Chapter 120: [Harboring a Ghostly Secret] A Pack of Lies
The room was very dark. Everyone searched around and found a few candles.
After lighting them, everyone looked around the room.
It could be said that it was bare.
There were four rooms, and the beds weren’t small. One of the rooms even had two beds.
The bedding was relatively clean, although very simple, it wasn’t too harsh of a condition.
The players began to allocate rooms.
Among the nine people, there were five male players and four female players.
Jin Qiao said first, “I’m not staying in the same room as those two sisters.”
So that meant she would be sharing a separate room with the other female player.
Bai Cha and Xu Shengsheng would be together.
The remaining three male players would stay in one room, and two would stay in another. The reason for not leaving anyone alone was out of fear of something happening to them.
Everyone had no objections to these arrangements.
After assigning the rooms, everyone gathered in the living room again.
The living room had a square table and a wooden sofa. Sitting on the sofa gave the feeling that it would collapse at any moment.
“Sis, sit down.” Xu Shengsheng pulled Bai Cha down to sit.
She felt that Bai Cha needed to rest, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Bai Cha didn’t refuse.
However, this sofa was quite hard, being wooden after all, and there were no cushions on it. When her hand touched the wooden board, it felt a bit damp.
The room was also a bit damp.
Perhaps it was because this village was near a lake.
“Does anyone have any direction for speculating on the plot?”
Gao Wei seemed much better now and no longer mentioned feeling dizzy.
But the snake bite wounds on him and Wang Yan looked quite large.
So he was quite worried about something happening and had called everyone out to discuss, and also to wait for Ji Xiaolan.
“Can’t you tell from the name? Maybe our characters did something to offend her, and she’s probably here for revenge,” Jin Qiao said, twirling her hair with one finger.
“If that’s the case, can we understand that she’s already…”
The word “dead” wasn’t spoken, but everyone understood.
Even someone as careless as Xu Shengsheng could realize that since there was a ghost wanting revenge, it must have died first.
“Then… is it because of us?” Xu Shengsheng asked softly.
Everyone’s expressions were not good.
“It’s possible.”
“So our main focus next should be to look at the relationship between us and her…”
Before Gao Wei could finish speaking, the courtyard door was pushed open.
The sound of the door was very clear in the night. The players immediately stopped talking and looked towards the door together.
The living room door was quickly knocked on, and a young, pleasant voice came in.
“It’s me, Ji Xiaolan.”
Everyone looked at each other in confusion.
Wang Jiangtao cleared his throat lightly.
“You can come in directly, the door’s not locked.”
The wooden door of the living room was then pushed open.
A gust of cold wind blew in, lifting the hem of the skirt worn by the person entering.
Ji Xiaolan had short hair and wore a somewhat worn cotton dress, wrapped in a loose jacket that reached her thighs. The jacket was pulled tightly closed.
Looking at her, she was actually quite bundled up. The dress reached her ankles, and she wore canvas shoes.
She didn’t look any different from the photo.
Bai Cha discreetly observed her face.
She thought… the fact that there was no difference was the biggest problem.
If it were just a player, that’d be one thing.
But a character from the plot, living in such a remote mountain village—could she really look the same after ten years?
Ji Xiaolan didn’t have a baby face either. Her features were sharp, and the middle section of her face was long. Usually, faces like that don’t age well.
But she seemed like an easygoing person.
She was carrying a bunch of items, which she placed on the table.
“I brought you some dried fruits. This place is quite remote, so it might not be easy to get used to. If anything comes up, just knock on the door next door—I live in the courtyard next to this one.”
She looked relaxed as she took out some sunflower seeds, peanuts, and wedding candy.
In addition, she also brought out two candles.
They were two red wedding candles.
“The village’s electricity is down. There probably won’t be power for a while. Use candles for now. I brought two extras just in case, and here are some matches.”
After she finished speaking, the room fell silent.
Ji Xiaolan pressed her lips together and gently supported her lower back with one hand.
“You guys… I’m really happy you came. How are you doing these days? I’m sure you’re all doing better than me, right?”
That was a hard question to respond to. In normal conversation, it wouldn’t be strange. But assuming Ji Xiaolan was already dead, the words became rather eerie.
As the players were hesitating on how to respond, Ji Xiaolan seemed to have said it casually.
She had already changed the topic.
“Shuya, we were the closest during college. Why have you been ignoring me? Is it because I haven’t contacted you all these years?”
Chen Shuya—the character played by Bai Cha.
Jin Qiao, standing off to the side, had a schadenfreude look in her eyes.
Bai Cha was briefly stunned, then pressed her lips together.
She looked at Ji Xiaolan with a seemingly complicated expression, then stood up.
“I just didn’t know what to say.”
Bai Cha walked to Ji Xiaolan’s side and gently took her hand.
Both of their hands were cold.
But the difference was, Ji Xiaolan’s hand felt damp.
“After all, so many years have passed in the blink of an eye.” Bai Cha sighed, her gaze tender with a hint of nostalgia.
She reached out, touched Ji Xiaolan’s face, and helped fix her hair.
Her hair looked dry, but when touched, it felt damp—like it had just been washed and wasn’t fully dry yet.
“You really haven’t changed much,” Bai Cha said naturally.
Then, under the admiring gaze of the other players, she directly hugged Ji Xiaolan.
“I’m sorry. I’ve actually missed you a lot over the years. I didn’t know how you were doing and wasn’t sure how to ask. And now you’re suddenly getting married. You… who are you marrying?”
Ji Xiaolan’s body stiffened for a moment.
Her gaze dodged slightly as she pulled away from Bai Cha’s embrace.
“It’s late. You all should rest. I won’t bother you anymore—we can talk more tomorrow.”
And just like that, she left.
Wang Jiangtao said admiringly, “You’re amazing. You even dared to hug her.”
Bai Cha smiled gently at him.
“Well, she said I was her best friend—figured I might as well give it a shot.”
Catching a glimpse of Jin Qiao about to say something with a sneer, she added, “But judging from the situation, maybe I really was close to her.”
Several players’ eyes flickered subtly.
Looking back on Bai Cha’s bold actions and Ji Xiaolan’s reaction, it didn’t feel like Bai Cha had wronged Ji Xiaolan—it seemed more like the other way around.
“Cough, cough, cough…” Bai Cha suddenly started coughing violently. She coughed so hard that tears welled up in her eyes.
“So cold… she was so cold just now. I’m going to rest. You guys chat.”
She seemed a little weak.
Xu Shengsheng hurried over to support her and helped her into the room.
Once the door was closed, Bai Cha instantly returned to normal.
Xu Shengsheng was stunned.
She saw Bai Cha gesture “shhh” with a finger to her lips, then walk to the bed and pick up the workbook she had given Xu Shengsheng—Five Three—and wrote a line in it.
