I, the screenwriter, have experienced a resurgence of inspiration.

The ground was frozen solid in winter, and Huang Facai only provided three people with a few shovels.

With a single shovelful, only black soil mixed with ice fragments could be barely broken out.

—Finally, the three of them had no choice but to find some straw and firewood to start a fire at the grave site. The fire softened the soil, and they were finally able to dig it out.

Even so, the three of them didn't dare to take a breath and dug for a whole day before barely completing the task.

Many people have a misconception that digging a hole is not difficult.

But in reality, even experienced farmers can get so tired from digging in the soil in winter that they vomit blood.

It's not an exaggeration; it really is exhausting.

As darkness approached, the three of them hurried back to the west wing, looking disheveled.

Zhou Hui and Ouyang Qiu supported each other, tears streaming down their faces as they walked. They were just tired, crying purely out of physical exhaustion.

Lin Hao also felt his arms were sore and weak that he couldn't lift them.

Upon arriving at the ancestral hall, they found a quilt and three pieces of luggage crookedly thrown on the steps leading to the west wing.

It was cold, and most of the blanket fell into the snowmelt and froze flat.

The wooden door to the west wing was tightly closed, with the bolt bolted shut from the inside, like a wall deliberately drawing a line.

Even through the thin wooden board, the three of them could clearly hear the suppressed breathing inside.

"What are you doing?"

Zhou Hui's anger flared up instantly.

She rushed over, clenched her fists, and pounded on the door until her knuckles turned red.

"Open the door! Old Wang, Little Zhao, what are you doing? What do you mean by throwing our things out like this? How are we supposed to sleep with our blankets so wet?"

No one answered from inside.

"Stop playing dead!" Zhou Hui slapped the door twice more. "What exactly do you want? Open the door and explain yourself!"

After a few more seconds of silence, the remaining five players' muffled voices came from inside, sounding somewhat guilty:

"What's there to say? There's nothing to say! Anyway, you're not allowed in!"

"Why can't I go in?"

Ouyang Qiu was also furious. "This ancestral hall belongs to your family. We moved in based on our own merit. Why are you kicking us out!"

"On what grounds? Because you're covered in dirt!"

A player's disdainful voice drifted out from under the door, making no attempt to hide the malice in their tone:

"All three of you are covered in rat fur. What if we get infected if we let you in?"

"that is!"

"Who knows if this strange disease is contagious? You're asking for trouble by touching corpses, don't drag us down with you!"

"You insisted on doing that stupid mission, and now you're looking like neither human nor ghost! Don't come and hurt us!"

"Exactly, we're still doing just fine even without any leads, aren't we?"

Every word he uttered was selfishly self-righteous.

"Are you even being reasonable?" Zhou Hui's lips trembled.

"We're doing missions and gathering clues so everyone can get out of here sooner, and you've been hiding and then turning around and accusing us?"

"Then we'll let you in only if you share clues."

The player's voice came out in a muffled tone:

"Don't think we don't know what Lin Haoan is up to. He keeps using clues to threaten us into doing missions—what will we do if you complete the mission and leave?"

Lin Hao gritted his teeth, his face terribly gloomy.

Zhou Hui and Ouyang Qiu were even suddenly relieved that they hadn't told anyone else about the clay sculpture shop.

Yesterday, teammates were huddled together for warmth and taking care of each other, but now, because of a little suspicion and fear, they can be so ruthless.

The coldness and indifference of people's hearts are magnified to the extreme in this godforsaken place.

Lin Hao's eyes grew increasingly sinister.

He had long anticipated that these people were unreliable, but he never expected them to be this stupid.

They didn't even know how the rat-like behavior came about, or whether it was contagious, yet these people were already pushing them out.

They even threatened to drive them out of the west wing.

A bunch of idiots.

Trying to reason with them is a complete waste of breath.

"Stop knocking."

Lin Hao took a few steps forward, picked up the quilt from the ground, and patted the snow off it. "The east wing is empty. You can make do there."

"The east wing?"

Zhou Hui and Ouyang Qiu were stunned, clearly thinking at the same time about the eerie human-faced rat nest in the ancestral hall and the large hole in the east wing.

What's the difference between living there and sleeping in a rat's nest?

"That's still better than being outdoors."

Lin Hao glanced at his teammates hiding behind the door and whispered, "Don't forget, we have props."

"They said they were afraid of getting infected, and then they swallowed our blankets. Pshaw, they just wanted to find an excuse to get rid of us."

Zhou Hui glanced at the tightly closed door, and, unable to contain her anger, kicked it hard. The door rattled and dust fell from it.

As darkness descended, the three hurried toward the east wing.

Lin Hao walked at the very back.

His gaze fell on the threshold, where there was a sparse line of quicklime.

It looked freshly sprinkled, with a crooked, uneven pattern drawn around the threshold and window.

The people inside seemed to regard this as their lifeline, sleeping soundly and peacefully inside.

Lin Hao paused in his tracks.

He lifted his foot, the toe of his shoe seemingly casually brushing against the lime line.

The frozen snow crust was kicked apart, and the lime mortar mixed with snow water flowed along the brick seams, revealing several blue bricks underneath.

The once intact lime defense line was silently breached by a gap half a foot wide.

You wouldn't notice it at all unless you crouch down and look closely.

Lin Hao walked forward without changing his expression, feeling no remorse whatsoever.

He wanted to see if his teammates would really turn into human-faced rats.

……

……

The door to the east wing was open, and there was no latch inside. The kang (a heated brick bed) was covered with damp straw, and the door could not be closed properly, leaving a gap about two fingers wide when it was closed.

The corner was piled with clutter:

A broken altar table leaned against the wall, and rotten wooden chairs were piled up like a small mountain.

The stack of tattered paper effigies leaned against the corner of the wall, their blush faded, leaving them pale and ashen, like hanged people.

There were also several tangled hemp ropes, a dusty incense and candle basket, and an empty earthenware jar half a person's height, all crammed haphazardly into the room.

The most conspicuous thing is the enormous rat hole at the base of the wall.

"Won't something crawl out at night?"

Zhou Hui's face turned pale. The thought of a human-faced rat crawling into her bed while she was sleeping gave her goosebumps.

"There is lime."

Despite the pain, Ouyang Qiu pushed the tattered offering table to block the entrance to the rat hole: "If we continue living in the west wing, those people might kill us one night. It's better to stay far away."

The mouse hole was so big that even if you blocked it with something, you couldn't completely cover it.

But at least on the surface, it greatly enhances the sense of security.

All three of them were exhausted after a long day, and now they were drenched in sweat. The cold wind made them feel itchy even in their bones.

It was completely dark outside.

The sounds of cats meowing, both low and high, rang out from all directions.

There was no brazier in the east wing, and the sleeping area was covered with only a thin layer of dry straw.

The three of them could only squeeze into one thin blanket, shoulder to shoulder and back to back, trying to keep warm from each other.

What difference between men and women, what boundaries and limits, are as light as a piece of paper in the face of life, death, and bitter cold.

Zhou Hui's eyes were closed, but her ears were perked up.

Only the two gold ingots hidden in her heart gave her some confidence.

Around midnight, a strong wind suddenly picked up outside.

The ancestral hall was eerily quiet; even the usual meows of cats in the distance had vanished, leaving only a deathly stillness.

……

Ouyang Qiu was too tired and didn't know when she fell asleep.

Just as she was drifting off to sleep, Zhou Hui gently touched her arm.

"Don't sleep."

Zhou Hui's voice was extremely low, her breath trembling uncontrollably: "Listen... there's a sound."

Ouyang Qiu jolted awake and instantly became clear-headed.

She held her breath and listened intently.

"Shh...shh..."

"Rustling... rustling..."

It was very light, like many tiny claws crawling on the ground.

"Squeak—squeak—"

Then came the sound of the offering table being pushed.

The sound was made without any attempt to conceal it, and it seemed particularly piercing in the quiet environment.

Lin Hao also woke up.

He sat up silently, ready to flee at any moment.

In the darkness, only the outline of the base of the wall and the holes blocked by wooden planks could be vaguely seen.

Behind the wooden plank, something moved the offering table.

"Click..."

Then came a very soft sound.

The old wooden board blocking the entrance of the innermost mouse hole, about the size of a fist, was gently pried open from the inside.

Immediately afterwards, there was another "click," and the offering table tilted to the ground with a dull thud.

The dark entrance to the cave was now fully revealed.

In the darkness, a head peeked out first.

The human head.

It was a fat, chubby face, pale and bluish-white, with dark purple lips and a stiff, eerie smile at the corners of its mouth.

It's Huang Facai's face.

His eyes were closed, and the slits between them were very narrow.

It looked like it was asleep, or like an animal deliberately sniffing the scent of living people in the air.

Its head popped out, paused for two or three seconds, then turned slightly, tilting towards the direction where the three were hiding.

It's like they can accurately sense their location.

The three of them stopped breathing.