Chapter 13: The Secret

The class monitor carefully gathered all the leftover rubbish from the meal, packed it up, and took it out of the mansion. When she returned, she found everyone struggling to keep their eyes open.

“Everyone looks really tired~ How about this! We take turns standing guard, each person for two hours. That way, everyone can get six hours of rest.

Roddy contributed the most today and worked the hardest, so he earns the right to the bed.

I’ll take the first shift. Maybe because I haven’t done much, I’m not tired at all.”

Almost as soon as the class monitor finished speaking, Roddy was already lying back in a wicker chair, fast asleep, his soft snoring barely audible.

Gao Yuxuan laid out a moisture-proof mat on the floor, leaving the big bed entirely for Anna.

It was just as well—given Anna’s build, she really couldn’t sleep anywhere else.

This dilapidated old house, with a history of death, naturally had unusable bedding. Anna removed everything except the bed board, spread out her own moisture-proof mat, and barely managed to fall asleep.

“Young people are lucky, falling asleep as soon as they lie down,” the class monitor said with a look of contentment, gazing at the three fast asleep in the bedroom. Not a hint of fatigue showed on her face.

The sound of the heavy rain battering the mansion became a natural white noise, masking other sounds.

The class monitor moved silently, her steps like a ballet dancer’s, floating gracefully around the room.

After a dance, she approached the old dressing table in the master bedroom, wiped the dust from the mirror, and cleaned the worn wooden comb with a tissue.

Letting down her ponytail, she applied an ointment to the comb and slowly began to comb her hair in front of the mirror.

Her reflection never lost its smile; from the moment she began until now, there was not a trace of nervousness.

...

As night fell,

Unlike the city, which could remain brightly lit through ample lighting, this small hill mansion in the suburbs was shrouded in darkness.

The wall lamps the class monitor and others had put up earlier between the rooms came into play, keeping the entire house illuminated.

[9:00 PM]

Roddy, assigned to the last night watch shift, seemed to have an internal alarm clock and woke up on his own.

He had expected someone to come take over, but instead, three pairs of eyes were fixed on him.

“You’re awake?” the class monitor asked excitedly.

“What are you all doing?”

“Come quickly~ Gao Yuxuan discovered a secret about this mansion during his watch, so he woke us all up. Since you worked too hard today, we waited an extra half-hour for you.”

“What secret?”

The class monitor stood mysteriously by the wall and tapped it with her hand, producing a clear hollow sound.

“Gao Yuxuan measured the corridor length and compared the width of the master bedroom and the adjacent room, finding a large gap between the two. It’s big enough to fit a hidden room.

It’s very likely there’s a secret chamber inside, but we haven’t found the switch. Maybe the owner dismantled it beforehand.”

Roddy tapped the wall with his finger as well. “Sounds like the wall isn’t too thick. We should be able to break through it by force, right?”

“Exactly~ We just didn’t want to wake you up.”

The class monitor spun gracefully and spread her arms to the left, revealing her close friend.

Anna held a mason’s hammer, ready to use brute force to break through the wall. Judging by its worn condition, it looked like it was found inside the mansion.

Using all her muscle strength, she twisted her waist and swung her arm.

Bang!

The impact was tremendous.

One strike cracked the wall, the point of impact caving in deeply.

Without pause, she struck again.

Boom!

The second strike made a fist-sized hole, revealing the pitch-black interior.

The darkness made everyone uncomfortable. Having grown up in the city, they were rarely exposed to such complete darkness; even the most remote alleys were well-lit.

Seeing this unnatural blackness, the class monitor quickly tossed a touch-activated light orb inside.

Snap!

The orb activated upon hitting the ground.

Strangely, the orb emitted white light, but the reflected light inside turned red.

They continued breaking the wall.

Boom!

With the third strike, many bricks collapsed, fully revealing the secret chamber. A distinctly foul stench wafted out.

Unlike the purely rotten smell of the backyard, this stench was mixed with the scent of incense.

The floor was littered with crow carcasses. The light orb had landed on them, but the cramped chamber offered no place to put it down.

The walls were painted deep red with crow blood.

At the back of the chamber sat an altar covered with yellow cloth.

On it were a metal oil lamp,

Rotten fruit offerings,

Burnt-out incense sticks,

Unused yellow talismans,

And a family portrait.

This was the first time since arriving at the mansion that they had found a photo of the family.

However, the main ritual objects seemed to have been removed.

This secret chamber had another noteworthy feature: four bent hooks fixed to the ceiling at the corners of a rectangle, seemingly for hanging something.

Gao Yuxuan began analyzing with knowledge from textbooks and outside reading.

“Maybe someone was ‘refining corpses’ here... If I’m right, these four hooks were probably used to suspend coffins.”

“Refining corpses?”

The first thing everyone thought of was the four bodies hanging from the locust tree outside, especially the oldest one hanging highest, the hardest to burn.

Roddy’s gaze was sharp; he noticed something off about the photo on the altar.

He slipped plastic bags over his shoes, carefully stepped on the crow bodies, and took out the black-and-white photo.

“This is...!”

Everyone was stunned when they saw it.

There were five people in the photo.

Among them, a young man and woman, a middle-aged woman, and an elderly man—the very four bodies previously hanging in the tree, which they had dealt with.

But there was one more person.

A middle-aged man in cloth clothes seated in a wheelchair.

Though the old black-and-white photo was blurry, it was clear the man was in poor health, likely gravely ill.

Behind him, pushing the wheelchair, was the elderly man hanging highest in the locust tree, the hardest to handle.

The class monitor immediately connected the dots.

“I knew it~ The old man and the middle-aged woman are too far apart in age to be husband and wife. Turns out the old man was the house steward.

The sick man is the head of the family!

He must have been skilled in some kind of sorcery, but severely ill and near death. So he decided to refine his own corpse, with the whole family playing a crucial part in the process.

They were probably controlled by his talismans or had their minds altered, and were taught the steps to corpse refinement in advance.

The first stage of corpse refinement was set up right here in this secret chamber.

The corpse would be placed in a coffin and suspended in the chamber. Using the thick crow blood to absorb yin energy, once enough was gathered, the whole family would carry the coffin to the real refining site.

Most likely a hidden cave somewhere.

Then, they would prepare the house with the necessary funeral items, slaughtering all the pigs and cattle in the backyard. Once everything was ready, they would collectively hang themselves.

The corpses of the pigs, cattle, and the hanged family members nourished the locust tree in the backyard. The yin energy gathered at the roots and was transmitted downward, completing the final corpse refinement.

Unfortunately, we arrived and interrupted everything.

Their carefully planned process was destroyed. The family in the photo might have prematurely risen from the coffin because the ritual was cut short—maybe they’ve already returned to the mansion.”

The class monitor’s words chilled everyone, freezing the air. Their heads all turned toward the bedroom door sealed with paper-covered windows, motionless.