“...Alright."

Wang Congshan sighed and also crawled into the lion pelt.

The lion skin shuddered a few times, slowly propped itself up, and shuffled toward the corridor. From time to time, voices could be heard from beneath the skin saying things like, "Hey, watch your feet!" "Slow down, I can't keep up!"

The two bickered and supported the lion skin as they entered the corridor.

The lanterns hanging in the courtyard emitted light, illuminating the lion dance costume.

Most of the light was refracted by the fragments of mirror on the surface of the costume.

The few rays of light that did shine through caused dark shadows, shapeless and visible to the naked eye, to grow from the areas not covered by the mirror shards.

Li Ang and Wang Congshan, inside the lion dance costume, could clearly feel the weight of the lion skin above them growing strangely.

The entire skin seemed to be coming alive, applying pressure from all directions and enveloping them.

Li Ang had anticipated this. He picked up the Xin Yuan staff, aimed one end at the lion's head and the other at the lion's tail.

He poured spiritual energy into the Xin Yuan, causing the staff to lengthen slightly, preventing the lion dance costume from collapsing inward.

At the same time, he took three steps in two, dashed forward, crossed the entire corridor, and rushed into the courtyard.

He swung the Xin Yuan staff in his hand forward, flipping the entire lion skin forward, forming a mirror surface in mid-air that faced directly at the lantern.

As the distance closed, Li Ang was able to see the shape of the lantern in more detail.

The lantern was oval, with a frame made of woven bamboo strips and white paper pasted on the outside. The surface of the paper was painted with simple flower patterns.

This lantern was not unique.

The courtyard of the Hiratsuka mansion was shaped like a "匚," with three sides consisting of semi-open corridors, and one side open to the courtyard.

Similar lanterns hung from the other three pillars in the "匚"-shaped courtyard.

But only this one was exceptionally bright,

and the shadows projected on the surface of the lantern paper looked strange.

With the help of the [Extended Vision] ability, Li Ang was able to see the inside of the lantern clearly—it contained not a candle, but a shriveled man's head, compressed like dried sugarcane.

Although it was hard to imagine what kind of strange power could twist a human body into this shape,

the skin, muscles, and bones of this head had indeed been compressed into candle-like strips.

The features on the face were compressed into rhombuses, with two shriveled eyes wide open, one above the other, and a slanted line for a mouth below.

Something like this:

?。

√

The hair on the shriveled head burned continuously like a candle wick, showing no signs of shortening.

In a flash of inspiration, Li Ang realized that whether he used spiritual energy to directly interfere or to create a breeze,

he could not extinguish the candle. So he immediately changed his strategy,

continuing to flip the lion dance costume, covering the surface of the lantern with it. He tiptoed, grabbed the costume with both hands, and tied a bow, wrapping the lantern tightly and blocking out every ray of light.

All of this happened in an instant. Li Ang held the ends of the lion skin bow in his hands, held his breath, and waited for half a minute.

Nothing happened.

Through the lion skin, the two could hear the very faint sound of hair burning coming from the lantern.

Wang Congshan hesitated and said, "Is that... taken care of?"

"Probably."

Li Ang nodded, gently hugged the lantern and pulled it. He found that the lantern was firmly hanging on the seemingly unstable pillar support, without budging, so he had to give up.

Originally, he had planned to take this lantern with its unique effect, and perhaps he could cosplay Perseus holding the head of Medusa when encountering ghosts in the future.

Releasing the lantern against the enemy might have miraculous effects.

"The other three lanterns contain normal candles, not human heads."

Li Ang glanced around and found some faded bloodstains on the ground below the pillar with the human head lantern. The bloodstains were in the shape of rays, pointing to the inner part of the courtyard.

The inner part of the courtyard was a semi-open tea room, a place to entertain guests with tea.

In front of the tea room were some decorations.

Such as stone basins filled with water, and bamboo tubes connected to a water source that would make noise from time to time.

Li Ang glanced over and immediately noticed the suspicious point. He frowned, strode down the steps, entered the courtyard, and came to the seesaw-like bamboo tube.

This device is called a "shishi-odoshi."

It usually consists of a water supply system and a bamboo tube, heavy at one end and light at the other.

The water supply system continuously draws water from underground like a fountain,

pouring it onto the cut bamboo tube.

When the bamboo tube is full of water, it tilts to one side due to gravity, landing on a stone and making a "thwack" sound, pouring out the water.

Then, due to the change in the center of gravity, it returns to its tilted state, until the water fills up again and continues to make the sound, repeating the cycle.

"Shishi-odoshi" was originally installed in the fields of Japan to drive away birds and wild animals by making noise, in order to protect farmland.

Later, it was used in Japanese gardens as a landscape design, also known as "sozu."

However, Li Ang's attention was not on the sozu, but on the other stones behind the sozu device.

"These stones are called 'tsukubai,' which are devices used in Japanese tea rooms to provide the host and guests with a place to wash their hands. They are also a component of Japanese tea room landscape design.

A complete tsukubai can be divided into tesuubachi, mae-ishi, teshioku-ishi, yu桶ishi, and mizumon, according to the function, shape, and height of the stones."

Amidst the regular thwacking sound of the sozu device, Li Ang squatted down, pointed to the stones, and introduced them to Wang Congshan, "The tesuubachi is the place where tea room guests scoop water to wash their hands before drinking tea, usually hollowed out in the middle.

The mae-ishi is the place to sit and absorb, the teshioku-ishi is the place to put a lamp at night,

the yu桶ishi is used to put hot water in winter,

and the mizumon, also called the sea, is responsible for absorbing water.

The Hiratsuka family is a local noble family,

and the design of the courtyard can be summed up in one word: refinement.

Their tea garden not only uses the most complete set of tsukubai, but also adds a set of so-called 'Zen-enhancing' equipment underneath."

Li Ang pointed to a pile of rocks below the tsukubai system and said, "These pebbles below the tsukubai are generally gray,

and a bamboo tube is inserted vertically in the middle of the pebbles.

This device is called a 'suikinkutsu.'

The space below is hollow, excavated into a bell shape, or a copper pot shape, or a niche lamp shape.

The inside is filled with water.

When the water flows out of the bamboo tube, it first flows into the tesuubachi.

If the water in the tesuubachi is full, the excess water will flow along the mizumon stone,

permeating into the suikinkutsu.

Since the interior of the suikinkutsu is hollow and filled with water, the sound of dripping water will be amplified, with a slower frequency than the sozu device.

And this bamboo tube above is used to further amplify the sound—in order to further pursue Zen, Japanese scholars have specially studied what shape the suikinkutsu should be, whether the material inside is stone or pottery, and what the height of the accumulated water and the frequency of the sound should be to be more suitable."

"Hey, that's authentic, covered in detail."

Wang Congshan clicked her tongue and also noticed the problem, "Well... the stones of this suikinkutsu seem to have been cut open?

The bamboo tube originally inserted in the mizumon stone has also been pulled out and thrown aside."

"Yes."

Li Ang nodded and said in a relaxed tone, "The disaster that befell the Hiratsuka family happened almost instantly.

They even had half-eaten meals on the table, and they didn't even have time to run.

In this situation, how could they have the leisure to renovate the suikinkutsu?

Unless, when the disaster struck, someone escaped to the bottom of the suikinkutsu and hid there.

Stand back a little, and cover me."

"What are you going to do?"

Wang Congshan held her gun and stood aside.

Li Ang picked up the Xin Yuan staff and pushed aside the mizumon stone in the pit.

As the pebbles were pushed aside, a large hole was revealed in the pit, revealing the bell-shaped suikinkutsu,

and inside the suikinkutsu, a corpse in a squatting position, wearing children's clothing and holding a schoolbag.

Perhaps because of the water accumulated in the suikinkutsu,

the upper half of the corpse was shriveled and withered, while the lower half was swollen and rotten, emitting an unpleasant odor.

Wang Congshan's heart trembled. "Be careful!"

Li Ang waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to worry.

Without changing his expression, he approached the large hole in the suikinkutsu and carefully examined the shape of the corpse inside.

The corpse was probably only seven or eight years old when he died, wearing an elementary school uniform. There were no obvious external injuries on the body surface. He was holding an orange schoolbag in his arms, and the zipper of the schoolbag was half open.

Li Ang pondered for a moment, then inserted the Xin Yuan staff into the suikinkutsu, using the Xin Yuan to pass through the shoulder strap on one side of the schoolbag.

He gently lifted the orange schoolbag out of the suikinkutsu.

As the schoolbag was lifted out, the corpse's arms also drooped down, but there were no further changes.

Li Ang asked Wang Congshan to point the gun at the corpse, while he gently pulled open the half-open zipper of the schoolbag.

The schoolbag contained items such as elementary school textbooks, test papers, and stationery.

Like the other items in the script world, the words on the textbooks and test papers were relatively blurry. Only the surface of a perfect score math test paper had clear handwriting. The name of the test paper's owner was Hiratsuka Yuunan, who studied in Class A of the second grade at Enkaku Elementary School.

Li Ang skipped the math problems on the test paper and found a large pile of crooked words written in pencil on the back of the test paper.

[Who will save me]

[It's so dark here]

[Uncle, aunt, mom, grandpa, brother, they're all dead]

[Terrible monsters are crawling out of the well]

[Dad said he would protect me, told me to hide here and not make a sound, he would go find someone to help]

[I'm so scared, Dad still hasn't come back]

[So cold]

[So crowded]

[So uncomfortable, want to lie down]

[So hungry]

[So hungry]

[So hungry]

"These should be Hiratsuka Yuunan's experiences before his death."

Li Ang frowned and showed the test paper to Wang Congshan. He said, "Remember the memo pads carried by the character I played, Ogasawara Tetsuya?

Several drawings were drawn on the memo pads, depicting a samurai wearing armor, holding a katana, and wearing a Hannya mask;

a stone well below a twisted, withered tree;

and a torii gate set up on the mountainside;

the samurai corresponds to the legend of Enkaku Village, the torii gate corresponds to the Enkaku Shrine torii gate we saw before,

and the well mentioned by Hiratsuka Yuunan should correspond to the stone well under that withered tree."

"Hmm..."

Wang Congshan nodded slowly, "The paper of this test paper is wrinkled, with traces of being soaked and then dried again.

A disaster must have occurred, and some monster ran out of the well, attacking the Hiratsuka family.

The Hiratsuka family suffered heavy casualties.

Hiratsuka Yuunan's father took him to escape and let him hide in the suikinkutsu.

As a result, his father probably met with misfortune, and Hiratsuka Yuunan was trapped and starved to death here."

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"Another tragedy."

Li Ang spread his hands, "Let's go..."

His words suddenly stopped. With the enhanced perception of spiritual energy, he seemed to hear the sound of burning hair from the human head lantern become louder.

Could it be...

Li Ang narrowed his eyes, clapped his hands, and said to Wang Congshan, "It's quite pitiful to leave Hiratsuka Yuunan here, why don't we bury him?"

"Eh?"

Wang Congshan was stunned. Li Ang wasn't someone who liked to help old ladies cross the road for free, or give up his seat to old men on the bus.

What could drive him to do things other than money, were his own interests and perverse hobbies.

In such a crisis-ridden script world, any action could trigger unknown consequences.

Why would he suddenly have the leisure to bury a corpse?

Although that's what she thought, Wang Congshan didn't object. She also felt that it wasn't good to leave a child's corpse in a water-filled suikinkutsu.

Li Ang used the Xin Yuan staff to lift Hiratsuka Yuunan's corpse out of the suikinkutsu. He and Wang Congshan found a piece of ground in the courtyard, dug a pit, and put Hiratsuka Yuunan's corpse and his schoolbag into it.

After pushing the soil on top, he took the bamboo tube from the sozu device, carved Hiratsuka Yuunan's name on it, and inserted it in front of the grave as a tombstone.

Almost at the instant that Li Ang inserted the bamboo tube in front of the grave, the lantern wrapped in the lion skin in the courtyard corridor made a slight "click" sound.

Li Ang and Wang Congshan looked at each other, walked towards the lantern, and slowly unwrapped the lion skin.

They found that the light emitted by the lantern had become much dimmer, no longer aggressive.

The human head candle inside the lantern seemed to have closed its eyes, as if it were dying in peace.

"This should be Hiratsuka Yuunan's father."

Li Ang raised the lantern and found that it could now be removed from the bracket, and the light it emitted would no longer produce a distorting shadow effect on the two of them.

"The eyes of the human head candle were just aligned with the position of the suikinkutsu. It seems that this brother was thinking of protecting his son even after death.

Now that it's no longer aggressive, it's probably expressing gratitude for our burying his son's corpse."

Li Ang took down the lantern, tossed it up and down, and found that it wasn't as heavy as he imagined, so he carried it in his hand as a light source.

Wang Congshan looked at Li Ang's natural and accustomed appearance, remained silent for a moment, and couldn't help but ask, "Are the script worlds we players experience, are they real or virtual worlds created by the system?"

"Is that question important?"

Li Ang carried the lantern and walked into the courtyard, saying casually, "Since we can't distinguish between truth and illusion, there's no need to obsess over it. Just follow your heart and do what you should do."