The chewing sounds continued for a long time, as if meticulously chewing every bone to pieces. The crunching sounds of bones being bitten through caused physiological discomfort, but everyone silently endured it.
Finally, when the dawn was about to break on the horizon, the chewing sounds disappeared, and so did the woman who had been silently staring at everyone from outside the wall.
Lin Qiu Shi didn't know if it was his illusion, but he always felt that before the woman disappeared, he vaguely heard a slight burp, as if something was full...
The day finally brightened. After sitting in the yard all night, Lin Qiu Shi felt like he had gone through life and death. He said, "Is it all over?"
Ruan Bai Jie neither affirmed nor denied, only saying perhaps.
After chopping down trees, worshipping the temple, and filling the well, all that was left was to go to the carpenter's place to get the coffin.
Everyone's faces showed fatigue, but beneath the fatigue, there was also some excitement. This should be the last step. As long as they got the key and found that iron door, they would be able to leave this terrifying world.
Everyone was thinking like this, and their pace became much more brisk unintentionally.
The village in daylight was not as gloomy and terrifying as it was at night. It looked like an ordinary little mountain village with simple and honest villagers, no ghosts or deaths.
When they went to the carpenter's place, they had to pass through the place where Wang Xiao Yi died, but Lin Qiu Shi didn't see anything there. There was only white snow on the ground without any traces of what happened last night.
"Was her corpse eaten?" Lin Qiu Shi asked.
"Probably." Ruan Bai Jie said, "That thing has quite an appetite."
When they arrived at the carpenter's house, they saw the carpenter sitting at the door slowly smoking. Lin Qiu Shi went up first and greeted him, "Old man, we've come to collect the coffin."
The carpenter didn't say anything, just casually pointed inside the house.
Everyone walked into the house successively and saw a beautiful red coffin standing in the not very big room. The coffin was extremely exquisite and well-made, with every detail seamless, not at all like a rushed product.
Lin Qiu Shi always felt something strange about the paint brushed on the coffin. He reached out and touched it, realizing the paint had a fishy smell and a slippery texture.
Ruan Bai Jie reacted much faster than him. She blurted out, "It's blood-soaked, right?"
"Probably." Xiong Qi said. "No paint is like this."
"Forget it, no matter what it's soaked in, let's take it back first." Ruan Bai Jie said, "Let's go."
Lin Qiu Shi had thought the coffin would be very heavy, but when he actually lifted it up, it was light as a feather, and two people could easily carry it.
Cheng Wen was currently in no condition to help. Among the whole team, only Lin Qiu Shi and Xiong Qi had the strength to do physical work. The two of them, one in front and one behind, carried the coffin towards their residence.
"What should we do next?" Lin Qiu Shi asked, carrying the coffin.
"Let's go back and see if there's anything inside the coffin first." Ruan Bai Jie said, "I guess the key must be inside the coffin. Once we get the key out, everything will be easy."
Lin Qiu Shi silently hoped it would be so.
When they got home, Cheng Wen, who had been knocked out, woke up. He sat in the hall with a blank expression, not even greeting them when he saw everyone coming back carrying the coffin, looking almost like an idiot.
Seeing this, Lin Qiu Shi was a little worried and whispered, "I didn't hit him silly, did I?"
Ruan Bai Jie: "Hmm..."
Lin Qiu Shi: "Damn, I just hit him casually..."
Ruan Bai Jie comforted him: "If he's silly, then he's silly. No one is asking you to take responsibility anyway, and an idiot isn't afraid of ghosts, so isn't it just right to help him? You're his benefactor!"
Lin Qiu Shi: "..." Ruan Bai Jie, why are you so skilled?
Because of Cheng Wen's performance yesterday, no one wanted to bother with him. Xiong Qi and Xiao Ke directly pretended not to see him.
"Let's open the coffin." Xiong Qi announced after putting down the coffin.
"Okay." Lin Qiu Shi nodded. He and Xiong Qi lifted one side each and used force at the same time to open the coffin lid.
With a creaking sound, the coffin opened, and the damp, woody smell unique to wood rushed up. Xiao Ke was the most nervous. As soon as she saw the lid open, she immediately poked her head in, wanting to see if there was anything they wanted inside the coffin.
"Found it! The key!!" The next moment, Xiao Ke's ecstatic voice came. She was almost moved to tears, extremely excited, "Really, really!!"
Lin Qiu Shi looked and found an extra old bronze key in Xiao Ke's hand. The style of the key was simple and ancient, with the breath of time. There was red liquid sticking to the key handle, which Lin Qiu Shi would have thought was paint before, but now he felt that touch of red was human blood.
"We have the key, we have the key!!" Xiao Ke hugged the key, tears streaming down nonstop. She seemed to be on the verge of emotional collapse.
It looked like although she usually appeared very calm, in the end she still couldn't withstand the pressure of death.
"The door should have appeared too. We can start looking for the door." There was some fatigue in Xiong Qi's tone as he said, "We must hurry. Not many of us are left."
"Where do doors usually appear?" Lin Qiu Shi didn't have much experience in this area.
"Usually near where we live, it won't be too hard to find." Xiong Qi said. "But the world of thirteen people, I haven't experienced it either, so...I'm not sure."
"I see." Lin Qiu Shi looked at the key in Xiao Ke's hand, thinking at least they had found the key.
Ruan Bai Jie didn't show too much excitement. She said, "The key, who's going to keep the key? I won't feel assured with her."
The questioned Xiao Ke was full of anger: "What do you mean? Why wouldn't you feel assured with me? Would we feel assured if you kept it?"
Ruan Bai Jie smiled ambiguously. "This isn't just my own business. If you lose the key, we'll all have to die inside, are you sure you want to keep it? Think it over clearly."
Xiao Ke's face turned green and white, seemingly about to say something, when Xiong Qi pressed her shoulder: "Qiu Shi, you keep it."
Lin Qiu Shi was startled. He didn't expect this matter to suddenly fall onto him. He was about to decline when Ruan Bai Jie expressed her agreement and even squeezed next to Lin Qiu Shi's ear to softly say, "Just hold onto it."
Lin Qiu Shi frowned. "But this is my first time going through the door, I don't have much experience..."
"It's fine." Xiong Qi said. "We all trust you very much."
"Alright then." Lin Qiu Shi had no choice but to agree.
After taking over the key, he observed it carefully and felt that if not said otherwise, to him this was just an ordinary bronze key.
Xiong Qi suggested that everyone was tired after a whole night and should go eat something first before discussing the door's location. Lin Qiu Shi agreed.
So Xiong Qi and Xiao Ke went to the kitchen to cook while Lin Qiu Shi and Ruan Bai Jie sat in the living room watching Cheng Wen.
"Why did they want to give me the key?" Lin Qiu Shi still didn't quite understand.
"Because this key isn't a good thing." Ruan Bai Jie said. "Those who hold it die very quickly." She laughed and reached out a finger to poke Lin Qiu Shi's forehead, "Of course, you don't need to worry."
Lin Qiu Shi: "Hmm?"
Ruan Bai Jie suddenly lowered her head and lightly bit Lin Qiu Shi's earlobe, whispering, "I found the door."
Lin Qiu Shi's eyes instantly widened in shock. "What?"
Ruan Bai Jie: "Shh, keep your voice down."
Lin Qiu Shi quickly lowered his voice and said, "What did you say? You found the location of the door?"
"Yes." Ruan Bai Jie smiled happily. She seemed to have taken quite an interest in Lin Qiu Shi's ears, her fingers sliding up and down his earlobes, tickling Lin Qiu Shi so much he kept feeling itchy, "Do you want to know where it is?"
If it was usual times, all of Lin Qiu Shi's attention would definitely have to be placed on the pair of hands Ruan Bai Jie was using to play with his ears, but Ruan Bai Jie's current words were too astonishing, leaving him no time to care about anything else. "You know where it is, why didn't you say... ah??"
A sudden pain on his earlobe. Lin Qiu Shi sucked in a breath of cold air. "What are you doing?" He touched it and found Ruan Bai Jie had forcibly pierced an earring onto his right ear.
"It's nothing." Ruan Bai Jie still looked innocent. "I just thought you would look quite good with this earring."
Lin Qiu Shi touched the earring in shock. For a moment, he didn't know whether to keep asking about the door or the earring. Ruan Bai Jie didn't give him a chance to react and continued, "The door is in a place very close to us. We can go back tonight."
"What about Xiao Ke and Xiong Qi?" Lin Qiu Shi asked.
"Them?" Ruan Bai Jie didn't seem to have a very good impression of these two people. "Depends on my mood."
Lin Qiu Shi said, "If possible...take them back with us too." Although Xiao Ke had a bad temper, Xiong Qi had treated them decently after all, not to mention they had gone through so much together.
"You..." Ruan Bai Jie said. "You're just too soft-hearted." She smiled. "But I just like you this way."
Being spoken to like this, Lin Qiu Shi inexplicably blushed a little. He said, "Don't tease me."
Ruan Bai Jie just smiled without another word.
Having been interrupted by Ruan Bai Jie like this, Lin Qiu Shi directly forgot to ask about the earrings. All his thoughts were placed on the coming night. It wasn't until Xiong Qi and the others came back and asked about the new thing on his ear that he suddenly realized Ruan Bai Jie had fooled him again.
"Not good-looking?" Ruan Bai Jie said. "Why do you dislike me? Do you have another woman?"
Lin Qiu Shi: "...Don't make unreasonable demands."
Ruan Bai Jie turned into a wronged baby: "You actually said I'm making unreasonable demands, how awful of you, wah wah wah."
Lin Qiu Shi, who had never had a girlfriend, showed a desperate expression.