CH 92

Chapter 92 – Without a Key 4

As soon as it was dawn, Xu RenDong was awakened by a scream.

He’s already used to waking up in this manner – someone died and had been found, hence the scream.

As for the dead, there was no shortage of them in this world. As long as you’re used to it, it’s fine.

Lian Qiao was tied up with a rope all night. His body was sore and he almost knelt down on the ground when he got out of the bed. He leaned on his cane with one hand and hooked Xu RenDong’s shoulder with the other. The two people washed up simply and went outside to see what happened.

The two of them were taken aback when they went out. They saw more than a dozen young girls standing in the corridor, their faces still stained with the satisfaction of the afterglow of sex. However they were wearing burlap mourning clothing to demonstrate their filial piety. It was unknown when they had changed into the white mourning clothing.

There were more than a dozen rooms in the middle hall. Only the maid from Xu RenDong’s room was wearing her original clothing. The other rooms were silent and their doors were closed. Only the maids stood at the door. They heard the sound of Xu RenDong opening the door and looked over in unison. More than a dozen faces showed strange smiles at the same time, which made people shudder.

Lian Qiao sucked in a breath of air: “Damn it, they’re scary.”

Xu RenDong comforted: “Actually, it’s fine now, if you saw it at night it would be even scarier. “

Lian Qiao: “…” That’s not comforting, okay ?

The screams came from upstairs. Lian Qiao had difficulty moving and it was very difficult to go up and down the stairs. So when the two got upstairs, a dozen people had already gathered there.

A girl was sitting at the door of the room crying and everyone surrounded her with ugly expressions.

Shi JianChuan was among them but he was the only one who was still smiling, leaning on the railing with a slack look like he was totally relaxed.

Xu RenDong stepped forward and asked, “What happened? “

Shi JianChuan: “Someone died~.”

Xu RenDong pushed the crowd away and wanted to see the corpse. As soon as he approached the door, he saw two pale corpses lying on the bed with no clothes on. He was shocked and retreated subconsciously. Shi JianChuan smiled behind him: ” Huh, haven’t you seen a naked corpse before?”

Xu RenDong frowned and didn’t want to pay attention to him. Lian Qiao leaned over and asked in a low voice, “Is this Shi JianChuan? “

Xu RenDong nodded. Lian Qiao said: “No wonder. He looks the most annoying in this group of people. “

The girl in the center of the crowd cried hoarsely and the others whispered something. Xu RenDong vaguely heard the words “sale” and “price” and felt strange in his heart, so he went over to inquire. Only then did he learn that the deceased were two veterans, the girl was a newcomer and paid them a lot of money to protect her. Unexpectedly, these two died first.

In fact, far more than these two people died last night. On the way over just now, there were one or two corpses in the room where the young girls in burlap mourning clothes were standing. That is to say, all those who could not resist temptation had died.

It seems that Lian Qiao guessed right and this was a death condition. Xu RenDong estimated that at least 60 people died last night. This number shocked him.

Lian Qiao leaned on a cane and squeezed hard into the room to examine the body. Not long after, he limped back with a very strange expression on his face.

Xu RenDong asked: ” What did you see? “

Lian Qiao hesitated: “They are a pair of women …”

Xu RenDong was stunned for a moment and did not understand.

Lian Qiao looked a little embarrassed and whispered, ” The two women are players. I don’t know why, anyway, they both … er and then died. Probably they are a couple like us…”

Xu RenDong widened his eyes in astonishment, shocked inside. After a while, he said “oh” and didn’t know what else to say.

The two were silent for a long time. The girl at the door was hoarse from crying but no one came to comfort her. Everyone’s faces were very gloomy. After all, sixty people died in one fell swoop last night so it was hard to imagine how difficult this instance is. Whether they could survive the night was still unknown. Who has the time to comfort a stranger at this moment?

After overcoming the psychological barrier, Xu RenDong also went in to check the bodies. Sure enough as Lian Qiao said, the two young women were lying on each other’s backs and there were still some indescribable marks left on their bodies. However their skin had turned into the blue-gray peculiar to corpses and there were corpse spots in some places. It was clear they had been dead for hours.

There was no trauma on the corpse and there was no trace of blood around it, so the specific cause of death could not be seen.

“It is estimated that they died suddenly. ” Lian Qiao said.

Xu RenDong agreed.

“As for the conditions of death, they had sex last night. I thought it was only that you can’t have sex with the maids but it seems we can’t have sex with our companions either.” Lian Qiao stuck out his tongue. “Fortunately, we held back. “

Xu RenDong coughed awkwardly, turned around and said to the others: “This is the end of the matter, everyone, don’t gather here again. Take advantage of the dawn to explore this tulou. “

Almost all of the surviving people are old players and they have no problem with Xu RenDong’s proposal. The crying girl finally stopped sobbing and when she heard Xu RenDong’s words, she turned her eyes to him, her eyes full of begging.

Xu RenDong understood what she wanted but at this time Lian Qiao was injured and it was not easy for him to protect Lian Qiao, let alone carry a new person. So he could only turn his face away and avoid the girl’s eyes. When the girl saw this, she knew that she had no way out so she couldn’t help but begin to cry again.

Xu RenDong found this unbearable in his heart but Lian Qiao suddenly said, “Where’s Shi JianChuan? “

Xu RenDong was immediately distracted. He looked around and did not see the lazy man in the black Tang suit. He asked a few people around and they all said they didn’t pay attention to him.

It was strange to say the least. Shi JianChuan, who dressed in such a bizarre manner, should be very eye-catching. But he melted into the sea like a drop of water and disappeared silently. Not only did no one notice where he went, they didn’t even remember if he had ever been here.

Lian Qiao showed a thoughtful look but didn’t say anything, just let Xu RenDong accompany him to explore the tulou.

It was midnight when they got out of the elevator last night. The whole tulou was covered with red lanterns, like a ghost brothel. At this time, the sky was bright and the bright sunlight came in from the middle and shot directly into the circular pool on the ground floor. At this time, the water of the lake was green and transparent. Green algae floated in the water, which made it look dense and lush. From time to time, fish burrowed out of the water and so it looked somewhat lively, not as gloomy as last night.

The two started from the first floor and went up layer by layer. The structure of each floor of this tulou is almost the same, with more than a dozen rooms in a circle, and a red lantern hangs every few steps in the corridor. Those maids dressed in burlap mourning clothing were still standing in front of the guest rooms and, when someone passed by, these bewitching girls saluted them with a smile.

Everyone knew that behind them, the closed doors were filled with corpses. Therefore, everyone quickened their pace and did not want to stay too much in front of the rooms.

Lian Qiao was actually terrified but he really couldn’t walk fast so he just observed the tulou carefully.

Xu RenDong picked out a few dead rooms and went in to check. Like the dead girls, the deceased were all naked and died without dignity. As for the guest rooms themselves, they were all the same, similar to the one where Xu RenDong and Lian Qiao lived.

So the two focused their exploration on the ninth floor.

70-80% of the people who lived on this floor also died. Besides Shi JianChuan, there were two other survivors. Both of them are girls and they both lived alone in a room last night. Although they also felt unbearably hot last night, they were able to hold themselves back.

Lian Qiao sighed: “At this time, the physical advantages of women are reflected …”

Xu RenDong felt a bit helpless and funny. Lian Qiao was joking but actually he made a lot of sense. Almost all of the twenty survivors were women. There were only a handful of men, four or five. It can be seen that in this kind of thing, women’s endurance was  indeed stronger than men’s.

The two chatted casually but their eyes wandered around, looking for possible clues. After a while, they came to the front of the ancestral hall again.

Xu RenDong wanted to go in last night but was discouraged by the old lady with bound feet. At this time, the door of the ancestral hall was still open and when standing by the door, you can see the tablets on the long incense cases. It was almost noon at this time, when the sun was at its peak but the ancestral hall was still dim and dark, and no light could get in. It was all illuminated by the candles on the incense table.

It was impossible to see what was inside clearly from the outside. It’s just that the old lady with the bound feet couldn’t be seen and it was unknown if she was still inside.

The two stood at the door and looked at each other. Xu RenDong said: “Try again ? “

Lian Qiao nodded and raised his leg to step in. Xu RenDong stopped him: “Wait for me at the door, help me keep a lookout. “

Lian Qiao hesitated. He then looked down at the cane in his hand and didn’t insist much. He just said, “Then you be careful.”

“En.”

Xu RenDong took out a crowbar from his bag, held it tightly in his hand and lifted his leg across the threshold.

As soon as he entered, the dark and oppressive feeling was like a blanket, pressing down heavily. There was an indescribable smell in the air, as if the incense candle was moldy and, as the candle was burning, the mold was scorched at the same time. It felt very uncomfortable.

This time, the old lady didn’t jump out of the darkness to stop him again. However, Xu RenDong did not dare to turn on the flashlight, for fear of disturbing something else. He could only look around the inside of the ancestral hall carefully by the swaying candle flame on the incense table.

The entire ancestral hall had no windows and there was no other entrance or exit except the door behind it. No wonder it was so dark here that the outside light can’t get in. There were several scrolls hanging on the surrounding walls. Xu RenDong narrowed his eyes to see and vaguely saw the portraits of men in Ming and Qing costumes, which were probably portraits of the tulou ancestors.

There are incense candles and fruits on the incense table. There was also a tripod incense burner with three sandalwood sticks inside it. The candles flickered, illuminating the tablet on the case. Xu RenDong took a closer look and was a little surprised.

It turns out that this incense case has five levels. Up and down, dozens of tablets are enshrined! Xu RenDong quickly counted and found that there were exactly 9×9=81 tablets. His heart skipped a beat. He quickly read the tablet from the beginning to end and, fortunately, he and Lian Qiao’s names were not found in it.

Among the eighty-one tablets, there  were no names of Shi JianChuan and the others. So it seemed that it was not set up for the players. Xu RenDong took a closer look and felt that something was wrong.

The order of the tablets … seems to be out of order?

It stands to reason that the top of the incense case should be the ancestor from the highest generation. But the name of that person appeared on a certain tablet in the row below and it was written as the son of so-and-so. It is obviously against the rules that the son’s tablet is placed higher than that of his father.

There are many more mistakes like this. Xu RenDong intuitively felt that there was a mystery here, so he started to adjust the positions of the two tablets at hand. As soon as his fingers touched the tablet, he felt a burst of cold air climb up to his fingertips, which made his hair stand on end and instantly retracted his hand.

Lian Qiao asked at the door: “What’s the matter? Are you all right? “

Xu RenDong clenched the crowbar and looked around vigilantly but did not notice anything unusual. He moved his fingers and found there were no injuries. He showed it to Lian Qiao to reassure him.

But when he went to touch the tablet again, he still felt the chill attack. It seems that there is indeed a problem with this tablet but it will not cause substantial damage to him for some time.

If so, then just go for it.

Xu RenDong immediately started to adjust the order of the tablets.