416: 8.16 Who Hurt You?

8.16 Who Hurt You?

Lu Yizhou let out a breath he did not know he was holding. His stance relaxed albeit still fully alert in case anything cropped up.2

It was not a human or corpse, but a mannequin that resembled one so much it was almost uncanny.

But there was no mistake about that, it was indeed a mannequin which was sitting demurely inside the bathtub. Looking to be in her thirties, she had her hair woven into a long braid, clad in an old-fashioned dress that would otherwise be stylish during a certain period. Both of her hands were clasped in front of her as if she was praying.

She had a faint, gentle smile on her delicate face and black beaded eyes as dark as onyx that were looking blankly to the opposite wall. Lu Yizhou quietly admired the skill of the artist who had created this mannequin, especially the effort that had been put into her expression. She might look smiling in one glance but the more Lu Yizhou looked, the sadder she was… it was almost as if her lips were slowly curling downward…

No. He closed his eyes and shook his head lightly. He must have been quite exhausted to come up with something like that.

As he concluded his early observation, Ji Yan had also done his own investigation. "Hmm-mm… There's nothing wrong with the mannequin but…" He showed a crying look. "What is it doing here…? I have the feeling that she will come alive in the next second and stand up…" Frightened by his own words, Ji Yan abruptly jumped back and shook his head. "No, no, the first important rule in playing this game is don't be paranoid."

Lu Yizhou huffed out a chuckle. "That's a good rule." He had been so paranoid ever since he entered the game that it sounded funny to his own ears. 

Ji Yan suddenly snapped his head up and his eyes grew impossibly wide. "Y–You're smiling…" A broad smile gradually spread across his face and the brown eyes that were illuminated by the flickering flame almost became amber in color. "That's a first, Miss Irene. You look so beautiful when you smile…"

The slight curl on the corner of Lu Yizhou's lips instantly flattened. "Let's focus on somewhere else," he deadpanned. "We haven't found the crying woman yet."

"O–Oh!" Ji Yan fell into steps beside him with a flush coloring his cheeks. 

Lu Yizhou took no notice of it because he was lost in his own thoughts. Ji Yan was right. There might be nothing wrong with the mannequin in general but the fact that she was here in the bathroom already screamed something dubious was going on. And not to mention that the song they had heard earlier. What were the lyrics again…

Beside him, Ji Yan abruptly stopped walking and Lu Yizhou lifted his eyes to see him staring wide-eyed at something past Lu Yizhou's shoulders with intense horror in his eyes. Alarm bells rang in his mind. That was—

""AAAAAAHHH!!!" A high pitched scream erupted from the depth of Ji Yan's throat, almost ear-splitting in its intensity. The candle slipped from his weakening grip and crashed to the floor. Its flame flickered and faded under the dampness. His pupils shook wildly and then they suddenly rolled backward. 

[666: AAA AH AH AAAAAHHH— IN THE MIRROR, HOST IN THE MIR— *faints*]

Lu Yizhou swiveled to look at the mirror and his eyes widened when he saw that the mannequin was standing behind him! 

Somewhere outside the bathroom, there was a loud crash followed by a few urgent requiry. "W–What happened?!" "I–Is that Ji Yan's voice?!" "Ji Yan, Irene, are you okay?!"

There was a horde of footsteps coming this way but before anyone could come in, the bathroom door slammed shut with a loud bang, trapping Lu Yizhou and Ji Yan inside!

Lu Yizhou instinctively shot out a leg to tackle the mannequin only to meet with nothing! With his back to the mirror, he swept his gaze around the surroundings to find the bathroom empty save from Ji Yan who was unconscious and the weakly flickering candle on the floor. Where had she disappeared to?! The bathroom was just this wide so there was no way she could hide anywhere! As for the mannequin…

She was still sitting in the bathtub in the exact same position Lu Yizhou remembered. Only that her neck had moved to look straight at him with a wide and eerie smile on her face! 

'D–Daddy, Daddy!' Ozzie's voice shook as her tail slapped his cheek again and again. 'In the mirror, look in the mirror!'

In reflex, Lu Yizhou glanced at the mirror to see that the mannequin was still standing in front of him! No, that was not a mannequin. She was… the spirit of the woman who had cried earlier? So Lu Yizhou could only see her through the mirror?

He eyed the unmoving mannequin, the mirror and the empty space before him back and forth. Every sense in his body was heightened to the maximum, ready to attack at any time. For a few moments, nobody moved. There existed nothing amid the strained and horrifying silence save for his own heartbeats.

And then, the woman in the mirror suddenly opened her mouth and started to sing. "I didn't harm her… She lied to you…" At the same time, bloody tears flowed freely from her eyes and drenching her dress in no time at all. The weak flame illuminated her side profile and made her look especially sad. A glance to the side told Lu Yizhou that the same phenomenon was happening to the mannequin. 

Heavy stench of blood started to permeate the air, so thick that Lu Yizhou could taste it on the tip of his tongue. He switched to breathing through his mouth and his fists clenched when the woman in the mirror started to take a step forward, her hands reaching out. "It hurts… oh it hurts so much…"

There was no time to think. Lu Yizhou opened his mouth and blurted out, "Who hurt you?"

Wrong move. The woman's face twisted in anger, despair and hatred as black veins surged up her neck to cover almost her entire face, her nails sharpening into claws. The bloody eyes that landed on Lu Yizhou were filled with thick malice. "YOU—!!!" 

Ozzie's claws were out and she bared her fangs, fur bristling. 'Daddy, leave this one to me meow!'

Lu Yizhou nodded. At the same time, he also moved to punch the mirror to see if it could affect her. Except before Lu Yizhou and Ozzie could attack, the woman's body suddenly flew back as if repelled by an invisible barrier, sending her flying to the area outside the mirror. Her cries lingered in the air, faint and waning without a trace of the previous wrath. "Forgive me… Forgive me, I didn't know—"

Lu Yizhou was stunned with his fist hanging midair. What had happened?

'D–Daddy…' Ozzie's voice suddenly grew weak as she swayed and fell unconscious in his arms. 

Lu Yizhou's heart almost jumped out of his throat. 'Ozzie?!' He checked the feline's heartbeat only to realize that she was just asleep, softly snoring with a peaceful look on her face. And then, her body started to fade away.

[[Your cat familiar, Ozzie, is currently drained of HP. Cooldown until you can summon it again: 59 minutes 57 seconds.]]

Lu Yizhou heaved out a sigh of relief. He had never played games before but the ability to summon and call back pet familiar sounded like something that would just happen here. He let Ozzie go so that she could rest. And now with 666 and Ji Yan unconscious, Lu Yizhou was left alone to ruminate on what had happened. First, the barrier that repelled the ghost and then Ozzie who suddenly lost her energy even though she had not done anything, those things could only be done by—

The answer came to him the next second in the form of a solid arms that was wrapped around his waist from behind. A voice, amused yet tinged with anger, sounded above his head. "Ah, ah, she is mine. How dare you touch her after knowing that?"

"Forgive me… forgive me, milady…"

Lu Yizhou relaxed almost immediately in his lover's cold embrace. It took a while for him to realize how tense he had been. Now that the adrenaline had slipped off his system, he felt his legs trembling a bit. How the hell did he get so weak? Or was it because he was in Irene's body? 

"You came…" he rasped, relief was evident in his tone.

"Of course I did." A kiss landed on his side temple. "No one touches what's mine." She added after some thought. "Especially you."

Lu Yizhou couldn't help but laugh. This possessive streak was so familiar that it filled him with warmth. In a locked bathroom filled with the stench of blood, an unconscious protagonist, a bloody mannequin and a vengeful ghost crying in the corner, Lu Yizhou unexpectedly felt like he had finally returned home. 

"Oh…" She sighed in awe and twirled Lu Yizhou's golden locks in between her fingers. From the corner of his eyes, he could make out only a few slender and pale fingers with pitch black nails. "That despicable woman is right, your smile is indeed so beautiful."

Despicable woman…? Lu Yizhou blinked and then realized that his lover was talking about Ji Yan. He was so used to seeing him as a male that it took him a while to realize that they were all females in the eyes of others.

"Really? Do you think so?" Upon receiving a hum of affirmation, Lu Yizhou continued, his tone mildly teasing. "Then why don't you let me turn around so I can give you my best smile?"

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