Chapter 177 The Door That Should Never Open
Before I could figure out how to test the situation, something stirred inside the courtyard.
Footsteps sounded from within.
Then the courtyard gate slowly opened.
Old Liu walked out.
I held my breath—
—Finally, someone was coming out!
But in the next moment, I realized something was wrong.
Old Liu’s expression was completely normal. It was as if he had merely discovered that one of his livestock had escaped—slightly annoyed, but neither surprised nor flustered.
He looked in the direction where the donkey had run, then lightly tapped the ground with the tip of his foot—
His entire body floated up onto the wall, and then he chased after it as if he were stepping on air.
His movements were so graceful that he looked nothing like an old man with a head full of white hair.
I was so shocked my jaw nearly dropped.
“Is he… is he using qinggong?”
Hua Xiang replied coldly:
“Do you think every old man is too old to practice martial arts?”
Me:
“...But he looks like his body has already been dried and preserved by the years like a piece of pickled vegetable!”
Hua said:
“That is called returning to one’s original simplicity.”
—To me, it looked more like he had returned to his youth.
In any case, after the old man chased after the donkey, the courtyard gate surprisingly remained open.
Mu Cangli’s eyes shifted slightly.
The next moment, his entire body shot forward like a shadow.
“Mu Cangli!”
Lian lowered his voice and called out, but he was already too late to stop him.
Mu Cangli moved faster than the wind. By the time Lian reached out, Mu Cangli had already landed on the courtyard wall and effortlessly slipped inside.
The gate remained wide open. When the wind passed through the wooden panels, they made a faint creaking sound.
It sounded like an invitation.
Or perhaps a warning.
My heart tightened.
Lian’s expression darkened.
“He was too reckless.”
Hua asked:
“What do we do now?”
Hua Xiang slowly added:
“What else can we do? Go take a look.”
Me:
“……”
Why did I feel like these people were increasingly treating “rescuing someone” as an everyday routine?
Was our destiny as a group really to save people whenever we saw a mountain, save people whenever we crossed water, and even save people whenever we encountered a courtyard?
Before I could finish complaining, Lian had already stood up. A restrained coldness appeared in his eyes.
“Let’s go. Inside.”
I hurriedly grabbed his sleeve.
“Hey, hey, hey. Won’t going in now just mean walking straight into danger?”
Lian answered calmly:
“If Mu Cangli went inside, then not going in would be the real way to get him killed.”
Me:
“……”
Fine.
I had nothing to say.
—Who could blame us? Our little protagonist group was apparently born with the habit of “if the other side does something, we cannot possibly fall behind.”
The rest of us also climbed into the courtyard one after another.
The courtyard was strangely quiet. Even the sound of grass moving in the wind seemed out of place.
I looked around and felt that this place resembled some abandoned private residence of a wealthy family.
But the problem was—
Who would build their pavilion and rooms to look like roadside pancake stalls and steamed-bun stands lined up along a street?
There was a small pavilion on the left, a side room on the right, and further ahead stood a crooked little study pavilion. Its door was half-open, half-closed, as if waiting for someone to give it one final push and send it to its grave.
The buildings were packed tightly together, yet all of them were small, as if someone had bought too little construction material and was forced to piece together whatever they had.
I could not help muttering:
“This house’s… sense of aesthetics is rather tragic.”
Lian did not answer, but his expression became more serious.
“The stranger it is, the more careful we must be.”
He was right.
After surviving the haunted ruined temple and the assassins who emerged from the water, every one of us had a tightly stretched nerve.
“The old man went after the donkey. We do not know when he will return,” Lian said. “We need to move quickly. It would be better to split up.”
As he spoke, he pointed at me.
“You come with me.”
Me:
“???”
Why was I always the one who had to follow him?
Hua glanced at Hua Xiang and Mu Cangli, who had already entered before us.
One had once stood high above others.
The other was suspicious by nature and would probably argue with anyone after spending too much time together.
Hua immediately looked like a large black cat afraid of missing an entertaining show. Before Lian could say anything, he quickly said:
“I’ll go alone.”
Hua Xiang seemed about to say, “I’ll go with you,” but Lian immediately interrupted.
“Fine. We have more important things to do. We can put aside our disagreements for now.”
Hua Xiang:
“……”
Mu Cangli silently nodded, seemingly having no objection.
We made our way toward the main hall.
It was still completely silent.
There was no sign of anyone.
On the main table sat three cups of tea.
The surface of the tea was still trembling slightly, as if someone had only just left moments ago.
I swallowed.
“Could it be… that something terrible happened to the Eighth Prince and his men?”
Lian did not answer. He only glanced toward the eastern courtyard.
“If the old man recognized his identity, he would most likely have arranged for him to stay in the eastern wing.”
With that, he pulled me along and quietly moved toward the eastern courtyard.
Hua had already used qinggong to investigate the kitchen.
Hua Xiang and Mu Cangli moved toward the western courtyard along the corridor, one on the left and one on the right.
Watching this division of labor, a thought suddenly appeared in my mind:
If these people really had malicious intentions, wouldn’t this simply become—
“Scattered across the land, surrounded from all sides”?
As we approached the eastern courtyard, suddenly—
Ding!
My heart immediately sank.
Not again.
The system’s lazy voice slowly sounded.
“After enduring countless hardships and dangers, you have finally earned yourself a reward.”
I had no expectations at all.
“Oh? What is it?”
“Reward notification: There are two rooms on the left and right sides of the eastern courtyard. Please enter the room on the left. Remember, you must not enter the room on the right.”
“……Why?”
“The reward only contains a hint. It does not include an explanation.”
Its shamelessly calm tone made me want to drag it out and beat it up.
So as I walked forward, I kept wondering:
—Is this system going to trick me again?
When we reached the eastern courtyard, everything was still eerily quiet.
I cautiously asked Lian:
“Should we… check the left room first?”
Lian did not care about such minor details.
“Fine.”
Although he agreed, I became even more suspicious of the system’s intentions.
So when we reached the door of the left room, I did not enter.
I only peeked inside through the crack.
A simple and chilly atmosphere immediately greeted me.
The room was extremely clean.
The bed looked as though no one had ever slept in it.
The table and chairs were completely empty.
—There was no one there.
My heart sank.
“Of course… this stupid system tricked me again.”
Lian was about to push open the door when I hurriedly grabbed him.
“Wait!”
He frowned slightly.
“What is it?”
“I… I just feel something is strange.”
But I could not explain the real reason.
I could not exactly say:
“The system told me the left room was empty.”
He could not hear it anyway.
So I forced myself to walk toward the room on the right.
The moment I pulled open the door crack—
I froze.
Inside the room was a bed that was almost unnaturally clean.
Yet sitting on the bed was a woman dressed in white.
Her head was lowered.
Her black hair fell like a waterfall.
Her posture was fragile and delicate.
Her features were hidden in the shadows, making them impossible to see clearly.
But the sorrowful aura around her seemed almost capable of flowing out through the crack of the door.
I sucked in a breath.
Inside, I screamed:
—This system!
—This is not just trying to harm me. It is trying to kill me!
I lowered my voice.
“See? See? The system really is a scammer. It sent me to an empty room and made me miss a living person right in front of me.”
The system fell silent.
So silent that it sounded like it was holding back laughter.
But Lian frowned.
“Something is wrong.”
“Wrong with what?”
“This woman… does not seem ordinary.”
“I agree she doesn’t seem ordinary, but don’t assume everything is a monster.”
Lian lowered his voice.
“Have you forgotten what the old man said? He and ‘his master’ live here. If this woman is that master…”
I froze.
“...With her temperament, she is the master? Not a guest?”
At that moment, the woman slowly raised her head.
Her voice was as gentle as spring water rippling softly.
“Who is outside? Why not come in and speak?”
Me:
“……”
Lian:
“……”
The two of us froze awkwardly at the same time.
Standing outside the door, I forced myself to answer.
“We were merely passing by and hoped to ask for some water. We did not intend to intrude. But the courtyard gate was open and no one answered, so we… accidentally came too far in. Please forgive us, Miss.”
The system quietly added:
“One more reminder. Do not enter the room on the right.”
The next moment, the woman softly said:
“It is fine. Please come in.”
I was still hesitating.
But Lian had already nodded.
“Go in.”
Me:
“……”
Of course you’re not afraid.
You have martial arts skills.