PSP Chapter 40: Four Dances

As the party who had caused Lu Qi to be scolded as useless, Shen Qingcheng unconsciously turned his head to see his reaction after hearing this sentence, with an look on his face like he was watching a play.

With a cold expression, Lu Qi turned his head, ignoring the little girl's words.

It was the seventh day of the copy, time for the masquerade to begin.

The dining hall had obviously been decorated, the carpets and wallpapers replaced with new ones, exquisite and gorgeous floor-to-ceiling vases placed in the corners. Transparent crystal chandeliers were hung above their heads, and all the candlesticks had been filled with red candles, decorating the interior beautifully. It was bright and spacious.

The servants were still wearing their black and white uniforms, and a pale one fiddled with a bronze phonograph with a big horn, bursts of faint music coming from it.

Da--

Da--

The sound of leather shoes treading on the wooden stairs was elegant and crisp, and a red skirt swayed in wavy patterns, like a blooming red rose.

Exquisite, heavy makeup made her already beautiful appearance more perfect. The woman smiled and walked into the hall with her chin raised in front of everyone’s gaze.

"Hu Lili!" The little girl forgot what had just happened when she saw the woman, and ran up to Hu Lili, the skirt on the woman's body making her stare enviously.

It was all those two humans’s fault for breaking her new dress, all their fault! All their fault!

Humph, when the day was over, she would have a pretty dress too!

The innocence of the 6-year-old child was completely destroyed by the nervous and treacherous expression on her face.

She couldn't wait to change into a new dress, so she clapped and said excitedly, "Hurry up and start! Hurry up and start!"

"The pigs have grown up and will give birth to piglets~"

"One, two, three¹ useless ones, kill them all!"

"Make new clothes from the skin~ Make new clothes from the skin!"

Shen Qingcheng grabbed the other man's arm and said with a wicked smile when he looked at him, "Kill all the useless ones… Lu Qi, are you among the little girl’s group of useless ones?"

The little girl had just pointed at Lu Qi's nose a few minutes ago and scolded him for being useless.

The other players might not understand, but the two of them were very clear about what that sentence meant.

The purpose of the little girl sniffing the players was to identify whether the players had rabbit hair--in other words, to identify whether these players were pregnant.

Shen Qingcheng, who had disappointed the little girl twice, naturally didn't have it; he had forced the rabbit hair out of his body.

Therefore, Lu Qi, who was assigned a white mask and considered a male by the NPCs, and who had stayed in the same room as the "pregnant" Shen Qingcheng for a day and two nights, was naturally called useless.

Shen Qingcheng tsked and shook his head. Those NPCs were too good at playing around.

Lu Qi was very helpless. He didn't understand why Shen Meiren, who had been considered a "pregnant body", still had the wherewithal to joke. He warned in a low voice, "Don't make trouble."

Shen Qingcheng smiled cutely; he would of course still dare to do it again next time.

The unknown made people fearful. Shen Qingcheng knew that it was fake, just a pile of rabbit hair, so naturally he didn't feel anything. Plus, it wasn't him who was "pregnant".

In the wake of the terror caused by the inexplicable lyrics of the little girl, the servants brought in two soft chairs with high backs, and the chairs were placed side by side right above the hall.

Hu Lili lifted up her skirt, the little girl jumped up and down, and Da Xiong remained silent, all of them walking towards the chairs.

Hu Lili sat gracefully on her chair, fiddling with her hair as her white fingertips tapped her red lips. She smiled, coquettish and sexy.

The little girl propped her arms up on her chair, sitting with her legs dangling in the air.

Da Xiong stood silently beside the two of them.

Hu Lili looked at the people in the hall with all manner of different expressions and chuckled, "Let's start."

The music on the phonograph changed.

"Ah!" A shrill scream came from the trumpet instead of a sad tune, startling the players who were standing closest.

The shrill scream was just the beginning, quickly followed by another cry for help, "Save me! Save me!"

"Please let me go!"

"Where did this monster come from?"

"Wuwuwu, let my child go, please let my child go, he is only a year old!"

There was the sound of heavy breathing from the owner of the voice as they ran, and the sound of heavy pieces of furniture being knocked to the ground. The voices, male and female, intertwined chaotically.

In the midst of these jumbled sounds, there was a sound that was very familiar to the players present.

Chi--

Chi--

The voices in the phonograph overlapped with reality.

A female player blankly turned her head and looked out the door, "Ah—"

Skinned, faceless, dragging a long hook--it was the faceless ghost.

The seeping pus and blood dripped to the ground as the faceless ghost approached the hall, and players could even smell the stench wafting from it.

Puchi²--

It was the sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh.

"Ah!" The woman's screams stopped abruptly.

The players shuddered reflexively when they heard the voice in the recording, and with the bloody hook tip, they could almost imagine the gruesome scene from that time.

Hong Ganglie gave a loud shout that shocked the rest of the panic-stricken players, and a bayonet³ appeared in his hand, "What’s there to be afraid of⁴, rush out with laozi!"

There was no sound behind him. Hong Ganglie looked back, and the situation behind him almost made him collapse from anger.

He saw that the other players were quietly moving back while he was blocking the front!

The NPCs in human skin were silently watching this scene from above, the corner of the woman's lips turning up and the little girl gently swaying her feet.

The faceless ghost dragged its long hook into the hall. Its face, without facial features, looked around the hall, and it suddenly lifted its feet and walked towards Hong Ganglie, who was the closest.

"Fuck⁵!" Hong Ganglie cursed. He didn't back down, tightening his grip on his bayonet and preparing to charge at the faceless ghost.

The other players were overjoyed when they saw this: after the faceless ghost had come in, the space by the doors was clear, and as long as Hong Ganglie delayed the faceless ghost, they could escape!

Damn, this copy was so screwed up⁶, the props they had exchanged for to defend against ghost attacks with were totally useless!

Just as the players secretly looked forward to Hong Ganglie’s confrontation with the Faceless Ghost, Hong Ganglie suddenly bent down and clutched his stomach in pain.

"Heh--heh--" Sensing something, the faceless ghost’s feet moved faster and faster.

"No!" cried the little girl on the soft chair, "Kill the men⁷ first! Kill the men first!"

Bald rabbits with red eyes flooded silently rom the stairs, windows, and doorways.

They had come to the hall at an unknown time, and with the little girl's order, they turned into white shadows and selected players in the hall to rush towards.

Shen Qingcheng and Lu Qi noticed clearly that with the appearance of the rabbits, the faceless ghost suddenly became agitated and violent.

The two suddenly realized that the NPCs relied on the faceless ghost's hatred for animals to control it.

Before she was completely driven mad, the hostess must have discovered that the animals were the source of all the wickedness, and her hatred was not forgotten after she went mad.

Its target was no longer Hong Ganglie, but those rabbits.

But these rabbits were jumping on the players one after another, biting at their flesh.

A scream came from the players’ mouths.

A female player staggered, running to the door. Quickly--she could escape this damned place in no time, since the little girl had told them to kill the men first.

Kill the men first, she would survive!

"Ah!" A rabbit jumped up on her back.

Then came the second, the third. She was drowned in white, and asked desperately, "Why! Why!"

The players who had discovered the peculiarity said happily, "Run! Their target are the non-pregnant!"

At this point, they couldn’t care about their disgusting bellies, and there were even players who resented that it wasn't them who got a red mask.

"Puchi-"

The first player fell to the faceless ghost, the long hook piercing through the back of their neck, and warm blood spurted out.

The situation in the hall became more and more chaotic. Hong Ganglie supported his stomach and ran out. As he passed Shen Qingcheng and Lu Qi, he urged them, "What are you doing in a daze, run!"

Seeing the calm of those two, he thought that both of them had big stomachs. In his desperation, he didn’t recall that the little girl had stipulated that only people with different masks could live in the same room.

Shen Qingcheng strongly suspected that the rabbits were annoyed by Lu Qi's long knife and small fires, and wanted to leave this tough nut for last.

He looked at the little girl and woman still sitting on the soft chair opposite him. The woman watched everything in the hall with satisfaction, and the little girl clapped cheerfully.

"Are you crazy? You're still in a daze right now?!" Hong Ganglie directly grabbed Shen Qingcheng, wanting to drag him away.

Shen Qingcheng grabbed him back, and smiled, an expression that was wildly out of place with his surroundings, "You’re quite to my taste."

No, this leisurely and calm reaction was not the same as Lu Qi’s.

Lu Qi glanced at Hong Ganglie.

Seeing that Hong Ganglie didn't understand what he meant, Shen Qingcheng didn't explain it. He took out a silver needle and pricked Hong Ganglie a few times .

He often pierced himself with it, so it held traces of his blood and qi⁸.

Hong Ganglie was inexplicably stabbed a few times, and just as he was about to curse him out, he suddenly vomited out a large lump of white rabbit fur from his stomach.

The rabbit hair fell to the ground and turned into a bald, red-eyed rabbit, which was immediately stabbed by the sharp-eyed Hong Ganglie and reverted to fur.

Damn, it was disgusting to have this kind of ghost in his stomach.

His big belly disappeared with the vomited rabbit hair. Hong Ganglie was not someone who didn't know about good and evil⁹. He naturally understood that the person in front of him had helped him.

He used to hate seeing him because he was gay. Now he regarded him better, but he still didn’t like seeing gays!

Hong Ganglie looked at Shen Qingcheng and Lu Qi with complicated eyes: they were both handsome men, what were they doing sticking together?

Shen Qingcheng took back the silver needle, and when he saw that he was not departing, he reminded him, "You can leave."

At the same time, Hong Ganglie, who had struggled internally several times, said with difficulty, "You are a good match."

He actually went against his conscience and blessed a pair of gay guys!

Then he cursed himself¹⁰ and ran away without looking back.

Shen Qingcheng: "???"

Lu Qi: "..."

TLN:

¹ The counting word she uses (只) is generally only used for animals, not people.

² Onomatopoeia usually used to describe a snort of laughter (噗嗤).

³ Lit. “military thorn” (军刺)

⁴ Lit. “afraid of an egg” (怕个卵).

⁵ Just like in “motherfucker”, a homophone (艹) is being used here.

⁶ Lit. “hole father” (坑爹), basically means you’ve dug a hole so deep your father got dragged in (you fucked up so bad your father has to help you out).

⁷ Remember, only those with white masks are considered “male”, while those with red masks are “female”.

⁸ Lit. “air” (气), it’s the (pseudoscientific idea of) vital force that flows through living entities.

⁹ Lit. “did not know good and bad” (不识好歹), means someone ignorant.

¹⁰ Combination of two things: spitting (唾), and abandoning/discarding/spurning (弃). Together, indicates great level of contempt.