Chapter 192: Curiosity

“What are you doing?” Yi Ya looked strangely at ‘Lin Yin’. It was true that the two of them usually had a good relationship, but not to this extent. The care that ‘Lin Yin’ showed her clearly went beyond the scope of ordinary friendship.

“Eat all of it! The night will be very tough, and you won’t make it if you don’t fill your stomach,” Lü Yang whispered emphatically to Yi Ya.

“One for each person,” Yi Ya said, trying to put the egg back on ‘Lin Yin’s’ plate.

“Do I have to force it into your mouth?” Lü Yang pretended to be angry.

Yi Ya looked at ‘Lin Yin’ with even more confusion in her eyes…

That expression, that look—she was all too familiar with it…

She clearly remembered a dinner a few days ago when she said she wasn’t hungry and refused to eat. Lü Yang had said something similar and made a similar expression.

“But I can’t eat two eggs…” Yi Ya replied quietly to ‘Lin Yin’.

“This night will be long. Even if you can’t finish them, you have to force yourself to eat them!” Lü Yang glared at her, looking fierce.

Yi Ya stared at ‘Lin Yin’ for a long time before finally giving in. She began to eat the eggs, one small bite at a time. She was indeed hungry, and she couldn’t bring herself to eat the wild vegetables and such.

Yi Ya was different from Yi Yi. If it were Yi Yi, no matter what, she would have shared one with the other person, and they would have eaten together. Even if Lü Yang glared at her or got angry, it wouldn’t have mattered. Compared to Yi Yi, Yi Ya was much more self-centered. She wasn’t good at taking care of others and rarely considered others’ feelings.

When Yi Yi was with Lü Yang, she often acted like an older sister, caring for and looking after his daily life while also paying attention to his feelings. If there was something good, she would always give it to Lü Yang. When Yi Ya was with Lü Yang, she often acted like a spoiled younger sister, unaware of how to care for others and only accepting Lü Yang’s care and concern.

Lü Yang had brought some food in Lin Yin’s bag, but it was an important reserve that couldn’t be taken out just yet. It might be needed later in the night. Just like the previous night, when he was alone, fleeing in panic, feeling cold, hungry, and exhausted—if he had had something to eat, it would have made a big difference.

…

The wild vegetables and mushrooms the students had gathered were quite plentiful. After each person had a large bowl, there was still a layer of green leaves floating on the surface of the large earthen pot and water vat. Some of the boys with bigger appetites, who ate quickly, were already starting on their second or even third bowls.

“What is this? No way… why is there hair?” One of the boys fished out a strand of black, hair-like substance from one of the water vats with his chopsticks and couldn’t help muttering.

“The wild vegetables were picked from outside; they’re not that clean! Sometimes you even find hair in vegetables at home,” another student replied dismissively.

“No… there’s a lot of hair…” The boy who had mentioned the hair pulled the thing he had picked up a little higher. What he pulled out was clearly not just a few strands of hair but a clump of hair!

Another boy walked over, reached out, and grabbed the clump of hair from the first boy’s chopsticks, then tried to lift it a bit…

More hair…

It was surprisingly heavy, as if it was tangled around something…

He pulled hard…

The clump of hair was yanked out of the water vat. At the end of the hair, there were bits of skin, flesh, and bloodstains…

The first boy instinctively glanced into the water vat and let out a terrified scream. He turned and ran to the wall, leaning against it as he vomited violently.

The boy holding the clump of hair also saw what was in the water vat and let out a shriek. He then collapsed to the ground beside the water vat, his whole body trembling uncontrollably.

“What’s wrong with you?” a classmate who had noticed the commotion called out loudly.

“There’s a human head in there!” the boy vomiting against the wall pointed at the water vat and told everyone.

“A human head!?” All the students were stunned and turned to look at the water vat.

“Stop joking around! What human head?” Instructor Chen scolded them.

“Report, Instructor Chen! We’re not joking! It looks like… Ye Zijng?” the boy who had collapsed on the ground also pointed at the water vat, defending himself indignantly.

A few more brave boys gathered around and peered into the water vat…

On the surface of the water in the vat, where the wild vegetables, mushrooms, and wood ear had been cooked, a swollen, deformed human face floated up after most of the vegetables and mushrooms had been scooped out and eaten… From her facial features and the glasses she wore, everyone quickly recognized some of Ye Zijng’s characteristics…

Her originally thin face had become very plump… or rather, swollen…

The students who had crowded around the water vat screamed and scattered, most of them leaning against the wall or pillars as they vomited.

The students were very curious, or perhaps they thought the boys were playing a prank. A few girls also came over to look into the water vat. After that, every student who had seen the vat screamed and ran to the side, leaning against the wall and vomiting heavily. Some students even clawed at their own throats, as if trying to force out everything they had eaten.

Yi Ya was also very curious and wanted to get up to look at the water vat, but Lü Yang stopped her. Just from the students’ words and reactions, Lü Yang could guess that the appearance of a human head or something similar in the water vat was no joke.

Lü Yang even covered Yi Ya’s ears to prevent her from hearing the horrifying details.

In the other large earthen pots and water vats where wild vegetables and mushrooms were being cooked, swollen severed hands, feet, breasts, buttocks, and other body parts began to float to the surface. In one earthen pot, even a pile of internal organs and a long section of intestine appeared!

“No wonder this wild vegetable soup had a meaty flavor! It was Ye Zijng’s…” one of the boys said at the worst possible moment, causing several students who had just stopped vomiting to start vomiting violently again.

“What did you throw up?” one boy asked fearfully, pointing at the vomit of a girl nearby.

“Is that a finger?” another student heard this and came over to look.

“Ah…” The girl who had vomited saw what was in her vomit, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted on the spot.

“Who put those things in there?” the male counselor, Chen Jinhu, demanded loudly from the students.

“Not me!”

“I didn’t do it!”

“Absolutely not me!”

“…”

The students who had vomited all hurriedly denied any involvement to Chen Jinhu.

Lü Yang had also eaten a lot of wild vegetables earlier. Although he hadn’t looked into the water vat, hearing the students’ words and seeing their reactions made his stomach churn. He barely managed to hold back from vomiting.

He kept comforting himself… all of this was an illusion… an illusion created by the Mysterious Domain…

Even so, Lü Yang eventually couldn’t hold it in any longer. He crouched on the ground and vomited up everything he had eaten.

He was afraid he might vomit out something like a finger or a piece of intestine, which made him tremble with fear even as he vomited. Fortunately… that didn’t happen.

The students who had been gathered around the earthen pots and water vats were now scattered along the walls of the ancestral hall. Some of the girls, after vomiting, cried in fear, adding to the eeriness of the night and the mysterious ancestral hall.

“Director Gong, let’s gather everyone together. We need to keep counting the numbers at all times, or more things will happen,” Lü Yang said weakly to Gong Xue after vomiting.

No matter what Lü Yang was doing now, he always kept Yi Ya within his sight. This was his most important responsibility in this Mysterious Domain.

Gong Xue’s face was pale, clearly having vomited like the others. After hearing Lin Yin’s words, Gong Xue went over to the male counselor, Chen Jinhu. After discussing for a moment, they gathered everyone together and started counting the people.

Only twenty-four people remained in the ancestral hall!

Besides Ye Zijng, Xu Yan, and the boy from the hunting team who had gone missing earlier, four more people were gone!

“Who’s missing? Who’s missing? Say something!”

Gong Xue cried out in a panicked voice to the students.

“Report, Director Gong, I’m missing,” one student raised his hand and made an ill-timed joke. However, no one laughed; instead, they all glared at him.

Gong Xue realized her mistake and quickly corrected herself, “Quickly, find out which four students are missing!”

Lü Yang had already figured out which four students were gone, which made his sense of foreboding grow even stronger.

The four missing students were the two boys and two girls who had been late to return when they were preparing to go back yesterday afternoon. They were also the three faceless corpses and ‘herself’ that Lü Yang had stepped on in the open area behind the Mountain Peak Village when he came down from the Cliffside Cemetery late last night.

Their disappearance seemed to indicate that the Faceless Person was about to appear in the Mountain Peak Village!

Was the massacre about to begin?

Lü Yang took a burning stick from the fire and walked over to the mural in the ancestral hall. He shone the light on it, but there were no changes yet. The faces of the four students had not appeared on the mural.

“What’s wrong with those four? Always running off everywhere!” Gong Xue complained irritably to the male counselor, Chen Jinhu.

“Should we go look for them?” one student suggested to Gong Xue and Chen Jinhu.

“Let’s not! What if something happens to the people who go looking for them? Like what happened to Ye Zijng and the others… We should stay together!” another student immediately objected.

“What if it was you who was missing?” The students began to argue among themselves.