Chapter 1 The Courtyard

Li Ang wandered around the tea garden with his lantern, but didn't find anything noteworthy. He and Wang Congshan followed the small path into the garden on the side of the mansion.

As expected of the Hirasuka family, the garden was full of artificial hills and lush trees, the ground covered with white sand. The white sand was interspersed with a blue flagstone path.

Although the area wasn't large, the rich layers and ingenious layout meant that every short distance revealed different sights: stone lanterns, streams, flowerbeds, walls, waterfalls, earthen mounds, pavilions, wooden bridges, and more.

However, perhaps because it had been untended for so long, the plants in the garden were withered, the stream's flow had diminished, and the ground was covered with brown and yellow fallen leaves, giving it a gloomy and lifeless appearance.

Tap, tap.

Li Ang calmly walked on the flagstone path, skipping over every other stone. His Xinyuan staff danced in his hand, sweeping away the fallen leaves on either side of the path.

Wang Congshan immediately saw that Li Ang was bored again. Sure enough, the latter sighed and muttered, "How boring. Why doesn't a ghost jump out for me to beat up?"

"Don't jinx it," Wang Congshan rolled her eyes and said, "If you really want to see a ghost, I can help you. Like poking you and saying you look terrible after all this time."

"And then I'll shout 'Ghost!' and start shaking and dancing in place, right?"

Li Ang clicked his tongue and continued to use his Xinyuan staff like a pitchfork, flipping up the fallen leaves and searching for possible clues.

Simple combat-type script missions were fine, but some script missions, like this one, with reasoning and puzzle-solving as the main difficulty, required players to spend a lot of time collecting clues, analyzing, and reasoning.

Especially in such a large area as the village of En刻, it would take a lot of effort just to walk around once.

However, the two weren't particularly worried. First, large-scale scenarios usually had relatively generous time limits.

Second, if there were potential, extremely strict time constraints, the system would provide hints elsewhere,

such as clocks, the player's physical condition, weather phenomena, and so on.

At the moment, En刻 Village was shrouded in darkness, so it was impossible to see any changes for the time being. There was no immediate urgency. Li Ang even had the leisure to sing his self-composed 《圣经》rap (Bible rap), to ward off ghosts and embolden himself, completely unconcerned whether the Japanese ghosts could understand the English version of the Bible.

"The wall is ahead," Wang Congshan walked on the flagstone path, habitually filtering out Li Ang's singing. She said softly, "I feel like I've seen this area somewhere before..."

Her gaze passed over the artificial hill in front of her and stopped on a withered tree behind it. She stopped abruptly.

The withered tree was three stories high, with two branches splitting from the middle, one extending to the second floor of the mansion, and the other extending outside the wall. This scene was clearly the same as the simple drawing carried by Ogasawara Tetsuya.

Moreover, behind the artificial hill, there was a faint, strange sound, like rain boots stepping on mud.

Li Ang's singing stopped abruptly. He gestured to Wang Congshan and gently placed the human head lantern under the artificial hill. The two of them crouched down, hugging the withered bushes, and went around the artificial hill, feeling their way forward.

Rounding the artificial hill, the scene ahead suddenly opened up,

As expected, there was a well under the withered tree, exactly as depicted in the painting.

The base of the well was made of stacked stone bricks. The front of the base was engraved with the red characters [归泉] (Gui Quan), which were a round circle of lines in Ogasawara Tetsuya's painting.

In addition, next to the well, there was also a figure standing, which was the humanoid existence covered in black hair.

He, or rather, it, was walking around the well.

Its footsteps were very slow, and the thick black hair on its body moved with the wind, but it was still impossible to see its face clearly.

The dark red soil around the well had obvious footprints due to being trampled for a long time.

Did that black-haired creature come to the courtyard after leaving the Rope Corridor?

But what does walking around the well mean?

Is this brother the reincarnation of a water-loving crow, or does he think he is a donkey meant to grind grain?

Li Ang and Wang Congshan exchanged glances. So far, all the information given by this script mission was still quite chaotic and disorganized, and the various clues had not yet been connected.

Perhaps the key lies in the black-haired creature in front of them, who was both human and not.

Just as the two were gesturing, preparing to step forward and test the waters,

A clear sound of water came from the well.

The two, hiding behind the bushes, stopped instantly and peered forward through the withered bushes.

They heard a "whoosh" sound from the well, as if something heavy was rising from it,

Immediately afterward, a heavy, low roar, like someone clearing their throat, and the sound of a hand slapping against the brick wall of the well, rang out from the well.

It sounds like... something is climbing out of the well.

The Ring? Sadako?

The two held their breath and waited to see what would happen.

But they saw that the black-haired creature also stopped and stood motionless beside the well.

As time passed, the sound of climbing from the bottom of the well became clearer and clearer.

The moment a wet hand stretched out from the bottom of the well and slapped the side of the well,

The black-haired creature moved instantly, rushed to the side of the well, and "pulled" something out.

It was a... very bizarre thing.

Its main body was five human heads, enlarged to the size of basketballs, male and female.

All the heads were squeezed together, their faces pale, and their expressions dull.

Many pale arms extended from the gaps between the heads,

The overall structure was like a spider with a dozen legs.

The spider ghost had just climbed out of the well when it was hugged tightly by the black-haired creature.

It instinctively wanted to struggle, and the dozen arms on its body beat against the black-haired creature, but it was like hitting thick leather, making a dull thud. It couldn't even penetrate the defense of that layer of hair.

"No, no, no..."

The black-haired creature made a muddy murmur, and the hairy arm grabbed a human head and rudely pulled it off and threw it aside.

It looked at the second head and similarly murmured "no", broke it off, and discarded it.

Blood splattered everywhere, and the spider ghost let out a scream that could damage the eardrums of ordinary people, but it couldn't break free from the black-haired creature's restraint. It was torn to pieces bit by bit, falling around the well.

"No... no..."

The black-haired creature seemed to feel disappointed. It stayed in place for a while, and then continued to walk around the well.

...What's going on? Did this black-haired monster fail to confess his love and is tearing off rose petals in disappointment?

Li Ang and Wang Congshan exchanged glances, completely baffled.

At this moment, a noise also came from the main building of the mansion on the left side of the courtyard.