ICSST Ch9: Handling

The incense burned very slowly after it was lit without wind or fire.

Nothing happened within a minute of lighting the incense.

Zhou Qi’an felt the chilling presence behind him growing stronger and couldn’t help but think: This useless deity statue is really ineffective.

How could it even be employed for work?

Isn’t this just pure fraud?

Han Li, feeling exhausted, was ready to retreat for now. After all, they had already discovered the female ghost’s identity, so this trip was worth it.

“Take care of yourself.”

Zhou Qi’an, still kneeling on the prayer mat with his back to her, didn’t plead for Han Li to stay. He prayed again.

The candle flame on the altar, after the incense was lit, seemed to be affected by the smoke, with the dripping wax resembling the oil on the surface of a lake.

Everything in front of him began to blur, until it distorted and deformed.

The incense burner in front of the Bodhisattva twisted into a protractor, and the two candles turned into scale stands. Suddenly, the Bodhisattva’s hand moved. Those pure, flawless fingers lifted the balance, seemingly weighing the chips on both sides.

Zhou Qi’an, unsure if he was hallucinating, saw those beautiful hands turn into numerous monstrous arms when lifting the balance.

The burning wax gave off a corpse oil smell, pungent and unbearable, heavily affecting Zhou Qi’an’s consciousness.

In his field of vision, the balance swayed left and right.

Zhou Qi’an unconsciously curled his lips into a smile.

If an exchange was to be made, it had to be something abstract.

For example, many young people liked to exchange marriage prospects for wealth. Marriage, being such an intangible thing, couldn’t be easily valued. A vague marriage prospect wouldn’t do, but Zhou Qi’an had a real “fiancée.”

With his head spinning, Zhou Qi’an couldn’t discern Han Li’s or the female ghost’s current state.

However, it would take some time for Han Li to fully retreat.

Struggling, Zhou Qi’an shifted his gaze from the eerie deity statue, considering whether to look back.

Just then, a hoarse, familiar, eerie voice came: “My dear son.”

Heavenly voice!

Zhou Qi’an had never been so delighted to hear his mother’s voice. Moved, he squeezed out a word with difficulty: “Mom.”

“Hey.”

“Hmm.”

The “hmm” was from Han Li, who was about to leave and busy opening an escape route.

After all, given their in-game identities as mother and son, Zhou Qi’an had often called her that.

The female ghost: “…”

How many good mothers do you have?

After responding, Han Li also felt something was off, startled by the sudden appearance of a woman at the end of the corridor.

That head of curly hair writhed like snakes, and the woman’s crow’s feet were heavy. When she squinted slightly, the marks of time were evident. In her forties or fifties, her skin was well-maintained and very white, but overly so, giving her a sickly, eerie appearance at first glance.

The strangest thing was the bloodstain on the woman’s shoulder, as if she were injured, and she was holding a… rice cooker?

It should be a rice cooker.

The middle part near the inner pot was connected to the broken outer shell, making it completely leaky.

If Han Li observed more closely, she would notice a piece of white gauze caught in the rice cooker’s handle. Encountering some mishap on the way, the wedding dress originally draped over her had shattered, leaving only this part.

Now, all her attention was on how the woman broke through the blood barrier at the stairway and on Zhou Qi’an’s calling her “Mom.”

Biological mother?

“No.” Han Li quickly dismissed this possibility.

In special cases, the game could absorb new players, but if that happened, other players in the instance would receive a notification.

Currently, the game hadn’t issued any prompts.

An NPC?

Could it be that this man named Qi’an had discovered some additional clue? Established some kind of relationship through a clue.

As soon as Zhou Qi’an’s mother appeared, she didn’t hesitate to act.

Zhou Qi’an looked back, and regretted it instantly.

The nightmare scene he had seen countless times came true, with those curly hair turning into countless sea snakes, flying around with open mouths.

Seeing many of the sea snakes heading towards Zhou Qi’an, Han Li completely dismissed the idea of them being mother and son. Even enemies aren’t this fierce!

“Losing big time.” She produced a few talismans, painfully throwing them all out at once. The talismans spread out like playing cards, forming a shield around her, allowing her to break through the encirclement on the third floor.

Zhou Qi’an: “Little mom, take me with you!”

“Take your ‘little mom’!” Han Li cursed, already gone from sight.

More afraid of his real mom than ghosts, Zhou Qi’an showed a truly terrified expression for the first time since entering the instance.

Countless snake heads stopped an inch from his face, close enough for Zhou Qi’an to see their fangs. They seemed to fear the altar, stopping as he almost sat on it.

Climbing onto the altar, Zhou Qi’an leaned back further, despite everything, reminding:

“Be careful with the rice cooker, don’t let it get damaged.”

Although it was already damaged, looking as if it had been gutted.

The female ghost also found the rice cooker strange, and now with it being specifically mentioned, she thought it must hold great significance to Zhou Qi’an’s mother. When she attempted to attack, Zhou Qi’an’s mother immediately protected the rice cooker, further convincing the female ghost that it was a crucial weakness.

The rice cooker’s large size, chosen for its capacity to feed about ten people, proved difficult to defend against the ghost’s attacks.

Zhou Qi’an’s mother successfully dodged a few attacks, but the rice cooker, like a sitting target, was eventually torn apart by the ghost’s pale, slender arms.

With a cracking sound, blood pouring in caused the rice cooker to explode from within, shattering it into pieces.

“Darling (cooker)!”

Zhou Qi’an dramatically clutched his heart, but no one paid him much attention. Striking a melodramatic pose, he lamented, “What do we do? My darling is broken.”

Without the rice cooker, he couldn’t perform the spirit marriage. Without the spirit marriage, he wouldn’t become an inanimate object, and his nagging mother would have to find another excuse to kill him. That was… just perfect.

Seeing the bride she handpicked destroyed, Zhou Qi’an’s mother unexpectedly laughed.

This laugh sent chills down both Zhou Qi’an’s and the female ghost’s spines.

The sea snakes surrounding Zhou Qi’an were all retracted, surging towards the female ghost.

Zhou Qi’an no longer watched the horrifying scene behind him, kneeling again on the prayer mat, silently gazing up at the Bodhisattva statue.

Better to be devout.

There was no clock, but Zhou Qi’an had noticed from the start that the incense burned much slower than normal incense, significantly so. He roughly calculated that when the incense burned out, it would be about time.

Zhou Qi’an silently recited the “Rebirth Sutra” for his shattered other half.

Halfway through the sutra, the rancid smell of wax mixed with the bloody smell from behind, creating a nauseating olfactory feast.

Only the Bodhisattva silently observed the scene with a strange smile.

When the three incense sticks were nearly burned out, part of the smell ended with the female ghost’s scream. Chilling winds blew from behind, making Zhou Qi’an’s spine shiver.

He dared not turn around, hoarsely asking, “Did you kill her?”

The response he received was two cold words: “Ran away.”

Zhou Qi’an stood up, his legs a bit numb from kneeling.

The rice cooker was in pieces. His mother supported him and said coldly, “The wife Mom painstakingly picked for you is now dead without a complete body.”

Zhou Qi’an thought to himself that if it hadn’t died, it would be me, but on the surface, he regretfully said, “The next one will be more obedient. After all, there’s a reproductive barrier with a rice cooker; I like children.”

“Really?”

Not being child-free and liking children don’t necessarily equate, his mother looked at him, “I remember you used to avoid children because you found them noisy.”

Zhou Qi’an: “You remember wrong.”

The few seconds felt as long as a century.

His mother stared at his heavy bangs for a long time, then suddenly reached out her hand.

Zhou Qi’an resisted the urge to step back as those hands, only slightly more colored than the ghost’s, gently adjusted his black-framed glasses.

His mother’s tone returned to normal, “Then let’s say Mom remembered wrong.”

From this angle, she could see the statue behind him.

The statue’s hollow yet compassionate eyes were also looking at her, making the dimly lit corridor even more terrifying.

Her delicate eyebrows furrowed as she began to pull Zhou Qi’an back.

Before they could take a step, the ashes in the incense burner scattered, and both mother and son felt a sudden burning sensation as if scorched from a distance.

Zhou Qi’an’s face was grim: “This isn’t good. Maybe it’s because I didn’t fully bow.”

The statue didn’t precisely time the bowing, but at least during the burning of the incense, the bowing ritual shouldn’t be neglected.

Especially since he had nearly sat on the altar to avoid the snakes.

Things were more serious than he imagined.

The statue’s hand rose, devoid of any Buddha-like compassion, and reached straight towards Zhou Qi’an as if to pull him into the cold, bronze walls.

His mother’s eyes narrowed as she plucked a hair to block it.

Sea snakes swam towards the statue, crawling to its neck. Before the poisonous fangs could sink into the statue, a chewing sound filled the air. The sound of a beast eating was extremely unsettling, and simultaneously, the snakeheads vanished, the severed areas uneven, as if bitten off.

The statue completely consumed the sea snakes.

His mother looked serious: “Did you make a wish?”

Zhou Qi’an nodded: “Mainly wishing to see my cooker… bride soon.”

His mother glanced at him without exposing the lie.

Just as Zhou Qi’an didn’t ask why her hair turned into snakes.

Timely silence had become a mutual understanding between mother and son over the years; neither wanted to break the precarious peace.

After eating the sea snakes, the statue lost its Guanyin appearance, its cheeks protruded, and its smooth porcelain skin grew eyes. Zhou Qi’an cursed internally. Last night’s ghost had mouths and teeth all over its body, and now the statue was covered in eyes.

Why is everyone’s facial features flying everywhere?

More hair turned into snakes, entwining around the statue.

“Let’s go.” His mother squinted.

However, the overwhelming darkness made the corridor seem endless. Countless ghostly howls exploded in his ears, and Zhou Qi’an covered his ears, bending over.

His mother used her hand like a knife, temporarily cutting off the darkness pursuing them.

Despite the prime chance to escape, Zhou Qi’an’s legs felt like they were filled with lead, refusing to move. The decibels were reaching his limit, and an ice-blue strand of hair broke free from his wig, sliding down his nape.

The weight pressing on Zhou Qi’an gradually disappeared, and he straightened bit by bit, his joints cracking like firecrackers.

His mother’s gaze darkened as she called out to him.

Zhou Qi’an remained oblivious.

Just as the lines in his pupils were about to form an ancient, strange symbol, the darkness receded in the next second.

All the invisible pressure vanished.

It was past ten-thirty, and the eyes on the statue closed entirely.

Its appearance didn’t revert to the dignified Guanyin statue, but the eerie aura around it faded, making it seem like an ordinary inanimate object.

The lines in Zhou Qi’an’s eyes disappeared, and his hair returned to normal.

His mother boldly approached, carefully examining the statue. After a while, she said something odd: “It’s asleep. Turns out it needs to rest.”

As she spoke, she circled around it, scrutinizing the sinister statue in detail, speaking shockingly: “You mentioned earlier that your bride can’t have reproductive isolation?”

Zhou Qi’an shuddered, fully awake.

No reproductive isolation, but please don’t use whatever’s at hand!

After a moment, his mother spat out four words: “The Child-Giving Guanyin.”

Zhou Qi’an felt the statue’s expression distort, “You got it wrong. The Child-Giving Guanyin doesn’t look like this.”

His mother shook her head, seemingly certain: “It has given a child before. Didn’t you say you want kids and not to be child-free?”

This statue is very suitable.

“…”

Indeed, the ghost had mentioned that Xun the Wealthy had successfully prayed for a child when he was young.

His mother was a decisive woman, ready to move the statue.

“You’re crazy.” Zhou Qi’an rasped, “It nearly killed us.”

His mother: “Don’t worry, I said it needs rest. With the rice cooker gone, let it replace it in the marriage.”

Letting the statue stand in for the rice cooker in marriage.

Bringing the statue home would mean no worries about children. Apart from not cooking, it perfectly met Zhou Qi’an’s marriage requirements.

The originally almond-shaped face now looked somewhat mean, a typical evil mother-in-law.

“…”

Meanwhile, a cold mechanical voice announced:

[Congratulations on becoming the first person in this household, after Xun the Wealthy, to successfully offer incense.]

[You will receive two extra clues.]

[Clue one: Xun the Wealthy likes people who exercise and stay fit, and he hates laziness and seeing others in low spirits… Just like his love for green, he always yearns for vitality.]

[Clue two: (10:30—23:59) is the statue’s resting period. If you find [that thing], you can shatter the statue during this period.]

That thing?

What can’t be named, Voldemort?

The first piece of information was quite useful.

Mr. Si had emphasized Xun the Wealthy’s forgetfulness and hinted that there would be bad consequences if they were discovered.

Judging by now, each time they completed specific tasks, they would receive information to please Xun the Wealthy. If they consistently failed to meet his standards, Xun the Wealthy would likely remember they weren’t his real relatives.

Zhou Qi’an had thought for less than half a minute when he looked up again to find his mother gone.

…And so was the statue!

Damn.

Crack.

To add insult to injury, there was the sound of a door opening from Xun the Wealthy’s room!