Being the Wife of a Fluffy Creature [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 35

Chapter 35: The Second World (5)

When the man took Pandi away this morning, Wu Yao knew the young girl likely wouldn’t be coming back, but he hadn’t expected her to die so miserably.

The girl was not even ten years old; her skin was just the right size to be spread across the offering table. The man kowtowed a few times to the statue and then sat down at the table to eat.

Looking at that skin, Wu Yao felt his flesh crawl.

Wanting to remove a human skin entirely intact is no easy feat. Even the “Big Boss” Wu Yao once followed hadn’t mastered that skill. To learn this trick requires practiced technique, long-term training, and extreme psychological fortitude.

And the hardest part is that practicing materials are difficult to come by.

Even when peeling an orange, the skin might break because of uneven thickness; naturally, the feel of skinning people of different builds and ages varies.

These were things the Big Boss had told Wu Yao.

Before, the gang had tried to practice it just to disgust the “fuzz.” they spent a lot of money and killed a lot of people, but the results were mediocre.

The Big Boss concluded that this crap was time-consuming, labor-intensive, and had no profit margin—no one would specialize in it except for cults and lunatics calling themselves “artists.”

Pandi’s skin was laid out there perfectly intact.

Wu Yao dared not imagine how many people the killer had practiced on to produce such a “masterpiece.”

A few men bragged while drinking; Zhaodi knelt by the dining table waiting to serve them.

She finally lifted her eyelids, and a strange light erupted in her numb eyes as she stared directly at the nearby offering table.

The system was already terrified, shivering while gnawing on a honey-glazed “human trotter.”

“Every single one of them is insane! Putting you lot in a Transmigration Company is a waste of talent; you should be packed up and sent to the Infinite Flow department as bosses!”

Wu Yao frowned as he watched Zhaodi. The girl’s expression was abnormal.

Her younger sister, who shared her plight, was dead; even if she wasn’t grieving, she shouldn’t have that kind of look in her eyes.

It was as if she was envious, even jealous, that her sister had been turned into human skin.

The man’s shouting interrupted Wu Yao’s thoughts. The “Eldest Uncle” liked Laicai very much, constantly chattering about “Laicai this” and “Laicai that.”

Wu Yao smiled and hummed along to humor him, but his mind was on something else.

Is Pandi really dead?

Probably not.

Most likely, the moment he opens his eyes tomorrow morning, Pandi will appear before him as if nothing happened, just like the resurrected scumbag dad.

The sun rises as usual, everyone lives as usual, as if they had never died.

Do the people in this village never truly die?

Why?

Does it have to do with the “Sangan True God Immortal” they worship?

But according to Wu Boyi, the statue worshipped in the village is just a broken stone—it only suddenly gained power a few days ago.

If a fox spirit losing its magic starts a life countdown, how can a statue without divine power grant its believers immortality?

There were many people tonight, so Laicai’s dad, who already loved drinking, drank even more heartily. The dishes on the table were long finished, but the five men sat there for another two or three hours drinking over a few plates of peanuts.

The dogs in the yard had long since stopped barking, replaced by rustling sounds. By midnight, the windows were crowded with ghostly faces.

The dim light reflected pale faces; their crimson eyes stared intensely at the people inside, and their fingernails scratched frantically at the glass.

The man wasn’t bothered by them at all, standing by the window and taunting them to come in if they had the guts.

The Uncle felt that just drinking was boring and suggested something “exciting.” He picked Zhaodi up like a little chick, casually stripped her clothes, and the men immediately surrounded her to begin tonight’s “festivities.”

The girl didn’t cry or scream. Her body shook, and she looked at the human skin on the offering table with envy.

The man chased Wu Yao back to the west bedroom and told him to go to bed early. After sitting there for five hours, Laicai could finally leave the table.

The system was pinching its own philtrum, muttering “animals, true animals” over and over.

The little fox had told Wu Yao that Zhaodi and Pandi were pathetic yet hateful and didn’t deserve sympathy. Wu Yao could also see that the two were not innocent; they probably weren’t even “victims” in the traditional sense.

But regardless of what secret Zhaodi hid, she appeared to be a young girl under ten; the sight of five middle-aged men degrading a child made Wu Yao physically uncomfortable.

The resentment accumulated during his shift surged upward. He crouched on the floor, grinding his teeth, thinking about how to relieve his stress.

If his psychological pressure got too high and he failed the detection test, he’d have to pay out of pocket for a psychiatrist—paying to work would be a huge loss.

Thoughts flashed through his mind. Wu Yao stood up, walked back to Laicai’s room, and expressionlessly opened the wooden bedroom door.

The system let out a yipe. “Holy crap, what are you doing!”

“Since nobody dies anyway, let’s just have everyone die tonight. The guests outside have waited so long, we can’t let them go hungry. I won’t lose anything; might as well do them a favor.”

The sudden act of opening the door didn’t just scare the system; it also stunned the vengeful spirits in the yard. They all turned their heads in unison to look at Laicai blankly.

Wu Yao waved at them and pulled a “kidney” out of his pants pocket.

A pale woman’s head dropped down from above, her long neck hanging from the doorframe, her hollow eyes staring at the boy.

Wu Yao tilted his head and smiled. “Last night you didn’t hurt me and even warned me to stay away from the source of calamity. I remember how good you brothers and sisters were to me. There are many people in the house tonight; I’ll treat everyone to a full meal.”

The female ghost still looked cold and eerie, but her eyes revealed confusion.

Wu Yao handed the kidney to her. “A gift for sister. I shouldn’t have run out last night to disturb your stroll. This is an apology.”

The female ghost seemed to have not spoken for a long time. She opened her mouth and made a strange clucking sound. “Run.”

“Can’t run yet. Thank you, sister.”

Determining that the vengeful spirits’ ability to express themselves was even more worrisome than the little fox’s, Wu Yao took two steps back and made a “please” gesture. “Enter through my room. There’s no statue guarding this side.”

The female ghost hadn’t moved yet when a boy ghost covered in black hair rushed in.

He crawled toward the other room on all fours. Not long after, Wu Yao heard the Eldest Uncle’s scream.

Even if you can’t die, being eaten alive by ghosts is very painful.

“Fck! How did these ghosts get in!”

“The statue! Quick, move the statue over to block them!”

“God d*mmit! It hurts, it hurts so much! Stop!!! “

The smell of blood permeated the air. The vengeful spirits finally stopped hesitating and scrambled to flood into the room.

The female ghost stayed behind for last, holding the kidney Wu Yao gave her in her hands.

She took a tentative bite, and her expression suddenly turned strange. “Human meat…”

Wu Yao nodded.

The system had molded it out of “simulated meat paste”; people in the mission world couldn’t tell the difference between real and fake.

The female ghost quickly finished the kidney. Her pale finger lightly pressed against Wu Yao’s forehead. “Must… change. Too late… can’t… run.”

She said this short sentence with great difficulty, but he could still understand her meaning.

Wu Yao grabbed the female ghost’s hem. “Sister, why won’t I be able to leave the village if I don’t run? What will I turn into if this drags on? Please, sister, explain it clearly. No one in the house can be trusted. I don’t know what to do, I’m really scared!”

Looking at the innocent and pitiful face of Wu Yao, for a moment the system almost forgot he was an adult.

The female ghost looked down at him and spoke haltingly: “…Will, Pandi…”

Wu Yao looked up blankly, the helplessness in his eyes nearly overflowing. “Sister, I don’t understand.”

The female ghost’s “call credit” was insufficient.

She said nothing more, pulled her hem away, and caught up with the other spirits.

the man’s screams didn’t affect Wu Yao’s thinking. He leaned against the doorframe, quietly watching the night sky.

The system had recorded the conversation just now and was playing it back in a loop to provide him with inspiration.

“No need to play it, I know what she means. The grand festival is the final deadline. By then, a massive change will occur in the village. If this drags on, my end will be the same as Zhaodi and Pandi.”

“The same? Into what?”

Wu Yao shook his head and didn’t answer.

He lifted his hem and looked. The word “Death” left on his chest by the spirits last night had disappeared.

Judging from the spirits’ reactions, the people in the village were roughly divided into two types.

Monster villagers who worshipped the True God Immortal to gain immortal power, and ordinary people like Laicai who hadn’t fully mutated.

Laicai ran around holding Wu Boyi, whom they considered the “source of calamity,” yet the spirits never harmed him.

But as soon as the scumbag dad appeared holding the statue, the spirits rushed him.

Wu Yao chose to open the door tonight not just to relieve stress, but mainly to figure out the spirits’ stance.

To see if they had a grudge against Laicai’s dad specifically, or if they hated a certain category of people in the village equally.

Now Wu Yao had the answer.

The vengeful spirits and the True God Immortal are in a hostile relationship. They will frantically attack anyone who possesses its “immortal blessing.”

Before the festival ends and Laicai completely mutates, the spirits and he are on the same side. They are a force Wu Yao can utilize.

The distant noise had nothing to do with Wu Yao. He circled from the small yard to the east bedroom and pushed open the blood-stained wooden door.

The dining table was a sea of crimson. Everyone was dead.

The spirits gnawing on the corpses turned to take a look. Seeing it was Laicai, they retracted their gazes.

Wu Yao leaned closer to the huddle of ghosts to look.

Just as he had expected, Zhaodi was also dead. In the eyes of the spirits, she and Laicai’s dad were the same kind of thing.

He just didn’t understand why the method they used to kill Zhaodi was so cruel. The expression on her face was even more miserable and terrified than the men’s.

Wu Yao had originally thought the scumbag dad was playing the role of the abuser and Zhaodi was playing the victim.

Everyone in this house was acting out a different role to win sympathy and achieve a twisted kind of “Caisheng Zhege.”

When he was walking the fox during the day, he was still searching all over the house to see if there were hidden cameras.

Could he have guessed wrong? Were things not as simple as he thought?

Laicai didn’t have a phone, so Wu Yao had the system search the internet for information on the “Sangan True God Immortal” and “Changning Xiaoyin Village.”

He circled the spirits a few times, then turned to look at the statue near the wooden door and the human skin spread across the offering table.

A bizarre thought rose in Wu Yao’s mind. He seemed to know what was going on.

Wu Yao grabbed that very agreeable female ghost, walked quickly to the offering table, and reached out to touch the human skin.

The moment his fingertips touched the skin, Pandi’s skin was like a plastic bag blown by the wind. It squirmed twice, then suddenly lunged up and wrapped around Wu Yao’s arm.

Densely packed “buds” of flesh grew out from under the skin, trying hard to burrow into his own skin.

Feeling the stinging pain on his hand, a cold sneer curled at the corners of Wu Yao’s mouth.

He finally figured it out.

No wonder a village that wasn’t exactly hidden had so much going on without causing a social sensation. The True God Immortal really knew how to give its followers “sweeteners.”

The female ghost, who was tearing at a corpse, saw Laicai pull a small infant out of his “pants pocket” and throw it toward the human skin.

The Pandi-skin, which was struggling with Wu Yao, decisively abandoned this difficult-to-handle prey and turned to wrap around the motionless infant.

Soon, only a small infant with Pandi’s face and wrinkled, stacked skin remained on the offering table.

The system, which had just finished looking up information, let out a sharp ‘sonic boom.’ “You brat! What did you do to my prop!”

The human skin seemed to realize that the infant’s size didn’t match its own. It squirmed twice and spat the infant back out.

The human skin, like a leaking balloon, slid along the floor in the room, hopping around looking for prey.

Wu Yao had already hidden among the vengeful spirits. Finding no suitable prey, it floated out into the yard and climbed over the wall.

The system grabbed Wu Yao. “Quick! Stop it! It’s going to hurt someone else!”

Wu Yao shook his head. “No need to worry. Pandi-skin is too slow and can’t open doors. It won’t float out of the village before dawn. The villagers keep their doors and windows locked tight against the spirits, so it won’t get in either.”

The female ghost was stunned by Laicai’s act of pulling an infant out with his bare hands, floating dazed in mid-air.

The props produced by the system had a long shelf life and wouldn’t go bad for several months.

Wu Yao picked up the infant and gave it to the female ghost, telling her to have it as a late-night snack or keep it as an “action figure.”

The female ghost picked up the infant and pressed it against her chest to listen. Hearing no heartbeat, her expression gradually turned to disappointment.

She looked down at Wu Yao. “Name… you, want.”

This time, Wu Yao truly didn’t understand.

The next morning, peace returned to Laicai’s home as if nothing had happened last night.

Zhaodi was busy in the kitchen. Laicai’s dad was ushering the relatives out the door, telling his son to hurry up and get out of bed for breakfast.

Laicai’s dad scratched his head, circling the offering table. “Strange, where’s the skin? Laicai, did you see the thing Papa put on here last night?”

Wu Yao obediently gnawed on a steamed bun. “Never saw it, Papa.”

Pandi-skin had slipped out; who knows where it was floating now.

The kindergarten was at the east end of the village, close to the temple and the main road leading out of the village. There were several shops nearby; it was the liveliest part of the entire village.

This was Wu Yao’s first time leaving the house. He sat in the bed of the tricycle, poking his head out to look around.

The village looked ordinary, with nothing special about it.

There was only one kindergarten in the village, and many villagers were dropping off their children. A group of kids with schoolbags were running and jumping. The simple-looking parents watched them enter the gate, then carried their farm tools to work in the fields.

This scene looked so simple and warm. If not for the experiences of the past two days, Wu Yao might have been deceived by the illusion before him.

Laicai’s dad lifted Wu Yao down from the vehicle and knelt on the ground to help him organize his schoolbag.

A loving laugh was still on his face, but his voice turned icy. “Little brat, don’t play dumb with me. If those things from last night happen again, I’ll f*cking kill you!”

Wu Yao raised his eyebrows with a hint of surprise.

He thought the man would pretend for a bit longer, but he hadn’t expected him to be unable to resist threatening him so soon.

Under the man’s watchful gaze, Wu Yao merged into the crowd and disappeared among the group of children.

Villagers with good relationships gathered to chat. The man walked past them and heard them saying “soon, soon.”

He spat on the ground and pulled out a cigarette to light it.

D*mn! Those ghostly things really bite hard. Fortunately, the grand festival has begun, and everything is almost over.

The kindergarten was very “warm,” which made Wu Yao a bit bored.

After finally making it to activity time, he avoided the other children and ran behind a sandpile near the fence. A fiery red little shadow immediately scurried out, darting through the gaps in the railings and into his arms.

During drawing class, Wu Yao had already seen the little fox coming to find him.

Wu Boyi lay on him and sniffed, letting out two wary whines.

Wu Yao looked around alertly. “Don’t worry, I’m not hurt. The smell of blood on my clothes is from last night.”

He didn’t just want to tell the fox about last night’s events; he also wanted to share his analysis and the information the system had found.

Wu Boyi should know many things but just couldn’t express them. Wu Yao wanted to confirm his suspicions through its reactions.

“Baiyi, I’m going to say several pieces of information. Nod if I’m right, shake your head if I’m wrong, and wag your tail if you don’t know.”

Wu Yao cupped the fox’s fluffy little head, his voice kept extremely low. “You once saw a photography enthusiast in the village—male, about 175cm tall, wearing black-framed glasses with shoulder-length hair, specifically coming to the mountains to photograph red foxes.”

“His name was Wu Yao. You know he’s already dead, right?”