Rules of Horror: Survival Begins in the Haunted Harem - Chapter 29

[Palace Candidate Rankings updated: 16 candidates remaining.]

[Rank One: Zhao Ning…

Rank Three: Ye Wan.

Rank Six: Xie Nuange…]

Xie Nuange glanced at the rankings. Someone else had died in addition to Cheng Luo, but the top ten remained otherwise unchanged.

Back in the room, Ye Wan and Xie Nuange sat in silence.

Only the two of them remained.

Meng Shi… Cheng Luo… Both were gone.

Ye Wan was never talkative, and Xie Nuange had no desire to speak.

The room was so quiet it might have been empty. Only the soft hiss of sand slipping through the hourglass disturbed the silence.

The Glass Bead could heal Xie Nuange’s wounds, but it could not restore her overdrawn mental power.

Sitting on her bed, she began taking stock of the spoils Cheng Luo had left behind.

Cheng Luo had possessed quite a few ghost items. The small bottle of glass beads surprised Xie Nuange most.

[Jar of Glass Beads: A childhood toy. Every bead has a healing effect. Uses remaining: 7/10.]

[Scarecrow: If you wail with genuine grief, it will leap out on your behalf and immobilize every enemy within range for five seconds. Uses remaining: 3/3.]

The description made Xie Nuange’s mouth twitch.

She had to mourn sincerely?

No wonder Cheng Luo had never used it.

[Firework Shell: Launch the shell into the sky and designate an area. A firework will bloom above it and damage every target below. You watch the fireworks; the people beneath them watch themselves bleed. Uses remaining: 1/3.]

[Striking Bell: Each strike inflicts a mental attack on everyone who hears it. The duration of the ringing depends on your mental power. Uses remaining: 3/5.]

[Witch’s Staff: Point the staff at a target to exchange positions with them. Uses remaining: 2/3.]

[Praise Orb: After activation, if someone praises you, you cannot suffer fatal harm for six hours. Uses remaining: 1/5.]

Xie Nuange’s fingers stopped on the orb. She picked it up and held it against the moonlight.

It was small and amber-colored, with a tiny piece of gold foil suspended inside. It looked entirely ordinary.

As she studied it, something clicked into place.

On the first day, Cheng Luo had urged Xie Nuange to change beds. No wonder she had been so delighted when Xie Nuange casually said, “You’re impressive too.”

So that was how the orb worked.

It also explained why Cheng Luo had dared to provoke Fang Yule on the first night.

None of them had understood Fang Yule’s killing rule, yet Cheng Luo had deliberately drawn her attention.

It wasn’t recklessness. The orb had protected her.

For six hours, she could not suffer fatal harm.

With that protection active, she had no reason to fear trial and error.

She had probably wanted to expose Fang Yule’s killing rule, so she intentionally escalated the disturbance and used it to test her roommates’ skills as well.

Xie Nuange looked over the items, put them away, and smiled.

What a harvest.

As for Cheng Luo’s skill… it would probably work even better in combination with Medusa.

Xie Nuange lay down and considered her abilities.

She had killed Zhu Miao and acquired Medusa. She had killed Cheng Luo and acquired Mom.

She could not let Ye Wan see her use Cheng Luo’s skill.

Ghost items could be looted.

Everyone in the scenario knew that.

Kill someone, take their belongings, and whatever you seized became yours. No one would question it.

Skills were different.

They were bound to the soul, awakened when a participant cleared their first scenario.

No one could take another person’s skill. That was one of the most fundamental facts of the scenarios.

Yet Datafication allowed Xie Nuange to extract them.

No one could learn that she possessed such an ability.

If the truth came out, everyone would regard her as the greatest threat of all.

One day, she would have to find an isolated place and summon Mom in secret.

Cheng Luo’s Mom had been a swollen female ghost in an apron, armed with a spatula.

Would Xie Nuange summon the same Mom—or something else entirely?

She needed to know before making any plans.

As she thought, her exhausted mind dragged her into a deep sleep.

Xie Nuange found herself in an unfamiliar courtyard.

Everyone around her was blurred. Only one person appeared clearly.

Jiang Fan heard movement in the courtyard and approached. She found a man covered in blood.

Torchlight glowed in the distance. Voices shouted through the rain.

“Search! He couldn’t have gone far!”

Jiang Fan noticed the jade token at the man’s waist and listened to the voices outside.

Summoning her courage, she moved closer. When she saw his face, she froze.

The instant Xie Nuange saw Jiang Fan, she took a defensive stance.

But none of her skills or ghost items worked.

Jiang Fan could not see her. Supporting the man, she passed straight through Xie Nuange’s body.

Xie Nuange turned and watched her hide the stranger in the woodshed behind her room.

She was beginning to understand.

This seemed to be Jiang Fan’s world.

Was she witnessing the experiences that had transformed Jiang Fan into the scenario’s boss?

Once Jiang Fan helped the man inside, the scene shattered like glass and formed anew.

The man leaned against the headboard, his gaze empty and unfocused.

“Would you read to me? I can’t see, and I’m rather bored.”

Jiang Fan turned in surprise, then nodded. Remembering he could not see the gesture, she answered softly, “All right.”

She returned to her room and selected a book at random.

The scene shattered again.

At night, the man stood in the courtyard, reluctance filling his eyes.

He held a jade hairpin and stroked it gently with his fingers.

Jiang Fan approached with a smile.

Sensing someone behind him, the man turned. His throat moved, and after a long pause, he spoke hoarsely.

“I have to leave.”

The smile froze on Jiang Fan’s face.

She stared at him, lips parting without sound as her eyes slowly reddened.

The man held out the hairpin. “This is for you.”

Jiang Fan lowered her gaze to it. A tear fell and struck the courtyard stones.

She reached out, fingers trembling, to accept the gift.

The man’s lips pressed into a tight line. He closed his hand around both the hairpin and Jiang Fan’s fingers.

His mouth opened as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, he gently released her.

He took a breath, forced a smile, and asked, “May I put it in your hair?”

Jiang Fan looked at the man before her with desperate longing and answered with a soft, nasal murmur.

His expression tender, he held the pin with solemn care and felt for her hair before sliding it into her bun.

“Beautiful,” he whispered.

Jiang Fan looked up into his sightless eyes. Tears streamed down her face, even as a faint smile touched her lips.

Xie Nuange pressed her lips together and stared at the hairpin.

The scene shattered once more.

This time, she stood on a busy street.

Jiang Fan carried a box of pastries.

“Have you heard? The Second Prince has taken the throne!”

“Of course. The Empress Dowager rules from behind the curtain and controls the court. She even arranged the new emperor’s consort selection herself…”

“They say the Second Prince was once injured and blinded. The Empress Dowager found someone to cure him. Without her, he never would’ve become emperor…”

“In my opinion, the new emperor won’t hold that throne for long. Sooner or later, the Empress Dowager will—”

“Shh! Do you have a death wish?”

The pastries fell from Jiang Fan’s hands.

She spun around and raced home.

Xie Nuange watched her retrieve the hairpin from her dressing table.

Jiang Fan stared at it, uncertainty and confusion flashing through her eyes. Her grip gradually tightened before she ran out with the pin in hand.

Xie Nuange next saw her kneeling before a middle-aged man. She struck her forehead against the blue bricks, gripping the hairpin as tears darkened the stones.

The man shook his head helplessly, flung his sleeve, and sighed.

The scene changed again.

Jiang Fan entered the palace with the hairpin.

She stood among the other palace candidates in the same pale pink robes, the jade pin in her hair.

Every movement she made was flawless. No fault could be found in her etiquette.

Her eyes shone with hope for the future and longing for a reunion with the man she loved.

Xie Nuange watched the others ostracize her.

Her bedding was soaked. Her tea was cold. Her rice was hard.

But Jiang Fan did not cry.

Only late at night, when no one else was awake, did she sit and stare at the hairpin.