Rules of Horror: Survival Begins in the Haunted Harem - Chapter 11

Xie Nuange’s breath caught.

She did not move. She deliberately slowed her breathing until she sounded asleep.

“Your Ladyship Xie?”

The voice outside came again, a little more urgent. “Have you gone to sleep? Her Highness the Noble Consort is waiting. Please hurry. You must not keep Her Highness waiting.”

Xie Nuange lay motionless in the dark.

Silence held outside for several seconds. Then she heard something else.

Soft footsteps approached from the distance, whispering over the flagstones.

Several sets. They stopped and started as if their owners were knocking on other doors.

“Your Ladyship Chen, Her Highness the Noble Consort summons you…”

“Your Ladyship Li, please open the door…”

Different voices called from different directions, one after another.

Then a door opened in another room.

Creak.

The sound was faint, but in the silent night, it might as well have come from beside her ear.

“This way, Your Ladyship Lin. Her Highness is growing impatient. It isn’t the Hour of the Boar yet, so please hurry.”

Footsteps left one of the rooms and followed the caller into the distance.

Another door opened.

Another set of footsteps emerged.

Beneath the blanket, Xie Nuange clenched her hand until her nails bit into her palm.

Was it real?

Was the Noble Consort truly summoning palace candidates?

If Xie Nuange missed this audience, would she lose an opportunity?

Would it affect her faction mission?

No…

Her hand slowly relaxed.

She had inspected both Meng Shi and Cheng Luo. They belonged to the Noble Consort faction too.

There was no reason for the eunuch outside to call only her.

And would the Noble Consort dare expose her own people so openly?

If the factions clashed later, every revealed member of the Noble Consort faction would be ostracized.

“Nuannuan, remember. Caution matters more than anything inside a scenario. Doing nothing is better than taking one wrong step. Unless you have no other choice, never gamble.”

Xie Nuange slowed her breathing further and let her body go limp, as though she had truly fallen asleep.

Brother, I promise I’ll be careful.

The voice outside called again, now edged with anxiety.

“Your Ladyship Xie? Your Ladyship Xie, are you there? If you do not come out now, this servant will have to leave.”

Xie Nuange pretended not to hear. Before long, she drifted into sleep.

The third day of the scenario began.

The moment she opened her eyes, she checked the rankings.

[Current Palace Candidate Rankings (38 Total)]

[Rank 1: Zhao Ning]

[Rank 3: Ye Wan]

[Rank 9: Cheng Luo]

[Rank 10: Xie Nuange]

[Rank 13: Grayed out]

[Rank 18: Meng Shi]

Thirteen had died during the night.

Would Twelve be next? Then Eleven, and after that… her?

“Did you hear the knocking last night?” Cheng Luo was the first to ask. “Someone said the Noble Consort had summoned me.”

Xie Nuange and the others all looked up.

“You didn’t hear it?”

The corner of Ye Wan’s mouth lifted. “I did, but…”

She turned toward Meng Shi and Xie Nuange. “I only heard them call for me.”

Xie Nuange met her gaze. “Same.”

“Same,” Meng Shi echoed coldly.

That explained it. Another ghostly trick.

The atmosphere was even heavier than the day before.

The palace candidates assembled in the open space before the Palace of Gathered Elegance. The training matron looked them over.

“Last night, two of Your Ladyships were summoned by Her Highness the Noble Consort and remained in the palace overnight. The rest of Your Ladyships must continue to work hard.”

The announcement sent the crowd into an uproar.

Xie Nuange’s fingers twitched.

Had the summons really been genuine?

“Now, Your Ladyships will form rows according to rank,” the matron said. “Ranks Thirty-One through Thirty-Eight will stand in the first row.”

“Ranks Twenty-One through Thirty in the second. Continue in that order.”

Xie Nuange took her place with the others.

“Today, this servant will teach Your Ladyships the proper forms of greeting.”

The training matron surveyed the group. “The salute differs when greeting a noble, an imperial consort, or His Majesty. Remember every form and watch carefully.”

The palace maids behind her began to demonstrate.

The right hand covered the left and rested at the left side of the waist. Both legs bent slightly, knees angled outward. The upper body remained straight and the eyes lowered.

The maid performed the formal curtsy in one fluid movement.

The top ten stood in Xie Nuange’s row. Every gaze locked onto the palace maid.

If any of them performed badly and their rank fell—if they happened to drop to Twelve—then the ghost would kill them today.

Xie Nuange wanted to climb as well. Learning the rules was the most reliable way she currently knew to improve her rank.

Ten was not safe enough. Nine, eight, or even higher would be better.

And what about special routes? Did they include the occasional summons from a noble like the one last night?

“First row, begin.”

As soon as the palace maid finished, the matron called forward the seven people in the first row.

Ranks Thirty-One through Thirty-Eight should have made eight people, but only seven stood there. One lower-ranked candidate had remained in the palace overnight.

Then why had the rankings not changed?

Why was she still listed on the Palace Candidate Rankings?

The lower-ranked women in the first row moved with no consistency.

One deliberately sank her knees until she was nearly sitting. Another barely bent at all. A third intentionally placed her hands on the right side.

Everyone understood at once.

The lower-ranked candidates did not want to move up.

Thud.

Every person there froze.

The candidate who had placed her hands on the wrong side went rigid. Shock fixed itself on her face.

Then she toppled backward, eyes wide and all life gone from her body.

Xie Nuange opened the rankings at once.

[Rank 38: Grayed out]

“You are learning the proper etiquette for greeting your superiors,” the matron said eerily, her eyes moving across the crowd. “There is no room for error. An error means only one thing…”

She paused, her lips curving into a chilling smile.

“Death.”

The corpse slowly disappeared. Several ghost items dropped to the ground.

Everyone’s breathing stopped for a moment.

She had possessed ghost items, yet she was still dead.

Xie Nuange stared at the ownerless objects with aching regret. If no one picked them up within a minute, they would vanish.

What a waste.

At the same time, a theory formed in her mind.

Failing the walking lesson once had not been fatal because walking was a minor matter. The punishment was lighter.

But serving food to imperial consorts and performing formal salutations—those were acts carried out before the emperor and high-ranking women of the harem.

A mistake there was a breach of decorum and an insult to one’s superiors.

So the offender died.

The severity of punishment reflected the importance of the simulated situation. The closer a rule lay to the core of the scenario, the harsher the consequence.

Xie Nuange raised her eyes to the six women who remained.

“Continue. Salute.”

This time, no one dared play games or make a deliberate mistake to lower her rank.

They abandoned every trick and focused with all they had.

Rank Thirty-Eight had dared fail on purpose because she must have believed one of her ghost items could save her.

It had not.