Chapter 44: The Malevolent Spirit of the Snow Mountain 14

Chapter 44: The Malevolent Spirit of the Snow Mountain 14

Because the truth was so bizarre, it took them some time to accept it. After breakfast, Pei Yi gathered some tools, thinking that if they found Jun Huai's tomb, they would dig it up on the spot.

Pei Yi said, "Uncle Feng, let's go together."

Feng Chun and Aunt Wu nodded.

The sun outside was shining brightly, making it hard to believe such a beautiful place was filled with slaughter. Jun Huai must have been in great pain too.

Aunt Wu asked, "There's still something I don't understand. If that ghost has reached such a state, able to kill at will, why does the danger seem to recede once we close the cabin door?"

Feng Chun also nodded, "What my wife means is, we should think of a way to survive these six nights."

Pei Yi shook his head, "I don't know. Maybe this cabin was where Jun Huai lived. She doesn't dare to desecrate it? Or perhaps, the cabin has been consecrated?"

Aunt Wu sighed, "But It already knows Jun Huai no longer lives here. Whether Jun Huai is dead or missing, It probably doesn't know. Now, opening the door and finding us, It must be angry."

Pei Yi was startled, yes. The ghost is still trapped in the pain of its past life, reliving it over and over, maybe It really doesn't know Jun Huai is already dead.

Feng Chun said, "Then aren't we doomed tonight? It will surely kill us."

Pei Yi thought for a moment, "No. We won't die. We have to tell Nan Feng that Jun Huai is still alive."

"How do we do that?"

Pei Yi said, "The diary writes that one night, Jun Huai was writing a letter when he heard someone knocking. Standing outside was a snow woman. This story of the snow woman was told to Jun Huai by Nan Feng, who probably found the story very romantic. But that night, the blizzard was too strong, Jun Huai was skeptical and didn't open the door.

"It shows our action of not opening the door each night is just like Jun Huai's in the past. It is both loving and hating; hating that Jun Huai changed heart after her death, rejecting Her when she truly became a snow woman and recognizing someone else; love is, despite all, Its unwavering devotion to him. Every time Nan Feng kills, it's out of anger at our fear, just like Jun Huai's initial reaction to her. Nan Feng considers us as Jun Huai."

"Little Pei, you mean, if It knocks again today, we should open the door and not reject It."

Pei Yi nodded, "Yes, we're facing death anyway, so we can only gamble. At worst, we'll be killed directly by It. Beyond that, I can't think of any other solution."

The two sighed, "Okay. Let's try."

During their conversation, they arrived at the mausoleum.

The mausoleum wasn't large, newly constructed because of incidents on the snow mountain.

"There aren't many tombs, but still nearly a hundred. How do we determine which one is Jun Huai?"

Pei Yi said, "The most recent one, I guess Jun Huai passed away not long ago."

With the right direction, things moved quickly. With five or six rows, each person took one row. Soon, Aunt Wu called them over.

"Old Feng! Little Pei! Come here!"

Walking over, Pei Yi crouched down and saw a fairly handsome face, as he suspected, the name was Shu Sheng. Original Shu Sheng. Male XX78-XX14. Shu Sheng in the diary was Jun Huai's real name.

"Little Pei. What do we do now?"

Pei Yi said, "It's quite disrespectful, but open the tomb."

The two were startled, indeed it was quite impolite, but Pei Yi had his reasons for doing so.

"Actually, I can do it alone. Uncle Feng, Aunt Wu, just watch from the side."

Uncle Feng said, "Stay here, my dear, I'll go."

Pei Yi had prepared tools before coming, with several shovels outside the cabin. Uncle Feng also took one. They began digging at one of the graves, starting from the edge of the earth, and soon the tombstone started to wobble.

Pei Yi flipped it over, laying the tombstone aside, and as he dug further, he encountered something hard.

Pei Yi said, "Uncle Feng, you can take a break; I'll take it from here."

To avoid damaging the urn, Pei Yi carefully loosened the soil around it, eventually lifting the entire urn out.

At the same time, there were some burial items. As expected, there was a very small wooden box next to it. Pei Yi carefully took it out and gently opened the box.

Inside the box were some jade burial objects, very traditional burial items, likely a token of affection from Jun Huai's friend. Just when he thought the excavation would yield nothing, he found a compartment beneath the wooden box, perhaps to protect it from damage, wrapped in oil paper.

Unwrapping the oil paper, there was a note inside.

It read: "All the love I could give you is in that poem."

Feng Chun and his wife also saw, "What does this mean?"

"A poem..." Aunt Wu exclaimed, "Right. A poem! Didn't we find two pieces of text? That's a poem."

Feng Chun said, "But why would Jun Huai go through so much trouble to leave this note?"

Pei Yi frowned, "I don't know. Is it for us? Doesn't quite seem like it... Or maybe this note was written for Nan Feng. It seems now we need to find that poem, then help Jun Huai by reading it to Nan Feng."

Feng Chun said, "Didn't Nan Feng see Jun Huai die? Why do we need to convey it?"

Pei Yi said, "She didn't hear. Remember? After Nan Feng died, she became a snow woman and went to find Jun Huai, but Jun Huai rejected her. She never sought him out again, let alone kill him. And that day, when I was pushed off the cliff, I once tried to speak with Nan Feng but was unsuccessful.

"Even if Nan Feng is a form of electromagnetic wave, she needs a medium like a radio to communicate with us. So, Jun Huai thought Nan Feng would see what he left for her, but in fact, Nan Feng had no idea.

"—I suspect she doesn't even know Jun Huai is already dead."

"Ah, such a vast distance between life and death. He wrote her so many letters, but she didn't see a single word." Hearing this, Aunt Wu couldn't help but tear up, squeezing her husband's hand.

Feng Chun patted his wife's back. "Little Pei, where did you say we haven't found the poem? The north and west sides, right?"

Pei Yi nodded, "Time is of the essence. Let's split up. I'll head north, and you two go west." He looked up at the sky. "If we haven't found anything by noon, 12 o'clock, we'll return. The weather is likely to change."

The two said, "Okay. Be careful, Pei."

"Alright."

They parted ways. Without any means of communication, they could only estimate the time by the shadows on the ground, expecting it to be about an hour and a half until twelve.

Pei Yi headed north, to the highest skiing point, also where Little A fell. He had been here several times, once nearly pushed off by Chen Mo, so he remained cautious.

After looking around, first at the trees, he thought if he were Jun Huai, since trees had already been written about, he wouldn't write about trees again. Changing his approach, he remembered the pile of discarded ski gear.

After searching, he indeed found a line of words on one of the ski suits.

"I shall not see the shadows，I shall not feel the rain;

I shall not hear the nightingale，Sing on，as if in pain:"

Pei Yi transcribed it into his notebook.

After finishing, he looked up at the sky, which darkened again. Pei Yi packed up and planned to return. Not far out, he saw a snowman piled nearby, its body pure white and seemingly sacred. But its head was not a snowman's, it was Zhou You's.

He was thoroughly dead, his face covered in frostbite, purplish-red, having been frozen to death. His limbs extended from the snow, clearly broken by some immense force. The blood on the snow had already dried.

It was a tragic death.

At the same time, a blizzard rose in front of Pei Yi, rushing towards him. Pei Yi closed his eyes, calmly saying, "I was wrong. Nan Feng, do you know how much Jun Huai loved you?"

The blizzard seemed to pause in mid-air for a moment, whirling rapidly, then suddenly fell. It surely couldn't understand, Pei Yi knew, but It could feel. Pei Yi raised the notebook with the poem, not sure who he was showing it to, slowly saying, "You can see, right? This is what Jun Huai wrote for you."

Pei Yi thought he saw Nan Feng fleeing in panic, unwilling and afraid to believe that the person she had hated for so long still deeply loved her.

The snowflakes fluttered in the sky as Pei Yi returned to the cabin.

Only Uncle Feng came back.

Doctor Feng sighed, "Young Pei, I couldn’t find that poem. Your Aunt Wu fell off the cliff right before my eyes. She was afraid I’d follow her and deliberately let go of my hand. It’s my fault...

"If I hadn’t whimsically gone to play that escape room game, she wouldn’t have entered JC with me. I’m the one who caused her suffering... It’s me!" As he spoke, tears streamed down Doctor Feng's face.

Pei Yi said, "Uncle Feng... maybe it’s just a normal death, and everything will be fine after the game ends."

Doctor Feng shook his head, "No, Young Pei, death is real. We had a friend who thought the same, but when he died, he was truly gone, never to return. Some do come back alive.

"— It’s like gambling; no one knows if it's real death or just game death. How does the system define a person's death? We don’t know; we know nothing."

Pei Yi sighed, "Maybe… maybe, Uncle Feng. So, you have to survive, live for Aunt Wu. She would definitely want you to live well."

After speaking, he suddenly thought of something and stood up abruptly, "I know why Jun Huai called for Nan Feng as Jun Huai."

Doctor Feng asked, puzzled, "Why?"

"That phrase I just said, 'to replace'! When one person dies, they hope another lives on in their place. Jun Huai lived as if she were Nan Feng."

But Doctor Feng was no longer concerned with the truth, mumbling to himself, dejectedly sitting there.

After 3 PM, the sky had already turned pitch black, as if it were night.