Deep Within the Living-Chapter 9: A Home Away from Home

“So, this is a white lantern? I’ve read that you Huaxia people used to hang these during funerals... I’ve seen plenty of pictures in books, but this is my first time seeing one in real life,” Anna remarked.
Her height allowed her to easily reach the lantern. Driven by curiosity, she reached up for a closer look, but the class leader quickly pulled her away.
“Let’s go~ These things aren’t just unlucky—they could even be dangerous during the exercise.”
“Got it, Wenwen. I wasn’t planning to touch it anyway.”
Anna had unreserved trust in her best friend. Shifting her attention, she turned toward the now-unlocked redwood door, bracing her strong arms against it.
Groan~
The slightly decayed, heavy wooden door creaked open inward.
The overgrown courtyard was thick with weeds that obscured the stone path. The chill wind persisted, colder and more piercing than before.
After confirming there were no anomalies in the front yard, the group tread carefully along the barely visible stone path buried beneath the foliage. They reached the door of the mansion’s main building.
The intricately carved wooden door was unlocked, but no one dared to open it hastily. With the event officially started, danger could lurk behind this very door.
They reverted to their earlier method.
The group retreated to a safe distance while the class leader gently nudged the door with her trekking pole.
As the door creaked open slowly, everyone held their breath, ready for any confrontation.
When the door was fully ajar, nothing leapt out, and no humanoid figure stood waiting.
Instead, an intense stench burst forth, like an invisible, slender hand reaching into their throats, its fingers clawing at their stomachs and tugging on their esophagi.
Despite their extensive training at school, dealing with smells had never been part of the curriculum.
All except Luo Di experienced severe nausea.
Acting swiftly, the class leader pulled out masks from her backpack—prepared in advance—and distributed them. Only then did the discomfort subside.
Once the smell was manageable, the group cautiously entered the mansion’s hall.
The interior was arranged as a mourning hall.
White drapes hung in waves around the room, swaying continuously in the chilling wind.
A redwood altar table stood in the center.
Four bowls of moldy white rice, each with a burned-out incense stick inserted, sat atop it.
Rotten dishes and decayed fruits had become nests for decomposers, enjoying a rare feast.
Surveying the scene, one peculiar detail stood out:
The mourning hall was meticulously and traditionally arranged, with all the usual funerary items present—except for one crucial element.
“A portrait of the deceased.”
The realization came quickly, its absence chilling.
Now wearing her mask, the class leader’s demeanor shifted dramatically. Her sharp gaze scanned the hall before she decisively issued instructions:
“From now on, we need to stick together as a group. We’ll thoroughly inspect the mansion as a team. Once we confirm it’s safe, we’ll come back here to clean up this moldy mess.”
Under her leadership, the group began their comprehensive inspection of the mansion.
The windows throughout the mansion were covered with white floral paper, drastically reducing the natural light and draping the interior in an oppressive, inescapable dimness.
This dimness, in turn, made the white lanterns hanging in the corridors essential sources of illumination, their glow strangely indispensable.
The tense inspection concluded without incident.
No dangers, no anomalous occurrences, and not a single trace of human presence were found. Even the [portrait] they expected to find in the mourning hall was missing.
One noteworthy detail stood out:
The master bedroom on the second floor was spacious and well-lit. If it could be confirmed safe, it would make an ideal resting spot, sparing them the trouble of pitching tents outside.
With the main building cleared, only the backyard remained unchecked.
Yet there was something odd:
There were no windows in the main building facing the backyard.
Gao Yuxuan, with his keen observational skills, noted that windows must have existed but had been sealed with cement long ago.
The only access to the backyard was a [door] within the main building, and even that door was anomalous—it was a modern iron door entirely out of sync with the old mansion’s style.
The door had no lock mechanism visible on its surface. It was completely secured from the inside and felt as if something heavy was barricading it from behind. The four of them, even working together, had no means of opening it.
Left with no other option, they decided to circle outside the mansion and see if they could scale the wall to access the backyard.
While the front courtyard’s walls were intact and ordinary, the backyard’s walls were topped with rusty, razor-sharp barbed wire laced with jagged blades.
Peering over the wall, they could barely see the twisted top of a tree inside—a tree that bore a striking resemblance to the locust tree Luo Di had encountered earlier when he found the wooden box.
The group speculated that this tree was directly tied to the exercise.
The class leader pulled out all the protective gear—knee pads, wrist guards, and other items—from her backpack, preparing to gear up and attempt climbing over the barbed wire.
Luo Di, standing at the back and quietly gauging the wall’s height, suddenly spoke up with a suggestion.
“Let me stand on Anna’s shoulders. Maybe I can use the chainsaw to cut through the barbed wire. That might be safer.”
Anna readily agreed with the suggestion, clenching her fist and smacking it into her palm. “Great idea! Wenwen, you shouldn’t climb the wall alone. If you get scratched and end up with tetanus, it’d be a huge problem.”
“Alright~ Let’s see how well you two can pull this off,” the class leader replied.
Anna’s physical strength truly shone in moments like this.
As Luo Di stepped onto her shoulders, Anna, in a crouched position, rose steadily without any unnecessary wobbling.
Even with their combined height, they could barely reach the top of the wall.
Luo Di used his gloved left hand to grab the edge of the wall for additional stability.
Buzz!
The automated chainsaw, purchased from the Terminal Supermarket, roared to life for the first time. The alloy teeth, driven by the motor, effortlessly sliced through the rusty, coarse barbed wire.
With a large section of wire removed, the top of the wall now had an opening wide enough for one person to pass through.
Luo Di pulled himself up with ease, perching on the wall with surprising agility, as if he was experienced in such tasks.
As his eyes scanned the backyard, he froze for a moment. His demeanor shifted, and his voice turned cold.
“The iron door leading to the main building can be unlocked from the inside. Just wait there—I’ll open it for you.”
Without another word, Luo Di jumped down into the backyard, landing gracefully.
The class leader and the others quickly headed back to the iron door. As they walked, Anna whispered into Wenwen’s ear, “Wenwen~ That guy’s got some skills. His balance is rock-solid, and he’s so efficient.”
Through the white mask, Wu Wen’s eyes curved into a smiling crescent. “He’s quite capable.”
When they reached the iron door, faint sounds of heavy objects being moved from behind the door could be heard.
This was followed by the sharp whir of the chainsaw cutting through something.
Clang!
The sound of a chain dropping echoed.
The iron door slowly slid open, revealing the backyard.
What lay beyond left the three high schoolers standing at the threshold utterly stunned.
Their expressions shifted rapidly through a mix of shock, horror, and disbelief.
The impact wasn’t limited to their vision.
An overwhelming stench, carried on the cold wind, hit them like a wall. It was so intense that it penetrated their masks, invaded their nostrils, and even made its way to their tongues, leaving a distinct, revolting taste as if it had seeped past their clenched teeth.
The smell was far stronger than anything they had encountered in the mansion’s hall—this was a sensory assault of unparalleled intensity.
The combination of the sights and smells created an extreme mental shock, like a high fever that seized their consciousness, relentlessly washing over their thoughts from within their minds.
If the scent in the main hall was akin to an appetizer, what they faced now was undoubtedly the signature dish of the day.
Anna was the first to succumb, vomiting violently on the spot.
Gao Yuxuan clutched his stomach, quickly turning to head back to the mansion’s restroom.
The class leader, Wu Wen, tightly covered her mask with both hands. After a moment of visible struggle in her expression, she managed to suppress the chaotic churning in her stomach and returned her gaze to the scene before them.
The entire backyard was littered with the corpses of cows and pigs, their decaying bodies mingling with post-mortem excretions. Swarms of flies buzzed relentlessly.
Oddly, such a pungent stench had been completely undetectable outside the wall earlier, as if the entire backyard were cloaked in some kind of invisible barrier.
However, it wasn’t the animal carcasses or the overwhelming odor that truly captured attention.
Wu Wen’s sharp eyes quickly locked onto the centerpiece of the backyard: the massive, gnarled locust tree.
Four figures dressed in traditional Huaxia-style garments hung from different branches of the twisted “hanging tree,” suspended by hemp ropes. Their bodies varied in degrees of decay, but the bulging, protruding eyes of each corpse were eerily identical—staring intently at the mansion.
More specifically, at its sole entrance.
And now, at the young intruders who had stepped through it.
Given the mansion’s funereal theme, it was chillingly clear:
These four had seemingly conducted a funeral for themselves, with the uninvited guests being none other than the four who had unlocked the mansion’s door.