Lakeside Ghost Story 4

Early in the morning, sunlight filtered through gaps in the canopy, scattering shifting patches of light across the cabin. Its gentle warmth woke every survivor from their uneasy dreams.

Everyone gathered in the living room, stretching and yawning, all of them looking severely sleep-deprived.

Zhou Wu rubbed his eyes. His dry eyeballs made wet, squelching sounds, and heavy bags and dark circles hung beneath his vacant gaze. He looked as though he had pulled all-nighters for a week straight.

Fang Hao and Li Mingfeng had spent the night crammed together, and felt as if every bone in their bodies had nearly been crushed apart. Their sleep had been deep and heavy, nearly nightmare-stricken.

Only Zhuo Yu remained refreshed, seated in his wheelchair. In a fairly good mood, he even opened the cabin door. The chirping of forest birds and a fresh, bracing breeze rushed into the living room all at once, sweeping away the grim terror of the night before.

"Why are you so energetic?" Li Mingfeng asked Zhuo Yu.

Zhuo Yu shrugged. "I found a fun little toy last night. It was pretty good for relieving stress. I played with it until I fell asleep, and slept really well."

Li Mingfeng pulled at the corner of his mouth, not believing Zhuo Yu's nonsense for a second.

"Where's Mu Ying?" Zhou Wu forced himself to stay alert as he looked around, but he could not find his teammate. "Is she still asleep?"

The sound of a door opening and closing dispelled his doubts.

Wearing pajamas from her luggage, Mu Ying slowly approached the others. Yet there was something deeply strange about the way she walked. Like a patient with muscular weakness, she staggered unevenly, her arms flopping limply at her sides with each step, while her gait itself remained stiff.

"Hungry... so hungry..." Mu Ying murmured, sitting upright beside Zhou Wu.

Zhou Wu scratched his head and thoughtfully brought out the snacks they had packed for camping in the RV, along with canned food scavenged from the cabin, setting them before her.

The slight cloudiness in Mu Ying's eyes instantly brightened. She reached for a can of meat, greasy broth seeping through her fingers and dripping all over the sofa. Like a starving ghost, she crammed food into her mouth, stuffing in bite after bite. But she moved too quickly and immediately choked on a greasy slice of meat, her eyes rolling white.

Just as Zhou Wu, shocked, was about to pat her back, Mu Ying suddenly convulsed. With a retching "Bleurgh," she vomited up everything she had swallowed. At the same time, she brought up a huge pool of foul-smelling water, tangled with seaweed and half-digested little fish that still bore scales.

Fang Hao and the others immediately recoiled several steps.

"Not fresh! Not fresh at all!"

Mu Ying shrieked for a while before finally calming down. She stared blankly at her teammates. "I was so thirsty last night, so I drank some lake water. Do you want to try it?"

"Huh?" Fang Hao glared at Mu Ying in disgust. "Is there something wrong with your brain?"

"It's very sweet. The water in Golden Lake is very sweet." Mu Ying rambled on. "You should try it too. Then we'll all be together..."

Li Mingfeng pulled Fang Hao aside and watched Mu Ying warily. But Zhou Wu did not think anything was wrong with her at all. He continued asking after her, even drawing her into his arms.

Li Mingfeng felt as though his vision had gone dark, as though a breath had lodged in his throat. What had happened to Captain Zhou? He had no sense of caution at all! Had dating fried his brain? And Fang Hao was no more reliable. They had agreed to take turns keeping watch for a few hours each that night, but Fang Hao had simply fallen asleep.

Li Mingfeng truly felt that he had become the character Bonnie, filled with resentment toward the cousin who had dragged him to Golden Lake: Zhou Wu.

What right did a man who relied on nothing but his build and brute force, without a shred of brains, have to be captain?

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Instinctively, he looked at the only other person left in the living room, Zhuo Yu, who had joined the team midway through.

Zhuo Yu had wheeled up to the doorway. Arms folded, he watched the farce before him with keen interest. There was not the slightest trace of agitation or fear in his eyes. Rather than an actor, he looked more like an audience member waiting for the show to begin.

For some reason, a chill suddenly crawled over Li Mingfeng. He hurriedly looked away and stopped watching Zhuo Yu.

[Prerequisite Quest: Survive the first night of camping. Completed.]

[Main Quest Updated: Before night falls, enjoy all that the Golden Lake Scenic Area has to offer~]

The System's voice only irritated Li Mingfeng further. He knew he could not persuade them, so he chose to keep his distance. Zhuo Yu followed him back to the room as well.

Li Mingfeng suddenly stopped. "Do you smell something weird?"

"What? You mean what Mu Ying threw up?"

"No." Li Mingfeng shook his head and looked suspiciously toward Zhuo Yu's room. "Something rotten. Forget it. This damn place..."

Once Li Mingfeng had gone into his room, Zhuo Yu entered his own.

He wheeled over to the bed and lifted the bedspread hanging to the floor. Something white seemed to be lying beneath the broad four-poster bed. Zhuo Yu seized one of its legs, forcefully turned his wheels, and backed up. What he dragged out was none other than the drowned revenant from last night.

The fishy stench mingled with the reek of rotten flesh baking beneath the blazing sun, hitting him full in the face and nearly making him stagger. The corpse lay motionless on the floor with its head tilted to one side. Great patches of its swollen skin had peeled away, revealing pink flesh beneath. Only its bulging, dead-fish eyes still held a trace of the resentment it had felt before death.

The drowned revenant's hands were clamped tightly around its own throat. Its neck bones had been broken. It had killed itself.

"Who told you to keep staring into my eyes?"

Zhuo Yu had known since childhood that whenever people were anxious and unsettled, looking into his eyes seemed to calm them unconsciously. He had used that trick to fool his editor many times and escape quite a few lectures.

Last night, he had only wanted the drowned revenant to settle down and stay away from him. The revenant had paused, then, as if its mind had snapped, raised a hand and twisted off its own neck. In a cruel fashion, it had quite literally gotten "away" from him.

He had not expected this talent to become so powerful after entering the Studios. It was probably an ability granted by the "unknown role" he was playing.

Zhuo Yu took out the fork he had sharpened to a point and stabbed its sharp end into the softened belly, peeling open the abdominal and chest cavities together.

Because his lower body had been paralyzed for so long, Zhuo Yu had consciously trained his upper body. His face made him look like a frail scholar, but in truth, his upper-body strength was probably greater than Zhou Wu's. Fortunately, the drowned revenant was so badly decomposed that he did not need much effort to gut it.

He had already dissected the drowned revenant carefully the night before. It was much as he had expected: its mouth, nose, and airways were filled with pink foam, evidence of liquid entering its bronchi and lungs and rupturing mucous membranes and blood vessels. The livor mortis across its body also bore a pale reddish hue, a classic sign of drowning. It had not been dumped into Golden Lake after it died.

Its stomach and the crevices beneath its fingernails were full of mud and algae. It must have suffered greatly before it died.

The information the System had given him was correct, but Zhuo Yu still preferred to verify things for himself, lest he be deceived.

"So... how did Mu Ying come back to life?"

An ordinary person would die after losing 1,200 milliliters of blood. He recalled last night's scene. So much blood had flowed out through the bedroom door that it had far exceeded that amount. There was no possibility that Mu Ying could have survived.

Yet the System had not announced Mu Ying's death last night. That meant Mu Ying was now "alive" in some other form. Whether she was even human anymore was uncertain.

"The drowned revenant was only an appetizer. The real scenario boss hasn't even appeared yet."

Zhuo Yu considered it. If this drowned revenant had not run into him last night, it would not have been Mu Ying alone who came to harm. Like an old wolf loose among sheep, it would have bled them one by one.

And that still was not the boss.

Zhuo Yu turned his wheelchair and shoved the drowned revenant back beneath the bed. Before he could even let out a breath, someone knocked on his door. It was Zhou Wu.

He called everyone who had been resting back out and declared bluntly, "I thought there'd be monsters, but nothing happened last night. We might as well do what the System says and enjoy ourselves, so it doesn't come looking for trouble. I don't want to get burned to death."

After mulling it over in the living room, Zhou Wu figured that since the System had issued such a new quest, it might want them to follow their character settings and continue camping here.

In School Bully Jack's memories, their plan had been to swim here, fish, and even hunt, then throw a barbecue feast. Of course, the most important part was getting lovey-dovey with his girlfriend and rounding a few bases.

Zhou Wu's interest immediately stirred. He searched through the RV's trunk and, sure enough, found plenty of good things, all brought by the characters themselves.

Zhuo Yu watched him busy himself. Fishing rods, charcoal, cooking gear, and even a handgun were scattered across the ground. No wonder that brute who loved bullying students collected dangerous props.

Zhou Wu tucked the gun into his waistband, then announced that everyone was dismissed. They could do whatever they wanted, as long as they did not stray too far from the cabin.

Zhuo Yu was handed a fishing rod. Turning his head, he saw Fang Hao holding one too, tears practically welling in his eyes as his whole body began trembling again. Everyone knew there might be something wrong with Golden Lake, and no one wanted to get close to it. So Zhou Wu had dumped the fishing on the two outsiders.

"..." Zhuo Yu left expressionlessly with his rod, without the slightest objection. Fang Hao could only grit his teeth and find a spot to fish as well.

Time flew by. Daytime at Golden Lake was short. By four in the afternoon, the sky had begun to darken.

Fang Hao returned with a small bucket, sighing. There were only a few fish inside. Just then, he ran into Zhuo Yu coming back. Seeing that Zhuo Yu's hands were empty, he felt much better.

Fang Hao smiled. "What, fishing doesn't even require legs, and you still didn't catch a single one?"

Zhuo Yu gave him a mysterious smile and crooked a finger.

When Fang Hao leaned in, Zhuo Yu said softly, "Didn't you see what Mu Ying was like? Aren't you afraid that if you eat fish from here, you'll never be able to leave?"

The baby-faced college student turned deathly pale. He even spilled the bucket in his hands, sending fish flopping everywhere. "Y-you! Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Zhuo Yu looked astonished. "You actually believed that? I was joking!"

Before Fang Hao could process it, Zhuo Yu tossed his fishing rod beside the RV and sauntered away. A moment later, Fang Hao finally came to his senses, his face flushing red as he cursed the person who had toyed with him.

Zhuo Yu naturally did not care about that minor episode. He had not taken the fishing rod to fish, but to use the time to scout the terrain around Golden Lake and see whether there were any new clues.

Ignoring Zhou Wu and the others as they bustled about preparing the barbecue feast, he returned to the cabin alone.

"The smell's too strong. Might as well get rid of it now..."

Zhuo Yu's room was near the back door, which faced the lake directly. He looked at the veteran actors outside and could not help sighing deeply. If he could move freely, he probably would not have chosen to team up. Sometimes, having more people was not an advantage, but a hindrance.

But when he lifted the bedspread, he found that the corpse that had been lying properly beneath the bed had vanished without a trace.

Zhuo Yu raised an eyebrow and quickly made his way to the back door, where winding water trails marked the floor. The moon had already climbed over the hillside and was slowly rising toward the center of the lake, while the drowned revenant had disappeared completely.

"It can still live with its bones broken. Next time, let's see how it handles fire."

Zhuo Yu turned and left the cabin, considering how to get Zhou Wu's flint. Not far away, a pair of rigid dead eyes hid beneath the lake water, filled with terror.

The surviving drowned revenant was not very intelligent. All it remembered was crashing into that human's black pupils, then being unable to feel anything at all. Uneasily, it dove deeper and swam toward the very center of Golden Lake.

Golden Lake had told it... there was a different kind of one of its kind that could solve the problem at hand.

The drowned revenant swam deeper and deeper, passing countless shattered corpses sunk to the bottom. Upon a huge boulder with a dagger embedded in it, it saw a sleeping guardian.

As though it had found a savior, the drowned revenant opened its huge mouth and gave a piercing howl, disturbing the guardian into opening his eyes. The revenant swam frantically to his side and led him out from the lake bottom.

Beneath the cloak of night, no one noticed ripples spreading along the riverbank.

A dark figure surfaced, scattering the gleaming round moon reflected in Golden Lake. Half his body remained submerged in the icy water as he gazed at the steaming-hot, living prey in the distance.

Several silhouettes flickered in the firelight. Only one of them looked strange, as though seated in a wheelchair.

The man's entire body went rigid.

"Huh-huh... huh-huh... Gah!" The drowned revenant described the situation on shore. The instant it finished, pain burst through both its cheeks. Its whole head had been seized in a brutal grip; with just a little more force, it would explode like an overripe watermelon.

Don't make so much noise, the guardian of Golden Lake thought.

—Let me look at him quietly a little longer.