I Raise My Wife in a Supernatural Story (Infinite) - Chapter 42

Although Qi Yan had been separated from the other players for quite some time, she could roughly piece things together based on Xinyi’s reaction toward Wushuang and those few brief sentences. Since entering this dungeon, Wushuang had been constantly sacrificing and backstabbing his teammates, leading Xinyi, who was originally on his team, to be so repulsed by him.

To be a human being to such an extent, one had to admit it was a kind of “talent” in its own way.

Looking at Wushuang, he didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with his behavior at all; he was a poisonous snake through and through.

Bai Qing, inside the ring, suddenly spoke up: “Stay away from that man. He has a scent on him that I dislike.”

Qi Yan was stunned. She indeed disliked Wushuang and was very wary of him, but most of that came from Jiang Miao’s warnings and Xinyi’s resistance thoughts based on a human perspective. However, Bai Qing’s reminder made her break into a cold sweat. Bai Qing had shown actual loathing. What could make Bai Qing react this way? It definitely wasn’t just a normal human.

Instantly, Qi Yan’s vigilance toward Wushuang rose to another level.

“You don’t think he’s a demon, do you?” Qi Yan asked Bai Qing carefully in her mind.

“No, he’s not. But… I can’t explain this feeling clearly. I just find him very disgusting.” Bai Qing’s tone sounded somewhat frustrated.

Qi Yan thought for a moment and asked, “Is it because your soul is damaged and your spiritual power recovery isn’t ideal, so you can’t detect exactly what the abnormality on him is, right?”

Bai Qing was silent for a moment, then gave a reluctant “Mhm.”

“It’s definitely related to demons, right? Even if he isn’t one, he likely carries a demonic aura, and it’s from a demon you dislike.”

Bai Qing gave another “Mhm.” Her voice was muffled; it was clear she was very unhappy.

Qi Yan had a better idea of the situation now. It wasn’t suitable to target Wushuang too directly at the moment, and she certainly couldn’t reveal her own abnormality. Regardless of how the demonic aura on Wushuang came to be, Qi Yan hoped to maintain a surface-level peace with him in this script while remaining even more alert.

“By the way, why didn’t you notice it earlier in the Carnival?”

Bai Qing “tsked” and said, “He didn’t have that scent on him then. I’m certain. This only happened during this meeting!”

As expected, Qi Yan understood. After they separated from the other players in the Carnival, many important things had happened. It wasn’t just that Wushuang had backstabbed his teammates; the reason for the changes in him was also hidden within those events.

However, Qi Yan didn’t care to delve deeper right now. The most important task was to leave this script and maintain 100% vigilance toward Wushuang.

Xinyi and Wushuang were at a stalemate, and finally, Jiang Miao stepped forward to open the door. She wasn’t a reckless person; now that she had reunited with Qi Yan, with both Qi Yan and Xinyi watching behind her, she was confident that Wushuang wouldn’t pull any tricks at a time like this.

Jiang Miao entered the password and opened the door. In an instant, a blast of icy wind rushed out. Jiang Miao shivered from the cold, and the moment she looked up, she bumped right into a bloody ghostly face.

Jiang Miao was startled and immediately retreated. The ghost struggled in the darkness, long hair hanging down, blood dripping incessantly from her face as she roared fiercely at the players at the doorway.

Almost instantly, the three players except Qi Yan summoned their weapons. The players were ready for battle, but the blood-covered ghost suddenly vanished—appearing without warning and disappearing without a sound.

The room fell into silence. This time, Wushuang didn’t pull any stunts; he went in first, found the switch on the wall, and turned it on.

The lights came on, and the other three put away their weapons. Qi Yan didn’t see exactly what they were holding, but they seemed to be cold weapons; nothing as outrageous as a gun.

The four entered the room one after another and found that this was another large, multi-functional hall. The reason it was called multi-functional was because there was an expensive-looking piano sitting there. Besides the piano, there were bookshelves embedded along an entire circle of walls, and a large desk was placed nearby.

Qi Yan looked around and said, “Judging by this decoration style, this study seems to be used by Qiu Ran’s parents.” She thought of the disheveled, bloody female ghost from just now. “Could that have been Qiu Ran’s mother?”

These were all just guesses; they had to find more clues to get the answer.

The group began to search through the study. Xinyi kept her guard up against Wushuang, always staying with Jiang Miao and never getting close to him.

Qi Yan, with Bai Qing protecting her, acted very nonchalant as she focused on searching. She briefly looked over the contents on the desk and confirmed that this study was primarily used by Qiu Ran’s mother, Qiu Lirong.

There was a safe in the cabinet at the bottom right of the desk. To Qi Yan’s surprise, the safe had already been manually damaged, saving them the trouble of cracking a password. To be honest, Qi Yan was developing password PTSD in this house. If this continued, it would truly become an escape room (Real Ghost Edition).

The inside of the safe was a mess, filled with documents, bankbooks, and other important items. Inside were the passports of the mother and daughter, Qiu Lirong and Qiu Ran. It could be seen that Qiu Lirong occasionally went abroad, flying all over the world.

No traces of a third person could be found in this study. If Qiu Lirong went abroad, who would she leave to watch over Qiu Ran? Qiu Ran’s father? It felt like this man had almost no presence in this home.

“Shijian, come look at this.” Jiang Miao was fiddling with the computer on the desk.

Qi Yan leaned over and saw that she was researching Qiu Lirong.

“World-famous pianist, the new head of a world-renowned musical family.” Qi Yan read the words aloud and added, “Qiu Ran’s father married into the Qiu family.”

“Indeed, and this man likely didn’t love Qiu Lirong.” On the other side, Wushuang, who had been excluded by the others, suddenly spoke. He was holding a manila folder and pulled out several photographs. “This man had an affair. There’s even evidence here from a private investigator Qiu Lirong hired, including the divorce papers she was preparing.”

Wushuang’s sentence successfully drew everyone’s attention. Since Qi Yan was protected by Bai Qing, she was relatively bold and walked up to Wushuang to look at the documents in his hand.

Qiu Lirong had already gathered sufficient evidence and had prepared the divorce lawsuit with a lawyer. Looking at this, the man was going to be kicked out without a penny.

Wait.

Qi Yan’s gaze quickly swept across the study. At first glance, there was nothing wrong, but that manually damaged safe, the messy state inside it, and the folder in Wushuang’s hand.

“Where was this found?” Qi Yan asked urgently while maintaining her guard against Wushuang.

Wushuang stepped half a pace to the side and pointed to a hidden compartment opened in the wall: “Here.”

He added: “The secret door wasn’t locked; the lock cylinder is broken.”

Qi Yan checked it, and it was indeed as Wushuang said.

She thought of the disheveled female ghost she saw when the door opened. If the man who married into the family knew his affair was exposed and he was about to be kicked out with nothing, what would he do?

Suddenly, the piano in the center of the study began to play music.

The four of them were stunned and all looked toward the piano warily.

There was no one at the piano, but the keys were moving on their own. Melodies were played out one after another. The four stood their ground, on guard, but the music showed no sign of stopping; it just kept repeating.

The four players present looked at each other. None of them understood music; only Qi Yan could recognize the melodies of some very famous piano pieces.

She wanted to walk up to the piano to see how the keys were moving. But before she could get close, the lights in the room began to flicker violently, followed by a thin ghostly figure appearing at the piano. She sat there upright, wearing Qiu Ran’s loungewear, her ten fingers flying skillfully across the keys, intoxicated by the performance.

That ghostly figure, like the lights in the room, kept flickering. When the lights dimmed, the ghost became clear; when the lights brightened, the ghost vanished. But though she “vanished,” it was only that the players couldn’t see her—the piano music never stopped, proving the ghostly figure was always there.

“No, that’s not right.” Qi Yan rubbed her eyes, staring at the ghost to distinguish her. “No, she isn’t Qiu Ran!”

The flickering lights placed a huge burden on everyone’s eyes. Qi Yan rubbed her sore eyes and said, “This face… it’s not Qiu Ran. It’s the other one, the one named Yanyan.”

With her reminder, the other three also recognized her. The girl playing the piano wasn’t Qiu Ran; it was Yanyan. Qi Yan had the deepest impression of her, after all, she had played several rounds of the crane machine game with her, and not only did she lose miserably, but she was also turned into a doll by her.

As if hearing Qi Yan’s words, Yanyan at the piano let out a sharp laugh, which gradually turned from sinister to insane. The lights in the room flickered faster and faster. Yanyan’s figure kept appearing and disappearing with the lights, and combined with her sharp, crazed laughter, it made the players’ heads throb with pain.

Qi Yan clutched her head, which was aching intensely, and looked with difficulty at the near-insane Yanyan at the piano. “You, exactly…”

The pain made her unable to even speak a complete sentence; she could only squeeze out a few words with great effort. The music Yanyan played had immense destructive power. Xinyi, who was nearby, could no longer take it and had collapsed on the floor. If this continued, all four of them would eventually collapse, their skulls shattered by the sound of the piano.

“Do you have any way?” At the critical moment, Qi Yan could only think of asking Bai Qing for help.

“I’ve already tried, but it seems the rules have equipped her with protective measures. With my current ability, I cannot attack her.”

The rules.

The rules of a script are inevitably invincible within that script. They interfered with Bai Qing’s attack and protected Yanyan. The reason was very likely that this piano piece was something the players had to listen to; the clue to leaving this room was likely hidden within the music. But not a single one of the players understood music.

Qi Yan subconsciously looked at the locked door on the other side of the room.

This time it wasn’t a code lock; it required a key to open.

But where would the key be?

Qi Yan endured the intense headache and thought rapidly, making her brain spin faster and faster.

The behavior of an NPC under the protection of the rules must be related to the players moving the plot forward. The area where Yanyan was located was protected; the fact that she couldn’t be attacked meant players shouldn’t get close to the piano and Yanyan at this time. Therefore, the key wouldn’t be there.

If the script had hidden the key, it was highly probable that the music Yanyan was playing didn’t have a major impact on finding it. Looking at the players’ pained expressions, the main purpose of this piano music was to interfere with everyone’s movements, launching a strong sonic attack directly against everyone.

Given Yanyan’s crazed state, she probably really wanted to use this opportunity to finish off all the players at once.

It was… a bit too rushed.

Qi Yan calculated in her heart. Yanyan was being a bit too hasty; she was using the rules’ protection to do whatever she wanted.

Qi Yan stood up tremblingly, glanced at the clothes Yanyan was wearing, and then moved with difficulty toward the desk step by step.

This key was likely not hidden very well; otherwise, there would be no need to set up a mini-boss here to trouble the players. This study looked large, but it was actually clear at a glance. It was surrounded by high bookshelves with a piano in the middle. Only the desk was a place where things could be put!

Qiu Lirong couldn’t have hidden the room key in the hidden wall compartment with the divorce papers; she had no need to do that. Looking at the layout of this room, she most likely listened while her daughter practiced. If she wasn’t in the room but wanted to lock the door, she would carry the key with her; if she wasn’t home, the key would be kept by the butler she trusted.

Qi Yan endured the splitting headache and struggled to the desk, opening every drawer one by one to check. Her nose suddenly felt cold. She reached up and touched it, bringing away a hand full of blood.

Great. This music had vibrated her so much she started having a nosebleed.

“Little one, the key you’re looking for is in that pen holder!”

Bai Qing’s voice was tinged with an irrepressible tremble. She was worried, even a bit afraid. The eternally proud Demon King shouldn’t be afraid; she had never feared anything. But seeing the blood flowing from the girl’s nose, she instantly felt a hint of an emotion she had never experienced before.

She seemed to be afraid—afraid of something happening to the girl, just like the time she turned into a doll.

Bai Qing remembered her feelings then; it was like a surge of anxious rage, nearly exhausting her spiritual power to repel the ghostly aura that sought to swallow everything. When she held the doll-form Qi Yan in her arms, her strongest feelings were half-relief and half-worry. Relief that the girl hadn’t fallen into someone else’s hands, and worry about whether the doll had life.

At this moment, she had that feeling again. Seeing the girl bleeding continuously, she suddenly didn’t care about hiding her presence anymore. A strong white light suddenly burst out from the ring on Qi Yan’s left hand.

Qi Yan was dizzy. As she slumped against the table, she accidentally knocked over the pen holder. She heard Bai Qing’s reminder and wanted to reach out to search for the key, but her increasingly blurred vision made her unable to see the scattered mess on the table.

The white light flashed, forcefully dispersing the thick ghostly aura emanating from the music. A familiar cold fragrance approached, and Qi Yan felt herself being gently held in someone’s arms. Smelling that familiar scent, she felt her headache miraculously improve a bit. This was definitely psychological; after all, the piano music hadn’t stopped, and Bai Qing had only temporarily dispersed part of the sound, yet remained unable to attack Yanyan, who was protected by the rules.

Yanyan had long since fallen into madness. Seeing Bai Qing suddenly appear, she laughed wildly: “It’s you again! You ruined my plans last time, too!”

Bai Qing looked at her coldly. She was a demon—the Demon King of the white snow foxes nurtured by heaven and earth. Yanyan’s piano music had no effect on her. Although she was currently impaired and unable to break the rules to attack Yanyan, a mini-boss in a script shouldn’t dream of hurting her.

“Why is she your target?”

Bai Qing’s voice was very cold, like a thick layer of frost; her words could freeze someone into ice.

Yanyan hummed a few times and looked at her silently without answering her question. Because of Bai Qing’s sudden intervention, the little ghost seemed to suddenly lose the interest she had just now. She glanced at the key gripped in Qi Yan’s hand and suddenly withdrew her hands.

“Boring.”

This little ghost’s emotions were more fickle than the weather. She was full of fighting spirit just now, ready to finish off several players together, but now she retreated voluntarily, looking like she had no lingering attachment at all.

The piano music stopped, and the pain of all the players vanished instantly. Qi Yan covered her nose and huddled in Bai Qing’s arms. Her head didn’t hurt as much now. She looked up and saw that Bai Qing’s snow-white clothes had been stained red by her nosebleed.

She instinctively tried to pull away, but Bai Qing firmly held her in place, telling her softly, “Don’t move.”

Qi Yan wiped her nose with the back of her hand and said, “You got your clothes dirty.”

Bai Qing then realized, looking down at her front.

This fox was quite fond of cleanliness. Perhaps she had been a ruler for too long, as she always wanted to keep herself in a spotless, dignified state. Seeing her clothes stained with blood now, she would surely be disgusted to death. Qi Yan felt embarrassed just thinking about it.

“It’s fine. A Cleansing Spell can clear it right up.”

Qi Yan was stunned. Forgetting to wipe the blood off her face, she looked straight at Bai Qing: “Are you Bai Qing?!”

Bai Qing pursed her lips and looked at her, asking, “What?”

“You’re so obsessed with cleanliness. I thought you would be disgusted to death.”

Bai Qing herself didn’t really know what was going on. She indeed loved cleanliness and had frequently been disgusted when Qi Yan got her clothes dirty in the past. But this time… somehow, her worry outweighed everything else. It was just clothes; they would be clean immediately once she used the Cleansing Spell, no washing required.

Unable to take Qi Yan staring at her like that with those blinking eyes, Bai Qing decisively waved her hand and cleaned the clothes, even casting a spell to clean the remaining bloodstains on Qi Yan’s face and hands.

“Let’s not waste time with idle talk. We should leave here first.”

Bai Qing looked away as if casually, pulling Qi Yan toward the door.

Support I Raise My Wife in a Supernatural Story (Infinite)