Gu Wanyin instantly sat up and rushed to close the door.
But it was already too late.
Just as she was about to reach the door, two maids carrying lanterns suddenly appeared.
These two maids wore white clothes and dresses, their faces were also pale, but they had applied bright rouge on their cheeks. The lanterns they carried were bright red with the character for "double happiness" pasted on them, making the whole scene look rather eerie.
"Guest, would you like to join us?" One of the maids asked with a grin.
Gu Wanyin had already gotten over her initial shock and had calmed down. She said coolly, "No, thank you. I'm going to sleep."
"Come play with us," the other maid said. "It's quite lively at night."
"Come on."
"Come on."
Gu Wanyin reached out to close the door but found it seemed to be nailed in place, not budging an inch.
She could only continue to face these two maids.
As they waited for her response, the two maids became increasingly frenzied.
"Why won't you come? Didn't you open the door?"
"If you opened the door, you must join us."
"Join us forever."
Gu Wanyin heard eerie laughter growing louder, eventually echoing throughout their entire courtyard.
Yet the other four people sharing her room showed no reaction whatsoever!
They were still sound asleep, showing no signs of waking up!
Even the system, which had transformed into a small squirrel, was sleeping soundly with its little belly puffed out.
Gu Wanyin realized that tonight's events were targeting her specifically.
She thought for a moment, then asked, "If I join you, then what?"
The two maids seemed confused for a moment, but quickly one of them said, "We'll prepare for the Second Young Master's wedding together."
"Why prepare for a wedding at night?"
"Of course, this kind of wedding must be prepared at night."
"What kind of wedding?" Gu Wanyin pressed.
"A dead person's wedding, a wedding for the dead."
"A dead person's wedding, prepared by the dead."
Gu Wanyin wanted to ask more, but suddenly the two maids screamed in unison. Their faces slowly became grotesque, with blood flowing from their eyes, and their bodies emitting a foul stench.
Not only that, they reached out towards Gu Wanyin with withered hands, trying to grab her.
"Come with us!"
Gu Wanyin quickly dodged and pulled out a short dagger she always carried with her, swiftly cutting off the hands of the two maids.
Instantly, blood gushed out.
The two maids' screams grew even louder. They retreated in unison, looking at Gu Wanyin with hateful gazes, but wary of the dagger in her hand, not daring to approach.
"I'm sorry, but I must return alive, so I can't join you," Gu Wanyin said. "And you can't enter this room either. If you insist on doing something, I don't mind going on a killing spree in this mansion."
After all, there probably weren't many living people in this mansion anyway.
The two maids looked at her resentfully, and in the next moment, they suddenly disappeared.
The eerie laughter and earlier playful sounds gradually faded away.
Gu Wanyin silently let out a sigh of relief.
Just then, Gu Han's groggy voice sounded from behind her: "Wanyin, why are you up? Eh... why did you open the door?"
The others also slowly woke up.
Only the squirrel system was still asleep, snoring like a pig.
"Boss Gu, what's wrong?"
"I didn't open it," Gu Wanyin said. "When I woke up just now, the door was already open. Then..."
She pointed to the severed hands and blood on the floor.
Everyone felt their scalps tingle.
"...Intense," Dong Yue said.
"How did this happen? Why didn't I hear anything?" Bai Shuwen stood up, patting his head.
"Me neither," Zhuang Xiaoxia said guiltily. "I was sleeping so soundly..."
Gu Wanyin had faced such a dangerous situation, while they were all sound asleep.
It seemed excessive when they thought about it.
"It's not your fault," Gu Wanyin said. "It's just the effect of the instance. When you're in an instance, if it doesn't want you to wake up, you won't wake up no matter what."
They cleaned up the blood and severed hands, then closed the door and sat around the table to discuss what had just happened.
"The servants in the mansion must all be dead," Gu Wanyin said. "I had my suspicions about this earlier, and now it's confirmed."
"So, someone must have used some kind of spell to allow them to move freely during the day," Gu Han said. "This isn't unusual in horror instances."
"Right. I think there are only three living people in the mansion now: the Second Young Master, the Second Young Mistress, and the Butler," Gu Wanyin added.
Dong Yue was somewhat doubtful: "The Second Young Master and the Butler seem normal enough, but is the Second Young Mistress really alive? Seeing her crazed behavior earlier, I feel something's not right."
"I can't say for sure," Gu Wanyin smiled helplessly. "I just feel that she doesn't have that aura of death about her."
"Last night, the Second Young Master said the wedding would start in two days," Zhuang Xiaoxia said. "If the wedding is held at night, doesn't that mean... tomorrow night?"
"Mm," Bai Shuwen nodded. "It seems we might get answers tomorrow night, but..."
"Tomorrow night will be the most dangerous night."
...
During breakfast, Chen Sisi and Tao Jianchun both said they had slept through the night in their room, hearing nothing and sleeping until dawn.
Gu Wanyin briefly explained what had happened last night, and their faces didn't look good.
"The door can open by itself?" Tao Jianchun said nervously. "How is that possible? Isn't this instance just trying to kill people?"
"It probably didn't open by itself," Gu Wanyin said. "Someone deliberately opened it."
Hearing this, Chen Sisi immediately frowned: "Are you suspecting us?"
"Not at all, you're overthinking it," Gu Wanyin smiled. "From your perspective, killing us wouldn't benefit you at all. The more people die, the fewer teammates you have, making it harder to clear the instance."
Chen Sisi's brow finally relaxed.
Indeed, in the horror world, except for a few instances that required players to kill each other, most required cooperation among players, and the more people who survived, the better.
"We still have a whole day ahead of us," Dong Yue said. "What should we do?"
"Let's talk to the Butler," Gu Wanyin said, stroking the head of the squirrel system. "We can't see the Second Young Mistress, and the Second Young Master comes and goes unpredictably, so we can only go to the Butler."
...
When they found the Butler, he was sitting by a well.
He was staring into the well, lost in thought, not knowing what he was thinking about.
In his hand, he held a jade pendant.
When Gu Wanyin saw this jade pendant, she paused for a moment, feeling it looked familiar.
Soon she remembered that, judging by its style, it should have been made from the same piece of jade as the hairpin in the Second Young Master's study.
