Snuggling for Survival: A Quick Transmigration Tale - Chapter 10

Yu Yu opened her mouth, wanting to respond to Li Yuan and comfort this person who seemed so profoundly sad at this moment.

But her eyelids were already fighting to close, and her consciousness was becoming a blur. In those final seconds before losing awareness, Yu Yu felt a cold hand cover her eyes, but this time, the chill did not jar her awake.

Clearly having put her to sleep on purpose, Li Yuan climbed out of the coffin with a lingering sense of reluctance. The person inside was sleeping deeply; her fair cheeks were slightly flushed, likely because the oxygen inside the coffin was insufficient.

She let out a sigh, ultimately unable to bear letting her lie in there alone. This feeling might be called “heartache,” but Li Yuan had never experienced it before. She simply felt that the little liar shouldn’t be lying in such a place. She should be somewhere more comfortable.

With this thought in mind, Li Yuan took action. She picked Yu Yu up effortlessly. With a swift kick, she sent the black coffin away until the large bed from their wedding night reappeared. Li Yuan placed her down with the utmost care, tucking the corners of the quilt in perfectly.

“Rest well here… if I can still come back.”

She didn’t dare let her thoughts wander any further. Li Yuan couldn’t resist pinching the girl’s cheek one last time. This person was clearly different from everyone who had come before; Li Yuan even felt that she might not be able to walk away from this situation unscathed herself.

Therefore, she didn’t dare indulge in any more fantasies. After a moment of internal struggle, she leaned down and gave Yu Yu a kiss on the cheek—restrained, yet experimental. The soft sensation felt like a spark of electricity.

Bewildered, Li Yuan covered her own lips with her hand and pursed them. She stood dazed for a long time, unable to process the reaction. It wasn’t until the sound of Lai Fu shouting outside reached her ears that she slowly lowered her hand.

So, when the emotion of “liking” someone arises, there truly is an impulse to be intimate. It turned out her mother hadn’t lied to her.

The room was excessively quiet, as if the clamor outside couldn’t affect the interior at all. Once the girl was settled, Li Yuan stepped out of the room. The moment she did, the whistling wind, the pitter-patter of dripping water, and distant, indecipherable moans all tangled together. It was not only eerie but irritating.

Li Yuan shut the door behind her. Before long, all the ghosts of the courtyard gathered at her feet. Their numbers were few, and their faces were deathly pale. The arrogance they once possessed had vanished; instead, they began to complain one after another.

“Eldest Miss! They have yellow talismans; we don’t dare get near them!”

“They are so bold! I don’t know where they got dog’s blood from, but it almost splashed on me just now!”

Their voices grew more piteous until the weary, gravelly voice of the housekeeper joined in. “They clearly came prepared, especially that man and woman with glasses. They seem to know this place better than we do—they even found the secret passage in the Master’s room! This time is very dangerous, Eldest Miss!”

Li Yuan’s expression turned cold. Her eyes lowered as she let out a sigh. The situation was worse than she had imagined.

The result she had spent years waiting for was finally here, yet now that it had arrived, she felt it was too soon. She had waited centuries for this moment, for this specific group of people. But this newfound reluctance was an emotion she could no longer control.

“You all…” She looked at the small ghosts around her and lowered her head. “Go.”

The calamity of her fate had arrived. The “劫” (tribulation) she had anticipated and doubted for so many years—the focus of endless hope followed by endless disappointment—was finally here. And of all times, it had to be now.

On the other side, the protagonist group’s progress in scavenging items had accelerated significantly.

“Did you find anything?” Fatty’s face was covered in dust. His hands were empty, and he seemed to have found no useful information.

Beside him, the red-haired girl was studying a whip, though she shook her head with a frustrated expression. Pinning all hope on Lin Yu and A-Yuan, the girl handed the whip over. “I think this whip might be a clue, but I’m not sure. It has signs of use, and there are dried bloodstains at the end. I don’t know how old they are. The handle is very smooth, obviously used many times.”

A-Yuan took the whip and weighed it. “This was custom-made.”

Before Fatty could ask how he knew, Lin Yu stepped forward. She wasn’t carrying anything, but she had scouted the nearby rooms. “The adjacent room is a child’s room. I searched it several times; there isn’t a single toy. Moreover, everything in there belongs to a boy. But the information didn’t say the Li family had a son, it said they had a daughter. Unless the website info is fake.”

“Not necessarily fake,” A-Yuan said, tucking the whip away. “It could be from an older generation.”

He led them to a remote hall. The dilapidated place was covered in cobwebs, with a massive white cloth draped over something in the center. A-Yuan yanked the cloth away, revealing the truth beneath. Several wooden tablets stood on tiered steps.

“This looks like… a memorial hall for their ancestral tablets.” Lin Yu picked one up with two fingers, then counted the tablets. Seeing there were fewer than five, she felt strange. “The Li family doesn’t seem to have had many members.”

Fatty quickly gathered the tablets. The characters were faded and showed signs of frequent handling. “There are only four. The words are blurry… ‘Eldest Daughter-in-law’… ‘Eldest Son’… the names are hard to read…”

“There seems to be an entrance underneath,” the red-haired girl pointed to a small set of steps beneath the tablets. “That tightly sealed area looks like it leads somewhere.”

A cool voice drifted in with a wisp of blue smoke. “Do not open that.”

Li Yuan appeared before them, repeating her warning: “Do not open that.”

“I thought you wouldn’t come out, Eldest Miss.” A-Yuan took a step forward. Looking at Li Yuan in her red wedding dress, it was like seeing an old friend.

“Do not open that place.”

A-Yuan frowned, looking at her with confusion. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a grayish-brown envelope. He handed the letter to her. “But isn’t this what you’ve always wanted? Isn’t liberation good? You’ve waited day after day, year after year, for this moment. Now you can finally leave this ghostly place. Isn’t this your greatest wish?”

“Then… wait a few more days.” Li Yuan took the letter. Looking at the handwriting—both familiar and strange—she couldn’t help but let out a laugh, though fear sparked in her heart. “He actually listened.”

The liberation she had longed for now terrified her.

A-Yuan nodded. “Although the wait was indeed long, I want to tell you: my grandfather never forgot. He simply lacked the ability for a long time and couldn’t find the location.”

The person before him wasn’t as terrifying as he had imagined. Centuries of time hadn’t turned her into a mindless, vengeful spirit. However, her lack of urgency to be liberated puzzled him. This place was like a massive cage; every second spent here should be agonizing.

“If you wish to leave this place, you can do so now,” A-Yuan said seriously, adjusting his glasses.

“I want to… wait a few more days. There is someone I want to say a proper goodbye to.” Li Yuan gripped the letter and blinked. With a turn, she vanished from their sight.

Despite being mentally prepared, Fatty still slumped to the ground when she disappeared, gasping for air. He cursed under his breath and glared at A-Yuan. “You motherf***er, did you know something all along? You were talking to that ghost so casually—you clearly knew the inside story!”

“It’s not important. I’ll give you all the money when we’re done.” A-Yuan frowned, unable to fathom why she wanted to wait a few more days.

Yu Yu didn’t know how long she had slept. All she knew was that when she woke up, Li Yuan was hovering over her, supporting herself with her arms.

Her mind was still fuzzy. Yu Yu mumbled something unintelligible even to herself. As her consciousness slowly returned, her gaze instinctively fell on Li Yuan’s lips. Her skin was deathly pale, but her lips still held a hint of pink. Yu Yu couldn’t resist reaching out to touch them; they were cold, but soft.

“I seem to have fallen asleep.” Yu Yu withdrew her hand and gave an embarrassed smile. “Sorry.”

Her innocent, drooping eyes looked at Li Yuan with a bright sparkle. Li Yuan had no heartbeat, but she felt a strange sensation in her chest. After a moment, seeing that Li Yuan’s expression was odd, Yu Yu stopped smiling and touched her face with concern. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to lie with you.” Li Yuan, who had been propping herself up, now lowered herself completely, pressing her cheek against Yu Yu’s chest to listen to her steady heartbeat.

Although she enjoyed the state of being pressed together and absorbing energy, Yu Yu wasn’t a fool. She could feel that Li Yuan’s current state was clearly not right.