Chapter 2277: Sending Them All Off Together
The scream was a bit piercing, but the few people sitting in the living room didn't move.
The old lady heard the scream and came out, saying urgently, "What happened? That sounded like my grandson!"
Xu Huo walked over to support her and guided her toward the living room. "Ma'am, are you just missing your grandson too much?"
"There was a sound just now, didn't you hear it?" the old lady asked suspiciously.
"No, we didn't," Zhu Xiaojin said, playing dumb. He sighed with feigned emotion, "You're such a good grandmother, loving your grandson so much. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away when I was very young. Otherwise, I bet she'd be just like you."
The old lady's face, twisted with anxiety, gradually relaxed. She smiled and said, "Yes, there's no grandmother in the world who doesn't dote on her grandson. As long as he's doing well, I'd do anything willingly."
Her drooping eyelids fixed on Xu Huo and the others, finally settling on the Painting Woman. "Girl, there aren't enough rooms in the house. You'll sleep with me tonight."
The Painting Woman was straightforward. She raised her communicator, which displayed three big words: "I DON'T WANT TO."
The old lady didn't mind her rudeness but was disappointed she couldn't speak. "A mute, huh? What a shame, with such a pretty face..."
She then turned her gaze to Tang Yu, her face full of kindness. "Girl, you'll sleep with me."
Tang Yu smiled slightly. "Sure, I'd like to experience what it feels like to be cherished by a grandmother."
To show her goodwill, the old lady cooked them dinner. After the meal, Tang Yu offered to go see her grandson's room, but the old lady refused. After Tang Yu tried to open the door a few times, the old lady simply coaxed her into her own room. She told Xu Huo and the others that her grandson didn't like strangers entering his room, so they should sleep in the other bedroom and the living room.
"No problem." Xu Huo watched them leave.
"Looks like she's planning to resurrect her grandson," Zhu Xiaojin said. "Did she bring us here to be substitutes? What's she pulling Tang Yu in for?"
"Maybe she wants to find a wife for her dead grandson," Old Cai chimed in. "Older folks can't get past that."
Zhu Xiaojin rolled his eyes. "And she still has the nerve to look down on Li Chun."
The Painting Woman wasn't interested in the old lady. She was more intrigued by the still-moving "people" in the room and indicated she wanted to go in and take a look.
"Wait a bit," Xu Huo said. "If cutting him didn't make him come out, the time isn't right. He'll probably come looking for us tonight. Let's see what they really want. If they just wanted to kill us, they could have burned the place down."
There was clearly a complete story behind the old lady in Room 603. Burning the corpse prematurely might just reset everything, so there was no need.
"Even if the whole neighborhood turns into a den of monsters, it's nothing special." Old Cai checked the time. "It's ten o'clock at night now."
The dead of night was silent, with no sounds of birds or animals. But heavy footsteps could be heard from the stairwell from time to time, as if someone was walking up and down close to the wall, deliberately stomping their feet.
Room 603 was right next to the stairwell, and the walls weren't soundproof. After half an hour of this racket, Zhu Xiaojin opened the door and yelled, "I swear I'll skin you alive! What's your problem, stomping around in the stairwell in the middle of the night!"
The sounds in the stairwell stopped, but at the same time, a sudden gust of wind blew onto Zhu Xiaojin's face.
A translucent shadow floated to the door, trying to slip through the crack. Zhu Xiaojin sneered and slammed the door shut. "Get lost!"
But a single door couldn't stop the shadow outside. Its hands passed through the door and were about to grab Zhu Xiaojin when they suddenly stopped. Then, as if frightened by something, it yanked its hands back.
The footsteps gradually faded away.
"I don't get it. If she's a ghost, why make such a racket?" Zhu Xiaojin said irritably. "Can't dead people just stay dead quietly?"
"I know, I know!" The Painting Woman raised her communicator. "This is a horror movie. In horror movies, the protagonist is safe once dawn comes."
"We have to wait until dawn?" Zhu Xiaojin rolled up his sleeves, charged over, and kicked open the room with the coffin. Before he could act, he was driven back by the stench. He stumbled into the living room, retching. "Damn! That's a biological weapon!"
Xu Huo covered his nose and mouth and looked toward the bedroom door. The corpse had been stitched back together. It stood silently at the door, its rotting face even more twisted and terrifying with rage.
"It even had time to sew itself up." He looked at the crude stitches on the corpse. "Sewn up like that, can it even walk?"
Whether it could walk was debatable, because the next second, it lunged at Xu Huo.
Xu Huo spun on the spot, raising his leg and landing a kick squarely in the corpse's abdomen. Watching it crash into the TV cabinet, he nodded. "Nice feel."
The corpse grew even angrier. It opened its mouth and spewed black-green smoke. Zhu Xiaojin, who had already put on a gas mask, rushed over and shoved two iron balls into its mouth. "Shut up, you stink!"
"Rip its head off," Xu Huo said. "Let's see if it can still move."
"No problem." Zhu Xiaojin grabbed the head with one hand and the shoulder with the other, yanking the head off cleanly.
The torn stitches brought out a bit of discolored flesh and blood, and the corpse collapsed to the floor.
"The stitching on this monster is almost healed together. Its recovery is stronger than a player's." Zhu Xiaojin tossed the head, which was still trying to bite him, into the fruit bowl on the coffee table. "I think we still need to burn it."
The head in the fruit bowl tried to jump, but Xu Huo stepped on it.
He took out the lighter that hadn't been seen in a while, looking down at the head. "Cut it off, and it can be stitched back together. Separate it from the body, and it can still function. I wonder if it can recover after being chopped to pieces... But chopping it up is troublesome. Better to burn it. I hear fire is good against these kinds of things."
The rotting face showed fear. Just as Xu Huo was about to light it, the old lady, who had been eavesdropping in the room, suddenly lunged out, shrieking, "Don't you dare touch my grandson!"
Tang Yu, who had followed her out, tripped her and used a prop to pin her down. "Ma'am, your grandson is still studying in another city. Are you getting senile, mistaking this thing for your grandson? If your grandson found out, he'd be heartbroken!"
"You bitch, let me go, or I'll kill you!" The old lady's sharp, mean face was twisted with venom.
Tang Yu curled her lip and snapped her neck.
The old lady's body went limp on the floor.
The head reacted strongly to its relative's death, struggling to escape. As if responding to its rage, the lights in the room all exploded, and then the ceiling, along with the chandelier, collapsed, revealing red talisman paper. The head, the corpse, and the newly dead old lady all began to show signs of movement again.
"Hmm," Xu Huo said, pulling the three items into the middle of the living room. "Let's arrange a cremation for you." (Chapter End)