Hang Ze blinked his eyes.
"Oh, what a coincidence, buddy, we've run into each other again."
"..." Xu Xi looked at him, then glanced at the pile of shattered ancestral tablets, trying to speak.
As if noticing his hesitation, Hang Ze also looked down at the wood splinters at his feet and the ground behind him that had been blasted into a deep pit.
He made an "uh" sound: "Do you want to ask me how I got out of there?"
"If I said I actually don't know either... would you believe me?"
Xu Xi: "..." No, I don't believe.
Hang Ze didn't mind the young man's silence in front of him at all, casually steering the conversation in another direction.
"But none of that is important," his tone carried a trace of excitement from surviving a disaster and making a major discovery, "What's important is—I know how to clear this level!"
Upon hearing this, Xu Xi's expression shifted slightly.
He now understood clearly that the loud noise was caused by this earring-wearing kid in front of him.
As for how the other survived and created such a big commotion... he glanced at the other's right earlobe.
Of the two silver earrings that should have been there, only one remained now.
So the reason the reload moved the time node forward was because of this guy?
Seeing that the person still hadn't responded after a long time, Hang Ze followed his gaze and touched his own ear. When his finger touched the empty earring hole, it noticeably paused for a moment.
"Ah, this, I used it just now to blow up the ancestral tablets."
His tone was casual and offhand.
Xu Xi: "..." And you said you didn't know??
After speaking, Hang Ze saw the other still staring at him and couldn't help joking: "Hey buddy, at least give some reaction, why are you looking at me like that? I actually know the method to clear the level!"
Xu Xi withdrew his gaze without explanation: "How to clear?"
"Your reaction is really too calm." Muttering quietly, Hang Ze concealed the probing look in his eyes and said seriously: "Scratch out the names."
Hearing this, Xu Xi was surprised for a moment.
Information revealed by the white-flower-wearing maidservant beside the Seventh Concubine immediately flashed through his mind.
The Seventh Concubine wanted to scratch her son's name from the clan genealogy.
But because of the Shen family rule that only Shen clan members could view the genealogy, she had no choice but to ask the players for help.
And whoever scratched out the name of that Sixth Young Master would have to replace the Sixth Young Master and go to the underworld.
But what Hang Ze said next was different from what he had thought.
"As long as we scratch our own names from the clan genealogy, we can leave."
Not scratch out someone else's name, but scratch out our own names?
Xu Xi pondered thoughtfully.
Combined with the currently known clues, this method of clearing the level did indeed sound very reasonable.
But...
"Leave?" Xu Xi keenly noticed this wording.
"If we scratch out our names, we're no longer Shen family members, so why the hell would we keep vigil? As outsiders, of course we have to 'leave'."
Hang Ze raised an eyebrow, deliberately emphasizing a certain word.
Xu Xi instantly understood.
Logically speaking, after they finished burning incense, they had already completed the step of attending the funeral. The reason they needed to keep vigil was because they were the "children" of Master Shen.
If they scratched their names from the clan genealogy, they would become outsiders and naturally wouldn't need to continue staying to keep vigil.
"The funeral must last seven full days, cannot leave early," except... for outsiders?
Xu Xi secretly pondered, feeling that most of the information before and after was now connected, and some of those incomplete rules had been partially filled in.
Reasonable! Very reasonable!
The look he gave Hang Ze couldn't help but undergo subtle changes.
Wasn't this the awesome teammate he had always dreamed of in the past?
The method to clear the level was directly delivered to him, he just needed to mindlessly lie down and win.
At this moment, Hang Ze reached into the pocket of his mandarin jacket.
"As for the item that can scratch out names, I've already gotten it. Don't ask how I got it, it's not clear in a short while anyway. Anyway, here, this thing. Now we just need the clan genealogy and we can—"
Before he finished speaking.
"Boom—!!"
Suddenly another loud noise.
"Cough, cough." Xu Xi instinctively raised his hand to block the falling roof tiles and wood splinters, then coughed lightly from the dust in the air.
Vigorously waving his arm, he waited for the surrounding dust to disperse slightly before raising his head.
When he clearly saw the scene before him, his pupils constricted sharply.
The coffin lid had smashed through the roof above, and the broken wooden beams emitted groans of unbearable weight.
The entirely black coffin body trembled slightly. The next second, a withered, bluish-gray arm suddenly stretched out from inside the coffin.
A purple-clad figure slowly sat up.
Without a doubt, the corpse had reanimated.
That coffin lid, which he couldn't budge no matter how he tried, was now easily flipped open by a "person" and was firmly embedded diagonally in the wooden beams of the roof, scattering many roof tiles.
At the same time, Hang Ze also exclaimed: "Holy shit, corpse reanimation?!"
Then he saw that figure turn its head and look at him expressionlessly.
The gaze was hollow and cold, with what seemed to be some kind of anger deep in its eyes.
Hang Ze: "..."
Xu Xi noticed that the old man was only staring fixedly at the earring-wearing young man beside him, so he quietly took a step to the side.
Then he met the gazes of dozens of paper figures that had unknowingly and quietly surrounded them.
Xu Xi: "..."
Unwarranted disaster! Absolutely unwarranted disaster!
He was certain that this inexplicable change was one hundred percent because the kid next to him blew up their ancestors' tablets!
Retribution had arrived.
Obviously, Hang Ze was also very aware of what he had done.
"Well, sorry about that, buddy, I've dragged you into this." Hang Ze gave an awkward laugh, "What do you think, should we run separately?"
A familiar scene, familiar words.
Xu Xi closed his eyes and took out his Fruit Knife.
Run? Where would we run in this tiny place? Run out and continue to be midnight snacks for that water shadow?
Then he heard the earring-wearing young man's terrified shout.
"No, buddy! This isn't a dead end yet! At worst, you can jump into the pit with me..."
The following words gradually became blurred, he could no longer hear them clearly.
With a final sweeping glance, he caught sight of the broken writing brush tightly clutched in the other's hand.
So familiar.
Oh, it's that extremely precious writing brush that Master Shen treasured, never parted with in daily life, said to be passed down from the Old Master, whose written characters carried a strange fragrance that lingered for a long time, and which was even buried with him in the coffin.
Indeed.
He didn't enter that coffin for nothing.
...
Looking at the stove before him that still retained residual warmth, Xu Xi thought that being able to reload to this node proved he was definitely doomed later.
Given that the first loud noise was caused by the earring-wearing young man blowing up the ancestral tablets, and he had become a midnight snack for the water shadow at that time, he didn't know there would be a second coffin explosion.
But the reload didn't return him to before he left the room, but to an earlier time node.
That is to say, even if he had returned to the node before leaving the room, even if he had stayed quietly and safely in the room, he would still have died.
This situation left only one possibility: the reanimated Master Shen became a new variable, causing some kind of change in the instance.
If the other players wanted to come out to check the situation, they would, like him, violate the rules and add to the water shadow's meal.
And staying in the room didn't necessarily mean safely surviving the new dangers brought by the change.
At least he didn't avoid it.
Thus it became a dead save.
Having understood the logic, Xu Xi's emotions did not calm down.
Because immediately afterward, a new problem was placed before him.
The time node for this reload was right after he finished burning the offerings.
Assuming the method to clear this instance was as the earring-wearing young man said, simply using that broken writing brush to scratch the players' names from the clan genealogy.
Not to mention where the clan genealogy is, or what their names are.
There was also a hidden key point involved—whether any of them actually wasn't a Shen family member by identity.
Just talking about that writing brush, it was most likely already in the earring-wearing young man's hands now.
Even if it was still in the palm of Master Shen inside the coffin, he couldn't open that coffin.
The most important item he simply couldn't obtain, and by the time he could obtain it, he wouldn't be far from death.
Isn't this a new dead save?
Xu Xi pondered hard for a while, ultimately deciding to trust the intelligence of the reload.
Learn from mistakes, grow from experience. Presumably, the reload wouldn't just watch him jump into a new dead end again.
Alright, then the problem came again and again.
Without being able to obtain the writing brush, where would the path to survival be in this round?
As for mindlessly lying down to win?
Heh.
