After losing three sons and Asumu, this caused the old man’s mind to collapse. He lowered his head and mumbled things that no one understood. In the end, even the mumbling stopped.
The village head, who lost his heart, slid down the wall. A giant hole in his chest gurgled out blood. A red line moved down the yellowed wall. His head was gone too.
The figure flickered and she appeared in the hidden room. Three human heads were casually dropped on the ground. The village head, Qian Jianxiu, and… Asumu.
Asumu’s head landed less than a metre away from Jiang Cheng. His head was at least twice as big as the other two heads. Due to the angle, Jiang Cheng couldn’t see his head, only his hair that was matted with blood. Blood flowed through the black floor.
The twisting figure opened the closet using her impossibly flexible arms. She walked in, and the closet closed with a creak.
She left. Then again, what else could she do if she stayed? She got her revenge. This was a release for her. Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but be reminded of the women at Little Ravine Village. He thought of the hostility and tiredness on their faces. This kind of life was a torture for them. Some of them already had a dead heart.
Even if they could leave Little Ravine Village, nothing would ever be the same. The stigma they would receive from society at large would be the second knife above their necks. Suddenly, Jiang Cheng felt something strange. It was as if… there was a pair of eyes on him. He instantly turned to the closet. The closet doors were firmly shut, and the hidden room was unusually quiet.
Then, he slowly moved his gaze to search around the hidden room. It was covered by a mysterious halo. Jiang Cheng guessed this was the iron door’s blessing. Every piece of furniture was where it should be. They were dusted with strange light. This hidden room… no, this hostel should be devoid of living humans.
But… who was staring at him then?
It was… Asumu! His tilted head lay on the ground. His eyes were widened, and his mouth was agape. He stared at Jiang Cheng like he still had things he wanted to say. A decapitated head would not get Jiang Cheng to react , but this was different because he remembered Asumu’s head was supposed to look away from him.
He looked at Asumu’s eyes in confusion. Jiang Cheng knew that something was wrong. He tried to move his eyes away, but he found that he couldn’t do that. Asumu’s eyes were like a dark, cold pool. It was strangely freezing but one couldn’t move one’s eyes away. His mind was affected, and his right leg started to move uncontrollably as if trying to move away from the iron door and back into the mission world. It was a strange feeling. He knew what was happening and what he needed to do, but his limbs were not under his control.
This reminded him of another location… The Cold Virtue Pool.
He realised that he was already in a trap. She hadn’t left. She was still there. Plus, she could see him or at least sense him. However, due to the limitations of the rules, she couldn’t harm him, who was inside the door. However, she could lure him out by messing with his mind.
There was one thing that was certain. Once he left the iron door, he would die. He tried to bite his tongue, hoping to use the pain to awaken himself. However, no matter how hard he bit, he couldn’t get out of her mind control. The scariest thing was he didn’t feel any sting of pain.
The ghost was slowly taking over his mind and consciousness. Asumu’s head was the trap laid down by the ghost. Whenever his consciousness built up a wall, the defence would be shattered. His head felt like exploding.
Asumu’s voice echoed in his ears. He pleaded with Jiang Cheng not to abandon him. Then, he asked Jiang Cheng to come back to help close his eyes.
Jiang Cheng’s right leg slowly approached the edge of the light. His struggle was not meaningless. He was buying them. The iron door wouldn’t be there forever. Once the time was up, he would return to the real world. Therefore… he only needed to survive until then. How much longer that would be, he had no idea. The time flow there couldn’t be understood in a conventional way. However, Jiang Cheng refused to die there .
Then, he heard a crisp, shattering sound.
The next second, his eyes darkened. A thing that was barely human stood less than 20 meters away from him. She had a broken face. She stood facing him. The right side of the face was relatively fine, but the left side was cracked. A broken spectacle hung from her right ear. The exposed teeth were caved in. The tooth was embedded into the red flesh, like a group of maggots.
It was clear that the left side of the face was beaten out of shape. Jiang Cheng guessed the weapons included stones with sharp edges.
Jiang Cheng felt uncomfortable. This should be the actual ghost.
Hidden behind the curtain of tousled hair, a pair of red eyes glared at him. Jiang Cheng knew that if he left the door’s halo, he would be beheaded directly.
The next second, the scene around him started to swirl. A powerful force pulled Jiang Cheng back.
After the familiar sense of vertigo, his feet found purchase. He was back in his office. He swayed and almost fell to the floor.
Before he could turn his head, the iron door behind him disappeared.
He took a deep breath. He moved his numb legs to pour himself a glass of water. The water was warm. As the warmth flowed down his throat, he felt much better.
He didn’t hide his existence, so it didn’t take long for a small series of steps to come from the stairs. Jiang Cheng could imagine the cautious Fatty moving down the steps. He must have heard the commotion downstairs and came to check on it.
“Doctor?” Fatty’s voice came before his person. “Is… that you?”
Jiang Cheng took another sip of the water and said, “No.”
Fatty, by then, had poked his large head from the corner of the stairs. When he saw Jiang Cheng on the couch, his expression brightened. “Doctor, you’re so fast! You’re back in the time I used to change my clothes!”