Just as they were all tensely on edge, Qu Muxi simply squinted and smiled, “Although our Ren’ai Orphanage is warm and hospitable, and we appreciate your help, this place is quite remote, and we are short-staffed. Aunt Jiang from the cafeteria accidentally fell and hurt herself quite badly, so lunch isn’t ready yet.”
She then looked at the group and made a request, “Is there anyone among you who can cook and help prepare lunch?”
Her eager gaze felt odd and unsettling. This sudden request made everyone look at each other with unease and hesitation, waiting to see who would volunteer.
No one wanted to be the first to step forward, leading to a moment of indecision among the group.
Seeing no one responding, Qu Muxi’s smile turned colder, and her tone changed from its previous warmth, “If none of you can cook, that’s truly unfortunate. To survive, one must have some useful skills.”
This was a blatant threat. Xiao Muyu calmly responded, “I can write code. Will that help me survive?”
Everyone, including Qu Muxi, stared at her in surprise. Xiao Muyu continued slowly, “Oh, I misspoke. I can cook.”
Qu Muxi’s expression turned difficult to describe. She was about to lose her temper but held it back.
Shen Qingqiu smirked, watching the exchange. Xiao Muyu was clearly irritated and was trying to provoke Qu Muxi, which was a rare sight.
Shen Qingqiu then pulled out a dagger, spinning it in her left hand, “I’m good at butchering and fighting ghosts, not cooking. But I can help with cutting meat and prepping.”
She stared directly at Qu Muxi as she spoke, issuing a thinly veiled threat that made Qu Muxi’s face darken. This was the first time she had been threatened.
Zhang Yangfeng and the others were in awe of her boldness. Just as Zhang Yangfeng was about to speak, Yang Rui pulled him back, indicating he should stay quiet, then said, “I can cook too.”
Qu Muxi’s expression finally softened, “Thank you, the three of you. I’m looking forward to your culinary skills.”
Hou Liang, Liu Pei, Zhang Yangfeng, and Huang Junfeng still felt uneasy. Qu Muxi continued, “While they cook, you can stay here and continue teaching the children. Remember, lunch should be ready by 12:30.”
The group was given clear instructions. The remaining four watched Xiao Muyu, Shen Qingqiu, and Yang Rui leave with Qu Muxi, exchanging worried glances. The children seemed off.
When the three were led to the kitchen, Xiao Muyu checked the time: 11:35.
The kitchen’s layout was unexpected. It was T-shaped, with a corridor upon entering.
On the right was a cabinet for dishes and bowls, and on the left were two sinks. Inside the corridor were two rooms.
The left room had an old-style gas stove with a large iron pot and various seasonings nearby. The long countertop held three metal basins, not particularly clean but not overly dirty either.
The right room stored food: wilted greens, sprouted potatoes, radishes, and peppers. There were some vegetables, but they were neither plentiful nor fresh.
Xiao Muyu remembered there was something she hadn’t done yet: find out what meat they had eaten, a detail Shen Qingqiu knew. Based on her hint, Xiao Muyu suspected it might be human meat. However, she doubted it since it didn’t seem plausible that Shen Qingqiu could identify it just by taste, and even if she could, she wouldn’t be so calm about it.
She checked the prep area outside the storeroom, noting the cutting boards and knives were clean. The walls, however, had bloodstains, some old and dark, some fresher.
Bending down, she found a black feather with blood on it, likely from a bird.
Just then, Yang Rui let out a short cry. Xiao Muyu turned quickly to see what had happened.
Shen Qingqiu stood to the side and opened the door of the cold storage unit in the pantry. It was an upright freezer, and when he opened it, the contents, packed too tightly, spilled out all at once. To their horror, it was filled with pitch-black, bloodstained crows!
These crows were significantly larger than ordinary ones. Their eyes, having been dead for a long time, were cloudy and white, giving them an especially eerie appearance.
Crows are generally considered ominous, symbolizing death and decay. Seeing a freezer packed to the brim with their corpses was both nauseating and terrifying, which is why Yang Rui couldn’t help but scream.
Xiao Muyu, holding a black feather in her hand, approached while pinching her nose and frowning. “So the meat you ate that day was crow meat?”
But something felt off. Crow meat, being from a bird, would have a different texture and structure compared to livestock. How did they not notice?
“It was crow meat, but not just crow meat. There were other types of meat too,” Shen Qingqiu explained, addressing her doubts.
Then he opened another door, and a putrid stench immediately assaulted their nostrils. The three of them instinctively covered their mouths and noses, turning their heads and stepping back.
In front of them was a large chunk of pork, weighing around fifty to sixty pounds. The meat had clearly changed color and was no longer fresh.
Yang Rui, overwhelmed by the unbearable stench, started retching and had to step back, covering her nose and mouth with her sleeve. “Why does this meat smell so awful? Ugh!”
Xiao Muyu, having the keenest sense of smell, didn’t step back this time but instead stared intently at the open compartment, her expression grave.
As the odor filled the room, Shen Qingqiu frowned. This smell was not something caused by a piece of discolored pork. This felt like…
Upon hearing Yang Rui’s complaint, Shen Qingqiu spoke heavily, sending chills down Yang Rui’s spine.
“Rather than calling this a meat stench, it’s more accurate to call it the stench of corpses.”
With that, she tore off a piece of cloth from her clothes, folded it several times, and covered her nose and mouth before swinging open the remaining two doors.
Immediately, rows of human heads were revealed, severely decomposed with distorted features, some even showing bare skulls. The sight was more horrifying than any ghost!
Yang Rui screamed at the top of her lungs, and even Xiao Muyu broke out in a cold sweat, but she quickly covered Yang Rui’s mouth to stop her from screaming further.
The single compartment was divided into four layers. In the two compartments Shen Qingqiu had just opened, the left side was a jumbled pile of flesh, with clear limbs indicating that these were dismembered bodies.
On the right side, each of the four layers held two neatly arranged human heads, creating a scene both disgusting and bizarre.
Even someone as composed as Xiao Muyu couldn’t help but look away after one glance, her face pale with a mixture of nausea and distress.
Shen Qingqiu closed the freezer doors again, her expression dark but far less intense than the other two, as if such a scene couldn’t shake her.
Xiao Muyu quickly glanced at Shen Qingqiu and then hurried out with Yang Rui. Yang Rui was so weak in the knees that she practically hung onto Xiao Muyu. Despite having gone through two dungeons, such a gory and terrifying scene was beyond her endurance.
Shen Qingqiu followed, pulling Yang Rui to the side with one hand. “Pull yourself together. Stand on your own,” she said coldly.
Xiao Muyu silently gave Shen Qingqiu a glance but said nothing.
Though Xiao Muyu’s face was still pale and her lips colorless, she seemed to have regained her composure. Shen Qingqiu knew the impact on her wasn’t small.
“Was I too sudden? Are you alright?” Shen Qingqiu reached out and squeezed Xiao Muyu’s dangling right hand. Her fingers were cold and clammy, prompting Shen Qingqiu to warm them with her own hands.
Xiao Muyu took a deep breath and withdrew her hand subtly. “I’m fine. It’s my problem.”
Shen Qingqiu understood that she had guessed correctly before opening the door. Although she knew there were corpses inside, she had underestimated the horror of this terrifying scene.
“You should rest. I’ll handle it,” Shen Qingqiu said, then turned to Yang Rui. “It’s an important item. Aren’t you going to help investigate?”
Yang Rui looked at her weakly, her cheeks trembling. The smell seemed to have reached them already, making her bend over and retch again, even spitting up bile.
Though Shen Qingqiu wasn’t her teammate, the treatment seemed quite biased. She would speak softly and kindly to Xiao Muyu but harshly to her.
Xiao Muyu felt a mix of emotions. Such blatant favoritism was clearly a burden and an intrusion, but the impulse to smile at that moment was seven parts amused and three parts pleased, an uncontrollable happiness.
“I’m fine. Those things are important. I’ll be okay after a while.” Xiao Muyu gathered her spirits. Despite the scare, fear was the last thing they needed in this place.
At this moment, Xiao Muyu appeared somewhat fragile due to her pallor. Shen Qingqiu knew she was never a weak person, but still felt a pang of pity. She looked into Xiao Muyu’s eyes, smiled, and said, “Don’t you trust me?”
Xiao Muyu was taken aback. Shen Qingqiu’s rare gentle smile continued, “If you trust me, you should believe that I can relay everything you need to know. I know your sense of smell is more acute than most. It must be worse up close, and those things are far from pleasant to look at. Leave it to me.”
Xiao Muyu lowered her gaze briefly before looking up again, her expression a mix of a smile and self-mockery. “Being in here, any sense of propriety or major issues must be faced. Otherwise, I wouldn’t deserve to be here. I can handle this discomfort.”
Shen Qingqiu frowned slightly and spoke without thinking, “But with me here, as long as I can help, you don’t have to endure it.”
“With me here, you don’t always have to be so strong and rational. You can choose not to endure and to back down.”
A sudden, eerily familiar phrase surged through Xiao Muyu’s mind, causing her to falter and stare blankly at Shen Qingqiu, unable to retort.
It wasn’t until Shen Qingqiu went back inside alone that Yang Rui tapped Xiao Muyu’s arm to snap her out of her daze.
“Are you okay?” Despite her own pale and disheveled state, the girl was still concerned about her in a low voice.
Xiao Muyu shook her head.
“You two have a really good relationship. I couldn’t imagine she could be like this without seeing it myself,” Yang Rui remarked, uncharacteristically initiating conversation.
Shen Qingqiu generally didn’t stand out. Despite her sharp looks and personality, when she stayed silent, she was more low-key than Xiao Muyu. But when she spoke, her words were like a knife—sharp and direct.
No matter what, she gave off a vibe of being difficult to deal with, temperamental. Yet with Xiao Muyu, she was like a thornless rose, vibrant and dazzling, with soft petals.
Once inside, Shen Qingqiu frowned, meticulously inspecting the room back and forth, ignoring the suffocating stench.
Xiao Muyu watched Shen Qingqiu’s silhouette, maintaining her frightening level of composure. She reminded Yang Rui, “Regardless of what we’ve found, we have one thing that must be done. Lunch is at twelve-thirty, and there’s not much time left. We need to cook first.”
Yang Rui’s expression was indescribable. Cooking next to a pile of corpses? Thinking of eating crow meat and pork stored next to those corpses made her stomach churn. She felt worse knowing Zhang Yangfeng had eaten on her behalf that day.
Shen Qingqiu also realized this issue. She brought out the needed vegetables and closed the door.
Xiao Muyu pursed her lips, watching Shen Qingqiu through the glass. Then she found tools and began peeling potatoes and radishes efficiently.
Yang Rui, suppressing her discomfort, found a bag of rice crawling with bugs and started washing the rice and vegetables.
After more than twenty minutes, Shen Qingqiu came out, removed her coat, and washed her hands several times before entering, keeping her distance from Xiao Muyu. She spoke in a serious tone, “Eight people. Despite their faces being unrecognizable, it’s clear they were all men. One had a gold tooth, six wore watches, and one had a string of beads.
The cause of death is hard to determine, but the cuts on their necks are uneven, with muscle tearing directly.
Not just their heads, but most of their torsos were also mutilated, with obvious tear marks and deep bite marks about six or seven centimeters long. The teeth were dense and sharp. As far as I know, no creature has such teeth, and these were likely inflicted while they were still alive.
The bones were not cleanly broken; many bone fragments were missing. Judging by the number of bodies, all eight men were present, and they seemed to be adult males.”
She finished her detailed and calm report in one breath, making Yang Rui both admire and fear her. What kind of person could remain so calm and meticulous while examining eight highly decomposed corpses? It was terrifying.
Author’s Note: This chapter also includes some subtle interactions between the two characters.
Yang Rui: Ugh, those… those two women over there.
Xiao Muyu (indifferent) and Shen Qingqiu (impatient): What is it?
Yang Rui: I just want to puke quietly, but even while puking my guts out, you two are still dazzling me.
Su Jin: This is just the beginning.
Little Shen: Move aside. Pull yourself together and get off my wife.
Yang Rui: …
1025, Crying Cat Face, Two Bowls of Rice, Hua, Shocking Peng Qiuqiu: 1 each.
