Chapter 2987: The Cause of the Instance
Wang Chengren was terrified out of his wits, and before long, he even started to show signs of mental instability. Not only was he fixated on his own shadow, but he also kept sneaking glances at Xu Huo and the Painting Woman, as if trying to determine whether they were alive or not.
Xu Huo had already warned him, but he wouldn't listen, so he had to use other methods to awaken his sense of being "alive."
"Slap! Slap! Slap!" The Painting Woman gave him several resounding slaps across the face.
"Still feel like you're alive?" Xu Huo asked.
"Alive, alive!" Wang Chengren shouted hastily, even begging the Painting Woman to go easy on him. However, after being hit, he actually calmed down a bit. "Being able to feel pain... that's good."
The three continued forward. Before long, they arrived at the location of what was once the estate's largest artificial lake. This lake had been filled in and dug out multiple times over the years. Now, it retained its original shape, and a fair number of lotus flowers had been planted. Although it was cold and the lotuses were withered, a large area of the lake's surface was covered with broken stems and decaying leaves.
Seeing the lake triggered a stress response in Wang Chengren. He shrank back, refusing to go any further. Under the Painting Woman's threat, he had just stepped onto the bridge when, suddenly, bubbles began to churn and rise from one side of the lake. The next moment, Xu Huo grabbed him and jumped into the lake.
"Help—!" He only managed to shout one word before the Painting Woman's backpack, falling backward, slammed into his face. All three of them sank together into the lake.
Gurgle, gurgle...
Bubbles kept rising from the lake. Three people went in, but four came out.
Xu Huo dragged the corpse onto the bridge with them.
The dead person was a middle-aged woman wearing work clothes. The nameplate on her chest matched the name of a chef in the information Wei Mang had provided. This was one of the people working for the Wang family who had been dragged into the instance along with Wang Xiaohui.
There were no wounds on her front, but when they turned her over, they saw a long, vertical gash running down her back. All the organs in her chest and abdominal cavity were missing. The corpse seemed to have been frozen, with no obvious signs of bleeding, which was why there was no blood when she suddenly appeared in the lake.
The cold storage facility at the Wang Family Estate was very far from here. Wang Chengren had only appeared in the lake after jumping in himself. Could this corpse have walked onto the bridge to look at its own reflection before being killed by its shadow and then thrown out?
"Killing the reflection"... Looking at the hollowed-out corpse, Xu Huo couldn't help but frown. Could the reflection be trying to take its place?
After searching the entire estate without finding anything, the three had no choice but to find a place to stop and rest.
The place they chose was the main building of the Wang Family Estate, which was where Wang Xiaohui had lived before the incident. It was a small building consisting of seven rooms, with rooms on both the upper and lower floors. Although the house looked a bit newer, traces of its previous life were still preserved. Tea, fruit, and snacks were all readily available.
Xu Huo poured himself a cup of tea and asked Wang Chengren about the Wang family's past.
Worried that Xu Huo wouldn't take him out, Wang Chengren didn't dare lie at all. He told a version of the Wang family story that was completely different from the one in Wei Mang's information.
In reality, the earliest owner of this estate was Wang Chengren's ancestor. Later, when something happened and the family fell into decline, the estate changed hands. However, this story had been passed down through the Wang family's genealogy. Although the Wang family had changed their surname in the interim, they still coveted their ancestral property. So, they tried every means to buy it back, and eventually, they succeeded.
But perhaps this place really did have bad feng shui. After the Wang family changed their name and moved in, they were plagued by constant trouble. Family members were separated, and the house was taken away from them again.
"This house belongs to my branch of the family!" Wang Chengren said, very agitated. The genealogy his family kept recorded it very clearly. The earliest owners of the estate were his ancestors. Later, it was bought back by the Wang family's forebears. After it was bought back, Wang Chengren's branch was designated as the heir. But plans couldn't keep up with changes, and in the end, no one got anything.
By the time of Wang Chengren's generation and Wang Xiaohui's parents' generation, although the two families were related, they basically had no contact. When Wang Xiaohui's parents made their fortune and bought back part of the estate, Wang Chengren couldn't sleep at night and shamelessly came back to find them.
Wang Xiaohui's parents didn't hold any prejudice against him. They felt that the conflicts of the older generation shouldn't affect the younger one, and they were also happy to have his help. But they never expected the accident to happen so suddenly. As soon as Wang Xiaohui's parents died, only one heir with a bad leg was left.
"If it weren't for me, she would have been killed long ago. Would she have been able to grow up safely?" Wang Chengren said angrily. "Her mother's relatives are like leeches. Usually, they just suck blood, but Wang Xiaohui wasn't even ten years old yet, and they were already talking about having a son-in-law marry into the family. They planned to have their seventeen-year-old dropout, their 'glorious ancestor,' come and help her manage the company!"
"If he were a man of real talent, you could barely call him a 'phoenix man.' But he has no skills and is only focused on taking over a family with no male heir. Calling him a leech is an insult to leeches. At least leeches can be used as medicine. That guy is a waste of space, rotten to the core!"
"I never expected that after protecting her all the way to adulthood, the first thing she did when she became a player was come back and take revenge on me... My wife is a bit sharp-tongued, but she never hit or scolded her. What more did she want? I saved her life. What's wrong with her giving me some money? Besides, it's not like I didn't put in any effort!"
Seeing Xu Huo's unfriendly expression, Wang Chengren immediately withdrew his complaints. "But still, she showed me a little mercy. Her maternal grandmother's family is a mess of dead and injured. Half of the people in that household are lying in bed, waiting to die."
"Wang Xiaohui wanting to kill you probably isn't just because of a sharp tongue," Xu Huo said. "Tell me the whole story."
Wang Chengren was silent for a moment before speaking. "Her parents had a will. Although I fought for and got the position of guardian, the Wang family's wealth was never mine. So, I thought of a few ways to force her to sign over the property."
"Is that how her leg was completely ruined?" Xu Huo asked.
No hitting, no scolding, but the mental pressure a group of adults could exert on a helpless child could be just as despair-inducing.
"This is the Wang Family Estate from ten years ago," Xu Huo said. Since the instance preserved the state of the Wang Family Estate, its origin might be related to Wang Xiaohui's experiences.
Wang Chengren obviously thought of something too. His expression was dazed and complicated. "When she was little, she liked to cry in front of the mirror. I saw it a couple of times. Back then, I thought she was a bit mentally unstable."
"I swear, apart from being harsh with my words, I never abused her. My wife, although she has a sharp tongue, isn't that cruel either. Otherwise, I wouldn't have stayed married to her for so many years..."
As he spoke, his voice trailed off.
In the information Wei Mang provided, the details about Wang Chengren's wife, brother-in-law, two sons, and three nieces and nephews were very thorough. Among these people, only Wang Chengren was still living off the Wang family's money, even able to hire players.
His wife had been admitted to a sanatorium with a mental illness a year ago. One of his two sons had failed his evolution, and the other had been severely injured after offending a player and was now also in a wheelchair.
As for his wife's younger brother, he had gone missing two years ago, right when evolution first began. Two of his nephews had their hands cut off for gambling, and his niece was disfigured by a severe burn.
"Looking at it this way, your family isn't any better," Xu Huo said, tossing a piece of wood into the burning fireplace. He paused for a moment, then added, "But considering it's been two years since evolution started, the fact that both your families have managed to keep so many people alive is quite remarkable."