Seven Days, Seven Nights

006 – Teammateship
※·※「someone said, treat everyone the same. 」

There seemed to be only one weather outside.

The second day, it was still dark and oppressive. The lights of the dawn had just straggled into the house when the four exited their rooms as one despite not having communicated. Xuanyuan Aoyu was exhausted, the rusty vegetable knife still gripped in his right hand, the sweat dripping down along his hand.

“We’ve survived.” He leant against the wall, trying to even out his breathing. Suddenly something seemed to occur to him and he appeared more tense. “Did that little monster enter the house?”

Su Er shook his head. “There’s still a small distance to go.”

After two days of eating only some dried bread, everyone’s force level had more or less decreased somewhat. Although it was still quite far from the death point of ‘1’, in this environment one couldn’t help but feel unease.

Li Li continued rummaging through the kitchen, unwilling to give up, and she somehow did manage to find some vermicelli and dried seaweed in the innermost corner of a cupboard. The resulting soup didn’t taste all that great, but in this environment it was sufficient to satisfy them.

“If we could have a packet of instant noodles it’d be great.” Zhang He remembered the higher standards of staple foods and beverages.

Su Er was confused. “In such a huge villa, with everyone dead, the water and electricity is somehow still running.”

Zhang He said, “Maybe they had just died.”

Li Li was more worried about more realistic issues. “If I get out alive, I’ll keep food on me from now on.”

In this cruel world where a momentary distraction would result in death by ghost, wouldn’t it be even more pitiful to die of starvation?

The moment she finished speaking, she saw everyone look at her.

Su Er said, “It’s written in the booklet that weapons, food and communication devices cannot be brought in.”

This was also the biggest reason he didn’t want to expose the taser’s existence. There must be something special about that thing.

After managing to get a full meal, everyone’s heavy hearts lightened slightly.

Zhang He got up. “I’ll go take another look at the attic.”

Su Er glanced at the clock hanging in the living room. “Usually at this time we’d be taking turns telling stories.”

After that, ignoring everyone’s changing expression, he opened the door a slit. The child was still struggling forward, every movement extraordinarily tough, his bones cycling between being crushed and recovering.

Su Er said, “There’s only two minutes left before you have to cry.”

The child raised its head, its gaze creepy.

Su Er was very focused. “One minute left.”

Li Li tugged on his sleeves. “Stop, stop angering it.”

Su Er said, “A few days ago I wanted to coax the child to sleep out of the goodness of my heart, but he sent out snakes to bite me to death, what’s wrong with saying a few words?”

“…” How reasonable.

“Ten, nine, eight… three, two…” Su Er began counting down beautifully, “Zero.”

At that moment, the child was about a metre away from the door. Su Er turned around and looked at Gentleman Rosa. “He’s late to work.”

This is an irresponsible monster.

“…”

Su Er said, “Ghosts are more powerful than humans. We need to be killed for making minor mistakes; according to this then, should he be fired immediately?”

The Gentleman Rosa’s gentle voice revealed his killing intention. “It’s not under my jurisdiction.”

Unable to find a loophole, Su Er shook his head. “You really aren’t capable.”

“…” If he wasn’t limited by the rules, Gentleman Rosa really wanted to dismantle him by his joints and turn him into fertiliser.

Li Li had wanted to try and persuade him not to keep this all the way to the end, but then she thought about it and found that Su Er’s actions had helped them find a hidden rule: if the child didn’t enter the house, the night was relatively safer, which means to say that those solidified horror stories were controlled by this child.

Su Er closed the door, ready to start organising the information he’d already obtained.

Li Li said, “That’s it?”

Su Er hadn’t gotten what she was implying immediately. Only after a moment did he say with amusement, “Or else? Throw some rotten eggs outside?”

Did he appear to be someone this heartless?

A few gaze landed on him at the same time, staying for a few seconds each before shifting away.

From their gaze, Su Er sieved out some information and frowned. “If there’s eggs, it’s not enough for us to eat. Why would I be willing to throw it?”

Everyone went silent.

“Although…” Su Er was a little thoughtful and found a mop from the washroom. Reopening the door, he carefully pushed it forward and the child that had just crawled in was forcefully pushed back somewhat.

“It works!” Su Er’s eyes brightened. “It seems that the squeezing of the space outside is only working on living objects.” He turned around with excitement. “Thanks everyone for the inspiration!”

The child’s gaze was like daggers, staring through Su Er to glare at the remaining three, as if it really would like to skin them all alive.

The ‘wounded’ teammates: “…”

Gentleman Rosa’s eyes went black, and he felt that his career was about to end. 

Su Er pushed forward again, but before the mop could near it was shredded by sharp nails. Sighing lightly — as expected, there are some shortcuts that could not be taken — he regretfully closed the door. “We should keep our feet on the ground.”

Zhang He took a deep breath, walked over and patted Su Er on the shoulder, speaking out the words on everyone’s mind. “Say that to yourself more often.”

After that, no more time was wasted. They went into the rooms to begin searching every nook and cranny. According to the current speed, the monster would definitely return indoors again before lunch. Yesterday it was Xuanyuan Aoyu, today it was his turn to do the storytelling.

Su Er didn’t join the search, instead studying the few photos on his own.

Li Li was about to go upstairs, but after seeing that came over to ask, “Is there anything special about these photos?”

Su Er said, “I keep thinking that I must have missed something.”

Li Li hesitated. “Let me see.”

Su Er passed it over.

Li Li sat beside him, seriously reading it one by one, the strands of hair falling out covering half of her face.

Su Er suddenly remembered Zhu Yun. That was also a very careful, meticulous person. 

“They’re wearing the same cult uniforms, but the photos should be taken at different times.” Li Li picked out two of them. “From how much the flowers had flowered it’s possible to see that. Also, most of the time they gather at night.”

Su Er said, “It’s easier to hide things at night.”

Although they said it all very righteously, the cultists were still subconsciously aware that they were doing things that couldn’t see the light.

The discomfiting sound of fingernails scraping the ground came from outside. Li Li said, “It’s terrifying inside the house but I think it’s the outside that’s winning the race.”

She didn’t at all suspect that she wouldn’t be squeezed into pieces upon stepping out.

“Perhaps the world outside is the real world.”

“Huh?”

Su Er stood by the window. “The moment that monster appear in the world, plenty of people would be hurt. So the rules limited it, preventing it from going out.”

Li Li’s heart pounded and reflexively she wanted to continue this conversation, but she heard Su Er laugh. “Just guessing randomly, don’t think too much of it.”

After saying that he turned around to encircle the child’s bed, studying the blood on it.

Li Li gazed at his back, then looked down after a while. The information this person revealed looked very reasonable — born mid-July and was attractive to dirty things, has light emotional incapacity — but it was far from enough to explain his performance.

At least she herself had never seen respect and fear of ghosts in Su Er’s eyes.

Suddenly the sound of running and scolding came from upstairs.

Li Li reflexively wanted to run up, but Su Er caught her. “Bring your weapons.”

All the tools in the kitchen that they could use last night had been brought to the rooms, so Li Li could only find a pair of scissors. Su Er got something from their immediate surroundings — with one kick he got rid of the protective barriers around the child’s bed and used it as a weapon in front of him. The thing wasn’t too useful, but it was good for protecting against close combat.

Zhang He showed up at the stairs with blood on his face. He had sprained his ankle and was inching forward; behind him, Xuanyuan Aoyu was walking forwards with a rusty knife.

Disaster never comes alone. A huge sound suddenly came from the villa’s door. Where the lock was, there now was a hole and, alongside some ‘zhiya’ sounds, the child crawled in. His feet had almost devolved into the sharp claws of beasts, not very suitable for standing up and walking. After finally crawling to a familiar position, he looked up and found that the guard rails around the bed had been removed. 

Su Er who was caught red-handed: “…”

Zhang He was currently struggling his way down the stairs. Upon seeing this, he couldn’t help cursing, momentarily unable to distinguish whether it was more dangerous upstairs or downstairs.

“Take a step back, and the world is endless.” Su Er hinted at him to come down. 

Xuanyuan Aoyu’s gaze was unfocused. At least he wasn’t fast, and he was waving his knife about in the air, basically attacking everything indiscriminately.

Before they could speak, Zhang He automatically explained, “We found an urn in the attic. This guy looked at it for a while and became abnormal.”

Su Er asked, “Where’s the urn?”

Zhang He was a little uncertain. “It should still be in the attic.”

Li Li’s voice was quavering a little. “How about we think about how to deal with this ancestor behind us first?”

Su Er turned back and glanced at the other. The child was sitting on the edge of the ruined bed, coldly staring at him.

Su Er glanced at the time. “It’s not time for storytelling yet.”

To put it bluntly, if the other could randomly attack, they wouldn’t be able to live until now.

Li Li stared unblinkingly at it for a while, confirming that although the child was looking at them with displeasure, he wasn’t displaying any intentions to attack. Then she forced herself to turn around, focusing entirely on Xuanyuan Aoyu.

“We need a way to make him wake up again.”

They definitely had the advantage, numerically speaking, but between a possessed nut job and players who wanted to survive, the former was physically stronger.

Su Er kept the bars in front of him as he advanced up the stairs. Xuanyuan Aoyu was attracted by the noise, swiping this way with his knife. The guardrail was more useful than he had expected. The irrational Xuanyuan Aoyu was whacking at him randomly, and he took the opportunity to let go of the guardrail to get close. Very quickly he stuck is hands in the pocket and, through the pocket, tasered the other a few times. In order not to attract suspicions, he even took out the photo to point it at the other and shout, “Make him wake up.”

Before the woman in the photograph could react, it was stuffed back into his pocket.

The pain induced by the taser caused Xuanyuan Aoyu’s actions to slow. Some confusion surfaced in his gaze, as if he had recovered somewhat.

Su Er fake-called, “Don’t you remember? We’re teammates, we’re each other’s support in times of dangers!”

While everyone was still focused on his acting, he tasered the other again.

“Xuanyuan Aoyu, wake up! Look at me! Remember everything that we’ve gone through together!”

The ghost could only affect a person’s consciousness. A person’s physical limitations still existed though — after being tased so many times, Xuanyuan Aoyu successfully fainted. 

Zhang He hurriedly came up and helped shift the other onto the sofa. To prevent any mishaps, he tied the other’s hands together tightly. Li Li found some cold water to splash onto the other’s face, and Xuanyuan Aoyu thus slowly woke up.

His entire body was numb, especially near his waist. Seeing everyone surrounding him, he frowned. “What happened?”

Su Er said, “You have been affected by spirits.”

Zhang He, to the side, seemed to realise something and slapped his hands together. “Right! That photo you found could also affect people’s wills, it could fight poison with poison.”

The photograph didn’t do anything at all. Worried that the woman in it would use Xuanyuan Aoyu to attack him, he only took it out to make a production of it before keeping it again. But he had to keep up appearances. Sighing long and loud, he then said, “But what woke you up in the end was teammate-ship.”

Xuanyuan Aoyu echoed, “Teammate-ship?”

Su Er nodded. 

Xuanyuan Aoyu’s brows furrowed deeper, feeling like there must be some misunderstanding. How did he not know that he felt so deeply for all of them?

“It is true.” Li Li described the illusion someone watching from the sideline would see. “Then, you were staring at Su Er in the eyes, one hand raising the knife high. You were struggling between swinging it down and not doing so, in the end fainting because of the painful internal struggle.”

the author has something to say: 
Su Er: You’re all here to work, why is it that when he’s late to work he’s not being held accountable?
Gentleman Rosa: …
Su Er: I want to lodge a complaint.