Chapter 43: The Malevolent Spirit of the Snow Mountain 13

Chapter 43: The Malevolent Spirit of the Snow Mountain 13

Zhou You asked, "What about the snowman?"

Pei Yi replied, "Seeing a snowman is definitely a bad omen. Another possibility is that this ghost's power is growing stronger. Think about it, It has killed so many people, Its resentment has also become more potent. —So my solution is to avoid the snow. Tomorrow is the sixth day, I'll go out with Uncle Feng to look for clues. Zhou You, if you want to live, stay inside the cabin and don't go out. As for other rules, we definitely can't afford to break them."

Uncle Feng wondered, "I have a question, my wife and I also saw the snowman, why are we fine?"

Pei Yi nodded, "That's also something I can't figure out. My initial guess is, we are people with relatively strong wills, while Chen Mo and others are easily influenced. Little A and Chen Mo saw it together, but nothing happened to Little A, so It hypnotizes the one easily influenced to kill Little A."

Feng Chun said, "Then about breaking the rules, my wife and I did too — we held hands coming out of the snow pit. By that logic, were we also in the wrong?"

"To be safe, yes. So tomorrow, I'll go out alone again to look for clues."

The other three nodded. That was the only option.

With the discussion at this point, Pei Yi circled the keyword "mausoleum" heavily in his notebook.

Another question. How did It manage to push him off the cliff today without going through Zhou You? Pei Yi had thought It could only act through others and only became stronger at night.

But clearly, that wasn't the case, Its energy had grown unimaginably strong. Just by looking at the snow for too long, one could start hallucinating, be hypnotized by It, enter Its forbidden territory, and thus be killed.

The blizzard raised during the killing was so intense, it obscured vision. Today, the moment he almost fell off the snow cliff, if he hadn't been tightly holding his lucky dice, he might have been bewitched — he had already seen the red spots in the snow.

He didn't tell them this, fearing it would worry them and lead to wild speculation.

And the mausoleum... there must be something he overlooked.

He remembered the diary, took it out, and opened it again, staring at the title page for a long time.

"...To my dearest."

Flipping to the middle, Pei Yi read the suddenly added lines, "Wishing to be in Jun Huai's embrace forevermore. Without Jun Huai's warmth, where shall this lowly concubine stand?"

Flipping to the end, he unexpectedly found another sentence in a corner.

"Promise you and never let go of that promise."

Pei Yi was startled and hurriedly called Zhou You and the others to translate it.

Zhou You shook his head, "I can't."

Looking at Feng Chun and Aunt Wu, they also shook their heads.

Pei Yi: "..." Lack of education is truly scary.

Aunt Wu said, "I recognize a bit, let me try." She took it and looked,

"Maybe it's related to some promise." Aunt Wu pointed at the word PROMISE, "This means promise, commitment."

"Promise..." Pei Yi thought, what could Jun Huai have promised?

But after much thought, everyone was tired. Pei Yi, exhausted, put down the diary and fell asleep in the chair.

Zhou You was awakened by a cold breeze in the middle of the night. He opened his eyes, thinking he was still at the table, only to find himself in bed.

The sunlight from outside shone through the window, it was daylight, and they had survived another night, Zhou You felt relieved.

"Aunt Wu. Feng Chun! Brother Pei!"

"Ah, Little You, come out for breakfast." It was Aunt Wu's voice.

Zhou You got up, only Aunt Wu was in the room, he decided to stay inside today, not going anywhere. He sat at the wooden table and started eating bread, but after a few bites, he found it tasteless.

After eating, Aunt Wu called from outside, "Little You, Little You, come out and help me."

Zhou You put down the bread and went to open the door, but for some reason, the wooden door was particularly hard to open today, he struggled for a long time but couldn't open it.

"Aunt Wu, I can't open the door."

"Hurry up and help me, quick!" Aunt Wu continued to shout from outside.

Zhou You pushed and pulled with all his might but couldn't move the door. He went to the window, attempting to open it, only to find it seemed locked shut — impossible to open.

Zhou You grew fearful, wondering if the cabin was also haunted. He went to the door and used all his strength to force it open. Expecting to be greeted by bright sunlight and the warmth of the day, he stepped outside only to see the sky rapidly darkening. Within moments, it was pitch black, with a blizzard blowing fiercely in his face. Turning back, he saw the wooden door had already closed.

Why did it suddenly change from morning to night?

Wasn't it morning? The temperature plummeted, and Zhou You became fully alert... He was outside now. He needed to get back inside the cabin. He turned to open the door.

"Open the door! Brother Pei! Open up, please!"

He wailed, hysterically pounding on the door, gasping for breath. Suddenly, he felt something behind him. Unable to resist, he looked back and saw, in the pitch-black night, a woman with long hair covering her face standing there — although it was dark, Zhou You knew she was right there.

He didn't have time to turn around before the woman tiptoed quickly to face him, eye to eye, nose to nose...

"Ahh! —"

The scream echoed in the dark night, accompanied by the rustling of falling heavy snow.

By the time Zhou You ran out, Pei Yi had already woken up and lit a candle. Doctor Feng and Aunt Wu were also startled awake and came out of their room, looking at Pei Yi with faces full of horror.

Zhou You had desperately pushed the table away and ran outside. Pei Yi, who had been sleeping in a chair, hadn't noticed.

This time, the ghost killed someone right in front of them.

"Young Pei..." Uncle Feng and Aunt Wu, trembling, looked at the open wooden door.

Now, outside the door, there was no one to be seen; Zhou You's whereabouts were unknown. The howling wind and snow drifted in from outside. In the pitch darkness, Pei Yi stood up, closed the wooden door, and said:

"Those who break the rules will surely die; it doesn’t matter whether they are in the cabin or not."

Doctor Feng's face changed color, "Then we…"

"It seems tomorrow, Uncle Feng, Aunt Wu, you shouldn’t stay in the cabin either. Since Zhou You has opened the cabin, it’s no longer safe. Death is inevitable, so let’s give it one more try. There’s nothing to fear."

Aunt Wu sighed, "Yes... nothing to fear. If he harbors resentment due to his untimely death, I think he’s quite pitiable."

Looking at the time, it was already 4 a.m. Now, how could they possibly sleep? In the face of imminent death, sleep was the last thing on their minds.

The door had already been opened, and they didn't even know if they could survive until the seventh day.

But after 4 a.m., no further incidents occurred, and they stayed awake until dawn.

After daybreak, Aunt Wu still prepared breakfast for the two, warming up some bread.

Pei Yi suddenly asked, "Aunt Wu, what was your first impression when inspecting this cabin?"

Aunt Wu thought for a moment, "The owner must have been a very clean person."

"There were no clothes either, right?"

Aunt Wu nodded, "The house was very clean, spotless. There were no toiletries or clothes."

Pei Yi said, "It seems she had prepared everything for us. Where do you think she went?"

Aunt Wu and Feng Chun looked at each other, "Was she killed?"

Pei Yi shook his head, "If she was to be killed, it would have happened already. It only left her untouched. She might have died, disappeared, left, or perhaps committed suicide... There is no tomb for her in the mausoleum. But Chen Mo said, that man must be buried in the mausoleum! I can't figure this out.

"This woman named Jun Huai meticulously arranged everything for us—the incomplete plaque rules, seven days' worth of bread, the hidden diary. She must have left other clues."

"Then why didn't she just give them to us directly?"

Pei Yi said, "Because It is omnipresent, even the diary had to be hidden, fearing It would find out." He looked at the wooden plaque outside, "I guess this plaque was consecrated, It couldn't get close, but It still tried its best to destroy part of it."

Pei Yi felt this idea might not be correct. Was It really the one who destroyed it? Or could it have been Jun Huai who deliberately did it? If so, that woman was truly terrifying. She was playing with them, controlling everything from the shadows, including killing those photography enthusiasts.

The most terrifying enemies are never those in plain sight but those hidden "ghosts" that never show themselves.

"Little Pei, you mean the owner of this cabin definitely left clues, but we've turned this cabin inside out several times and found no clues."

Pei Yi said, "Right. Not here, but there are in the mausoleum. I visited the mausoleum with Chen Mo; it's all men, no women at all. Since there's no tomb for Nan Feng, what about Jun Huai's?"

"But Jun Huai is a woman!" Aunt Wu couldn't help but say.

She just finished speaking, her mouth agape, looking incredulously at Pei Yi and then at her husband.

Because the cabin was too clean, they fell into the illusion that the owner must be a woman, and the wording in the diary led them to believe Jun Huai was a woman.

Pei Yi: "Zhou You said Nan Feng was a female ghost, which I found strange at the time, but last night, reading the diary, I realized we've been caught in a wrong judgment, or misled by Jun Huai. Jun Huai isn't a woman, or rather, Jun Huai is a man, which explains why the mausoleum only contains men."

Feng Chun said, "I'm confused, who is the owner of the cabin?"

Aunt Wu said, "It's still Jun Huai. It's just that Jun Huai is a man, and Nan Feng is actually a woman, a female ghost. Right? Little Pei."

"Right," Pei Yi nodded, "‘Wishing to be embraced by the southwest wind, to pass away into Jun Huai’s embrace. With Jun Huai unyielding, where shall this lowly concubine stand?’ This line was deliberately added by Jun Huai, a reminder to us, Nan Feng and Jun Huai are a couple's pen names, Nan Feng being the woman, Jun Huai the man."

Feng Chun was still puzzled, "But why go through such a roundabout way, pretending to be a woman?"

Pei Yi said, "I don't know the specifics. Maybe to blur the lines, pretending Nan Feng is still alive? I can't guess, I only know that after Jun Huai realized everything might have been done by Nan Feng, he used all means possible to leave clues, including that diary. If so, we have a direction now. —We're not looking for the female ghost's tomb but Jun Huai's."