The Coward - Chapter 4

The memory ended with the last remnants of my dream.

It had been yesterday when the entity frightened me so badly that I foamed at the mouth and passed out.

By the time I woke, it had already put its eyeball back in. Its irises were dark as ink and clear as a cold, deep pool. Once again, it had assumed the flawless appearance of an elegant young gentleman.

Beside my pillow, an array of objects had been arranged in perfect order: a pellet drum, a cloth tiger, a tiny spinning top, copper bells…

They were all children’s toys from ancient times.

I stared at them in a daze and asked without thinking, “What are these?”

The entity cocked its head.

“Wife. Awake.”

One pale, slender finger reached out and tapped the pellet drum, making it go *thump-thump*.

“Wife. Play.”

It was… trying to cheer me up?

Meanwhile, at the other end of the instance, three Gui’an members lay on the floor of a shrine that had half collapsed.

Li Jingchi stood in the middle, his right hand still twisted in one man’s collar. His expression was dark enough to be terrifying.

“I’ll ask you one more time. Where is Gu Lin?”

The bloodied man in his grip trembled as he spoke.

“B-Brother Li, we’ve looked everywhere, but the rules are too dangerous. Break one and you die. The guys have done everything they can…”

Li Jingchi flung him to the floor. “Useless.”

Shen Zhiyi shouted from the side, agitated beyond endurance.

“That’s enough, Old Li! What good is turning on each other now? You’re the one who took her away and then abandoned her. Gu Lin’s so weak that the entities have probably eaten her down to the bone already! Can you calm down? Deal with these damned rules first! ‘Sacrifice the ghost bride’… Where the hell are we supposed to find a ghost bride?”

Li Jingchi ignored her.

His lips pressed into a line, his chest rising and falling heavily.

No. Gu Lin would never wander off on her own.

She was a coward, an ungrateful little thing who knew only how to coax people with sweet words.

He had only meant to scare her. He had abandoned her so many times before, and every time she had stayed obediently where he left her, waiting for him to come back and collect her.

But yesterday, when he calmed down and teleported back, Gu Lin was gone.

…What if she was dead?

What if she had died?

Just then, the virtual panel inside his mind flashed.

Every player inside the instance received a system notification at the same time.

【Ding! World rules updating…】

【Rule One: Love My Wife】

【Rule Two: See Her Every Day】

Li Jingchi stared at the words.

His pupils contracted.

Tantan.

That was the name I had given the entity—*tan*, as in charcoal—to remind myself what lay beneath that painstakingly woven skin of beauty.

As it interacted with me more, however, Tantan’s mannerisms and expressions came to resemble those of a living person.

Yet there was always a smell about it. Faint and cool, like old wood in late autumn mixed with incense ash gone cold.

Every time I smelled it, a fine layer of pins and needles spread over the back of my skull.

As for the toys Tantan had given me, I had not dared touch a single one.

I had seen what could happen.

In one S-rank instance, a player picked up a copper coin dropped by an entity. The instant the coin landed in his palm, the man went flat—as though he were a mosquito casually slapped dead against a palm, skin pressed tight to bone until he was a paper-thin sheet.

Now Tantan nudged the pellet drum toward me and said, “Wife. Play.”

Shaking, I pretended not to hear.

It moved the cloth tiger closer to my hand. “Play.”

It repeated itself several times, while I remained petrified and pretended I had gone both deaf and blind.

Tantan did not appear disappointed. Either it had not yet learned the expression for disappointment, or it simply did not possess that emotion.

It only lowered its head into my lap and nuzzled me. Snow-white hair spilled over my knees, long lashes lowered.

At that moment, an utterly absurd thought came over me.

Was it… acting spoiled with me?

An SSS-rank entity whose true form stood three meters tall and could literally scare me to death was lying across my lap, asking to be coddled.

Just then, the door curtain lifted.

A line of servants filed in, each carrying a lacquered red tray laden with food. Every one of them kept their head down and mouth shut, yet giggles came from nowhere.

Hee-hee-hee… hee-hee-hee…

Fine and fragmented, like sidelong glances given sound, they circled around me.

Gooseflesh crawled from my arms to the nape of my neck. My fingers clenched unconsciously in Tantan’s hair.

Tantan seemed to notice.

Without even raising its head, it waved a hand. “Leave.”

Every servant froze at once.

Then, before my eyes, the color drained from their bodies. They grew thinner and thinner until they became sheets of yellow paper that fluttered out the door.

Paper dolls.

All those servants had been figures painted on paper.

Terror numbed me further. I nearly fainted again.

But without the servants to bring food and tea, Tantan had to do it itself. In and out it went, trip after trip, the hems of its crimson wedding robes flying through the doorway.

Its face remained serenely aloof the entire time, while both hands were piled with dishes like an overworked waiter’s.

After enough trips, the shadow of my fear faded by more than half.

The corner of my mouth even twitched.