INSIDER Chapter 19

“You haven’t undertaken many tasks yet, so there are a few things I need to mention. First of all, most of the time when we enter the game, we’ll automatically be assigned identities. The next round will almost certainly be like this…”

After their fun, Song Gui provided Lu Chu with numerous details to be mindful of, and then Lu Chu’s free time came to an end.

They bid each other farewell and returned to their respective rooms.

In the pure white space, Lu Chu walked up to one of the square screens and voiced the task number he wanted to accept. Sure enough, the next moment, text appeared on the screen—

“Objective: Slay the Snake

Clue: Twenty years ago

Hint: Superstition”

The requirements and clues for this task seemed so simple at first glance that it left Lu Chu puzzled. However, since Song Gui had chosen this task, he must have had his reasons.

As he pondered, a door appeared in front of him.

Another door…

Lu Chu felt he would eventually get used to this.

He entered the door and lost consciousness. When he awoke, he found himself squatting in a farmyard, picking vegetables.

Not knowing what the current situation was, he naturally wouldn’t act rashly. Instead, he continued his task, deliberately slowing his pace.

He was waiting for someone to come over so he could get a better understanding of the situation.

As he picked vegetables, Lu Chu observed his surroundings: the slightly weathered blue-tiled roof, the low walls, and the modest houses—everything looked like a typical rustic village.

It was hard to imagine that such a realistic world was just a part of the game, a simulation repeated over and over again. Reflecting on this, Lu Chu suddenly realized that if different people could participate in the same task, wouldn’t they be inclined to exchange their experiences?

Thinking deeper, Lu Chu felt he might be overthinking. Besides the constant surveillance by the “rules,” any such communication would likely be impossible— the “rules” would certainly prevent it by any means.

After picking vegetables for a while, and feeling he had dragged out the time sufficiently, an elderly woman came out of the house. She looked very old, with loose skin covered in age spots, but she was exceptionally kind and gentle. Seeing Lu Chu still picking vegetables, she smiled and asked, “Haven’t finished yet?”

Lu Chu quickly nodded, “Almost done.”

“Let me help you,” she said, trying to bend down with difficulty.

Lu Chu hurriedly stopped her, smiling as he helped her back up. “Grandma, you just sit and watch! I can handle it myself. It won’t take long.”

Lu Chu’s gentle and peaceful demeanor, especially when he smiled, always left a good impression on people. The old woman, seeing this, smiled with her eyes barely visible, “Everyone says I have a good grandson. I must be really lucky!”

After chatting and laughing for a while, Lu Chu almost finished picking the vegetables. Suddenly, he remembered the clue about “superstition” and subtly guided the old woman to talk about the old ghost stories.

“There’s a saying that goes, ‘There are gods three feet above our heads,'” the old woman said solemnly before starting her story.

Elderly people often have strong beliefs and are very devout.

Lu Chu, looking very respectful and eager, gazed at the old woman with anticipation.

Seeing this, the old woman began, “Let me tell you a story about slaying a snake.”

Slaying a snake!

Lu Chu didn’t expect to find a connection to the task so soon. He immediately focused all his attention, listening intently.

The old woman, looking kindly at Lu Chu, smiled and said, “You know, I told you this story when you were very young. It’s been so long, you must have forgotten…”

“Long ago, in our village, there lived a mischievous boy. He was pampered by his parents and, although not a bad child, he was always naughty. One day, his mother wanted him to do some work, so she gave him a sickle and told him, ‘Go harvest the wheat. If you see a snake in the field, don’t touch it. Jump over the places it has slithered past.’ The boy didn’t take it seriously and set off with the sickle as if it were a game. Their field was some distance from the house, and the boy, playing along the way, soon reached it.”

Lu Chu was engrossed.

“At first, he followed instructions, cutting wheat for a while. Then, a snake appeared in the field. The snake was colorful and quite beautiful, showing no signs of aggression. But the boy, driven by curiosity and boldness, forgot his mother’s warning. He raised the sickle and struck the snake, cutting it in two!”

Lu Chu gasped in feigned shock. The old woman patted his head reassuringly and continued, “The boy was thrilled, thinking he had done something heroic. Who would have thought that after a moment, the snake would reattach itself and come back to life? The boy, though a bit scared, refused to believe it. He raised the sickle again and chopped the snake into seven pieces, thinking this would surely end it.”

“But after just a few breaths, the snake reassembled itself and was whole again. This time, the boy was truly frightened. He threw down the sickle and ran home, crying to his mother, ‘Mother! Mother! The snake is after me! Help!’ His mother, unaware of what he had done, thought he had just seen a snake in the field. She said, ‘Hide in the big jar in the yard. It won’t find you there and will leave on its own.’ The boy hurriedly hid in the jar, still terrified, and covered the top. Soon, the snake entered, sniffed around, and coiled itself around the jar without doing anything else, circling it three times before leaving. The boy’s mother called out, ‘It’s gone now, come out!’ But there was no response. She lifted the lid, only to find a pool of blood inside.”

The story ended, and the old woman patted Lu Chu’s head, advising him, “Many things have spirits. Never provoke them lightly. Sometimes, the old sayings are for your own good.”

Lu Chu smiled gently and nodded obediently.

To him, the story seemed more like a tale of revenge with a hint of mythology. But since Song Gui was nowhere to be found, Lu Chu decided to put further exploration on hold for now.

After the old woman finished the story, she went inside to do some chores.

Still immersed in the story, Lu Chu suddenly heard a commotion outside the yard. He put down the vegetables and walked over, finding a disheveled woman squatting on the ground, screaming her lungs out. Her long, messy hair completely covered her face, making it impossible for Lu Chu to see what she looked like.

He heard the murmurs of the gathering crowd—

“It’s that crazy woman again…””Keep your kids away from her, she’s bad luck!”

“What a tragedy, what a tragedy…”

After a few hysterical screams, the woman’s voice lowered to a sobbing murmur, as if she were talking to herself. Lu Chu closed his eyes and strained his ears to catch what she was saying—

“You don’t understand, the stories are all lies…”

“In the stories, when the hero is saved from a desperate situation, he sees his savior as a beacon of light. They rely on each other, trust each other… But for me, it’s different. I saved him, helped him… I was there for him through every desperate, lonely moment, but why, why did he always look at someone else…”

“I don’t understand, I just wanted to be with him…”

“And then she told me, it’s all because I wasn’t pretty enough. I’m not good-looking, I’m not good-looking, I… I’m not good-looking!”

At this point, the woman began to scream and laugh hysterically again, scaring away the onlookers and confusing Lu Chu.

The people around started talking again, one of them saying, “It’s always the same story about loving someone who doesn’t love her back. If you ask me, women shouldn’t get involved with strange men. Serves her right for a lifetime of misery!”

As the villager spoke, the madwoman began to mutter again, “He said that other woman helped him a lot, that’s why he got through the toughest times…”

“Helped a lot… In the end, it’s just about the face…”

“How pathetic, those who say the world is hypocritical and they’re different from others are fooled by appearances…”

Her voice was very soft, as if she were talking to herself or to the air. Besides Lu Chu, who had sharp hearing, no one else heard her words. For some reason, Lu Chu found himself oddly drawn to her.

He casually struck up a conversation with a nearby villager, “That crazy woman, is she—”

The person immediately replied, “Yes, she’s the village’s notorious madwoman. She went crazy twenty years ago. You young people should stay away from her, don’t catch her bad luck.”

Author’s Note:

The snake-slaying story was told to me by my grandmother when I was very young and living in the countryside. I always enjoyed these strange ghost stories, to the point where seeing a sickle became a childhood fear.