Rules of Horror: Survival Begins in the Haunted Harem - Chapter 8

The dining hall fell silent.

Some people had seen too much to be shocked, but far more now watched Cheng Luo with open caution.

No one cared about treachery committed in secret. Most of them had done ugly things to survive.

But Cheng Luo had attacked someone in front of everyone.

Was she that confident in her strength, or was she simply an idiot?

No idiot could have made it this far.

With one vegetable dish destroyed, the competition grew fiercer.

Xie Nuange’s fingers tightened slightly around her chopsticks. From the corner of her eye, she swept the table.

One meat dish had been emptied. One vegetable dish had been smashed.

“Please continue your meal.”

A candidate had already put down her chopsticks. A palace attendant soon arrived to escort her out.

Everyone’s heart tightened.

The points rankings.

Not every candidate could be selected. The higher a person’s score, the better her chances of remaining in the palace.

Xie Nuange drew a deep breath and focused on the lazy Susan again.

She shut out everything else. Every scrap of attention fixed on the dish approaching her.

Her chopsticks reached out and closed steadily around a fried ball.

It was small and golden from the oil. It looked like a meatball.

She placed it in her bowl and took a bite.

Vegetarian.

She committed the dish to memory and looked at the three balls still left on the plate.

Would any remain when it came around again?

Everyone had begun fighting desperately for food.

The lazy Susan continued to turn.

The tofu parcels approached.

Xie Nuange glanced at the woman to her right. The woman smiled and gestured for her to take one.

Xie Nuange picked one up and bit into it carefully.

Meat.

“Oh. Perhaps I remembered wrong.”

The woman smiled without warmth. Xie Nuange watched her chopsticks pass over the tofu parcels and select something else.

Many of the dishes required the participants to determine for themselves whether they counted as meat or vegetables.

No system notified them how many they had eaten. They had to analyze and remember everything on their own.

The moment they set down their chopsticks, they were gambling that they had not made a mistake.

“Please continue your meal…”

Another candidate put down her chopsticks.

Unfortunately, no palace attendant came for her.

Instead came a belch.

Time dwindled. The dishes emptied.

From the corner of her eye, Xie Nuange occasionally saw light flare around someone’s body.

“Please continue your meal…”

“Please continue your meal…”

“Buuurp…”

Two more rotations passed. Xie Nuange needed only one final vegetable dish.

The taro-ball soup came around.

Of everything remaining, it was the last dish she could confirm was vegetarian.

Xie Nuange removed the spoon from her bowl, then held the bowl in one hand and her chopsticks in the other.

As the taro balls reached her, she wedged one finger between the bowl and the plate so the two would not touch and make a sound.

At the same time, she quickly nudged a taro ball toward the rim with her chopsticks and flicked it gently into her bowl.

Success.

She put the taro ball in her mouth.

Three meat dishes. Three vegetable dishes.

At last, she was finished.

She set down her bowl and waited until she had swallowed every bit of food before speaking.

“Please continue your meal.”

A palace attendant soon led her outside.

The candidates who had passed were already strolling around the courtyard or exchanging information in front of the dining hall.

When Cheng Luo saw Xie Nuange emerge, her eyes lit up. She approached with a beaming smile.

“You were fast.”

She rubbed her stomach with a pitiful look. “I didn’t get enough to eat. Did you?”

Xie Nuange shook her head. “Neither did I.”

Ye Wan came over, watching Xie Nuange with a half smile.

“More people die by the hour. At this rate, how many do you think will be left in six days?”

As she spoke, she glanced at Cheng Luo.

“Who cares how many are left?” Cheng Luo blinked. “As long as we survive.”

“Cheng Luo is right,” Xie Nuange agreed with a nod.

Ye Wan smiled but said nothing.

More people entered the courtyard. Meng Shi eventually joined them.

Some candidates began wandering around and studying their surroundings.

Xie Nuange opened the rankings. Many of the names near the bottom had turned gray.

The countdown to the next update continued.

The top ten, however, remained steady. Not one name had grayed out.

Roughly five minutes later, the matron emerged. The dining-hall doors slammed shut behind her.

A girl began to sob and scream inside.

“There’s nothing left! Why is there nothing left? I haven’t eaten enough vegetables…”

“Return to the Palace of Gathered Elegance.”

The candidates re-formed their lines and followed the matron back.

Before breakfast, forty-seven names on the rankings had still been lit.

After a single meal, only thirty-nine remained.

“Your Ladyships, today’s lesson is concluded. You may move about freely.”

With that, the matron left the Palace of Gathered Elegance and took up a position outside its gate.

[Rankings updated…]

A mechanical voice sounded.

Then came a muffled impact.

“Urgh…”

Everyone turned toward the noise.

The woman who had sat to Xie Nuange’s right suddenly doubled over and vomited blood.

One mouthful became another, then another. Terror twisted her face.

Her hand began to rise. Slowly, inch by inch, it moved toward her mouth beyond her control.

“Mmph…”

She stared at the others, pleading. Tears streamed down her face.

They only backed away and watched her closely. Not one person made a move to help.

Xie Nuange hurried over. By the time she arrived, the woman’s entire hand had been forced into her mouth.

Xie Nuange grabbed her arm and tried to pull it back out, but the strength driving it was beyond anything human. It kept pushing deeper.

The corners of the woman’s mouth split. Pain and violent retching left tears and mucus running down her face.

Xie Nuange looked frantically at the others.

“Please, come help me!”

No one moved. Some even regarded Xie Nuange with naked contempt.

Everyone had noticed what happened at the table.

She had been tricked, yet here she was, still playing the bleeding heart. What a useless pretty face.

Some powerful expert must have carried her through her previous scenarios. They probably had not expected this one to separate the men from the women.

When no one came to help, anxiety spread across Xie Nuange’s face.

Hidden by her own body, her hand slipped the ring from the woman’s other finger.

The dying woman stared at her in disbelief.

Xie Nuange slowly rose, shaking her head as tears filled her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I can’t save you…”

“Ghk…”

There was a wet crunch.

The woman’s hand punched through her own throat and burst from the back of her skull.

Blood spread across the ground, staining the gray bricks red.

Everyone watched the corpse. After several seconds, it began to dissolve.

Soon, only a small jade pendant remained.

Two characters had been carved into it: Jiang Fan.

“Jiang Fan!”

One palace candidate cried out. Xie Nuange turned toward her.

She was a roommate of the woman who had died last night—Rank Fifteen.

Almost instinctively, Xie Nuange opened the rankings.

[Rank 14: Grayed out]

Cheng Luo, Ye Wan, and the others all stared at the pendant with dark, unreadable eyes.

Xie Nuange found Fifteen’s roommate and went to her.

“Want to exchange information?”

She needed to confirm something.

“What do you know?”

The woman gave Xie Nuange a dismissive look. She clearly did not believe a softhearted ornament like her could have anything useful.

“A ghost entered our room last night,” Xie Nuange said. “When my roommates drove her off, she dropped a palace candidate’s nameplate.”

She watched the woman’s expression carefully.

“Was there anything unusual beside Fifteen when she died?”

The woman’s pupils contracted. Her expression grew grave.

After a long silence, she answered, “There was a handkerchief beside her. Jiang Fan’s name was embroidered on it.”

Just as Xie Nuange had thought.

“The nameplate in our room bore the same name.”

She lowered her gaze and opened the rankings.

Jiang Fan had killed Rank Fifteen last night. The woman who had just died was Rank Fourteen.

Who would be next?

Was it coincidence?

Or was there an order?