Chapter 107: Shuangxi Town (Part 1) – Walking the Yin Path

“Let me tell you, this Shuangxi Town of ours is the biggest town for miles around. If you look elsewhere, it’s all backwater corners; you won’t find a town as big as ours anywhere else!”

The hoarse voice sounded like a brush rubbing against tree bark, ringing out cheerfully beside him, accompanied by the “swish-swish” sound of wooden oars hitting the water.

Qi Si opened his eyes and found himself sitting on a wooden raft. Standing in front was a thin, withered old man wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat, puffing and panting as he rowed with a wooden oar.

The raft floated on the black-green river water, moving forward slowly and steadily.

The old man poling the boat was quite talkative, his mouth not stopping the entire way: “Let me tell you again, our feng shui is top-notch. Relying on water gathers wealth, and wealth shouldn’t be flaunted. This river is promising; it only allows entry, not exit. Once the source of wealth enters, not a single bit leaks out. This river, ordinary people can’t come here, and they wouldn’t dare to!”

Chinese-style horror?

Looking at the noisy old man who was so thin he was nothing but bones, Qi Si suddenly felt like giving him a push to see if he could swim.

Of course, it was just a thought.

The black-haired young man tucked his hands into his pants pockets and curled his lips into a gentle, harmless smile: “Old man, isn’t this river a bit too narrow? If two boats, one entering and one exiting, met, wouldn’t they get stuck?”

While speaking, he lowered his gaze and saw a name tag hanging around his neck with the words “Folklore Investigator” written on it. This must be his identity in this instance.

The plastic card holder wrapping the name tag was thick and bulging, as if something else was tucked inside.

The old man said: “Didn’t I tell you? This river of ours, the living are allowed to enter but not exit. If you want to leave, go by land.”

“Is there some reason for that?” Qi Si lifted the name tag hanging on his chest seemingly casually and glanced down.

Tucked into the back of the name tag was a stack of photos. On top was a group photo of a girl in her early twenties holding the arm of a young man in a white shirt, smiling sweetly.

The girl on the left had long hair and a baby face as pale as wall plaster; her lips were also white, her eyebrows so faint they were almost invisible, and only her eyes were a deep, lightless black.

The young man on the right was Qi Si himself—or more accurately, some unknown thing wearing Qi Si’s face. It was making an expression Qi Si was unfamiliar with, a look of happiness as if blinded by love, which immediately triggered the real person’s mental squeamishness.

Qi Si lowered his eyes, his words continuing without pause: “We specialize in researching folklore culture. Old man, if you know of any customs, do tell us. When we develop the tourism industry later, these can all be taken into account.”

The old man “hummed”: “What customs? If everyone took the same path, wouldn’t they collide?”

What a plain and unadorned answer…

Qi Si was slightly disappointed, and then he heard the old man lower his voice and say mysteriously: “If you really want to ask for the reasoning, I can give you one, two, three, four…”

His voice was eerie, slurred as if he had a mouthful of phlegm: “Water belongs to the Yin; the waterway is the Yin path. Enter by the Yin path, exit by the Yang path. Humans and ghosts follow different paths; life and death do not share the same road…”

White mist rose ahead, and the damp water vapor hit his face and rushed into his nasal cavity, bringing a sticky sensation of suffocation.

Silver-white text refreshed before his eyes, accompanied by an emotionless electronic voice.

【instance Name: “Shuangxi Town”】

【instance Type: Team Survival】

【main quest: Find Xu Wen and take her away】

【Prerequisite Hint: The living are not necessarily living, and the dead are not necessarily dead】

Qi Si now knew the name of the girl in the photo: Xu Wen.

“This is a team survival instance, that’s a good thing! Finally, no need for intrigue!” A thick, muffled voice sounded from behind, filled with overflowing joy. “That confrontation instance seven days ago was just too much. Good thing I’m good at playing dead.”

This person didn’t sound very smart: “My name is Liu Bingding. Including the Novice Pool, this is my sixth instance. I’m an actor; it’s embarrassing to say, but I’m just a background extra who plays corpses.”

Once someone started, the self-introductions continued one after another:

“I’m Du Xiaoyu, this is my fourth instance. Hehe, I just became an official player. I’m a freelancer in reality.”

“Li Yao, fifth time. I mainly write supernatural novels, so I know quite a bit about folklore.”

“Shang Qingbei, fourth instance… um, I’m in my third year of high school, taking the college entrance exam this year.”

If everything they said was true, the players in this instance were about the same level—all newbies who hadn’t been official players for long.

This was the normal setup—newbies of equal strength pecking at each other; it was only worth watching if the fight went back and forth.

Like the last instance, facing a player of Lu Li’s level right from the start was, after all, a rare, extreme case.

Qi Si was in a good mood, and his tone became much lighter: “Old man, to tell you the truth, I have a girlfriend who also works in this line of work. She went missing after coming to your town. I wonder…”

“Haven’t seen her, haven’t seen her!” The old man waved his hand impatiently. “Our town only allows outsiders to stay for seven days. This month, I’ve only ferried you lot.”

“Looking for people, looking for people. You lose someone and come to us to look. You don’t watch your own people well, and then you come here to cause trouble…”

Qi Si raised an eyebrow: “Could it be that besides us, there are others who came looking for people?”

The old man didn’t say a word, but a dark hand landed on Qi Si’s shoulder: “Brother, let’s get to know each other. What’s your name? What do you do?”

This voice belonged to Du Xiaoyu.

Qi Si turned around expressionlessly. Just as he was about to speak, he saw the thin, dark, short man behind him pointing at him in surprise: “I’ve seen you in the newspaper, you’re that Qi… Qi…”

“Qi Wen.” Qi Si smiled awkwardly and gave a fake name.

He made the most natural reaction an ordinary person would have after being recognized, while simultaneously shaking his shoulder to brush off Du Xiaoyu’s dirty hand.

“Hey, right! You’re that Qi Wen!”

The short, black-monkey-like guy was only eighteen or nineteen, wearing a black T-shirt with a skull print, looking like a slacker.

After picking up Qi Si’s cue, he gave a “I get you” wink, then said with a grin: “I’ll call you Brother Qi! I cut out that report and stuck it up at home, read it dozens of times. You’re my idol!”

Qi Si remembered that report titled “22-Year-Old Young Man from Our City Holds County-Level Exhibition, Bringing Glory to His Hometown,” and the corner of his eye twitched slightly.

He didn’t believe a word of Du Xiaoyu’s fan speech, but in front of everyone, he still smiled and nodded: “Hehe, I didn’t expect to be so famous that I could be recognized everywhere.

“However, no matter what it’s like in reality, once you enter the Eerie Game, it’s the same starting point, so there’s no need for small talk. This is my nineteenth instance, and I happen to have some guesses about the background of this instance.”

He thought of an interesting way to play, so he directly plagiarized Lu Li’s lines.

As soon as the words “nineteenth” came out, the players’ eyes all changed. Four gazes were cast directly at him; some were suspicious, some pleasantly surprised.

Seems like a tolerant and kind veteran player, quite willing to cooperate and share discoveries…

Qi Si intentionally conveyed a false perception, calmly and eloquently explaining: “The main quest of this instance is to find someone. A girl named Xu Wen went missing in Shuangxi Town. We are all her relatives or friends, and we agreed to come find her together and take her home.

“Since this is a team instance, I hope everyone will share clues; don’t hide any thoughts you have. Acting smart or making decisions on your own might hurt more than just yourself. Everyone is important; I don’t want the five of us to suffer casualties because of stupidity.”

While speaking, Qi Si took the opportunity to match the names and faces of the few players.

The sturdy man with sharp features was Liu Bingding, who claimed to be an actor. He was about thirty, wore a blue long-sleeved shirt and long pants, had a center-parted messy hairstyle, and his face was clean-shaven, but unfortunately, he was plain-looking, so it was no wonder he could only play corpses.

The slender boy wearing a blue and white school uniform and black-framed glasses was naturally Shang Qingbei. He had an ordinary appearance, with a forehead full of acne vaguely visible under his bangs. He was holding a thick English dictionary, and it was clear he really wanted to get into Tsinghua or Peking University.

Li Yao was the only female among the five, very easy to recognize. She wore a black tight-fitting outfit, was twenty-five or twenty-six, and had clean, short hair. Because she was sitting, her exact height couldn’t be determined, but judging by her upper body, she should be quite tall.

Looking at their appearances, none of them seemed like Slaughter-path players, but the possibility of excellent acting couldn’t be ruled out. Whether there were any Sera members mixed in among them remained in doubt.

All of them had “Folklore Investigator” name tags hanging around their necks. Looking at the thickness of the plastic covers, there should be something tucked in the back as well.

It was just unclear whether it was a similar photo or some other clue.

Qi Si curled his lips and said gently: “I can tell you all that my identity is Xu Wen’s boyfriend. What about you?”

Du Xiaoyu’s eyes darted around, clearly looking at the system interface: “It doesn’t say my identity here; there isn’t even a narration.”

Li Yao looked at the back of her name tag and also shook her head: “It’s the same for me; the game didn’t tell me anything.”

The other two nodded, indicating that what Li Yao said was correct.

Shang Qingbei realized what was happening and felt somewhat resentful: “Why did you so naturally become our leader? Just because you’re a so-called ‘veteran player’? What evidence do you have that what you’re saying is true?”

Qi Si’s smile didn’t fade: “There’s no way to prove it, but this is a team instance. What benefit would I get from deceiving you? You’re not stupid; you should know that the reason of ‘seizing a leadership position to trick others into stepping on mines’ doesn’t hold up among official players.”

“Fine, logically there’s no problem.” Shang Qingbei didn’t intend to believe Qi Si’s nonsense; in his opinion, all these veteran players were devious bastards.

He shrugged: “Ugly words first: I don’t believe there’s any looking out for each other in the Eerie Game. Humans as a species have always been self-interested.”

“It’s not surprising you have such thoughts.” Qi Si sighed faintly, “After all, our Jiuzhou just had that incident…”

He didn’t continue. The other players had heard a little about Lu Li’s matter and automatically filled in the cause and effect.

The number of players who watched that live stream of “Hopeless Sea” wasn’t small, but it wasn’t large either. At the very least, none of the people present knew that Qi Si was “Si Qi”.

Shang Qingbei asked: “Are you from Jiuzhou?”

Qi Si sighed again, focusing on neither admitting nor denying it.

Silence spread among the players; in the quiet, only the sound of wooden oars rowing through the water could be heard.

Qi Si turned to face the bow of the boat, with his back to the four people behind him, looking out at the vast white mist ahead.

The dew was cold and the mist heavy. The scenery in the distance was blurred by tiny, veil-like water droplets; only high and low gray shadows could be seen, their faint outlines sketching the appearance of a water town.

The old man standing at the bow had a hunched figure, but his thin arms exposed from under the straw raincoat were extremely powerful, gripping the wooden pole and hitting the water surface again and again.

Splash… splash…

Amidst the rhythmic sounds, the stone walls stretching on both sides stopped abruptly. The view ahead broadened, unfolding a lake surface whose left and right edges could not be seen.

The mist had dispersed at some point. An antique southern town appeared in its entirety on the other side of the lake, its white walls and black tiles colored like a painting made with ink on rice paper.

The shore was paved with blue stone slabs. Several women in floral clothes were kneeling in a row, holding wooden sticks to beat laundry, the white soapberry foam they smashed out drifting away with the current.

The raft approached a stone staircase, hit it with a “click,” and was pushed back by the reactive force. The old man, steady as a mountain, stood fixed at the bow, skillfully using the pole to pin the raft down, bringing it to a stable stop beside the stone steps.

“We’re here, get off!” The old man puffed out a cloud of white smoke and urged, “Remember, seven days. Outsiders can only stay for seven days.”

Seven days? That should be the time limit for this instance.

I don’t know if “Xu Wen” in the mission, as an instance NPC, is within this time limit.

Qi Si asked: “What happens if it exceeds seven days?”

“Don’t know! No outsider has ever stayed in our town for seven days without leaving.” The old man muttered, “After the seventh day, seven days is enough!”

This sounded strange no matter how you listened to it. Li Yao murmured: “Seven is the beginning of Yang numbers in Taoism, the intersection of Yin and Yang. On the seventh day after death, the soul returns to settle debts and finish worldly ties.”

Encountering an NPC who clearly knew a lot of information, the players naturally couldn’t let it go.

Du Xiaoyu pressed: “Old man, why can outsiders only stay for seven days? Also, what’s this about the seventh day?”

The old man slanted his eyes and waved his hands impatiently: “Why are you youngsters so dawdling? Go, go, go. Once you get to town, you’ll know what you’re supposed to know.”

The NPC started shooing them away; the players didn’t dare to delay and stepped onto the shore one after another.

Qi Si stood on the blue stone ground, tilted his head, and smiled at the old man: “Old man, did we pay the boat fare? My memory isn’t good, I’ve kind of forgotten.”

“Didn’t pay.” The old man grinned with his toothless mouth, his dark, hollow mouth making a “he-he” wheezing sound, “You don’t have any money on you that can be used here either…”

A large cloud of white smoke poured from his mouth, enveloping the five people on the shore. His figure suddenly became transparent, and the wooden raft under his feet also became as faint as clouds and mist, disappearing within a few breaths.

Where was there any lake or cliff where they had just come from? Clearly, there was only a narrow inner river; on this side of the river were white walls and black tiles, and on the other side were also white walls and black tiles.

Houses of varying heights were spread out on both sides, using the inner river as the central axis. The players were already in the center of Shuangxi Town.

Behind them was a funeral shop wrapped in black cloth, displaying a dozen or so Paper Effigies about the same height as the players.

In front of them, bright red silk with fabric flowers hung down from the dark-colored eaves, connecting house to house, stretching to a distance that could not be seen.

Huge, bright red “Double Happiness” characters were pasted on every wall, casting a thin, reddish hue onto the white plastered walls.

The women beating laundry they had seen earlier were still kneeling in the same place, heads not lifted, focused and silent as they scrubbed the clothes. But the fabric in their hands had all turned a jarring red, clearly the wedding dress of a bride in a traditional Chinese wedding.

Something drifted down from the sky, white and fluffy, like snow.

Qi Si raised his hand to catch a few pieces. They were paper rings with a hole punched in them—paper copper coins used in funeral rites to pay off ghosts blocking the way.

【Two joys in life: one is marriage, the other is a funeral】

On the system interface, white text refreshed.

A gender-neutral voice drew out its tone, chanting eerily like a ritual blessing:

【At the wedding, wear new clothes, welcome the new couple, enter the new home, ten miles of red dowry】

【At the funeral, wear clean clothes, send off the old, enter the yin house, ten miles of white gauze】

【Came naked, married in glory, left naked—】

The voice suddenly rose, mixed with sharp and terrifying laughter, and called out:

【Joyful, how joyful!】