Nursery Rhyme

"Perhaps those two things weren't what 'Qin Xu Nu' liked?" Zhang Xue Yi spoke weakly.

"Mm, that's also a possibility. We offered her things we considered precious and loved, but 'Qin Xu Nu' didn't like them?" Li Yao nodded, agreeing with Zhang Xue Yi's speculation.

Shen Yu then continued to write the last two lines——

"Who killed Qin Xu Nu, on that quiet snowy night."
"Who killed Qin Xu Nu, on her way home."

"'Qin Xu Nu' died on a snowy night, died on her way home." Jiang Qin's eyes were slightly red as she sighed, "She was clearly an immortal, how could she be so pitiful?"

Only so many clues could be deciphered from this song.

But this song also everywhere exposed the tragic life of "Qin Xu Nu."

"Instead of starting from this song, why not go find the 'precious' and 'loved' things," Wang Xiao Long suggested.

The others nodded, expressing support for Wang Xiao Long's idea.

"Shen Yu, what do you think?" Li Yao's perception of Shen Yu had long changed; she wanted to ask if Shen Yu had any ideas.

Shen Yu put away his paper and pen and stood up: "I have no clues. This afternoon, I will go out to find more clues."

"Okay, then everyone act on your own. If you find clues, come back and discuss them together." Wu Bin respected everyone's opinions; after all, not everyone wanted to act together.

"Okay." Everyone nodded.

At this moment, as if suddenly remembering, Li Yao said to Shen Yu: "Oh right, Shen Yu, someone died again last night."

In a dungeon, people dying was commonplace; it was understandable that they almost forgot about this person.

"How did they die?" Shen Yu raised an eyebrow.

"Like Wang Yang," Li Yao said.

Then it was very clear: killed by the monster that crawled out of the wardrobe. "Was there anything like Wang Yang before death?"

Li Yao shook her head, "There was no strange smell at all; they just died without warning."

It seemed that having a strange smell on one's body was not the cause either.

So relying on smell to guess whether one was being followed by a monster was also unreliable.

"Okay. I understand." Shen Yu nodded, his expression terrifyingly calm.

After exchanging clues, the people in the room immediately dispersed.

"So what do we do next?" Yu Cheng Yi asked.

Shen Yu also stood up from his chair, "Go into the village and look for any clues related to 'Qin Xu Nu'."

"Also, don't let the villagers know that we know about the existence of 'Qin Xu Nu'," Shen Yu warned.

"Understood, so we split up?" Lu Cheng asked.

In this village, splitting up was unsafe anyway, so Shen Yu shook his head: "Do you want to go with Wang Jia Xin or with me?"

"I'm fine with anything."

"Then I'll go with Yu Cheng Yi." Shen Yu immediately made his choice.

The other two had no objections, and thus split into two groups, each going into the village to search for clues.

——

Yu Cheng Yi had no clues and no idea where to start, while Shen Yu led him to wander around the village.

"Shen Yu, can we find anything here?" Yu Cheng Yi asked, hands in his pockets, kicking a stone on the ground in boredom.

Shen Yu looked at the bare trees around and said, "Look for animals."

"What for? Wild animals aren't edible!" Yu Cheng Yi said seriously.

Shen Yu looked at him helplessly, "Is all you can think about eating?"

"Not really, I just don't understand why you want to find animals." Yu Cheng Yi scratched his back through his clothes.

Shen Yu then said: "Calm down and see if there are any birds here, or traces of other animals."

Yu Cheng Yi pulled his clothes back, adjusted his expression, "Alright! How hard can it be to find an animal?"

Although it was winter here, not all animals migrated south.

Ten-odd minutes passed——

"Shen Yu, have you found anything?" Yu Cheng Yi scratched his shoulder and asked.

Shen Yu shook his head, "No."

"Me neither! That's strange, are all the animals in this village extinct?" Yu Cheng Yi muttered.

Shen Yu was afraid he might remember wrongly, so he didn't tell them about the cycle. Firstly, he was afraid of causing unnecessary panic, and secondly, if it was a cycle, it would be very troublesome.

A cycle required finding the only variable, which could be a person, an animal, or even an inanimate object. Finding that variable was no less difficult than finding the murderer of "Qin Xu Nu."

"Oh right, this is another strange point about this village: there are no living creatures, or rather, almost none. Think about it, besides the dog at the entrance of You Shen Tower, have you seen any other animals in the village?" Shen Yu said to him.

Shen Yu didn't mention it, but once he did, Yu Cheng Yi thought about it, and it was indeed true.

"It seems so! Don't the villagers have a habit of raising dogs and cats?" Yu Cheng Yi could only think that way.

Shen Yu shook his head: "I don't think so. Do you remember the auntie selling steamed buns? She said she fed that dog meat buns, and the people around her also seemed to know this dog. If they don't like dogs, why keep only this one dog?"

Yu Cheng Yi's head grew large, "I can't figure it out, I really can't figure it out."

"It's normal not to figure it out; I can't figure it out either." Shen Yu gently tapped Yu Cheng Yi's head, "Let's go, let's look elsewhere."

Yu Cheng Yi hurriedly followed.

"But what does it mean that there are no animals in the village?" Yu Cheng Yi leaned close to Shen Yu and asked.

How could Shen Yu know? He could only pretend not to understand, gently shaking his head.

"I don't know, but this is also a discovery. I have a hunch that everyone in the village shares a common secret." Shen Yu was extremely confident about this.

——

No clues were found today.

After all, the villagers were united. Even if they had some clues, if the villagers wanted to hide them, they wouldn't get any valuable information. Moreover, to avoid alerting the enemy, they didn't even reveal that they knew about the existence of "Qin Xu Nu."

In the morning, Shen Yu had told everyone that the offerings and joss paper at You Shen Temple showed that everyone in the village knew they were worshiping a ghost, not a god.

And they collectively pretended not to know, creating the appearance that there was a god in the village, but in reality, the god had long been dead.

What made the villagers collectively protect the god-killer?

What kind of person was that god-killer?

The two-hundred-year-old old priest certainly knew the reason, but he didn't say, and the villagers were all very young. The god's death was many years ago; even if the villagers knew the god was fake, the god-killer had also been dead for a long time.

How many years had it been?

Thus, they were stuck in such a stalemate.

Finding the god-killer seemed to have lost its meaning, but they still had to find the truth of the god's death that year.

Some people hoped they would continue investigating, and they could only continue investigating.

Shen Yu currently wasn't very concerned about the truth of this god's death. He just wanted to know if this village was truly in a cycle. If not, how could he explain the identical snowy days?

But the villagers' days were not identical.

Unless these villagers, like them, had their own consciousness and were outside the cycle.

——

Two days passed, and the clues were broken here.

Shen Yu had continuously observed the two black crows for two days, and had basically confirmed that the village was in a cycle. Now he wanted to confirm whether the villagers were aware of it.

He didn't tell anyone about this.

No one died during this time, but some of them showed unusual behavior——

In the afternoon, Shen Yu's group went back to You Shen Tower. Wang Jia Xin walked last, looking absent-minded, completely out of her normal state. Whatever Shen Yu said in front, she didn't hear.

And because she walked last, no one noticed her abnormality.

When everyone returned to their rooms, Wang Jia Xin suddenly called out to Shen Yu: "Big Brother Shen."

Wang Jia Xin's voice was firm and resonant.

Shen Yu's hand, pushing the door, paused. Wang Jia Xin suddenly turned her head, glanced, then shook her head at Shen Yu, "Nothing, rest well."

After speaking, Wang Jia Xin pushed the door and returned to her room. Shen Yu looked at her closed door, frowned, and for some unknown reason, looked at Wang Jia Xin with even more suspicion.

But Wang Jia Xin said nothing, for some reason.

Shen Yu didn't think much more and returned to his room.

——

Night fell, heavy snow fluttering down in clumps.

After midnight, all was silent.

Wang Jia Xin huddled in the corner of her bed, her ears ringing. She heard nothing, her body as cold as the snow outside, her face frighteningly pale.

Since waking up this morning, she had vaguely felt something staring at her. This afternoon, she had intended to tell Shen Yu.

But Shen Yu...

His own body wasn't well; telling him, so he could come save her?

Before, at the welfare institute, he almost died trying to save that person, but even so, he couldn't save them. Those followed by monsters couldn't escape no matter what.

To avoid implicating Shen Yu, she ultimately chose to remain silent.

She turned on the room lights brightly, not daring to sleep, intending to sit through the night like this.

But if a monster wants to kill, why would it only come when you're sound asleep?

"Wang Jia Xin——" A slow call echoed in her ringing ears.

Wang Jia Xin covered her ears, tightly closing her eyes.

"Why don't you open your eyes?" The voice continued to sound.

Even covering her ears was useless.

"Recite this song——"

"Recite it and you'll be fine——"

Under those sounds, Wang Jia Xin slowly lifted her eyelids. Before her was a woman without knees, with an ugly, withered, and rotten face, holding a piece of paper in her hand.

Wang Jia Xin was so frightened by its appearance that she almost screamed. She covered her mouth and sobbed.

The female ghost refused to give up, "Recite it for me, recite it for me——"

Wang Jia Xin couldn't escape. She could only focus on what was written on the paper, "Qin Xu Nu, Qin Xu Nu, is a heavenly immortal beauty........."

It was that nursery rhyme.

Wang Jia Xin had already found this nursery rhyme strange, and now this female ghost was determined to make her recite it. There must be something sinister about it, and Wang Jia Xin naturally didn't want to comply.

She pressed her lips tightly, not saying a word, and the one who went mad was the female ghost.

"Recite it for me, Wang Jia Xin! Recite it for me!" The female ghost screamed madly at Wang Jia Xin.

Wang Jia Xin cried until she collapsed. She covered her mouth, shaking her head in refusal.

The female ghost grabbed her wrist with one hand, pulling her into the wardrobe while saying, "If you don't recite it, come with me."

How could a girl like Wang Jia Xin resist such a female ghost?

She was dragged several meters across the floor, the stench from the female ghost assaulting her senses.

Wang Jia Xin had no other choice. She trembled as she grasped the female ghost's sleeve, crying, "I'll recite it, I'll recite it."

The female ghost threw the paper in her hand to Wang Jia Xin.

Wang Jia Xin tremblingly picked up the paper, looked at the words on it, and opened her mouth to recite.

At this moment, her room door was kicked open, but in her ears, there was only the female ghost's screaming and a ringing sound.

In her eyes, there was only the nursery rhyme on the paper.

Shen Yu, outside the door, had heard the commotion inside. He turned to look at his own room, which had gone dark, indicating that he too had been pulled into another space.

Although he didn't know why the female ghost was so insistent on Wang Jia Xin reciting that nursery rhyme, upon hearing Wang Jia Xin compromise and agree to recite it, Shen Yu still kicked open the door and entered.

Wang Jia Xin looked absent-minded, as if possessed by a soul-splitting spell, her eyes empty, but tears streamed down incessantly.

Shen Yu yelled towards her: "Wang Jia Xin, don't recite it——"