I Raise My Wife in a Supernatural Story (Infinite) - Chapter 15

Seeing someone you barely knew suddenly die right before your eyes especially in such a horrifying manner, would shock any ordinary person.

None of the three present were exceptions, including Huo Zheng, a grown man.

Tang Shanshan, the youngest and most timid of them, was so startled that she fumbled with her flashlight, dropping it to the ground.

The clatter of the flashlight hitting the floor was like a stone thrown into a still lake, amplified by the silence of the underground space into what felt like a deafening noise.

The underground area was much larger than expected likely matching the size of the small plaza above. In such a vast space, the three of them relied solely on their flashlights for illumination, which already provided poor lighting. With Tang Shanshan’s flashlight now on the ground, her vision instantly plunged into darkness, and the entire space dimmed further.

“Ahhh!”

The girl let out a series of increasingly shrill screams.

Huo Zheng, who was walking at the front, instinctively turned to help pick up the flashlight. Meanwhile, Qi Yan, who was closer to Tang Shanshan, took half a step forward and gently steadied her by placing a hand on her back. But the terrified girl, now completely irrational, felt the touch and immediately recoiled like a startled rabbit, shrieking as she jumped away.

Qi Yan was jostled by the sudden movement, nearly losing her grip on her own flashlight. In the chaos, she instinctively grabbed Tang Shanshan’s arm to stop her from blindly running off. “Calm down! Don’t just run around!” she urged firmly.

In a state of extreme fear, mental stability is at its lowest. The gruesome sight of the bald man impaled on the drum, combined with the sudden darkness when her flashlight fell, had snapped the last thread of Tang Shanshan’s composure. Right now, she couldn’t process anything.

Qi Yan’s grip on her arm didn’t bring her any sense of security instead, she interpreted it as a threat. Like a fish struggling to break free from a hook, she flailed wildly, screaming, “Help!”

Exasperated, Qi Yan simply shone her flashlight directly into Tang Shanshan’s eyes.

The sudden burst of bright light made the girl squint and instinctively raise her hands to shield her face.

Huo Zheng retrieved the fallen flashlight and quickly pressed it back into Tang Shanshan’s hands. “Hold onto it. Stay calm,” he said in a low voice, though his tone wavered slightly, betraying his own unease.

Qi Yan glanced at him, knowing he was forcing himself to appear composed.

Truthfully, none of them were truly calm. Thrown into this nightmare out of nowhere, who could possibly remain unshaken?

Qi Yan and Huo Zheng were adults even if one of them hadn’t fully stepped out of university life yet, they were still fourth-year students. Adults had their own fears, but they were just better at masking them.

Someone like Qi Yan, caught between youth and maturity, might even carry a hint of rebellious bravado less pragmatic than Huo Zheng. She was already terrified, but she’d grit her teeth and push through.

They weren’t like Tang Shanshan, who wore her vulnerability openly. In this makeshift trio, she was undeniably the most fragile.

Huo Zheng handed the flashlight back to Tang Shanshan. As a thirty-year-old man, he had to be mindful of boundaries when dealing with an underage girl, avoiding unnecessary physical contact. He gave Qi Yan a meaningful look, silently urging her to comfort Tang Shanshan.

Qi Yan was well aware of the situation. She had been holding onto Tang Shanshan tightly, afraid that the younger girl might run off and get lost if she let go for even a second. In this world, a moment of carelessness could mean losing your life at any time.

As the light returned to her hands, Tang Shanshan gradually regained her composure. Her eyes were still brimming with tears as she timidly looked at Qi Yan. “Sister Qi, we that man, he,” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word “dead.” Being in such a place filled her with an instinctive unease she wanted to escape, terrified of attracting any more misfortune.

Qi Yan, braver than her, finished the sentence for her. “The bald guy is dead.”

Tang Shanshan nodded vigorously. “Y-yes! So, shouldn’t we run? This place!” Her frightened eyes darted around, as if expecting monsters to leap out at any moment. “Let’s get out of here! Quickly!”

Huo Zheng glanced at the bald man nailed to the standing drum, his expression flickering before he added, “This place really is dangerous. Should we consider going back the way we came?”

Encouraged by Huo Zheng’s support, Tang Shanshan nodded repeatedly. “Let’s go! I really don’t want to stay here any longer!”

She tugged at Qi Yan, trying to pull her along, but the latter stood rooted to the spot.

“Sister Qi?”

Qi Yan had more on her mind. “I want to see how the bald guy died.”

Her words were nothing short of shocking. In this world, how else could someone die? Either killed by an NPC or a ghost it was always some kind of supernatural horror!

“We’re not the police no, we’re not even exorcists!” Tang Shanshan’s voice trembled with fear. “Even if we know how he died, what can we do? We should just run!”

Huo Zheng hesitated. He was terrified and wanted to follow Tang Shanshan in fleeing. If all three of them had agreed to retreat the way they came, he probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought. But now, things had clearly taken a turn. Qi Yan’s words had struck a chord, they were trapped in this world, and simply hiding or running away wasn’t a long-term solution. They needed to find a way out.

Qi Yan rolled up her sleeves and said, “We have to leave this world. Remember what the [Introduction] told us at the beginning? We have to participate in this scripted story for seven days.”

As she spoke, she stepped toward the bald man’s corpse.

“In these seven days, we have to find a way out. We must locate the ‘eye’ or the ‘heart’ of this world, no matter what it takes and then leave!”

Qi Yan walked up to the towering standing drum and looked up at it, her head tilted back.

“Hiding and running might keep us from being killed by ghosts, but when the seven-day limit is up, who knows what will happen.”

The standing drum was set on a platform with three steps leading up to it. Qi Yan took a deep breath and climbed up.

“We have to find clues, find a way, and get out of here!”

Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke, though whether it was because she was putting on a brave face or because the other two were too stunned to notice, no one could tell. In any case, her fear went unnoticed.

But a certain fox noticed.

“You’re scared out of your wits yourself, yet here you are brainwashing others?”

Qi Yan now stood before the bald man’s corpse. Her eyelids were trembling, and her expression was far from as composed as her words suggested. Bai Qing suspected she might burst into tears at any moment.

Wiping away tears that hadn’t even fallen yet and slapping her cheeks twice, Qi Yan wore an expression of grim determination: “Even if I’m scared, I have to go! I want to leave this place, I want to go home alive!”

Bai Qing inside the ring didn’t expect her to show such resolve and murmured, “If your fingers weren’t trembling from fear, I might have actually believed in your bravado.”

Though her words were still sharp, there was a faint trace of admiration in her tone. This little friend Qi Yan sometimes managed to surprise her.

Ignoring the sarcastic fox spirit, Qi Yan cautiously circled around the bald man’s corpse, her gaze darkening as it settled on the gaping wound in his chest.

The injury here was large, with an excessive amount of blood likely the fatal wound?

Qi Yan didn’t know much about these things; she could only judge based on surface observations. Since there was so much blood on the chest and nowhere else, she assumed this must have been what killed him.

“Should we move him down to get a better look?”

“Ah!”

A sudden voice from behind startled Qi Yan half to death, despite her usual boldness, most of which was actually forced bravado.

Clutching her chest, she leaped several steps aside before realizing it was Huo Zheng who had spoken. Her eyes darted between him and Tang Shanshan behind him before she exhaled sharply. “Big brother, you scared me to death!”

Huo Zheng raised a hand apologetically. “Sorry.”

Qi Yan’s nearly departed soul returned to her body as she remembered his question. “Move him down? How would we do that? With our hands?”

Huo Zheng nodded. “If we want to examine his body closely, we’ll probably have to use our hands.”

Qi Yan’s expression twisted momentarily with disgust. While she genuinely wanted to figure out the cause of the bald man’s death, much of it was youthful impulsiveness, she hadn’t even thought about the specifics when she suggested it.

Now that Huo Zheng had pointed it out, Qi Yan realized it was unavoidable and immediately felt nauseated.

Huo Zheng understood her hesitation from her expression and said, “I’ll move him. You two just assist.”

He took the initiative, being the oldest and the only male, believing he should shoulder more responsibility where possible.

Seeing Huo Zheng actually reach out to grab the bald man’s legs, Qi Yan gritted her teeth and forced herself forward despite the revulsion.

“I-I’ll help you!”

Huo Zheng glanced at her. “Don’t force yourself.”

Qi Yan shook her head. “N-no, it’s fine!”

Observing her determined expression, Huo Zheng stepped aside slightly. “Then support his legs while I pull out the spike.”

Working together would indeed make it easier. Qi Yan wrestled with herself internally before finally resolving to reach out and hold the bald man’s legs.

But the moment she extended her hands, she felt an unfamiliar surge of power like a radiant light enveloping her. Then, a beam of white light, visible only to her, lifted her arms to grip the corpse’s legs and yanked outward with her.

Huo Zheng had just grasped the spike when it abruptly came free. Caught off guard, the three watched as the bald man’s body suddenly disintegrated, broken pieces of flesh crashing onto Huo Zheng and Tang Shanshan without warning.

A flash of white light shielded Qi Yan.

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