Chapter 73: Wang Family Funeral Home
But he didn’t even have time to sigh at Lu Jinzhao’s decisive actions. He could only stagger, nearly crawling and rolling, groping from the ground to stand up.
His legs and hands kept shaking uncontrollably, an involuntary physiological reaction.
Even after standing up, Xiao Ping’s brain kept buzzing nonstop. His mind uncontrollably flashed back to the scene he had just seen, making it impossible for him to calm down.
But the girl, who had originally seemed somewhat cold, suddenly looked at him and softened her tone: “Can’t this be done?”
“Since you can stand up, you can live on.”
As she said this, for no reason, a bit of warmth and courage rose in Xiao Ping’s heart.
Although his body was still shaking, his despairing and collapsing emotions actually eased quite a bit.
He also regained his ability to think.
He wanted to thank her, but Lu Jinzhao clearly didn’t give him that time. After saying that, she had already turned and walked toward the next patrol location.
Xiao Ping immediately felt his mood become somewhat complicated. In front of Lu Jinzhao, he was completely that useless teammate, but he also had no time to sigh about anything and could only drag his weak legs to tightly follow after her.
He thought, if he could get out alive, he definitely had to properly thank this teammate.
At this moment, Xiao Ping no longer wanted to think about what came next, even though tonight had only passed one patrol location, even though subconsciously he knew that tonight absolutely wouldn’t end just like this.
Xiao Ping’s steps were no longer as powerful as before. He was like a scared bird, only daring to follow behind Lu Jinzhao. Any slight movement could make him tremble all over, cold sweat almost soaking his clothes, yet he was powerless against the current situation.
He couldn’t adjust his mindset well and could only let fear spread in his heart.
Lu Jinzhao glanced back at him, then coldly realized that in Xiao Ping’s current state, dying inside the platform was just a matter of time.
Unless strong luck descended, or a powerful person was willing to save him.
But the latter was impossible inside this platform.
As for the former…
Lu Jinzhao recalled the earlier experience. She and Xiao Ping had been standing on either side of the door, yet the one face-to-face with the ghost face was Xiao Ping, not her.
It seemed strong luck didn’t favor him either.
Then death would almost inevitably descend.
It was just unknown when it would arrive.
Even after experiencing such a terrifying scene, the patrol had to continue.
Fortunately, after leaving the service hall, the flashlight’s light returned to normal. Xiao Ping judged based on this that after entering the next patrol location, the flashlight’s light still showed no change, which relaxed him quite a bit.
And the next location was as he thought, with no abnormalities appearing.
“…Great.” Xiao Ping breathed a sigh of relief.
He thought that if it was like this, by checking the flashlight’s light for issues when approaching, he could prepare in advance and avoid being scared almost senseless like before.
He turned his head wanting to share this good news with Lu Jinzhao, but then felt that with her intelligence, she had probably already discovered it.
“Alright, let’s go to the next place.”
Xiao Ping’s voice was no longer as weak as before when he spoke.
“The next is the mourning hall.” But the next second, his tone dropped again.
Mourning hall.
One of the locations where abnormalities appeared last night.
No need to think, going there again tonight would probably still result in an abnormality.
Inevitably, Xiao Ping once again recalled the horrifying scene he had just experienced.
On the way to the mourning hall, the distance was clearly no different from daytime, yet he felt like they were walking a bit too fast?
Their speed wasn’t fast at all, yet it seemed like just the time for a few thoughts to churn in his mind, and the mourning hall was already there.
Even Lu Jinzhao’s expression at this moment wasn’t calm.
Clearly, on the way to the service hall, the parchment had jumped out trying to disrupt her emotions, but heading to the more dangerous mourning hall, it suddenly went silent.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t expect it to provide any more information, but when it should have been silent it wasn’t, so its silence now seemed suspicious.
Mourning hall… what would happen?
Lu Jinzhao’s movements became even more vigilant than before. On the way to the mourning hall, the flashlight’s light showed no abnormalities, and the brightness didn’t weaken noticeably.
“The mourning hall seems to have no problem?” Xiao Ping also noticed this, his tone carrying a bit of surprise.
Their footsteps kept approaching the building in the darkness. When the flashlight’s light shone on the building’s exterior wall, no illusion like the one at the service hall appeared.
It really seemed like there was nothing abnormal.
But Lu Jinzhao didn’t let her guard down because of this. She looked at Xiao Ping, whose face clearly showed obvious delight, and shook her head inwardly.
His quality was still not good enough. At least as a passenger, his disposition was too poor, and his vigilance wasn’t strong enough.
Lu Jinzhao no longer reminded him of anything.
The two gradually approached the mourning hall. This building was mainly in black, white, and gray tones. At night, when the flashlight shone on it, it vaguely felt like they had arrived in the underworld.
This atmosphere made Xiao Ping feel unease, but the bright flashlight beam in his hand gave him some courage.
“It’s fine.” He encouraged himself inwardly: “Nothing abnormal has happened so far. Maybe only two abnormalities occur in one night. One appeared in the service hall before, so the mourning hall won’t have one.”
“What I should worry about is the morgue afterward.”
Thinking this way was indeed effective; he felt his courage grow a bit.
But only a bit.
At this moment, the two had already arrived at the mourning hall door. A few more steps forward, and they’d be at the entrance.
Xiao Ping hesitated for a long time but still didn’t say out loud: “This time, let me open the door.”
He had clearly struggled with his thoughts for a long time. On the way to the mourning hall, hadn’t he been thinking of saying this and doing it?
But for some reason, the closer they got to the mourning hall, the harder it was to say those words.
Until now, standing at the mourning hall entrance, he could no longer face Lu Jinzhao directly.
He even vaguely feared that she would use the reason “I opened the service hall door before, so this time it’s your turn” to make him do it.
He understood that fear had sapped his spirit, cowardice made him afraid to speak up, but he thought this was human nature, right?
At the same time, he harbored a fluke mentality: maybe Lu Jinzhao didn’t need him to open the door?
She was so calm, so intelligent, more powerful than him. Maybe she wouldn’t care if the dangerous tasks during the patrol were fairly distributed between them?
He just needed to quietly follow and honestly survive.
He somewhat despised his current thoughts but made no change.
This fluke psychology peaked when he saw that Lu Jinzhao indeed didn’t ask him to do anything but reached out herself to push the door.
He thought: Great, this way, I can keep following behind her to complete the mission, and this way, I can survive the mission too, right?
