped back.
"What did you find?" Fu Fu, who had been studying Master Feng's portrait, was caught off guard by Jiang Cheng's sudden movement.
Jiang Cheng stared at the box and whispered, "Straw dolls."
Hearing this, Zhao Xingguo swallowed hard and instinctively moved away from the box.
The straw doll was the source of the Curse. If Zhao Xingguo were to describe it, it resembled a cursed doll. Anyone who became entangled with it would be dragged into a dream by a Ghost and killed.
The gift box was displayed prominently, impossible for anyone who had visited the scene to miss. If they had rashly opened it just now, the consequences...
This was a trap.
Realizing this, Jiang Cheng lowered his voice, minimizing his movements. "Don't touch anything. Slowly back away."
With each step, whether it was psychological or not, the sense of unease in his heart grew calmer as they distanced themselves from the gift box.
Just as Zhao Xingguo exhaled a sigh of relief, a voice suddenly exploded behind them, sounding as if it were right at the Gate. "How did you get in here?" it roared. "Didn't I tell you not to come in?!"
It was the young man's voice—the one who had brought them here.
It was clear the young man was furious that they had disobeyed his instructions and entered the scene without permission.
Zhao Xingguo jumped in surprise and instinctively turned to look behind him. "Don't misunderstand," he stammered. "We were just..."
The next second, the voice abruptly ceased.
Zhao Xingguo stared wide-eyed behind him, his mouth agape but unable to utter a sound.
There was no one there.
Not only that, the path they had just walked vanished, along with the Gate. Only endless darkness remained behind him.
"Damn it..."
"Idiot!" Fu Fu and Jiang Cheng stood together in the center of the ancestral hall. Zhao Xingguo was nowhere to be seen.
The moment the voice rang out, they knew something was wrong.
That's why no one responded, let alone foolishly turned around.
Along with Zhao Xingguo's disappearance, the eerie Abnormality in the ancestral hall vanished. Fu Fu stepped forward and picked up the gift box in front of the portrait.
Jiang Cheng was about to stop her when he saw Fu Fu lift the box and turn one side toward him. "Thanks to that idiot, we're perfectly safe now."
Jiang Cheng noticed a hole in the bottom of the box, its edges jagged as if clawed open from the inside.
(End of the Chapter)
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