Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 53

Volume 3: Song of the Wanderer

Great Demon King 12

The Game of the Brave

A fire was set in the master bedroom, yet the little girl died.

            

Either the fire spread to next door, or the little girl was in the master bedroom.

Actually, there’s another possibility, but that possibility defies common sense.

How could a little girl that young do such a thing? But nothing in this world is absolute.

            

Analyzing all this here is just speculation; what matters is when that little female ghost will appear.

Last time when they were face to face, when Xin Lan tried to ask questions, she ran away.

That little ghost is quite mischievous, who knows what trouble she’ll stir up.

            

But actually, Xin Lan didn’t take the little ghost too seriously, because the danger level of this whole situation wasn’t high for her.

Without the help of these so-called tools, the other people wouldn’t be worth fearing at all, but now with these things, they’ve gained some capital [leverage/advantage]. That violin is still good for showing off [or: pretending to be impressive].

Thinking of this, she looked towards Yu Wanyan beside her.

            

Yu Wanyan had been very quiet since earlier, not making any sound to disturb.

The Green Hat Lady couldn’t stay outside for long, and had already returned to her hat.

When she was quiet, she didn’t have the same feeling as when she spoke, there was a somewhat melancholic air about her.

            

When she first appeared before Xin Lan, Xin Lan noticed she wasn’t very old, and her way of speaking wasn’t very mature either. She probably hadn’t experienced much in life, so she still had a girlish appearance.

When Yu Wanyan saw Xin Lan looking at her, she smiled somewhat puzzledly.

Xin Lan withdrew her gaze, not knowing how she died, but it didn’t matter much to her anyway.

            

Yu Wanyan was just thinking about future matters, she had a mysterious confidence in Xin Lan.

Though it wasn’t really mysterious confidence, after all, Xin Lan was someone who could tear ghosts apart with bare hands without relying on tools. If nothing unexpected happened, she would definitely be first.

It was a pity, because this meant she wouldn’t be able to have her prey all to herself.

            

But this was fine too, at least they could go to a broader world.

Actually, everyone wanted to leave, but no one was particularly obsessed with leaving.

Ren Difei finished his speculation and rubbed his eyes.

            

He didn’t know what to do next; if the situation remained stable, he could go out and look around, but now he didn’t dare to wander about. Although five people could go up to the second floor, only one person could leave, and who knew if someone might stab them in the back – there were still six people here after all.

The atmosphere in Xin Lan’s room was relatively peaceful, but in the living room, the tension was mounting.

Sheng Lifan held his wine and stood at the farthest position from Ke Xuguang, slowly moving to the left.

            

Ke Xuguang was tall and strong-looking, and though the cane in his hand looked somewhat comical, one hit from it would probably crack someone’s skull.

He felt that the tool he was holding suited his conditions better; if he were holding a cane, it would be useless – it would be snatched away from him in no time.

Ke Xuguang had his own considerations. Although someone still had to be eliminated to reach the next floor, he couldn’t be like Pi Tianzi who killed someone without hesitation.

            

Pi Tianzi harbored hatred towards Moli, that’s why she could do it. He watched Sheng Lifan who had walked to the kitchen, contemplation in his eyes.

Next door to Xin Lan’s room, Pi Tianzi stood among scattered toys, her lips curved upward.

While searching for clues in the room, she happened to turn her head towards the window and saw a dark shadow crouching there.

            

Her heart jumped, but the shadow suddenly vanished.

Ling Jiu’s radar had been scanning the entire first floor, so when that shadow appeared, she immediately notified Xin Lan.

Ling Jiu: Host, that shadow wasn’t the little female ghost, but it had no life signs. It suddenly appeared outside the window of the next room, then disappeared when Pi Tianzi saw it.

            

Ling Jiu actually didn’t particularly want to choose a world with supernatural elements, because this greatly weakened her abilities as a system, making her seem quite useless.

After all, ghosts and monsters were things that science couldn’t explain.

But she really hadn’t seen other suitable task worlds for her host – most were all about romance and love, and if her host saw those, she’d immediately become a raging sister.

            

It’s not like Xin Lan would stoop to deceiving people’s hearts – rather than making scumbags fall head over heels, she’d prefer to beat them up.

So Ling Jiu could only help Xin Lan as much as possible within her capabilities, like helping her make chicken rolls or fried chicken.

Xin Lan: It suddenly disappeared? Did you record what it looked like – height, weight, gender?

            

Ling Jiu: It disappeared before I could scan it. It was just a black shadow, couldn’t tell if it was male or female, but judging by the build, it should be an adult.

Xin Lan thought about it – actually, this wasn’t hard to figure out, as most pieces had been put together. There were four people in total.

We can say for now that the four people were: the little girl, the little girl’s mother, the little girl’s father, and the little girl’s stepfather.

            

The little girl clearly had feelings of disgust towards her stepfather, which was a very common situation, understandable.

So who started that big fire that began in the bedroom?

The little girl, the girl’s mother, the girl’s father, the girl’s stepfather.

            

Xin Lan was more inclined towards the first and third options, because from the little girl’s memories, her mother always dressed up beautifully to go out – she had no reason to start the fire, and no reason to harm her own daughter.

As for the child’s stepfather, Xin Lan didn’t think it impossible, just unnecessary.

If he wanted to harm the child, he could have used other methods, like food poisoning, gas poisoning, getting lost outside, or selling her to others. There was no need to use such an obvious method of murder to get rid of the little girl, and if he wanted to kill the little girl, he could have set fire to her room – why start it at his own bedroom door?

            

If the little girl’s father was the culprit, then things would be easy to guess – it would be out of revenge.

But even for revenge, he shouldn’t have involved his child too, right?

Of course, we can’t be certain that he wouldn’t end up hating his daughter too.

            

Then there’s the little girl herself.

But if it was the little girl who set fire at the bedroom door, then she must have wanted to burn the people inside, and there’s a high possibility she got burned to death along with them.

However, a child’s ability to execute such a plan would be too weak. No matter how much she hated her mother or stepfather, it would be impossible for her to do something like this.

            

But the arsonist could only be one of these four people. If it were someone outside the plot, there would at least be clues introducing them, but they hadn’t found any such clues.

After thinking through all this, Xin Lan felt it would be faster to just grab the little ghost and try each answer with her.

If one answer was wrong, they could just try the next one. There wasn’t any one-in-four limitation, so they could just guess one by one.

            

The mist had thickened again at some point, and in the vast whiteness, she couldn’t see anyone’s face clearly except Yu Wanyan’s.

“She’s here.”

Yu Wanyan said.

            

The next moment, Xin Lan felt her consciousness being pulled away, and then she saw a man.

It was the man who had appeared in the wedding photo – Xin Lan had identified him as the little ghost’s stepfather.

“Xinyu, did you have fun at the amusement park with uncle today?”

            

“Fun.”

Xin Lan heard a childish voice and realized the sound was coming from ‘her’ mouth.

Xin Lan tried to contact Ling Jiu in her mind but couldn’t connect.

            

She wasn’t panicked though, just waiting to see what would happen next.

“So how will you reward uncle?”

The man crouched down, bringing his eyes level with Xin Lan’s.

            

Xin Lan frowned, but she was trapped in this specific environment and couldn’t move. She could only watch as the man pointed to his cheek.

Surely this little ghost wasn’t going to kiss her uncle’s face?

Xin Lan started to feel irritated.

            

But unexpectedly, that didn’t happen.

Xin Lan felt ‘her’ take a step back and shake her head at the man.

The man looked somewhat disappointed but stood up with a smile.

            

“It’s okay if you don’t want to kiss me. Look, uncle bought you a new dress.”

The man took out a pretty dress from the bag behind him and waved it in front of Xin Lan.

Xin Lan suddenly felt a surge of intense fear rising from deep within her heart.

            

That emotion was intense and unfamiliar, coming from ‘her’.

It had been a long time since Xin Lan had tasted what fear was like.

So long that she’d forgotten what it felt like to be afraid of something.

            

What a detestable emotion of helplessness.

‘She’ was shaking her head, and Xin Lan could feel ‘her’ resistance.

“Don’t you like this dress? But uncle thinks you’ll look very pretty in it.”

            

“Why are you shaking your head? Don’t you like it? Don’t you like uncle’s gift? But uncle took you to the amusement park today.”

‘She’ suddenly started running out, running to the door of the bedroom next door.

“Mama! Mama!”

            

‘She’ was knocking on the door, and Xin Lan could feel her urgency.

“What is it, baby?”

The woman opened the door with a gentle smile on her face.

            

“Uncle… uncle…”

“What about uncle?”

“I bought Xinyu a dress, but she doesn’t seem to like it.”

            

The man walked over, smiling helplessly.

“Uncle bought you clothes and you won’t even thank him? How can you be so impolite?”

The woman said reproachfully, while Xin Lan could feel ‘her’ panic about to overflow.

            

“Mama, can I sleep with you tonight?”

“Xinyu is a big girl now, you should sleep by yourself, why are you still so clingy with mama?”

The woman stroked ‘her’ hair, saying with a light laugh.

            

“Don’t worry so much, she’ll gradually accept it. Come to bed after you’ve washed up,” the woman said to the man, then looked in Xin Lan’s direction, “Goodnight, baby.”

The door closed, and in that instant, Xin Lan felt her heart being wrenched, painfully tight.

‘She’ wanted to knock again but was suddenly pulled back with a hand over her mouth.

            

Xin Lan couldn’t move, could only passively experience that despair.

‘She’ was dragged into her own room, and the door was closed.

Xin Lan saw many dolls; those toys were watching ‘her’, and ‘she’ was watching them.

            

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LP: Re-translated on January 19, 2025

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