The Grim Reaper's Banquet (4) Part 1

"Ah!!" Letting out a terrified cry, Mou Xinsi couldn't care about anything else. She grabbed her clothes and staggered towards the exit. Before she could reach the door, she felt herself step on something, slipped violently, and pitched forward, falling heavily to the ground.

Fortunately, she was holding soft clothes in her hands and didn't hit her head, but she still heard a crisp cracking sound from her ankle.

"Ah—" Mou Xinsi cried out in pain.

"Mou Xinsi, are you okay??" He Huai'an, who was guarding outside, heard Mou Xinsi's scream and asked anxiously, "What happened to you?"

"Hair... hair..." Mou Xinsi shrieked.

"What hair? I'm coming in!" He Huai'an said urgently.

"Don't, don't, I'm not dressed." Mou Xinsi was barely conscious, but still had some pride. "Wait, I'll come out myself in a bit..." She struggled to turn over and looked up at the ceiling. It was completely empty; the horrifying scene she had just seen was nowhere to be found.

Her ankle seemed to be sprained. Mou Xinsi struggled to get dressed and limped out the door.

Seeing Mou Xinsi's disheveled state, He Huai'an quickly asked her what had happened.

"I think I saw something strange," Mou Xinsi said vaguely.

He Huai'an said, "What?"

"Maybe I was mistaken." Mou Xinsi shook her head.

He Huai'an wanted to ask more, but Mou Xinsi ignored him, turned, and shakily went back into the house. He Huai'an watched her back, his face filled with worry.

Lin Banxia, who was sitting in the main hall, waited for Song Qingluo to return late, then told him about what had happened in the courtyard that day.

After hearing about it, Song Qingluo went to inspect the coffins, including the dead people inside. He finally came to a rather unpleasant conclusion: the people locked in the coffins had most likely starved to death. He had found several faint teeth marks on the side of a coffin, presumably made when they were extremely hungry.

They didn't dare tell this to the Village Chief. After all, his mental state was not good, and knowing this would do more harm than good.

Because of the day's events, no one had much of an appetite for dinner. So, at the table, there were only Lin Banxia, Song Qingluo, and He Huai'an. Song Qingluo asked where Mou Xinsi was. He Huai'an said she had accidentally twisted her ankle while showering and was resting in bed.

"Did something happen?" Song Qingluo asked. "How did she suddenly twist her ankle?"

"I don't know. She seems to be in a bad mental state," He Huai'an said. "Maybe she's sick."

Song Qingluo frowned slightly. "Keep a close eye on her."

He Huai'an nodded.

After dinner and a simple wash-up, Lin Banxia went to bed. This room was actually quite similar in layout to his previous bedroom. A tall wardrobe stood right next to the bed. One of its doors couldn't close properly, leaving a crack. Lin Banxia should have been sleepy, but he tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.

Song Qingluo, lying next to him, softly asked him what was wrong.

"That wardrobe is pitch-black inside," Lin Banxia said. "It's a bit unsettling to look at, as if... I've seen this scene somewhere before."

Song Qingluo: "..."

Lin Banxia: "Why are you making that face?"

Song Qingluo said, "I'm just thinking."

Lin Banxia: "About what?"

Song Qingluo: "About whether or not I should tell you where you've seen it."

Lin Banxia thought for a moment and said, "Let's not. What if I get even more scared when I remember?" He then got up and used a stool to press the wardrobe door shut. That felt much better. After lying back down, his even breathing could be heard just a short while later.

'You're going to make your doorplate furious,' Song Qingluo thought. 'It tried so hard to scare you so many times, but when you finally react, it happens to be away from home. Come to think of it, it's quite pitiful.'

Night fell, and the village grew quiet.

Lin Banxia, who was deep in sleep, was awakened by a commotion. He opened his eyes blearily and saw flickering lights outside, accompanied by the clamor of people arguing. He checked the time; it was only two in the morning, still a long way from dawn. Song Qingluo was gone from his side, perhaps woken up earlier than him and already outside.

With that thought, Lin Banxia threw on a jacket and intended to see what was happening. Just as he reached the door, he saw Song Qingluo push it open and come in.

"What's wrong?" Lin Banxia asked drowsily.

"It's nothing. The Village Chief is having a dispute with his relatives. They're arguing outside," Song Qingluo said. "Let's not go out. It wouldn't be good for them to see us."

Listening to the heated argument, Lin Banxia hesitated. "They're arguing so fiercely. Will something happen?"

Song Qingluo said, "The Village Chief said it's nothing."

"Alright then." Lin Banxia lay back down on the bed.

He Huai'an and Mou Xinsi, sleeping in the room next door, were also awakened by the argument. He Huai'an was a slower riser, and while he was debating whether to go out and look, the noise outside had already stopped. He groggily looked at Mou Xinsi on the adjacent bed and found her curled up into a ball. He asked softly, "Xinsi, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Mou Xinsi replied vaguely.

Hearing her voice, He Huai'an felt much more at ease, closed his eyes, and fell asleep again.

But Mou Xinsi couldn't sleep at all. She had been half-asleep for the first part of the night. After finally dozing off for a bit, the noise had completely chased her sleep away. Her body was exhausted to the extreme, but her nerves were stretched taut. Countless bizarre and motley images flickered in her mind, keeping her from falling asleep.

The piercing noise of the argument made a wave of irritability rise from the depths of her heart. She forcefully buried her head in her blanket, trying to block out the annoying sound.

After who knows how long, the noise outside finally subsided. The lights in the courtyard went out, and it was once again submerged in the deep night.

Mou Xinsi closed her eyes, forcing herself to sleep.

But before she could fall asleep, her ears caught a strange sound... tap-tap... tap-tap. Someone was gently knocking on their door. The sound was so soft, so faint, it reminded her of the coffin that had been knocked on during the day.

"Is... anyone out there?" Mou Xinsi's voice was strained as she asked, trembling.

There was no response.

Tap... tap... tap... The sound continued, one knock after another, as if striking Mou Xinsi's already fragile nerves.

"Who is it? Can you stop playing pranks!" Mou Xinsi finally couldn't take the torment of the sound anymore. She shot up in bed with a rustle, biting her bloodless lips, and walked to the door. The door to their room was the most common type of wooden door in the village, not very sturdy. There was even a crack where it met the doorframe, through which one could see outside. When they moved in yesterday, Mou Xinsi had complained about the draft from this crack, but today, it unexpectedly made her feel grateful—at least she could peek outside through it first.

After the recent commotion, the courtyard had returned to darkness and silence. There was no rain tonight, but there was wind. The wind blew through the crack in the door onto Mou Xinsi's cheek. She felt a bit cold and gently wrapped her arms around her chest. Her gaze passed through the narrow crack, barely making out the scene outside. No one was standing outside her door, yet the sound was clearly coming from the door itself.

A sense of foreboding made Mou Xinsi retract her gaze. A thin layer of cold sweat broke out on her skin. She hadn't seen anything, yet she felt an indescribable fear, as if an unbearable answer was waiting for her in the darkness. If she found it out, the result would be madness.

The sound continued, but Mou Xinsi had no heart to investigate further. Her face expressionless, she slowly returned to her bed and wrapped herself tightly in the blankets, her vacant eyes silently staring at the wooden door that was still making noise.

Time seemed to have frozen for her.

The intermittent knocking was like a sharp little knife, sliding down Mou Xinsi's skin, splitting open her skull, and traveling down her spine to her tailbone. She even had a bizarre illusion that the space around her was beginning to twist and deform, and all the sounds she heard were muffled by a thick membrane.

'When will it be dawn? Will it ever be dawn?' Mou Xinsi lay with her eyes open, waiting in despair.

He Huai'an slept soundly until dawn. His alarm clock rang punctually at six-thirty in the morning, the familiar music waking him from his dreams. He opened his eyes, yawned lazily, and, as usual, slowly climbed out of bed.

However, when his eyes fell on the other bed in the room, he was startled by the person on it. He Huai'an looked closely and saw it was Mou Xinsi, sitting on the bed with the covers wrapped around her body. Her face was expressionless and deathly pale. At first glance, she looked like a plaster doll.

This version of Mou Xinsi made He Huai'an's heart jump. He hesitated, "Xinsi... are you okay?"

Hearing his voice, Mou Xinsi turned her head expressionlessly to look at him.

He Huai'an was creeped out by her gaze. He stammered, "Xinsi, what's wrong with you?"

Mou Xinsi said, "Did you hear any sounds?" Her voice was completely flat, making He Huai'an feel uneasy. He asked tentatively, "What sounds?"

"Someone was knocking on the door," Mou Xinsi said. "Someone was knocking on the door."

He Huai'an forced a laugh. "Was... was there?" He hadn't heard anything.

"Yes, listen." Mou Xinsi stretched her lips into a bone-chilling smile. She raised a finger in a hushing gesture. "Listen, it's been knocking all night, and it's still knocking..."

He Huai'an realized something was wrong with Mou Xinsi. He quickly got dressed and told Mou Xinsi to go with him to see Song Qingluo, but Mou Xinsi refused to move an inch. She shook her head, stubbornly saying that the thing outside the door was still there, still knocking. She didn't want to go out; she was scared.

Helpless, He Huai'an decided to go get Song Qingluo and the others himself. He walked to the door in a panic, opened the wooden door, and was about to take a step forward when he suddenly froze.

A pair of suspended feet appeared before He Huai'an's eyes, swinging slightly in the morning breeze. He looked up and saw the feet's owner, hanging from a beam, his face already purple and twisted.

Someone was dead.

Hanging dead from the beam outside the house. The breeze swayed his feet, causing them to tap against the flimsy door panel again and again—this was the knocking Mou Xinsi had heard all night. He Huai'an was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the corpse and stumbled back several steps, falling directly onto the ground. His face was ashen. He looked at the corpse by the door, then at the wide-eyed, expressionless Mou Xinsi, and felt a chill run up his spine and into his brain.

"See, see, it really was him knocking." Mou Xinsi, who had been silent, suddenly burst out laughing. She clapped her hands and said in a cheerful voice, "There really was someone outside the door. I wasn't hallucinating. I'm not crazy!!"

He Huai'an was speechless for a long time. He sat on the floor for a good while, until he was about to be chilled to the bone by the wind, before staggering to his feet and saying in a low voice, "Xinsi, you wait here... I'm going to get Mr. Song and the others."

Mou Xinsi didn't speak, just continued to laugh.

He Huai'an ran out of the room in a sorry state, his face full of panic, and found Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia who had just woken up. Lin Banxia had just finished dressing when he saw He Huai'an rush in, disheveled and terrified, saying, "This is bad, Mr. Song, something's happened—"

Song Qingluo said, "What's wrong?"

"Someone hanged themselves outside our door!" He Huai'an managed to calm down. He had seen his fair share of dead bodies, but what scared him the most wasn't the hanged person, but Mou Xinsi's condition. He said, "Something's not right with Mou Xinsi's situation either. I don't know what's wrong with her."

Song Qingluo said, "Let's go have a look."

The group returned to He Huai'an's room. The corpse was still hanging at their doorway, swaying gently with the wind from time to time. At first glance, it almost looked as if the person were still alive. As someone who frequently collected bodies, Lin Banxia knew that hanging was not a comfortable way to die. A hanged person would usually experience several minutes of extremely painful suffocation, and after death, their eyes would bulge and their tongue would protrude, making for a gruesome sight. The appearance of the person before them perfectly matched the characteristics of death by hanging.

"Let's get the body down first," Song Qingluo said.

"Okay." He Huai'an nodded.

"Mou Xinsi, are you okay?" Lin Banxia entered the room and saw Mou Xinsi huddled on the bed, wrapped in a thick blanket. When she heard Lin Banxia's question, she only lifted her eyes slightly and mumbled incoherently, "I'm fine."

Song Qingluo also entered the room. He saw Mou Xinsi's state and said nothing. He slowly extended his hand towards Mou Xinsi. In his palm lay the pair of black and white dice. His intention was obvious.