Chapter 1 The First Step

The first step of the plan was successful. It seemed his guess was right. The consciousness trapped inside the Shezai woman's body was indeed Wang Fugui.

After answering Wang Fugui's name, the real late Madam stopped. If one ignored the oddly shaped head, the late Madam looked like a docile young wife.

She had clearly heard Wang Fugui's words before he was caught. However, Lu Qin didn't entirely trust him. She cautiously sized up the late Madam. There was no basket behind the late Madam. Besides the still-covered bridal veil, Lu Qin was certain there was no place on her body to hide the hydrangea ball.

Bearing the invisible pressure emanating from the late Madam, Lu Qin approached step by step. She held her breath. Success or failure hinged on this.

At that moment, Jiang Cheng, Yao Shun Yu also watched closely. Yao Shun Yu even clenched the pocket of his clothes. Through the fabric, he could feel a hard object, something square.

Jiang Cheng took out a square object from his pocket. It was a wooden plaque with the character "Jiang" inscribed on it, simple and ancient, filled with the vicissitudes and weight of history.

Clutching the wooden plaque tightly, Jiang Cheng's fingers turned white as he exerted slight force. Whether they succeeded or failed today depended on these wooden plaques.

"Hehe, I said, you two, don't be nervous. Take it easy."

A not-so-pleasant voice came from behind. Shao Tong, leaning on a tree branch, weakly emerged from behind the bushes. It was obvious that his physical condition was not good, but a sinister smile played on his pale face.

Jiang Cheng didn't even turn his head, and his tone wasn't polite. "You're not faking your current state, are you? I said before, if Fatty has an accident, you'll die a horrible death."

Shao Tong didn't answer. He walked straight to their side and squatted down, looking out through the gaps in the branches. Not far away, the Shezai woman stood blankly, like a mechanical toy that had lost control, while Lu Qin slowly reached out her hand, but there was no one in front of her.

Everyone knew that there wasn't nothing there. The real late Madam was standing there, they just couldn't see her.

A gust of night wind came, and Lu Qin shivered. She knew she couldn't wait any longer. Delay would bring unforeseen circumstances. She reached out and slowly lifted a corner of the bridal veil, then gradually raised it. As the round chin and thin lips under the veil appeared one by one, Lu Qin finally felt relieved. Judging from the proportions of the facial features, the late Madam under the veil had a normal appearance, not a deformed face.

The reason the shape under the veil was so long was because there was something on top of the late Madam's head. No need to ask, it must be the hydrangea ball!

The hydrangea ball that was crucial tonight!

Lu Qin no longer hesitated and completely lifted the veil. The result was as she expected. A strange object appeared on top of the late Madam's head, slightly larger than a human head.

But it wasn't a hydrangea ball, but a strangely shaped wooden box.

After a moment of hesitation, Lu Qin realized that the hydrangea ball must be hidden inside this box.

The late Madam's face was pale, her wet hair was coiled up, and the broken hair at her temples was still dripping water. Her pair of empty eyes contained an indescribable emotion.

But even with such a sight, it was still not difficult to see that she was definitely a rare beauty.

Seeing that the late Madam didn't move, Lu Qin decisively reached out her hand and took down the wooden box very smoothly. Her hand was very steady, for fear of any mishap.

The weight of the wooden box also confirmed her guess. It was relatively light, which matched the characteristics of a hydrangea ball.

She couldn't wait to open the box and completely end the mission, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't open it. The box seemed to be locked.

What Lu Qin couldn't figure out was that there was clearly no keyhole on the box.

She held the wooden box and looked it up and down. Finally, a groove at the bottom of the box caught her attention. She touched it with her hand. The groove was square, about 1 centimeter deep. This shape... In a daze, Lu Qin's body trembled. She thought of it. Wasn't this the shape of those wooden plaques she had seen before?

It seemed that to open the box, she would still need to use the wooden plaques.

"Quick, you guys come out quickly, help me find the previous wooden plaques, the one with my surname on it! To open the box, we need to use the wooden plaques!"

Facing the late Madam, she naturally didn't dare to act rashly, so she could only shout loudly nearby, asking the surviving Jiang Cheng and others to help find the wooden plaques and hand them to her.

But no matter how she shouted, it was quiet nearby, and the only thing that responded to her was the whistling of the wind.

Lu Qin noticed that the late Madam's aura had changed. She seemed to be slowly coming to life.

If this dragged on, she would definitely die. Lu Qin became more and more anxious. She knew she couldn't wait any longer. "Shao Tong! What are you doing? Go find the wooden plaques, go quickly!"

The sound traveled far like ripples, but until Lu Qin ran out of patience, she didn't hear a reply.

What was even worse was that at this moment, the late Madam's originally empty eyes were gradually focusing. The pale hands under the red dress trembled slightly. The late Madam... was about to wake up.

After not hearing any reply, Lu Qin realized that something was wrong, but she didn't know whether the problem was with Jiang Cheng, Yao Shun Yu, or Shao Tong, or whether this was also a kind of mission restriction. After lifting the late Madam's veil, she could no longer communicate with her teammates.

But the situation was urgent, and there was obviously no time to think about this problem now. She decisively took out the copper coin hidden in her pocket, and then broke it with force.

The copper coin was in a very special position in the mission. The person whose copper coin was stolen would be turned into a statue, and their consciousness would be imprisoned in the Shezai woman's body. Once the copper coin was destroyed, the consequences would be unimaginable.

In Lu Qin's vision, the destruction of the copper coin meant that this person would die completely. Both the mind and the body would be enslaved by the late Madam. Correspondingly, the crisis tonight would likely end.

Although losing Shao Tong would have an irreversible impact on the Night Watcher's plan, the most important thing now was to save her own life.

But at the moment the copper coin was broken, Lu Qin's heart suddenly felt a sting, and the scene in front of her was even beyond her imagination. The late Madam suddenly raised her head, her eyes as cold as a deep pool. Her two pale hands quickly reached out and directly broke her left arm.

Flesh was torn apart, and pale white bone spurs pierced out from the broken forearm, and bright red blood flowed down, dripping on the bluestone slabs under her feet.

Her left arm was broken, twisted behind her at a strange angle, followed by her right arm, left leg, and right leg...

Lu Qin widened her eyes, and her painful screams pierced the night, almost piercing the eardrums of Jiang Cheng and the others.

Jiang Cheng frowned, and Yao Shun Yu was also shocked by the terrifying sight in front of him, his face pale. Shao Tong, on the other hand, watched all this with great interest, his eyes slowly narrowed.