"...Alright."

Wang Congshan sighed and also squeezed into the cloak.

The lion skin trembled a few times and slowly stood up, moving towards the corridor, occasionally voices coming from underneath the lion skin like "Don’t step on my foot." "Slow down, I can’t keep up!"

The two bickered noisily while holding up the lion skin and entered the corridor.

The lantern hanging in the inner courtyard emitted light, illuminating the lion dance,

most of the rays were refracted by the mirror fragments on the surface of the lion dance,

a few rays hit and caused the uncovered areas to grow a grotesque, visible deep shadow.

Inside the lion dance, Li Ang and Wang Congshan could distinctly feel the weight of the lion skin above them mysteriously increasing,

it seemed like the whole lion skin was gradually coming to life, exerting pressure from all directions, wrapping around them.

Li Ang was prepared for this; he grabbed the Heart Monkey Staff, pointing one end at the lion’s head and the other at the tail,

injecting Spiritual Power into the Heart Monkey, causing the staff to slightly extend, preventing the lion dance from collapsing inwards,

meanwhile, he took three steps in two strides, sprinting forward, crossing the entire corridor to reach the inner courtyard.

Gripping the Heart Monkey Staff in his hand, he flung it forward, flipping the whole lion skin, perfectly forming a mirror surface in mid-air directed at the lantern.

As the distance closed, Li Ang was able to clearly see the details of the lantern.

The lantern was oval-shaped, with a bamboo frame, covered in white paper, and adorned with simple floral patterns.

This lantern was not unique,

the Hiratsuka residence’s inner courtyard was shaped like a "匚", with semi-open corridors on three sides and one side open to the outdoor garden.

On the other three beams in the "匚" shaped inner courtyard, similar lanterns were hung,

but only this one was particularly bright,

and the shadows cast on the lantern’s paper surface looked somewhat odd.

With the help of the [Extended Vision] ability, Li Ang was able to see inside the lantern—not a candle, but a shriveled, compressed man’s head resembling a dry cane.

Though it was hard to imagine what kind of bizarre power could twist a human body into such a form,

this head’s skin, muscles, and bones indeed were compressed into candle-like strips,

with its entire face squeezed into a diamond shape, dry eyes wide open, and a slanted line of a mouth.

It looked something like this:

ﾟ.

√

While the shriveled human head’s hair was burning like a candle wick, without any signs of shortening.

In an instant, Li Ang discovered that whether using Spiritual Energy to directly interfere, or to create a breeze with it,

the candle couldn’t be extinguished, so he immediately switched tactics,

continuing to flip the lion dance skin, covering the lantern’s surface, tiptoeing, pulling and tying a bow, enveloping the lantern completely with no light escaping.

All of this happened within a moment, Li Ang holding the ends of the lion skin bow, held his breath, concentrating for half a minute.

Nothing happened,

through the lion skin, they could hear the extremely faint sound of hair burning in the lantern.

Wang Congshan hesitantly asked, "Is this... resolved?"

"Probably,"

Li Ang nodded, lightly hugged the lantern and pulled, realizing it was securely hung on the seemingly unstable beam bracket, unmoving, and had to give up.

Originally, he planned to take this uniquely effective lantern, in case he encountered monsters later, he might cosplay Perseus holding Medusa’s head,

releasing the lantern against enemies, possibly achieving a miraculous effect.

"The other three lanterns indeed contain ordinary candles, not human heads."

Li Ang scanned the surroundings, discovering faint bloodstains under the beam pillar of the human head lantern, indicating in a ray shape, pointing to the inside of the inner courtyard.

The inner side of the courtyard was a semi-open tea room, used to entertain guests for tea,

with some decorations arranged in front of the tea room.

Such as stone basins filled with water, and bamboo tubes connected to water flow, occasionally making sounds.

Li Ang glanced and immediately noticed the suspicion, frowning, he marched down the steps into the garden, arriving before the see-saw-like bamboo tube.

This type of device was called "Shishi-odoshi", (ししおどし)

typically consisting of a water delivery system and a bamboo tube with one heavy and one light end.

The water system continuously draws water from underground like a fountain,

pouring onto the cut open bamboo tube,

when the bamboo tube fills with water, it tilts due to gravity, striking a stone with a "snap" sound, dumping the water out,

and then the center of gravity changes again, restoring its tilted state, until the water accumulates again, repeating the sound cycle.

"Shishi-odoshi" was initially an agricultural tool used in Japan Islands’ fields to scare off birds and beasts with sound to protect the crops,

until later adapted into Japanese gardens for landscape design, also known as ’Tsukubai’.

However, Li Ang’s attention wasn’t on the Tsukubai, but rather the stones behind them.

"These stones are called ’Tsukubai’, a device used for the host and guests in Japanese tea rooms to wash hands, also part of the tea room landscape design elements.

A complete set of Tsukubai can be classified by stone function, shape, height,

into Shoyu-bachi, Mae-ishi, Shochiku-ishi, Yuto-ishi, Suimon."

In the rhythmic snap sound from Tsukubai, Li Ang squatted down, pointing at the stones, introducing to Wang Congshan: "Shoyu-bachi is where tea room guests scoop water to wash hands before drinking, usually hollowed in the middle.

Mae-ishi is where you rest and absorb, Shochiku-ishi is where you place lanterns at night,

Yuto-ishi is used for placing hot water in winter,

Suimon, also called Sea, is responsible for absorbing water.

The Hiratsuka family is a local noble family,

the garden design is just one word, meticulous.

Their tea garden not only uses the most complete set of Tsukubai, but also adds another set below, known as a system that further embodies ’Zen’.

Li Ang pointed at a pile of scattered stones below the Tsukubai system, saying: "Below the Tsukubai, these pebbles are generally gray,

while inserted in the middle is a vertically placed bamboo tube.

This device is called ’Suikinkutsu’,

below is hollowed, shaped like a bell, or copper kettle, or lantern.

Water accumulates inside,

when water flows out of the bamboo tube, it first enters the shoyu-bachi,

if the shoyu-bachi fills with water, the excess flows along the Suimon stone,

penetrates into the Suikinkutsu.

Due to the Suikinkutsu being hollow inside, the dripping water sound is amplified, with slower frequency than Tsukubai.

While the bamboo tube above further amplifies this sound—to pursue a deeper zen, scholars from Japan Islands specially studied,

what shape the Suikinkutsu should be molded, whether inside material should be stone or ceramic, the appropriate water accumulation height and sound frequency."

"Hey, truly local, fully topped off."

Wang Congshan clicked her tongue and also realized the problem, "Huh... the stones of this Suikinkutsu seem to have been dug out?"

The bamboo tube originally inserted in the water gate stone has also been pulled out and thrown aside."

"Hmm."

Li Ang nodded, speaking in a relaxed tone, "The disaster that befell the Hiratsuka Family happened almost instantly.

There were even half-eaten meals on their tables, they didn’t have time to escape.

In such circumstances, who would have the leisure to renovate the Suikinkutsu?

Unless, during the disaster, someone escaped to the bottom of the Suikinkutsu to hide.

Step back and cover me."

"What are you going to do?"

Wang Congshan held her gun and stood to the side,

while Li Ang picked up the Heart Monkey Staff and pushed aside the water gate stone in the pit.

As the pebbles were pushed aside, a large hole was revealed in the pit, exposing the bell-shaped Suikinkutsu,

and within the Suikinkutsu, a squatting, child-sized skeleton dressed in children’s clothes, hugging a backpack.

Maybe due to the accumulated water in the Suikinkutsu,

the upper half of the skeleton was dry and shriveled, while the lower half was swollen and rotting, emitting an unpleasant odor.

Wang Congshan shivered inside, "Careful!"

Li Ang waved his hand, signaling not to worry,

and approached the large hole of the Suikinkutsu, carefully examining the shape of the skeleton within.

This body was probably only seven or eight years old when it died, wearing a small school uniform, with no obvious physical injuries, holding an orange backpack, the zipper half-open.

Li Ang pondered for a moment, then extended the Heart Monkey Staff into the Suikinkutsu, slipping it through one of the backpack’s straps,

gently flicking and pulling the orange backpack out of the Suikinkutsu.

As the backpack was pulled out, the skeleton’s arms dropped down, though no further changes occurred.

Li Ang asked Wang Congshan to aim the gun at the skeleton, while he gently unzipped the half-open backpack.

Inside the backpack were primary school textbooks, exam papers, stationery, and the like,

as with other items in the script world, the text on the textbooks and exam papers was rather blurred, except for one perfect-score math exam paper, whose wording was clear and legible, belonging to Hiratsuka Yuuma, a student from Class 2A of Yukari Elementary School.

Li Ang skimmed the math problems on the exam paper and noticed on the reverse side, a bunch of crookedly written pencil notes.

[Can someone save me]

[It’s so dark here]

[Uncle, aunt, mom, grandpa, brother, they’re all dead]

[Scary monsters crawled out of the well]

[Dad said he would protect me, told me to hide here quietly, he would go find help]

[I’m so scared, dad still hasn’t come back]

[It’s so cold]

[So cramped]

[It feels awful, I want to lie down]

[So hungry]

[So hungry]

[So hungry]

"These should be Hiratsuka Yuuma’s experiences before his death."

Li Ang furrowed his brow, showed the exam paper to Wang Congshan, and said, "Remember the character I played, Ogashira Tetsuya, and those notepads he carried?

The notepads had several drawings, depicting samurai in armor with a sword and wearing a Prajna Mask;

an image of a Stone Well beneath a twisted dead tree;

a Torii set halfway up the mountain;

the samurai corresponded with the legend of Fate Carving Village, the Torii with the one we saw at the Relationship Sealing Shrine,

and the well mentioned by Hiratsuka Yuuma should correspond to the Stone Well beneath the dead tree."

"Hmm..."

Wang Congshan slowly nodded, "The paper of this exam sheet shows folds that have traces of being soaked and then dried again.

The disaster likely occurred, monsters crawled out from the well, attacking the Hiratsuka Family.

The Hiratsuka Family suffered heavy casualties,

Hiratsuka Yuuma’s dad ran away with him, telling him to hide in the Suikinkutsu.

In the end, his dad likely met with misfortune, and Hiratsuka Yuuma was trapped here alive."

"Another tragedy."

Li Ang spread his hands, "Let’s go..."

His words halted abruptly, as with enhanced spiritual perception, he seemed to hear the sound of hair burning from the Human Head Lantern, which grew louder.

Could it be...

Li Ang squinted his eyes, patted his hand, and said to Wang Congshan, "It’s pretty pitiful to leave Hiratsuka Yuuma here, why don’t we bury him?"

"Eh?"

Wang Congshan was a bit stunned, Li Ang wasn’t someone who liked helping elderly people cross the street for free, or giving up his seat to old men on the bus,

the only things that drove him to act were money, and his own interests and peculiar sense of humor.

In this crisis-ridden script world, any move could trigger unknown consequences,

why suddenly feel inclined to bury a corpse?

Thinking this way, Wang Congshan didn’t object; she also felt leaving a child’s body in the water-filled Suikinkutsu was not right.

Li Ang used the Heart Monkey Staff to lift Hiratsuka Yuuma’s body out of the Suikinkutsu, and with Wang Congshan, they found a piece of land in the courtyard, dug a quick pit, placing Hiratsuka Yuuma’s body and his backpack inside,

covered it with soil, then brought the bamboo tube from the watering device, carving Hiratsuka Yuuma’s name on it, and inserted it in front of the grave as a tombstone.

Almost the instant Li Ang inserted the bamboo tube before the grave, the lantern wrapped in lion dance skin in the corridor emitted a slight "click". 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Li Ang and Wang Congshan exchanged a glance and approached the lantern, slowly untying the lion dance skin,

noticing the light emitted by the lantern had dimmed considerably, no longer aggressive,

and the head candle inside seemed to close its eyes as though resting.

"This should be Hiratsuka Yuuma’s dad."

Li Ang raised the lantern, observing it could be taken off its stand, and the light it emitted no longer twisted their shadows.

"The eyes of the head candle just align with the Suikinkutsu’s position. Seems even in death, this man thought about protecting his son.

Now that it’s not aggressive, I guess it’s expressing gratitude for us burying his son’s body."

Li Ang removed the lantern, weighing it, it wasn’t as heavy as expected, and carried it as a light source.

Wang Congshan watched Li Ang’s naturally accustomed manner, remained silent for a moment, and couldn’t help but ask, "The script worlds we players experience, do they truly exist, or are they virtual worlds created by the System?"

"Is this question really important?"

Li Ang carrying the lantern, walked into the courtyard, leisurely said, "Since we can’t distinguish truth from illusion, there’s no need to unnecessarily ponder. Follow your heart, and do what you have to."