PSP Chapter 13: 607

The man put on the clothes, took the wooden sword¹ the young man handed him, and nodded reservedly at Liu Wangyu.
The young disciple next to him immediately opened his mouth and said, “Don't worry, Liu-xiansheng, my master deals with, if not ten ghosts a month, then at least eight.
Based on what you said, this should be a trivial task.”

 

Liu Wangyu suppressed his eagerness, smiling with a hint of helplessness, “I really didn’t have any other options.
If it weren't for the parents, then–“

 

As if he had suddenly thought of something, he paused, then said, “I’ll trouble you all, then².”

 

The younger disciple also laughed, “We understand, we understand.”

 

The smile on Liu Wangyu's face became more real, and he stretched his arm out to the left, “Please come with me, Masters³.” He was about to walk forward to lead the way, when out of the corner of his eye he noticed a group of people across the swimming pool.
His eyelid twitched.

 

The younger disciple, upon seeing him still, asked, “Liu-xiansheng?”

 

Liu Wangyu leaned in and whispered a few words into his ear, then took something out of his trouser pocket and handed it to him.

 

The disciple nodded after taking it, walking into the building next to him.
Meanwhile, Liu Wangyu turned to face Shen Qingcheng and the others who were coming, silently blocking the stairs.

 

A smile appeared on his face, “Why did you teachers come here?”

 

“We’re just wandering around,” Zhou Anan said, then got straight to the point and asked, “Who were those people just now?”

 

Liu Wangyu's smile faded, “All of you saw that?”

 

He then sighed bitterly, “Well, I'm not afraid to be made fun of.
The school really shouldn't have done this, but the parents are all quite scared, you know.
So the principal asked us to find someone to pray for blessings and all that every winter and summer vacation, just to reassure the parents a little.”

 

Xue Tong: “Is it to reassure the parents, or to reassure yourself?”

 

“What do you mean by that, Xue-laoshi?” Liu Wangyu lost his smile, saying angrily with an expression that seemed to convey that he had been misunderstood, “I don't know what you’ve heard, But you are all teachers with some intelligence.
It can’t be that you don't know what to believe and what not to believe, right?”

 

Xue Tong still wanted to ask more, but Shen Qingcheng hurriedly spoke over him.
It was a miracle that the other party had even bothered to answer such a direct question.

 

Shen Qingcheng, who disdained his directness, asked, “Did Qi Mei live in this building during her lifetime?”

 

He both watched the person in front of him and observed the building.
It was obviously different from the apartment they lived in.
The first floor of the apartment was a hall, and there were stairs leading upstairs after entering the hall.
The building in front of him was a very common residential building, and the stairs were on the outer side of the building.

 

The difference was also easy to understand.
Apartments were suitable for single people, while residential buildings were suitable for people with families.
Qi Mei had a child, so she could be considered part of a family.

 

Liu Wangyu's face changed after hearing Shen Qingcheng's question.
Although he reacted quickly, the players present were always paying attention to him, immediately noticing it.

 

Liu Wangyu: “Yes, but I don't know on which floor exactly.”

 

The chances that he was lying were high, but if he bit his tongue and refused to admit it, there was nothing they could do.

 

The players frowned inwardly.

 

Zhou An'an, Xue Tong, and Meng Tianhai took turns asking more questions.
Liu Wangyu either laughed ​​with them as if they were joking, or changed the subject, and stayed planted right in front of the building so they couldn’t go up.

 

After ten minutes or so, when everyone was getting impatient, the people who had gone upstairs came back down.

 

In the front led two disciples who were carrying things.
The young man behind them was wearing a black robe, bagua⁴ painted on the back of his clothes, and yinyang fish⁵ embroidered on his sleeves.
Liu Wangyu nodded slightly to him.

 

“I've troubled you, Master.” Liu Wangyu was overjoyed and could no longer be bothered about the nosy people watching him.
He moved to the right, saying, “Master, I'll accompany you out.
There are other things I want to ask you.”

 

The four of them left, strolling away under the shade of the trees, and the players left behind looked at each other.

 

Chen Ge: “He's leaving?” Wasn’t he just refusing to let them go up?

 

Zhou An’an didn't think too hard about it.
It was convenient, so she just said, “Let's go up and check floor by floor to see if we can find Qi Mei's residence.”

 

This building only had six floors in total, so there was no elevator.
Several people started searching from the first floor, which would undoubtedly slow their progress, but no one proposed splitting up.

 

The families on every floor had their doors tightly closed.
Some had left garbage bags outside their doors, and some had the inverted fu on the door⁶.
They didn't find anything special on the first five floors.

 

Zhou An'an began to worry that they might return without success.
If they really couldn't find anything, they could only begin knocking on the door to ask if any neighbors knew where Qi Mei lived.

 

Then they set foot on the sixth floor.

 

“Are any of you guys smelling something weird?” Xue Tong asked, nose twitching.

 

Shen Qingcheng said: “It's the smell of burnt talisman paper.”

 

Chen Ge: “Shen-ge, you can tell that just from the smell?” How amazing!

 

Shen Qingcheng: “Have you never burned paper? The people who came up just now were Taoist priests.
Isn't it obvious what kind of paper they would be burning?”

 

Oh.

 

Lu Qi passed the two of them, checked carefully in front of each door, and finally determined the right location based on a bit of paper dust that fell from the door.

 

“This is it.”

 

Room 607, located in the backlit corner, the most out-of-the-way room of the floor.

 

Everyone spontaneously gathered before Room 607.
It was unclear if it was just psychological, but it seemed like the temperature at the door of Room 607 was lower than the other rooms.

 

“How do we get in?” Chen Ge subconsciously lowered his voice.

 

The door was nothing like the hollow wooden door of the archives.
It was a security door, made of iron, which couldn't be easily opened without a key.

 

Xue Tong leaned over to the peephole and looked in.
Of course, he couldn’t see anything.
He stepped back and said, “If this is the right place–well, that woman is super aggressive.
Will she let people who are obviously looking for trouble leave?”

 

He didn’t even dare to say her name.

 

Lu Qi observed the structure of the anti-theft door from top to bottom, then focused on the keyhole.
The other players who noticed his gaze also looked at the keyhole.

 

Under their watchful eyes, blood slowly seeped out from the gray-brown keyhole, leaving red traces on the white security door.

 

Everyone immediately took a deep breath.

 

Chen Ge rubbed his eyes nervously, fearing that it was another hallucination, but the traces were still there after opening his eyes.

 

He subconsciously shivered and opened his mouth, “Shen, Shen-ge–” He reached out to the side but touched nothing but air.

 

Lu Qi: “What are you looking at?”

 

Lu Qi turned his head and looked in the same direction that Shen Qingcheng was.
On the opposite side of the corridor, opposite to Room 607, stood an old gray-blue security door.
The door paint had peeled in many places, revealing a rusty reddish-brown color, like dried blood.

 

A black cat's eye was fixed on the door, quietly watching everyone like a human eye.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After leaving the sixth floor, everyone realized that the sun had been hidden by dark clouds at some point, and the sky was overcast and humid.

 

The crowd hadn't quite recovered from the gloomy atmosphere, and it took a while before anyone spoke.

 

Zhou An'an: “What should we do next?” Qi Mei's residence was obviously a good direction to investigate, but how to get in, how to get in safely, and how to get out safely was a big problem.

 

Meng Tianhai: “I suggest starting with Liu Wangyu.”

 

“We all know that we need Liu Wangyu in order to get in, the issue is that he isn’t willing to cooperate with us!” Xue Tong said irritably.

 

Zhou An’an glared at Xue Tong warningly, and when Xue Tong calmed down, she said, “If you have an idea, put it forward, and we can find a solution together.”

 

Chen Ge glanced around, but no one else wanted to speak.

 

Zhou An'an: “What do you want to say.”

 

Chen Ge cleared his throat, “Ahem, I want to ask if the blood just now was really there?” He had no choice but to ask, given his past experiences.

 

Lu Qi: “It was human blood.”

 

Hiss, it was real blood! But Qi Mei's family was dead, so where could the blood have come from? He couldn’t help but think of the man who had gone upstairs first.

 

He had to consider it carefully.

 

Zhou An’an, who had originally thought he had some constructive thoughts, suddenly showed signs of impatience, “Shen Meiren, what do you think?” She aimed directly at Shen Qingcheng.

 

Shen Qingcheng was stunned.
He had been thinking that it was almost time for lunch and considering what he should eat when he was suddenly called on.
He dithered for a while, then said, “You want to enter Room 607? It's simple, take a knife to Liu Wangyu's back, and see if he dares not to open the door.”

 

Zhou An'an was breathless with anger, “Shen Meiren! Can you be more serious!”

 

Shen Qingcheng, who was yelled at, felt quite aggrieved.
Hadn’t he provided a viable method?

 

Lu Qi glanced at him, “If there is really no other way to do it, it’s an option.”

 

“Offending an NPC is not as simple as you’re making it out to be.” That would mean the difficulty of the copy could increase at any time.
Zhou An’an said angrily, “Let's think of another way.”

 

Lu Qi: “Wait.”

 

Wait? What was that supposed to mean? She asked a few more questions, but Lu Qi stopped explaining, and went to the cafeteria with Shen Qingcheng and Chen Ge.

 

Chen Ge didn't understand, but he only asked about it after they had walked some distance away.

 

Shen Qingcheng, who was looking forward to filling his stomach soon, was in a good mood.
He answered, “What was the purpose of Liu Wangyu inviting Taoist priests? It’s impossible to actually reassure all of the parents by doing that.
You also saw the scene at Room 607 just now.
Liu Wangyu's purpose hasn’t been achieved yet.
There will be a compromise sooner or later, so we just need to wait for when Liu Wangyu can no longer stand Qi Mei-xiaojiejie’s harassment.”

 

Lu Qi: “En.”

 

Chen Ge: What a spiritual method.

 

For the next two days, they were waiting for Liu Wangyu to act.
Perhaps Qi Mei had something more important to do: she didn't come to torment them at all.

 

They took advantage of this time to explore the whole kindergarten, but unfortunately they didn’t gain much information.
The only thing worth mentioning was that Chen Ge accidentally found a few other men on the monitoring screens.

 

They were the vice-principal, the dean of education, and the security guard Zou Kai.

 

During that period, they also met with Zhou An'an and others.
They had realized the meaning of Lu Qi's words, but rather than sitting still, had chosen to go to Liu Wangyu to tell him about the blood in the keyhole.

 

Sure enough, Liu Wangyu's complexion had changed drastically, but when Zhou An’an and the others asked him to lend them the keys or bring them into the room, Liu Wangyu had refused to agree and had even avoided them.

 

They had had no choice but to wait patiently.

 

After two days, they were no longer waiting for Liu Wangyu to take the initiative and meet them, but rather for the notification of a player's death.

 

 

TLN:

¹

 

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² 麻烦各位 basically means he’s thanking them for doing this for him.

³ Master (大师) used in a respectful way, not a subservient one.
Basically, he’s acknowledging that they are learned experts in their field.

⁴ Bagua (八卦) are a set of eight Taoist symbols.

 

 

Source

⁵

 

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⁶ Posters with fu (福) on them are meant to bring luck.
Here it is right side up:

 

 

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!