The Back

Whatever. He’d asked anyway.

Zhu Yan weighed his words, then asked, “Do you know how your mother became like that?”

After thinking it over, he added carefully and clearly, “Have you ever seen a storybook with pictures or writing about your mother?”

That should be fairly close to the form a [Nightmare Book] would take.

At the very least, Zhu Yan thought it was something Li Laidi could understand.

Li Laidi still looked somewhat lost.

“Mother... like that?”

“No storybook.”

“A picture... drew Mother.”

Those three fragmented sentences made Zhu Yan feel as though she had exhausted all her mental strength just saying them.

She hadn’t answered his first question, but that last line—“A picture... drew Mother”—sounded as if there was some kind of painting that depicted Mother’s story.

There was hope!

An idea suddenly struck Zhu Yan. He took a fresh bottle of [Universal Potion] from his ring.

He had restocked at the [Demon Department Store] after leaving the [Recitation Platform]. Since he was wearing the level-14 [Demon Cloak], the potion was level 14 as well.

Earlier, in the dungeon [Old Wolf, Old Wolf, What Time Is It?], when he had encountered the [Consoling Motherbody], he had relied on the [Universal Potion] to resist the influence of some invisible force.

He had no idea what had driven Li Laidi mad.

Why not try pouring a level-14 [Universal Potion] over her head? It might work.

Zhu Yan hated himself for not thinking of it sooner.

After all, the [Nightmare Book] was simply too important!

As he bit off the cap and poured the potion over her, he kept part of his attention on what was happening with Li Daochang.

...

Li Daochang was staring at Zhu Yan with a sinister expression. Black threads of blood began spreading from the whites of its eyes, gradually filling its entire eye sockets.

From a distance, under the dim light, it looked as though the skin on its face was slowly rotting away.

Oh.

It wanted Zhu Zeyu to sign the contract.

Zhu Yan didn’t care in the slightest.

Zhu Zeyu was only a puppet. There was plenty of repair fluid available, and if that didn’t work, he could always send him back to Fei Ningqingting for factory repairs.

Either way, none of it would affect the real Zhu Yan.

“...Mister, why are you staring at me like that? I know I mentioned Dad in that whole string of nonsense I just said, but I didn’t mean my actual dad.”

Zhu Zeyu went straight for the jugular, continuing his nonsense under the effect of [Bringing Honor to the Family].

Mm. Very Thunderbolt.

But Zhu Yan was simply in the mood to be an asshole. He wanted to see just how much [Bringing Honor to the Family] could affect Li Daochang.

Li Daochang’s face darkened further. Fine blood vessels, like living worms, writhed their way over most of its face.

“Young man.”

Its voice was rough and icy. When it smiled, two rows of filthy teeth, faintly reeking of decay, showed through.

“Are you signing or not?”

Zhu Zeyu’s face went pale. He hurriedly took a frightened step back, putting on an act as though he had been scared senseless.

“Spineless trash. Bullies the weak and fears the strong,” the military doctor muttered.

Zhu Zeyu feigned difficulty as he stared at the yellow paper before him.

What a joke.

Even if he signed it, what could it do—turn a puppet into a [Walking Corpse]?

Zhu Zeyu suddenly wanted to laugh. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Jin Rongxu.

It seemed Zhu Yan had been dealing with Li Daochang for quite a while already.

But in terms of actual time, they had only been in this instance for around two hours.

Whether it was Jin Rongxu, Li Daochang, or even Mother behind the scenes, none of them would have expected things to progress this quickly.

Who knew what Jin Rongxu had read.

Hidden inside Zhu Zeyu’s body, Zhu Yan’s thoughts raced.

Mother was in the ancestral graveyard.

If they wanted to find Mother—or make further progress in the instance—then “getting married” was probably essential.

But Zhu Yan couldn’t do it himself.

For one thing, it was dangerous. For another, he was still so young; having to discuss marriage was just too creepy.

This sort of thing was best left to Jin Rongxu, who looked like he had plenty of experience.

After all, when Zhu Yan had talked Li Daochang into it, he had invoked Jin Rongxu’s name. And according to the scene the Seer had foreseen, Jin Rongxu would be perfectly fine in the end. It wouldn’t affect Zhu Yan’s ability to reap abilities in the large-scale public beta instance a month from now.

Letting Jin Rongxu handle it should move everything along smoothly!

These thoughts flashed through his mind like a carousel. Once Zhu Zeyu had figured it out, he raised his eyes again and looked at Jin Rongxu as if begging for help.

“C-Captain... should I sign it or not...?”

With that one sentence, he not only added more detail to the act, but also perfectly delayed Li Daochang’s departure.

If anyone from the Court of All Performances had been here, tips would probably have been showering Zhu Yan like snowflakes by now.

As expected, Jin Rongxu’s reply was exceedingly casual.

“Sign it. Why wouldn’t you?”

He tilted his head slightly. With the light behind him, Zhu Zeyu couldn’t make out his expression.

“Zhu Zeyu, if you’d taken my people seriously during the meeting, you should already know what will happen to you in the end.”

Zhu Zeyu understood.

By “my people,” Jin Rongxu meant “my subordinate”—namely, the Seer, who clearly wasn’t cut from the same cloth as Jin Rongxu.

In other words, Zhu Zeyu wouldn’t die no matter what happened later.

So what was the harm in signing a contract now?

...Still throwing his weight around at a time like this.

Zhu Zeyu complained inwardly, while outwardly continuing his performance with dutiful care.

He took out that pathetic Level 5 dinner knife and, trembling and quaking, brought it toward his finger as slowly as possible.

Even dragging things out for a few more seconds in the details was good.

Every second was precious time!

...

The effect of the [Panacea] was not particularly strong. Zhu Yan guessed it might be because Li Laidi’s madness had been caused to a considerable extent by human factors, rather than being entirely the result of an attack by a horror creature.

Or perhaps she was simply too far gone for one bottle of medicine to save her.

Still, it wasn’t completely useless—

Her eyes had finally regained a little clarity. When Zhu Yan asked her a second time, she was able to form sentences relatively smoothly.

“I don’t know why she became like that. It was night for two whole days in a row. When daylight finally came again, everything had changed.”

“Even when she was alive, she was extreme. Dad beat her, and afterward she became twisted too.”

Those two sentences were rather chilling.

Zhu Yan nodded, signaling for her to continue.

“I never saw any book like that.”

“But there was a painting. It showed this situation.”

Li Laidi blankly held out both hands and traced a size in the air.

“This big. It moved. It had Mother painted on it.”

“Where?” Zhu Yan asked urgently.

The [Book of Nightmares] might not be a book at all. It could be that thing.

“On Dad’s back,” Li Laidi said stiffly. “That one is Mother too. I can’t tell them apart. Mother and Dad are on their backs.”

“On Li Daochang’s body’s back?”

Li Laidi glanced at him.

“Yes,” she said with certainty.

As her words fell, the notification tone of [Everyone Has Their Fate] sounded in Zhu Yan’s ears.

“Player, please be careful.”

“[Everyone Has Their Fate] kindly reminds you: Do not touch the thing this woman is talking about.”

“The specific item cannot be detected. But it is extremely important—and extremely dangerous!”