Chapter 22: Gravestone

“Yes, I’ve seen you before.” The male villager grabbed You Huo’s hand.

His palms were rough like sandpaper. It was both hard and cold.

You Huo withdrew his hand. He had a bad expression.

“Where have you seen us?” He flexed his wrist as he asked.

The male villager stood in place and was blank for a few seconds. Then, as if he didn’t hear that question, he repeated: “I have definitely seen you…….I’ve seen you.”

“Ah, he’s at it again.” The woman placed down the chisel and sighed: “Sorry about this. This person has some issues.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s not so good here.” The woman pointed to her head and explained, “It comes and goes. When it relapses, he likes to grab people and say that they look familiar and that he had seen them somewhere before. Or he would just go around asking people ‘Do you know me?’, ‘Do you remember me?’”

As soon as she said that, the male villager grabbed Qin Jiu’s hand. He asked in a quiet voice: “You know me. Do you remember me?”

Qin Jiu: “……….”

The woman said: “See? Just like that.”

“What made him like this?” Qin Jiu asked.

The woman thought for a moment and shook her head: “He has always been like this.”

She called out and the other two people fetching water by the river came over. With one on each side, they supported the male villager up.

“Take him back first. He’ll probably act like this for a while.” The woman said.

The two villagers nodded and dragged the man back into the house.

As he was being taken away, the male villager again grabbed Yu Wen who was closest to him. He struggled and said: “I’ve seen them. I really have seen them before.”

His skin was dark, and his face was covered with dry cracked lines. This was particularly serious around the corners of his mouth and eyes. He had several strands of white hair making him look even more haphazard.

Yu Wen was started by him, but he also felt a little bad for him.

He said: “Don’t drag him like this. Should I help you?”

The two villagers shook their heads: “It’s okay, don’t worry. We’re used to it. He’s strong when he starts going crazy, so you won’t be able to hold him down. We can only do it this way. Also……..”

One of them spoke bluntly: “You are the black widow’s guests. We……..uh, don’t welcome strangers into our homes.”

Very quickly, the male villager was dragged into a red-roofed house. The door closed and soon there were no more sounds.

This incident made everyone look at each other with confusion.

But these villagers were equivalent to the NPC’s in games. The things that happened between NPC’s were probably fixed plotlines, so it wasn’t a good idea stepping in before you understood the whole situation.

So they just took this situation in and no one dare to act.

You Huo mentally noted down the house before looking away.

After chatting for a while, their relationship was still quite distant. The great master became impatient and no longer went around in circles anymore. He asked directly: “Do any of you know Gypsy?”

The woman again dug at the ice.

Her hand was raised high and the chisel hit the ice heavily, bringing along with it a lot of fine shards of ice.

One after another, the speed was fast, and the strength was powerful.

The people watching on felt inexplicably scared. It was as if she wouldn’t hesitate to bring it down even if a person was lying there before her.

After smashing against the ice a few times, she shook her head: “No. No one does.”

Please read this from kk translates

“But the village chief said that the black widow works with the dead. If none of you understand Gypsy, how did you communicate with her?” Old Yu couldn’t help but ask.

The woman said: “It was always visitors who came for her. We don’t need to. And she wasn’t alone before. There was also an old guy and several children who didn’t speak Gypsy.”

Old guy? Children?

Everyone sensed that they had managed to get some information and was very excited: “Are they the black widow’s family?”

The woman nodded: “I guess.”

“Where are they? “Where did they go?”

The woman shook her head: “Left. I don’t know where they went. Maybe they went home? In any case, they suddenly disappeared.”

“Does anyone know?”

The woman again shook her head. She said: “No. We don’t dare ask the black widow.”

Everyone became dejected again.

You Huo glanced at the setting sun in the distance and asked, “Are there graves here?”

The woman’s hand stopped.

She fell silent for a while before suddenly looking up and smiling at everyone.

With a smile on her face, she looked livelier, but it also gave them a creepy feeling.

She awkwardly raised her arm and casually pointed in the distance, “See those trees?”

Everyone turned around,

The dense trees making up the woods enclosed the village in an airtight circle.

The woman smiled and said: “The graves are there. This entire encirclement of trees……..they’re all graves.”

·

The sun settled completely behind the woods and the final rays of sunlight disappeared.

Before they knew it, the sky had darkened.

The woman looked up and quickly picked up her metal basin.

“Wait.” You Huo grabbed her.

The woman struggled a few times: “What do you want?! It’s dark now, don’t grab me! I’m going back!””

She was very strong. You Huo didn’t expect this. In his moment of surprise, she managed to break free.

The woman carried the basin and backed away a few stops. She urged the onlookers: “You should also hurry back home. It’s dark now!”

“What happens when it’s dark? The village chief also mentioned it before. You don’t come out when it’s dark?”

The woman trembled.

She wrapped her scarf tightly around her and warily looked around. She then whispered: “Ghosts come out at night. They’re everywhere. They would knock on your doors, open your windows, stand by the bed or hide under it. You have to be careful……..”

After that, she pressed her index finger over her lips and made a “shhhh” sound.

“……….”

Her “shhh” gesture caused everyone’s hair to rise.

After the woman said this, she hurried away with her metal basin.

As the sky darkened further, she left very quickly. In the blink of an eye, her figure had already reached a house in the distance.

She opened the door, glanced around and then carefully entered. All the doors and windows were tightly shut.

In an instant, everything was silent.

Several houses still had lights on but because it was very dim and would occasionally flicker, it gave them an even more unnerving feeling.

Chen Bin rubbed his arm and said: “What do we do? There are no clues for the listening questions. We……..should we go back and study the recordings again?”

That was a hopeless suggestion.

They didn’t have a translation tool and the villagers didn’t understand Gypsy. They were also just told that there were ghosts who liked to knock on doors at night………How are they going to solve these questions?

·

“I’m entering the woods.”

You Huo suddenly said this.

“You’re going where???” Old Yu was startled by his nephew but before he could finish his question You Huo had already started to walk away.

“f.u.c.k.” Old Yu didn’t dare swear at his nephew. He cursed at the ground for a moment before shouting out: “Wait a minute! You should at least bring a light!”

You Huo didn’t look back. He just perfunctorily waved his hand.

Everyone: “…………”

Old Yu urgently asked: “Someone here! Give me a flashlight! A phone is fine too! Mine ran out of power after using it this afternoon. I f.u.c.king……..I can’t watch him go into the graveyard alone!”

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads.

After repeatedly playing the recordings from their phones the entire afternoon, their phones were all almost completely drained.

They didn’t dare use the remaining amount for light lest the phone completely shuts down.

“What about the experienced ones? You two? Did you bring a flashlight?” Old Yu looked at Chen Bin and Liang Yuanhao.

Liang Yuanhao: “No.”

Chen Bin waved his hand awkwardly: “They sold it at the rest stops but……our points were too low and we didn’t dare buy anything.”

“That……..” Yu Wen suddenly spoke up. He handed over something slender, “I betted on my courage………and spent 0.5 points for a light stick. Can that be used?”

Old Yu looked at him up and down: “If you’re going to buy something, why did you buy a light stick?! A box of matches would be better!”

Yu Wen cried back: “I read too many novels………..Some places you can’t use open flames.”

He held the light stick and dragged Old Yu with him to chase after You Huo.

Yu Yao said quietly: “I……I’m going too.”

The group all followed after You Huo leaving behind Liang Yuanhuo and Chen Bin.

“They……..why are they so reckless???” Chen Bin muttered, “Are we going too?”

Liang Yuanhao had a dark expression: “They already said that it’s all graves there. You can go if you want to go. I’m going back.”

·

The woods were extremely quiet. There weren’t even sounds of birds.

You Huo stepped onto a few branches and kicked them behind him.

Qin Jiu chuckled lazily and dragged out his words: “Can you be a little more considerate? There’s someone behind you.”

You Huo didn’t respond and just kicked a few more broken branches behind him.

Qin Jiu snorted.

Please read this from kk translates

You Huo crossed his arms and walked around the graveyard like he was walking through a park. The darkness didn’t appear to affect him.

“Are you sure you don’t need a light? I can lend it to you.” Qin Jiu said.

You Huo: “Night vision is good so no need to worry about it. Can you shut up and be quiet for a while?”

Qin Jiu: “Don’t want to.”

You Huo ignored him.

After walking in the woods for a while, Qin Jiu stopped his steps, “Who’s calling out?”

You Huo listened for a while and heard Yu Wen’s intermittent shouts: “Brother————brother where are you———”

In the distance he could see a dim green glow which lit up several people’s faces.

You Huo broke a few dried branches up and pulled out a lighter.

“Over here! Over here! I see him!” Yu Wen saw the fire and rushed over while alerting the others.

Old Yu supported himself using a tree and panted: “Haa…..You……For heaven’s sake, what are you looking for?”

You Huo: “Just looking around.”

Everyone’s faces turned green.

“……….The, then did you find anything? If not, why don’t we go back first?” Old Yu asked tentatively.

You Huo pointed next to his feet with the tree branch: “Look. A row of graves.”

Everyone was startled. They looked over in the direction of the fire.

You Huo’s toes were pointed at a plot of land and a row of gravestones were lined up across it in a row.

The gravestones were engraved with strange words. They looked like letters, but they also looked like round scrawls. This looked very similar the to writing on the stone monument at the entrance of the village. You could tell that it was written by the black widow.

Yu Wen was confused: “How did you find this place?”

“The black widow entered this forest this afternoon.” You Huo crouched down and beckoned Yu Wen over: “Do you still have power left in your phone?”

“A little bit.”

“Take a photo and copy it onto the black widow’s door.”

Everyone froze: “What?”

Did you want to anger the black widow again??

You Huo said: “What is on a gravestone?

Old Yu said: “The name of the deceased, photo, date of birth and death.”

You Huo remained expressionless.

Old Yu’s desire to survive peaked. He added: “And also the relatives of the deceased, and who wrote it.”

Everyone: “………”

That’s right! This was engraved by the black widow!

The black widow’s name must be engraved on it!