Female Corpse

"What is it?" Nian grabbed onto the railing and went on his tiptoes. But still, all he could see was the solid expanse of painted wall. Damn this shortie! "What is it? Hey, tell me!" He shook Jin Jiuchi's arm beside him, urging the man to share what had caused a ruckus downstairs.

For God's sake, he had never felt troubled when he used this form in the previous Cycles, not even when he had to trudge through mountainous paths under the scorching heat of summer, but who could have expected that he would be tempted to change his mind twice in this Cycle?!

Jin Jiuchi turned to face him with a complicated look. He parted his lips to answer, but then closed it again when he realized that he had no idea how to explain it. In the end, he merely shook his head and bent down to scoop the jade doll into his arms. "You'd better see it for yourself…"

Nian scrambled to hold onto Jin Jiuchi's broad shoulders for purchase, his butt sitting on the crook of the man's arm like a baby. He would have minded their sudden proximity, the sensation of Jin Jiuchi's powerful arm cradling his hips and the heated skin pressed against his back had they been in any other circumstances. Alas, right now he could not even be bothered about it and hurriedly looked down to see what was going on.

He instantly knew why Jin Jiuchi had gone speechless.

Sprawled in the middle of the first floor was a body with limbs crooked in awkward angles. Clad in a pure white dress, her long hair spread around her like spiderwebs. Because she was laying face down, they could not see what her appearance was like, but in this place there were only two female players. One was Xinxin, who was standing here in this floor with them, so the one laying there could only be—

"What's with all the commotion?"

Sister Hong poked her head out from the fourth floor and looked down, frowning when she saw the female corpse downstairs. A suspicious flush dotted her cheeks as her hands moved to tie the gown tighter around her body. Zhi showed up beside her with messed up hair as though someone had run their fingers through it. Apparently, both of them had been 'preparing' to sleep.

"What the hell…" Zhi murmured with knitted brows.

"S–Sister Hong, Brother Zhi…" Tang Ye stammered out as he tried to put on the most serious look he could muster in the face of such intimacy. "Xinxin suddenly saw a body falling from the upper floor and that's why she screamed." He furrowed his brow and glanced down at the female corpse doubtfully. "Wait, there are only two female players in our team, so if Xinxin and Sister Hong are here, so who…" he trailed off, his eyes widening in realization.

Indeed, there were only two female players in this Cycle. But what if it was not a player? The only woman aside from the players they had seen in this place was…

Madam Liu, the landlady!

The same realization also crossed everyone's mind at once. Without a word, everyone rushed downstairs.

"Put me down!" Nian hissed in a low voice as Jin Jiuchi carried him down the stairs.

"No can do~" Jin Jiuchi laughed out loud. The strands of his hair were still dripping with water that slowly cascaded down his cheeks, giving him a cheeky yet sexy look. "Nian'er, your legs are so short. By the time you get downstairs, everyone will have finished inspecting the scene!"

'Damn this shortie!' Nian cursed again for the second time tonight.

Indeed, Jin Jiuchi's legs were very long and powerful – Nian had already seen the toned calf muscles back in the shower – and coupled with the fact that he was rushing down from the third floor, it made him the first person who arrived at the first floor.

Nian jumped down from Jin Jiuchi's arms and stepped forward to inspect the female corpse. With a wave of his hand, a pair of black leather gloves appeared in his palm and he slipped them on with practiced ease.

"Wow!" Jin Jiuchi clapped from where he was standing. "Another excellent magic trick! As expected of Nian'er!"

Nian ignored him, of course.

Crouching down, he brushed away the hair that covered the corpse's face and frowned when he finally saw her appearance. He could hear footsteps coming down the stairs, but just as he was about to stand up, his peripheral vision caught sight of a crumpled piece of paper in the corpse's loosely clenched hand.

Tang Ye and Xinxin burst out from the staircase, with Sister Hong and Surnamed Zhi right behind them.

"Who?! Who is it—" Tang Ye's words got stuck in his throat once his eyes landed on the female corpse's face. He'd had his own suspicion; nonetheless, seeing Madam Liu's blank wide eyes and twisted look as if she had seen something extremely horrifying during her last moment still shook him down to the core. "How… How could it be the main NPC…"

They stood around the corpse in a circle, frowning. The NPC who issued them the task was dead? How? If Madam Liu was gone, then who would give them the tickets on the last day?!

"Nian'er, Nian'er…" Jin Jiuchi pulled the jade doll to the side and asked in a whisper. "NPCs don't usually die?"

"No," Nian shoved a shirt to the half naked Jin Jiuchi and replied with a solemn face. "There is no conflict of interests between NPCs and players, so there's no need for us to seek trouble with them. Moreover, they are the ones who will give us the bus ticket. If we kill them, then how are we supposed to get out of this place? This is the first time I have seen the death of an NPC…" he frowned. "Is it because of the Nightmare?"

Jin Jiuchi slipped on the shirt awkwardly. As expected, it was too tight for him, especially around his shoulders and chest. Alas, he could not even bring himself to complain about it right now. His gaze once again landed on Madam Liu's corpse, or to be exact…

…the index finger on her right hand that was missing.

Rather than being severed by a sharp object like a knife, the wound looked jagged and uneven as if… it had been bitten off by someone…

Once again, he recalled the squirmy thing that almost crawled its way up from his throat. It couldn't be Madam Liu's finger, right? How did her finger get into his stomach to begin with?!

Jin Jiuchi was certain that he had never eaten someone before – let alone someone who had served him such delicious meat sauce. He was not that immoral!

Surely, he couldn't be the one who killed her, right…?

.

.

Mini theater

Jin Jiuchi: Would you believe me if I said that I didn't do it on purpose? 0.0 look at my innocent face…