Deep in the Living-Chapter 11 - 9: Guests Feel at Home

"Is this the white lantern? I've heard that you Huaxia people used to hang this up when conducting funerals... I've seen plenty of pictures in books, but this is my first time seeing it in reality."

Anna's height allowed her to easily reach the lantern. Driven by curiosity, she wanted to take a closer look but was quickly pulled away by the class leader.

"Let's go~ This thing isn't auspicious; it could even be dangerous in practice."

"I know, Wenwen, I'm not going to touch it haphazardly."

Anna trusted her best friend without hesitation, then turned to look at the mahogany front gate that had been unlocked, with strong arms bracing against it.

Creak~

The heavy wooden gate, somewhat decayed, was pushed open.

The overgrown weeds in the courtyard had covered the stone path, the chill breeze remained undiminished, and the cold seemed even more intense.

After making sure that there was no anomaly in the front courtyard, the four of them stepped on the vaguely visible stone path buried among the weeds and approached the main entrance of the mansion.

The door, sketched with exquisite wood patterns, was not locked, but everyone was in no rush to push it open. After all, the incident had already begun, and danger might lie just beyond this door.

They decided to resort to the method they'd used before,

Everyone moved as far back as possible, and the class leader used her climbing stick to lightly push the door.

As the door slowly opened, everyone held their breath, concentrated, and prepared for combat,

Waiting for the door to swing wide,

There was neither anything lunging out nor any humanoid silhouette visible,

But a strong odor rushed out, like an invisible slender arm piercing into everyone's esophagus, gently pinching the stomach lining and tugging at the throat.

Although everyone had undergone various forms of training at school, they had virtually no practice with respect to odors.

Except for Luo Di, the other three had a strong vomiting reaction.

The class leader reacted very quickly and immediately took out pre-prepared masks from her backpack, distributing one to each person, which finally alleviated the situation.

Putting aside the interference of the odor, everyone proceeded into the mansion's hall.

It had been arranged into a Spirit Hall,

White curtains were set waving around the hall in a wavelike manner, constantly fluttering in the draft,

A mahogany altar table had been placed at the center,

Four bowls of already moldy white rice still had burnt-out incense sticks in them,

The dishes and fruits had completely rotten, and saprotrophic organisms had made nests within them, indulging in this hard-to-come-by feast,

Overall, one thing was very strange—the scene was traditionally and fully equipped with various funeral items, yet the most important item was missing.

"Deceased's portrait"

By then, the masked class leader had undergone a dramatic change in demeanor. Her piercing eyes swiftly swept over the entire hall and she gave instructions for the next course of action:

"Going forward, we need to maintain the integrity of our squad and act together throughout, conducting a thorough inspection of the mansion. Once we've ensured its safety, we'll come back here and clean up these moldy things."

Under the class leader's guidance, the full-house inspection officially began,

All windows in the mansion were covered with white floral paper, greatly reducing the amount of natural light and lending an indelibly gloomy hue to the overall setting.

This gloominess also highlighted the white lanterns hanging in the corridors—each one became an indispensable source of light.

The rather tense whole-house inspection quickly concluded,

The anticipated dangers and possible bizarre events did not occur. There wasn't a single silhouette in the entire mansion, nor was there the "Portrait" that was supposed to exist.

Worth mentioning is,

The master bedroom on the second floor was spacious and well-lit. If safety could be guaranteed, they could rest here instead of pitching tents outside.

Since no issues were found in the main building, only the backyard remained unchecked.

Oddly enough,

There wasn't a single window facing the backyard within the two-story main building,

However, Gao Yuxuan was very observant; he noticed that windows did exist but had been sealed up early on with cement.

There was only one "Door" inside the main building that led to the backyard,

And it was a modern Iron Gate completely out of style with the old house,

The gate had no lock structure and was completely locked from the inside. It even felt like there was a heavy object blocking it from the back, and the four of them, with their capabilities, couldn't open it no matter what.

Left with no other options,

The four could only go around to the outside of the mansion and try to enter the backyard by climbing over the wall.

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Although the front courtyard's surrounding wall was completely normal, the top of the back courtyard wall was covered with sharp, blade-equipped iron wire mesh, corroded and spotted with rust.

Only the top of a twisted tree could be seen over the wall, seemingly similar to the locust tree Luo Di had found the wooden box in earlier in the mountains.

Perhaps this tree was directly connected with the current practice,

The monitor took out all kinds of protective gear such as knee pads and wrist guards from the backpack, ready to arm himself fully and attempt to forcefully cross the sharp iron wire to climb over.

Standing at the back of the group, assessing the height of the wall, Luo Di suddenly suggested, "If I stand on Anna's shoulders, I might be able to saw through the wire on top. That way it might be safer."

Anna greatly agreed with this proposal, and with a fist striking her palm, she said, "That's good! Wenwen, you don't need to climb the wall alone anymore; it would be troublesome if you got scratched and contracted tetanus."

"Alright~ then it's up to the two of you to cooperate."

There's no denying that Anna's physical condition was truly excellent.

As soon as Luo Di stepped onto her shoulders, the squatting Anna rose steadily, without any unnecessary shaking throughout the process.

Even with their heights stacked, it was just barely enough to reach the top of the wall.

Luo Di tried to grasp the edge of the wall with his gloved left hand to increase stability.

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Buzz!

The automatic electric saw bought from the terminal supermarket started for the first time, and with the motor driving, the alloy saw teeth easily cut through the rough, rust-stained iron wire.

As a large circle of iron wire fell, an opening large enough for a single person to pass through was created at the top of the wall.

With hands supported, Luo Di agilely stepped onto the wall with ease, as if he was very adept at this sort of thing.

When his gaze fell onto the interior of the backyard, his entire person visibly paused, and his words became somewhat colder,

"The Iron Gate leading to the main building should be able to be opened from the inside; just wait at the Iron Gate, I'll open the door from the inside."

Having said that, Luo Di leaped down into the backyard with precision.

The group of three led by the monitor quickly went back to the mansion, and on the way, Anna softly whispered into the monitor's ear, "Wenwen~ this guy seems to really have something, very steady center of gravity, and his actions are clean and decisive."

Wu Wen's eyes behind her white mask squinted into a curved slit, "He's very impressive."

By the time the three of them returned to the Iron Gate leading to the backyard, they could faintly hear something heavy being moved one by one behind the gate,

followed by the sound of the electric saw cutting again.

Snap!

The internal chain was sawn off and dropped,

The sliding Iron Gate opened slowly,

As the Iron Gate revealed the backyard,

The three high school students standing in the doorway were all stunned, their expressions rapidly changing multiple times within a short period of time.

It wasn't just a visual shock,

There was also a smell, a pungent smell carried on the cold wind,

It could penetrate the mask, burrow into the nostrils, could make the tongue firmly held between lips and teeth distinctly taste this anomalous flavor, several times stronger than the odor in the hall.

The intertwining of scent and image brought an extreme mental shock.

Like a high fever that consumed Consciousness, scouring thoughts from within the brain.

If the experience in the Spirit Hall earlier could be likened to an appetizer, then this scene was undoubtedly today's signature main dish.

Anna was the first who couldn't hold it in and threw up on the spot.

Gao Yuxuan reached for his abdomen and turned away to head to the toilet in the mansion.

The monitor pressed both hands firmly over her mask, and after some struggle in her gaze, finally steadied her tumultuous stomach and examined the scene before her once more.

The entire backyard was filled with the corpses of cattle and pigs and the excrement produced after their death, swarmed by flies and insects.

Strangely enough, despite such an intense odor, the group had not been able to smell it from outside the wall, as if the entire backyard was enveloped by something invisible.

The animal corpses and the odor, however, were not really the main focus,

The monitor, Wu Wen, quickly fixed her gaze on the center of the backyard, on the Huge and twisted old locust tree.

There hung four figures dressed in retro Huaxia attire on different regions of the tree, suspended by hemp ropes. Their bodies were at varying stages of decay, yet their bulging Eyes uniformly stared towards the mansion,

staring at the sole entrance and exit,

staring at the young intruders who had broken in.

Combined with the funeral theme of the mansion,

it appeared as if they had arranged a funeral for themselves, and the attendees were the four who had found the key to the mansion.

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