Chapter 15 Corpse

Jiang Cheng was still half-asleep, clearly in a state of transition between sleep and wakefulness. "What's wrong?"

"Tang Shirou... has been found!"

Jiang Cheng's eyes snapped open.

...

The backyard of the Huang residence.

Specifically, the secluded courtyard they had visited last night.

A bright red sedan chair sat in the very center of the courtyard.

So bright red, it looked as if it had just been fished out of a pool filled with blood.

"When was it discovered?" Qin Jian frowned, looking at Shi Liaozhi, who had brought him the news.

Shi Liaozhi had come knocking on their door early in the morning to deliver the message.

"I don't know." Shi Liaozhi swallowed, his gaze constantly shifting over the bright red sedan chair, his eyes filled with unconcealed fear. "That middle-aged woman came to notify us."

But they looked around, and no one from the Huang residence came.

Not even someone to explain or lead the way.

This place... was truly strange.

It was indeed a paper sedan chair made of white paper.

Dragons and phoenixes were painted on it, giving it a certain appearance, and the most bizarre thing was... the four paper figures standing around the sedan chair.

Dressed in bright red paper clothes and wearing green melon-shaped hats, the paper figures had pairs of bewitching eyes, their waists twisting seductively.

Two plain white paper lanterns were held by the two paper figures at the front.

Extraordinarily eerie.

The bright red color of blood had soaked through the white paper sedan chair. Xia Meng twitched her nose as a sweet, fishy smell filled her nostrils. She had smelled blood before.

The sand and soil beneath the paper sedan chair had been stained red with blood, making one wonder what kind of scene was inside.

An Xuan took a deep breath and turned to look at Shi Liaozhi. "What did that middle-aged woman say?"

"She said that the person we lost was in the abandoned courtyard of the Huang residence," Shi Liaozhi replied in a low voice.

"That's it?"

Shi Liaozhi nodded. "That's it."

"How did that middle-aged woman know that we lost someone last night?" Xia Meng asked.

The question she raised was one that everyone wanted to know. Moreover, judging by the appearance of the paper sedan chair, it didn't seem like anyone had opened it before, otherwise the sedan chair soaked in blood would have been ruined long ago.

"What's the point of asking? We'll know once we take a look."

It was You Qi who spoke. He didn't seem to like standing here. This sedan chair was bad enough, but there was also this courtyard and the lake.

Everything here was filled with strangeness.

"Who's going?" Zuo Qing sneered. "You going?"

You Qi swallowed hard and boldly replied, "If I go, I go." He paused and added, "But I'm telling you now, if there's anything inside..."

"It's all yours," Jiang Cheng encouraged. "Go on."

You Qi glanced at everyone and slowly approached. As the distance grew shorter, the inexplicable feeling of panic grew stronger. He steeled his heart, picked up a rock from the ground, and before anyone could stop him, threw it at the sedan chair.

No sound of paper tearing was heard. The entire sedan chair seemed to have reached its limit, and it split open completely. The next moment, a bride wearing a red veil and a headdress appeared before everyone.

She sat upright on a wooden chair inside the sedan chair, her hands tucked into her sleeves, resting flat on her closed knees.

Her posture was very dignified.

But at this moment, what everyone felt was not the feeling of a lady from a prominent family, but a bone-chilling cold. This... must be the missing Tang Shirou.

No one expected her to have survived, but...

"Look at the clothes she's wearing!"

Someone shouted, and then everyone noticed that the bride was wearing the big red opera costume that had been hanging in the center of Young Master Huang's attic yesterday!

Because it was soaked in blood, no one had noticed it at first.

A gust of wind blew, lifting the red veil on the bride's head, revealing a face beneath the veil...

No, not a face!

It was a, it was a skull face with the skin scraped off.

The corpse swayed slightly, and its hand slid down along its sleeve, revealing a bloody mess on its originally pale hand, with even the stark white finger bones exposed in some places.

"Where's her skin?!"

At this moment, Tang Shirou was left with only a complete skeleton and the flesh and blood on the skeleton.

Her skin... was gone.

"Those who don't... those who don't have opera costumes to wear, don't have skin!" Shi Liaozhi seemed to realize something and cried out in a lost voice, "This opera costume... this opera costume is our skin!"

The next moment, everyone nervously stared at the opera costumes they were wearing, and no one would complain about the discomfort of the costumes anymore, or have any plans to take them off.

After all, a bloody example was right before their eyes.

Because she had fainted, Tang Shirou had only put on this big red opera costume until her death.

And the price was... exchanging it for her own skin.

...

Because of Tang Shirou, everyone was in no mood to eat breakfast, and they just went to sit around the table in the pavilion.

The terrifying scene lingered in their minds, and some people were still feeling nauseous from time to time.

"Tap."

"Tap."

"Tap."

A crisp, but mechanical, sound of footsteps came closer.

The fatty, who was feeling nauseous, looked up and saw that it was the middle-aged woman from before. Behind her was a younger woman, who seemed to be the one who had greeted them at the door before.

But he couldn't be sure.

"Young Master Huang is grateful for the cooperation of all the doctors last night. The play was very successful." The middle-aged woman's gaze was empty, as if she had no point of focus. She seemed to be just going through the motions.

The younger woman was carrying a food box, which looked very large and should be quite heavy. She was holding it with both hands, looking very tired, but her expression was still the same as before.

"To thank all the doctors for their cooperation, the young master has ordered me to add a dish for you." The middle-aged woman stepped aside slightly.

The young woman walked up with a cold expression and slammed the food box on the table with a "bang," so hard that the table shook a few times.

Everyone's expressions became unnatural.

Shi Liaozhi nervously stared at the two women, and the thought even flashed through his mind that these people from the Huang residence were all problematic, and that they... didn't want to act anymore and were preparing to reveal their true intentions directly.

An Xuan slowly picked up a wine bottle from the edge of the table, then quietly clenched it in his hand. Just as he was preparing to wait for the situation to change and smash the wine bottle, using the sharp shards to directly stab the woman in the neck, he noticed something flashing in his peripheral vision.

Following his gaze, he suddenly saw Jiang Cheng's position.

He was holding a wine bottle in each of his hands. The light just now was the light reflected from the glazed wine bottles.

After realizing that An Xuan was looking at him, Jiang Cheng pursed his lips and nodded to the former, showing a warm smile.

And the fatty sitting next to him... An Xuan's throat involuntarily rolled as he saw that the other party was hiding a jar the size of a volleyball under the table in both of his hands.